Maxwell Lord

Origin

Maxwell Lord IV

Maxwell Lord IV is the son of Maxwell Lord III. Maxwell Lord III was a good business man who always had enough to help others and also his family. Maxwell the III always tried to do what was good and set an good example on his son. When Maxwell Lord IV was at the age of 16, he saw his father, with his brains blown out, murdered in his kitchen. Before Max arrived at his house, he was going to take his girl friend to the basement and have sex with her. However, when he saw his greatest friend/father/mentor murdered in his own home, Max took care of the most important things first. Max was told by his mother that powerful people are always evil and that he must have control over them all. She stated that if Max ever meets powerful men or women, then he must plan every step.

Creation

Maxwell Lord was created by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMateis, and Kevin Maguire. A pastiche of the business minded yuppies of the 80's, Maxwell Lord was introduced as a conniving opportunist with a good heart. He was closely associated with turning the Justice League into the Justice League International.

Character Evolution

Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths / New Earth

Maxwell Lord (New Earth)

Years later, Maxwell Lord was portrayed as having been playing a double game holding a deep distrust of non-humans. When Max was helping during the Coast City destruction, Max ultimately decided that heroes would have to be exterminated for the good of mankind leading to the events of The OMAC Project where Lord managed to hijack a satellite Batman had built, calling it Brother Eye, and creating millions of sleeper agents to attack the worlds superbeing populace.

Post-Flashpoint / Earth 0

Maxwell Lord (Earth 0)

Maxwell is the head of Cheakmate and Cadmus. He is at war with Brother Eye and it pet O.M.A.C.

Major Story Arcs

Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths / New Earth:

The Death of Maxwell Lord

Maxwell kills Blue Beetle

Lord had control and surveillance over everything that would happen around him. Blue Beetle uncovered his scheme and, for his troubles, was shot in cold blood by Maxwell. Maxwell's plans would continue until Superman and Wonder Woman came onto the scene. Using his mind control over Superman, he made him fight Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman could only find one way out, and broke Maxwell Lord's neck. Maxwell Lord has been identified as one of the deceased entombed below the Hall of Justice.

Blackest Night

He was brought back as a Black Lantern, and would harass Wonder Woman often during the events of Blackest Night before he was eventually fully resurrected by the White Lantern Entity, having to complete the task it assigned to him. After a brief confrontation with former teammate Guy Gardner, Max would ultimately escape into the night.

Justice League: Generation Lost

Who I'm I?

After the resurrection in Blackest Night, Maxwell Lord has become a fugitive in a global wide manhunt called "Land Lord". Part of Maxwell's plan was to set-up bombs in predictable locations while he'd setup up his larger plan at the Justice League International headquarters. Booster Gold discovered his plan but was later beaten down by Maxwell. Before Booster became unconscious he had sent a alarm through the JLI frequency. Once the former JLI members arrive (Captain Atom, Fire and Ice), Maxwell finished his plan by erasing everyone's memory of Maxwell's existence except the JLI's. Maxwell Lord was seen at the end of issue 1 in Switzerland at his castle base preparing something big to get the last surviving members of the JLI's. The former JLI's that came for Maxwell are the only ones that remember him, possibly due to being in the epicenter of Maxwell's mind wipe. The former JLI members then start to realize that Maxwell not only wiped the memories of him but introduced a subliminal message that when they say his name turns the listener aggressive towards the JLI members. This is part of Maxwell's plan to discredit those who still remember him. He then leads them to the current Blue Beetle's home, Jaime Reyes. There they are attacked by OMACs but when they suddenly start to teleport they follow them and they are ambushed by Rocket Reds.

Meanwhile Maxwell's attempts at mind control are shown to inadvertently be producing Black Lanterns which Maxwell guns down. The original Rocket Red helps the former JLI members against the brigade and they realize that this was Maxwell's plan all along to get the JLI reunited when Maxwell talks to them through one of the Rocket's armor. He then blows up the armor with the soldier still in it. They then figure out that Maxwell is in Checkmate's Headquarters and make their way there.

Maxwell kills another Blue Beetle?

