With the debut of Marvel's Inhumans on ABC, viewers are introduced to the revolutionary beliefs of Maximus, brother of king Black Bolt, who's actions set into motion the events of the series. The "Mad" Maximus, played on the drama by Game of Thrones alum Iwan Rheon, has a more than 50-year history in Marvel Comics of trying to destabilize destabilize the traditional Inhumans royal family, and it will be fascinating to see him make those same attempts in live-action.

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One of the most interesting things about Maximus, as introduced in 1966 by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott in Fantastic Four #47, is that readers didn't meet the character until his coup had already succeeded: When we first see Maximus, he had dethroned Black Bolt, rightful ruler of the Inhumans.

As it turned out, Maximus' problem was that he had grown too obsessed with Medusa. Had he just left things alone, Maximus might have continued to rule the Inhumans. Instead, he sent a group of Inhumans to find Medusa and bring her back to the Inhumans' Great Refuge so that he could marry her. That led to the involvement of Black Bolt, who showed up to take back his crown. This, right here, from Fantastic Four #47, is a brilliant example of how Maximus' mind works. Kirby stunningly displays how Maximus quickly decides that anger is not the right play, and then he just pretends to be happy, content to set up a future plot ...

That's why Maximus is such a great villain. He knows how to read a room like few people can, and he always finds a way to exploit the situation. At the end of the story, Maximus tries to destroy humanity and fails, but he does manage to succeed in cutting the Great Refuge off from the rest of the planet, which tragically splits up new couple, Human Torch and Crystal. A year or so later, Johnny and Crystal are finally reunited, as Maximus' "Negative Zone" is breached by Black Bolt using the full extent of his powers to break through the great barrier.

It didn't take long for Maximus to once again take over the Inhumans, as he did so in 1969's Fantastic Four #82-83 (by Kirby, Lee and Sinnott), in which he used a Hypno-Gun to make the Inhumans want him to be their ruler. He then imprisoned the royal family and planned to use the Hypno-Gun to take over the entire world. Luckily, Black Bolt was able to break the royal family out of their trap, and they stopped Maximus before he could fulfill his plan.

That storyline also introduced Maximus' new group of followers, some other Inhuman criminals. They came together to take over a small Central American country, Costa Salvador, in 1969 in The Incredible Hulk #119-120 (by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas and Herb Trimpe), in which Maximus tries to enlist the Hulk against the United States Army. The Hulk sided with Maximus for a time, but he grew sick of the Inhuman and turned on him, and Maximus' plot failed (it's unclear how taking over a small Central American country would have helped him assert authority over the Inhumans).

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The Inhumans then gained their own feature in Amazing Adventures (it was one of the last projects Kirby worked on before leaving Marvel for DC Comics).

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A recurring theme in a lot of Inhumans stories is that Black Bolt must make difficult choices for the Inhumans, and his decisions often look almost tyrannical. But the problem is that the rest of the Inhumans are often kind of dumb, so Black Bolt can't really rely on them not to screw things up if he is not around. To wit, he imprisoned Maximus in Amazing Adventures, and in the fifth issue (by Roy Thomas, Neal Adams and Tom Palmer), the rest of the royal family think Black Bolt is just being a sadist, so they free Maximus, only to learn that he had developed telepathic powers and the only way to stop him was to keep him in suspended animation.

The next issue, he used his powers to take over the Inhumans ...

Eventually, the Avengers helped the Inhumans Royal Family win back their freedom (during the "Kree-Skrull War" in Avengers #95). Maximus had another anti-Inhumans plot in Fantastic Four #131-132, but it was just some petty nonsense, not an actual revolution.

His next attempted coup came in the fifth issue of the short-lived mid-1970s Inhumans series (by Doug Moench, George Perez and Mike Esposito), when he cut a deal with the Kree and forced Black Bolt to give up the thrown to protect the rest of his family.

As you might suspect, all that required was for the Inhumans in danger to be saved in the next issue, and Black Bolt was right back to being in charge.

Maximus tried a couple of other plots that were a bit less notable, like in Avengers Annual #12 (by Bill Mantlo, Butch Guice and Rick Magyar), he switched bodies with Black Bolt as part of a plot to conquer Attilan (which by now was set on the moon). But when he saw that they planned to kill Medusa, he allowed Black Bolt to stop the plot.

And in X-Factor Annual #2 (by Jo Duffy, Tom Grindberg and Joe Rubinstein), he planned to use Quicksilver to capture Franklin Richards so that he could use Franklin Richards' abilities to take over the moon.

That was how Quicksilver's jerky behavior in the late 1980s was ultimately explained: It was that Maximus had controlled his mind.

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Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee's 1998-1999 Inhumans maxiseries brought Maximus back to strictly a behind-the-scenes manipulator. He wasn't really trying to do revolutions anymore so much as to control things from the shadows.

However, he was then able to make a bigger move in the miniseries, Silent War (by David Hine and Frazer Irving), where he tricked Medusa into allowing him to take over the minds of the Inhumans once more.

Black Bolt came back again, though, and took back control of the Inhumans. That was the last time that Maximus actively tried to revolt. In the years since, he has instead embraced his behind-the-scenes talents, working first as Medusa's top adviser (when Black Bolt was presumed dead) and later, actually teaming with his brother for a time to stop Thanos during Infinity. Later, though, when Maximus partnered with the villainous Cabal to help destroy other Earths during the Incurison era (something that Maximus was doing out of what he felt was actually for the best for the world), he then briefly mind-controlled his own brother. Rather than use him to take over the Inhumans, though, he mostly did other villainous stuff.

Most recently, he has been especially working as a behind-the-scenes villain. It will likely only be a matter of time, though, before he tries to pull off another revolution, just like he seems to be ready to do on the Inhumans TV series.


Premiering tonight at 8 ET/PT on ABC, Marvel's Inhumans stars Anson Mount as Black Bolt, Iwan Rheon as Maximus the Mad, Serinda Swan as Queen Medusa, Ken Leung as Karnak, Isabelle Cornish as Crystal, Eme Ikwuakor as Gorgon, Mike Moh as Triton and Sonya Balmores as Auran.