In the original Justice League International (JLI) comics, Maxwell Lord served as the team’s wealthy and charismatic founder and benefactor. He operated behind the scenes, using his business acumen, connections, and financial resources to establish and oversee the Justice League following the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Beyond funding the team, Lord acted as its manager, often playing the role of a cunning negotiator and deal-maker, whose actions leaned more toward morally ambiguous than outright villainous.
Across Infinite Crisis and Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Maxwell Lord’s backstory was revised to portray him as a far more sinister figure, using his position within the JLI to secretly monitor and manipulate superheroes. His schemes were ultimately uncovered by Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), who was then shot in the face by Lord. These events culminated in Wonder Woman decisively ending Lord’s life by snapping his neck.
So, which version of the character is Sean Gunn currently portraying in the DCU?
DC Studios co-chair James Gunn has weighed in via social media to clearly reveal the answer.
"Max was retconned as a sort of muscular evildoer after originally being conceived by J.M. DeMatteis as a multi-layered character who was morally gray," explained Gunn.
"Along with skinny Amanda Waller, it wasn't one of my favorite comic reimaginings. Our Max is inspired by the originally version. So don't be waiting for him to shoot Blue Beetle in the face."
In the world of comics, few changes have stirred up as much fan controversy as the dramatic shift in Maxwell Lord's character. Much like director James Gunn, who famously dislikes the move, many longtime readers felt it was a betrayal of the character's legacy.
For years, Lord was the charismatic, morally gray, but ultimately good-hearted founder of the Justice League International. He was a behind-the-scenes operator who sometimes used questionable methods, but his motives were never truly evil.
The retcon was widely seen as a disservice to the character, an unwarranted shift that ignored years of established storytelling to create a cheap, shocking twist.
Hopefully, there's years of storytelling to come in the DCU and the current thought process for Lord's character remains true.
Gunn has previously stated that there are three main factions in the DCU- metahumans, corporations and the government. With Lord Tech being listed as one of the powerful corporations, Sean Gunn's Maxwell Lord might have a fairly prominent role to play in the years to come.