Maxamillion Mars:

Max

Identity: Maximillian Mars • Affiliation: MarsTech Corporation • Base of Operations: Portland, OR Ethnicity: White • Nationality: United States citizen Age: 45 • Gender: Male • Height: 6' • Weight: 225 lb Eyes: Green • Hair: Brown • Other Features: Origin: • Power Level: ( Points: Abilities , Defenses , Skills , Advantages , Powers )

Maximilian Mars was born the son of a lawyer and a high school physics teacher, both Portland natives. A bright and studious boy, Mars graduated at the top of his class, and earned a doctorate in chemical engineering from CalTech in his early twenties. Pursuing childhood dreams that cast his vision toward the stars, Mars worked at a NASA facility for several years before he was recruited into the private sector, eventually returning home the Pacific Northwest to a corporate research laboratory in Seattle —just as the lab’s poor management lost the confidence of investors. Mars seized upon the company’s failure as his opportunity, spending money inherited from his recently deceased parents to purchase the company’s assets. He moved the headquarters to Portland and started MarsTech. Mars’ innovative ideas had been stifled under government and corporate overseers, but now had a chance to flourish. Six months later, MarsTech released its first product: photoreactive dyes that allowed the creation of MarsTech Programmable Paint, first adopted for military camouflage but quickly embraced by the world of fashion and consumer products. It was only the first of a dozen breakthroughs, from adaptive polymers to piezoelectric ceramics—most directly from the private laboratories of Maximilian Mars that have made Mars not only the richest man in Portland but one of the richest men in the country. Still wary of management and investors, Mars has remained in firm control of his company, even as it grew to become one of the largest employers in the city.

As MarsTech prospered, so did Portland! As the fortunes of MarsTech rose, crime rates in its home fell until Portland had one of the lowest crime rates in the country. From the Portland Opera and the Art Museum to Warm Kettle shelters for the homeless and Block Party community centers, MarsTech and Maximilian Mars have supported every aspect of Portland and helped it to be named one of the best places to live in the United States! While superhumans appeared in places like Los Angeles and Chicago, Maximilian Mars famously declared at the opening of the 2014 Portland City Expo that “in Portland, we can be our own heroes!”