Maxwell Lord IV (Prime Earth)

I love this world... but something has happened... there has been a change. It seems like I'm the only one who can see that humanity is broken. And the people with the powers to fix it don't know how.

— Maxwell Lord ^src

History

Early Life

Maxwell Lord IV was born to a wealthy businessman named Albert Lord and his wife Maxine in the town of Marblehead. From an early age Lord developed limited psionic powers which allowed Lord to persuade people into doing things they wouldn't normally do, however this process gave Lord frequent nose bleeds. When Lord was a teenager, his father killed himself after he realized that his medical pills were giving people cancer. At his father's funeral Maxwell was told by his mother that his father too compassionate, as she would have covered the incident up instead of admitting to the problem. After his graduation from college Maxwell joined Checkmate, a global peace-keeping organization, and quickly rose up the ranks until he obtained the second highest rank in the organisation.^[2]

On one occasion Checkmate Headquarters was attacked by cultists of the demon Trigon. During the attack Checkmate Maxwell and one of the joint leaders of Checkmate Jason Cameron were pinned down alone by the monks. Seeing an opportunity to take down all the monks and gain leadership of Checkmate, Lord persuaded Cameron to suicide bomb with several grenades which killed all the cultists. In the aftermath of the skirmish with the cultists Lord was promoted to leader of Checkmate, he immediately incriminated his joint leaders which left him as the sole leader of Checkmate.^[2]

As the Black King of Checkmate, Lord earned a reputation for not being able to work well with others. During the invasion of Earth by the alien conquerors of Apokolips, Lord was given full command of the military forces repelling the invaders. After the invaders were defeated by the newly formed Justice League, a new organization known as A.R.G.U.S. was formed to liaison with the League. The formation of this organization took a lot of power away from Lord and his organization.^[2]

DCnU

Main article: OMAC: Omactivate!

Lord is the leader of Checkmate, which is now an international organization referred to as a Global Peace Agency. Having imprisoned the sentient satellite Brother Eye, Eye turns on him and begins using OMAC to attack their Project Cadmus facilities.^[3] Lord sends a team of elite agents after OMAC led by Sarge Steel.^[4] Mokkari gets the assignment after Steel fails, but he is unsuccessful as well.^[5] He calls S.H.A.D.E. in to help deal with the threat, and Father Time sends his top operative Frankenstein who nearly kills OMAC.^[6]^[7] Brother Eye attempts to assassinate Lord with an employee of Kord Industries, making their conflict personal.^[8] Max eventually destroys Brother Eye by outsmarting him with magnetizing weaponry. Having neutralized the threat, he determines OMAC to be harmless and lets him go.^[9]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Limited Telepathy: Lord has the ability to push the boundaries of the mind with his own. At a young age he could hear the thoughts of others and eventually learned to use it tactically. Reading the psychology of others in order to play on his manipulation of the people around him.^[2]

Persuasion: As he puts it, while Lord has the power to influence a mind he cannot make his order absolute. He's more permission and not mandate as he cannot directly control a person's actions but can nudge them to act on what they desire. He usually uses his limited telepathy to read their minds, learning what they actually want.^[2]

Abilities

Deception
Firearms: Lord is an incredibly efficient marksman. Before joining Checkmate Lord was sought after in the private sector due to his capabilities. While he was a member of Checkmate Lord was decorated as a highly skilled soldier, which presumably extended to his skill with a firearm.^[2]
Leadership: Maxwell Lord is the highly credited leader of the Checkmate organization. He also the executive commissioner of the OMAC Initiative and the co-head of Project Cadmus.^[2]
Military Protocol: Maxwell Lord has spent most of his adult life in the armed forces. He has lead and co-lead multiple military organizations. Because of his experience Lord is presumably incredibly knowledgeable of the rules and procedures utilized by different U.S. government agencies.^[2]
Modern Army Combatives: Because Maxwell was accepted into the armed forces he most likely trained at West Point academy. A requirement for West Point cadets is Modern Army Combatives. MAC is a hybrid of various martial art forms, inculding Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, and Eskrima, among others.^[10]
Tactical Analysis

Weaknesses

Blood Loss: While using his powers Maxwell Lord starts to bleed from his nose. The more people there are the more blood is lost and this may lead to bleeding from eyes, mouth, and ears. With the blood loss that comes from the use of his powers he sometimes losses consciousness. When that happens the people under his control also lose consciousness.

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Black Lantern Ring^[1] (Formerly)

Notes

Maxwell Lord was created by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire, first appearing in Justice League #1. However, in the Prime Earth continuity, Maxwell Lord first appeared as part of the New 52 DC Universe in OMAC (Volume 4) #2 by Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen.

Black Lantern Corps member
This character is or was a member of the Black Lantern Corps. Those who have died may wield the Black Power Ring, symbolizing their lack of both life and emotion.
This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Black Lantern Corps members category."

[WWA2-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Wonder Woman Annual (Volume 5) #2

[JL-V3-12-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 ^2.5 ^2.6 ^2.7 Justice League (Volume 3) #12

[3] OMAC (Volume 4) #2

[4] OMAC (Volume 4) #3

[5] OMAC (Volume 4) #4

[6] OMAC (Volume 4) #5

[7] Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #5

[8] OMAC (Volume 4) #6

[9] OMAC (Volume 4) #8

[combatives-10] Combatives

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