MAXMAX
Real Name: Maximus Argath
Identity/Class: presumably Extra-Dimensional (New Universe) paranormal
Occupation: Assassin, Enforcer
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Damon Conquest
Enemies: Justice (John Tensen), Andrew Markham
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Cacodemon Servant of the House of Conquest
Base of Operations: The Far Place; Earth-New Universe
First Appearance: Justice#13 (New Universe) (November, 1987)
Powers/Abilities:
Max could seemingly transform into a giant (10' tall), virtually
invulnerable, super-strong monstrous creature. In either form, he
could turn aside the sword and shield of Justice with ease. He
claimed to draw his energy from the Earth.
His shadow showed his monstrous form when he was in his human
form and vice-versa. When in monstrous form, his human shadow was
his weak spot.
History: Max claimed to be a Cacodemon, an unliving illusion of life, shaped from the dead earth from Damon Conquest's black magic. In reality, he was either a paranormal, a person given the illusion of power by Daedalus Darquill, or possibly even an illusion without any living basis at all.
(Justice#13) - Damon
Conquest sent Max to kill Andrew Markham, who had refused to
distribute Conquest's drugs. Max did so, but was ten confronted
by John Tensen, Justice, who had been present at Markham's party.
Max toyed with Justice, easily turning aside his attacks, until
Max unwittingly bragged about his weakness, claiming to be
indestructible. "Mine is the strength of the earth."
Looking to the ground, Tensen saw Max's human shadow, which he
blasted with his energy sword, causing Max to vanish in a puff of
smoke.
Comments: Created by Gerry Conway and Keith Giffen.
If you read Prime Eternal's primer on the New Universe, you'll see that in the first year, a lot of the writers and creative teams missed the point entirely. The team(s) behind Justice were the biggest offenders, as they used a large group of alternate dimension characters. This was all revealed/ret-conned to have been a warping of reality by Daedalus Darquill. This occurred in Justice#15, by Peter David, who brought Justice into line with the NU's stated properties and premises.
Anything which took place in the first 15
issues should be taken with a grain of salt. Tensen (and
apparently the writers, as well) was under the influence of
Darquill, and so anything he saw or did was affected by this. It
was never clearly established what exactly took place, but I
would ASSume that the events on Earth were real events, although
the characters within them may have been altered by the
hallucinations, or may have been hallucinations altogether. Any
of the beings he fought against may have been paranormals, or
they could be normal people, made to appear differently and to
possess powers by Darquill.
The events taking place in the Far Place strike me as being
closer to pure hallucination, although there may have been
touches of real people and events in there, too. The fact that
the people of the Land of Spring were shown when neither Darquill
nor Justice, nor any other person known to exist on Earth was
present makes me think that a lot of the people in the Far Side
were other "real" people pulled into Darquill's
illusion.
moot point. Dorcas Farcas.
Max's powers may have been purely illusion, as such physical/size transformations were generally not possible within the New Universe.
With this profile, I complete the entries from the Far Place--with the exception of Justice himself, that is. Now on to Peter David's stuff!!
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Last updated: 12/22/02
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