The Maelstrom wiki last edited by Satyrquaze on 06/10/14 08:16AM View full history


Taken from various Marvel Handbook (Official Handbook of Marvel Universe 1983, Official Handbook of Marvel Universe 1986 and All New Official Handbook of Marvel Universe A-Z 2006)

Real name: Un-revealed

Aliases: Anomaly, Malcolm Stormberg, The Cosmic Assassin

Occupation: Geneticist, would be- conqueror

Known Relatives: Phaedar (father, deceased), Morga (mother, deceased), Ransak the Reject (son)


The creature who would call himself Maelstrom was the son of the Inhuman scientist, Phaeder, who was a scientific rival of then Inhumans king Agon, father of Black Bolt. Phaeder was something of a radical by Inhuman standards, he suggested cloning as a possible means to extend the lifespan of the Inhuman race, and the ruling council, led by Agon, voted to exile Phaeder. Phaeder sensing which way the wind was blowing, secretly cloned himself and murdered the clone to cover his tracks and vanished.

Major Story Arcs


Phaeder traveled to a small island in the south Pacific to continue his research in secret. There he discovered a fellow exile, Morga, but this lovely woman was a Deviants. Shunned for her (by Deviant standards) disgusting appearance, she was considered a rare beauty by Phaeder’s Inhuman eyes. Morga shared more in common with Phaeder then either of them knew, a geneticist as well, she added her knowledge to Phaeder’s work. The two eventually fell in love and their union produced a son, Maelstrom. Discovered by the Deviants, who not only hated Morga’s appearance, but feared a mixing of the races, quickly captured her and the infant, Maelstrom. Phaeder alone escaped. Morga was summarily put to death. Maelstrom was put in the slave pits. Eventually rescued by his father, they returned to a secret laboratory in the ruins of Attilan, where he and Maelstrom swore their revenge on the Deviants and the Inhumans. Upon Maelstrom reaching the age of adulthood, Phaeder exposed him to the Terrigen Mists, giving Maelstrom psionic mastery of kinetic energy. His power rivaled that of Black Bolt himself.

Against Earth's Superheroes

Years passed, and Maelstrom soon surpassed his father in the area of genetics. In order to learn more, they traded advanced cloning technology to various super-villains, in return they would receive hard data of how their technology fared in the field. Phaeder and Maelstrom are thus indirectly responsible for many of the later actions of the Red Skull, High Evolutionary, and Magneto. Soon, Maelstrom took on the acolytes Phobius, Helio, and Gronk, from the ranks of the Inhumans and Deviants and calling them Maelstrom's Minions (or sometimes The Terrible Titans). But later, Phaeder grew too old and decrepit to likely survive the cloning transfer to a younger body, Maelstrom dutifully tended to him as he continued their research.

The Cure

(Marvel Two In One # 71) One of Maelstorm and Phaeder's associates, Dr. Hydro, used Terrigen Mists to transform humans into amphibians, against their wishes. The Inhumans seeks to cure the humans, they were shocked to find that terrigen mist was involved, and knowing they needed help they invited the Fantastic Four. Reed Richards created anti-terrigen particles to cure people who are mistakenly been transformed into Inhumans, but this was being observed, from a distance by Maelstrom, who plans to get the anti-terrigen particles so he can take over Inhumans. So Maelstrom sends his “Trinity of Terrible Titans” , who were later called Maelstrom's Minions, in order to retrieve the anti-terrigen mist but the terrible titans are defeated by Thing, Inhuman and Stingray and are captured. The canister however falls on Water which Maelstrom plans to retrieve.

The Mighty of Maelstrom

(Marvel Two In One # 72)

Falon, one of Maelstorm's minion, delivers the canister of anti-terrigen particles to Maelstrom. Maelstrom orders Deathurge to kill the captive Terrible Titans to prevent Inhumans from interrogate them (note: Maelstorm also later creates clones of them so as far as Maelstorm was concerned at the point they were disposable) . Regardless, his action put Thing, Gorgan and Karanak on his trail, who manage to find their way into Maelstrom lab but are defeated by hypersonic rays and they are held in place in a prison. Karanak breaks free, Black Bolt arrives. Maelstrom hold his own against Blackbolt, and sadly for Maelstorm Phaeder died in his sleep while the two were battling. Before the battle with Blackbolt could end, he leaves to stop the anti-terrigen missile. Thing fight Maelstrom completely outmatched but defeats Maelstrom by throwing anti-terrigen mist on him which takes away his ability to absorb and manipulate Kinetic energy leaving him powerless. Maelstorm then order Deathrug to kill his current body so that he could escape the conflict into a new body. He also destroyed his laboratory, before dying, in order to prevent the Inhumans from studying his plans and findings.

