Tag: Invasion

In the first part of this profile of Maxwell Lord we discussed Maxwell Lord’s publishing history and started his biography. We saw how he made a Faustian bargain with an alien computer system. Now we turn our attention to the golden age of the Justice League International.

In Part One: Background, Details, and Biography (Early Life).

Biography (cont.)

Taking over the Justice League

Max first met the founders of the Justice League of America (JLA) at a Gotham City gentleman’s club where they were confronting an executive. Lord observed to one over opinionated millionaire that,

“Believe me. I want the JLA as close to me as possible. I rather like the idea of a Justice League. Just imagine. In the right hands, with the right guidance… they could be an army to change the world…” (JLA Year One #7).

The League had risen to pre-eminence as a United Nations (UN) recognised organisation, but dwindling participation by its founders had forced Aquaman to disband it. His grand experiment was to found a second, smaller League, but Aquaman’s own attention wandered and his League proved surprisingly vulnerable to a low-key attack by Professor Ivo’s androids and to the hate and chaos caused of Darkseid’s anti-hero riots.

Those same riots triggered the formation of a new Justice League led by Batman, J’onn J’onzz, and Doctor Fate (Legends, Justice League #1). This group could fill the international security role that Max and the Kilg%re foresaw, but they feared that it too, would disintegrate (Justice League International #12). Years after the fact, Max would articulate a second reason for wanting to control the Justice League. He claimed that he had wanted to save humanity from the metahuman gods who tried to pass themselves off as normal people. One way to do that was so keep the metahuman’s most celebrated organisation as passive and ineffectual as possible. The second anti-superhuman reason that Max sprouted in Countdown to Infinite Crisis is of course completely at odds with his portrayal during the JLI era. He was manipulative and self-serving, but he was never that bigoted. It is possible that Max’s first resurrection by the Kilg%re caused brain damage that further altered his personality.

Max and the Kilg%re would have to bring this new Justice League under their direct control. They created a new generation of signal devices (Justice League International #12) and Max delivered one of them to Doctor Light (Kimiyo Hoshi). He informed her that he was authorised to induct her into the League. He also arranged for a former mental patient called John Charles Collins to hold the UN General Assembly hostage with a bomb surgically attached to his torso. The new Justice League evacuated the building, but Collins killed himself trying to trigger the bomb. Unfortunately for Collins, Max had deliberately withheld the bomb’s firing pin and used his pawn’s death to create the right political climate for his take over of the League (Justice League #1).

Lord worked behind the scenes to smooth over relations between the Russian Rocket Red Brigade and the Justice League after three alien superheroes (Wandjina, Silver Sorceress, and the Blue Jay) invaded a Russian nuclear power station (Justice League #3). When the League returned from Russia they found Lord and a new hero called Booster Gold waiting for them in their headquarters.

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