Maximillian Coleridge (Earth-616)

Shroud
Name	Maximillian Quincy Coleridge
Current Alias	Shroud
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly Heroes For Hire, Night Shift, Secret Avengers (Civil War), Cult of Kali
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	6′2″ (1.88 m)
Weight	220 lbs (99.79 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Blue
Hair	Blond
Unusual Features	Kali-shaped scar covering most of his face.
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Manhattan, New York
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Currently running family business; adventurer, vigilante, previously crimelord
Education	BS in law and criminology
Base of Operations	New York City, New York; previously Los Angeles, California
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Steve Englehart, Herb Trimpe
First	Super-Villain Team-Up #5 (January, 1976)
First	Super-Villain Team-Up #5 (January, 1976)

History

Early Life

Max Coleridge was only ten when his parents gunned down right before his eyes. He decided to dedicate his life to fighting crime. He received a Bachelor of Science in Law at college.

Cult of Kali

Upon graduation from college, he joined the mysterious temple called "Cult of Kali", where he studied various styles of martial arts. After seven years of intense training, he graduated from that temple. During the celebration ceremony, he was branded with the "Kiss of Kali," a red-hot iron. Following a period of intense pain and hospitalization, he realized that his eyesight had been replaced by a mystic extrasensory perception.

Shroud

File:Shroud 001.jpg

The Shroud

Traveling back to America, he adopted the identity of Shroud. The Shroud spied on the Fantastic Four. He followed them to Latveria when Dr. Doom battled Namor. Shroud wanted to kill Doom for his crimes against humanity. But he fails in his mission. Namor and the Shroud tried to escape the country. They are captured by a Doombot; who reveals his identity as Prince Rudolfo the former heir to the throne. He came close to it when Doom had teamed-up with the Red Skull. The two villains were too strong for Shroud to handle alone. He was shot by a ray built by the villains, which sent Shroud into outer space. He was rescued by Captain America. Captain America brought Shroud back to Earth, but because of his time in space, Shroud became insane and it took him quite a while to recover.

Spider-Woman

He teamed up with Spider-Woman to fight the Cult of Kali

Vigilante

While on his mission to fight crime he battled Crooked Man. He also helped Spider-Man and Werewolf by Night battle Dansen Macabre and Tatterdemalion

Contest of Champions

He was one of the many heroes recruited into the Contest of Champions.

Locksmith

He was kidnapped and imprisoned by the Locksmith along with; Tigra, the Werewolf, Poltergeist, Angar the Screamer, Daddy Longlegs, Dansen Macabre, Gypsy Moth, Hangman, Killer Shrike, Needle, Nekra, Flying Tiger and Tatterdemalion. But they are rescued by Spider-Woman.

Spider-Womans's Coma

He helped Spider-Woman when she was trapped in a coma.

West Coast Avengers

Spider-Woman asked Shroud to keep an eye on Tigra when she joined the Avengers West Coast He helped the Avengers battle the Masters of Evil.

Night Shift

After this recovery, Shroud discovered that he was able to tap into the Darkforce Dimension. He went undercover in Los Angeles and built a reputation as a criminal so he could destroy their world from within. This led him to create the group known as the Night Shift. Behind the scenes, Shroud made a deal with the West Coast Avengers not to interfere with his activities underground, but during a battle, Shroud went missing and the Night Shift battled the Avengers, causing a strain between the groups. The team went up against Moon Knight Working with Hakweye they went up against Speedo and Zipper He left Night Shift and went back to his solo work.

Solo Adventures

He fought Firefly and a criminal named Manny., the Deacon He teamed up with the New Warriors. Spider-Man and Shroud went up against the Screaming Masks of Cytorrak. Teaming up with allies Cat and Mouse they fought crime through New York He stopped two muggers.)

Civil War

File:Shroud.JPG

During the Superhero Civil War, Shroud was opposed to the Superhero Registration Act and was fighting it openly against S.H.I.E.L.D.. With his new lover Arachne, he had plans to fight the act. Unfortunately, S.H.I.E.L.D. proved to be too good at their job and tracked Shroud and discovered Arachne's double cross. Despite Shroud asking Julia to not risk herself for her daughter, they both went on the run. Eventually, Shroud was evidently captured and transferred to a prison in the Negative Zone. He was freed when the anti-registration forces stormed the prison, and was present at the final battle between the two factions.

