Origin
Raised in poverty with his younger brother Quincy McIver, John McIver were street smart urchins who had to steal to survive. John possessed a violent temper though and in one incident he viciously slew a shopkeeper in a robbery gone wrong. Finding himself involved in street level crime, he rose though the criminal ladder. He rose quickly and attained high status as a gang lord. During this time adopting the last name of Bushmaster. Bushmaster had some experience and association with the Maggia around this time as well. As Bushmaster he would often run into conflict against the likes of Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Misty Knight. After one incident, Bushmaster ended up going under a very similar procedure as Luke Cage. However his empowerment, and physical augmentation was a more advanced accelerated version of the one applied to Luke Cage, and so the effects were much more extreme. Even more powerful than Cage, greater strength, and durability – and increasing vastly in size, he started to go by the name Power Master. Now it would take the combined efforts of Iron Fist and Luke Cake to take down.
At a later date John Bushmaster’s son Cruz initiated a plan to augment himself similar to his father, involving his father but his plan backfired and only granted more power to his father and used that power to kill his own son and also drain Iron Fist of his powers, except the absorption and accumulation of so much power was too great for Bushmaster and he exploded.
Creation
John Bushmaster was created by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Dan Green, and first appeared in Iron Fist #15
Powers and Abilities
A similar process that gave Luke Cage his powers also gifted John Bushmaster super strength and super durability. Initially as John Bushmaster he had strength enabling him to lift roughly 10 tons. Later on as Power Master he was augmented to lift in the area of 50 tons, with a further increase in durability. He has some experience as a fighter. At various stages of his power development he was also able to drain powers from others. Although ultimately this led to his demise.
Physical Statistics
Height: (originally) 6’1″ (Power Master) 8’1″
Weight: (originally) 210 lbs (Power Master) 705 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black