Screech (comics)

"For other uses of the word Screech, see Screech (disambiguation)."

Superherobox


caption=Screech. Art by Mark Bagley.
comic_color=background:#111111
character_name=Screech
real_name=Maxwell Taylor
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Venom: Lethal Protector" #2 (March, 1993)
creators=David Michelinie
Mark Bagley
alliance_color=background:#bbbbbb
status=active
alliances=The Jury
previous_alliances=
aliases=
relatives=Unknown
powers=No superhuman powers, body-armor, jet-boots, sonic weapons|

Maxwell "Max" Taylor aka Screech is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe.

Fictional character biography

Max Taylor aka Screech is a member of the armored vigilante group The Jury. Max's older brother Hugh was a Guardsman at the Vault a prison for super powered criminals. Hugh was murdered by Venom during his escape. Max and Hugh's father General Orwell Taylor was devastated at the loss of his son. To this end he recruited Max as well as friends of Hugh's from the Army and his fellow Guardsmen at the Vault and gave them Guardsman based armors designed to help them destroy Venom using weapons based on fire and sonics both of which are potentially lethal to Venom's symbiote. The Jury failed to kill Venom during their battles. They also battled Spider-Man and lost.

Screech often clashed with his father over the way he ran the Jury. Max had originally agreed to join the Jury as a way to bond with his emotionally distant father. Orwell evenually began to make shady deals with the Life Foundation of which he was a shareholder and the Jury became the bodyguards for their clientele's bunkers (designed to survive the end of the world). Eventually the Jury broke away from Orwell and found funding somewhere else. Orwell and Roland Treece were arrested for their parts in the Arachnis Project at the Life Foundation. Max gave up his Screech identity and chose to defend the defendants in the Jury's trials. Max soon recruited Olivia Lentz as a prosecutor. A mysterious man known only as Gavel was appointed as the judge for their trials. Max's replacement in the group was Wysper.

The Jury eventually lost their funding and cut ties with Olivia and Gavel. The Jury would later be led by U.S.Agent and funded by Edwin Cord. When the Thunderbolts faced the Jury Screech was apparently not a part of the team. Oddly enough in a scene in Thunderbolts #23 showing the Jury out of costume you see a blonde who looks like Max even though he isn't one of the members of on the team. This was most likely an art error and the man who was shown as Firearm should have been a black man rather than a blonde white man.

Max's whereabouts are currently unknown.

Powers and abilities

Screech had an armor that allowed him to fly and emit sonic blasts.

References

* Venom: Lethal Protector #2-3
* Amazing Spider-Man #383-385
* Spider-Man: The Arachnis Project #1-6
* Venom: Sinner Takes All #1-4
* Venom: The Hunted #1-3

External links

* [http://www.samruby.com/Villains/Jury/jury.htm Jury Profile at samruby.com]
* [http://www.marveldatabase.com/Jury Jury profile at marveldatabase.com]