The Blob
 Real Name: Fred J. Dukes 
Occupation: (current) Professional criminal, (former) Circus performer, federal government special operative 
Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with a criminal record, pardoned
Identity: Publicly known
Place of Birth: Lubbock, Texas 
Marital Status: Single 
Known Relatives: None 
Group Affiliation: (current) X-Corps (former) Brotherhood of Evil Mutants III, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants I and II, Factor Three, Freedom Force, and a frequent partner of Unus
Base of Operations: (current) Unrevealed, (former) Freedom Force headquarters, the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia 
First Appearance: X-MEN (first series) #3

History: The Blob is a mutant whose latent superhuman powers manifested themselves when he reached puberty. Thinking of himself as no more than, in his own words, "an extra-strong freak," the Blob used his superhuman powers as a performer in a carnival. 
The original X-Men came to the carnival in their everyday identities to invite him to meet with their mentor, Professor Charles Xavier. Attracted to the beautiful young X-Man Jean Grey, the Blob accepted, and went with the X-Men to Xavier's mansion. There, Xavier asked the Blob to join the X-Men, but the Blob arrogantly refused. Xavier then knew he had to use his mental powers to erase the Blob's knowledge of the X-Men's true identities. But the Blob had no intention of letting this happen, and, after fighting the X-Men, escaped back to the carnival.
The Blob had learned through meeting Xavier that he himself was a superhumanly powerful mutant. Believing himself to be superior to normal people, the Blob took over the carnival. Knowing that the X-Men considered him dangerous because he knew who they really were, the Blob decided to strike out at them first. He led the other members of the carnival on an attack on Xavier's mansion. The Blob hoped to steal whatever scientific discoveries and special weapons that the X-Men might possess and use them against ordinary humans. However, the X-Men defeated the Blob and his allies, and Xavier wiped out their memories of the X-Men.

Later, Magneto attempted to recruit the Blob for his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. A severe blow to the head restored the Blob's memory of the X-Men, and he joined Magneto's Brotherhood in an attack on them. In the midst of battle Magneto launched a powerful torpedo at the X-Men, not caring that the Blob was in the way. Torpedoes struck the Blob but did not seriously injure him. The Brotherhood escaped, and the Blob, feeling betrayed, swore never to trust anyone again and returned to his job with the carnival.

Months later, the Blob met another superhumanly powerful mutant, Unus the Untouchable, and the two of them attempted to frame their mutual enemies, the X-Men, as thieves. This was the start of the Blob's long and close friendship with Unus, which ended only with Unus's apparent death several years later. The two mutants next joined Factor Three, an organization of mutants that attempted world conquest. Unus and the Blob teamed up with other mutants, including Magneto, for other criminal activities, although they were continually thwarted by superhumanly powerful crimefighters.

Eventually, the Blob was recruited by Mystique for her new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Although the Blob continued to operate independently of Mystique's organization since then, he remained a member of the group. 

Mystique soon became aware of the United States government's increasing anti-mutant activity, and offered the Brotherhood's services to the government, renaming the group "Freedom Force." The Blob participated in Freedom Force's first official mission for the government: the capture of Magneto, his former leader in the original Brotherhood.

As a member of Freedom Force, the Blob was involved in missions that continued to bring him into conflict with superhuman crimefighters, most notably the X-Men, X-Factor, and the Avengers. The Blob enjoyed the fact that he could continue indulging his violent tendencies and fighting his old foes while drawing a government paycheck. However, after a disastrous mission to the Middle East, the government disbanded Freedom Force, and the Blob was once again a free agent.

The Blob soon joined yet another version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, headed up by his old teammate from the original Brotherhood, the Toad. This team was defeated by the outlaw mutant strike team called X-Force.
Recently the Blob has allied himself with another mutant, the Mimic, and battled members of the current version of X-Force under the orders of an as yet unknown benefactor. The Blob and the Mimic remain at large.

Height: (formerly) 5 ft. 10 in., (after recent further mutation) 8 ft.
Weight: (formerly) 510 lbs., (after recent further mutation) 976 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

Strength Level: Originally the Blob did not possess superhuman strength in proportion to his size. However, recently he has undergone further mutation, greatly increasing his height and mass, and raising his strength to superhuman levels. The Blob can lift (press) 5 tons, possibly superhuman class 75.

Known Superhuman Powers: The Blob's mutant powers relate to the mass, strength, resilience and indestructibility of his obese body. His primary ability is to become virtually immovable at will as long as he is in contact with the ground. He does this by bonding himself to the earth beneath him by force or will, which in effect creates a monodirectional increase of gravity beneath him. This gravity field extends about five feet in radius from his center of balance. Thus if there is sufficient power to uproot him, it would take the ground beneath his feet in an area corresponding to the radius of the field. Through intense concentration, the Blob is able to extend the gravity field beneath him farther than five feet.

The Blob's body has several unusual properties in itself. The first is its superhuman resistance to injury. The fat tissues that comprise the Blob's epidermis are able to absorb the impact of rifle bullets, cannonballs, bazooka, and even torpedoes. The larger of these projectiles recoil from his body at one half the force of impact. The smaller one imbed themselves in his layers of fat tissue, enabling him to eject them by merely flexing his muscles. The Blob's nerve endings do not relay any tactile perception to his brain which are near the threshold of pain. The fat tissue of his epidermis is resilient enough to revert to its normal shape within second after deformation caused by impact. It is virtually impervious to physical injury. The Blob's skin cannot be punctured, lacerated, frostbitten, or ravaged by any skin disease, due in part to the skin's greatest elasticity and toughness and in part to the highly accelerated rate at which his skin cells grow and replace themselves. His skin is somewhat less resistant to burning.

It is not yet known if there is an upper limit to the Blob's ability to absorb impact. While he could easily survive a head-on collision with a bus traveling at a hundred miles per hour, even a highly ferrous meteorite fifty feet in diameter on top of him at terminal velocity, it is not known whether he could survive a collision with an object traveling at near light speed. Further, it is not known whether his skin's imperviousness to heat could survive the 11,000,000-degree heat at ground zero of a multi-megaton atomic blast.

Special Limitations: Eyes, ears, nose, and mouth are not as resistant to injury as the rest of his body.


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