BLACK ABBOTT
BLACK ABBOTT
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human mutant or mutate (see comments)
Occupation: Cult
leader, Would-be world conqueror;
formerly monk
Group Membership: None;
formerly The Hood (Parker Robbins)'s army of resurrected Scourge victims aka. Deadly Dozen (Basilisk/Basil Elks, Bird-Man/Achille DiBacco, Blue Streak/Don Thomas, Cheetah/Esteban Carracus, Cyclone/André Gerard, Death Adder/Roland Burroughs, Firebrand/Gary Gilbert, Hijacker/Howard Mitchell, Human Fly/Richard Deacon, Lascivious/Davida DeVito (formerly Titania), Letha/Helen Feliciano, Megatak/Gregory Nettles, Mind-Wave/Erik Gelden, Miracle Man/Joshua Ayers, Mirage/Desmond Charne, Turner D. Century/Clifford F. Michaels, Wraith/Brian DeWolff), Scourge
victims, World
Peace Association, the
Monks of Dakoth-Kuru
Affiliations: Bird-Man, The Black Apostles, the Hood, Mirage, Taskmaster
Enemies: Human Torch (Storm), Nomad (Monroe), Punisher, Scourge of the Underworld (Red Skull's rogue agent), Spider-Man (Parker), Thor
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Lord Abbott, Mr. Abbott (actually one of the Apostles posing as Mr. Abbott)
Base of Operations: A seminary in New York City, USA
First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up I#147 (November, 1984)
Powers/Abilities: The Black Abbott possesses many mental abilities, including telepathy, low-range mental control, psychic blasts and telekinesis. He can control many subjects at once, and in the process, they act as near-duplicates of him, in speech and thinking. The Black Abbott can project a sort of energy from his hands that can reduce a living human into nothing but ash.
History:
(Marvel Team-Up I#148 (fb)) - The man who would become the Black Abbott was one of many nameless Monks of Dakoth-Kuru, a sect that had managed to use their teachings to unlock the full potential of their minds, giving them incredible mental powers. One, however, had more powers, the ability to control the twelve others and use them to act as "limbs" of his. Taking control of the entire brotherhood, the Black Abbott sought ultimate power.
(Marvel Team-Up I#146-BTS) - One of The Black Apostle posing as him hired the Taskmaster to gather a large number of local gang members together to be trained to work with him. While assembled, they were disrupted by Nomad and Spider-Man, who were chasing a young thief (the brother of one of the gang members). Taskmaster easily captured Nomad, while the false Abbott waited for Spider-Man to get within range, then blasted him with a psychic bolt, knocking him unconscious. When one of the gang members decided that he wanted no part of something involving super-heroes, the Apostle attempted to mentally change his mind, but failing, opted to reduce the man to ash instead. Just as he was about to do the same to Spider-Man, a groggy Nomad grabbed Taskmaster's shield (a copy of Nomad's partner's, Captain America) and threw it between them. The backlash caused the Black Apostle to burn his own hand off. With the heroes fighting off the gangmembers, the "Abbott" retreated to tend to his wound.
(Marvel Team-Up I#147) - After one of the Abbott's underlings broke his mental control, he sought to escape in one of the Abbott's jet-crafts, but was pursued above the streets of New York by those still loyal to their leader. This man was rescued and taken to the hospital by the Human Torch. The same Apostle who confronted Spider-Man and Nomad took on the guise of the elderly Mr. Abbott, and visited Peter Parker, hoping to use his mind-powers to take control of Parker and force him to work on the Abbott's super weapons (which were under the guise of the World Peace Association's work). When he mentioned that Parker's former friend Steve Hopkins recommended him, Parker played along to find out what happened to Steve. In the meantime, the Torch had gained information from the man he saved and headed to the Abbott's headquarters, where Parker had just arrived and had begun to search the place as Spider-Man. After the Torch was captured, Spider-Man managed to break the Abbott's brainwashing on the hero. The two heores confronted the man they believed to be the Black Abbott, but were surprised to find two of him , both of whom unleashed a psychic attack on Spider-Man. One left to escape, but the one-armed Apostle stayed behind, only to be knocked out and captured. Miles away, the true Black Abbott plotted revenge.
