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Maxwell Dillon (Earth-616) from Marvel War of Heroes 002
Electro

Full Name: Maxwell Dillon
First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Volume 1) 9
Created by: Stan Lee; Steve Ditko
Home Universe: Earth-616
Alignment: Bad
Status: Deceased
Place of Birth: Endicott, New York
Citizenship: American
Base: Unknown
Affiliations: Sinister Six; formerly Emissaries of Evil, Frightful Four and Sinister Twelve
Powers/Abilities: Electro is able to store, project, and manipulate electricity with his body, and can manipulate magnetic fields too. Not only can he fly, but he can also travel along electricity lines and through electrical appliances.
Height: 5' 11" (1.80 m)
Weight: 165 lbs (75 kg)
Hair Color: Bald
Eye Color: Blue
Unique Features: None


"Jewels! Money! No matter how much I take, I want more--much more! And with my great power, nothing can stop me from getting it!"
— Electro


Maxwell Dillon (of Earth-616), also known as Electro, is a villain in the Marvel universe.

History

Early life

Max was born to Jonathan and Anita Dillon in Endicott, New York. Jonathan was an accountant, though he had trouble keeping a job. Because of this, Max and his family moved frequently when Max was young and he found it difficult to make friends. His hot-headed father abandoned his family when Max was eight years old. Anita subsequently became overprotective of Max, leading to his single greatest flaw as a supervillain: his inferiority complex.

Years later, Max told his mother he wished to become an electrical engineer. Anita, not wanting him to be angry if he failed, convinced him he was not intelligent enough, and Max reluctantly took a job as a lineman for an electric company.

Becoming Electro

While he was repairing a power line, a freak lightning accident resulted in a mutagenic change in his nervous system, transforming Dillon into a living electrical capacitor. His powers were initially weak, so he spent some time stealing electrical equipment from Stark Industries to charge himself.

During this time, he was approached by Magneto, who considered him a potential recruit for his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, claiming that Dillon's power rivaled his own, but Dillon refused. The following day, Dillon was confronted by a small-time thug who he'd been borrowing money from to pay for the machinery he'd needed. When the thug drew a gun on him because he hadn't paid back the money yet, he responded by shooting a blast of lightning through the thug's chest- the first time Dillon ever killed anybody.

Soon taking the name Electro, he turned to a life of a professional criminal, his first victim being J. Jonah Jameson. Electro broke into the Daily Bugle Building and stole Jameson's safe right in front of him. Jameson accused Spider-Man of being an alternate identity of Electro, prompting Peter to prove the publisher wrong. During his first confrontation with Electro, Peter was nearly killed when he touched the electrically charged supervillain. Spider-Man eventually used a fire hose to short-circuit Electro.

Criminal Identity

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 9

Electro's first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #9

Electro was later hired by J. Jonah Jameson to defeat Spider-Man on national television. He encountered Daredevil in San Francisco, at which time he temporarily donned a modified costume. He then took control of a Protarian android seeking the destruction of Omega. Electro then teamed with Lizard against Spider-Man and Daredevil. Electro then attempted to aid a band of criminals escaping the Avengers.

Electro later joined the Frightful Four. As part of the Frightful Four, he used Spider-Man as bait to trap the Fantastic Four. Electro later learned that he can electro-statically disrupt Spider-Man's wall-crawling ability. The Chameleon and Hammerhead then sent Shocker to try to recruit Electro into their organization. Instead, he later accepted Doc Ock's invitation to rejoin the Sinister Six.

Electro has fought Spider-Man countless times, either on his own or as part of a group such as the Sinister Six. He has also fought such other heroes as Daredevil, Fantastic Four, and the Avengers. Despite his immense power, he has almost always been defeated, usually as a result of his foes outsmarting him or taking advantage of his weakness to water while charged.

As a result of his frequent and often embarrassing defeats, Electro tried to take over New York City's power supply in an attempt at glory and respect. Spider-Man thwarted this plan, however, and convinced Electro to quit his criminal career. When Kaine started killing enemies of Spider-Man, Electro began to fear for his life and temporarily joined Mysterio's Sinister Seven, which had been formed to combat Kaine. This group was quickly disbanded, and following Kaine's subsequent disappearance, Electro returned to retirement.

