Desiring Bruce Banner, AKA the Hulk’s immense physical power, Emil Blonsky transforms himself with gamma radiation, however he uses more than Banner and transforms into an amphibious creature, unable to return to his human form. He constantly tries to prove his superiority by going up against the green monster as the Abomination!
Gamma-Irradiated Monster
Born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, Emil Blonsky grows up to become a secret agent for his communist government. When ordered to investigate the United States Defense Department nuclear research facility at Desert Base, New Mexico, particularly the work of Dr. Bruce Banner, he leaves his wife Nadia behind.
Emil makes three attempts to sabotage vital missiles on the base with military security foiling his efforts each time, though they failed to identify or capture the spy. After Blonsky tries unsuccessfully to take General “Thunderbolt” Ross’ (later Red Hulk) daughter Betty (later Red She-Hulk) hostage, Ross orders his men to find the spy and kill him, if necessary. Realizing he was running out of time, Blonsky takes the risk of entering Banner’s lab to photograph its gamma ray machine. When Banner arrives on the scene, Blonsky hides while the scientist programs a device to blast himself with a lethal dose of gamma radiation.
Meanwhile, the alien Stranger had recently taken control of Banner’s gamma-mutated alter ego, the Hulk, and planned to use the Hulk to wipe out humanity. However, the Stranger’s control did not extend to Hulk’s Banner persona, so Banner planned to thwart the Stranger by killing himself. Suddenly, military personnel finds Banner and arrests him before he could blast himself with the gamma device—but Blonsky, unaware of what Banner had been trying to do, subjects himself to the gamma device in hopes of gaining Hulk-like power. The rays transform Blonsky into a monstrous, superhumanly powerful creature, more powerful than even the Hulk.
Superhuman Strength
As the Abomination, Blonsky possesses superhuman strength enabling him to lift approximately 100 tons, as well as superhuman stamina, durability and regenerative abilities. He can travel great distances very quickly by leaping using his superhumanly strong legs. He also has a resistance to fire, and an enhanced lung capacity, allowing him to hold his breath underwater for extended periods of time.
In addition, he can apparently enter an inert state, allowing him to survive for extended periods buried beneath the surface of the Earth or in the cold vacuum of space. Unlike the Hulk, the Abomination never naturally reverts to his human form.
Super-powered Enemies
Abomination’s foremost foe is the Hulk, often battling him to prove his superiority. While he defeats him in their first encounter, Abomination suffered many defeats at the hands of the savage green monster.
Several people try to use Abomination for their own ends. General Thaddeus Ross uses him against the Hulk, which results in more defeats for him, and eventually Emil develops a pathological fear of the Hulk. When M.O.D.O.K. goes against Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), he teams-up with Ross to use Abomination, but tortures him first, so much so that he becomes more afraid of M.O.D.O.K. than of the Hulk. Disappointed in his repeated failures, he ultimately atomizes the Abomination. Abomination is also abducted by the alien Stranger.
Princess Daydra of the Sagittarian Race recruits Qnax the Xantarean, AKA Amphibion, the Dark-Crawler, and Torgo of Mekka to defeat Abomination and Galaxy Master who were working together to destroy worlds. Abomination proves difficult for the trio to manage so Daydra brings the Hulk to her world to stop him, and Ambomination is defeated.
Abomination also fights Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk, Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, Simon Williams, AKA Wonder Man and Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, Rick Jones, and the Avengers. He also ends up in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s custody.
Few Allies
Despite being legally bound to his wife Nadia, she is not an ally nor is she an enemy per say. Emil is an abusive person and irrevocably damages his relationship with her during their marriage. After he becomes Abomination and gets wrapped up into his horrid life, she seeks revenge for the abuse she suffered.
Galaxy Master, a non-humanoid energy being who destroys worlds, employs Abomination as a servant and increases his powers. Samuel Sterns, AKA The Leader, also hires Abomination for nefarious means. Abomination also teams-up with Aleksei Sytsevich, AKA Rhino.
Fighting His Way Through
Blonsky sought out and battled the Hulk to prove his superiority. Betty Ross called him an “abomination,” and Blonsky approved of that descriptor enough to take it as his name. The Abomination soundly defeated the Hulk in their first encounter, leaving him near death. After recovering, Banner lured the Abomination back to Desert Base and into a high-tech trap, which sapped away half of Blonsky’s strength. Now more evenly matched, the Hulk and Abomination fought again, with Hulk gaining the upper hand through his natural savagery. Impressed by Hulk’s courage and tenacity, the Stranger abandoned his plans to destroy humanity and released Hulk from his control, but abducted Blonsky to serve as a replacement pawn.
