Growing up a wealthy man, Fritz Krotze could never get enough money under his belt. He went to college to gain the appropriate skills, and then built a weapons manufacturing plant from scratch, knowing the big bucks were in Department of Defense contracts. With time and hard work, the man produced a monster in the industry: Krotze International
Of course, Krotze managed to gain several major contracts for military ordinance with the United States and various allied governments, as the man is tenacious in his money grubbing schemes. However, this wasn’t enough, and the man eventually decided that he could make even more by selling his stuff to every world power, not just the Americans.
As such, he hooked up with the Club, a surly group of international terrorists and arms dealers, who could get to the clients he couldn’t. He had several years of successful deals with the Club, who’d begun to rely upon his increasingly advanced ordinance. However, things took a turn for the worst when one of his head technicians discovered his treasonous dealings.
And of course, the man was in charge of Krotze International’s most important project: the M.A.X. suits. The man had produced one prototype, but hid the second after he found out what Krotze was up to. Krotze had him killed, and then began tearing the man’s house up in his search for the second M.A.X. suit. Unfortunately, the man’s daughter got to it first.
Jenny Swensen, M.I.T. engineering instructor, and all-around hot-tempered lady suspected foul play on the part of Krotze, and took the armor before he could get to it. With the Club breathing down his neck, Krotze hatched several poor schemes to recover the suit, using the other technologies at his disposal, such as the Mk 1 M.A.X. armor, the Behemoth tank, and his S.D.I. lasers.
All of these plans were botched by Krotze and his cronies, and Jenny finally managed to gain proof of Krotze’s dirty dealings, which she took to a Congressional hearing about Krotze International; it would seem that other folks besides Swensen suspected Krotze of foul play. Krotze himself never got to see the light of trial, however, as the Club had grown tired of his bumbling.
They’d sent another Club operative to collect Krotze, the assassin known as Steel Hawk. After Jenny threatened him on television, however, Steel Hawk’s mission was changed, and he beat Krotze to death with a steel baseball bat in order to frame Swensen for the death (she’d gone public with the M.A.X. suit as well). This plan ultimately failed, but Krotze never found that out…