Writer

Judd Winick

Penciller

Aaron Lopresti

Inker

Matt Ryan

Colourist

Hi-Fi

Letterer

John J. Hill

Editor

Rex Ogle and Brian Cunningham

Cover Colourist

Hi-Fi

Cover Artist

Aaron Lopresti

Variant Cover Colourist

Hi-Fi

Variant Cover Artist

Kevin Maguire

Maxwell Lord: Eventually, the badguys always go down. Time… the universe… our reality… always seems to keep score, and no matter how long a run the black hats might have the good guys will eventually knock them right down the mat. But, that’s the thing, Jaime… You keep thinking that I’m the bad guy.

Booster Gold: Welcome to the party. You want to help?
Power Girl: Yeah. Sign me up.

Previously: Maxwell Lord’s plan – whatever it may be – is accelerating. He set the Creature Commandos on the JLI as a distraction whilst he kidnapped the Blue Beetle. He arranged for Checkmate to be stood down by the United Nations so that it could be succeeded (in some as yet unknown way) by his New Checkmate. The rest of the JLI followed Max’s teleport trace to Tokyo, but they were blind-sided by Power Girl who attacked Captain Atom. She had come close to uncovering Max’s plans, but his mind control had clouded her mind.

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Writer

Judd Winick

Penciller

Joe Bennett

Inker

Jack Jadson and Ruy Jose

Colourist

Hi-Fi

Letterer

Swands

Editor

Rex Ogle and Brian Cunningham

Cover Artist

Dustin Nguyen

Variant Cover Colourist

Hi-Fi

Variant Cover Artist

Kevin Maguire

Maxwell Lord: What the @#$% do you mean, “Who is Wonder Woman?!”

Booster Gold: I’m sorry that Max framed you and I’m sickened and horrified that that piece of crap murdered a thousand people on this road to whatever the @#S% this road is — BUT, YOU DON’T GET TO KILL HIM!

We are the good guys, Nate. And sometimes being the good guys sucks. Sometimes it means you’ve gotta eat it for a while until you’ve won. And the future is malleable! I know that better than anyone. You changed things just by coming back from whatever mass hazard, post-apocalyptic, cranky Power Girl version of Earth you got puked up on!

But, no! You don’t get to kill Max Lord! We capture him and he gets stuck in a concrete hole with 85 power dampers strapped to every appendage — and he rots there! But before we do that — I’M GOING TO BEAT EVERY LAST LOVING @#$% OUT OF HIM. And you are not going to deprive me of that! Got it!?!

Previously: Maxwell Lord, the corrupt ex-Checkmate and JLI director, was killed by Wonder Woman when he refused to release a mind controlled Superman. The White Lantern/Life Entity later resurrected Max and obliged him to murder the superhero Magog. Max’s life is now his own again and he has turned his attention back to the woman who killed him. Captain Atom has become aware of a potential war-torn future created by Max’s murder of Wonder Woman.

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Writer

Judd Winick

Penciller

Aaron Lopresti

Inker

Matt Ryan

Colourist

Hi-Fi

Letterer

Sal Cipriano

Editor

Rex Ogle and Brian Cunningham

Cover Artist

Dustin Nguyen

Variant Cover Colourist

Hi-Fi

Variant Cover Artist

Kevin Maguire

Power Girl: Soldier… consider that an order.

Captain Atom: Fate has sought to chuck me around time. Pummel me with these visions of what may come. [...] That’s fine. You can keep kitting me with whatever the hell you’ve got. Just don’t think that I won’t hit back.

The White Lantern Entity had commanded Maxwell Lord stop a future war which would have been started by Magog’s murder of Captain Atom. Lord tricked Magog into believing that Captain Atom was a dangerous criminal. Atom was able to break Magog out his conditioning, but Lord intervened and forced Magog to blow his own head off. Magog’s Lance then exploded. Captain Atom tried to absorb the energy from the explosion, but it overwhelmed him and bounced him into the time stream.

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Writer

Judd Winick

Penciller

Joe Bennett

Inker

Jack Jadson and Ruy Jose

Colourist

Hi-Fi

Letterer

Sal Cipriano

Editor

Rex Ogle and Brian Cunningham

Cover Artist

Cliff Chiang

Variant Cover Colourist

Hi-Fi

Variant Cover Artist

Kevin Maguire

Captain Atom: I surrender.
Magog: I know, man! I heard you the first thirty times you said you wanted to throw in the towel! I just don’t give a @#$%!!