Imprisoned on the Stranger’s laboratory world for study, the Abomination was later transported back to Earth by a group of sorcerers. They intended to use the Abomination as a pawn against the alien Silver Surfer, but Blonsky refused to be subservient to anyone; he attacked and gravely injured the sorcerer who had summoned him. The Abomination then terrorized a nearby town until the Silver Surfer stopped him, and the sorcerers returned Blonsky to the Stranger’s laboratory world; however, when the Abomination was transported back there, he materialized outside of his cell. The Abomination then inadvertently transported Thor Odinson, AKA Thor, to the Stranger’s world using the Stranger’s technology, and tricked Thor into freeing many of the Stranger’s other prisoners. When Thor discovered Blonsky’s villainy, he defeated the Abomination and returned him to his captivity.
The Abomination eventually escaped the Stranger’s world and was picked up by the starship Andromeda, led by Captain Cybor and Xeron the Star-Slayer. The Andromeda’s crew was hunting Klaatu, an enormous space-faring energy being of the Herm race. Blonsky was meant to serve aboard the ship as an “oarsman,” but after slaying their first mate in a death duel, Abomination was awarded his victim’s rank. Eventually, the Andromeda brought aboard the Hulk, against the Abomination’s wishes, and made him an oarsman. The Abomination attacked the Hulk and tried to cast him into space, but the Hulk ultimately cast Blonsky adrift himself.
The Abomination later fell to Earth, pulled in by its gravity. He remained inert underground for many months until a missile exploded on the surface above him, awakening him. Seeking the Hulk, General Ross and his Hulkbusters inadvertently captured the Abomination after mistaking him for the Hulk. Recalling Blonsky’s initial success, Ross made a deal with him to destroy the Hulk in exchange for a promise to cure and release Emil; however, the Abomination was stunned after learning how long he had remained inert, and the Hulk managed to knock him unconscious.
Joining forces with Aleksei Sytsevich, AKA Rhino, Blonsky took over Hulkbuster Base by force and battled the Hulk, who defeated the duo by dodging so that Abomination and Rhino knocked each other out. Imbedded beneath the surface of the base, Blonsky lay comatose until recovered by Ross and the Hulkbusters. Seeking to use Emil against the Hulk again, Ross had Leonard Samson, AKA Doc Samson, implant a small camera in Blonsky’s forehead, but told Blonsky that it was a bomb in order to force him to obey their commands. The Abomination attacked the Hulk for Ross, but the “bomb” was deactivated in the course of the fight and Blonsky duped the Hulk into joining forces with him. The Hulk followed his lead and helped the Abomination take over Kennedy Space Center, which Blonsky then tried to ransom; however, the Hulk eventually realized Blonsky’s true motives and turned against him. In the ensuing struggle, Blonsky briefly incapacitated the Hulk and tried to escape in a rocket, but the Hulk jumped aboard and damaged it, causing it to explode at the edge of the atmosphere. The rocket’s remains fell back to Earth, but the Abomination was left adrift in space once again.
The Galaxy Master recovered Blonsky, employed him as his servant and literally doubled the Abomination’s power. Enslaving entire planets for the Galaxy Master, Blonsky became known as the “Ravager of Worlds.” The Sagittarian race recruited Amphibion, the Dark-Crawler, and Torgo of Mekka against Blonsky, but they were no match for the Abomination’s increased power. The trio then recruited the Hulk, hoping his added might could help them stop the Galaxy Master and the Abomination. Initially overpowered by the Abomination’s increased strength, the Hulk continued to grow angrier, and thus stronger, as they fought, until he was the Abomination’s superior. Trying to save himself from the Hulk, the Galaxy Master was ultimately forced to withdraw the power he had granted Blonsky; the severing of their connection devastated the Abomination, who was left adrift in space yet again.
