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| Maelstrom | |
|---|---|
 Maelstrom (left) battles theThing and theInhumans on the cover ofMarvel Two-In-One #72 (February 1981). | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Marvel Two-In-One #71 (January 1981) |
| Created by | Mark Gruenwald Ralph Macchio Ron Wilson |
| In-story information | |
| Species | Deviant–Inhumanhybrid |
| Notable aliases | Anomaly Cosmic Assassin Malcolm Stromberg |
| Abilities | (Currently):
(Formerly):
|
Maelstrom is a fictional character appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(June 2016) |
Maelstrom first appears inMarvel Two-in-One #71 (January 1981) and was created byMark Gruenwald,Ralph Macchio, andRon Wilson.[1]
Maelstrom is the son ofPhaeder, anInhuman scientist banished from their city ofAttilan for attemptingcloning to increase Inhuman population numbers.[2] Phaeder then lives among theDeviants, and bred with a Deviant female named Morga who gave birth to Maelstrom. With his father's tutoring, Maelstrom became a brilliant geneticist. After his father is incapacitated in an experiment, Maelstrom swears revenge on the Inhuman race and becomes a would-be conqueror.
Maelstrom has first contact with Earth's metahumans when he sends his superpowered minions—Phobius, Gronk, and Helio—to the scientific island facilityHydro-Base to steal an Anti-Terrigen mist compound. This substance can undo the effects of the Terrigen Mist and deprive the Inhumans of their abilities.Maelstrom's Minions, however, are defeated by heroes theThing andStingray. They are assisted by twoInhumans,Gorgon andKarnak. This leads to an encounter with another of Maelstrom's minions—Deathurge—who kills the defeated trio.Mister Fantastic and the InhumanTriton deduce that their opponent may have originated from the old site of Attilan, which was an undersea location.
The Thing, Gorgon and Karnak travel via submarine to the old location, and discover a base where they are subsequently captured. The heroes later escape and together with the Inhuman kingBlack Bolt battle Maelstrom. The heroes hold off Maelstrom while Black Bolt intercepts and defuses a missile carrying the anti-Terrigen mist compound that is programmed to destroy Attilan. The Thing weakens Maelstrom by using the compound on the villain, and the heroes escape as the base self-detonates. Maelstrom's last act is to order Deathurge to kill him.[3]
Maelstrom and his minions, however, are later revealed to be alive, as courtesy of advanced science their minds were transferred into new, cloned bodies. Maelstrom then attempts to siphon the energies of theEternals, but is thwarted by the superhero team theAvengers, and after commanding Deathurge to kill him yet again, transfers his consciousness to a new clone body.[4] Maelstrom then attempts to stop the Earth's rotation and absorb the kinetic energy, but is drawn into conflict with the Avengers once more. The androidVision discovers a way to overload Maelstrom's power source and his body becomes discorporate and floats free from Earth.[5]
Maelstrom later encounters theTitanian EternalKronos, and learns of the existence of the entityOblivion. Becoming Oblivion'savatar, Maelstrom then becomes determined to achieve Oblivion's goal of non-existence on a universal scale. Maelstrom assumes the powers of the entity Anomaly, becoming the embodiment of the abstract principle of anomaly. This brings Maelstrom into conflict with the agent of the entityEon, the cosmic heroQuasar, in the Outer Void (realm of Oblivion). After several battles, Quasar finally defeats Maelstrom when caught off-guard and the power of Quasar's quantum bands consumes him.[6] Maelstrom is later revived by his minions, but learns he had a son,Ransak, that would have been wiped from existence had he succeeded. Ashamed, he shrinks himself out of sight.[7]
Eventually, Maelstrom returns, attempting to destroy the universe by creating a device known as the Cosmic Crunch. He battles theGreat Lakes Avengers, who are powerless to stop him. In order to be prepared, he hiresBatroc the Leaper and his brigade to help him. During the final battle, Maelstrom is tricked into killing himself byMr. Immortal after he tells him that the grand secret of the universe was eternal loneliness. His soul is later collected byDoorman, who was recently chosen by Oblivion as its new angel of death, replacing Deathurge, who was captured by Immortal.[8]
Maelstrom was later encountered byDrax the Destroyer andQuasar when they were killed and sent to the realm of Oblivion. He came into possession of Phyla's Quantum Bands and used them to feed her to theDragon of the Moon. He was eventually defeated by Drax andWendell Vaughn and Phyla kills the dragon. However, it turns out that this was a ruse for Oblivion to recruit Phyla-Vell as his new Avatar of Death.[9]
Maelstrom can absorb, channel, and otherwise project all forms of kinetic energy for his own purposes, such as strength enhancement, concussive blasts,force field generation, and size shifting. For a short period, Maelstrom possessed Quasar's quantum bands, which enables him to draw on virtually unlimited power from the other-dimensional Quantum Zone.[10] He was able to achieve "cosmic awareness" after learning this secret from the entityEon.[11]
He is a genius in the scientific disciplines ofbiology andgenetics.[12][13]
