History: Michael Maxwell graduated from college with honors, and turned down his millionaire father's offer to join the family business, instead choosing to go to Africa with his college roomate Rupert Kenboya and becoming a game warden. Their plane crashed in the Kilimanjaro mountains, and they sought refuge in the cave of mutant red ape Djuba. Djuba attacked, but after Maxwell drank of Kilimanjaro's unique waters he gained the power to subdue the beast. Djuba recoggnized him as his master and presented him with a mystic helmet that gave him dominion over the animal kingdom. Maxwell knew he had to use these powers for the good of Africa and became the superhero B'wana beast.