Stan Lee had the idea to create a new Hulk antagonist entitled “Abomination” in 1967 with the intention of making him much more powerful and massive than the Hulk. Lee was confident that they would have a great time creating this new character when he discussed his ideas with artist Gil Kane.
Later, Abomination was introduced into other Hulk tales, and Marvel certainly had fun fighting this enormous monster against different heroes like the Hulk and Shang-Chi. Abomination has most recently returned in the She-Hulk series, and we can not wait to see how his story develops as he causes trouble for the She-Hulk. Today, we will explore the Marvel Universe’s history of Abomination and see what the future holds for this character.
Abomination’s first comic book appearance as a K.G.B. spy!
When Abomination first debuted in 1967, he was a K.G.B. agent in the “Tales to Astonish” comics #90. Abomination encountered Bruce Banner while on one of his trips to spy on the New Mexican Air Force Base.
General Ross’ men had just put an end to Banner’s rampage while posing as the Hulk. Bruce made the decision to kill the Hulk inside of him by taking too much gamma. Bruce was ready to give up his life even if it meant ensuring the safety of humanity.
General Ross alerted his troops about a foreign agent working within their organization who had been attempting to sabotage their missiles on the other side. Additionally, this spy attempted to abduct General Ross’s daughter “Betty,” and Ross intended to catch this spy before he could cause more harm. While all of this was going on, “Emil Blonsky” broke into Bruce Banner’s lab and took images of the gamma-ray machine. Bruce entered the lab as Blonsky was taking the shots with his toy camera, and Blonsky found a spot to skulk behind some tools.
Ross’s officers interrupted Bruce as he was getting ready to approach the gamma-ray machine, taking him away. Blonsky became fascinated about the gamma-ray machine and pondered why Bruce wanted to use it now that he was left alone in Bruce’s lab once more. Blonsky turned on the machine, which immediately shot gamma rays at him, because he chose to utilize this opportunity to find out.
Blonsky observed the identical process that had transformed Banner into the Hulk as his body began to morph into the enormous green monster known as “Abomination.” Abomination said that he did not want this process to end because his new shape had already made him feel unstoppable and more powerful. Since any further exposure to the gamma rays would have killed him, he even destroyed the gadget so that no one else could ever use it — and unintentionally — saved his own life.
After getting rid of the machine, Abomination set out to find the Hulk and defeat him. In the meantime, Bruce also escaped from General Ross’s officers and returned to his lab to find the Abomination. The two fought each other, and Abomination emerged victorious in his very first fight against the Hulk. He then kidnapped Betty Ross and escaped away from the military base.
Abomination appeared in the next few comic issues, as the Hulk returns for a rematch and defeats Abomination. He was then taken away to a prison planet by a cosmic being known as ‘The Stranger,’ but Abomination later returned to Earth in the Silver Surfer comics.
He appeared in various Hulk story arcs across the ages and was even responsible for the radiation poisoning that killed Betty Ross. In one of these story arcs, Abomination fought against the Red Hulk, who was then revealed to be none other than General Ross. Red Hulk and Abomination had a gruesome fight in this comic series, and the Red Hulk then killed Abomination. However, he was later revived and brought back to life in a strange, grotesque form.
While these were Abomination’s origins in the comics, he had an entirely different origin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
A villain who is a hulkier version of Hulk – how a captain in the British Armed Forces became a beastly entity!
Emil Blonsky was born in Russia but raised in England, where he later joined the Royal Marines in the Armed Forces. He was a dedicated military officer with a spectacular track record and was soon promoted to the post of Captain. Blonsky was once sent on a mission to South America, where he first encountered the Hulk. Though Emil did not face Hulk, he ran into some eyewitnesses who saw an American man turn into a monster and cause a rampage in the forests.
He was then recruited by ‘Thaddeus Ross’ to bring Bruce Banner back to the U.S. from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Thaddeus had handed Joe Geller the responsibility of capturing Bruce, and Joe asked Blonsky for assistance in bringing him back alive. However, Joe did not tell Blonsky everything about Banner and only stated that he was a fugitive who had stolen military secrets and killed some innocent victims.
Blonsky soon arrived in Rio De Janeiro with his team and easily located Bruce Banner by scanning for Gamma Radiation. He broke into Bruce’s house while he was asleep and then shot him with tranquilizers. While Blonsky dragged Bruce’s unconscious body, he came back to his senses and tried to escape. Banner managed to flee through the window, but Blonsky soon located him on the streets and tracked him down at the bottling plant he had been working at. Blonsky and his team broke into the building and got ready to shoot tranquilizers at Bruce, but another group of a local gang cornered Bruce inside the factory and started beating him up.
