In a world where heroics can be big business, it only makes sense that business people would want to get involved with heroes. Maxwell Lord used to run the Justice League from an office and became one of their most dangerous villains for a time. Who is Maxwell Lord? Let’s find out!
Maxwell Lord IV was born to Maxwell Lord III and Naomi Lord, an incredibly wealthy family. Maxwell’s father instilled in him that the point of their wealth was to help others as best they could. By the time Maxwell was 16, his father would appear to commit suicide upon learning his business had caused the death of many due to selling a carcinogenic material. Maxwell’s mother would continue to instill in him that he must use their wealth to help people but made an emphasis on people without powers needing the help.
Growing up to inherit the family company, Maxwell would live in the age of heroes. The Justice League of America was well known around the globe but by the time of the Crisis of Infinite Earths, the team had fallen apart. Seeing an opportunity to do as his parents had taught him, Maxwell would find himself the CEO of a new Justice League team, Justice League International.
His team wasn’t the most powerful heroes but they were capable members, nonetheless. Maxwell would bring in a supercomputer to help him manage the team but this would prove to be his first dalliance with villainy as the machine would take over. Eventually, Max would be freed, but that time did give Maxwell a glimpse of what he could become.
During the explosion of a gene bomb, Maxwell and other humans with a latent metagene suddenly were active metas. Maxwell found that with great effort, he could control the minds of others. This would be exploited by villains who desired such power for themselves, having Maxwell’s powers boosted so he could control thousands of minds at once for their purposes. This would cause the Justice League to lose their charter with the U.N. until they could stop him and burn out his power, hopefully crushing any remnant of such power.
A brain tumor was discovered in Maxwell and he would soon die from it but was resurrected by the machine that had taken over his supercomputer, Kilgore. Revived, Maxwell was turned into a cyborg to be a vessel for Kilgore until he was defeated and returned to his normal human form once more with Maxwell in charge of his facilities. He would get back in the team management business by starting the Super Buddies, a return of his Justice League International team.
Turns out that all of Maxwell’s time with villainy was like attracting like, his work with heroes was so he could build a better database on their weaknesses. His powers hadn’t fully been burnt out thanks to the resurrection and he had developed them well enough that he could control even the likes of Superman. He would gain control of Batman’s Brother Eye program and utilize its machines to hunt down all people with powers. He figured this was the best way to protect those without powers. Wonder Woman would confront Maxwell, who had used Superman to attack her and Batman. Realizing that the only way to stop Maxwell was to kill him, Wonder Woman obliged but not before Maxwell was able to get it recorded and played for the world.
When the Blackest Night occurred, Maxwell would come back as a Black Lantern Corps zombie and then be fully resurrected during the Brightest Day. He would go into hiding and find a way to affect everyone on Earth to cause them to forget he ever existed, leaving only his former Justice League International team able to remember him. Maxwell would go on to working behind the scenes to try and keep humanity safe from metahumans.
In the New 52 and Rebirth, Maxwell Lord is the head of Checkmate as its Black King, using his assets to protect humanity from metahuman threats. This work has him often forming Suicide Squads for Task Force X to best utilize incarcerated super criminals for his cause.
There you have it! Maxwell Lord went from being a necessary evil in being the business man that aided heroes to becoming a full blown villain of mass destruction. He’s been on the big and small screen in live action and animation. What he’ll do next in the comics is anyone’s guess. See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Justice League #1
Justice League: Generation Lost
Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad
Formerly Known as the Justice League
I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Justice League!
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
