Reality-1610’s child prodigy Reed Richards becomes the Maker after being driven mad by the discovery that his reality would be eradicated. He forms the Children of Tomorrow, a group of scientists, to help him remake the world.
Fantastic Start
Growing up in Queens, the oldest child of three, Reed Nathaniel Richards is brighter than those around him. Reed’s friend Ben Grimm protects him from bullying by lesser classmates, but Reed’s father cannot deal with his son’s genius and treats his children harshly, leaving Reed and his sisters unhappy. While still a child, Reed discovers another dimension, the N-Zone, and builds an oscillator that allows him to view it. Six months later, in fifth grade, at the Midtown Middle School science fair, Reed demonstrates his ability to send items to that dimension. His demonstration catches the eye of Lieutenant Lumpkin, a “scout” for the Director of Mainland Technology Development, who scours the world for scientifically gifted children.
Ten years later, Reed tests a full-scale version of the teleporter, but fellow genius Victor Van Damme had surreptitiously altered Reed’s equations, causing a malfunction that gave Reed, Victor, Reed’s girlfriend Susan Storm, her brother Johnny, and Reed’s childhood friend Grimm superhuman powers. Unable to reverse this, Reed and his friends become adventurers known as the Fantastic Four with Reed as Mr. Fantastic, Johnny as Human Torch, Susan as Invisible Woman, and Ben as Thing,; while Victor becomes Doctor Doom.
Stretched to the Limitless
A super-genius with a 267 IQ, Reed has a super-malleable body he can stretch, compress, expand, deform, elongate, contract or otherwise reshape at will. He no longer has internal organs, but rather a “pliable bacterial stack” near his abdomen that reacts with the air he breathes to provide a rich nutrient supply into his bloodstream; as a result he no longer eats or physically ages.
Reed holds multiple doctoral level degrees in theoretical and applied physics fields. As a lead scientist at the Baxter Building, Reed has access to enormous governmental resources. He has developed technology such as the N-Zone transporter; the Fantasti-Cars, flying vehicles powered by zero-point generators; a NASA Space Shuttle uniquely modified for interdimensional travel; and a chrono-tunnel enabling travel through time. Reed’s uniform stretches as he does without tearing.
He has prominent burn scars on his face’s right side. As his identity Maker, he wears a helmet that expands his brain’s shape to allow for more efficient thinking and has expanded his stretching ability to approximate duplicates of himself, which he has conversations with. As a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist, he has access to some of Earth’s most advanced technology, weaponry and transportation, some of which he invents, such as his sentient City and an interdimensional bridge he uses to explore other worlds.
Allies Turned Enemies
Reed’s closest relationships are with his childhood friend Ben Grimm, Susan Storm, and her brother Johnny who all become the adventures known as the Fantastic Four in their home reality. Reed and Susan share a romantic relationship, but she ends it when she realizes his obsessions with science are more important, and the team disbands shortly afterward.
During his depression that followed, Reed encounters Kang, a future version of Susan, and she warns him of an forthcoming end to his universe. He goes mad trying to stop it and in faking his death, killing his family and going up against anyone that tries to interrupt his plans to save the universe, including the Roxxon Corporation, the Ultimates, and Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man (Earth-1610). Susan realizes he was responsible for the attacks against them, but Reed beats her nearly to death in response, to which Johnny as Human Torch retaliates, leaving his face burned and permanently scarred—their once trusted relationships forever changed.
When he becomes the Maker, his methods for saving the world become more extreme, so S.H.I.E.L.D. sends Bruce Banner, AKA Hulk, to attack Maker and his new science-focused/terrorist group, the Children of Tomorrow. But Maker recruits him instead. Hulk helps him against Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, who responds with force once the Maker kills the president. Susan as Invisible Woman inevitably defeats him.
Post incursion when the Multiverse ends, Maker allies with his Earth-616 counterpart, Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, against Earth-616’s Victor Von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom. Though the Maker betrays Mister Fantastic and in so doing, Owen Reece, AKA Molecule Man, cuts him to pieces, spreading his mind across the multiverse.
When he meets Earth-616’s Eddie Brock, AKA Venom, he captures and interrogates him to study his symbiote and helps him separate him from it, which makes it seem like he cares about him. But he ultimately uses Eddie, his Other (the symbiote) and his son, Dylan, to accomplish his ends, potentially gaining an enemy in the process.
Making History
The Fantastic Four encountered Thanos, extradimensional ruler of the Endless Resurgence, who psychically influenced Mr. Fantastic to construct the Cosmic Cube, a device that granted the user power over others’ wills. Reed became so fixated on the Cube that he turned spiteful toward Susan when she pointed out his obsession. Thanos’ influence was discovered upon the Cube’s completion, but Susan couldn’t forgive Reed’s behavior and put their relationship on hold. She explored other romantic possibilities, but the pair eventually reconciled, and Reed planned to propose marriage to Susan.
