Maxwell Lord IV is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Justice League #1 (May 1987) and was created by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire.
The character made his cinematic debut in the 2020 DC Extended Universe film, Wonder Woman 1984, portrayed by Pedro Pascal. A new iteration portrayed by Sean Gunn appears in the DC Universe (DCU) film Superman and the second season of the television series Peacemaker (both 2025).
Fictional character biography
Maxwell Lord IV is the son of Maxwell Lord III, a successful businessman and head of the Chimtech Consortium. Maxwell III set out to be a good example for his son by striving to always do what was right. When Maxwell IV was 16, he came home to find his father dead in an apparent suicide. His father had discovered that his company had produced a
carcinogenic product, and could not bear the guilt.
Lord's mother was convinced by her husband to employ a similar practice, cajoling heroic metahumans to help Lord. Thus, he sparked the plans to bring the Justice League, leaderless and broken after the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, under his exclusive control.[ #20 (February 2011)]
Giffen and DeMatteis years
Lord initially worked behind the scenes to establish the Justice League, while under the control of a computer created by Metron. The computer wanted Lord to set up a worldwide peacekeeping organization as part of its plan to
Hegemony.
A retcon changed Lord's controller to the villainous computer program Kilg%re, which had taken over Metron's machine.[ The Flash (vol. 2) #51 (June 1991)] A second retcon mitigated Kilg%re's and Metron's influence, stating that Lord already had plans to take over the League and would have pursued them regardless.
Lord's ruthlessness at this time was illustrated when he set up a disturbed would-be terrorist as a villain for the League to defeat, resulting in the man's death. Later, Lord rebelled against the computer's influence and destroyed it.
Once free of the computer's influence, Lord is portrayed as an amoral businessman, but not a real villain. During the time that Giffen and DeMatteis were writing the Justice League, Lord is shown struggling with his conscience and developing heroic qualities, though he would remain a con-artist.
From Invasion! to Identity Crisis
Originally a normal human, Lord is one of many people on Earth who gain superpowers during the
Invasion crossover, when the Dominators activate their Gene Bomb. This bomb activates Lord's latent metagene, granting him the ability to control the minds of others, albeit at great difficulty.
Despite being a metahuman, Lord never identifies as one. Instead, at the urging of his mother to act for the benefit of non-metahumans, he shifts his hatred for the generic "authority figures" who caused his father's death to the metahuman community.
After he is shot and placed in a coma at the beginning of JLAmerica/JLEurope crossover Breakdowns, Dreamslayer takes over Lord's body and supercharges Lord's power, allowing him to control thousands of minds at once. Using Lord's body, Dreamslayer almost forces Justice League International (JLI) to disband. While possessed Lord forces the JLI to battle itself, the mortally wounded Silver Sorceress contains Dreamslayer and holds him within her mind as she dies, taking him with her. When Lord is freed, his power is burnt out.
Lord is later diagnosed with a brain tumor and dies. Kilg%re downloads Lord's consciousness into a duplicate of Lord Havok that he alters to resemble Lord's human body.
Doomsday later crash-lands on Earth, easily trounces the League, and kills Superman.[ Superman (vol. 2) #75 (January 1993)] With Earth undefended, Mongul invades and destroys Coast City, killing Lord's mother. This event further fuels his hatred and paranoia against metahumans, as well as leading him to believe that not only can metahumans not be trusted, but that their personal battles and scuffles are enough to shatter world safety.
Lord puts together several former JLI members, including L-Ron, Captain Atom, Ted Kord (Ted Kord), Booster Gold, and Fire as the Super Buddies, advertised as "heroes the common man could call". The Super Buddies star in the 2003 miniseries Formerly Known as the Justice League and its 2005 sequel I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League.
In Identity Crisis (2004), Lord attends Sue Dibny's funeral and speaks to Booster Gold, further denting his already dwindling faith in superheroes.[ Identity Crisis #1 (August 2004)]
Infinite Crisis
Countdown to Infinite Crisis reveals that Lord is no longer a cyborg, and is a criminal mastermind who spent years running the JLI while gathering sensitive information about the world's superheroes, whom he considered a threat to the planet. Simultaneously, he sabotaged JLI efforts to render the superhero team as ineffectual as possible. At the end of the prologue special issue, he shoots and kills Ted Kord.
