Maker (character)
The Maker is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writers Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar and artist Adam Kubert, while his Maker identity was created by Jonathan Hickman.
He is Ultimate Marvel's version of Mister Fantastic, initially presented as a heroic, morally altruistic and scientifically driven superhero and a younger, modernized alternate version of Reed Richards, who later turns into the villainous Maker, after enduring a series of tragedies and immense mental trauma; he eventually becomes part of the regular Marvel Universe, serving as an enemy and evil foil to his parallel universe counterpart, the New Avengers, and Eddie Brock/Venom, serving as an example of what his Earth-616 counterpart could have been had he used his powers and intellect for malice. However, during the "Absolute Carnage" and "King in Black" storylines, the Maker revealed he had been coordinating with the Council of Reeds and had utilized the many Symbiote Codexes he had extracted from the various heroes and villains who had been previous hosts as a means to repeat his long-standing goal: restoring his native dimension, which he sets out to enact in the 2023 miniseries Ultimate Invasion, resulting in the creation of the new Ultimate Universe after altering the timeline of another universe.
Publication history
Ultimate Reed Richards bears a resemblance to his Earth-616 counterpart; however, he differs in many aspects: the origin of his powers is different and he is much younger. The character was created by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar and Adam Kubert, and debuted in 2004 in Ultimate Fantastic Four.In 2011, the character started calling himself the Maker and became a nemesis to the Ultimates. This identity was created by Jonathan Hickman.
After the "Secret Wars" storyline destroyed the Ultimate Universe and restored the Multiverse, the Maker moved to the post-Secret Wars Marvel Universe in 2015.
Fictional character biography
Born in the suburbs of New York City, Reed Richards was a brilliant, intellectually-gifted and knowledgeable, but socially-withdrawn, shy and reserved, scientific child genius, who possessed a high IQ level of 267 and held a deep-rooted love and passion for science, being well-versed in various fields of scientific topics, such as astrophysics, chemistry, biology, quantum mathematics, mechanical and electrical engineering, advanced chemistry and robotics and was the brightest student in school. However, due to his bookish and introverted personality, he was regularly picked on and tormented by bullies, while also receiving similar treatment from his father, who despised his son for his non-masculine and studious nature. However, as a result of demonstrating a teleporter at a school science fair, Reed was later recruited for a government think-tank sponsoring intellectually-gifted youngsters and child polymaths, similar to Reed.Reed conducts his research, along with several other students including Victor Van Damme, at a facility located in the Baxter Building in Manhattan, where he meets Johnny Storm and Sue Storm, the latter of whom Reed becomes smitten and romantically involved. During the final experimentation phase of his research, Reed was visited by Ben Grimm, his best and only friend since childhood, who protected him from bullies during his years in school. At the age of 21, Reed, along with other scientists, attempted to teleport organic material through an alternate plane of existence called the N-Zone, with Sue assisting him and Johnny and Ben observing the demonstration. The experiment goes awry due to Victor secretly changing the coordinates of the teleporter at the last minute, resulting in the four being engulfed in a parallel dimension termed as the "N-Zone" and grants the four with super-powers, with Reed being able to stretch his body parts to incredible lengths and is endowed with enhanced durability. They have a series of adventures and encounters with a number of super-human and extraterrestrial threats, during the four's attempts to solve the mystery behind the source of their new-found powers and turn Reed and Ben back to normal. The four are later exposed to the media and public, who name the group as: "The Fantastic Four", with Reed undertaking the alias of "Mr. Fantastic" and embarking on numerous adventures and conflicts against inter-dimensional adversaries and super-human enemies. Throughout the series, Reed's personality remains largely similar to his Earth-616 counterpart, being well-meaning and altruistic.
