Electro (Maxwell "Max" Dillon) is a fictional supervillain that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. An enemy of Spider-Man, he gained the ability to control electricity after being struck by lightning while working on a power line. The character has been depicted in numerous Spider-Man cartoons and video games. In 2009, he was ranked as IGN's 87th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

The character made his cinematic debut in 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, portrayed by actor Jamie Foxx.

Biography

While Maxwell Dillon, an electrical engineer and lineman, was repairing a power line, a freak lightning accident caused a mutagenic change that transformed him into a living electrical capacitor. His powers were initially weak, so he spent some time stealing electrical equipment from Stark Industries to charge himself. During this time, he was approached by Magneto, who considered him a potential recruit for his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, claiming that Dillon's power rivaled his own, but Dillon refused. The following day, Dillon was confronted by a small-time thug from whom he had been borrowing money to pay for the machinery he had needed. When the thug drew a gun on him because he had not paid back the money yet, he responded by shooting a blast of lightning through the thug's chest—the first time Dillon ever killed anybody. Soon taking the name "Electro", he turned to a life of a professional criminal, his first victim being J. Jonah Jameson. Electro broke into the Daily Bugle Building and stole from Jameson's safe right in front of him. Jameson accused Spider-Man of being an alternate identity of Electro, prompting Spider-Man to prove the publisher wrong. During their first ever confrontation, Electro defeated Spider-Man using his electrically charged touch. Spider-Man eventually used a fire hose to short-circuit Electro while wearing rubber gloves to protect himself.

Electro next confronted Daredevil for the first time when trying to break into the Baxter Building. He was again defeated. Electro later joined the original Sinister Six, and was the first member of the group to fight Spider-Man, battling him at a Stark plant, when Spider-Man dodged a bolt of electricity he realized his powers had returned. Electro lost his power when the power was cut off by Spider-Man. Spider-Man got a card from him that led him to fight Kraven the Hunter. Electro attacked the Fantastic Four at the wedding of Sue Storm and Reed Richards, under the control of Doctor Doom's mind-control machine, but due to Mister Fantastic he, like the other villains, has no memory of the incident. He later recruited the second Emissaries of Evil in a plot of revenge against Daredevil for previous defeats. This group consisted of Gladiator, Stilt-Man, Leap-Frog, and the Matador.

Electro was later hired by J. Jonah Jameson to defeat Spider-Man on national television. He encountered Daredevil again in San Francisco, at which time he temporarily donned a modified costume. He then took control of a Protarian android seeking the destruction of Omega. Electro then teamed with Blizzard against Spider-Man and Daredevil. Electro then attempted to aid a band of criminals escaping the Defenders.

Electro later joined the Frightful Four. As part of the Frightful Four, he used Spider-Man as bait to trap the Fantastic Four. Subsequently, he battled the Falcon but was defeated, partly because he did not consider the Falcon to be a serious threat. Electro later learned that he can electro-statically disrupt Spider-Man's wall-crawling ability. The Chameleon and Hammerhead then sent the Shocker to try to recruit Electro into their organization. Instead, he later accepted Doctor Octopus' invitation to rejoin the Sinister Six, and battled Spider-Man.

Electro has fought Spider-Man countless times, either on his own or as part of a group such as the Sinister Six. He has also fought such other heroes as Daredevil, Fantastic Four, and the New Avengers. Despite his immense power, he has almost always been defeated, usually as a result of his foes outsmarting him or taking advantage of his weakness to water while charged.

As a result of his frequent and often embarrassing defeats, Electro tried to take over New York City's power supply in an attempt at glory and respect. Spider-Man thwarted this plan, however, and convinced Electro to quit his criminal career. When Kaine (Spider-Man's insane clone) started killing enemies of Spider-Man, Electro began to fear for his life and temporarily joined Mysterio's Sinister Seven, which had been formed to combat Kaine. This group was quickly disbanded, and following Kaine's subsequent disappearance, Electro returned to retirement.

This changed when the Rose agreed to fund an experimental technique that would amplify Electro's abilities, in exchange for Electro's services as an enforcer. Seeing this as a chance to rise above the string of failures that had made up so much of his life, Electro underwent the procedure. After paying off his debt to the Rose by defeating several members of The True Believers (an offshoot of the famous ninja sect called the Hand), a group of ninja assassins who had been interfering in the Rose's operations, Electro attempted to demonstrate his newly amplified powers to the world, once again attempting to take control of New York City's power supply. Wearing an insulated suit, Spider-Man stopped him. Electro, in an effort to make a final grand gesture, threw himself into the Hudson River while his body was highly charged, seemingly killing himself in an explosion.

