Wednesday, August 05, 2015

So what's the deal?

Does Carl "Crusher" Creel, aka The Absorbing Man, just really like wearing baggy black-and-white stripes, like, as a fashion choice? And does he also continue to wear a ball and chain around his ankle simply because he's grown so found of smacking superheroes upside the head with it? Or is he regularly incarcerated in what must be the last prison in America to outfit its inmates with horizontal black-and-white striped uniforms, instead of the now standard bright orange, and continues to use balls and chains?

By the way, the best part of that panel? The SHIELD agent with the head of an owl is the one who emphatically asks, "Who?"

(From 2014's SHIELD #6, written by Mark Waid and drawn by Paul Renaud)
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3 comments:

  1. Evan9:25 PM

    I think Absorbing Man's ball and chain has the same power that he does. When he absorbs an object's properties his ball and chain sometimes change too. So he probably keeps it around because it's useful, even if prisons don't use it anymore.

    There are actually quite a few prisons that still use striped uniforms. They've made a comeback lately since the orange uniforms are starting to be viewed as "cool." Maybe Creel was incarcerated in Mississippi? I don't know where the prison Creel originally escaped from was located, I just looked over Journey Into Mystery #114 and it could be pretty much any state that has mountains in it (it's far enough from NYC that a reporter has to take a train to get there).

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  2. SallyP6:09 AM

    I think he is making a fashion statement. And he really really likes stripes.

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  3. Brian6:10 AM

    I was reading the David Micheline run of AVENGERS yesterday (as one does), and got to the part where Creel busts out of jail in North Jersey and breaks into a clothing store in Hoboken to get some clothing and a hostage – he then plans to get on a boat to South America, but his plan is foiled when the diner he goes to grab a sandwich in first has a lunching Clint Barton (because of course) inside, gets in a fight with some heroic longshoremen, and then fights the Avengers.

    But, for the purpose of this conversation, the important part is that the sole piece of clothing he opts to steal – rather than anything that would hide his identity (a coat, hat, that sort of thing) – is a striped pair of pants to replace his orange prison jumpsuit, when he sees them and gets nostalgic. So, yes, the man just has odd taste in fashion that runs towards Classic Jail Chic!

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