After the Ultimatum miniseries resulted in the death of many heroes, Reed attempts to propose to Sue during Franklin Storm's funeral but she breaks up with him and the Fantastic Four is disbanded. Reed is later seen working with aliens to pillage the artifacts stored at Project Pegasus. It becomes clear that Reed's worldview has changed to a more sinister outlook, as a result of the mental and emotional trauma endured from the Ultimatum coupled with Sue's rejection and breakup. In Ultimate Enemy, he is shown to be living with his parents again before an explosion seemingly kills them. In Ultimate Mystery, Reed is revealed to have orchestrated his family's murders and faked his own death, before allying himself with the attacking aliens. Ultimate Doomsday sees Reed confronted by his former teammates, as well as Spider-Man, Mahr Vehl, and the Ultimates. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear to his former friends that Reed is a threat to the world. Part of his motivation to become a villain is that he no longer likes his home dimension and wishes he could find another world to improve.
In Ultimate Fallout, Reed is revealed to have survived his defeat and is shown trapped in the Negative Zone. He soon escapes and returns to his world, where he vows to win back his friends by saving the planet. In Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates, Reed is revealed to be the Maker, creator of the City and leader of the Children of Tomorrow, a race of genetically engineered superhumans. He has come back to fight against the Ultimates after spending 1,000 years in the distant future, having been unable to age due to his powers.
When the primary Galactus arrives in the Ultimate Universe due to a temporal distortion, the Ultimates are forced to approach Reed for help after Mysterio identifies Galactus and reveals that he has been defeated by Earth-616's Reed Richards in the past. Accompanied by the new Spider-Man, Reed travels to Earth-616 to access his counterpart's files. Before he departs, he and Miles are confronted by Valeria Richards, leaving Reed shaken as he witnesses the family he and Sue could have had. Based on his counterpart's files on Galactus, Reed defeats him by sending him to the Negative Zone, where he can starve to death due to the Negative Zone consisting entirely of anti-matter and thus providing nothing for Galactus to consume.
Secret Wars
secretly recruits Reed to help draft counter-measures to doomsday scenarios, where he eventually starts having to fight Incursions. While working on stopping another, he finds the Cabal escaping from another destroyed Earth. Following the final incursion, Reed and the Cabal escape the destruction of Earth-1610 in a "life-raft" created for that purpose. Learning that they are on a new world ruled by God Emperor Doom using the power of the Beyonders and Molecule Man, Reed works with his Earth-616 counterpart to devise a means of defeating Doom. However, they are divided due to their morals, as Reed wishes to kill their enemy while 616-Reed is more concerned with ensuring that the world can survive without him. After they find Molecule Man, the Maker attempts to eliminate 616-Reed by devolving his counterpart into a monkey. However, Molecule Man intervenes, returning Reed to normal while turning the Maker into a pizza.New Avengers
Despite this, the Maker survives and was split into an infinite number of beings by the Molecule Man, who placed one version of the Maker in each of the newly formed universes being created by his Earth-616 counterpart and Franklin Richards. Each of these versions shares the same consciousness, allowing them to operate independently. He then emerged in the new Prime Earth, where he takes over the science-based terrorist organization W.H.I.S.P.E.R. to continue experimenting for his own gain. His first experiment focuses on harnessing the souls of the dead to try and capture the souls of previous universes. Maker also assembles a new incarnation of the Revengers called the New Revengers, with plans to have them face the New Avengers. They consist of Asti the All-Seeing, Paibok, Vermin, White Tiger, and alternate versions of Angar the Screamer and Skar.During the "Civil War II" storyline, the New Revengers recruit the City's O.M.N.I.T.R.O.C.U.S form as its latest member. As Avengers Idea Mechanics is facing off against S.H.I.E.L.D., Maker takes advantage of this by sending his New Revengers to attack them. While O.M.N.I.T.R.O.C.U.S. keeps Sunspot trapped in his office while having his own defense system attack him, Angela del Toro fights her aunt Ava Ayala while the other Revengers members attack the rest of the New Avengers and the staff of Avengers Base Two. Donning a variation of the Rescue armor, Toni Ho manages to kill the alternate Skar. Also, Mockingbird managed to get free from O.M.N.I.T.R.O.C.U.S.' clutches with the help of Warlock while Ava frees Angela from the combined influences of the Tiger God and the Hand. The remaining members of the New Revengers face off against the New Avengers and A.I.M. While the remaining members of the New Revengers are defeated, Maker escapes. Sunspot later confronts Maker aboard fake Air Force One and defeats him. Sunspot then delivers Maker to the government, who imprison him in a special cell.