Shadowland

File:Shadowland (Shroud) 005.jpg

Shadowland

Shroud recently resurfaced in the midst of Shadowland; when Daredevil ordered ninja clan, The Hand, into dispensing justice on New York streets. When the bodies of mobsters and suspected child-pornographers were discovered brutally murdered baring the Hand insignia, Shroud investigated the deaths as strange and vicious beyond that which Daredevil would decree. Alongside private investigator Misty Knight, mercenary-for-hire Paladin and Symkarian bounty hunter Silver Sable, Shroud determined that the murders were in fact committed by furious, embittered policemen posing as Hand ninja. It is presumed that Shroud continued to aid the other New-York based superheroes in the redemption of Hell's Kitchen from Shadowland.

Heroes for Hire

File:Shroud from Heroes for Hire Vol 3 9.jpg

In the wake of Shadowland Misty reformed Heroes For Hire, this time taking a withdrawn role and directing other heroes.After being kidnapped and held prisoner by Puppet Master, Shroud was forced to act as a liaison for a new, loose-knit Heroes for Hire. They fought the Worthy, Purple Man in the Raft

Spider-Island

Shroud and the team battled hoards of spider-mutated New Yorkers during Spider-Island.

Daredevil

When Daredevil was in San Francisco he search for the Owl ended in Alcatraz, where he was found being inhumanly used by the Shroud to power a surveillance super-computer to find his ex-girlfriend, Julia Carpenter. Matt's interference prompted the Shroud to broadcast malefic footage of his personal and professional life. In the middle of the fight, which transpired away from Fisk, the Shroud intervened and killed Ikari . Matt took Ikari's costume, and distracted Kingpin long enough to let the Shroud and Jubula trick the Owl into using the surveillance system to bring to light all of Fisk's operations, and ruin his criminal career.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

Darkforce Projection: The Shroud possesses the mystical ability to summon Darkforce by opening a mystical portal into the Darkforce Dimension and drawing its thick, inky atmosphere in various quantities into Earth's dimension. This darkness is not simply the absence of light, but the negation of it. No illumination can penetrate it. It is unknown how much of this darkness the Shroud can summon at once. He can blanket a small auditorium in darkness within several seconds. The darkness he projects does not fill a volume instantly: it is possible to see its hazy boundary move like thick, black smoke in the air. There appears to be no limit to the length of time the Shroud can maintain the darkness. However, if the Shroud is rendered unconscious the darkness seems to be naturally drawn through the portal from whence it came. The Shroud has control over the darkness so as to create hazy-edged, featureless black shapes with it, the complexity of which is limited only by his imagination. He frequently forms the darkness into his own shadow in order to serve as a decoy. Unlike Darkstar's Darkforce, the darkness possesses no mass, and unlike Cloak, the Shroud is unable to travel into and out of the dimension from which he draws his darkness.

Psychic Perception: The Shroud possesses a mystical sense of perception enabling him to "see" even through his own mantle of darkness. This mystical sense gives him psychic impressions of his environment within a radius of about 100 feet of him. Unlike Daredevil, the Shroud can receive non-visual sensory impressions through solid objects. Thus, he can perceive people and objects in the room next to him with the ease that he can perceive the contents of the room he is in.

Abilities

The Shroud is an Olympic level athlete with extensive training in several styles of Asian martial arts, and is adept at acrobatics, infiltration and criminology.

See Also

• 80 appearance(s) of Maximillian Coleridge (Earth-616)
• 13 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Maximillian Coleridge (Earth-616)
• 5 minor appearance(s) of Maximillian Coleridge (Earth-616)
• 11 mention(s) of Maximillian Coleridge (Earth-616)
• 7 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Maximillian Coleridge (Earth-616)
• 58 image(s) of Maximillian Coleridge (Earth-616)
• 3 quotation(s) by or about Maximillian Coleridge (Earth-616)
• 1 victim(s) killed by Maximillian Coleridge (Earth-616)