Ebony Maw was a member of Thanos' Black Order. He is not a fighter, but a dangerous thinker of the Black Order. When Thanos targeted Earth as the next planet he would raze during the Infinity storyline, Ebony Maw was dispatched to deal with Doctor Strange.

Ebony Maw used his abilities to gain control over Doctor Strange and forced him to summon Shuma-Gorath. Then Ebony Maw used his abilities to have Doctor Strange serve as a double-agent for him when he reunited with the Illuminati. When the Illuminati headed to numerous locations around the world to find Thanos' son Thane, Doctor Strange found the boy in a hidden Inhuman city of Orollan (which is located in Greenland). Ebony remained in the location and forced Doctor Strange to forget about the discovery and to leave where he is now freed from Maw's control.

When Black Bolt detonated a Terrigen Bomb which unleashed the Terrigen Mists upon the entire face of Earth, Thanos' son Thane underwent Terrigenesis. The manifestation of his powers annihilated the entire town.[4] Posing as an ally following the incident, Ebony Maw offered Thane a suit to control his powers, but also captured him in a containment field followed by Ebony Maw alerting Thanos to the location of his son.[5] When the Avengers arrived in Orollan in order to defeat Thanos, Ebony Maw tested Thane by freeing him. Thane could escape or could fight Thanos and become what he had avoided his entire life. Thane agreed and embraced his true nature as the son of Thanos by fighting his father. Using the power of his right hand, Thane trapped Thanos and his ally Proxima Midnight in an amber construct which left them in a state of "living death." Upon the defeat of Thanos, Ebony Maw started disciplining Thane into becoming something greater than Thanos and greater than any one would.

During the "No Surrender" arc, Ebony Maw appears as a member of Challenger's Black Order where he pits them in a contest against Grandmaster's Lethal Legion.


Powers and abilities
Ebony Maw has genius-level intellect. He mostly demonstrates his intelligence with his highly skilled abilities of manipulation being described as a "black tongue that spreads mischief and evil wherever he goes." He also uses technology that specializes in teleportation and force field generation.

Film
Ebony Maw appears in Avengers: Infinity War, voiced and motion-captured by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor.[8][9][10] This version possesses psychic and telekinetic powers. One of the Children of Thanos and a member of the Black Order, Maw assists Thanos in finding the Infinity Stones. After Ebony Maw proves powerful enough to capture Doctor Strange, who is in possession of the Time Stone, Spider-Man and Iron Man stow away on his spacecraft, leading to a confrontation that ends when the heroes create a hull breach, expelling him into space and freezing him.