DAREDEVIL versus ABSORBING MANAlone Against The Absorbing Man! (Marvel)
Where: Daredevil #360 When: January 1997
Why: Karl Kesel How: Cary Nord
The Story So Far...
To the world at large -- the Avengers and Fantastic Four are dead. Seemingly killed in their battle to end Onslaught's conquest of New York City. In truth, they are merely lost in a pocket dimension of a child's creation -- but that hasn't stopped sinister forces seizing upon their absence!
Where: Daredevil #360 When: January 1997
Why: Karl Kesel How: Cary Nord
The Story So Far...
To the world at large -- the Avengers and Fantastic Four are dead. Seemingly killed in their battle to end Onslaught's conquest of New York City. In truth, they are merely lost in a pocket dimension of a child's creation -- but that hasn't stopped sinister forces seizing upon their absence!
Believing he is unopposed in a world without its mightiest heroes -- The Absorbing Man has come to the Manhattan Diamond Exchange to help himself to a small fortune. The only one standing in his way is a man without fear or a hope in hell of matching him: Daredevil!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Absorbing Man 5 (Super-Human)
Intelligence: Daredevil 3 (Straight A)
Speed: Daredevil 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Absorbing Man 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Daredevil 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Daredevil 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Absorbing Man 2 (Projectile)
Total: Daredevil 26 (Metahuman)
It started with a random social media post -- and in our last entry we explored the potential for street-level heroes to overcome the likes of The Wrecker!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Absorbing Man 5 (Super-Human)Intelligence: Daredevil 3 (Straight A)
Speed: Daredevil 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Absorbing Man 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Daredevil 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Daredevil 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Absorbing Man 2 (Projectile)
Total: Daredevil 26 (Metahuman)
It started with a random social media post -- and in our last entry we explored the potential for street-level heroes to overcome the likes of The Wrecker!
Daredevil is no stranger to a mismatch -- and today we're looking at a big one -- which will perfectly help us determine whether or not the Man Without Fear should be able to take down opponents who've gone toe-to-toe with Thor!
Absorbing Man has come to regard the Hulk as an arch-nemesis, while also applying his super-human strength against The Avengers and Spider-Man, but his career in super-villainy started as a foe for Thor.
Just like The Wrecking Crew; Carl "Crusher" Creel owes his strange powers to enchantment from the Norse Gods. In his case, it was Loki, god of mischief, who chose him to receive a formula that enhanced his durability, and allowed him to take on the properties of anything he comes in contact with.
Much like Thunderball; Absorbing Man favours an enchanted wrecking ball & chain as his primary weapon, which gives him a steady supply of steel to absorb for added strength and durability -- but can also take on the same properties as whatever Creel absorbed. He also gains added reach and bludgeoning power.
Our statistical analysis [above] deems Daredevil's diverse skills generally more advantageous -- but it's safe to say Absorbing Man is in a completely different weight class when it comes to pure strength. Not that that'll stop DD trying! The Man Without Fear has made a career of standing up against overwhelming adversaries -- with mixed results.
Look no further than his fight against the Hulk, which inevitably ended with defeat. He was also bested by the stone-skinned Tombstone when they fought a mismatch of strength in Portugal. Evidence that DD has no business tangling with the likes of Wrecker or Absorbing Man. Yet! Sometimes Daredevil defies the odds!
He was able to withstand the supernatural horror of Blackheart with a little help from a similarly mismatched Spider-Man. He showed speed & agility are key to survival, while defending his friends from an escaped Carnage. He even turned the tables in a two-on-one rematch with Tombstone and Matador -- relying on physical and tactical prowess to turn his opponent's advantage into weakness!
In addition to evasion, Daredevil has also showed great potential to use the urban environment against a superior adversary, such as when he improvised weapons against Klaw in their first encounter.
Our limited record shows Absorbing Man is susceptible to creatures great and small. He paled into insignificance in the crossfire between Ultron and Galactus, while showing vulnerability in his mortal form during a losing tag team contest against Wasp and Ant-Man -- arguably an even greater mismatch!
The Tape: Daredevil Ranking: Daredevil (#8)
What Went Down...
Absorbing Man is utterly unafraid as he bats Daredevil aside with a fist made of red brick.
Before the hero even has a moment to recover -- Absorbing Man's brick & mortar wrecking ball comes crashing down dangerously close to Daredevil's legs!
The Man Without Fear keeps clear of the crushing impact and takes none too kindly to Creel's name-calling.
