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Spoiler Alert!
This page contains details about the plot which may lower your enjoyment of the books and/or movies. Reader discretion is advised.
It's not your fault. I'm genetically enhanced. And, you know, ruthless. Plus, of course, meaner than a rabid wolverine. Are you okay?

Max, MAX


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Maximum "Max" Ride
Max regular

Title
Vital Statistics
Gender Female
Family Dr. Valencia Martinez (mother) (deceased)
Jeb Batchelder (father) (deceased)
Ari Batchelder (half-brother) (deceased)
Ella Martinez (half-sister) (deceased)
The Flock (adopted family)
Fang (boyfriend/lover)
Phoenix (daughter)
Status Alive
Eye Color Dark Brown
Hair Color Brown with blonde highlights
Height 5'8"
Other
Affiliation The Flock
Weapons Enhanced Strength and Speed, Flight, Accelerated Healing
Species Avian-Human Hybrid
Home
Appearances The Angel Experiment
School's Out - Forever
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
The Final Warning
MAX
FANG
ANGEL
Nevermore
Maximum Ride Forever


Maximum "Max" Ride is the main protagonist and the narrator of the Maximum Ride series. She is the oldest of the bird kids created by the School, and she is also the leader of the Flock.

History

Before The Angel Experiment

Max was created at an Itexicon facility called the School. Growing up, she had no name and spent the majority of her time either performing in painful experiments or confined to a dog crate. She was permitted to interact with the other children that would later form her flock, as well as Ari Batchelder, Jeb Batchelder's son.

Around the time that Max turned ten years old, Jeb rescued her along with Iggy, Fang, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel. He took them to an isolated house in the mountains where they could be free to fly, learn, and interact with new parts of the world. On her eleventh birthday (an arbitrary date of her own choosing), she selected the full name Maximum Ride.

Jeb vanished two years after the escape from the School. Max was declared Flock leader, due to her age and close relationship with Jeb.

The Angel Experiment

Max's normal life with the Flock is interrupted when Erasers attack and kidnap Angel. Max leads the Flock to rescue Angel from the School, learning along the way that Jeb is alive, and meeting a kindly veterinarian named Dr. Martinez. Gathering clues from their adventure, the Flock travels to New York, where Max begins experiencing painful headaches and visions, along with a Voice telling her to save the world. In a final confrontation, she kills Jeb's son Ari, the leader of the Erasers, but Jeb shouts after her that she has killed her own brother.

School's Out - Forever

With Fang injured, the Flock winds up at a hospital being questioned by the FBI. An agent named Anne Walker takes them in and they experience a normal life and normal school. Max continues to be suspicious, as well as uneasy at being replaced by Anne as a mother figure for the Flock. However, it turns out to be a trap by the School. Max is briefly replaced by her clone, Max II.

Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Max leads other mutants in taking down Itex and stopping the Director from executing half of all life on Earth. She repairs her relationship with her half-brother Ari, but he dies soon afterwards.

FANG

Dr. Hans Gunther-Hagen and Jeb introduce the Flock to Dylan, another avian-human hybrid who they intend as a perfect mate for Max.

Max is voted out of the Flock for being too involved with Fang instead of protecting them. At the end of this book, Fang leaves her, saying that it's not good for the Flock for them to be together. He also says that if they're both still alive in 20 years, he will meet her where they flew with the hawks, leaving Max heartbroken and upset.

ANGEL

Max falls into a severe depression after Fang's departure. She meets up with Fang again to help him and his gang destroy the "Doomsday Group". Fang is upset by seeing Dylan as his "replacement" in the Flock, while Max is disturbed and jealous to see Fang with her clone Maya. Their groups briefly work together to stop a bomb and search for a missing Angel, but Max is confused and upset when they split up once again.

Nevermore

Max and Dylan are dating, but when she and Fang reconcile, Dylan goes on a jealous rampage. After that, Max no longer wants to see Dylan. She and the rest of the Flock travel to Paradise, only for the world to be struck by numerous catastrophes known as the Apocalypse. As they start over amidst the ruins, Max and Fang express their full feelings of mutual romantic love to each other.

Maximum Ride Forever

The Flock is shown struggling to survive on a volcanic island after the end of civilization. After Dylan's apparent death, they fly to Australia, but Max insists on returning to continue searching for her mother and sister, who were still in the underground caves. This is part of the cause of the Flock splitting up. Max returns to the island with Nudge and Total, but after learning that her family is dead, continues on alone. In America, she encounters other birdkids and Harry becomes her companion. They are eventually reunited with Angel and Dylan, and continue on to Russia, where they have their final battle against the Remedy and Max reveals that she's pregnant with Fang's child.

In the epilogue, the Flock has moved to Peru, where Max and Fang are raising their daughter Phoenix.

