Maxwell Plumm (Earth-616)

Steeplejack
Name	Maxwell Plumm
Current Alias	Steeplejack
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Eyes	Irises: Black
Hair	Brown
Unusual Features	Moustache
Origin and Living Status
Living Status	Deceased
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Death	The Bar with No Name, Medina County, Ohio
Personal Information
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Building contractor; criminal
Base of Operations	New York City
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Len Wein, George Tuska
First	Power Man #18 (January, 1974)
First	Power Man #18 (January, 1974)
Death	Captain America #319 (April, 1986)
Death	Captain America #319 (April, 1986)

History

Maxwell Plumm was a building contractor in New York City. He was indebted with crime boss Dominic Varone. To pay his debts, he was forced to perform budget cuts in his projects (including sub-standard materials and security practices), which caused different security failures. Of course, he kept it as a secret to his employees.

Eventually, two of his construction workers fell to their deaths due to a sudden wind slipping the cable of a girder. A surviving worker was Jake Mallard, brother of the two victims. Mallard discovered Plumm's illicit activities and swore to get revenge on him. He made some construction-tool-like weapons and used a secret identity as the Steeplejack. The Steeplejack tried to kill Plumm by throwing him from the top of one of his buildings. However, Power Man was coincidentially near the area, witnessing the scene, and rushed to save Plumm. After exchanging some punches, the Steeplejack threw Plumm from the building, and Power Man had to save him. Plumm was knocked down because of the fight.

However, when the police arrived (and the Steeplejack was long gone), Plumm awoke and hired Power Man as bodyguard. He did not explain Power Man the motivations of Steeplejack - although Steeplejack himself would.

During a second fight with Power Man, Steeplejack used advanced weaponry but was nevertheless defeated and killed. However, Plumm noticed the Steeplejack's gear and found it interesting, so he savaged and reproduced it; he wanted to patent and sell Mallard's inventions. He also began a new project, Monarch Plaza, and continued his budget-cutting tactics.

This new project involved a worker named Joseph Danvers, who was the father of super-heroine Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers). Due to Plumm's illicit activities, Danvers was almost killed by the impact of materials thrown by a wind - and he would have died if his daughter were not there to save his life. Joe Danvers threatened Plumm because of the event, but Plumm counter-threatened Danvers.

Danvers, suspicious of Plumm, decided to investigate him and asked his friends from NOW Magazine to research about his past. Through this means, Danvers discovered Plumm's debts with organized crime and his budget cuts. She reported the authorities about this.

Meanwhile, Plumm disguised as the second Steeplejack. He had a slighter complexion than Mallard, and thus he could fool no-one pretending to be the original Steeplejack. However, he designed a completely-different costume, and other weaponry. He used it to kidnap Joe Danvers and itnended to throw him from the Monarch Plaza. He was unaware of Ms. Marvel's seventh sense, that alerted her. Ms. Marvel flew to rescue his father, but was forced to knock Joe down to stop Joe from fighting the Steeplejack.

Ms. Marvel had red about the original Steeplejack and recognized the weapons, but she probably never saw any picture, because she thought Plumm was the first Steeplejack. Soon she noticed that Plumm did not speak like school-dropout Mallard, and that he had a firstly-unseen padded costume. She then discovered the Steeplejack's secret identity.

The Steeplejack tried to slam Ms. Marvel to an elevator he had filled with dynamite, and then cut the cable. However, Ms. Marvel simply flew back to the battle. The Steeplejack tried a rapid-succession fire, and due to this he sent debris towards the dynamite. He caused an explosion that levelled the building and stunned him enough to be captured by Ms. Marvel.

Plumm probably went to jail after that, but he eventually escaped or was fred. He was then contacted by Gary Gilbert, a former customed criminal turned into business agent for criminals. Gilbert was worried about the Scourge of the Underworld, a masked figure who was killing customed criminals such as Gilbert and Plumm. Gilbert organized a meeting in the The Bar with No Name, Medina County, Ohio, to discuss potential counter-attacks. As the Scourge was known to use weapons instead of powers, weapons were to be left at the door - even although the Steeplejack protested at this. However, the Scourge infiltrated in the meeting disguised as the bartender and shot down all the seventeen criminals (including Plumm) wielding a cut-down .50 submachine gun in each hand.

Attributes

Powers

None

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Padded costume

Weapons

A rivet gun that could also fire several forms of energy and force (including light and heat), red-hot rivets and a cable.

See Also

• 4 appearance(s) of Maxwell Plumm (Earth-616)
• 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Maxwell Plumm (Earth-616)
• 1 mention(s) of Maxwell Plumm (Earth-616)
• 4 image(s) of Maxwell Plumm (Earth-616)