Blob

Fred J. Dukes was born in Lubbock, Texas. He joined a circus sideshow, using his abilities under the stage name "Blob". Professor X sensed his mutant power and sent out his students to locate Dukes. Fred was initially uninterested in the X-Men until he saw Jean Grey. He agreed to go along with them in order to spend time with her. After a battery of tests, Professor X determined that the Blob truly was a mutant and extended him an invitation become an X-Man. The rest of the team disliked the Blob's obnoxious attitude. Dukes refused to join, claiming he was better and stronger than than the entire team. As he tried to leave, the X-Men attempted to restrain him so Professor X could erase the Blob's knowledge of their secret identities. Despite their efforts, the Blob managed to escape.

Fred Dukes had always believed himself to be stronger than most other men, but after meeting the X-Men, he knew the true source of his abilities. He was determined not to let anyone else tell him what to do. Returning to the circus, he demanded that the other performers follow his lead. The Blob and his followers raided the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning and tried to take over. The circus performers were able to subdue the X-Men. Alone in the mansion, Xavier perfected a device that would amplify his abilities to control the entire crowd. He mentally instructed Marvel Girl to free the other X-Men, and they were able to get the drop on the Blob. He and the rest of the circus people were stopped by the X-Men and all of their memories of their encounter with the X-Men were erased. Blob and the other performers went back to their dull lives, none having any recollection of the events that transpired. Despite having removed the Blob's memories, Professor Xavier knew that one day the Blob may regain his memories of the X-Men and become a danger to the world once again.

It wouldn’t be long before the X-men found themselves going against Dukes once again and continue as a permanent X-men villain. Quickly finding himself recruited within Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Dukes would have a career of being a valuable and an expendable member within many incarnations of the Brotherhood.

It’s quite obvious that Dukes has always been shown with a great sense of pride and dependency with himself. Obese, rude, abnormal, grotesque, and any other negative traits are no mystery with Dukes. Fully aware of his status, Blob presents himself as a man who’s instantly self-judged as being more dominant. With his massive size and unpredictable powers, Dukes has a habit of trying to tower over his opponents. When in reality, he’s hardly the rampaging intimidating monster that he tries so hard to be. If you notice throughout his entire career, Dukes has shown a dependency for others who mostly seen as abnormal like himself. With the X-men, possibly because of their positive views, he sees them as individuals who are perfect, who never went through life as difficult as he did. It’s without a doubt that Dukes went through a great portion of his young life as a victim. Probably not for being a mutant, but possibly for his obese appearance.

Unlike Magneto, Dukes rarely shows any sign or interest with Magnetos views and goals for mutant domination. Dukes is convinced that he can find his purpose in life by joining the wrong crowd because of this fabricated delusion of what’s defined as perfection and what’s also defined as abnormal. Even though Dukes has found himself defining the term “brotherhood” within the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, sadly most of the other members doesn’t share the same moral values.

Powers and Abilities The Blob is a Gamma-Level mutant whose mutant physiology granted him powers that are related to the mass, strength, stamina, endurance, resilience and indestructibility of his obese body. However the full extent of his powers were still not fully known; however Onslaught did teach the Blob the mass-controlling, quasi shapeshifting aspects of his powers. The Blob did however gain his powers back with the use of a drug called Mutant Growth Hormone or MGH.

What makes Dukes unique is his display of mutant abilities. Displaying all of his powers, strength, resistance, and abilities revolve around his abnormal obese physique. Till this day the full extent of his powers are fully not known. Dukes is one of the mutants who displays a mutant ability that causes him to be unpredictable. Easily mistaken as an overweight man, Dukes is hardly as slow as he’s easily predicted. In a way, Dukes does gain a somewhat advantage over his opponents with his deceiving ability and his sheer size and intimidating personality Dukes’ main ability is the control of the gravity around him, meaning that he has the mental will to increase the gravity at a short radius that extends 5 feet at most.

The endurance, control, and pain threshold that Dukes massive physique can take is another unique trait that Dukes has. The fat tissue throughout his entire body has a unique resistance against projectiles and impact blows. Capable of absorbing impact despite how much pounds are going against him, Dukes could easily absorb and capture the projectile with his body and disperse it at half speed with a flex of his muscle. Meaning that if a cannonball were shot at him, it would be embedded within his body and at will he could cause the cannonball to be recoiled at half speed.

Even when capturing any form of projectile with his flesh (mostly around the torso area), Dukes has the control of holding the object for a desired amount of time and releasing it with or without recoil pressure. Meaning that if he was punched in the body, he could not only absorb the impact, but also capture and entrap the fist with his body for however long he desires, basically trapping the opponent. With full concentration, Dukes could either release the opponent at will or recoil the punch, literally throwing the opponent off at a powerful distance.

Dukes’ skin is another uniqueness; a major reason on why he’s nearly indestructible is the properties within his epidermis. Dukes’ skin cannot cut, punctured, frostbitten, nor damaged by any form of skin disease. Elastic and extremely tough, Dukes epidermis has an abnormal accelerating rate to where his skin cells could quickly grow and be replaced.

Most of Dukes powers and mutant ability normally derives from his mental control and concentration, which is also another vulnerability seeing that he could lose concentration and he would revert to his normal weight (which is 510 pounds) but he is estimated to be 1,500 or 2,000 pounds.

Unlike any natural overweight man, Dukes has the same amount speed and endurance as an average well-fit man. Barely shows any signs of tiredness or fatigue. Dukes has found a self-taught fighting skill by using his brute size, intimidation, and his mutant ability.