Related to the renown poet and famous US River Master, Edgar Lee Masters, Richard Masters was the foremost River Master and waterways expert throughout all of North America and the Caribbean. For decades, Masters painstakingly learned and navigated large ships in and out of ports as a harbor or river pilot for many major ports on the east and west coasts of North America.  He was also a tough taskmaster who had a temper in trying to train other River Masters or in dealings with attitude-ridden ship's captains who didn't like listening to Masters.

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In 2005, Richard "Dick" (as most ship's captains called him) Masters, was to pilot a crude oil supertanker into port in Alaska.  Two of the 10 ship's thrusters were not working, requiring additional tugboats to maneuver the ship to the pier.  The supertanker captain told the additional tugboats NOT to assist the supertanker, since it was too expensive to have additional tugs.  Masters and the ship's captain got into a verbal fight.  Masters, in a huff, stated he would not be responsible for piloting the ship into port and started to leave, stating he was going to report the supertanker captain.The supertanker captain had other plans; he instead had one of his crew accost Masters, knock him out with a whiskey bottle, and throw him in a locked cabin until they were moored.  Not properly supervising the ship's entry into port, the tanker hit an underwater reef a 1/2 mile from the shore, ripping open the tanker and spilling tens of thousands of barrels of oil onto the Alaska coastline. The supertanker captain, who was distracted with calling in a false report that Masters showed up to pilot the ship 'drunk', instead was one of the first to abandon ship.

 

Ten crew members lost their lives due to this shipwreck.

 

Masters was found by a Coast Guard crew who erroneously thought Masters was passed out drunk, however, before the Coast Guard rescuers could extract Masters and verify his condition, the ship broke again, sending that section of the ship underwater, killing the Coast Guard rescuers.  Masters, revived by the rush of seawater, swam out using one of the dead Coast Guard rescuer life preservers.  He was later found (by the Coast Guard...again) and helicoptered out to a nearby hospital Masters was near death due to his exposure to the frozen waters he had been in.

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After the investigation, Masters, who was still hospitalized but no longer considered in critical condition, was blamed for the entire incident. 

 

The supertanker captain spun a series of lies stating Masters' incompetence, drunkenness and physical violence as the cause of the wreck.  Masters was immediately 'kangaroo courted' and was never allowed to testify on his behalf due to the public outcry and a dirty (paid for) judge.The supertanker captain, well, he was promoted to an executive level position with the tanker's oil company and cleared of any and all criminal charges.

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Devastated at the charges and insane with rage over the court's decision, Masters, while being transferred to a prison hospital, snapped.  He broke out of the ambulance, killing two EMTs and a policeman.  He swore at that point he'd had enough of the world, and that he'd make them all pay for their ignorance and lies.  He then set out on a task to steal from all the harbormasters and River Masters he'd trained yet hated.  He killed dozens of them, accessing their financial accounts, stealing their personal possessions and burning down their homes, sometimes with their families tied up inside, dying in the blaze.

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He then went along to every seedy river and harbor bar and recruited the nastiest thugs on the waterfronts.  With their help, he began raiding city ports up and down the west and east coasts of North America. Considered 'pirates' by the media, Masters kidnapped a reporter and forced him to broadcast that Masters was now to be called "Rivermaster".  He then promptly killed the reporter and cameraman in front of a live audience.

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Through his rampant thefts and 'marauding', Rivermaster become a billionaire with a handful of ships loaded up with the latest in stealth and electronic jamming technology, becoming basically undetected on the sea.

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Rivermaster and his band of river pirate thugs, notorious for stealing, looting and raiding ships, yachts, riverside warehouses and even military vessels, took it upon themselves one day to steal some high tech equipment from a band of ignorant 'monster hunters' that were supposedly gearing to go out to sea and hunt some 'sea dragon' that had been spotted off the coast of North Carolina where Rivermaster's crew was operating off of. Rivermaster's group waited until the monster hunters made way and went out to sea in their expensive, high tech vessel travelling VERY FAR away from the shore and any quick aid from the authorities.  Rivermaster and his thugs snuck on and boarded the monster hunter's boat and killed the monster hunter crew in cold blood. While trying to steal and remove the high tech equipment on the vessel, one of the pirate thugs accidentally activated a sonic device that was initially set to a low power setting; a device that was intended to be used to 'entice' the sea dragon, which had been named 'Mamilus', to move/swim by the boat so they could get underwater photographic imagery (and proof), however, Rivermaster's thug, in an ignorant attempt to shut the device down, instead amplified the sonics to the highest level, causing Mamilus to once again become highly aggressive, leading it to attack the monster hunter's boat...and Rivermaster's pirate ship.

 

Both boats sank in minutes.

 

Since Rivermaster always had a backup plan, he had his backup team standing by to aid in their escape and in this instance ordered them to come pick them up and save them.  Although all but one of Rivermaster's crew survived (the one being the thug who ignorantly 'sonic blasted' Mamilus), who was drowned by Rivermaster himself, Rivermaster and the remaining crew were able to escape their fate at sea. One thing did come out of all of this: Rivermaster HAD to have Mamilus for himself.

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Over the next few years, almost in an obsessive way, Rivermaster tracked and hunted Mamilus while also devising equipment that might control the great beast and make it his to command.  Finally, the device was created and Mamilus' location was found. In an epic sea battle between Rivermaster and Mamilus, a battle that resulted in two lost ships and ten lost crew-mates, Rivermaster finally succeeded in felling the creature and implanting the control device.  Utilizing the new controller, Rivermaster was able to fine tune it to get Mamilus to do whatever Rivermaster ordered (otherwise it'd receive sonic pain directly through her spine and into her already addled brain), forcing her to be compliant to do anything Rivermaster ordered it to do. ​Since then, Rivermaster has used Mamilus as his new tool for pulling off only the biggest heists or for use in either fending off superheroes or interrupting the authorities from chasing or tracking down Rivermaster and his raiders.

 

Eventually, Rivermaster encountered a man named Captain Akula.  Together, Rivermaster and Captain Akula joined their forces together, including Mamilus, and created a new pirate gang called  the Maritime Marauders.

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Today, Rivermaster is still a salty old sea dog (and talks like one too) who is happy to maintain his association withe the Maritime Marauders. As such, the tech they've utilized has led Rivermaster to actually going back to looting and raiding along river ports on any and all of the world's rivers and river cities, thanks to their new, powerful teleportation tech that basically teleports his crew, raiders and ships into a river port, warehouse, location, etc., and loot and raid the location, then teleports everyone and everything away that they can with (and lots of newly gained ill-gotten booty) to a safe location.  This has prevented any prolonged river chases with the Coast Guard, river security, military or police and has practically provided for near perfect raids for the Maritime Marauders.

 

Rivermaster has indeed become the 'master of river marauding' and is considered to be one of the fiercest and most cruel pirates anywhere in the world. The last person who dared to say otherwise was eaten by Rivermaster's pet, Mamilus.

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