Character-Ace Maelstrom

Character Details

Character Details
Real Name:	Ace Maelstrom
Birthplace:
Specialty:
Team Affiliation:	Midnight Men

Character Biography

Ace Maelstrom is the classic rogue. He made a name for himself over the skies of Europe during World War I, dog-fighting with the Germans in his Bi-Plane, the "Jersey Dame." He was one of the only flying Aces to have survived a direct encounter with the Red Baron, and made it his personal mission to be the man to shoot Von Richtoffen down.

He never got his chance.

The Red Baron was shot out of the sky by a Canadian while Ace was getting drunk in a Liverpool Tavern. Since that day, Ace has sworn that he was robbed of the chance to prove once and for all that he was the mightiest of the aerial knights.

After the war, he was contacted by Howard Hughes who was designing some secretive cutting-edge aircraft. Ace became Hughes' test-pilot for project "Sandstorm," and in the end, saw the completion of a highly maneuverable fighter plane called the "Sand Devil." It was bristling with weapons and the idea was that a fleet of these would be able to lay down so much fire as to be the equivalent of a sandstorm. The name was also apt because these planes were designed with a revolutionary turbine system in the wings that allowed for Verticle Take-off and Landing...an action which kicked up so much dust and dirt to make a man feel like he was in a sandstorm.

The government wanted the plane, of course, but Hughes didn't trust the Air Force to use them wisely. His scheme was to create a private airforce that could be deployed for defense of the country, and not for an invasion war.

That was when the Robots Attacked.

A force of terrifying robots from Planet X arrived on Earth, and began to attack New York. Ace and a few of his WWI cohorts took the only 10 Sand Devils off the production line, and engaged the alien threat over the skies of the east coast. It was a brutal battle, but in the end, with the aid of Dax Northender, MAX BINARY, and others, the Robots were defeated, and Ace Maelstrom was a hero once more.

The months that followed were a blur of publicity, women, and drunken revelry as Ace's ego swelled beyond proportion. He had a falling-out with Hughes over the fate of project Sandstorm, and when he was fired, Ace took his revenge on Hughes by leaving with the only Sand Devil still intact from the battle. He renamed it "The Jersey Devil."

Ace became a privateer, always looking for an adventure to get his name splashed across the headlines again. His exploits saw him sharing a great deal of the spotlight with Dax Northender, and eventually, the two came into conflict. Whereas Dax was interested in Adventure for the sake of history and humanity, Ace only wanted fame and women. The rivalry was more in Ace's head than anywhere else, and when he finally hit bottom, he hit hard.

The quest for fame had left him penniless and without a friend to his name. He was even forced to hock his plane for enough cash to keep him in booze. It was one night in a drunken depression that he loaded a bullet into his Walter P-38 and pointed it to his head. In that instant, when he was closest to death, he was visited by a ghost...it was Von Richtoffen...the Red Baron himself, from beyond the grave.

He told Ace that there was perhaps no man who could fall so far as a combat pilot. Ace told him that all he wanted to do was fly away from everything and everyone. The Baron replied that to fly was something a man did for himself...but to fly a fighter plane was something he did for everyone else. If Ace could find that within himself, he would at last become a better pilot than the Red Baron.

Ace woke up the next morning with new clarity on life. He returned to New York to begin helping people as best he could. He began working in soup kitchens and orphanages, starting with the people in most need of help. His efforts were eventually noticed by the press who either celebrated him for reforming, or villified him as simply looking for positive attention.

He ignored them all and continued with his charity work, eventually finding himself taking on the causes of the downtrodden, and beginning to fight against the city's crime families.

He was about to walk into Don Antonio's warehouse and rough-up his thugs for hassling the people of the East Village, when he was stopped by the GOTHAM SAINT. The masked vigilante told Ace that he had proven his intentions, but Ace wasn't a crime fighter, and he had no concept of the balance of power in the City's underground. He belonged in the skies, protecting the people as a whole. And with that, the Saint gave him the key to a safety deposit box, telling him to forget Don Antonio's thugs. The Saint would deal with them according to the Saint's master plan.

In the safety deposit box, Ace found stacks of cash. There was also the deed to a warehouse in Jersey City...Ace's home town. Inside the Warehouse, he found a fleet of new fighter planes, and in the middle was his Jersey Devil...the Saint must've bought it back from the collector Ace had sold it to.

From that point on, Ace Maelstrom assembled the best combat pilots from his tour in the war, and with the silent financial support of the Gotham Saint, he created his private air-force to protect the helpless from all threats. They became "Ace Maelstrom and the Hell Stormers."

Though he and Dax had never officially reconciled, Northender knew that Ace would be an invaluable asset to the Midnight Men. Especially with his private fleet of planes, and his prototype Jersey Devil.

Action Figures

Coming Soon