When he was a boy David Reid’s grandfather told him that “in combat, the chain of command is everything. You do as you’re told. [...] But sometimes, [...] you just gotta do what’s right.” Twenty years later and Lance Corporal David Reid went through a nightmarish-transformation as the herald of a dying god, but he rebelled against his wound-be master – broke the chain of command – and defeated him. Now as the superhero Magog he has been drafted back into military service by Maxwell Lord (whom he believes is Checkmate’s Black King) who has given him orders to kill Captain Atom.

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Scripter

Judd Winick

Breakdowns

Keith Giffen

Penciller

Fernando Dagnino

Inker

Raul Fernandez

Colourist

Hi-Fi

Letterer

Travis Lanham

Editor

Rex Ogle, Michael Siglain, and Terri Cunningham

Cover Artist

Cliff Chiang

Variant Cover Colourist

Hi-Fi

Variant Cover Artist

Kevin Maguire

Fire: You can’t just root around Checkmate. This is the largest collection of intelligence operatives on Earth. Their “resting state” is mondo extreme, gun in hand, finger on the button, knife at the throat paranoia.

Captain Atom: The parts of me that are human are… they’re disappearing. And I mean literally. There’s almost nothing inside me now but… energy. And it’s not just physically. I feel less human. I’m losing my tether to humanity. Losing what it’s like to be… a man!

Old Karrie: And Clark. Oh, Clark. He fought so hard. S-s-s-o hard. Hard enough that he started to hurt the world. So.. he lay down, he let the end come. Let the world live, even like this, but at least it would live.

Maxwell Lord has convinced everybody except the old members of the JLI that he doesn’t exist. He has manipulated them into reforming with a replacement Blue Beetle and Rocket Red, but has warned them to stay out of his way. Booster Gold and co are now determined to find and expose Max’s activities. The Blue Beetle’s scarab has traced Max to Checkmate Castle. The new JLI now gathers in their old New York embassy to debate their next course of action. Continue reading →

Plotter

Judd Winick and Keith Giffen

Scripter

Judd Winick

Breakdowns

Keith Giffen

Penciller

Aaron Lopresti

Inker

Matt Ryan

Colourist

Hi-Fi

Letterer

Swands

Editor

Rex Ogle and Michael Siglain

Cover Artist

Tony Harris

Cover Colourist

J.D. Mettler

Variant Cover Colourist

Hi-Fi

Variant Cover Artist

Kevin Maguire

Fire: “Don’t ‘thank’ the psychopathic madman.”

Maxwell Lord: “I’ve got to tell you, kid, to most people, this would sound like eighty-five tons of of steaming b.s. But, me, I’m different. Ol’ Max Lord smells b.s., he grabs some hip waders and a shovel sees how to get get to work.”

The former members of the Justice League International – Captain Atom, Booster Gold, Fire and Ice – are the only people alive who remember that Maxwell Lord (the League’s old director) ever existed. Their friends believe they are going insane and their employers have dismissed them. The only people who believe with them are Jamie Reyes (the new Blue Beetle) and Gavril Ivanovich (a renegade from the Rocket Red Brigade). Both of the new comers appears to have been brought to them by chance, but Booster is suspicious and believes that Max is behind his as well. Max is eavesdropping on Boosters accusation and radios him to ask “Okay, Booster… what would you like to know?”

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Scripter

Judd Winick

Breakdowns

Keith Giffen

Penciller

Fernando Dagnino

Inker

Bit and Raul Fernandez

Colourist

Hi-Fi

Letterer

Sal Cipriano

Assistant Editor

Rex Ogle

Editor

Michael Siglain

Cover Artist

Tony Harris

Cover Colourist

J.D. Mettler

Variant Cover Colourist

Hi-Fi

Variant Cover Artist

Kevin Maguire

Previously: Maxwell Lord has managed to hypnotize the world into thinking that he never existed. However, four of his former friends – Captain Atom, Booster Gold, Ice, and Fire – were immune to his power. He is now working from the shadows to discredit and humiliate them so nobody else will believe their stories.

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