Modern Electro

Modern Electro

This changed when The Rose agreed to fund an experimental technique that would amplify Electro's abilities, in exchange for Electro's services as an enforcer. Seeing this as a chance to rise above the string of failures that had made up so much of his life, Electro underwent the procedure. After paying off his debt to the Rose by defeating several members of The Avengers, Electro attempted to demonstrate his newly amplified powers to the world, once again attempting to take control of New York City's power supply. Wearing a costume made of rubber insulation, Spider-Man was able to stop him. Electro, in an effort to make a final grand gesture, threw himself into the Hudson River while his body was highly charged, seemingly killing himself in an explosion.

Somehow surviving, Electro resurfaced later as part of the re-formed Sinister Six, formed to kill Senator Stewart Ward and Doc Ock (whom the other members of the Six now hated due to his arrogance). His powers had seemingly reverted to their pre-amplification level. When Venom betrayed his fellow Sinister Six members, attempting to kill them one by one, he attacked Electro and left him for dead. Once again, Electro survived. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

  • Electrostatic Energy Generation: Electro can generate and manipulate electric current at 10,000 volts per minute.
  • Lightning Bolt Projection: He can also employ this electrostatic energy as lightning arcs from his fingertips, and his maximum charge is more than enough to kill a normal human. He could propagate through air or other conducting mediums and discharge, whose total voltage can be regulated within certain limits, traveled at the speed of light, about 150,000 feet per second. The course of the electrostatic bolt, like lightning, did not always follow a straight line since it could be influenced by conducting substances like metal or other electrical fields. If his target was not grounded, his lightning bolt would have had little effect. The maximum range of his bolts was about 100 feet.
  • Electromagnetic Propulsion: Electro propels himself along magnetic lines of force in objects that have great electrical potential, such as high-tension electrical lines. He can also create electrostatic bridges to traverse upon, at the cost of a great expenditure of energy.
  • Electromagnetic Transportation: He can change his body into electric current and travel through wires, then become solid again, at will.
  • Electrical Detection: Electro'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, Electro can override the system and make the device obey his mental commands. Electro can disconnect alarm systems, control computers in a limited way, or overload any electrically controlled system that is insufficiently shielded.
  • Electrical Conversion into Enhanced Physical Attributes: The electricity coursing through his body has augmented his strength, speed, and recuperative powers.
    • Enhanced Strength: He also is capable of lifting 450 pounds.
  • Electrocution: The electric flux of Electro's skin could put a person who is touching him in danger of being electrocuted.
  • Metal Ionization: During a stint in prison, Electro was taught by Doctor Octopus that he could ionize metals.
  • Wall-Crawling Disruption: Electro's powers can also disrupt Spider-Man's ability to cling onto walls.
Electro defeats Invisible Woman
  • Electromagnetic Storms: Electro once defeated the Invisible Woman when he created a electromagnetic storm. This allowed him to carbonize the air around her and imprisoned her in a sheath of rock hard electrocarbon atoms, effectively making a statue out of her.
  • Electricity Immunity: Electro's body is immune to the effects of its electricity and that of other sources as well. Hence, Electro cannot be electrocuted no matter how great the voltage.
  • Charging: Electro can charge himself up to reach high maximum voltage. Here he can grow in height to an enormous humanoid looking creature made up of nothing but electricity.
  • Recharging: Electro can override any electrically-powered device and manipulate it according to his mental commands. By using an external electrical power source to recharge his body's energy reserves, Electro could expend electricity indefinitely without diminishing his personal reserves.

Weakness

  • Water: When he is fully charged, Electro is extremely sensitive to anything that may "short circuit" him, such as most liquids. Large amounts of water have been mostly seen to short circuit, and defeat Electro.
  • Due to experiments that have been conducted by Spider-Man, Electro could lose control over his powers which cause him to burn out and collapse.

