Powers and abilities

Creel has the power to absorb the physical properties of anything he touches. For example, if Creel were to touch and hold a piece of titanium steel, the tissues of his body would take on the appearance and properties of titanium. Creel also retains his intellect and capacity for speech and full physical movement regardless of the material he absorbs. The more dense or durable the material he absorbs, the stronger Creel becomes; were Creel to touch a high grade steel structure his strength would be roughly equal to that of the Thing. The longer he remains in contact with the structure can also have a dramatic effect on his own size and strength (while holding onto a large construction like a skyscraper he can become as large as one, while his physical strength will also increase. He can also mimic certain physical characteristics about the form he is touching, like the spikes of a mace or needles of a cactus.

Creel also has the ability to mimic the physical strengths of someone he is in physical contact with. This requires Creel's deliberate concentration. Creel's body can also absorb the properties of great amounts of energy in the same fashion it absorbs the properties of solid materials. Creel has proven able to absorb the mystical energies of Thor's enchanted Uru hammer on multiple occasions. In Uru metal form, his strength exceeds Thor's. He is also one of the few beings other than Thor who has been able to lift the hammer itself, though not to prevent it from returning to Thor's hands.

There seems to be no limit to the length of time that Creel can retain the properties of a material he has absorbed. However, this rule varies. For example, during his first confrontation with the Hulk, he managed to absorb the monster's incredible strength. However, when the Hulk reverted to Bruce Banner, Creel's newfound strength began to decline and eventually left him. There are also undefined limits to the amount of power that Creel can absorb. He met one of his first defeats when he exploded while attempting to absorb the power of the entire planet Earth. If the Absorbing Man's body is shattered or dispersed, he has the ability to completely reconstitute his bodily mass without injury to himself, though it may take a great deal of time to do so. However, Creel must remain in whatever form he'd taken upon being shattered until after he has gathered all the pieces of himself. Otherwise, it could potentially kill him. He often has a tendency to accidentally absorb the properties of materials he did not intend to. Perhaps the greatest limitation of the Absorbing Man's powers is his intellect; he is noticeably slow-witted and can often be fooled into transforming himself into substances that can easily lead to his defeat. For instance, when fighting the Hulk one time, he shattered some glass and one shard fell on his body and he inadvertently turned into glass himself. The Hulk took advantage of this development and punched Creel to shatter him.

The ball and chain that he carries is also mystically enchanted and linked to his absorbing power. It too can assimilate the properties and characteristics of whatever he is touching, so long as he is also holding onto the ball and chain while he is doing so (when he absorbed Thor's strength level his weapon simultaneously imitated the hardness of Thor's hammer). The ball and chain essentially function more as an extension of his body rather than a weapon during combat. Creel also has the ability to throw his ball and propel himself through the air, thus simulating flight.

It was shown in a Hulk story that Creel developed the power of absorbing the minds of other people, and possessing their bodies. In that particular story, he was shown unusually smart and cunning. This story has since been retconned as a continuity "glitch" from the time when the insane cosmic super hero Captain Marvel remade the universe under his own power.