Hawk

Ten years ago, Max was heavily injured and Fang made the choice to leave Phoenix in The City of the Dead and Max in a place to heal. While she was healing, she was kidnapped and locked up.

The story begins with Max in a jail called Devil's Hill. She has been imprisoned for so long she has lost track of time. Her cell is located on the top floor, which she presumes was deliberate to torment her emotionally. Max has flashbacks about Phoenix's first flight and what happened ten years ago before she was kidnapped, but she is mentally strained almost to her breaking point.

Max is forcibly awoken by one of the prison guards. She gets up only to see that another inmate, Kenton, has been paid to kill her. Her wings are cuffed so she cannot fly, but manages to survive the fight, accidentally killing Kenton in the process and getting stabbed in the side herself. She manages to remove the shiv and stumble to the infirmary, where she collapses.

The doctor of Devil's Hill is tending to her wound when she wakes up and find out he had given her a special blood transfusion of modified plasma and blood because of her avian DNA, and somehow he knows about the 2% avian DNA. She leaves the infirmary into the outdoor exercise space to get some exercise where she discovers Kenton's death.

The other inmates in the courtyard congratulate and acknowledge her on killing Kenton. Max, being finally fed up, begins to speak up about how wrong it is and how they need to resist the bad things people desire, but her speech backfires and more inmates begin to kill the others to get more food.

Right then, the leader of the City of the Dead and Devil's Hill broadcasts across the entire prison via the large screens. He knows about Max's rebellion and declares her to be sentenced to death. A large claw emerges to grab Max, and she doesn't resist until it is too late. She tries to escape as she is picked up harshly and dropped in the Judgement Room.

McCallum reveals that they had tried to rehabilitate her for ten years. Max is shocked and horrified at how long she had been in prison for as McCallum announces they are going to cut her wings off. Max fights the guards but the doctor stabs her with a springe, knocking her out.

Max wakes up on an operating table to hear McCallum and the doctor discussing how to remove her wings. She begins devising a plan but is interrupted when she passes out again.

When Max wakes up again, the doctor has found a way to remove her wings and keep her alive. Max secretly blocks her IV to stop the drugs from knocking her out. The doctor leaves to fix up an injured guard, leaving a hesitant nurse with Max. Max sees the opportunity and makes a break for it, fighting two guards but ends up back in the exercise courtyard.

Max flies to the roof of the courtyard and clings to the bars. McCallum orders his guards to not hit her wings, which Max uses to her advantage. She takes the doctor as a hostage and continues to dodge bullets and people climbing the prison from outside to get her. She is captured by a net eventually.

A storm arrives and Max is still trapped in the net. A package drops from the sky and explodes. Max recognizes it as familiar to Gazzy's bombs and curls up, ready for impact. She tears up when she sees Fang and the rest of the Flock-minus Angel-arrive to save her. When Hawk shows up, she realizes who she is and passes out.

The Flock returns to Tetra and get tended to. Max and Hawk finally reunite, with Max explaining why Hawk was left on the streets. They walk to another room where Angel and Io are, and the Flock devises a plan to bring freedom to the City of the Dead.

Personality

Max is tough, sarcastic, witty, independent and fierce. She acts as a motherly figure to most of the Flock, caring greatly about them. This connection is particularly strong with Angel, whom Max mostly raised. Max thinks of Angel as "her baby."

Max dislikes "girliness" and dressing up, and becomes annoyed with herself for worrying about her appearance.

Appearance

The nurse looked at me, my blond hair and fair skin, and I could tell she was mentally comparing me with Fang - who had black hair, dark eyes, olive skin.

–School's Out - Forever

"So there you have it, the extent of my charms: brown hair and eyes like unbarfed chocolate. I'm a lucky girl."

–Max on her looks, MAX

It was mostly brown but had streaks of dark red and even a little blond.

–Max describing her hair in FANG

Max has a tall and thin build, standing 5'8" in The Angel Experiment and MAX. She has a wingspan that starts

Screenshot 2020-10-24 at 5.04

at thirteen feet, later up to fifteen feet. Her wings are hawklike, described in The Final Warning as light brown, ivory on the undersides, with black and white primaries. She has brown eyes. Her hair has varied over the books. The color is not mentioned in The Angel Experiment, but in School's Out - Forever and Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, it is repeatedly called blonde and even sun-streaked. However, starting in The Final Warning, her hair color is brown, but is still occasionally mentioned as containing sun streaks.

Max's hair color also varies by adaptation. In the manga it is blonde, in the Marvel miniseries it is red, and in the film it is platinum blonde.

Abilities

Navigation

Max and the rest of the Flock, like birds, have a built-in sense of direction and raptor vision.

