Ebony Maw was a member of Thanos' Black Order. He is not a fighter, but a dangerous thinker of the Black Order.[2] When Thanos targeted Earth as the next planet he would raze during the Infinity storyline, Ebony Maw was dispatched to deal with Doctor Strange.[3]
Ebony Maw used his abilities to control Doctor Strange and force him to summon Shuma-Gorath.[4] When the Illuminati travel around the world to find Thanos' son Thane, Doctor Strange finds him in a hidden Inhuman city of Orollan in Greenland before freeing himself from Maw's control.[5]
When Black Bolt detonates a Terrigen Bomb, spreading Terrigen Mists across Earth, Thane undergoes Terrigenesis and gains the ability to kill anyone with a touch.[6] However, he cannot control his powers, so Ebony Maw gives him a containment suit.[7] When the Avengers arrive in Orollan to battle Thanos, Maw convinces Thane to assist the latter and becomes his mentor.[8]
Ebony Maw has genius-level intellect. He mostly demonstrates his intelligence with his highly skilled abilities of manipulation being described as a "black tongue that spreads mischief and evil wherever he goes."[10] Maw's skills at manipulation are a result of his superhumanly persuasive voice, which allows him to control even the strongest minds such as Doctor Strange.[11] Maw's other abilities include telekinesis and pyrokinesis.[12][13]
He also uses technology that provides for teleportation and force field generation.[14][15]
Ebony Maw appears in media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, voiced and motion-captured by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor.[16][17][18][19] This version has telekinetic abilities and serves as Thanos' herald, perversely evangelizing to the inhabitants of worlds that Thanos attacks that they are actually being saved and the ones who are dead or dying should "rejoice" in their deaths bringing balance to the universe.
An alternate timeline version of Maw appears in the live-action film Avengers: Endgame.[20] He joins his timeline's Thanos in time traveling to the prime timeline to stop the Avengers, only to be disintegrated along with them by Stark via the Infinity Stones.[21]
Ebony Maw appears as an unlockable playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 via the "Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War Movie Level Pack" DLC.[26]
^ abcd"Ebony Maw Voices (Marvel Universe)". Behind the Voice Actors. Retrieved April 28, 2018. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
