Is Maxwell Lord Really A Wonder-Woman Villain?

Why is Maxwell Lord featured here in Wonder woman gallery for infinite frontier alongside the villains?


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I get the whole neck thing being a crucial part of it. But keep in mind, that incident happen several crisis ago and it’s still debated whether it’s out of character for Wonder-woman to do something like that, especially as emotionless as she did it. She killed someone and is numb to it.


The way I see it, WW1984 made Maxwell lord a central villain, so therefore DC editorial made a decision to make Max her villain, but I don’t like media syncing for this very reason. Besides the whole situation with Maxwell Lord being a villain now, wouldn’t his villainy be focused on the Justice league at large or better yet Blue Beetle and or Booster Gold. Not only does Maxwell lord have a stronger history with the league but him killing Blue Beetle redefined his former mutual friendship with Gold and Beetle.

Being added to Wonder-woman villain galleries is not only silly but also superficial.

My biggest concern is how whenever Maxwell Lord is featured as a villain in a Wonder-woman book now, Wonder-woman, someone who is known to forgive her villains or seek their better judgment

Wonder-woman out of character and comes off as antagonistic toward him even when he is on her side.

It’s also important to mention that Maxwell lord, in all his nonsense as a villain, still sees himself as a hero. It’s possible to turn him on the side of good but it’s almost a active effort to not specifically do that for him.

I would also argue that having Maxwell lord be a Wonder-woman villain hurts other villains like Doctor Psycho; the villain Psychic who Wonder-woman hates but because he is notoriously misogynistic( a role that Maxwell lord has been unfortunately implied to be because his new villain status)

And Veronica Cale; The evil businesses mongul and scientist who much like Lord has become a stand-in for this Lex Luthor role with his attitude of I hate metahumans like Superman because they are godlike beings.

If Max Lord is her villain now wouldn’t it be obvious that Cale and psycho wouldn’t be needed as much since Lord can preoccupy their roles very easily?

Hopefully DC Editorial has a endgame with him that isn’t just a bad guy for Wonder-woman especially since his biggest crime happen a literal decade ago and even WW1984 SPOILER redeemed himself in the end for his son.

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Got to advertise the movie.

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I look at him as a DC villain who has connections to some characters more than others. Similar to Deathstroke, who can be a villain for any characters, but has a stronger connection to the Titans/Batman side of things.

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True, but that’s also the case for most villains. So just because someone sees themselves as a hero hardly means they actually are

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While im not a fan of Maxwell Lord as a Wonder Woman villain since he is quite possibly the least dangerous of her many mentalist menaces, I felt the need to pop in just to point out that he was also the big bad of ‘Justice League vs the Suicide Squad’ (2017) wherin he seeks out the crystal of Eclipso in a bid for world domination.

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Yes but it’s actually what I mentioned about him being a primary Justice League villain than a Wonder-woman villain.

I disagree with him being a villain but whatever mandate is in place to keep him as a villain, I feel confident to say he should be a Justice League villain or at the very least, a villain that just targets former Justice League international members like Booster Gold and Blue Beetle.

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Oh I certainly agree with you about Maxwell Lord being a villain at all. His turn to villainy being entirely motivated by an editor not liking Justice League International and trying to retcon the entire run to have been a smear campaign to make the Justice League look bad is rather questionable storytelling.

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Sinestro sees himself as a hero as well- it doesn’t matter how righteous they feel if their actions are counter to that. Lord’s are.

Nah. It doesn’t hurt The Riddler being so similar to the Joker, or Heat Wave being nearly identical to Captain Cold.

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^ This moment forever linked him to Wonder Woman.

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It’s kinda more complicated with Maxwell Lord but I do think the comparison is fair in some degree. there just is a key difference that must be understood however.

Sinestro believes what he is doing is for the greater good, and would use terror and fear of the yellow rings to betray his former green lantern friends and kill some of them to get that peace.
He is a tyrant, he just have good points in theory.

Modern Maxwell lord is weird in this regard, the extent of his evilness is kinda funny in a messed up way because it’s all over the place. Even when he does good, it’s always framed if he did a bad thing like the time he prevented the events of kingdom come in Generation lost.

