Moses Magnum

Moses Magnum is a fictional supervillain first appeared in Giant-Size Spider-Man #04 (April 1975), and was created by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru.[197] He is an arms dealer and terrorist. He received an entry in the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #6 (2006). According to Phillip Lamarr Cunningham, he is the "closest Marvel has gotten to a true black supervillain."[198]

Magnum was born in Ethiopia, but sided with Benito Mussolini's occupying army against his own people. Magnum later became a naturalized American citizen. He became president of the Deterrence Research Corporation (DRC), the world's foremost independent weapons manufacturing firm. As an arms expert, Magnum battled Spider-Man and the Punisher. Magnum surprisingly survived after the Punisher exposed him to chemical weapons. Then, he seemingly fell to his death after a battle with Luke Cage. However, Magnum was rescued by Apocalypse and granted superhuman powers which Magnum dubbed his "Magnum Force".[201] His powers included superhuman strength and geologically-based powers to cause earthquakes and sense disruptions in the Earth.

Tyrannus and his allies, They Who Wield Power, secretly give Magnum technology which enhances his superhuman strength and the power to focus vast amounts of energy so as to trigger earthquakes. Magnum next threatened to create earthquakes to sink Japan unless he was named the nation's ruler. His plan was foiled by an assault by the X-Men and Sunfire on Magnum's Kuril Islands headquarters. Banshee disrupted Magnum's earthquake beam, but suffered a long-term loss of his own sonic powers in the process.

Re-establishing his company as Magnum Munitions, Magnum purchased the classified Deathlok cyborg technology from Cybertek. After the criminal High-Tech stole the technology, Magnum sent one of his agents in a massive Terrordome weapons platform to retrieve it, but was thwarted by Deathlok. Magnum subsequently bid against rival weapons manufacturers A.I.M. for a defense contract, destroying their world headquarters after they refused to withdraw their bid. Magnum used the subsequent profits to outfit a new army, conquering the African nation Canaan and seeking to restructure it into a homeland for African-Americans. Magnum then sought to ensure Canaan's economic independence by invading neighboring Wakanda, but Wakanda's king, the Black Panther, foiled the invasion with Deathlok's aid.

Later, Magnum's efforts to regain control of his power and destroy a floating resort using a stolen experimental seismic cannon were foiled by the combined efforts of the Avengers and future Avenger Triathlon. His own powers opened a fissure beneath him, seemingly sending him falling to his doom. Magnum somehow survived the fall, though how has not been revealed. At that time. He was present at the Pan-African Congress on the Treatment of Superhumans.

He next encountered Spider-Man. During the Dark Reign storyline, Moses escaped from prison through a plot by Norman Osborn to give Daken good publicity and was almost killed by a massive explosion intended by Osborn to clean up the resulting mess.

Magnum next appeared in Iron Man/Thor attempting to sell a special satellite he invented.

Moses Magnum's body generates seismic force which amplifies his natural strength, gives him an unknown degree of durability and attunes him to seismic vibrations. He can unleash this energy to cause vibratory shock waves, minor tremors or devastating earthquakes. These waves will emanate from his body in all directions unless he purposefully tries to channel them in a single direction, usually along the length of his arms and through the tips of his fingers.