The Ties That Bind (Avengers # 247 - 249)

Maelstorm , somehow, stole a new body from Olympia, city of Eternals, is watching the Eternals explain the phenomenon of the uni-mind, whose energies Maelstorm planned to siphon. The Eternals merge themselves into the uni-mind, while Maelstorm attacks and defeats Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) and Wasp (Janet van Dyne). Avengers then come to stop him, Vision tries to phase into Maelstrom but KOed by the backlash of power. Scarlet Witch hex breaks the uni-mind. Vision uses solar blast against Maelstrom because its apparently not kinetic energy. Eros attack Maelstrom which only makes him stronger. Maelstrom binds entire plethora of Eternals. Scarlet Witch hex and Captain Marvel (Monica) energy attack weakens Maelstrom then he asks Deathurge to kill him. It is revealed that Maelstrom has a new body in his lab where he will soon awaken again.

Avengers # 249 which acts as the epilogue of the story, shows Maelstorm coming back to life in his new body, where he has figured out a more powerful source of Kinetic Energy for him to steal, the rotation of Earth.

World Power (Avengers #250)

Maelstorm, plans to steal Earth kinetic energy to turn himself into god so that he can avenge his father's death. He constructs a device, which remains un-named, which would allow him to steal Earth kinetic energies into himself, gradually slowing Earth's rotation which would eventually tear the planet apart. He also resurrects his terrible titans to help him.

Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), who mistakenly end up in Maelstrom lab, manage to hear his minions talk about Maelstrom plan, who warns the Avengers. Avengers fight and defeat Maelstrom's minion with minor difficulty but they are faced with a giant Maelstrom, having absorbed some of the kinetic energies of Earth rotation. Avengers try to fight him physically but quickly realize they are absolutely outmatched.

Vision manages to figure out that the rotating earth is far too great a source of kinetic energy for Maelstorm to tap unaided and hence a giant device on Maelstorm's lab, protected by force field, must be the equipment which is somehow controlling the amount of energy Maelstorm receives, feeding it slowly so that he can convert enough of it to extra mass to contain the rest. Since they cant destroy the machine, as its protected by a very advance force-field capable of even stopping Vision intangibility, Vision gets Wanda to use a hex to super-charge the machine instead. This forces Maelstrom absorb more energy that he could safely contain, his body grows bigger and bigger too fast, soon his molecules are spread across the universe. Avengers believe Maelstrom dead, although in the later story arc it was revealed that, while Maelstrom physically energy was destroyed, he however became a minor abstract, without a physical body floating around in the universe.

Cosmos in Collision

After Avengers forced him to absorb more energies than what he could contain, spreading his molecules across the universe, Maelstrom, disembodied as he may be, begins to begins to drawn his body back together. During Quasar # 19 Maelstrom meets Kronos, titan god merged with the very fabric of universe, who tells him about abstract entity, and Infinity in particular (which is understandable given Kronos was obsessed with Infinity). This gives Maelstrom a new purpose, to try and get power from being beyond his ken, the Abstracts entities, and eventually become a god recreating the universe and everyone else as his sub-ordinates.

In Quasar # 20 Maelstrom sought out the abstract entity called Anomaly and slays him stealing his power. It is later revealed this was his biggest step because the power of Anomaly is what was going to prevent himself from being killed once he creates a gigantic black hole to turn the universe into a anomaly point, which would allow only the current , biggest, anomaly to survive and become a god.

In Quasar # 21 Maelstrom meets Oblivion, one of the prime Abstract in marvel universe and the very embodiment of nothingness and destruction, to form an alliance, where Oblivion would give him small bit of his power and knowledge and in return he would give Oblivion the very universe or rather the destruction of it. Oblivion agrees, and suggests Maelstrom to seek out a minor abstract entity Eon, so he could slay him and obtain the cosmic awareness from him.

Eon, however, foresaw his approaching death, by the hands of a cosmic assassin unknown to him and hence he charged his protector of the universe, Quasar (Wendell Vaughn) to prevent it. Maelstrom however had his own plan, and went to find and create an alliance with another servant of Oblivion, named Unbeing, to temporarily unmake Quasar's heroic identity which allowed Maelstorm to arrive on earth undetected. The cosmic being and Oblivion's servant, Unbeing, however had a counterpart who served Infinity, called Origin who restored Quasar's identity however Maelstorm had already arrived on Earth.