Media

Television

  • Electro made a cameo appearance on The Marvel Super Heroes episode "Dr. Doom's Day" (which was a Sub-Mariner segment).
  • Electro made three appearances in the 1960's Spider-Man animated series, voiced by Tom Harvey.
    • In his first appearance he robs Jameson's house, which Spider-Man is blamed for. Finally he is defeated at an amusement park with a new webbing.
    • In a later episode he breaks out of jail using a kite during a storm to recharge himself. He then tries to force the city to pay him a fortune by turning off the electricity, but is caught in another web by Spider-Man.
    • In one of the last episodes of the first season he joins Green Goblin, Vulture, and Dr. Noah Boddy in attacking Spider-Man. But after Spider-Man makes them fight with ventriloquism, he is knocked out with a pumpkin bomb thrown by the Green Goblin.
  • Electro was the main villain in the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends episode "Videoman", voiced by Allan Melvin.
    • He later made a cameo appearance in "Attack of the Arachnoid".
  • Originally, Electro was not to appear in the 1990s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, because the series did not want to interfere with the continuity of James Cameron's proposed Spider-Man movie in which the Sandman and Electro were supposed to be the villains. Although Sandman remained unseen in the series when Cameron's film fell through, Electro was belatedly introduced in the series' fifth season. Electro appears in the "Six Forgotten Warriors" storyline of season five, voiced by Philip Proctor. Here his name is Rheinholt Schmidt, instead of Max Dillon.
  • In Spider-Man Unlimited, the Counter-Earth version of Electro appears in the episode "Ill-Met By Moonlight" as a Bestial electric eel possessing electrokinetic powers. In the episode, Electro is a guard in the High Evolutionary's main base Wundagore Castle. Throughout his fight with the Counter-Earth Electro, Spider-Man also references the Earth Electro.
  • In Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, Max Dillon (voiced by Ethan Embry), is a geeky high school friend of Peter Parker who attends Empire State University. Dillon first appears as a college friend of Parker's in the episode "Head Over Heels", in a minor role.
    • In the subsequent episode "The Party", he is transformed into an electrical creature after being covered in an unknown substance and then struck by lightning. He immediately pursues revenge on fellow students who bullied him, even killing their leader, Doug Reisman, before Spider-Man weakened him and forced him to retreat into an underground electrical system.
    • Electro reappears in the episode "When Sparks Fly", where he had been hiding out to regain his power.
  • Electro appears In The Spectacular Spider-Man (voiced by Crispin Freeman), first appearing in the second episode "Interactions".
    • Electro reappears in "Group Therapy", the season-two episode "Reinforcements" and "Growing Pains". He originally wanted to be returned to his normal self, but after several subsequential appearances, he appears to have lost his sanity, no longer desiring a normal life.

Video Games

  • Electro is a boss in the arcade game Spider-Man: The Video Game.
  • Electro is in the Game Boy Advance game Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace;
  • Electro is in Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six for NES as the first boss.
  • In The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin, at a level set in a power station.
  • Electro appears in the game Spider-Man and Captain America in Doctor Doom's Revenge.
  • Although he does not appear in the first two Game Boy Spider-Man games, Electro is present in Spider-Man 3: Invasion of the Spider-Slayers.
  • In the Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro video game, Electro (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) is the main antagonist.
  • Electro appears as a boss in Ultimate Spider-Man, voiced by James Arnold Taylor.
  • Electro appears as a boss in the Game Boy Advance version of the Spider-Man 3 video game, in the "Totally Amped" level.
  • Electro is also a boss and a playable character in the PSP version of Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, voiced by David Kaye.
  • Electro appears in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, voiced by Liam O'Brien. He also appears as Symbiote Electro.
  • Electro appears in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, voiced by Kirk Thornton.
  • Ultimate Electro appears in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, voiced by Thomas F. Wilson. In addition, the Amazing version of Electro appears in the Nintendo DS version, also voiced by Thomas F. Wilson.
  • In Marvel: Avengers Alliance he apears as a villian in Secret Ops 27.
  • In the android game Spider-Man Unlimited he apears in edition 3 as a villain.

Film

Trivia

  • Electro is the only Spider-Man foe to have been a member of every incarnation of the Sinister Six thus far, including the Sinister Seven and Sinister Twelve. Despite this, he has never once served as leader.
  • Back when director James Cameron was trying to make a Spider-Man movie on the big screen, he had the idea of Electro being the main villain. But rather than Electro being Max Dillon from the comics, Cameron decided to change his origins. Instead, his name would be Carlton Strand, a billionaire criminal who got his powers from being electrocuted from a giant street sculpture during a lighting storm.

See Also

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