After he crashed to Earth, the military had the Abomination cryogenically frozen and kept in the Project: Earthfall installation, under the command of Thunderbolt Ross. General Ross intended to use the Abomination against the Hulk, who at that time retained Bruce Banner’s intellect. The villainous M.O.D.O.K. invaded Project: Earthfall, hoping to use the Abomination against the criminal organization Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.); M.O.D.O.K. formed an alliance with Ross in which the Abomination would be sent first to destroy the Hulk, and then to subjugate A.I.M.; however, after so many defeats, Blonsky was now pathologically afraid of the Hulk, and could not be sent against him in such a terrified state. M.O.D.O.K. tortured the Abomination mentally and physically, until he feared M.O.D.O.K. more than he did the Hulk. The Abomination was sent against Hulk, and once again met with defeat. Afraid to return to M.O.D.O.K. empty-handed, the Abomination chose to capture the Hulk’s lover, Katherine Waynesboro. Displeased with the Abomination’s cowardice, M.O.D.O.K. demonstrated his power to the Hulk by atomizing the Abomination, scattering his dust upon the wind.
The Abomination’s atomized body eventually came into contact with the mind of Tyrannus, whose body had been consumed battling the Hulk. Tyrannus remade the Abomination’s body, but with his own mind dominant, while Blonsky was restored to his original human form, and was happy to be free of the Abomination. As the Abomination, Tyrannus fought the Hulk, Wonder Man, and Hawkeye. Eventually, Tyrannus was restored to his own form by his allies, Ghaur and Llyra, who also returned Blonsky’s mind to the body of the Abomination; however, the strain of the transfer rendered Blonsky nearly mindless. The now-savage Abomination fought She-Hulk and Spider-Man, across New York City until She-Hulk set Blonsky on fire, sending him running, blind with pain, off a bridge and into the water below. The Abomination later regained his mental faculties.
After the villain Dr. Phillip Sterns, AKA Madman, poisoned Bruce Banner, The Leader hired the Abomination to force Banner to turn into the Hulk. The Abomination did so, but was not prepared for the sadistic nature of the Hulk he faced, having never met the Hulk’s “Joe Fixit” persona before. The Hulk ended their battle by casting the Abomination into toxic waste, which melted part of the flesh from his body, leaving him in agony. Disfigured, the Abomination retreated to the sewers and tunnels beneath New York City. There he found a community of homeless people that did not shun him because of his appearance. He saw them as kindred spirits, others whom society had left behind, and he found a new home among them. He also learned his wife, Nadia, who had long thought him dead, had immigrated to the U.S.; Emil sought her out, trying to rekindle their relationship. He brought her to his sewer home, hoping she could love him despite his monstrous appearance, but he released her when the Hulk convinced him that it was better his wife thought him dead rather than see the monster he had become.
Nadia was soon drawn into the Abomination’s world once again. A black market ring called the Organizatsiya kidnapped her in order to blackmail the Abomination into cooperating with them. They had him build a nuclear reactor under AIM Island from the remains of a crashed nuclear submarine, knowing Blonsky could survive the depths and radiation. This task brought the Abomination into conflict with Namor the Sub-Mariner. During the battle, Namor’s allies freed Nadia and forced the Organizatsiya to retreat. The Abomination stole a warhead detonator and set it off, destroying the submarine and most of the island. Blonsky then took his revenge on the Organizatsiya’s leader, who had once been his comrade during his days as a communist operative.
Around this time, the Abomination found the mutant girl Threnody alone, sick and crying in an alley after she had just discovered her mutant powers. He brought her underground where some of the homeless nursed her back to health; however, when an accidental manifestation of her new mutant powers incinerated two members of the community, the Abomination returned her to the surface and left her there to fend for herself.
The Abomination had achieved some peace of mind, having become part of his community and almost noble in his defense of the homeless living beneath New York; however, tragedy struck when the police commissioner made it a New York Police Department mission to clear those homeless out of the underground. The Hulk accompanied the police into the tunnels, hoping to convince the Abomination to evacuate his companions without a fight. When some of the homeless protested and began throwing garbage at the police, several officers opened fire, killing most of the people in the Abomination’s charge. Blonsky became incredibly bitter and hateful toward humanity for taking away the peace he had found among the homeless. He also loathed the Hulk all the more, both for his part in the deaths of the tunnel dwellers, and for the love and acceptance Banner had found. Embracing his anger and shunning humanity, the Abomination returned underground to protect the few remaining homeless there.
Blonsky later happened upon Threnody again, as he found her a prisoner of Nathaniel Essex, AKA Mister Sinister’s villainous Marauders. He freed her and brought her back to the underground community once more. Her ally Nate Gray, AKA X-Man, came to retrieve her, and Abomination became angered that she brought a stranger into their midst. He briefly battled X-Man until the mutant’s telepathic powers tricked Blonsky into perceiving a victory for himself, when in reality, Threnody and X-Man left unharmed.