While the patter of banter keeps Absorbing Man on his toes - a fistful of pearls takes him off his feet! An improvised projectile sourced from the wreckage of the Diamond Exchange.
Absorbing Man may have slipped on the tiny spheres, but he's fallen within reach of the Diamond Exchange guardsman's loose sidearm.
He clutches the pistol with trigger in finger -- but gunning a man down isn't Crusher Creel's style. Daredevil detects the shift in temperature as Absorbing Man transforms from a man made of warm, earthy brick clay -- to cold, hard gunmetal.
Absorbing Man hurls his hardened ball & chain, but the nimble Daredevil leaps clear and lands on top of a Coca Cola vending machine. It's a temporary respite as the wall behind him gives way and he tumbles off the falling machine.
While Daredevil crawls through busted chunks of wall and ceiling from a nearby bar -- an off-duty cop enters the fray intent on serving & protecting.
With Absorbing Man shedding his metallic skin, he appears vulnerable to Detective Danny Levin's police issue firearm -- but quickly spinning to a nearby newsstand on the street, Absorbing Man solves the problem with a stack of today's headlines.
Three bullets pierce through Absorbing Man's body -- but the paper-thin form is utterly unaffected by their flesh-rending trajectory! They pass harmlessly through his left hand and chest, like something out of a cartoon.
He stretches his arms above his head and prepares to launch his paper body at the bewildered police detective -- but like yesterday's news, his solution to bullets fails to stand up to the latest breaking development in the form of Daredevil
The black & white villain gets red all-over as Daredevil takes full advantage of his flimsy frame -- folding him up by dropping, both feet first, from overhead!
DD stands triumphantly over the flattened felon, but the upper-hand is short-lived as Absorbing Man takes on the properties of the concrete street his flat-body is pinned to!
The return to a more substantial three-dimensional figure pops Daredevil off Absorbing Man's back, toppling him away from the looming villain.
The hero advises his law enforcement ally to fallback to safety, while the grinding of the Absorbing Man's concrete skin and heavy steps betrays his fast movement toward Daredevil's back. The hero senses him and takes evasive action!
A simple shift in weight allows Daredevil to turn Absorbing Man's momentum against him -- flipping him overhead and onto his back.
The Absorbing Man is barely slowed by the maneuver, but Daredevil finds a surprisingly effective alternate method for bruising him -- attacking his ego: "Don't worry, Detective -- Creel isn't much more than a super-powered paper towel! Now if his girlfriend Titania was here --"
The barb riles Absorbing Man up to prove something, but he still falls for the oldest trick in the book when Daredevil makes like Titania has just arrived behind him. A momentary lapse in concentration that leaves the human Creel wide open!
A right cross catches the distracted Crusher by surprise, and Daredevil keeps him from thinking about absorbing anything with a fast follow-up -- a straight shot!
Crusher cuts off the comeback. He grabs a tight grip on Daredevil's left wrist, while an unfortunately placed food cart provides a deadly new source of power from the street -- hot barbecue coals, still burning!
The searing agony of the smoldering hold rips pain through DD's arm!
A stray brick from the rubble of the battlefield gives Daredevil the means to rapidly free his hand. He smashes it over Absorbing Man's wrist -- snapping the hot coal hand from its glowing appendage!
Absorbing Man's none too pleased to lose his hand, but years of fighting the most powerful heroes in the world have taught him how to reassemble himself when a substance causes him to break apart.
Unsatisfied with the vulnerability of burning coal -- Absorbing Man grabs hold of a diamond bag and burns through to the loot. The contact with his skin is all he needs to transform his entire being into nigh unbreakable, living diamond!
It's Daredevil's turn to do the absorbing -- taking the impact of a vicious double-fisted diamond punch!
DD does his best to roll with the punch, but is left vulnerable to a vicious double-slap as the Absorbing Man snaps his hands backwards on arms outstretched!
The man of diamond swings his mighty wrecking ball, but his hulking figure towers over an evasive Daredevil.
DD survives his near-miss and decides to call it quits: "Sorry, Creel -- that doesn't sound like my kind of fun! I'm out of here!"
Scoffing at the hero's cowardice, Absorbing Man reels back with his ball & chain and hurls it like a deadly missile at the fleeing figure!
Demonstrating a change of heart that betrays his true intentions; Daredevil somersaults backwards with the straight-bodied grace of a gymnast -- and perfectly times his landing to catch the chain in mid-air!