While Quasar was aware that a cosmic assassin was to come for Eon, and that his duty was to stop the said assassin he had very little knowledge who the assassin was. This allowed Maelstrom to manipulate events, tricking Quasar into thinking the assassin he was preparing for was the Russian villain called The Presence. Having defeated the Presence, and unknown the actual assassin was still lurking would allows Quasar to have his guards down for Maelstrom to take advantage.

Maelstrom also further weakened Quasar's relationship to Eon, by killing his father, Gilbert Vaughn, and knew that Eon would keep it secret to prevent Quasar from being distracted. When the truth finally came out Quasar felt betrayed and refused to serve Eon.

In the meanwhile Maelstrom having found allies in the form of his former love, The Weird Sister, killed killed a business man named Malcolm Stromberg and stole his identity, which he used to pose as a client to Quasar's security firm. Maelstrom tricked Quasar into entering his house with his friends.

Moondragon immediately senses something is wrong but she is held in check by Phobius. Moondragon finally throws a knife at Maelstrom who stops it mid-air, stops Makkari’s heart, and cuts off Quasar arm,since the quantum bands cant be removed while Quasar is still alive, stealing the quantum band, which Maelstrom needed to enter the Eonverse.

(Quasar # 22) Maelstorm clocks himself from the Watcher , telepathically talk to Deathurge, telepathically talk to Deathurge. With the help of Weird Sisters unlocks the secrets of Quantum band, travel to Eonverse. Quasar dies and he claims the quantum band and gets ready to murder Eon.

Quasar after his death, in a spirit form enters Eonverse, together with his personal death avatar called Kid Ripper. Eon asks Quasar to kill him to prevent Maelstrom from stealing the secret of his cosmic awareness, hesitantly, Quasar destroys Eon's brain however its too late and Maelstrom has already obtained the cosmic awareness he was looking for. Maelstorm then reveals his plans, he first wants to stop the rotation of the earth, then halt the expansion of the universe, and finally created a giant black hole to destroy everything.

GLA and Death

Later, Maelstrom returned to normal size after a brief stint in the microverse. He attempted once again to engineer the destruction of the universe, killing many of the Great Lakes Initiative in the process, but was tricked into suicide by Mr. Immortal. His soul was last seen being carried by Doorman (Deathurge’s replacement) into Oblivion’s realm, kicking and screaming all the way.

Maelstrom encountered Phyla-Vell and Drax in the realm of Oblivion. Taking advantage of Phyla's death to claim the Quantum Bands again. He was defeated by a recently resurrected Quasar and Drax. It seems Maelstrom is trapped within the realm of Oblivion until his master deems it necessary to release him.

He later appeared as a "spirit guide" for Phyla-Vell (which only she could see) and manipulated her into freeing Thanos from his regenerative cocoon and Thanos promptly killed her after Maelstrom "fired" her from Oblivion's service as it had found it's preferred avatar of Death.


Maelstrom can absorb, channel, and otherwise manipulate vast amounts of kinetic energy; this includes kinetic attacks made against his person. He could hypothetically absorb a full strength punch from Thor and redirect the energy transferred into an energy blast or simply use the blow to strengthen his own power without any ill effects. He can also use this power to shrink or grow to unknown limits. His stored kinetic energy is often visible as a glowing plume of energy about his body.

He has a certain measure of superhuman strength, but rarely exerts himself physically; he has learned to use his control of kinetic energy to augment his physical power. If he had a perpetual source of kinetic energy, his strength would know no limits, he has in the past used the energy created from the Earths rotation to power him, or simply stopped the rotation itself. Obviously conventional attacks are useless against him.

At the time he was absorbing the Earth's energy, he was able to absorb Iron Man's repulsor blasts. When the Vision attempted to move through Maelstrom in a partially materialized state, which normally causes great pain to the target, it didn't affect Maelstrom at all, and instead seemed to cause feedback in the Vision. He created an energy field around Firefox, Hercules, and Wonder Man, which they were unable to penetrate physically, and which deflected Captain Marvel's energy form.

On two separate occasions Maelstrom has used the Quantum Bands to augment his already considerable power.

Maelstrom is a genius in a multitude of areas of science, particularly genetics and biology, his level of comprehension and study is centuries ahead of current sapient knowledge.

This edit will also create new pages on Comic Vine for:


Comment and Save
