New artwork was released for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings for both Shang-Chi and the Abomination. As fans may know, Abomination was brought back and given a more comic book-accurate look/redesign for his short cameo in the martial arts superhero film.
Abomination is typically a villain to Bruce Banner's Hulk and made his Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) debut in Marvel Studios' 2008 Incredible Hulk film. Abomination, or Emil Blonsky, was a soldier tasked to take down the Hulk and after suffering major injuries during his battle, he resorted to the worst means possible in order to achieve a similar amount of power. After experimenting, he turned into a monster who was bigger, stronger, and faster than the Hulk with the ability to communicate/use his conscious mind.
Abomination was determined to cause a great deal of havoc in his battle with Bruce Banner during the climactic scene of The Incredible Hulk, only to end up losing by a slim margin in his battle. His appearance was used to promote fear in the viewer, as he was an unstoppable monster who took way too long to bring down. In contrast, his appearance in Shang-Chi was very short and used in a much lighter tone during his cameo with Dr. Strange's Wong.
As the artwork by Marvel Studios' Senior Visual Development Artist Anthony Francisco shows, Abomination's appearance in the Shang-Chi film looked a lot more like his comic book look counterpart in comparison to the unique approach seen in The Incredible Hulk film. The comic book version of the character has a green tint to his skin and amphibian "web" like features around his ears and fingers. His debut in The Incredible Hulk didn't have the green hue and had a more humanoid skeletal appearance, which looked really cool for the film because it helped make the character scarier.
If the creators wanted to explain this change, they can easily revert to the logic of saying he "evolves" over time and becomes more monstrous/less human. Regardless, Abomination's different look between Hulk and Shang-Chi isn't too big of a deal because a lot of fans will forgive it due to his debut being over a decade ago. Hopefully, fans get to learn more about what Blonsky has been up to since he was defeated in The Incredible Hulk when he makes his appearance in the upcoming She-Hulk Disney plus project.
There are also die-hard fans who don't like things being altered without good reasoning, which is understandable. If fans start allowing things to be changed or scrapped, then it becomes a conversation of no stakes where the creators can write anything without considering the repercussions or consequences of those choices. Hopefully, both fans and creators get what they're both looking for.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.
Source: Instagram/Anthony Francisco