While Blonsky prepared to shoot at Bruce, he witnessed the man turn into a huge monster right in front of his eyes. Bruce then beat the local gang that was bullying him, while Blonsky contacted Thaddeus Ross and updated him. Ross stated that this monster was the same man as their target, but their tranquilizers will not have any effect on it and that they needed to use live ammo.
In the meantime, Blonsky witnessed this monster kill two of his team members, and he took cover and started firing at him from a distance. While Bruce finally tried to leave the place after causing more destruction, Blonsky took a clear shot at him, but it seemed to do no harm to the colossal beast. However, the attack caught Bruce’s eye, and he then threw a huge forklift truck at a bewildered Blonsky, who somehow dodged the attack.
After Bruce’s escape, Blonsky got his hands on Bruce’s backpack and handed it over to Kathleen Sparr, who had accompanied them on their mission. They found Betty Ross’s picture in his bag, but Thaddeus Ross stated that this woman was no longer relevant to the case. While Ross was not keen on sharing much information about the mission, Blonsky insisted on knowing more and demanded an explanation. Ross stated that this wasn’t necessary since the Hulk seemed to have escaped. Blonsky assumed that Bruce Banner had something to do with Hulk’s disappearance, and he was determined to track Bruce down and ask him about Hulk.
Finally, Ross had no choice but to tell Blonsky that Hulk and Banner were the same person. On their flight back to the U.S.A., Blonsky hears Ross talk to Kathleen about how Banner has been trying to control his body’s gamma radiation.
After returning back, Blonsky attended a high-profile meeting with Ross and Joe Greller, where he found out that Bruce was linked to the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project. Blonsky learned that Ross had experimented with the super-soldier serum, and he even asked Ross if there were more people besides Banner who had been experimented on. Finally, Ross stated that Banner could be a danger to them, and Blonsky told him to include him in any future missions involving Banner since he had a team that was trained to fight someone like the Hulk.
Ross then shared the entire story with Blonsky and told him all about how he restarted the Super-Soldier program to make soldiers better. Bruce had been involved in some of their experiments, but he was told that they were trying to work on radiation resistance and not enhancing soldiers. Bruce was quite confident in his work and was willing to test the serum on himself despite knowing the consequences of the experiment going wrong.
Ross then suggested that Blonsky should also stop working as an active soldier, but Blonsky replied by saying that he wanted to remain a fighter for as long as possible. Blonsky even expressed his wish to take this knowledge of the super serum and use it, and Ross offered to arrange something for him.
Ross then gave Blonsky a small dose of the Super Soldier Serum on the condition that he would be removed from their team if he showed any negative side effects. He took two doses of the serum, one in his muscles and one in his bone marrow. While this entire process was excruciating, and Blonsky even had to be strapped down when they injected the serum, he readily agreed to undergo the procedure. As he winced in pain while feeling the serum enter his body, Blonsky also felt his strength increasing immediately.
Blonsky then went head to head against the Hulk during their fight at Culver University, but he was not strong enough to defeat him yet. He even ended up with many near-fatal injuries, but the serum in his body helped him survive, and he recovered in just one day. Blonsky then asked Ross for another chance to go against the Hulk and also got a stronger dose of the Super Soldier Serum.
However, this increased dosage caused him to experience strange side effects, such as a deformity in his spine; and he also started to feel disconnected from reality. He was hungry for more power, so he kept all these side effects a secret from Ross. When Blonsky was finally asked to step into battle against the Hulk, he disobeyed direct orders from Ross and went into a rage. He even threw Betty Ross across the room before attacking Bruce Banner and hitting him until he fell unconscious.
While Betty and Bruce were taken away, Blonsky discovered a huge supply of gamma-radiated blood arranged by Samuel Sterns. He then decided to get a blood transfusion in order to become more like the Hulk and even ignored Samuel’s concerns about how combining his blood with Bruce’s might result in an abomination. Blonsky paid no heed to these warnings and then went ahead with the transfusion that led him to mutate into the ‘Abomination.’
Abomination was one of the main villains in The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Abomination played an important role in Edward Norton’s Incredible Hulk in 2008, and Tim Roth portrayed him.
When General Ross was trying to bring Bruce Banner back to U.S.A after he had escaped to Brazil, he sought the help of the decorated military officer ‘Emil Blonsky.’ However, the Hulk easily defeated Blonsky’s special forces team in Brazil, and they dejectedly Returned to the U.S.A.
