He's one of the most important people in Justice League history. He's one of the most sadistic villains in the DC Universe. His name is Maxwell Lord, and you've probably only heard his name a few times. But he'll play a major role in the new cinematic DC Universe starting in James Gunn's Superman reboot movie, where he's played by none other than Sean Gunn, the writer/director's own brother.
If you've heard of Maxwell Lord before, there's a good chance you recognize him from Wonder Woman 1984, where he was played to maximum '80s guy kitschiness by Pedro Pascal (who is now starring as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic in this summer's other big superhero blockbuster, Marvel's The Fantastic Four: First Steps).
But in comics, he's a very different character, with a history that swings wildly between good and evil. And considering how closely James Gunn's non-Justice League in Superman resembles the League of Maxwell Lord's era with the team, we're expecting a version of Lord who looks very little like ones we've seen in the movies before.
Bankrolling the Justice League
Maxwell Lord IV first appeared all the way back in 1987's Justice League #1 by writer JM DeMatteis, co-writer and layout artist Keith Giffen, and artist Kevin Maguire, in which Lord begins funding the Justice League while organizing them into an all-new, worldwide entity rather than focusing simply on America.
This version of the League became the Justice League International, or JLI, with a separate branch operating in Europe at the same time. And though Lord had the semi-comical veneer of a stereotypical '80s businessman, his designs for the League were complex and longterm - and secretly driven by an alien computer with designs on world domination.
This led to a moment in which Lord, driven to madness by the computer, staged a false-flag terrorist attack for the Justice League to quash, though the false attack goes awry leading to actual deaths.
After this, Lord's methods calmed down somewhat, but he remained the Justice League's financial backer, somewhat ruthlessly pursuing financial gain through the team's exploits. While the League does have some positive influence on him, Lord remains, at his heart, a wheeler-dealer. And what's more, it turns out, he's hiding a huge secret, even bigger than having been mind-controlled by an alien computer.
Because as it turns out, Lord had mind control powers of his own, which he hid from the Justice League. It all comes to a head when Lord is once again taken over by the villain Dreamslayer, who enhances Lord's hidden powers, controlling the minds of thousands of people at once before Dreamslayer is finally defeated through the sacrifice of the Silver Sorceress, a member of the League at the time.
With Dreamslayer's defeat, it was believed that Lord's powers had become completely dormant, essentially burning themselves out. But the truth was far, far worse.
A monster in plain sight
After leaving the League behind, Maxwell Lord laid low for some time, staying out of the public eye - though he did attempt to reorganize his Justice League as a team-for-hire, affectionately nicknamed the "Super Buddies," though the reunion was relatively short-lived.
All the while, even through the Super Buddies era, Lord was surreptitiously creating a worldwide government surveillance network known as Checkmate, and hoarding secret information about the world's heroes, as seen in the 2005 story The OMAC Project.
Though Lord heavily covers his tracks to hide his schemes for world domination, even outwitting Batman, it's actually one of his own Justice League recruits who uncovers his plans - Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle, who discovers Lord's plot to collect information on the world's heroes, without yet knowing the person behind it.
Sneaking into the base where the secret project is headquartered, Ted encounters Maxwell Lord, realizing that he's been playing a long con nearly the entire time they've known each other. And though Ted threatens to expose Lord's schemes, Max brutally shoots the Blue Beetle in the head, killing him in cold blood.
This in turn leads Ted's best friend Booster Gold to take up the investigation, while Ted's death paves the way for the introduction of his successor as the Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes, to take up the mantle.
But Maxwell Lord's schemes go far deeper, ultimately resulting in Lord revealing his still-intact mind control powers in order to take control of Superman, possessing the Man of Steel to wreak global havoc as the Justice League desperately tries to keep up.
In the end, only Wonder Woman is able to stop Lord, by snapping his neck and killing him, one of the most dramatic moments in Wonder Woman's comic book history.
Maxwell Lord in the new DC Universe
We have yet to see much of Maxwell Lord in the new cinematic DC Universe, with most of our exposure to Sean Gunn's character coming from a comedic appearance in the first trailer for Peacemaker season 2.
What we know for sure is that he's one of the organizers of the Justice Gang, a team of heroes for hire which includes Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and Metamorpho.
The concept of the Justice Gang is pretty close to the 'Super Buddies' era of Maxwell Lord's Justice League, which is essentially the same type of enterprise, a team of superheroes who work for money.
It seems that, in Superman, some of that money may come from Superman's arch-enemy Lex Luthor, who apparently enlists Metamorpho to use his elemental abilities to create Kryptonite to weaken Superman. That said, we also know that Superman and the Justice Gang are usually allies, so he's definitely got a complicated relationship with the team.
This leaves the big elephant in the room: will Sean Gunn's Maxwell Lord wind up being a bloodthirsty villain hiding in plain sight? It would be an interesting twist that could be the catalyst that eventually turns the Justice Gang into a Justice League (assuming that's the team's ultimate evolution). And it would be especially interesting to see the always-affable Sean Gunn take on the role of a sadistic mastermind.
We likely won't get that level of twist for Max Lord in Superman, as we already know he'll appear in Peacemaker. But we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for any hint that there's a mind-controlling supervillain lurking below the surface in Sean Gunn's performance.
Superman hits theaters this July 11. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming DC movies and shows for everything else the DCU has on the way.