He has killed cops, caused chaos when he took over America, ruined a wedding.

Utter nonsense.

Its likely he’s delusional possibility mentally ill, but that’s headcannon logic.

The only time of sympathy is when you see
him doing wrong and regretful of it. It’s oddly consistent.

Plenty of potential as a anti-hero or anti-villian character if done right but it’s like DC has a editorial rule to not anyone feel Maxwell Lord is tragic, somewhat right, basically can’t be mistaken for anything good.

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This is an excellent description of Lex Luthor.

I agree with this. While I think that the main reason he is listed as a WW villain is that he pushed her to the edge to do the unthinkable. Thus, he was able to get under her skin, unlike other villains. Still, you have made some great points.

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Not…Really? The writers of that period were rather pro Wonder Woman killing villains. Diana had killed Medusa a year prior because she was pushed to the edge and had no choice. A few years after that, Wonder Woman had killed Genocide. There was nothing special about that encounter.

The Wonder Woman connections especially odd in the context of that story wherin Maxwell Lord was manipulating and tormenting Superman which was a central focus. And using evil technology created by Batman to conquer the world.

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That is true. I was just trying to think why he became the WW villain that he is. I also just read that Medusa storyline like a month or two ago and completely forgot about it.

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Ah, a fair point. To have a moment of cynicism, I feel like overall there was a push within DC at one point to establish Wonder Woman as a generally more murderous individual. Thus any example of her killing a villain was highlighted and given the spotlight in an effort to try and make it a whole thing.

Which I theorize also why whenever DC typically does their ‘official’ top Wonder Woman villain lists they typically reference Maxwell Lord. Not because he was particularly threatening to Wonder Woman. (The point of his death is that he was no threat to Wonder Woman) but because it served to accentuate a narrative.

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Which list did that? No one in their right mind is ranking him over Ares or Cheetah.

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I didn’t say he topped them, but he usually makes the top three.

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I couldn’t agree more.
The idea around the neck snap is such a disservice to Wonder-woman and I’m just not convinced that moment should define this new rivalry.

In my opinion, I really did like this idea that if your gonna have a guy like Maxwell lord who has this huge grudge against superheroes but more specifically in the league, you’re gonna have the person who represents the best of the team itself against him.

Martian Manhunter was on the Justice league international team when it was formed, he was it’s most senior members and initially never trusted Maxwell lord running the league and rightfully so because we found out later he was manipulating it’s formation since the beginning.

Overtime however, Maxwell lord was able to redeem himself to the league but more importantly to J’onn as someone who can be trusted and even be called a friend. It was the Martian Manhunter, Max confided in when he feared what his newfound telepathy would do to him and the dangers of it.

While I believe these two briefly met again in a alternate earth where Maxwell lord OMAC plan succeeded I say it’s loss potential that these two never became enemies after what happened. They got a strong connection to the league past and since the international era, arguably could have only gotten more interesting with both having knowledge to some high form telepathy.
Even than you got to consider that Maxwell lord has plenty of influence and resources to undermine even a powerful shape-shifting alien like the Martian Manhunter.

That’s how I see it anyway, I could be honestly surprised if Wonder-woman writers can do something more with Maxwell Lord besides being a evil businessman who is a misogynist with telepathic powers.

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The spread posted just seems to focus on recent/current characters in their modern garb (e.g. has the new kid, doesn’t have Ares).

I agree with others that Max is historically more of a general villain/antagonist than a WW specific villain (e.g. Supergirl s1). However, he had a sizable role in the last writer’s story as well as the movie, which are the most recent things I’ve seen the character do.

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For me personally I like his inclusion as a rogue I know he wasn’t always a strict Wonder Woman villain. But I feel he adds a lot to her gallery of villains where it can feel pretty boring especially how writers haven’t done much. So for me I don’t mind it at all maxwell is a representation of the evils of man that she has to face a human example of that but she can’t face head on cause of how sneaky and intelligent he is as sometimes an ally and enemy it’s really cool and I think adds great variety to the stories that can be told. So to me I fully see maxwell lord as a wonder woman villain.

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Hi and welcome to the community.

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