Maxine Baker (DC)
Maxine Baker is a female comic character who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Maxine Baker was the red-haired daughter of Buddy Baker and Ellen Baker with her being born in the modern age on Earth. (Animal Man v1 #1)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Maxine Baker was the daughter of Buddy Baker and Ellen Baker where she had a grand destiny placed on her to be an avatar of the Red and champion for the Parliament of Limbs following the death of her predecessor. However, Maxine was a child who was ill-suited for the role at the time and thus the Totems decided to make her father an agent of the Red. They were responsible for the incident that made Buddy Baker appear to gain power following contact with aliens as they believed this would make him accept the role more readily. In reality though, he was purposed to both conceive and protect the true Avatar of the Red. Due to her role, Maxine had deep connections to the Life Web where she often entered into it in her dreams. (Animal Man v2 #3)
When she was just four years old, Maxine had wanted her family to get a pet very badly, but her father had refused, given his own sensitivity to animals. While her father was preoccupied with other things, though, she used her budding ability to control flesh to animate the corpses of several former neighbourhood pets. (Animal Man v2 #1) She explained that she had heard the animals calling to her from a place called The Red. Buddy had himself been called to go to the Red via a strange tattoo-like manifestation on his chest, which Maxine assured him would go away when he did enter the Red. Worried that his daughter's power seemed to exceed his own, Buddy followed her into the Red. (Animal Man v2 #2) Whilst there, the pair encountered the Totems of the Parliament of Limbs, whom Maxine had met in her dreams a great many times before. The Totems explained that it was Maxine who was meant to be Avatar of the Red from the beginning, and Buddy was merely meant to protect her and train her until she was ready to lead in the fight against the threat of The Rot. Not long after learning this, the Hunters Three infiltrated the Red and attacked Buddy. (Animal Man v2 #3) The Totems urged Maxine to use her powers to save him, and though she did, he was gravely injured. Using her powers again, she was able to heal him. The Totems revealed that the Hunters Three were former avatars who were corrupted by the Rot. They hoped to corrupt Maxine as well, and use her to spread the Rot. As such, it was all the more important that Buddy protect her. To aid him in this, the Totems offered one of their own - Ignatius - to take on the form of a simple house cat named Socks, and protect the young avatar as such where in Socks, Maxine finally had a pet. (Animal Man v2 #4)
Maxine, Buddy and Socks returned to her grandmother Mary's farm in Sacramento to rendezvous with her mother, though Socks was wary that the Hunters Three might be setting a trap for Maxine there. When he learned that his wife and son were in danger, Buddy left Maxine with her grandmother, and went after them. Intent on helping her father, she sent an impulse through the ground to all living things in the area. All of the animals she summoned rushed to Buddy's rescue, but when they are one of the Hunters, they too became infected with the Rot. In doing so, the Rot found its way into the Red, and Maxine was responsible. Only the Swamp Thing would be able to help them then. (Animal Man v2 #5) This led to them then travelling cross-country in order to find him. (Animal Man v2 #6)
Later on, the Baker family came to relocate to Central City where Maxine came to be enrolled at school there and quickly befriend Irey West. The two came to be close friends much to the annoyance of Irey's twin brother Jai West who felt that Maxine was a troublemaker. Maxine would invite her new friend to her home to see her stuffed animal collection. However, Irey's mother Linda West told her daughter that she could not go o a school night. This led to Irey sneaking out at night where she met Maxine and the two attempted to go to the Baker house. (The Flash v1 #777)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Maxine Baker was the daughter of Ellen Baker and her husband Buddy Baker who had been the superhero Animal Man with her also having an older brother named Cliff Baker. (Animal Man v1 #1)
Powers and abilities
In reality, she had deep ties to the Red that was a unified field linking all animal life together in the world. She was actually chosen to be an avatar for the Parliament of Limbs and operate as their champion in the world. Even as a child, she would visit the Red in her dreams and encountered its Totems that were all avatars of the Life Web. (Animal Man v2 #3)
Notes
- Maxine Baker was created by Grant Morrison and Chaz Truog where she made her first appearance in Animal Man v1 #1 (September, 1988).
Alternate Versions
Appearances
- Animal Man v1: (1988)
- Aquaman:
- Animal Man v2: (2011)
- The Flash v1:
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
