BIOGRAPHY - Page 2
But he survived. As an ascendant consciousness, Maelstrom continued to exist on the higher planes of reality, and became aware of new avenues of research, exploration and conquest. He met Kronos, an Eternal of Earth who experienced a similar ascension thousands of years ago. From Kronos, he learned of the existence of the Abstract Entities, conceptual beings who represent fundamental aspects of the universe, such as Infinity and Oblivion. Maelstrom sought out one of the lesser abstracts, Anomaly, who represented the occurrence of anomalous events or information in the universe. He learned that Anomaly did not begin in this form but assumed the aspect of Anomaly upon manifesting in our dimension. Using his kinetic powers in this higher state, Maelstrom killed this manifestation of Anomaly and assumed his aspect in turn, becoming the new Anomaly. [Quasar #19-20]
As Anomaly, Maelstrom climbed the metaphysical ladder and approached Oblivion, one of the four cardinal points of the universe with Eternity, Death and Infinity. In many ways, this encounter was preordained, as Oblivion sent his agent Deathurge to Maelstrom years ago in preparation for this outcome. Maelstrom offered his services to Oblivion, and an audacious plan to collapse all of time and space into a single anomalous point, greatly expanding Oblivion’s realm as he left nothing behind but the void. To accomplish this mission, Maelstrom / Anomaly believed he needed the vast knowledge brought about by cosmic awareness and asked Oblivion’s aid in acquiring it. Oblivion accepted Maelstrom’s plan and counseled him that Eon, child of Eternity, would be the easiest target to conquer and who possessed the full scope of cosmic awareness for him to assimilate. [Quasar #21]
While Eon was little threat physically, the task was not entirely simple. Eon was guardian of the Quantum Bands, immensely powerful artifacts which they provided to a chosen Protector of the Universe, currently the Avenger called Wendell Vaughn, or Quasar. Eon’s cosmic awareness alerted them to the threat of a cosmic assassin, which would come from space to kill them. In preparation for this, Quasar moved Eon to Earth, erected a quantum grid around the planet to alert him to incursions from space, and began systematically identifying all alien lifeforms on the planet. As Anomaly, Maelstrom could exist outside of Eon’s direct awareness, but the consequences of his schemes and actions could be detected. He would have to come at Eon and Quasar indirectly in order to be successful in his endeavors.
Maelstrom feared the all-seeing Watchers interfering in his plans, knowing that renegades in the past had violated their oath of non-interference if circumstances were dire enough. With his affinity for anomalous information, he exploited a flaw in the Watchers’ oath and crafted an argument that the Watchers WERE interfering with the universe simply by observing it. This idea, passed on 
through Deathurge, became a thought virus moving through the telepathic race, leading to a plague of suicides among the Watchers as they tried to achieve ultimate non-interference. [Quasar #22] It was Quasar who inadvertently foiled this scheme by counseling the Watchers through this anomalous logic trap. Even in death, the Watchers were interfering with the passage of events, as their demises drew the attention of the Stranger and had other consequences. Therefore, if they were interfering regardless of whether they were dead or alive, they might as well continue living so their mission of preserving all information of this universe for transmission into the next one would succeed. This life-affirming idea even brought dead Watchers back to life, such was the nature of their telepathic and cosmically powerful species. [Quasar #15-16]
Despite this setback, Maelstrom’s other plans continued apace. Quasar’s encounter with the Watchers occurred on the Stranger’s Laboratory World during a breakout by his test subjects. In his guise as Anomaly, Maelstrom appeared before the Russian nuclear mutates called the Presence and Starlight. He claimed to be a fellow prisoner who learned the nefarious entity known as Eon planned the destruction of the universe from their home world of Earth. Anomaly easily manipulated the egomaniacal Presence into believing only he could save them all by killing Eon. [Quasar #23] Now the Presence would fill the role of the Cosmic Assassin, a threat from space intent on killing Eon. Maelstrom intended for Quasar to successfully defeat the Presence and then let his guard down, thinking he had prevented Eon’s prophecy of their own death. [Quasar #20]
To further undermine Quasar, Maelstrom used his mastery of kinetic energy to cause a cerebral hemorrhage in Gilbert Vaughn, Quasar’s father, hoping to distract him with grief. Eon unwittingly played into Maelstrom’s hands by keeping Gilbert animated to prevent his Protector from being distracted, which only set up a rift between Quasar and Eon later when Wendell Vaughn discovered the truth. [Quasar #12-13] Maelstrom contacted Oblivion’s ally, the abstract known as the Unbeing, who retconned Wendell Vaughn’s origin as Quasar from history, removing his status as a super-hero. The Unbeing’s opposing force, Origin, restored Wendell as Quasar and the Unbeing was defeated. However, during this brief period, Quasar’s quantum grid retroactively ceased to exist and Maelstrom was able to enter Earth without being detected. Quasar was unaware his defenses had been breached in his brief absence. [Quasar #18]
And with that, the stage was set. Maelstrom reestablished himself on Earth, taking the identity of 
millionaire “Malcolm Stromberg.” He reconnected with his old Minions and also recruited the Weird Sisters from the Stranger’s Laboratory World. They arrived back on Earth, hidden amidst a convoy led by the Presence. The Russian fulfilled Maelstrom’s intentions for him, launching an attack on Eon and their pocket dimension. Quasar succeeded in keeping Eon’s heart organ away from the Presence, narrowly saving his mentor from the attack. By being separated from their heart organ however briefly, though, Eon could no longer direct their power to continue animating Gilbert Vaughn, and Quasar learned of his father’s death. With this wedge between the Protector and his mentor, Maelstrom was prepared to strike. [Quasar #19-20]