(Marvel
Team-Up
I#148) - Spider-Man visited the
hospital where the man he believed to be the Black Abbott was being
held, arriving just before two of the Abbott's ships arrived to kill
the Apostle. This attracted the attention of Thor, and the
two
heroes fought off the minions. The one-armed man awoke and
begged
for help, explaining that he'd been freed from the Abbott's control
during his previous fight with Spider-Man and that the true Black
Abbott was still out there. The Black Abbott recalled his
Apostles, except for two still in the Middle East, and managed to take
control of the armless Apostle again. Thor, believing the man
was
still under free will, took him to the seminary where the Abbott was
based. Thor was attacked by the Apostles, including the one
that
he had brought with him. The Abbott, seeing Thor, decided he
could become a god upon earth if he could imbue Thor with his
consciousness. However, he was rescued by Spider-Man, and
Thor
used his storm powers to cause a terrible fury that knocked all of the
Apostles out. Mentally shocked by the backlash, the Abbott
made
his escape.
(Captain America I#394 (fb) - BTS) - The Red Skull's Scourge of the Underworld reported to his leader that the Black Abbott was among his successful kills.
(Punisher VII#5) - Aided by
Dormammu's dark magic,
the Hood resurrected the Black Abbott along with several other of
Scourge's victims to fight the Punisher.
(Punisher VII#6) - The Hood addressed the assembled resurrected villains (including the Black Abbott), warning them that failure to kill the Punisher would leave them dead again after 30 days, but lying to them that it was the Punisher disguised as Scourge who had killed them. Each one resurrected had been augmented, armed and costumed by the Hood, especially the Black Abbott.
(Punisher VII#8) - With Mirage's help, the Black Abbott was disguised as one of the (1980s era) Avengers (hopefully Dr. Druid) as part of an elaborate masquerade to engage the Punisher, but the vigilante saw past the ruse and incapacitated him. Bird-Man took him and Mirage away from the battle zone.
Comments:
Created by Cary Burkett, Greg LaRocque and Mike Esposito.
Obviously, there's a very good possibility that Scourge only murdered a new Apostle, or even one of the two that were not present at the final showdown, believing him to be the true Abbott.
His
new costume post-resurrection is somewhat unrecognizable - it seems to
be a red (later black) robe with two metal clasps, similar to the Hood's cloak.
---Grendel Prime
The
30-day deadline given by the Hood (assuming he was telling the truth)
was likely voided when Daken brutally killed the Punisher soon after in
another title.
---Grendel Prime
Clarifications:
The Black Abbott has
no known connections to
The Black Apostles have no known connections to
Twelve members of the Monks of
Dakoth-Kuru, they were
subjected to the Black Abbott's mental powers and turned out upon the
world, posing as the true Black Abbott. One confronted several heroes,
losing an arm in the process. Due to their training, they
have
most of the powers shared by the Abbott.
--Marvel Team-Up I#146, (148 (fb),
146-148)
images:
Marvel Team-Up
I#147, page 23, panel 7 (main
image)
Marvel Team-Up I#148, page 9, panel 2 (without costume)
Marvel Team-Up I#149, page 9, panel 5 (full costume)
Marvel Team-Up I#146, page 11, panel 2 (Apostle)
Marvel Team-Up I#147, page 8, panel 5 ("Mr. Abbott")
Marvel Team-Up I#148, page 9, panel 5 (the Apostles)
Marvel Team-Up I#148, page 9, panel 3 (monks)
Appearances:
Marvel Team-Up I#146-148 (October-December, 1984) - Cary
Burkett
(writer), Greg LaRocque (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Danny
Fingeroth (editor)
[Captain America I#394 (November, 1991)]
Punisher VII#5 (July, 2009) - Rick Remender (writer), Jerome Opena
(art), Axel Alonso (editor)
Punisher VII#6 (August, 2009) - Rick Remender (writer), Tan Eng Huat (art), Axel Alonso (editor)
Punisher VII#8 (October, 2009) - Rick Remender (writer), Tan Eng Huat (art), Axel Alonso (editor)
First Posted: 06/08/2005
Last updated: 12/12/2011
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and ©
1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