With the Absorbing Man rapidly charging towards him, Daredevil doesn't have the time to reach out with his radar senses to find the exact flaws in Creel's diamond body -- but he knows they're there, so he swings blind and hopes for the best!
The reverberating collision rings DD's hyper-sensitive ears as he swings the ball & chain into Absorbing Man's body - a wide open target as Creel brings his diamond fists down over Daredevil like two hammers! The ball shatters!
Daredevil's legs go numb, but at least he's in one piece. Absorbing Man finds his diamond arm has been cracked clean off by the impact!
A diamond hand begins dragging its dismembered arm around the battlefield -- and Daredevil is to warn out to contend with twice the threat.
He desperately asks Detective Levin for his gun and finally starts applying his radar sense. With no other hope, DD begins slamming the butt of the gun handle into Absorbing Man's furious diamond body. Again and again, darting in and out to avoid a knock out, and chip away in search of the fatal flaw in the diamond!
The gun chips away pieces from Absorbing Man's remaining bicep, his hand, his jaw, his cheek, his back, his chin. All as DD struggles to remain conscious through a haze of exhaustion and tasting blood & sweat. It's exhausting - but worth it!
Daredevil can barely stand, but it's the Absorbing Man who won't survive another step. He looks down to discover his left hand has joined his right arm somewhere on the ground, with a massive cavity leaving his severely damaged diamond mid-section on the brink of cracking his body in half!
The Hammer...
He may have "taken out Earth's Mightiest Heroes" in the past, and be able to reassemble his broken body from fractured pieces, but on this day Absorbing Man was worn down and defeated by the Man Without Fear - Daredevil!Creel is carted away in power-dampening restraints thanks to an emergency call by Detective Danny Levin, who lent the assist, and called in back-up while the fight was still raging. He's not as bad as he dresses, folks.
To the best of my knowledge; Daredevil #360 has never been held in special regard, but when you get right down to it, the disparity in weight class, and underdog success story, is comparable to a legendary example like Spider-Man versus the Unstoppable Juggernaut. A major upset victory for a street-level hero.
I suppose the novelty of that sort of thing had worn off around a decade and a half after Spidey's memorable win, but I think there are probably some other factors too, such as this brief era of Daredevil being lost between the quickly-regretted early nineties armor period, and the reboot with Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada. There were only twenty more issues of the original run after this one.
There's also the shadow of Frank Miller to consider. Daredevil #360 itself includes internal monologue references to two better remembered mismatches: the Miller-drawn fight against the Hulk, and his much earlier stand against Sub-Mariner. Two famous battles DD ultimately lost, as a matter of fact.
Beating Absorbing Man should therefore perhaps distinguish this battle, but truth be told, it also isn't the first time he's overcome significant odds against a super-villain, and the Miller influence may have cemented Daredevil in many minds as a down-trodden hero, notable for his noir-tinged street struggles more than his over-the-top super-hero triumphs.
That would certainly explain the reaction I saw to a recent issue where Daredevil and Elektra defeated The Wrecker. A social media post that described it as a "career low" for the villain -- capturing my imagination in the process, and setting us on a path to study the case further.
I suppose the novelty of that sort of thing had worn off around a decade and a half after Spidey's memorable win, but I think there are probably some other factors too, such as this brief era of Daredevil being lost between the quickly-regretted early nineties armor period, and the reboot with Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada. There were only twenty more issues of the original run after this one.
There's also the shadow of Frank Miller to consider. Daredevil #360 itself includes internal monologue references to two better remembered mismatches: the Miller-drawn fight against the Hulk, and his much earlier stand against Sub-Mariner. Two famous battles DD ultimately lost, as a matter of fact.
Beating Absorbing Man should therefore perhaps distinguish this battle, but truth be told, it also isn't the first time he's overcome significant odds against a super-villain, and the Miller influence may have cemented Daredevil in many minds as a down-trodden hero, notable for his noir-tinged street struggles more than his over-the-top super-hero triumphs.
That would certainly explain the reaction I saw to a recent issue where Daredevil and Elektra defeated The Wrecker. A social media post that described it as a "career low" for the villain -- capturing my imagination in the process, and setting us on a path to study the case further.
In our previous feature we looked at The Wrecker against some of Daredevil's friends, and now we can observe a similar scenario from the other side, showing Daredevil is certainly capable of enduring and cutting down an opponent of Thor.
There is the qualitative measure to make. There are a few blows here you might not expect Daredevil to survive, as illustrated, but I think we should allow for a little artistic license in these matters. Which is to say, I don't have any real qualms with Daredevil staggering wobbly legged away from a well-earned, inventive win.