Combat

Along with the rest of the Flock, Max learned how to fight and defend herself from Jeb Batchelder. She fights in a mixed martial arts style (once calling it Max Kwon Do). This, in combination with the Flock's enhanced strength, allows Max to easily defeat most (non-mutant) grown men. She often uses roundhouse kicks, which can be seen as her signature fighting move.

The Voice

Like the rest of the Flock, Max has unique abilities other than flying. She has the Voice (Later in Nevermore, the Voice is revealed to be Angel) in her head that tries to guide her, though she often does not listen to it. (Before the Voice had appeared, she would have excruciating headaches every now and then; this is because it had been trying to make room in her head.) At one point Max believes the Voice to be that of Jeb Batchelder, a white coat at the School, but in Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, he denies this, telling her that although he can imitate the Voice, he is not it. (It should be noted that both Angel and Ari have mentioned a Voice as well.)

Speed

Max also has the ability to fly extremely fast, her top speed at roughly 240–250 miles per hour (verified by the Director through a microchip in her arm), or over 350 miles per hour in a fast dive.

Gills

In MAX, Max develops gills when she is about to drown. It is revealed in Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports that her bones are lightweight and have tiny pores in them that allow her and the Flock to float in water.

Playing Dead

As shown in School's Out - Forever, she is able to temporarily shut down her organs, thus effectively playing dead, although this may have been possible only because she was detained in an isolation tank at the time. (Once she escapes from the isolation tank, she also believes that she can smell the Flock, but these powers aren't mentioned in other books.)

Relationships

Fang

Main article: Fang (character)

Fang helps Max lead the Flock, and is in many ways the one she is closest to. Their relationship slowly develops into a crush and then into romance. They have their first kiss in The Angel Experiment, after Fang is injured. In School's Out - Forever, Max confides frequently in Fang, and feels jealousy when she sees him kiss a red-haired girl named Lissa. In Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, Max tells him while under the influence of Valium that she loves him. Their relationship continues to evolve, with their official first date in MAX, but goes through a rough spot until their reunion in Nevermore. In Maximum Ride Forever, Max gives birth to Phoenix, her daughter with Fang.

Dylan

Main article: Dylan

Dylan was designed as Max's perfect mate. Max first meets him in FANG and feels attracted to him, although she is dating Fang at the time. They grow closer in ANGEL after her breakup, with their relationship developing into more of a romance, but Max continues to feel torn between the two boys.

Sam

Main article: Sam (School's Out - Forever)

In School's Out - Forever, Max goes on one date with a boy named Sam while temporarily attending a school in Virginia. This may have been to make Fang jealous. However, Max's paranoia made her suspicious of Sam.

Angel

Max seems to like Angel the best out of the flock, thinking of her as "her baby." In The Angel Experiment, she thinks to herself, "I'd never told the others, but I just loved, loved, loved Angel." She describes Angel as being incredibly sweet and loving. Max cries when Erasers capture Angel.

Throughout the books, Angel becomes more disobedient and they clash often. Angel constantly makes it clear she wants to be leader, and does try to overthrow Max in Fang, although that was temporary. In Angel, Max is distraught when Angel seemingly dies in an explosion and cries in Nevermore. She is overjoyed when Angel is revealed to be alive and rescues her.

In Maximum Ride Forever, Max finally understands why Angel was so demanding and the two work together to win the war. Max and Angel are similar, and when the battle is about to begin, Angel states how Max taught her to be strong and never give up.

Trivia

  • Max is one of the two members of the Flock who has met her parents. The second is Iggy, who found his parents, but left them because they wanted to make money from him.
  • Max is known to the Flock as a terrible cook. Despite this, though, she cooks with Dr. Martinez in MAX and the food is good.
  • She doesn't like cold weather; as quoted from her in The Final Warning: "I really, really hate cold weather. I hate bundling up. I'm more of a beach-and-sun kind of girl."
  • She loves chocolate chip cookies.
  • Max and the rest of the Flock are claustrophobic, a fear that came from being locked up in dog crates while at the School. Another fear of the entire Flock is the inability to escape if Erasers, Flyboys or anything of that nature were to arrive. Max also has a fear of snakes, which are the "worst fear" shown at the end of the second book.
  • When Fang was injured in School's Out - Forever, and the Flock was questioned by the FBI, Max was the only one who used her actual name (although she didn't ever use her full name, Maximum).
  • She is the only member of the original Flock not to have a "G" in her name.
  • Max acquired a bank card with her name on it in The Angel Experiment; however, it is only mentioned in that book.
  • In School's Out--Forever, it was mentioned that she had a favorite singer named Liam Rooney.
  • According to the flock, she has a bad habit of "charging off". In MAX, Total jokes that that Max's middle name is "Charging Off", making her "Maximum 'Charging Off' Ride".
  • She is featured on the cover of the first and seventh volumes of the Maximum Ride manga series by NaRae Lee.
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