Blok (comics) - Powers and Abilities

Powers and Abilities

Blok's abilities fluctuated during his career. Though his enormous size and rocky form suggested super-human strength and near-invulnerability, he did not demonstrate such abilities during his first appearance. Rather, he seemed able to absorb various sorts of energy attacks, being specifically immune to Light Lass's anti-gravity powers. In his second appearance, this was specifically stated to be an ability to increase his own mass. This power seemed not entirely under his control; when he joined the Legion, it was stated that three Legion flight-rings were required to lift him. Why his teammate Colossal Boy (who could also increase his mass and size) could make do with a single flight ring, but Blok could not, was never explained.

During Blok's Legion tenure, it was stated definitely that he had massive super-human strength. Its relative limits were never made clear; it was stated that he could not match the levels of pre-Crisis Kryptonians and Daxamites or Ultra Boy, but seemed stronger than Timber Wolf and, possibly, Colossal Boy. Contrary to this, his durability was greater than that of the latter two heroes, though still not quite on Kryptonian levels. This may have been contradicted when he was able to hold his own against pre-Crisis Daxamites hand-to-hand during a Darkseid lead invasion of the United Planets during the Great Darkness Saga in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 2) #294. His recuperative abilities were likewise vague. In his earliest experiences, his body included a collar-like formation around his neck which was destroyed during the Great Darkness Saga and never regrew, but he seemed unharmed by its lack. A formation on his face that resembled a nose was likewise apparently chipped away.

Blok was also written as having the ability to communicate telepathically with other silicon-based life forms. Despite his searching, he never did find any, so this ability went unexplored.

Over time, his earlier abilities to change his mass and absorb energy were de-emphasized in favor of his super-strength. Towards the end of his life he began to mutate into a different form, larger than before and possessed of several protuberances which expelled energetic plasma from time to time. It was speculated that Blok's earlier form had been an immature, possibly larval state, and the changes in his body were actually a metamorphosis like that of a butterfly. Another supposition was that he was reaching maturity and beginning to show signs of that race's indication that he was male. A 20th century Dryadian, Strata of L.E.G.I.O.N., metamorphosed into a diamond-like version. When asked about the metamorphosis, she replied, "I guess that means I'm female."