There is the qualitative measure to make. There are a few blows here you might not expect Daredevil to survive, as illustrated, but I think we should allow for a little artistic license in these matters. Which is to say, I don't have any real qualms with Daredevil staggering wobbly legged away from a well-earned, inventive win.
Actually, to be honest, my bigger problem has always been depictions of Absorbing Man sustaining critical injuries. At this point, it's just a fact of the character, but I've never been completely at easy with the concept of losing half his head, or massive section of internal organs, just because he happens to have transmuted his body into another substance.
Absorbing Man's powers are magical and it's kind of absurd that I would have this hang-up, but isn't turning himself into a man of living steel super-power enough without adding molecular re-integration of broken off pieces? Isn't it dramatically more interesting if he needs to assess the risks of taking on the properties of fragile materials -- or suffer their consequences?
Granted, there is always going to be the issue of creative restraint, and the pitfalls of some bright spark inevitably deciding they're the one who should break the toys Kirby built. Maybe we just can't have nice things and I should accept that part of Absorbing Man's repertoire is piecing himself back together again.
On a positive note - I really enjoyed the inventive use of his powers in this issue. I can't think of many other times he's taken on the form of paper, and it was a somewhat elegant way for Creel to quickly avoid dealing with gunshot wounds. I'm not sure that it makes sense his body would flatten out like a Freddy Krueger gag from A Nightmare on Elm Street 5, but again - a little artistic license.
The issue takes place in the wake of Onslaught, and while it's a fairly basic big superhero fight issue, I do appreciate the way it leverages the apparent deaths of The Avengers and Fantastic Four, to give Daredevil his big moment, while showing the threat of villains emboldened by a perceived lack of opposition.
That's one of the unique pleasures of shared-universe superhero comics and I probably would've enjoyed seeing even more of it, at that time. There was a bit of it going around, but beyond The Thunderbolts, it didn't seem to be a primary focus. They weren't spinning another Acts of Vengeance style crossover out of it.
Of course, I wasn't paying attention to every series at that time. In fact, this era of Daredevil was something that largely passed me by, which has made it a real pleasure to go back to and re-discover all these years later. It might be my preferred vein of DD, swinging the pendulum back in the bombastic superhero direction, much like Ann Nocenti's work after Miller.
As luck would have it, there's actually another Daredevil mismatch from around this period that I'd like to explore, but in our next entries I think we'll continue expanding The Wrecker file, and perhaps dive into some other topics that have been tickling my fancy lately. I'm trying to be a little less scattershot, while maintaining the human touch. Absolutely no "AI" generated content here, buddy!
The issue takes place in the wake of Onslaught, and while it's a fairly basic big superhero fight issue, I do appreciate the way it leverages the apparent deaths of The Avengers and Fantastic Four, to give Daredevil his big moment, while showing the threat of villains emboldened by a perceived lack of opposition.
That's one of the unique pleasures of shared-universe superhero comics and I probably would've enjoyed seeing even more of it, at that time. There was a bit of it going around, but beyond The Thunderbolts, it didn't seem to be a primary focus. They weren't spinning another Acts of Vengeance style crossover out of it.
Of course, I wasn't paying attention to every series at that time. In fact, this era of Daredevil was something that largely passed me by, which has made it a real pleasure to go back to and re-discover all these years later. It might be my preferred vein of DD, swinging the pendulum back in the bombastic superhero direction, much like Ann Nocenti's work after Miller.
As luck would have it, there's actually another Daredevil mismatch from around this period that I'd like to explore, but in our next entries I think we'll continue expanding The Wrecker file, and perhaps dive into some other topics that have been tickling my fancy lately. I'm trying to be a little less scattershot, while maintaining the human touch. Absolutely no "AI" generated content here, buddy!
You'll be able to find out if I stuck to my plans, and flex your mind muscle, by following links throughout this post to discover topics you're interested in -- or by diving in to the Secret Archive for a complete index of featured fights in order of publisher, series, and issue number. Crossovers are right down the bottom.
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Winner: Daredevil (w/ Detective Danny Levin)
#8 (--) Daredevil
#669 (new) Det. Danny Levin [+1 assist]
#1039 (-340) Absorbing Man
Winner: Daredevil (w/ Detective Danny Levin)
#8 (--) Daredevil
#669 (new) Det. Danny Levin [+1 assist]
#1039 (-340) Absorbing Man
