Carl Creel

**Carl Creel** (*Absorbing Man*) is a metahuman.

## Relationships

* Mary MacPherran (wife)
* Jerry Sledge (son)
* Rocky Davis (cousin)

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

**Omnimorph duplication:** Carl possesses the ability to bodily duplicate at will the physical properties of anything he touches or that touches him. This power extends to both animate and inanimate objects and certain forms of energy. The matter of Carl's body magically makes a physiological change so that his body actually becomes composed of the matter or energy with which he is making contact. While he is in this altered state, he still possesses his sentience despite the fact that his brain is now composed of the same material as the rest of him. Among the more ordinary materials he has been transformed into include steel, stone, wood, and glass. More unusual have been his transformations into water, fire, snow, and silk. His most powerful transformations ahve been into energy states, such as cosmic, nuclear, thermal, or light.

Carl has learned through practice to only absorb the properties of objects that he wishes to absorb. Originally, he could be tricked into absorbing the properties of objects that would render him relatively vulnerable. There appears to be no limit as to how long he can retain a given property. When he is rendered unconscious or in a coma, he retains the fo rm which he last consciously assumed. There also does not appear to be a minimum amount of time he must wait before assuming a new form; he can even become more than one substance at once.

Carl can also absorb specific properties relating to the form or mass of an object he touches. For example, he can assume the height of a skyscraper or the spikes of a mace. He can also assimilate mystic properties of objects or beings. He was able to mimic the properties of Thor's hammer and the strength of Thor himself.

Carl can alter the molecular structure of his body, his clothes, and his wrecking ball to mimic the properties of any material he touches. This process also gives him enhanced strength, endurance, and resistance to injury. If the object touched holds some form of energy, such as a battery or a blast furnace, Carl absorbs these properties as well. He also has limited shapeshifting abilities when absorbing certain objects, such as forming hammer-like fists when touching a hammer or growing to enormous size when copying items of massive power.

### Weaknesses

**Automatic absorption (formerly):** Ironically, his own power was also his biggest weakness. Originally, Carl had little to no control of his power and automatically absorbed any kind of matter and energy around him. As a result, there has been numerous occasions where his adversaries had successfully tricked him into absorbing random materials that made him weaker or non-solid; on at least one occasion, he was defeated when he was tricked into absorbing two unspecified elements that triggered an explosive reaction. He eventually learned how to absorb a specific material without absorbing other materials simply by touch and is even capable of absorbing more than one material at once.

**Non-solid absorption:** Though he can absorb almost all kinds of matter and energy, Carl has trouble maintaining a stable physical body if the material itself is not in a solid state and will likely fuse and dissipate with the material.

**Magic:** Though he can, and has, absorbed many kinds of supernatural and cosmic energies, Carl is not immune to spells and can be affected by th em if the magic users is experienced enough.

**Absorption limit:** Once Carl has 'discarded' a substance that he has absorbed, he cannot manifest it again without contact with that material. This was a particular problem during a confrontation with Thor where he absorbed the mystic vortex Thor was using against him and was left trapped in another dimension until he was rescued.