Later, the Abomination encountered several time travelers from Reality-9200, in which a despotic Hulk ruled over humanity under the title of “The Maestro.” The Abomination defended the travelers from the police and took them into his sewer home; he also protected them against that reality’s She-Hulk, who had come back in time to assassinate one of the travelers that was pregnant with the Maestro’s child. After one of the time travelers killed the alternate She-Hulk, the Abomination buried her.
Abomination encountered the Warren Worthington III, AKA Angel, wandering through the underground tunnels. Still bitter at the world and devastated over the loss of his community, he attacked the Angel because of his appearance, telling him that beautiful things had no place in the sewers. Angel was accompanied by a young mutant Sarah Knuckey, AKA Marrow, and Blonsky tried to convince Marrow of her own monstrosity, telling her she belonged in the underground with him, but she ultimately sided with the Angel, and Abomination let them leave unharmed.
The Abomination’s anger over the death of his homeless charges continued to feed his hatred. Blaming the Hulk for their deaths, he sought out his old nemesis, but found the Hulk in a state of rage and delusion; the Hulk beat the Abomination ferociously. Still craving vengeance, Blonsky decided to strike at the Hulk where it would hurt him the most: through the people he loved. The Abomination fatally poisoned the Hulk’s wife, Betty Ross Banner, with his own gamma-irradiated blood, leaving the Hulk heartbroken and thinking himself responsible for her death.
The Abomination later rampaged through the town of Constellation, Arizona, drawing out the U.S. Army in full force. There, the Abomination confronted the Hulk’s father in law, General Ross, and revealed to Ross that it was he who had killed his daughter. The Hulk arrived on the scene and learned that the Abomination had been responsible for his wife’s death, but he refused to fight and forgave Blonsky, knowing that his forgiveness would be the one thing that the Abomination could not endure.
Feeling alone and without purpose, and grieving that he could not be reunited with his wife, Blonsky concealed his monstrous features with a full body suit and briefly volunteered as a creative writing teacher at a public library, becoming fond of his students. General Ross, craving vengeance against Blonsky, goaded the Hulk into tracking him down and attacking him. Their fierce battle shook the very mountains with the strength of their punches. During the fight, Blonsky repeatedly taunted the Hulk that he had killed the woman he loved. The Hulk defeated the Abomination and imprisoned him at Area 51, where he was forced to repeatedly view a videotape of his last night with Nadia.
Home Base (a shadow organization secretly masterminded by the Leader) freed Blonsky, promising to reunite him with his wife if he obtained a sample of the Hulk’s blood for them. Similarly, Home Base promised Nadia—who sought revenge on Emil for abusing her during their marriage—that they would deliver Blonsky to her if she occupied Bruce Banner until the Abomination could arrive. The Abomination fought the Hulk but was outmatched by his ferocity, and was incapacitated when thrown into a helicopter that exploded on impact.
Surviving, the Abomination was defeated by Heracles, AKA Hercules, during a modern re-creation of his legendary labors, after which the enigmatic Abigail Wright, AKA Mercy, guided the Hulk to slay the Abomination as one of her “mercy killings,” but the Hulk again let Blonsky live.
Abomination later took over a local restaurant in Reno, Nevada and forced all of the waitresses to serve him. When elite intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D. began evacuating Reno, Abomination rampaged through the city. She-Hulk defeated him and placed him in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, where he and other villains were depowered by the high-tech nannites of Project: Achilles. The Abomination was later found apparently dead in Russia, and Doc Samson speculated that he had been killed by the Hulk using a S.H.I.E.L.D. weapon.
Eventually while in Russia, Abomination came into contact with General Ross again, who had transformed into Red Hulk. They fought and with Abomination near death, Red Hulk shot him dead for killing his daughter Betty.
Abomination was then resurrected and given a new power set by the Chaos King to defeat the Incredible Hulks and restore Death. Abomination went up against the Incredible Hulks and Rick Jones and eventually discovered Death’s host, Marlo Chandler-Jones. While Marlo was empowered by Death, she killed Abomination.
Still, Abomination’s remains were viable enough when combined with gamma blood and glands from Banner. As such, Abomination was restored by the Ancient Order of the Shield. However, Abomination was merely a husk, no longer sentient nor possessing his mind. The Order sent him to hunt the Hulk but when Abomination fought him, Hulk had aid from the Avengers. They defeated the Abomination husk and launched him into space near to the planet, Jupiter.
