Maelstrom

Origin

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.

Mayor Story Arcs

Deviants

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. 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. Then as the Thing of the Fantastic Four, Black Bolt, and others invaded the lab in response to several acts of theft on Maelstrom’s part, Maelstrom bade the ghastly Deathurge to slay both him and his father so that they could transfer to new bodies. Phaeder did not survive.

Seeking revenge for his father’s death, Maelstrom sought to steal the kinetic energy of the Eternals Uni-Mind, to the end of destroying the Inhumans, but was defeated. He had Deathurge kill him and transferred his body into a new clone. Later he began to absorb the kinetic energy of the Earth's rotation. He succeeded in slowing the Earth down, and the East and West Coast Avengers intervened.  After a tough battle in which they realized they could not defeat him personally, they decided to manipulate the machine he was using to regulate the amount of energy that he was absorbing.  This forced more energy into Maelstrom than he knew what to do with, he hyper-enlarged, and seemingly faded from existence.

Into the Galaxy

This was not the end of Maelstrom; his empty form floated slowly toward the edge of the solar system; he had a chance encounter with a similar being, Kronos the Titan god of time. Kronos not used to seeing anyone like himself, was overjoyed to have someone to talk to. He was happy to share whatever information this new being asked of him. Maelstrom thus learned of the cosmic entities. Realizing a new goal, he immediately set out to garner cosmic allies. He stopped the kinetic motion of the Anomaly, ending its existence. Claiming its power and station, he next appeared before Oblivion, asking humbly to serve him. Oblivion agreed. Maelstrom quickly learned that he would require the secrets of Cosmic Awareness to further his goals. Oblivion directed him to slay the time-being, Eon.

After outmaneuvering and killing Eon’s champion, Quasar, and taking his Quantum Bands, he began to extract all of Eon’s knowledge directly from his brain. Unfortunately for Maelstrom, an energy wraith in the form of Quasar, appeared and blasted a large crater in Eon’s brain, killing Eon instantly. Maelstrom still able to steal cosmic awareness from Eon he then stopped the Earth’s rotation in an attempt to make Quasar give up the cosmic awareness that Eon bestowed onto him upon his death. Only the efforts of Doctor Strange and a cadre of sorcerers from around the world staved off any serious calamities from the rotation being suspended.

He then created a large black hole at the center of the universe that would continue to grow until it swallowed up the entire universe; it was here that maelstrom made his master plan clear. All that would exist in the universe after the black hole did its job, would be a single anomalous point. As the new Anomaly, Maelstrom would be the ruler and sole entity of the universe. With Quasar in hiding, and his plan proceeding apace, Maelstrom takes the time to taunt Galactus, Thanos (who was at the time wielding the Infinity Gauntlet), and Arishem the Judge of the Celestials, but when Quasar reappears back at the black hole, Maelstrom immediately intercepts him out of fear he could spoil his plans. Maelstrom tackles Quasar, but Quasar propels them into the maw of the black hole and Maelstrom's body is destroyed. Quasar's energy form manages to escape, but only barely.

By now, the black hole is larger than the average galaxy; several Watchers (probably mostly those displaced by the black hole) have come to watch what is likely the very end of the universe, Galactus and his herald, Frankie Raye have also appeared near the event horizon, several different species have sent emissaries to see first hand the devastation; finally the Prime Celestial Host arrive, all powerless to do anything, they have all come simply to watch.

Quasar dives back into the maw of the black hole and attempts to release the infinite force given to him by Infinity (Oblivion’s opposite), to reverse the black hole, he is almost successful, but he is pulled through at the last second by Oblivion. Now in Oblivion’s realm, Quasar is introduced to a reanimated Maelstrom. Oblivion then named Maelstrom his avatar, Infinity in turn appeared (Quasar had carried an aspect of her within him) and named Quasar her avatar. It was agreed between the two powers that a contest would take place between the two avatars and the winner’s side would be able to dictate terms of a new agreement between the great powers.

Maelstrom and Quasar battled with their actions being mirrored and trancended by Oblivion and Infinity on higher planes of existence. However, the two avatars quickly found that they were evenly matched, possibly too evenly matched. It was only after several minutes locked in stalemate, Quasar discovered through his own cosmic awareness that because his costume had been retroactively re-created (making him a temporal anomaly), which made him more of an anomaly than Maelstrom, he shared this information, which broke Maelstrom’s concentration and the Quantum-bands overwhelmed him. Quasar, then with all the power Infinity had invested him with undid all the damage Maelstrom had wrought. Maelstrom was later somehow revived by his minions and discovered he had sired a son in Ransak the Reject, who Maelstrom had nearly killed. The shame of nearly murdering his son caused Maelstrom to seemingly shrink into nothingness.

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.

Powers

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.