When Erik Lensherr, AKA Magneto, attacked humanity and flooded Manhattan, Invisible Woman used her force-field powers to scoop the ocean out of the city streets; the strain put her into a coma. Instead of staying with Susan during her recovery, Mr. Fantastic joined the fight against Magneto. Feeling betrayed by Reed’s absence upon awakening, Susan definitively ended their relationship and the Fantastic Four disbanded. Susan took over operations of the Baxter Building, and Reed moved back in with his parents.
Shortly afterwards, Kang (a possible future Susan Storm) approached the grief-stricken and depressed Reed, warning him that if history continued on its current path Reed’s reality would be eradicated. Driven mad by these revelations and determined to save his world, Reed faked his death by murdering his family and relocated to the N-Zone where he orchestrated attacks on anyone who could stop his plans, including the Roxxon Corpora-tion, the Ultimates and Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man. When Invisible Woman discovered Reed was responsible for the attacks, he savagely beat Susan and left her to die, though she recovered. Ultimately defeated by Earth’s combined heroes, Reed’s face was burned by an enraged Human Torch, and Reed was stranded in the N-Zone.
Recovering, Reed returned to Earth, adopted the identity Maker and formed the Children of Tomorrow scientist group to remake the world into a place valuing knowledge above all else. In Germany, Maker constructed the Dome, where time passed at an accelerated rate; 1,000 years passed while five minutes occurred on Earth. The Children went through generations of evolution, and the sentient City was created to facilitate Maker’s plans. Maker sent the Children to attack the European Defense Initiative (EDI) and the Asgardians; they massacred the Asgardians and stole their power source. Maker released the now-powerless Thor as a message to the world that he was unbeatable and kept the EDI as test subjects. When S.H.I.E.L.D. sent the Hulk to attack the Children, Maker recruited Hulk and unleashed an antimatter bomb on Washington, D.C., killing the president, his Cabinet, and Congress. In response to the attack, Iron Man distracted Maker by infiltrating and sabotaging the City, turning the Children against him and the City itself into a giant suit of Iron Man armor to battle a Giant-Man serum-empowered Hulk while Invisible Woman defeated Maker.
Later, hoping to stop her timeline from being eradicated, Kang freed the imprisoned Maker and along with Pietro Maximoff, AKA Quicksilver, and Hulk stole the Infinity Gems—eight reality-altering artifacts—five of which the Ultimates had gathered so far. Within 24 hours, Maker used the five gems, assembled into the Infinity Gauntlet, to force peace on the world by subduing aggressive nations, rendering money useless, eradicating scientific patents so technology was freely available to everyone, deploying free clean energy to populated areas and distributing free food to starving populations. The Ultimates stopped Maker from acquiring the remaining three Infinity Gems, halting Kang’s plan. After Kang vanished, Invisible Woman defeated Maker again.
Shortly afterward, Reality-616's Galactus attacked Earth-1610. Maker, seemingly reformed, traveled to Earth-616 with Miles Morales, AKA Spider-Man, to learn Galactus’ weaknesses; there he met Valeria Richards, his counterpart’s daughter. Seeing the possibility of a future with Invisible Woman, Reed began to regret his vengeful past actions. Maker saved his Earth by trapping Galactus in the N-Zone with Kitty Pryde’s help, but in doing so sacrificed Earth-1610’s Thor to the same fate.
When groups from alternate realities began continuously attacking Earth-1610, the reality-traveling Miles Morhames, the Ultimate Spider-Ham, warned the Future Foundation, an organization that replaced the disbanded S.H.I.E.L.D. after Galactus’ attack, that their reality was doomed, adding that every universe he’d seen survive the attacks was due to the existence of Susan Storm and Reed Richards’ offspring. To save her universe, Invisible Woman prepared to surgically extract genetic material from Maker; knowing her reluctance, Reed convinced her to instead use her boyfriend Thing’s genetic material to artificially impregnate herself. As the attacks continued, Nick Fury secretly recruited Reed into the new S.H.I.E.L.D. to create countermeasures to save their reality. Researching the incursions—where two universes collide at Earth’s location, destroying both worlds and the universes they inhabit—Maker destroyed 67 alternate Earths to save his own. When Invisible Woman’s daughter was born, the infant immediately forced all attacking realities out of Reality-1610 with her newborn powers. As the incursions continued, Maker learned there were less than two dozen realities left in all existence. Investigating a new incursion, Maker met Namor’s corrupt Cabal of Earth-616 and joined with them to survive the destruction of both worlds. The Maker then recreated the Dome and informed Fury of the incursions, instructing him to destroy Earth-616. Fury had S.H.I.E.L.D. attack Earth-616 while Maker moved the Dome to New York City, the incursion point of the colliding worlds.
Creating a life raft from designs taken from Earth-616, Reed fled with the Cabal, in suspended in animation as the Multiverse ended. His raft ended up on Battleworld, the patchwork planet created from different realities and led by Earth-616’s Doctor Doom. Once released, Maker and the Cabal departed but they soon faced Doom’s police, the Thor Corps. A battle ensued and other survivors from Earth-616’s life raft joined the fray. Doctor Strange, Doom’s right hand, teleported Maker and Reed from Earth-616 away to protect them from Doom. Once away, they worked together to defeat Doom. The Reeds tracked down Doom’s power source which was Owen Reece, AKA Molecule Man, but the Maker betrayed Reed-616 by trapping him in a time bubble. The Molecule Man saw the Maker as a threat and in siding with Reed-616, he sliced Maker up into pieces, then lending Reed-616 Doom’s power to remake reality.