Somehow surviving, Electro resurfaced later as part of the re-formed Sinister Six, formed to kill Senator Stewart Ward and Doctor Octopus (whom the other members of the Six now hated due to his arrogance). His powers had seemingly reverted to their pre-amplification level, and he wore a new blue-and-white costume. When Venom betrayed his fellow Sinister Six members, attempting to kill them one by one, he attacked Electro and left him for dead. Once again, Electro survived, and when he next appeared had returned to his yellow-and green-costume.

Electro was working with the Vulture when they were attacked by Spider-Man who thought they had kidnapped his Aunt May. Electro managed to bring Spider-Man to the edge of defeat, using his powers in more intelligent ways and blowing up a large number of cars, including some with children in them. After a devastating battle, Spider-Man defeated him by fighting him to a gas refinery. The badly wounded Electro recovered fairly quickly, and shortly afterwards joined the Sinister Twelve, assembled by the Green Goblin, though he and the rest of the team was defeated thanks to the intervention of the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Man and Yellowjacket.



Later, separately, he was hired by the Skrull Pagon (posing as Elektra) to free Karl Lykos (also known as Sauron) from The Raft, a maximum-security prison for supervillains. After causing a riot, Electro tried to run away with his waitress girlfriend, but was captured by the New Avengers, subsequently fainting when faced with the prospect of being beaten up by Luke Cage, using Spider-Man's webbing to protect himself from Electro.

Later, Electro joined Chameleon's "Exterminators", seeking to take advantage of Peter Parker and his loved ones.

During the Civil War storyline, Electro was among the villains in Hammerhead's unnamed villain army when Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D. raided the hideout.

In Secret Invasion, Electro appears as member of Hood's crime syndicate and attacked a Skrull force. After the Skrull posing as Jarvis kidnaps the baby of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four begin going after everyone who is associated with the Skrulls. Because of this, Electro is confronted by Wolverine in an alley where, after a battle, he leaves Dillon beaten and unconscious.

Electro returns in The Gauntlet, with a new look as his face is now scarred with lightning bolts. The revamp was explained by writer Mark Waid, stating that artist Paul Azaceta "tweaked the design a bit, adding some burn scars to reflect Electro's current situation. As Electro gets older, as his body chemistry starts to shift into middle age, his powers are becoming more erratic and less easy for him to control. So he turns to a surprise Marvel villain - someone rarely, if ever, seen in the pages of Amazing - to level up." During his appearance in "The Guantlet", it is revealed that Electro has lost control over his powers: besides the physical disfigurment, his touch is now 100% lethal. Depressed and angry at the world because of this, Electro begins gathering other outcasts and misfits into a group known as "Power To The People", which targets right-wing newspaper baron Dexter Bennett and the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of the 2008 Financial Crisis. Electro's group manages to gain positive coverage in the media, hampering Spider-Man's ability to convince Electro's followers of his true evil nature. Electro's duplicitous nature causes him to betray his followers in order to align with the amoral Bennett in exchange for help finding a way to restore his powers to a controllable level. The Mad Thinker is able to come up with a process to cure Electro, but Spider-Man interferes with the process, turning Electro into an artificial electrical thunderbolt. Furious, Electro double-crosses Bennett and ultimately uses his new powers to destroy The DB building, crippling Bennett in the process. In doing so, Electro uses up so much of his newfound power that Spider-Man is able to neutralize him with his webbing. In the epilogue, Electro runs into Sasha Kravinoff and Chameleon in his new jail cell. In the following issue involving Sandman, it is revealed that Electro has escaped. Under the orders of the Kravinoffs, he breaks the Vulture (Jimmy Natale) out of prison.

During the Heroic Age storyline, it is suspected by the Young Allies that Electro had a discarded and disavowed daughter named Aftershock (similar to the MC2 Universe version) who is a member of the Bastards of Evil. When Young Allies members Firestar and Gravity fight Electro, he defeats them. He let them live so that they can spread the message that he does not endorse Aftershock and the Bastards of Evil's terrorism. He also says they can look up how and when he got his powers on the internet and there no way a girl of Aftershock's age could have been conceived after he got his powers: It's impossible for him to be Aftershock's father.

Electro is later present at the scene where Mattie Franklin is sacrificed by Sasha Kravinoff as part of a ritual that resurrects Vladimir Kravinoff as a large humanoid lion creature.

During the "Origin of the Species" storyline, Electro is among the supervillains invited by Doctor Octopus to join his supervillain team where they are promised that they will receive a reward in exchange for securing some specific items. Electro goes after Spider-Man for Menace's infant. Anticipating Spider-Man's plan to deliver the infant to a hospital, Electro waits at the nearest hospital in Spider-Man's area until Spider-Man shows up. The two begin to battle until Sandman interferes and Spider-Man tricks Electro into electrocuting Sandman, turning him into glass. Flying shards of glass hit Electro, temporarily stunning him and allowing Spider-Man to escape. Spider-Man goes on an angry rampage against all the villains after the Chameleon tricks him into thinking the infant is dead. He defeats Electro in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn.

