Max Mercury (New Earth)
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That's why you took his name and costume, isn't it? In a sense, you did it so the world wouldn't forget him... or his heroism. You keep saying you don't want to replace Barry, but the moment you become as fast as him... That's exactly what you'll have done.
- -- Max Mercury src
- -- Max Mercury src
Contents |
HistoryEdit
Origin
Max Mercury was born in the early 19th century. By 1838, he had been assigned as a messenger at a fort. He made friends with the local Blackfoot clan. Unfortunately his fort commander, who did not trust any of them, leveled a bounty on the clan and ordered a full-scale massacre. The shaman of the clan, with his dying breaths, told Max that many tribesman were returning from the hunt, and that they would be ambushed if not warned quickly. With a pinkish substance, the shaman drew a lightning bolt on Max's chest, gave a prayer to the god of the storm and the wind, and died. Max ran faster and faster and faster still. As swift as the wind, he took the soldiers' weapons and caught the Blackfoot arrows in midair. He devoted the next few years of his life to protecting the natives and the settlers from one another as Ahwehota, or as he was better known, Windrunner. However, one night during a thunderstorm, Max felt drawn to the lightning from deep within his heart. He ran as he had never run before, breaking all barriers, and he began to be drawn into the speed force, the energy field that gives speedsters their power. He finally had met his glorious destiny, but fear stopped him, sending him ricocheting through time to New York of July 14, 1891.
Again and again, he tried to get to the speed force and failed. He continued his super-hero career as Lightning, Blue Streak, and Quicksilver between each jump in time.
Golden Age
By 1947, Max had established the his current name, Max Mercury. He was sometimes called "The Whirlwind of the West." He often would team up with other speedsters, including the original Flash, Jay Garrick, and Johnny Quick, who would never believe that there was a speed force. Somewhere along the line, he got to know Zatara, the great magician who is father of Zatanna.
In 1949, Jay Garrick saved him from the Screaming Skull, a debt which Max vowed only to pay in a life or death situation.
In late 1947, Max saved the small town of Manchester, Alabama from Dr. Morlo and his toxic bombs at great cost to himself. Max's lungs were burned and his blood was tainted when he breathed in Morlo's mustard gas. Fortunately, the local physician, Dr. David Claiborne, found him lying in a culvert. David and his wife, Laura, cared for Max, who was out for nine weeks. He awoke to a new year and a new home. With David, he found a best friend with whom he shared a love of fishing, tennis, and the "Shadow" radio show. Laura, however, was special. She was lonely because David was always so busy, being one of the few doctors in the area. Max stayed with the Claibornes for quite some time. One lonely night, Max and Laura sat on the rooftop, looking at the stars. Laura felt so lonely with David always gone, and she and Max had grown to love each other. The inevitable happened. When David returned home, Max just ran. He jumped in time again, this time to New Year's Day, 1957.
By the sixties, Max again showed up, teaming with Johnny Quick as they fought the villain Savitar. Max chased after Savitar, a sprint that sent him flying into the seventies. He began to keep a journal in Korean, and he would often probe the speed force, trying to sense the presence of Savitar.
Eventually, Max gave up on his superspeed. Living in the Central Keystone area, he got a job selling subway tokens for MTA.
Return
However, when Professor Zoom was in town, pretending to be the late Barry Allen (the second Flash), Jay Garrick and Johnny Quick enlisted his aid, recalling the Screaming Skull incident. Jay had kept Max's old, forties costume. Max joined Jay, Johnny, and the current Flash (Wally West), in fighting Professor Zoom. He began to teach Wally to find the Zen of speed, thus gaining the nickname, "The Zen Guru of Speed."
After Zoom was defeated, Max disappeared for awhile. When Wally was trapped in time after adding Johnny's speed formula (3x2(9yz)4a) to his own speed, Max appeared. He could only remain at that high speed for a short time, but he taught Wally a valuable lesson about making decisions. Later, Max would occasionally keep an eye on Wally, peering into his house through the window or watching from a nearby alley.
Mentor to Impulse
Max again showed up after Bart Allen had arrived from the 30th century, to teach Wally about the Speed Force, help train Bart, and lend a hand in defeating Kobra, who had unleashed Project Morpheus on Keystone City.
