Max Hamilton

**Max Hamilton** • History • Quotes • Gallery

* S7
* 1989
* 1988
* 1987

Lydia Hamilton - sister *(deceased)*

Ellie - girlfriend

MJ Baines - best friend

Michael Tomlinson - best friend

Rose McCarthy - best friend

Nick Mayes - friend

Lucas Norman - arch-enemy

Max Hamilton/New Era - alternate-self
 Max Hamilton - alternate-self

### Appears In

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60

*"You're not my friends. **You're my family**. You always have been,"*
― Max to the Fellowship at MJ's funeral, 2012[src]**Maxwell "Max" Hamilton** is a main protagonist of *The 48th Street Fellowship*. He is a founding member and the *de-facto* leader of the Fellowship and has lived in Dewberry his entire life.

When he and his friends picked up a peculiar signal on their homemade radio tower a week before Halloween 1987, they decided to investigate the source, which turned out to be the secretive laboratory of the St. James Institute. Shortly after, the facility suddenly exploded, and Max and his friends were granted incredible superpowers. Max discovered he could generate fire with just a snap of his fingers. While investigating the source of their abilities, the group came across a powerful telepath, Ellie, who formed a connection with Max and inspired the Fellowship to use their powers against the Dark Dimension, the source of the supernatural happenings occurring in Dewberry.

A year later, in 1988, Max led the Fellowship in their first direct battle with the Dark Lord, closing off the Breach for good. In the process, he lost his superpowers but discovered he could still summon a small flame, being the only member of the Fellowship with even a trace of his powers left.

In 1989, Max began looking at colleges and planned to leave Dewberry. However, when a new evil arrived in Dewberry, signalling the Dark Lord's return, he led the plan to restore the Fellowship's powers, which proved successful. He subsequently discovered he was the only person in the human dimension who could kill the Dark Lord outright, battling the Air-Walker and severing the last of the Dark Lord's connections to our dimension. Convinced the fight wasn't over, he and the rest of the Fellowship and their allies swore a blood oath to return to Dewberry in the future to destroy the Dark Lord once and for all. After the oath, he left Dewberry, taking Ellie with him so they could live their lives on the road.

An alternate version of Max had returned to Dewberry in 2012, setting off a chain of events that resulted in the Fellowship preventing the apocalypse via the use of a time loop.

In the Third Branch, a third alternating timeline, Max and Ellie returned to Dewberry, having spent the last couple of years living on the road.

## Overview

### Physical Appearance

At 16, Max is tall and skinny, although until he gains his abilities he is not particularly strong nor aggressive.

At 18, Max has become taller and thinner, having participated in several athletic events since he lost his powers and he received a confidence boost from humiliating Lucas and standing up for himself.

By 2012, Max has lived rough for several years and has become neurotically thin, noticeably more short-tempered and reserved, even around his own son.

By 1990, Max has cut his hair short.

### Personality

At the start of the series, Max is shown to be an optimist, morally compassionate and highly committed to his friends, usually going to great lengths to help them. He is an extraordinarily creative thinker. Out of the seven members of the Fellowship, he is the most emotionally open and is willing to accept fantastical explanations behind complex situations. He is responsible for coining the term "goblin" for the creatures of the Dark Dimension.

When he gains his powers and begins to realize the threat that faces Dewberry and the entire world, his attitude begins to reflect his abilities: his temper becomes shorter, he is more volatile, and he has frequent arguments with his friends. He becomes noticeably darker as the series progresses, losing most of his childhood innocence and instead taking on the responsibility of leadership of the group and the preservation of his home and friends. In his adulthood, Max has taken on the responsibility of defender of the human dimension.

In his conversations with Ellie, Max demonstrates anxiety and insecurities.

