There are more characters in both the DC and Marvel universes that can steal or copy powers but these two stuck out in my mind, mainly
because Absorbing Man takes on the Avengers (the book that I read monthly) and Parasite took on Superman in the cartoon.
I wanted to do this kind of battle to seehow it would work if someone tried to steal the power to steal powers. Just to clarify, Parasite steals
life energy (or something like that) so he steals powers and memories leaving his victims weakened and powerless for a finite period of time.
The Absorbing Man copies atributes of any material he touches. I imagine the affect of the double absorption like this: On contact Parasite steals
Absorbing Man's ability to copy the attributes of other objects. At the same time Absorbing Man copies Paraste's ability to steal powers and memories.
After the initial contact, both fighters have the same powers. Its like opening a valve between to rooms at different pressures, eventually the two rooms
will be at equal pressures. Usually in ths kind of situation I look at intelligence or experience, but
the double absorption means that they have the same memories and therefore fighting skill and experience with powers are equal.
Even the recent addition of Absorbing Man's mind swapping power is nullified since Parasite will have that ability as well. The only differences left are that Absorbing Man has his ball and chain which can also assume the attributes of other objects.
Absorbing Man's only strategy in my opinion should be to keep Parasite at bay long enough for him to lose Absorbing Man's life energy.
There is no time limit on Absorbing Man's ability although the time limit on his copy of Parasite's power still stands. This doesn't matter since the only power
to steal is his. His only lose then is Parasite's experiences.
Eventually they are back to square one since Parasite can't steal the power from Absorbing Man's ball and chain. Absorbing Man
could then use all his powers to kill Parasite either by copying the attributes of the entire parking lot, thus growing in size, or by using his mind swapping power to
make Parasite jump off the roof to kill himself. The mind swapping also allows him to steal memories. I believe Absorbing Man
could keep him at bay very easily since without anyone to steal power from Parasite is basically a normal human.
