MAELSTROM: Page 3 of 3

BIOGRAPHY - Page 3

Maelstrom’s Minions and the Weird Sisters had a contingency plan to bring Maelstrom back to life, which they eventually put into play. A device of Maelstrom’s design would use his anti-Terrigen compound conducted through irradiated Deviant genes in order to restore him to flesh. They only needed Deviant captives to incorporate into the machine. Maelstrom’s pawns captured the artist Yrdisis and the Eternals’ wards Ransack and Karkas, although in doing so they drew the attention of the Eternals and the Fantastic Four. Thena’s half-Deviant / half-Eternal twins, Donald and Deborah Ritter, were next on the shopping list, as their hybrid nature was even more useful to Maelstrom’s return. The Eternals and Fantastic Four found the twins first but, through trickery, the Minions successfully captured the children. Back at Malcolm Stromberg’s mansion, Maelstorm fed off of the machine’s power and fully rematerialized back into existence. He planned to continue his efforts to halt the kinetic motion of the entire universe, destroying everything and becoming a god in the process.

Maelstrom’s power continued to increase as he used the Deviants as a catalyst to tap an even greater source of kinetic energy, the Eternal speedster Makkari on his quest for ultimate speed. Phastos of the Eternals managed to tap Maelstrom’s own energy for a feedback loop which destroyed his extra-dimensional tether to Makkari. Maelstrom prepared to fight on, using only the Deviant energies still being fed into his machine, but then he checked his readings. The captive Ransack was not feeding the machine pure Deviant genetic energy, but Deviant hybrid energy mixed with Inhuman. Maelstrom realized energy such as this could only come from the offspring of his one-time mate Medula and the only known Inhuman-Deviant hybrid… himself. For all his faults, Maelstrom remembered his father’s love and would not be responsible for killing his own son. Maelstrom severed his connection to the Deviant machine, causing an inversion on his expansion so he began shrinking into nothingness. As he faded from sight, Maelstrom begged the Eternals to look after his son. [Fantastic Four Unlimited #10]

As he reduced below all recognizable sense of scale, Maelstrom’s consciousness connected with the proto-natural force at the core of existence itself. Having now been as large and as small as any one being had ever achieved, Maelstrom glimpsed the inner workings of the universe. He became convinced that all of existence was a single machine building towards the outcome of a single “Great Secret” which would be revealed at the end of the universe. Maelstrom became obsessed with this secret. He tapped into the proto-natural force with his own related bio-kinetic abilities and conjured a new body for himself at the macro-scale. Maelstrom recommitted himself to forcing the early destruction of the universe so he could seize the ultimate prize at the end of all things.

Maelstrom sought to achieve his goals with a grand new machine cobbled together from RoXXon’s atomic inverter and a chronal accelerator stolen from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Together, these pieces could cycle the universe past the point of expansion and trigger the Big Crunch, collapsing literally everything into a single point to bring about the end of all things. To save time, he hired Batroc’s Brigade as minions to seize RoXXon’s half of the puzzle while he personally traveled to Wisconsin. The local Great Lakes Avengers put up little resistance, and Maelstrom easily killed two of their members before escaping with his stolen equipment.

Maelstrom saw the value in remaining far from New York and its hordes of heroes when he activated his device, so he arranged to stay local and constructed it at Lake Michigan. The G.L.A. still rode out to confront him, so Maelstrom dispatched his Brigade to delay them while surrounding himself with a field of proto-natural force. As fate would have it, only Mr. Immortal made it through the barrier to confront him. Craig Hollis had a long history with Deathurge, chosen by destiny as Homo Sapiens Supreme, the only true immortal in existence, who would survive to the end of time and was fated to actually receive the Great Secret. Mr. Immortal’s own brand of nihilism allowed him to empathize with Maelstrom, who deep down still felt alone as the only Inhuman-Deviant hybrid in existence. Mr. Immortal talked Maelstrom into a suicide pact instead, where they both killed themselves rather than face True Loneliness as the only surviving beings at the end of existence. Unfortunately for Maelstrom, Mr. Immortal got better and shut down his device with moments to spare. [G.L.A. #1-4]

[Note: In the above series, Maelstrom was inaccurately referred to as an Eternal-Inhuman hybrid, rather than an Inhuman-Deviant hybrid.]

In the void of death, Maelstrom was reclaimed as the avatar of his old patron, Oblivion. Upon the death of Heather Douglas, the Avenger known as Moondragon, Maelstrom arranged to draw her soul and her patron the Dragon of the Moon into the Realm of Oblivion. Drax and Phyla-Vell (Heather’s father and her lover, respectively) followed her psychic trail into the Realm of Oblivion in an effort to resurrect Moondragon. Maelstrom confronted the two Guardians of the Galaxy, claiming he would use them as a tether to return to the Realm of the Living. Phyla was the current Quasar and she died entering the Realm of Oblivion, which allowed Maelstrom to repossess the Quantum Bands as they fell from her dead wrists. However, Wendell Vaughn was a quantum phantom again in this period, and he detected the death of the Bands’ current wielder and traveled into the Realm of Oblivion to reclaim them. Drax lent his support by cutting off Maelstrom’s hands, just like he did to Quasar years before. Wendell reclaimed the Quantum Bands, Drax and Phyla rescued Moondragon, and they all returned to life, seemingly foiling Maelstrom’s planning. [Guardians of the Galaxy (2nd series) #11-12]

This encounter was actually a ruse, though. Sometime earlier, Drax had killed Thanos, depriving the universe of an Avatar of Death and bringing an unbalance of life into the cosmos. In order to escape her encounter with the Dragon of the Moon, Phyla-Vell quietly accepted Oblivion’s offer to become the new Avatar of Death. Her charge was to betray and kill her teammate Adam Warlock before he evolved into a corrupted Avatar of Life, the Magus. She failed and Maelstrom haunted her on behalf of their shared patron, offering Phyla another chance. She was guided to a familiar-looking cocoon held by the Universal Church of Truth. Maelstrom misled her into believing it contained Warlock’s “good” side, who could be released to counter his evil Magus side. Instead, the cocoon held the preferred Avatar of Death… Thanos, the Mad Titan. Forcibly returned to the postulant universal mistake known as life, Thanos immediately murdered Phyla as Maelstrom watched on laughing from the Realm of Oblivion. [Guardians of the Galaxy (2nd series) #24]

Maelstrom’s current status is unknown. The New Warriors once detected Maelstrom’s Minions returning from space and infused with a Celestial energy signature. Gronk, Helio and Phobius announced they intended to pave the way for their master’s return, but their activities after that are unchronicled. [New Warriors (5th series) #7-8]