## Powers, Equipment and Abilities

After the explosion at the St. James Institute, Max gained the ability to generate fire using nothing simpler than a snap of his fingers. However, what he actually produces is a form of extraordinarily hot plasma that resembles fire, created by directly igniting the air around him. Initially, he struggles to control this, nearly burning his parent's house down and causing a wildfire near the site of the original explosion. Like the other members of the Fellowship, his abilities are amplified by the amount of pain he experiences

Thanks to his abilities, he is the natural enemy of the Dark Lord and the creatures of the Dark Dimension due to their weakness of fire and light; while Ellie can trap the Dark Lord in the Dark Dimension, Max is potentially the only organism that could destroy it outright.

### Superpowers

* **Pyrokinesis:**Max is able to generate fire without requiring any source, simply with a snap of his fingers. However, he finds it extraordinarily difficult - but not impossible - to control. He is also able to throw balls of fire and project it in streams, although this makes it all the more unpredictable. In '*The Breach*', he discovers he is able to cover his entire body in fire, although this requires most of his strength and focus. When he regains his full powers in *Season 3*, he finds his abilities easier to control and covers his entire body in flame on several occasions. He is also able to spread heat to objects that he touches and can melt objects together to make weapons.
	+ **Pain Amplification:** Like all superpowered members of the Fellowship, the intensity of his powers is affected by the level of pain, both physical and emotional, he experiences. The more pain he experiences, the hotter the fire that he produces, but the less control he has over it. The colour of his fire also changes with temperature, all the way from orange to purple.
* **Invulnerability to fire:** Naturally, Max is impervious to fire. His clothes, however, do not appear to be immune, both to regular fire or his own. This does not appear to be a problem, however, from *Season 2* onwards.
* **Propulsion, levitation and flight:** In *Season 3*, when Max regains his full abilities, he is able to spread his fire to his feet, enabling him to propel himself over short distances and hover. In his fight with Air-Walker, he seemingly gains the ability to fly, most likely due to him concentrating most of his power.
* **Supernova:** When he reaches a certain temperature, Max can set the air around him on fire, leading to an often devastating explosion; his friends call this a "supernova". Although his body can regenerate from this, he risks his body disintegrating to ash and requires near-supernatural willpower combined with a sufficient source to regenerate him fully.
	+ *Main Article: Supernova*
* **Durability:**Upon gaining his powers and like the rest of the superpowered members of the Fellowship, Max demonstrates increased durability, able to withstand blows a normal human could not stand. This especially came in handy during his fight with the superhumanly strong Air-Walker, who could produce shockwaves with just a punch. Max also appears to have a healing ability, as his arm regenerated after cutting it off in '*The Breach*'.

#### Weaknesses

* **Temper:** One of Max's biggest weaknesses is his temper, both before and after he gains his powers. It often causes him to act on impulse.
* **Ellie:** As discovered by Michael, MJ, and Rose, Max's biggest weakness is the woman he loves: Ellie. When Michael looks into the Dark Lord's mind, he witnesses several other realities where Dewberry is destroyed by the entity; in each version of 1989, the Dark Lord kills Ellie, driving Max into a rage after which he is too exhausted to defend himself from Air-Walker.

### Abilities

* **Knowledge recall:** Max has exceptional knowledge recall, with Mr Saunders suggesting that Max may even have a photographic memory.
* **Construction and engineering:** Max is at the top of his engineering class. His construction ability provided him with the knowledge needed to construct the radio tower.

### Equipment

In the first two seasons, Max used several pieces of equipment to control his powers. However, in *Season 3* onwards he typically does not use anything other than his abilities, somehow having greater control over his powers than before.

* **Pyro suit:** Max made his own costume out of several flame-retardant blankets to guard against his own fire. He does not use this suit past *Season 1*.
* **Harness:**Max's most integral piece of equipment was his "backpack": a flamethrower with two nozzles, with cuffs that have blades from a lawnmower attached. The flamethrower gave Max much more control over his fire, and the blades - which he heated up - gave him a more practical, close-up fighting style. The harness was damaged beyond repair after he fought his way to the bottom of the Breach. When he regained his powers in '*Restoration*', he no longer required equipment like the harness due to him having more control over them.
* **Mask:** Max's facemask proves instrumental in keeping his identity a secret from the population of Dewberry.