Ross then told Blonsky all about the super-soldier serum, and Blonsky then decided to get a dose of the serum in order to defeat the Hulk. While this serum made Blonsky stronger, it changed his physical form and started affecting his judgment and mental abilities.
While Blonsky prepared to face the Hulk again, Bruce returned to Virginia and was reunited with his girlfriend ‘Betty.’ General Ross then sent Blonsky to attack the Hulk, and this time, Blonsky found himself a good match for the Hulk. He even mocked the Hulk while attacking him, but the O.G. superhero eventually injured Blonsky and won the fight. While Blonsky took some time to recover, the Hulk returns to his usual state and meets ‘Dr. Samuel Sterns’, a biologist who has an antidote for his condition. Dr. Sterns further revealed that he had been synthesizing Bruce’s blood samples to use them in the field of medicine, and Bruce decided that he needed to destroy all these blood supplies before they were used anywhere.
In the meantime, Blonsky returned to General Ross’s special force and prepared for another attack on the Hulk. He managed to bring the Hulk under the General’s custody, and Bruce and Betty were taken away in Ross’s helicopter. However, Blonsky stayed with Dr. Sterns and asked him to inject some of Banner’s blood into his bloodstream.
The doctor complied, and Blonsky started turning into a gigantic monster that even surpassed the Hulk in terms of appearance. The transformation turned Blonsky into ‘Abomination,’ who attacked the doctor and got some of Banner’s blood on his head. Dr. Stern then started mutating as well, while Abomination left the place and started stomping around Harlem and causing destruction.
Bruce Banner then asked General Ross to let him go since he was the only one strong enough to get rid of Abomination. Bruce then jumped out of Ross’s helicopter and landed on the ground as the ‘Hulk’ before immediately setting off to find Abomination. He almost strangled Abomination to his death but later left him in General Ross’s custody.
Shang-Chi brought an updated version of Abomination
While Abomination was usually portrayed as a raging monster known for his aggressive nature, he had a different appearance in Shang-Chi. It seemed like Abomination had mutated even further since his last appearance, and he now had scaly skin with gills and webbed ears. He also seems to have more personality in the movie and did not just appear as a violent monster.
Abomination was voiced by Tim Roth in Shang-Chi and only had a cameo scene wherein he participates in cage-fighting in Macau. He goes up against Wong in one of the cage fights, but Wong easily defeats him by using magic. Later, Abomination escapes this place with Wong through a portal. While his role was just a cameo, it indicated that Marvel had future plans involving Abomination and that his character was going to be explored in more depth.
He looked terrifying in The Incredible Hulk animated series
Abomination appeared in the animated ‘Incredible Hulk’ series in a different form in an episode titled ‘Return of the Beast: Part One.’ Here, he played the role of ‘Major Glenn Talbot,’ the right-hand man of General Thunderbolt Ross. Major Talbot had made it his life’s mission to capture the Hulk, and he also wished to capture the attention of his boss’ daughter and Bruce Banner’s girlfriend ‘Betty Ross.’
In this episode, Major Talbot locates Bruce Banner in a hidden lab in the desert and then informs General Ross about his findings. General Ross believed that Bruce Banner was a danger to the world, while his daughter ‘Betty’ tried to plead a case for Bruce and asked his father to leave him alone.
In the meantime, Bruce Banner conducted a series of experiments to cure himself and was even on the verge of success. However, Major Talbot cut off Bruce’s lab supply right at the last minute and caused the entire experiment to be a failure. Bruce got quite frustrated by this and turned into the Hulk, and then started destroying the lab equipment in a fit of rage. In the meantime, General Ross’s troops got ready to attack him near the Gamma base and successfully locked him up in a supercell.
While Hulk found himself losing control, Betty calmed him down and ensured that he returned back to his human self. Bruce even requested the army to set him free and get him permission to finish his experiment so that the world would be free from the Hulk for once and all. While General Ross managed to get the White House’s consent to proceed with the experiment, one of the Hulk’s enemies, known as ‘The Leader,’ did not want the experiment to take place. He sends ‘Abomination’ to put an end to this experiment and kidnap Bruce and bring him back to him.
Abomination, or Major Talbot, then snuck into the Gamma Base through the sewer systems and headed towards Bruce. Betty intervened and tried to protect Bruce, but Abomination attacked her, which then caused Bruce to get angry and turn into the Hulk. A fight broke out, and General Ross even resorted to using the powerful Omega Laser to bring the situation under control. Finally, ‘The Leader’ asked Abomination to abandon the mission and return without the Hulk.