In the Big Time storyline, Electro becomes a member of Doctor Octopus' new Sinister Six and helps Chameleon break into an air force base in New Jersey. Electro was with the Sinister Six when it came to fighting Intelligencia. During a conflict between the Intelligencia and the Sinister Six, Mad Thinker was able to briefly deactivate Electro's powers, but was caught off-guard when Electro physically attacked him instead, the surprise of the attack allowing Electro to defeat Mad Thinker. During the Ends of the Earth storyline, despite the Sinister Six being prepared for a fight with the Avengers, Electro was the first of the team to be defeated, being hurled into the upper atmosphere by Thor while distracted by his inability to attack Spider-Man's new hi-tech armor.

Electro returns to Earth and attempts to avenge himself on Thor by forcing an A.I.M. scientist to convert him to generate protons instead of electrons, but he is defeated when Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in Spider-Man's body) manages to convert him into a stream of protons and traps him. Superior Spider-Man places Electro in containment next to Sandman in his hidden underwater lab. Electro, Chameleon, Sandman, Mysterion, and the Vulture are later seen as part of a team led by Superior Spider-Man called the "Superior Six". Superior Spider-Man has been temporarily controlling their minds in order to redeem them for their crimes. He does this by forcing them do heroic deeds against their will some of which almost get some of them killed. Every time he is done controlling them, he puts them back in their containment cells. They eventually break free of Superior Spider-Man's control and attempt to exact revenge on the wall-crawler, while nearly destroying New York in order to do so. With the help of Sun Girl, Superior Spider-Man is barely able to stop the Superior Six.

Electro was seen battling the Punisher in Los Angeles, California.

Following the conclusion of The Superior Spider-Man storyline returning the true Spider-Man, Electro comes into the Bar With No Name and is introduced to the Hobgoblin's servants by his friend and bartender Deke. The villains start joking about the gloomy Electro. One mentions how Thor launched him into space. Another about how "Spider-Man" made him part of the Superior Six. And yet another about how Electro was taken out by the Punisher despite the latter's lack of powers. Electro gets angry and starts sparking, but the bartender gets the situation under control by commenting on how bad the Punisher is and with compliments like breaking so many villains out of the Raft, which earned him the respect of Crossbones and Count Nefaria. This does not stop the others, however. Determined to get respect, Electro heads back over to the Raft, ready for another breakout despite Green Goblin having done the same just recently and the fact that it was re-christened as Spider-Island II. He sends a blot of electricity around, but it grows excessively big, and Electro cannot turn it off. He finally exhausts all of his power, but when this happens he passes out and many of the villains he tried to break out are now dead. Vowing revenge, Electro soon realizes what caused this to happen to him about experiments of "Spider-Man". Peter Parker is having Parker Industries test out an anti-Electro netting when it comes to capturing Electro. Electro is later seen with Black Cat when they raid Eel's hideout where Electro defeats Eel. Electro and Black Cat later crash the meeting between Mister Negative and Phil Urich (who is leading the remnants of the Goblin Underground as the self-proclaimed Goblin King) where they throw Eel's body into the area where the meeting is. During Peter Parker's interview on the Fact Channel, Electro attacks the security team on the channel and Black Cat arrives announcing her demand that if Spider-Man does not show up in fifteen minutes, Peter Parker will be dead. Electro complains about the plan but Black Cat stays determined that Spider-Man will show up, but then Silk arrives to confront the both, giving Peter the time to change into Spider-Man and jump into action naming Silk. As she battles against Electro and Spider-Man deals with Black Cat, J. Jonah Jameson remains on the channel forcing the cameraman to film the action. Electro fails to stop Silk, but Black Cat deviate one of Electro's bolts hitting Spider-Man, knocking him down in the process. Electro pressures Sajani into telling him how effective the Anti-Electro traps will be in removing his powers, but Black Cat interrupts their talk in order to ask her about how the device works. They both infiltrate the demonstration suiting Electro into the "Fake Electro" costume while Black Cat disguises herself as one of the operators. Black Cat starts the machine, further enhancing Electro's power only to be interrupted by Spider-Man and Silk. Electro tries to escape but his insulated webbing protects him by allowing Silk to cover Electro with her webbing. Black Cat changes the plan using the wiring to overload Electro by putting his powers way out of control shooting his lightning bolts against the helicopter, Silk rescues the helicopter and Spider-Man jumps into the machine, using his webbing to cover Electro in order to take him out of there. Electro asks to let go, but Spider-Man remains determined to save him until they both are saved by Silk who pulls them out of the machine from the explosion which failed to kill Spider-Man as Black Cat wanted and escapes. However, Electro was apparently depowered and taken into custody.

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