Ebony Maw (Marvel Cinematic Universe)



"Hear me and rejoice! You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. You may think this is suffering. No.... it is salvation. The universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile... for even in death, you have become children of Thanos!"

- Ebony Maw after helping his father and siblings in slaughtering the Asgardians

Ebony Maw is one of the secondary antagonists of the 2018 Marvel film Avengers: Infinity War. He is a member of the Black Order (alongside Proxima Midnight, Cull Obsidian & Corvus Glaive) and an adopted son of Thanos who intends to help him in his quest to search and collect the Infinity Stones.

He was portrayed by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor.

Role
Maw was first seen raiding the Asgardians' ship following the destruction of Asgard by the deceased Surtur. Along with his father and siblings, he slaughtered the Asgardians to their deaths just as Thanos forced Loki to surrender the Space Stone (the Tesseract). To ensure of this, Max used his telekinetic powers to restrain a helpless Thor. It is also revealed that Maw was involved of his father's attack on the planet Xandar to gain possession of the Power Stone (the Orb), which he used to destroy Xandar. After Thanos kills Loki, Maw escaped with his family as Thanos uses the Orb to destroy the Asgardians' ship, leaving a helpless Thor to drift in space.

With two of the Infinity Stones in place, Thanos sends Maw and Obsidian to Earth, where they laid down an attack in New York City to draw Iron Man, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange into the scene, being aware that Strange has the Time Stone (the Eye of Agamotto) in his possession. Despite the heroes' efforts, Maw managed to capture Strange and flies away on his ship, intending to deliver the Time Stone to Thanos at the planet Titan while Cull meets up with Proxima and Glaive to lay down an attack on Wakanda to get the Mind Stone.

Unknown to Maw, Iron Man and Spider-Man have snuck onboard to stop him. To that end, Iron Man used his armor to blast a hole on Maw's ship, sending Maw to be sucked out into space where he freezes to his death. His siblings would later meet the same fate along with their army of Outriders during the battle in Wakanda.

Despite the losses, Thanos managed to collect the Time Stone after defeating the heroes in Titan. Thanos then head over to Earth to collect the Mind Stone, allowing himself to use the Stones to wipe out half of the universe's populace (including several Avengers and Guardians).