Abomination took on the Avengers one time!
Abomination was also a recurring enemy in ‘The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ animated series. He was initially incarcerated at the prison known as ‘The Cube’ in an episode titled ‘This Monster, This Hero,’ and he later played a bigger role in the episode ‘Breakout: Part 1’.
In this episode, the security system at the ‘Cube’ crashes due to a power failure, and a lot of prisoners start walking out of the place. The Hulk had also been residing at the Cube, along with some notorious criminals such as Wrecker, Zzzax, Absorbing Man, and Abomination. When the prison system fails, Bruce Banner walks out of his prison cell and gets stuck under a pile of rubble. He then reemerges as the Hulk but is then attacked by Zzzap and falls unconscious.
However, Hulk soon returns to his senses and launches an attack on Zzzap, while one of Hulk’s enemies, known as ‘The Leader,’ monitors the entire situation from the outside. The Leader then orders Absorbing Man and Abomination to defeat the Hulk within the prison, and Abomination sneaks upon Hulk and attacks him. Hulk was carrying away his friend ‘Doc Samson’ who had also been exposed to gamma radiation, when Abomination caught him off guard and started throwing him around.
Hulk diverted his attention to Abomination, who was then joined by Absorbing Man as well. However, the two of them were not enough to defeat the Hulk, who manages to escape and leaves ‘The Cube.’ Abomination later took control of the Cube along with Absorbing Man and later returned in the two-part episodes titled ‘Gamma World.’
In these episodes, Abomination worked with ‘The Leader’ to turn people into Gamma Monsters. When Doctor Samson sent some of his troops to ‘The Cube’ to investigate the green energy dome surrounding the prison, he learned that ‘The Abomination’ had taken control of the place. Abomination and The Leader were working together to expand this energy dome across the city so that the gamma radiation would soon be exposed to more people.
The Avengers geared up to enter the Cube without being exposed to the gamma radiation themselves and then found themselves facing various villains known as the ‘U-foes.’ While Iron Man and Captain America defeated the villains, Thor and Doctor Samson set out to find the Cube’s generators so that they could turn off all the gamma radiation. However, they face hurdles in the form of the ‘Wrecking Crew,’ who had all transformed into Gamma Monsters.
While Thor and Samson engaged with the Wreckers, Black Panther snuck away and destroyed the generator. While the Avengers arrested the Gamma Monsters and treated everyone who had been exposed to the radiation, the Leader stood with Abomination and Absorbing Man outside Las Vegas. They don’t seem to be fazed by their alleged defeat, and the Leader then presses a button which causes a Gamma Dome to appear over the entire city.
This Gamma Dome even turns all the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents into Gamma Monsters while Black Widow and Hawkeye try to come up with a solution. Hawkeye then frees the Hulk from Thunderbolt, that is, General Ross’s forces, in an attempt to find an antidote to the gamma rays.
As the episode returns to the Leader’s base at ‘Space Needle,’ Abomination captures Thor and Doctor Samson and brings them to the Leader. Thor was the only Avenger immune to the gamma rays due to his godly origins, and he summons his hammer while Hawkeye and the Hulk also arrive at the Space Needle. They face Abomination right outside the building and fight him as well as the Avengers who have turned into Gamma Monsters.
While Hawkeye uses the antidote to cure the Avengers one by one, Hulk and Abomination get into a fight, and Hulk manages to overpower Abomination. He throws the gigantic monster out of Las Vegas and then destroys the machine responsible for creating the Gamma Dome. Thor also gets rid of the Leader and Absorbing Man as things return to normal.
As the episode comes to an end, Abomination meets with Zemo in the desert and is recruited by the supervillain team known as the Masters of Evil. He later appeared in various episodes such as ‘Masters of Evil, ‘This Hostage Earth’ and so on, and worked alongside this evil organization until he was eventually captured by the Avengers and sent to Prison 42.
His role in She-Hulk explored
Abomination most recently appeared in the second episode of ‘She-Hulk,’ wherein he seems to be a changed person who sincerely regrets all his past actions and wishes to start over.
After Jennifer Walters turns into the ‘She-Hulk’ at court, she ends up in the news and soon becomes very popular. However, this costs Jenifer his job as an assistant district attorney, as they lose the case due to her transformation into the She-Hulk. The opposition had made their case by arguing that Jennifer’s She-Hulk persona caused the jury to vote in her client’s favor, and Jenifer started wondering if she had now become a liability due to her newfound powers.
