MAXIMIZEMAXIMIZE
History:
Lucas Banks was a student attending Empire City University on a football scholarship when an accident granted super-powers. Lucas had been visiting his parents in the Mid-West when he came across a strange glowing rock, probably part of a meteor shower Lucas had seen the previous night. Before Lucas could get a good look at the meteor, however, it exploded in blinding flash of light bombarding the young man with alien radiation. At first Lucas thought nothing of the incident but he later realized that the radiation had changed him. While working on his father's farm he discovered that he had gained superhuman strength and could grow to almost ten times his normal height.
When he returned to school in Empire City Lucas did his best to hide his new abilities but he wound up using them to help the city's resident hero team, the Guardians, in a battle against one of their enemies. Quick thinking by the Guardians prevented the public from learning Lucas' real name and the team invited the young man to join them. Realizing the good he could do with his powers, Lucas agreed and adopted the code-name Maximize, using a mask to conceal his true identity when in action with the Guardians.
During the few months he was with the team Maximize proved himself time and again to be a valuable asset to the group. However, Lucas was spending a little too much as Maximize and eventually lost his scholarship and was kicked out of university. Maximize was one of the few members of the Guardians left after the team's losing battle against the Millennium Giant, Sekhmet. In the aftermath of that battle the team's leader, Paladin, officially disbanded the what was left of the Guardians. As a final act, the wealthy Paladin created a trust fund for Lucas and helped him get into Ivy University.
Lucas is back at school now, focusing intently on his studies, but he still has his costume and there is a good chance that Maximize will be seen again some day.
Powers and Abilities:
Before the accident which gave him his powers, Lucas Banks was a gifted athlete with the potential to become a great football quarterback. The alien radiation from the meteorite enhanced Lucas' physical abilities, enhancing his agility and reflexes to the level of a medal-winning Olympic athlete and giving him superhuman strength and endurance. Lucas was now able to lift several dozen tons with minimal effort and was difficult to hurt, nothing short of heavy-caliber machine-gun fire could harm him. On top of his already prodigious strength, Maximize could increase his size and mass. The maximum height Lucas was seen to achieve was slightly above 50 feet and at that size his strength rivaled that of Superman and he could shrug off anything short of a multi-kiloton explosion.
