Maxwell Lord vs. the JLA

[Flash's Lightning]

I was recently rereading the Death of Superman, and it occurs to me two things. One, if Maxwell Lord hadn't "been keeping the JLA ineffective", they might have stood a chance against Doomsday. Two, there were two telepaths on the team, Maxima and Bloodwynd.

So...neither picked up anything about Max being an evil mastermind overlord type? Of tampering with the JLA's minds? And how could he affect Maxima/Bloodwynd without them noticing?

[Augusto]

By the time of the death, Max was just a reckless bussiness man. His evil side was a later development.
But we might think he was still learning to use his powers full length. Maybe Superman "died" because Max was putting a leash to Superman power's.http://www.smileyhut.com/confused/dunno.gif (http://www.smileyhut.com)http://www.smileyhut.com/confused/eyebrow.gif (http://www.smileyhut.com)
http://www.yelims.com/IPB/Invision-Board-France-234.gif

[Flash's Lightning]

By the time of the death, Max was just a reckless bussiness man. His evil side was a later development.
But we might think he was still learning to use his powers full length. Maybe Superman "died" because Max was putting a leash to Superman power's.http://www.smileyhut.com/confused/dunno.gif (http://www.smileyhut.com)http://www.smileyhut.com/confused/eyebrow.gif (http://www.smileyhut.com)
http://www.yelims.com/IPB/Invision-Board-France-234.gif

Right, I do know that the Max-being-evil thing is a recent development, and back then he was written with the idea of being a good guy (for the most part). But I mean storywise.

And it would make sense that Max had practiced messing with Superman's mind back when he first had contact with him...hadn't thought of that!

[marshal99]

Max was a good guy until someone at DC decides to mess about and make him a evil mastermind.

Max was a good friend of the martian manhunter in the giffen JLA until the team break off. Max was never malicious , heck , he never even got his powers until the metagene bomb happened in invasion.

[titanfan]

So...neither picked up anything about Max being an evil mastermind overlord type? Of tampering with the JLA's minds? And how could he affect Maxima/Bloodwynd without them noticing?

Bloodwynd (at the time) was J'onn Jonzz who probably doesn't go probing into his friends' minds. (And max had enough telepathic defenses with his power it seems)

You can make the argument that Maxima might have known, but given her personality at the time--might not have cared. I can see her thinking "Whatever. I'll just rip him in half when he tries to take over the world."

[JCAll]

Max was a good guy until someone at DC decides to mess about and make him a evil mastermind.

Max was a good friend of the martian manhunter in the giffen JLA until the team break off. Max was never malicious , heck , he never even got his powers until the metagene bomb happened in invasion.

...

Didn't Max Lord trick some terrorist into shooting himself in the face in his first appearance ever?
Max Lord was always evil, he was just evil for the good guys.

[Augusto]

In the Wikipedia page for Maxwell Lord (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Lord) there's interesting info about Max.
http://www.yelims.com/IPB/Invision-Board-France-234.gif

[Darrell D.]

...

Didn't Max Lord trick some terrorist into shooting himself in the face in his first appearance ever?
Max Lord was always evil, he was just evil for the good guys.

Yeah, Max was portrayed as very Machiavellian in his first appearances...and then as the series went on he changed, and he grew as a character, just as Giffen and DeMatteis planned.
The Max Lord that shot Ted Kord, masterminded the OMAC project and eventually had his suddenly human neck snapped by Wonder Woman? Not the Max Lord I remember. Doesn't line up with his previous portrayals, or even his thought balloons. Not to mention the fact that it was established that he was a cyborg, and then suddenly he wasn't.

Oh, wait, I forgot.

Superboy-Prime punch.

Got it.

Makes sense, now.

Doesn't really bother me. I just dig out my old JL/JLI books and read about the REAL Max Lord.
Unless, EmoBoy can punch THOSE out of existence....

[Flash's Lightning]

Doesn't really bother me. I just dig out my old JL/JLI books and read about the REAL Max Lord.
Unless, EmoBoy can punch THOSE out of existence....

Don't give him any ideas!!! :eek:

I'm still sore that he was able to take out a Daxamite with a power ring. :mad: Yeah, yeah, I know, pre-Crisis Kryptonians whips post-Crisis ass, but still...

[JCAll]

Yeah, Max was portrayed as very Machiavellian in his first appearances...and then as the series went on he changed, and he grew as a character, just as Giffen and DeMatteis planned.
The Max Lord that shot Ted Kord, masterminded the OMAC project and eventually had his suddenly human neck snapped by Wonder Woman? Not the Max Lord I remember. Doesn't line up with his previous portrayals, or even his thought balloons. Not to mention the fact that it was established that he was a cyborg, and then suddenly he wasn't.

Thought balloons. Not to mention the times Martian Manhunter went digging around in his head.

But still, Max went evil, got mind controlled, or teamed up with some evil AI 3 or 4 times that I can think of. Seeing him turn evil again wouldn't have even thrown me. But it was handled so damn poorly (HE @#$%ING SHOT BLUE BEETLE!!!) that the whole thing was ruined from the start.

[Kid Kyoto]

One thought is Evil Max was lying. Either to himself or just to Blue Beetle.

Lies, the world's easiest retcon.

[ashez2ashes]

I like to think the real Max retired/stranded to Koey Koey Koey and is off somewhere, communing with nature and vainly trying to build a raft out of coconut trees.