While Jennifer struggled to find a new job, the opposition lawyer from her previous case, Holden Holliway, offered her a position at his law firm, G.L.K. & H. Since she desperately needed a new job, Jen accepted this position without even going into the full details. She only later discovered that they wanted her to lead their new supernatural law division as ‘She-Hulk’ and not Jen.
Holliway later tells Jen that she will be taking up Emil Blonsky’s parole hearing case, which seems to be a case no one else wanted to take up. Emil Blonsky, more popularly known as Abomination, was a high-profile prisoner who had caused a lot of trouble and killed many people before he was arrested. He had now been in the news as the discussions of a parole hearing for his early release had been going around, but the public really did not wish to see him free.
Jen declares that Blonsky had once attacked her cousin Bruce and that she cannot take this case as this will be a conflict of interest. However, Holliway tells her that Blonsky especially wanted her as his attorney and that he even signed a conflict waiver.
Holliway further tells Jen that she does not have a job if she refuses to take up this case, and she takes some time to think about it and visit Blonsky. Jen then visits the high-profile prison where Abomination had been imprisoned and is surprised to see a well-behaved Emil Blonsky. While she expected to see an uncontrollable Abomination, Blonsky appears to be very disciplined, and he talks to Jen in a civil manner.
He also states that he has chosen not to turn into Abomination anymore and that he just wants to get out of prison and live at a spacious property with his seven soulmates, whom he found through the prison’s pen pal program. Blonsky even states that he first started out as Abomination under the government’s orders and that he actually saw himself as the good guy who was just carrying out orders. He shares his perspective of how he was only doing his duty, and Jen believes that Blonsky is not evil and that he has changed over time.
The two have a long chat, and Blonsky tells Jen that he had written haikus to apologize to all of his victims and even starts reciting one of them. As Jen takes her leave, she tells Blonsky that this might not be enough and that he will have to show more remorse in front of the judges.
Jen later calls Bruce and informs him about her decision to take this job and defend Abomination, and Bruce assures her that he fought Abomination years ago and that he is a completely changed person now. This is also a reference to Edward Norton’s Hulk fighting Abomination in 2008, while the current Hulk is portrayed by Mark Ruffalo, who is quite literally a different person.
Relieved to hear that Bruce does not mind her taking this case, Jen finally calls Holliway and tells him that she is ready to take on Blonsky’s case. While Jen assures Holliway that she has a plan to make sure they win the case, Holliway suggests that she turn on the news as he keeps the call. Jen’s enthusiasm regarding the case soon crumbles as the news channel plays the scene from Shang-Chi wherein Abomination fights Wong in an underground cage fight. The reporter states that Blonsky has broken out of the high-security prison ahead of his parole hearing, while Jen realizes that this case just got a lot more complicated.
What makes him so dangerous?
After being injected with the super-soldier serum, Emil Blonsky transformed into Abomination and underwent a massive transformation into a towering, mighty villain that was even larger and stronger than the Hulk. This transformation gave him many powers, such as superhuman strength, enhanced stamina, and speed. He also had enhanced agility and better reflexes than an average human.
Abomination also had superhuman durability, as his bodily tissues underwent a change and became more resistant to injury. He could withstand explosions, fires, and high-caliber bullets without sustaining much damage. As a super soldier, he could also heal from any injuries such as bodily fractures or wounds at a much faster rate than humans.
While this serum gave him many powers, it also caused irreversible damage to Abomination’s body and caused irreversible mental and physical deterioration. This deterioration only caused Abomination to get more aggressive, and in a way, made him an even deadlier opponent.
He appeared as a tall humanoid, with his rib cage and spine protruding out of his body and revealing his bones that then appeared as spikes on his limbs and back. These spikes emerged whenever Blonsky transformed into Abomination and served as weapons that had even injured the Hulk on many occasions. Over the years, Abomination’s body kept mutating, and these spikes later transformed into thorns on his body.
Besides the powers given to him due to the serum, Abomination was also an expert tactician due to his time as a soldier for the British Navy. He was also a skilled marksman due to his military training and could use a variety of firearms with great accuracy. Moreover, Blonsky was a master at hand-to-hand combat and was even considered to be one of the most powerful fighters in the Army. He was quite a dangerous opponent for any superhero and was strong enough even to fight the likes of Thor and Hulk, apart from She-Hulk!
Conclusion
Abomination has been one of the most deadly villains to face the many variants of the Hulk, and he definitely has a spectacular presence across the MCU. Fans were especially thrilled to see him return in the She-Hulk series, and we hope to see his appearance amount to something truly amazing as the show progresses.