Maelstrom clone

[robfj]

In Issue Analysis thread Nova v4 #20-25 & Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #11-12 Somebody suggested that the Maelstrom in FFU#10 and GLA#1-4 had to be a clone. I'm not so sure that's absolutely necessary.

The reasoning was that the real Maelstrom's apps in GOTG2 (especially #11) follow on from the situation he was left in at the end of Q#25 which preceded FFU#10. In the issues leading up to Q#25 Maelstrom tried to destroy the universe as an avatar of Oblivion. But of course he failed and at the end of Q#25 we were told that Oblivion and Death kept Eon and Maelstrom. Given whose avatar he had been it is reasonable to assume that Oblivion took Maelstrom.

In GOTG2#11 Drax and Phyla-Vell are stranded in Oblivion and they meet Maelstrom who tells them he's been there a long time, and that he failed to destroy the universe when he was Oblivion's avatar. Which surely does seem like it connects seamlessly with Q#25.

In FFU#10 Maelstrom's old minions found a way to bring him back to Earth. He recounted some of his history culminating in Q#25 where he says Quasar disintegrated him (which *is* what happened *before* Oblivion claimed him). Bur here he says that he's since existed as a 'shadow drifting ghost-like between the worlds', but also that he's in an 'interspatial prison'. When they got him fully materialised he began to quickly grow, and announced his aim to reverse the expansion of the universe so that it collapses in on itself. But superheroes intervened and Maelstrom wound up shrinking down towards the Microverse.

In the GLA mini-series he claimed that he had been spread across all reality (by the end of Q#25) but (in FFU#10) others reversed the process and brought him back down to Earth, but the process went to far and shrunk him 'beyond the infinitesimal' where he was converted to proto-natural force, the fabric of creation. He was able to to then return to Earth where he again schemed to destroy the universe by reversing its expansion, but in an extremely speeded up way. Mr Immortal saved the day by persuading the villain to kill himself. And then Doorman servant of Oblivion took his soul away.

I think there's less of a problem at the end of the FFU/GLA sequence than at the beginning. When Doorman servant of Oblivion took Maelstrom it could reasonably be (back) to the realm of Oblivion. In GOTG2#11 he says he's been alone in Oblivion for a long time, but then in such a state any time will seem like a long time. And he (in a roundabout way) says he failed to destroy the universe for Oblivion, but he failed at the same task in Q#25, FFU#10 and GLA.

At the beginning of the sequence in FFU#10 Maelstrom doesn't mention being given to Oblivion, only being disintegrated by Quasar. In GLA#3 he even makes out that he deliberately spread himself out across the universe in his quest for knowledge.

His latest Handbook entry (2008 #6) includes FFU#10 and GLA in his personal chronology with no mention of cloning, and follows FFU#10 by missing out any ref to being taken by Oblivion. Of course that Handbook was too early to include the GOTG2 stuff.

The Unofficial Appendix follows the same tack and then adds Maelstrom in Oblivion for the GOTG2 issues. The Marvel Fandom Wiki follows suit, but in less detail.

I suggest we can make this make sense without resorting to a clone. Maelstrom's own claims can be treated with suspicion (eg in GLA#3). In FFU#10 he could be retrieved from Oblivion, or Oblivion could have chosen his punishment to be dispersed across the universe. In GLA#4 Doorman could take him to Oblivion where he eventually meets the GOTG, and he might be exaggerating how long he's been there.

In summary I propose that we delete the Maelstrom clone and add its apps into Maelstrom's own chronology.

MAELSTROM/MALCOLM STROMBERG
----
Q 24
Q 25
Add everything from the clone
GOTG2 7-BTS | cf GOTG2 11
GOTG2 11
----

MAELSTROM CLONE delete the whole char
FFU 10
GLA 3-FB-FB
GLA 1-FB
GLA 2-FB
GLA 3-FB
GLA 4-FB
GLA 4 (17)
GLA 1 (1:1)-OP
GLA 1 (21:4)-FB-OP
GLA 1 (1:2) ~ GLA 4 (18:1)
GLA 1 (1:3)-OP
GLA 4 (18:2 - 21:2)