After trying to locate Laura Claiborne, only to find that she had died a while ago, Max learned that he had a daughter, Helen, who still lived in Manchester. Wanting to keep an eye on her, he decided to move there. Wanting Bart to be taught the finer secrets of speed, Wally sent him with Max to Manchester. Max, known to the average citizens as Max Crandall, Bart Allen's uncle, always stressed keeping a secret identity. He would put Bart through challenging drills, such as solving jigsaw puzzles in midair; dodging knives, axes, maces, swords, etc; and running obstacle courses while dodging knives, axes, maces, swords, etc.
One day, Max met his daughter, Helen, in the library. She took an instant liking to him. Not knowing that he was her father, she would always flirt with him, but he obviously never returned those feelings. He often would help her around the house. Bart, also not knowing the secret, would urge their relationship on.
One night, after Bart had returned from fighting Blockbuster, Max disappeared. He had been kidnapped by Savitar's ninjas and taken to his fortress, where he was tortured. Fortunately, just before he was to be killed, he escaped. He ran to his home, where he was met by Wally, who took him to the hospital. Using a map carved on Max's chest, he and Jesse Quick (Johnny's daughter) went off to fight Savitar. When Jesse destroyed Savitar's speed battery, Max felt a surge of speed energy , and was able to help the others fight Savitar. During this adventure, Johnny finally accepted Max's lessons about the Speed Force, and perished saving his daughter. After Savitar was defeated, Max and Bart returned to Manchester.
One day, Max and Bart showed up at Helen's to find her being beaten up by her ex-husband. Max's scream--"Take your hands off my daughter!"--revealed to Bart and Helen Max's secret. Max had to tell Helen the whole story, including his and Bart's identities. However, they now shared even closer bond.
Into the Speed Force
Max finally become one with the Speed Force after his body was taken over by Jay's nemesis, Rival.
The Speed Force eventually sent Max, along with Barry, Wally, and Bart, to an alternate Earth. Here, they decided to allow Bart to absorb the power of the Speed Force so that he could be sent back home to defeat Superboy-Prime.
Powers and AbilitiesEdit
Powers
• Decelerated Aging - Speed Force conduits have a slowed aging process. This power can be imparted on their most intimate loved ones by extended contact rather than distribution.
• Energy Construct Creation - Speed Force conduits can use the matter generated by their speed to create solid objects such as walls or bridges. This power requires constant concentration and reapplication of the construct for it to remain stable. Flash's after images are also construct creations.
• Flight - Speed Force conduits can rotate their arms and spin their bodies like tops to achieve something of a kind of helicopter flight. However, with practice conduits can even achieve controllable flight if launched at high speeds. Despite their flight abilities they are always faster on their feet.
• Increased Perceptions - Speed Force conduits traveling at the speed of sound may miss important events as they run by. The Speed Force grants them enhanced senses that allow them to see, hear, smell, touch and/or taste at an increased speed and understand it as it is processed.
• Infinite Mass Punch - Speed Force conduits have an increased level of strength added to their bodies which they can impart in different ways. Certain speedsters can strength each and every move they make however this requires attention and stress for each movement and therefore is almost never used. In most cases conduits can focus the Speed Force's extra-dimensional energies into one massive punch; when used in practiced this punch pushed a metahuman from one continent to another.
• Phasing - Speed Force conduits can vibrate their molecules so quickly that they can achieve intangibility for short bursts allowing them to phase through objects.
• Self-Sustenance - Speed Force conduits travel at incredible speeds which cause their bodies to work overtime. In situations where their bodies may be too fast for them to breathe they may impart on the Speed Force for sustenance. However, this almost always results in the conduits having an increased metabolism at all times requiring them to constantly refill their energy supplies.
• Sharing the Force - Speed Force conduits can allow their friends or family members to run along side them at their equaled speeds. Certain conduits who may only have minor access to the Force may achieve full levels of the Force due to the main conduit's association with it.
• Speed Force Aura - People who are propelled by the conduits during high speed situations can survive the harsh conditions associated with mach speeds. When the conduit must rescue an individual from a burning building these individuals will be protected while within the aura.