Alexander Luthor Jr., the son of Lex Luthor from an alternate Earth, gives Lord control of Brother Eye, a satellite system Batman created to monitor superhumans worldwide. Lord uses Brother Eye to create an army of OMACs in a bid to kill all superhumans before Wonder Woman kills him by snapping his neck.[ Infinite Crisis #1 (December 2005)]
seemingly kills Lord in Infinite Crisis #1 (Dec, 2005); art by Phil Jimenez.]]At the "Crisis Counseling" panel at Wizard World Chicago, Dan DiDio explained DC's reasoning in using Lord's character in Infinite Crisis. After going through several possible characters who could be the "new leader for the offshoot of Checkmate", Maxwell Lord was suggested. Many of the editors thought that the idea made sense, as Lord had been shown to have a mean streak and to have killed previously. The idea was dropped due to the continuity errors, such as him being a cyborg, but they went back to it later after deciding none of the other possible characters were suitable. DiDio explained: "We thought about that aspect of the story where some more. And then asked, 'Did anyone read it?' No. 'Did anyone like the idea?' No. So we moved ahead with Max as being a human, and having been a human, and not letting that small part of the past stand in the way of this story. We wanted what was best for Countdown ''to, and for us, that meant that Max had to be a human".
In Blackest Night and Brightest Day, Maxwell Lord is resurrected as a Black Lantern and later fully resurrected by the Life Entity.[ Blackest Night #1 (September 2009)][ #7 (October 2010)] In The New 52 continuity reboot, Lord is depicted as the leader of Project Cadmus.[ Justice League (vol. 3) #12 (March 2017)]
Powers and abilities
Maxwell Lord is a metahuman who can control the minds of others and force them to act on their subconscious desires. In his original depiction, he is born a human and had his meta-gene activated by the Dominators' Gene Bomb, but he is later depicted as having been born a metahuman.
[ Justice League: Generation Lost #4 (August 2010)][ Justice League: Generation Lost #17 (March 2011)][ Justice League: Generation Lost #23 (June 2011)] It was a continual joke that if Lord overused his powers, he would suffer noticeable nosebleeds.
Other versions
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Maxwell Hodge, a fusion of Maxwell Lord and Marvel Comics character Cameron Hodge, appears in the Amalgam Comics universe.
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An alternate universe variant of Maxwell Lord appears in Justice Riders. This version is a 19th-century railroad baron.
[ Justice Riders]
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An alternate universe variant of Maxwell Lord appears in as a disguise used by Ares.
In other media
Television
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Maxwell Lord appears in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Ultimatum", voiced by Tim Matheson.
[ A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.] This version is a member of Project Cadmus and manager of the Ultimen, a team of genetically-engineered superheroes who operate independently of the Justice League.
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Maxwell Lord appears in the ninth season of Smallville, portrayed by Gil Bellows.
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Maxwell Lord appears in the first season of Supergirl, portrayed by Peter Facinelli. This version is the founder of Lord Technologies who possesses a god complex and is the son of scientists who were killed due to unsafe conditions, making him distrustful of government agencies.
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Maxwell Lord appears in the DC Super Hero Girls episode "#WorldsFinest", voiced by P. J. Byrne. This version is a public relations specialist.
Film
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Maxwell Lord was meant to appear in ', portrayed by Jay Baruchel. This version, named Jonah Wilkes''', was abducted as a child and given psychic abilities by the US government as part of the OMAC Project.
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Maxwell "Max" Lord (né Lorenzano) appears in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film Wonder Woman 1984, portrayed by Pedro Pascal as an adult, Lambro Demetriou as a child, and John Barry as a teenager.
DC Universe
Maxwell Lord appears in the DC Universe (DCU), portrayed by
Sean Gunn.
This version is the CEO of LordTech and sponsor of the Justice Gang. According to DCU co-creator
James Gunn, Lord is based on the "morally grey" depiction from his early comic appearances.
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Lord makes a cameo appearance in Superman.
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Lord appears in the Peacemaker episode "The Ties That Grind".
Video games
Maxwell Lord appears as a character summon in
.