As they make their plans, Maxwell is shown in contact with the White Lantern's Entity. He briefly becomes a White Lantern and apparently makes Magog commit suicide at a distance. This probably fulfills his mission for the Entity ("Magog will plunge this world into war. Stop the war before it starts.") In the main Brightest Day series, it is shown that Deadman remembers Max. When Blue Beetle is kidnapped by Max, he is eventually killed by him. The Justice League International witness his death, but came to late to save Jaime. Booster promised that he would kill Max if he gained the chance, and Max left his old team to die.

Detonating a bomb in the ship, the Justice League International took their dead teammate to an abandoned island. Trying to see if Jaime is really dead, Red Rocket does all he can, but tells Booster (and the team) that he is dead.

Powers and Abilities

Mind Control

Maxwell Lord, nose bleed

Maxwell Lord IV has the extreme power of mind control. He can mind control people from close range and also great distances. While originally not being a metahuman, Max gained this ability while serving as a leader of the Justice League International. While the mind control ability is useful, he does have a downside to using this great power. The more minds he controls, equals, more blood loss.

Controlling one mind makes him bleed out of his nose, however wiping his entire existence from everyone's mind off of the planet caused Max to loose much blood from his eyes, ears, and nose. Eventually leading to blacking out, Max only uses his mind control ability when needed, however tries not to use it on many people all at once, as it could lead to his own death.

Abilities

Businessman

Maxwell Lord IV owns his own business when he was still very young. At the age of 20 (or so) he had already bought lots of weapons and business from areas all over the world. Including heroic locations like in Metropolis and Gotham City. Maxwell uses his wide reach over the world to set up many, secret, locations which allow him to not be watched by heroes like the Justice League International or the Justice League of America. Being wanted all over the planet for would-be world domination and murder, his business was shut down and bought by Bruce Wayne. Maxwell is still a wealthy business man and entrepreneur.

Master Manipulator

By many of the super villain community, Maxwell Lord has been called "One of the greatest masterminds on Earth". This is true and he is titled second or third greatest to Superman's enemy, Lex Luthor. While Lex and Max share the same goals, they despise one another enough to kill for the title of #1 villain in the world. With Maxwell Lord's resources, Lex Luthor might stand a chance, however the two will frequently team-up to defeat a common enemy.

Equipment

Black Lantern Ring

Black Lantern's Power Ring.

When Maxwell Lord was killed by Wonder Woman, he was placed in the Justice League of America's secret morgue for dead rogues, called the Hall of Justice - or the Hall of the Dead. During the rise of the dead, Maxwell was one of the many rogues to rise and seek revenge. Having a rope around his neck, Maxwell Lord tried to eat Wonder Woman's heart for killing him. He played a minor role, however he also tried to kill Mera, Atom and others. When his life was restored, the power ring left him.

Cyborg Body

When Maxwell Lord IV was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was soon killed, the Kilgore was waiting for this moment. Kilgore wanted control over Max's body and created a duplicate body and exchanged Max's conscious into the robot body. While Max no longer has the robot body any longer, which also made him temporarily loose his mind control ability, Max used to have great strength to back up his mind.

.45 Caliber Pistol

Maxwell Lord carries a .45 caliber pistol which he used to kill the Blue Beetle, Ted Kord with. While he's not one to usually use brute force to get the job done, Max will do whatever it takes to get complete control over any obstacle.

Other Versions

Other Media

Smallville

Smallville

Maxwell Lord makes 2 appearances on season 9's Smallville. His first appearance was on a episode entitled "Charade" where Maxwell Lord (portrayed by Gil Bellows) is a Checkmate Agent sent to kidnap Louis to try search her memories to identify the "Blur". He is later stopped by Clark. The second appearance is on a episode entitled "Hostage". Maxwell Lord has to kidnap someone but this time it's Tess. He searches her mind to try to kind out who is the "Red Queen" but fails and is defeated by Tess. When he calls into Amanda Waller that he was unsuccessful a stun vibration is emitted from the phone.

Justice League Unlimited

Justice League Unlimited

Maxwell Lord has appeared in one episode of Justice League Unlimited entitled "Ultimatum" where he was a powerless manager for a hero team called Ultimen. Eventually, he was exposed of fraud and was attacked by his own team.