Maxwell Dillon

**Maxwell "Max" Dillon** (*Electro*) was born in Endicott, New York, the son of Jonathan and Anita Dillon. As a child, Max moved from one town to the next due to Jonathan's difficulty in holding down steady employment. One day, Jonathan announced that he was leaving with another woman and left Anita and Max to fend for themselves. This resulted in Anita becoming overprotective of her son.

After graduating high school, Max announced his plans to go to university and pursue a degree in electrical engineering. Anita, not wanting her son to become a failure like his father, lied that he was rejected from college. Instead, she suggested he find work at the local electric company, which Max pursued instead, getting a job as a lineman. After the death of his mother, Max married the billing clerk at the electric company. However, she ended up leaving him since he did not earn enough money. With a repeat of his parents' failed marriage, Max resolved to find a new woman; however, this worsened his personality, in particular his greed, as now he was determined not to die in squallor as his parents did.

One day, another lineman got in trouble and Max agreed to save him for a fee. In the process, he gained supernatural abilities as he was struck by lightning while in contact with power lines still connected to their spool. The unusually configured magnetic field generated by the wound spool of cable and live, high-tension wires induced a body-wide mutagenic change to his nervous system. Max found himself transformed into a living electrical capacitor, powered by the micro-fine rhythmic muscle contractions that normally regulate body temperature.

## Relatives

* Jonathan Dillon - father
* Anita Dillon - mother
* Norma Lynn - ex-wife

## Powers

**Electrostatic Energy Generation:** Max possesses the ability to bodily generate electrostatic energy which he can release or harness for a number of effects. He is powered by the micro-fine rhythmic muscle contracts that normally regulate body temperature. His body can generate electricity at a rate of about 10,000 volts per minute, up to his maximum storage capacity of 10,000,000 volts. At that point, his body automatically stops producing electricity. As he expends his electrostatic energy, hsi body automatically begins to recharge the stores. Max can mentally control the amount of electricity he discharges, anywhere from a single volt to his full 10,000,000 volt charge at once. At ten to thirty feet, his maximum charge is more than enough to kill a man. Max can also use his body as a transformer, touching an outside power source and channeling the energy through his body for use. The amount of electricity he can transform above his body's maximum storage capacity is unknown.

* ***Lightning Bolt Projection:*** The simplest manifestation of his ability is the emission of a lightning-like electric arc from his fingertips which can propagate through the air or other conducting mediums. This discharge, the total voltage of which can be regulated with certain limits, travels at the speed of lightning, about 150,000 feet per second. The course of the electrostatic bolt, like lightning, does not always follow a straight line since it can be influenced by conducting substances like metal or other electrical fields. If his target is not grounded, the electrostatic bolts have little effect. The maximum effective range of his bolts is about 100 feet.
* ***Electromagnetic Propulsion:*** Max can propel himself along the accompanying magnetic lines of force in objects that have great electrical potential, such as high-tension electrical lines. He generates light, eddying electrical fields around his legs, which develop an intense, opposing magnetic field that can support him above the electric cable's magnetic field. By creating imbalances in his field, he can ride along on magnetic ripples at speeds of up to 140 miles per hour, the maximum speed at which he can still breathe unaided. He can sometimes create electrostatic bridges to traverse upon, although the expenditure of energy is enormous. To a limited degree, he can also mimic Spider-Man's wall-crawling ability, using his electromagnetic field to become attracted to the fields of iron bars in buildings.
* ***Electrical Detection:*** Max's electrical powers also grant him certain sensory and manipulative abilities. By "feeling" the course of electricity through the circuitry of any electrically-powered device, Max can override a system and make the device obey his mental commands. Max can disconnect alarm systems, control computers in a limited way, or overload any electrically-controlled system that is insufficiently shielded.
* ***Electrocution:*** The electric flux of Max's skin is such that, when his electric charge is at a maximum, a person touching him is in danger of being electrocuted.
* ***Recharging:*** By using an external electrical power source to recharge his body's energy reserves, he can expend electrical energy indefinitely without diminishing his personal reserves.
* ***Electrical Conversion:*** The electricity coursing through his altered body augments his physical strength, speed, and recuperative powers. When fully charged, Max is able to lift about 500 pounds.
* ***Metal Ionization:*** Max was taught by Doctor Octopus during a stint in prison that he can ionize metals.
* ***Disruption:*** Max's powers can disrupt Spider-Man's electrostatic ability to cling to walls.
* ***Localized Electromagnetic Storms:*** Max once defeated the Invisible Woman when he created a localized electromagnetic storm. This allowed him to carbonize the air around her and imprison her in a sheath of rock-hard electrocarbon atoms. Effectively, this made a statue out of her.
* ***Electrical Immunity:*** Max's body is immune to the effects of its electricity and that of other sources, as well. Hence, Max cannot be electrocuted no matter how great the voltage.
* ***Charging:*** Max can charge himself to reach maximum voltage. Here, he can grow in height to an enormous humanoid-looking creature made up of nothing but electricity.

### Former Powers

**Electromagnetic Manipulation:**An experimental procedure temporarily heightened his powers, allowing Max to store and absorb a seemingly limitless amount of electricity. He was able to fly by generating a massive field of electricity which could propel him through the air. He also seemed to gain the power of magnetokinesis to a certain degree, allowing him to manipulate magnetic fields and move objects in a manner similar to that of Magneto and could overcome his old weakness to water by using the electromagnetic fields around him to vaporize water before it could touch him. He was able to defeat Nate Grey by manipulating the bio-electric currents in the human brain to turn Nate's own psychic powers against him, and do the same to make Spider-Man beg. Presumably, had he further explored the implications of this power, he would have been able to control people's entire bodies this way as well, and might have been able to control machines in a similar way. He was also able to painfully paralyze anyone by overcharging their synapses' bio-electrical transmissions. However, Max somehow seems to have lost these new abilities after he threw himself into the Hudson River, resulting in an explosion.

## Weaknesses

**Short Circuit:**When he is fully charged, Max is extremely sensitive to anything that may short circuit him, such as water. Later, due to the experiments Spider-Man conducted on him, Mx can lose control over his powers, which causes him to burn out and collapse.