Carl Creel was abducted 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 favored for Absorbing Man, for if Thor were to touch Absorbing Man with his hammer, Mjolnir, Absorbing Man would be virtually unstoppable. Realizing that Thor would lose a man-to-man battle, he 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, letting Absorbing Man materalize 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 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 an 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 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 Cap ordered Quasar to intercept Creel before he got too far. Quasar caught up to Absorbing Man shortly thereafter, 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 later to take on Thor.

Secret War

During the first secret war staged by the Beyonder, Creel met a supper-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. They have since divorced and Creel has resumed his criminal career.

Beginning of the End

The Absorbing Man had many battles, from rematches with the Hulk, to attacking the avengers. During one of these encounters, to escape he took the form of water let 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.

Eventually, he was tricked into possessing a corpse, and ultimately, his body rotted to death.

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 as his ally, Creel fought the monarach of the Agardians Odin though losing the battle against Odin, Creel was banished into outer space. Creel would also battle people suchas 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 by one of Thor biggest believers after he set out a religion worshiping Asgardians and healed Titania of her cancer. Absorbing Man fought agents several mutants who tried to ruined 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

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 repolarization 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-22000

When Hawkeye asked Ringmaster to use his hypnotic abilities to turned villains into heroes, he and Hawkeye created the new Thunderbolts. However Ringmaster use his abilities to make Titania to love him. Immediately the Absorbing Man protested and Ringmaster hypnotized him, Hawkeye wander how long it be before Ringmaster took over the group but it was too late Hawkeye had being hypnotized to believe that and while the Absorbing Man was battling crime he touched a property that disrupted the hypnotism and he strike back Ringmaster who was unable to hypnotize him and stead send the entire Thunderbolt compose of Scorpion, Stilt-Man, Taskmaster, Whirlwind, Wizard, Batroc the Leaper, Fixer, Jolt, Moonstone, Hawkeye and Clown. While the Absorbing Man battle most them he knew he never get to Titania this way and process to killed most of them beside Hawkeye and Clown who turn out was not under the Ringmaster hypnotism. The Avenger arrived and Iron Man told Hawkeye he made a villain into a mass murder and the Absorbing Man was sent to jail while Hawkeye mourn his mistake.