As Reed created a new Multiverse, the Molecule Man put a slice of Maker in every slice of the Multiverse—which resulted in an individual Maker in each universe with the same goal: to remerge the Multiverse to create a stronger Eternity for the impending war. To accomplish that goal, he became the head of the World Headquarters for International Scientific/Philosophical Experimentation and Research, AKA W.H.I.S.P.E.R. His experiments caught the attention of the New Avengers of the rebranded A.I.M. (Avengers Idea Mechanics) led by Bobby Da Costa, AKA Sunspot, which led to conflict. Maker attempted to takeover A.I.M. with his team the New Revengers, but failed thanks to Costa being two steps ahead and coordinated an attack on W.H.I.S.P.E.R.’s headquarters. Maker then attempted to kidnap the President of the United States and sell him, but Costa thwarted him again by impersonating the President. The two fought and Costa defeated Maker and had him imprisoned.
Maker escaped prison shortly afterward by bringing himself a different body from another reality and sought out Earth-616’s High Evolutionary as an ally in his goals. The High Evolutionary allowed Maker to use his technology, to which Maker brought all the universes together, giving Eternity enough strength to overcome the First Firmament, the very first universe. But his plan failed and the Ultimates attempted to hold him accountable. Maker resurrected the Ultimates from his universe, Earth-1610, and they fought at first but eventually brokered a truce. Maker killed Captain America out of retaliation and went on to slay the others, but Spectrum and High Evolutionary teamed up and killed this Maker’s body. Afterward, the Ultimates-1610 started hunting down all of Maker’s incarnations.
Maker then joined the Interdimensional Council of Reeds. Tasked to return to his original universe, Earth-1610, he designed a portal however, it would harm him should he pass through. He was able to retrieve a sample of 1610’s Venom symbiote, which was created in a lab, though it was damaged. In studying symbiotes, Maker then dispatched a team to obtain a sample of a symbiote-dragon that turned up in Manhattan. The team failed but they found an injured Eddie Brock and his Venom symbiote, who avoided capture for several weeks after that. The Maker captured Venom and interrogated him, discovering that he was ill. Eddie escaped while the Maker permanently separated Eddie from the symbiote, but it escaped leaving both men knocked out.
Meanwhile, another Maker and his alien cronies were imprisoned in a space prison, but liberated thanks to the Future Foundation who thought him to be Mister Fantastic. In joining the FF on their spaceship, the Maker discovered the FF’s mission was to track down all of Molecule Man’s pieces that had been scattered across the Multiverse. In a turn of events, Maker got ahold of one of the pieces but was mortally injured in the process of getting it by the FF’s ally, Rikki Barnes. However, another Maker arrived and escaped with the fragment of Molecule Man before shooting a missile at the FF’s ship.
After the Maker separated Eddie from the Venom symbiote, he believed that if he could restore the damaged symbiote from Earth-1610 and bond with it, he could travel to his universe causing no harm to his psyche. So he created a machine to extract trace elements of symbiote called codices from the bodies of hosts, and one such host was Flash Thompson, and use the codices to repair the damaged. But before he could stabilize the damaged sample, Eddie absorbed the gestalt codices to defeat Klyntar, AKA Carnage. During the battle, he discovered that Eddie’s son, Dylan, could deflect the symbiote with some unknown source of power, prompting further investigation. He eventually found that Dylan’s ability stemmed from his mother Anne Weying, AKA She-Venom’s codex. Maker was then approached by Venom, Dylan, and Spider-Man who requested his help with separating Normie Osborn from the Carnage symbiote, and without the gestalt codices, Maker saw an opportunity to use his machine. But Dylan feared for Normie and in stopping Maker, he released the Life Foundation Symbiotes, that of Riot, Phage, Lasher, and Agony collectively known as Hybrid, which bonded to Maker. Out of control, several heroes attacked the Hybrid-possessed Maker, with the Sleeper Symbiote, also released by Dylan, and Hawkeye setting Maker on fire, killing the Hybrid symbiote. He informed the Council of Reeds of his discoveries and plans.
Maker then became aware of Gwen Stacy, AKA Ghost-Spider, from Earth-65 who he thought could complicate his plans, and kept an eye on her. Finished with researching Eddie, his Venom symbiote, and his son, Maker revealed that he had bonded to the once damaged symbiote from his universe which he improved, and defended himself from an attack by Eddie/Venom. He opened a portal using a chronal gateway to his home universe, but just then Virus attacked Eddie for previously ruining his life. In the attack, Virus threw a pumpkin-shaped bomb at the portal and in trying to shut it down, Maker, Eddie, and his son were all sucked into it. Maker successfully arrived on the other side by himself to a dystopian version of his home, the Ultimate Universe, Earth-1610, while Eddie and his son landed elsewhere.