• Speed Force Conduit - People who, for whatever reason, are connected to the Speed Force are sometimes called Speed Force Conduits. This means that they are connected to the Speed Force and are tethered to it. Some characters may control their Speed Force imparted powers in different ways such as only Superhuman Strength or even directed through Lighting but no matter their adaptions they are still connected to the Force.
• Steal Speed - Speed Force conduits can steal the accelerated motion or momentum from objects or people to reduce their speed or even virtually stop them. Conduits may also steal the speed from other Speedsters or other fast moving people.
• Supercharged Brain Activity - Sometimes neglected by Speedsters who only operate at superhuman speeds and never slow down enough to understand their full potential; Speedsters can access superhuman levels in their brains further than processing information. They can test theories, understand difficult equations and run trial and error in their brains at superhuman speeds. Different conduits access this activity in different ways.
• Superhuman Endurance - Speed Force conduits have to access the Speed Force for a number of different tasks. Most Speedsters use their superhuman speed and react at superhuman speeds; therefore, they must run for extended periods or operate for a large amount of time. Their bodies can handle the stresses of superhuman racing without noticeable distress.
• Superhuman Speed - Speed Force conduits have one main ability above all else. Conduits are connected to the barrier and accumulation of all Speed known in their universe. These characters immediately understand how to run at superhuman speeds and their bodies instinctively understand how to react at high-speed situations. Older speedsters have a reduced but maxed speed of 770mph which is just below sonic booms allowing them to react to situations without causing civilians undo stress. Speedsters in their prime can travel at much faster speeds such as the max level of recorded aided speed on Earth and even reach the speed of light with enough willpower. It is possible for conduits to travel much faster than the speed of light however such levels require an incredible amount of stress. Speedsters unaccustomed to their max level of speeds may detach themselves from the Speed Force or even become part of the Speed Force by accident.
• Vortex Creations - Speed Force conduits that plant themselves on the ground and rotate their extremities can cause an incredible amount of wind to burst through their focused funnel. Most Speedsters use this ability automatically when they run reducing the air currents around their body to low enough levels to no longer inhibit their speed. Creatively, Speedsters can create tornadoes and gusts with their arms.Abilities
- Multilingual: He is able to speak Japanese, English, Russian, Cantonese, Mandarin, and possibly more.
NotesEdit
- Max Mercury originally appeared as Quicksilver, published by Quality Comics during the Golden Age. His first DC Comics appearance was Flash (Volume 2) #76.
In 1956, DC Comics obtained the rights to the Quality Comics characters, and re-introduced them 17 years later as the Freedom Fighters in Justice League of America #107 (Oct. 1973).
The Freedom Fighters were relocated to a parallel world, one called "Earth-X", where Nazi Germany had won World War II. The team was featured in its own series for 15 issues (1976-1978), in which it temporarily left Earth-X for "Earth-One" (where most DC titles are set).
In 1981, some Quality Characters became recurring guest-stars of All-Star Squadron, a superhero-team title set on "Earth-Two", the locale for DC's WWII-era superheroes, and at a time prior to when the Freedom Fighters were supposed to have left for Earth-X. They later appeared with the rest of DC's superheroes in Crisis on Infinite Earths, a story that was intended to eliminate the confusing histories that DC had attached to its characters by retroactively merging the various parallel worlds into one. The Freedom Fighters became a mere splinter group of the All-Star Squadron.
TriviaEdit
- Max Mercury has gone by many nicknames over the years. Akin to the 'Scarlet Speedster' max was called the Whirlwind of the West, Zen Guru of Speed, and Laughing Robin Hood.
Related
- 152 Appearances of Max Mercury (New Earth)
- 30 Images featuring Max Mercury (New Earth)
- 12 Quotations by or about Max Mercury (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Max Mercury (New Earth)
LinksEdit
- Max Mercury (New Earth) at Wikipedia.org
- Max Mercury at Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning
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Footnotes
  This character is or was an incarnation of or an ally of The Flash, and a member of the Flash Family of speedsters. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the "Flash Family members" category. |
  This character is or was a member of the Freedom Fighters, a team of American super-heroes who fight threats to the nation and its ideals under the leadership of Uncle Sam. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the "Freedom Fighters members" category. |
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