In his guise as Malcolm Stromberg, Maelstrom extended an innocent dinner invitation to Quasar’s civilian business, Vaughn Security Services. Once they were in his lair, Maelstrom calmly explained his origins and plans to Quasar and his people. Vaughn Security had other super-powered aid, but Maelstrom easily neutralized Moondragon’s powers and killed Makkari by 
draining the kinetic energy from his heart. Maelstrom demanded the Quantum Bands in order to facilitate his efforts, and planned to kill more of Quasar’s friends if he didn’t capitulate. Unfortunately, Quasar informed Maelstrom that the Quantum Bands bonded to the user so that they couldn’t be removed until death. Maelstrom didn’t quite believe Quasar, nor did he care. When it was clear Wendell Vaughn wouldn’t willingly give up the Bands, Maelstrom kinetically paralyzed his victim and slowly sawed-off Quasar’s immobile hands to get at the Quantum Bands. [Quasar #21]
Quasar was no liar, for even severed from his body, the Quantum Bands would not slide off his amputated wrists. Still, using the Quantum Bands and the psychic abilities of the Weird Sisters, Maelstrom was able to zero in on the pocket dimension of the Eonverse. Seeing no further need for him, Maelstrom’s Minions were ordered to kill the captive Quasar, and the Bands fell free. Maelstrom could now empower himself with Eon’s own artifacts in order to kill them. [Quasar #22] 
Although he died, Quasar’s mind was preserved as an avatar of Infinity, Oblivion’s opposite. The Infinity-force let him continue to exist as a quantum energy projection, and he moved to protect Eon. At Eon’s direction, Quasar reluctantly killed his mentor by causing instant brain-death, hoping to deprive Maelstrom of access to Eon’s cosmic awareness. Instead, both Quasar and Maelstrom wound up with an aspect of cosmic awareness for themselves. [Quasar #23]
As a petty act of spite and revenge before moving on to his larger goals, Maelstrom combined the Quantum Bands and his control over kinetic energy to once again impede the Earth’s rotation. Instead of slowing it down like last time, however, Maelstrom was now strong enough to immediately bring the planet to a halt. Only a coven of sorcerers led by Doctor Strange and guided by Gaea herself were able to use their magic to prevent immediate environmental catastrophes, but Earth now had only as long as their castings held out. With Earth’s heroes distracted and Quasar missing in action after their encounter, Maelstrom returned to his original goal. By combining his kinetic manipulation, cosmic awareness, Quantum Bands and anomalous reality-bending, Maelstrom could stop the kinetic motion of the universe itself, reversing its direction in a cosmic crunch that would collapse everything down into a single point. He constructed a dark matter vortex, causing the universe’s missing mass to accrue on a single spot, an anomalous black hole that was now the center of the universe and the center of its inevitable annihilation.
With his ultimate victory nigh, Maelstrom indulged in some truly galling braggadocio. He traveled to the worldship Taa II, home of Galactus, and openly mocked the World-Eater. He laughed at Galactus’s need for planets to consume, for Maelstrom would soon obliterate all planets in existence. The ultimate anomaly next traveled to Thanos’ personal throne at the height of his power, the Mad Titan having recently acquired all six Infinity Gems. He recognized Thanos’s status as a God, then declared himself an atheist and mocked the madman for being unable to conceive of anything greater than godhood. Finally, Maelstrom visited the Celestial judge Arishem as he prepared to issue judgment on another world. With the imminent collapse of all space at hand, Maelstrom denounced the Celestials’ decisions as obsolete. This blistering series of encounters seemed to serve no purpose other than inflating Maelstrom’s ego in light of his crowning achievements.
Back at the vortex, Quasar attempted to funnel the dark matter out of the black hole and back into normal space, but his efforts were insufficient from the outside of the vortex. Maelstrom returned to confront his nemesis and, as he and Quasar grappled, the Protector of the Universe carried them into the black hole. Maelstrom was at a disadvantage for, although he was cosmic, he was still a living being. Inside the vortex’s compressed space, Quasar accelerated the spatial collapse to destroy Maelstrom’s body while leaving his own energy form intact. Using his own cosmic awareness, Quasar then detected the center of the black hole. By giving up his own representational form, the Infinity-force of his energies would alter the cosmological constant and restart universal expansion inside the black hole, nullifying Maelstrom’s work and reversing the void.
Quasar’s discorporation brought him to the realm of Oblivion, where Oblivion and his avatar Maelstrom now waited for him. Their battle would continue with Oblivion directly supporting Maelstrom’s own power. However, Infinity emerged from Quasar’s form and lent strength to her avatar as well. Maelstrom and Quasar battled each other with their abstract patrons matching their conflict move-for-move on the highest plane of existence. They seemed too evenly matched at this point, but Quasar’s cosmic awareness detected… an anomaly. When Origin restored his existence, she also gave him a new costume and retroactively implemented the design throughout his history. In a situation where they were otherwise deadlocked, Quasar was the superior 
anomaly. This minor upset in the balance cascaded outwards, with Maelstrom losing concentration and control over the Quantum Bands, his essence being consumed by their power and disintegrated. With Maelstrom gone, Infinity re-imposed balance of the cosmogony on Oblivion, the vortex fully reversed itself and Quasar reclaimed the Quantum Bands to restore the Earth’s rotation, ending the effect of all of Maelstrom’s schemes. [Quasar #24-25]