If you're a super-villain, chances are that, if you name yourself the Crusher, you're probably going to find yourself being the Crushee more often than the other way around. But fortunately that hasn't stopped a number of Marvel characters from taking up the name, as well as the challenge of living up to such an intimidating moniker. Regrettably, however, many of them have fallen short--but it sure wasn't for lack of trying. And trying. And trying. So who are the notable figures in this roster?
There was, of course, the most recognizable Crusher, though for his villain name he preferred something more in line with his super-power: the Absorbing Man!
Though he definitely makes a strong start out of the gate whenever he explodes into a fight, the Absorbing Man almost always gets his shiny head handed to him in his ill-fated battles--but, despite his many setbacks and sooner or later being on the receiving end of a thrashing, he takes a licking but keeps on kicking. What a trouper.
Thor has run into his share of Crushers in his time. One of the briefest of those meetings was when he journeyed to Hades on behalf of his new friend, Hercules, and ran into this upstart:
Pivoting to the Egyptian pantheon and their own underlings, you'd expect a foe calling himself "the God-Crusher" to live up to his name--and during a fierce battle with the forces of Seth, Thor gets his wish and indeed finds his mettle tested, and then some.
Thor eventually had his reckoning with Grog, who would have to unfortunately uncheck Thor from his "crushed" list. (Cheer up, Grog! There are plenty of other gods for you to try your hand at crushing.)
In a prior story, when the Destroyer came calling during an Asgardian tournament, there was another Crusher who mainly used the name as a description for how tough he was--that is, until he was schooled by a certain Asgardian.
Perhaps the earliest Marvel character who, like Creel, was a prison inmate nicknamed Crusher, was one who hailed from Marvel's Golden Age and happened to take issue with being singed by the original Human Torch. (On an unrelated note, he also would have made a prime candidate for speech therapy.)
At times the word "Crusher" wasn't always attached to villains, though it just wasn't the same seeing the term applied to hardware.
But one non-villain who did the name proud was Crusher Hogan, who can always count as a feather in his cap the day when he ushered the amazing Spider-Man into the annals of comics history.
There's a little more to Crusher's story down the road--but let's just say he's the one member of this group who gets the happy ending he deserves.
That's only half true for this next perp, who things end badly for twice but who likely won't receive an ounce of sympathy from anyone as far as being undeserving of his fate.
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