## Relationships

### Ellie

> *"Just **listen**. I love you, okay. I know I should have said it before now but I was **scared and confused and angry** and...I love you. I just...I wanted you to know that,"*
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> -- Max finally confesses he loves Ellie, 1989
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Even after spending just a few days together, Ellie and Max quickly fell in love with each other. Max was the first among the Fellowship to recognise that Ellie was just another kid and she meant no harm to anyone. Their romance forms one of several core subplots in the series.

In '*Restoration*', it is hinted that their relationship may have turned physical in the past year. However, the two dance around the thought of loving each other repeatedly, leaving the rest of the group frustrated that neither of them can admit their feelings.

Believing that Max doesn't love her - coupled with him lying about his talk with Cooper - Ellie publically breaks up with him, leaving him confused, angry and short-tempered. He tearfully admits to MJ that he loves her before heading off on his own.

By witnessing several different realities through the Dark Lord, Michael discovers that Max and Ellie's fates are tightly bound: if Ellie dies, then Max inevitably dies at the Air-Walker's hands.

In the hospital construction site, as Max tends to her injuries, they once again dance around their love, with neither explicitly saying the words. With MJ's encouragement, they both express their passion, with Ellie telling Max she can't live without him. She gets angry when Max can't say the words, but her frustration eventually leads to him confessing his love. Ellie is left speechless.

Before the final battle at Neverland Mall, Ellie grabs Max and tells him she loves him, to which Max smiles and says "I know". They kiss passionately and realize they have a whole mall to fool around in. With the little time they have, they sneak into a back room and finally have sex. In the process, their neural link becomes even stronger.

When Max prepares to leave Dewberry, Ellie begs him to leave her behind and have his own life. After he leaves, he reverses back and begs her to come with him. With a nod of permission from Cooper, Ellie gets in the car and they drive off together for parts unknown.

In the 23 years after the oath, Max and Ellie's relationship became closer, resulting in them having a son, Jacob, in the early 2000s.

### Jacob Hamilton

Not much is currently known about the relationship between Max and his son, Jacob. They are distant due to Max being on the road for most of his son's life.

In *Season 5*, when Jacob goes back in time to 1989, Max obviously does not know who he is, completely unaware that he is his future son.

### James DeLare

> *"Wouldn't it be awesome if our powers were compatible? Imagine that: **electric fire**!"*
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Max and James are the closest two members of the Fellowship, with James serving as the deputy leader.

### Brooklyn Yates

> *"God am I happy to see you,"*
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### MJ Baines

As co-founders of the Fellowship, Max and MJ are incredibly close and best friends.

### Lucas Norman

> *"...All I really want is your **blood** on my hands. And I'll destroy the world if it means that happens!"*
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> -- The Air-Walker to Max before their climatic fight
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## Trivia

* Max has the second-greatest number of appearances, after Nick, and is tied with Ellie, James and Joyceln.
* He is a fan of the British rock bands Queen and the Beatles, and is also a fan of T.Rex.
* As discovered by the Fellowship in *Season 3*, Max is the only organism in existence that is capable of killing the Dark Lord outright, due to his command of fire, which is the Dark Lord's sole weakness.
* He is the first member of the Fellowship to own a car, a beat-up red Chevrolet Camaro.
* In '*Battle of Neverland*', he loses his virginity to Ellie.
* Max is the only member of the Fellowship with a confirmed date of birth, being October 7th 1971.
* Max's yearbook aim was to achieve a world record.
* EDStudios confirmed that Max never attended college in either 1989 or New 1989, and instead travelled around the US with Ellie. This makes him the only member of the original Fellowship to never attend college.
* Max is the third member of the Fellowship to discover the full extent of their powers, that being the "supernova". The others are Michael and Ellie.