Absorbing Man

Carl Creel was a boxer who even fought Battlin' Jack Murdock, and later became an extortionist who was serving time for assault. While in prison, Creel drank a potion that was made by Loki, and imbued with the powers of matter absorption in order to battle Loki's enemies, Thor and Odin.

Absorbing Man's first battle with Thor was heavily in favor of Absorbing Man. For if Thor were to touch Absorbing Man with his hammer, Mjolnir, Absorbing Man would be virtually unstoppable. Thor, realizing that he would lose a man-to-man battle, took actions to outwit Absorbing Man, and banished him to space in the form of a gas.

Bruce Banner was piloting a comet, which crashed through the gas, allowing Absorbing Man to materialize on the comet. Banner was not aware of the nature of Absorbing Man's power, and soon Creel was more powerful than the Hulk. Getting a whiff of Absorbing Man's power, the Hulk transformed back into Banner, and Creel absorbed Banner's 'human' lack of powers. Absorbing Man turned into rock, but soon shattered as a boulder collided with him.

Not long after, Creel had an encounter with a mysterious man (who later turned out to be Loki) who augmented Creel's Ball and Chain so that he could throw it and fly like Thor's hammer.

Creel would have a few more encounters with both Thor and Hulk.

Fed-up with fighting super heroes Creel decided to leave the country, but made a mistake and took a hostage. After a brief encounter with Clint Barton (Hawkeye), Barton decides to call his former team mates the Avengers for help. After a long battle, Creel escaped by turning himself into water while in the ocean.

Then later, Creel would have an encounter with Dazzler.

Please see reference to Secret War.

Creel and Titania would both join the Masters of Evil in a plot to destroy the Avengers.

 Creel soon broke into an installation that processed Adamantium with the intent to taking a small piece with him. The Avengers were notified of the break-in and Captain America ordered Quasar to intercept Creel before he got too far. Quasar caught up to Absorbing Man shortly thereafter, and during the brief struggle Creel outmaneuvered the young Avenger and managed to grab hold of the Quantum-bands. Finding himself growing fifty feet tall, he took on the appearance of the bejeweled unearthly metal of the bands. He blasted Quasar and flew toward Manhattan with the intent of taking on the whole Avengers. Quasar, realizing the devastation Creel could cause, overloaded the cosmically powered Absorbing Man. He exploded in a flash of light that was seen miles away, although we was able to reform himself later to take on Thor.

Secret War

During the first secret war staged by the Beyonder, Creel met a super-villain, Mary "Skeeter" MacPherran, the second Titania. Together they served in Baron Zemo's Masters of Evil when that team took over the Avengers Mansion. Creel and MacPherran became partners in crime, and eventually got married. Creel and MacPherran have since divorced and Creel has resumed his criminal career. The two have an off- again and on- again relationship.

Beginning of the End

 Creel would partner with Crossbones and both were defeated by Captain America. 

The Absorbing Man had many battles; from rematches with the Hulk, to attacking the Avengers. During one of these encounters, he took on the form of water in order to escape by letting the ocean take him away. This particular event drove him to insanity, as his sense of self was never completed.

He washed up on an island, and found the Hulk (after a different enemy), and tried to capture him. His grip on reality so loose, he tried to absorb an island. This misfired, and for a while he sat as an island, before retaking shape and making his way back to America.

Creel defeated the Hulk, but he was tricked into possessing a corpse, and ultimately, his body rotted to death.

The Come Back

Powers

Absorbing Man of Earth-616

Alternate Realities

The Asgardian God of Mischief Loki endowed the criminal "Crusher" Creel and his ball and chain with the power to "absorb" the physical properties of anything he touched. Creel broke out of prison and battled Thor as Loki intended. Trying to absorb the power of the whole Earth, Creel exploded but due to his new powers he was not destroyed and was magically reassembled by Loki. As the God Loki was his ally, Creel fought the monarch of the Asgardians, Odin, though losing the battle. Creel was banished into outer space. Creel would also battle people such as The Hulk, Spider-Man, and the Avengers.

Earth-295

In the "Age of Apocalypse", the Absorbing Man aligned himself with Apocalypse, and served as a warden in Apocalypse's prison camps in the Aztec ruins of Mexico alongside Diablo. Creel fought against Magneto and managed to injure him, yet Rogue killed Crusher by absorbing his powers.

Earth-3515

In "Earth-Thor: The Reigning", the Absorbing Man came to be one of Thor's strongest believers. He started a religion worshiping Asgardians and healed Titania of her cancer. Absorbing Man fought against several mutants who tried to ruin Thor’s image.

Earth-9811

When the Beyonder and Galactus fought each other and killed themselves, the heroes were stuck in Battleworld. In this world the Absorbing Man and Titania had a kid, Chokeold,  who was just as bad as her parents.

Earth-9997 Absorbing Man

The Absorbing Man got into a battle with the super computer Ultron. During the fight, Creel absorbed Ultron's intelligence, and realized the full potential of his ability. Gaining control that he never knew he had and the ability to "store" types of forms in his memory for later use. Rampaging through Washington D.C. he was countered by the Avengers who attempted to stop him. During the battle, Absorbing Man killed all the members except for the Vision. Enraged, Vision infected Creel with a computer virus, and in order to expel it from his body, Creel attempted to shrink his size and turn into stone. Once he had done so, the Vision smashed Creel into bits and distributed the pieces among various heroes who were loners. Some years later, a group called the Tong of Creel was formed by the Red Ronin (secretly Dr. Strange's assistant Wong, who was manipulated by Mephisto) were gathered together to retake the parts of Creel and reassemble the parts so that Creel could live again. Eventually they had succeeded, and all the parts were reassembled in New York City. Enraged over his treatment over the years, Creel then literally absorbed ALL of Manhattan. When the local heroes tried to stop him, nothing would work, however the Vision tried to stop him by making him intangible. With Creel intangible, he was also incapable of being useful to save the world from destruction from it's re-polarization after the Celestial Embryo in the planets core was destroyed by Galactus three years prior. After the Vision was convinced to let Creel become tangible again, Loki convinced Creel to be a hero and turn into Vibranium and save the Earth. When Creel did so, Iron Maiden used her powers to distribute the Vibranium evenly and save the planet. While Creel sacrificed his life to save the Earth, Manhattan maintained the general shape of Creel's body, standing ever on as a monument to Creel's moment of heroics that day.

Earth-? (Millennial Visions)

When Hawkeye asked Ringmaster to use his hypnotic abilities to turn villains into heroes, he and Hawkeye created the new Thunderbolts. However, Ringmaster use his abilities to make Titania love him. The Absorbing Man immediately protested and Ringmaster hypnotized him. Hawkeye wondered how long it would be before Ringmaster took over the group; but it was too late, Hawkeye had been hypnotized to believe that. While the Absorbing Man was battling crime he touched a property that disrupted the hypnotism and he struck back at Ringmaster who was unable to hypnotize him and instead, sent the entire Thunderbolts; composed of Scorpion, Stilt-Man, Taskmaster, Whirlwind, Wizard, Batroc the Leaper, Fixer, Jolt, Moonstone, Hawkeye and Clown. While the Absorbing Man battled most them, he knew he'd never get to Titania this way and proceeded to kill most of them. Except Hawkeye and Clown who, it turned out, were not under the Ringmaster's hypnotism. The Avengers arrived and Iron Man told Hawkeye he made a villain into a mass murderer and the Absorbing Man was sent to jail while Hawkeye mourned his mistake.