EARTH-MOVER
Real Name: Maximillian Stone
First Appearance: Iron Man (Vol. 1) #298, November 1993
Powers: Dr. Maximillian Stone was the Project Director of Stark Enterprises' Acheron Mountain Geothermal Research Facility which was designed inside of an extinct volcano to study geothermal energy. An earthquake occurred which impacted the facility's drill core.
In order to prevent the facility from being flooded by magma, Dr. Stone
attempted to shut down the drill manually by entering the facility's
core level deep within the volcano. An additional tremor created a
chasm, and Dr. Stone fell into a layer of magma. Dr. Stone was rescued by a sentient entity of living magma that had been drawn to the local magma currents caused by the drilling rig. Weakened by the cooler magma layer the entity had
found itself in, the entity could not maintain Dr. Stone's life for long
and would soon die. The entity proposed an alternative: To combine their forms, both physically and mentally, in order to
survive. Dr. Stone agreed, and the entity formed a rocky cocoon that
enveloped them both. Soon after, their essence became the rocky entity
which called itself Earth-Mover.
As Earth-Mover, his body was composed entirely of rock. He had superhuman strength and
durability. If damaged or broken, his body could reform itself. He could liquefy by raising his temperature to shift from solid rock into magma.
While in his magma form, he could liquefy other rock in his area on contact,
assimilating it to become a larger and stronger rock form when he
reverted to solid state. Although Earth-Mover still possessed the intellect and
faculties of Dr. Stone, he was unable at that time to clearly vocalize
his thoughts.
Dr. Maximillian Stone was a gifted intellect with a Ph.D. in geophysics. He was a geothermal scientist with expertise in drilling technology.
