My Minds To Your Mind...

 

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

 
 
The key to our mystery villain's identity lies in his vocation, which ordinarily would reveal him as the head of a monastery, regardless of the misspelling of his title. In his case, however, it would be more accurate to say that he's more the leader of a coven--a secret order of monks who discovered and explored the powers of the mind, with one monk in particular taking advantage of those techniques to feed his own schemes of power. And so the rise of the Black Abbott began.

Given the Abbott's goals and the nature of his power, however, we're really talking about the Black Abbotts, aren't we, since those he takes control of are under his control and are exercising his will. And that number was growing, thanks to the Abbott's drive to increase his "apostles" by enlisting the services of the Taskmaster to round up "recruits"--an operation broken up by Spider-Man and the Nomad, and nearly at the cost of their lives.

Eventually, the Nomad foils the apostle-Abbott by using the Taskmaster's shield to reflect the Abbott's power back on himself, costing him the use of one of his arms and sending him to the hospital. Later, however, Spider-Man and the Human Torch investigate a plot by the Abbott to raid the Ryker's Island prison facility, while Peter Parker is brought into the fold (but retains his faculties, due to the warning of his spider-sense) and learns of an amplifier being built that will enhance the Abbott's mind-control power.  Unlike Peter, however, the Torch isn't so fortunate.

But while the Torch falls to the Abbott, Spider-Man is able to deal with their foe by using the villain's own technology against him.

As we can see, the true Abbott has decided to take a hand, by first reclaiming the injured Abbott who had broken free of him and then using him to lead into a trap Spider-Man's third ally in this investigation, the mighty Thor. And when the trap is sprung, it becomes clear why the Abbott wishes for Thor to be in his clutches.

Spider-Man arrives in time to free Thor from the device--but as the net of pursuit closes, Spider-Man again falls to the power of the Abbotts, while Thor, who has begun to shake off the effects of the Abbott's attack, finally deals with his deceiver, though the real culprit decides to escape while he can.

The Abbott unfortunately sees his prospects dim, as he meets his maker courtesy of the second Scourge of the Underworld--though later, he's brought back from the dead along with many of Scourge's victims by the Hood, who's out to get the Punisher and, to that end, motivates the assembled villains by telling them that Scourge was really the Punisher in disguise.

That 2009 appearance would be the last we would see of the Black Abbott, dead or "alive"... though of course, who's to say that the Black Abbott who was slain by Scourge wasn't one of the Abbott's apostles, eh?