This posting isn't the Maxwell Lord Wikipedia page so I'm not going to get into a whole lot of detail about the origins of the infamous Maxwell lord. Besides, most any body who reads this blog knows pretty much all about this son of a bitch. Max went from being the slick used car salesmen like PR specialist for the JLA to one of the most profound villains of the DC Universe in about the span of 20 years (since 1987). To be honest, I'm not sure about the specifics that lead up to him usurping Checkmate and becoming it's absolute ruler as Black King. But there he was, up until he fucked with Wonder Woman one too many times. How about that Wonder Woman folks!? That gorgeous Amazonian is a real head turner ain't she! Thank goodness she put him down even though she caught a lot of unnecessary shit from the JLA for it. Just try to imagine Nick Fury becoming some sort of Charles Mansion like sociopath taking over S.H.I.E.L.D. I think what sets Max Apart from other DC villains is his unwavering smart ass style of arrogance. But he was crafty, shre
wd and quite capable of manipulating people easily even with out his "Jedi mind trick" like powers.By the way, notice the Task Force X logo among others on the monitor at Checkmate HQ? Ok, so who out there has seen the movie Firestarter (1984) with Drew Barrymore? Well I'm gonna tell you all something that is gonna blow you away. David Keith, who played Drew's father had powers too if you
remember. He was able to control peoples minds as long as he could make eye contact with them. Well anytime he used his power it caused what was described as "pin point hemorrhages" that resulted in nose bleeds! Sound familiar? Ironic here how Waller calls him a "liberal weasel" back during the Alien Alliance Invasion in which Waller and Lord were forced to make nice and work together. As Black King he ran Checkmate with such brutal efficiency that even dictators in the Middle East would have been envious.Now as you all know Max is back thanks to this whole Blackest Night/Brightest Day stuff and unfortunately my knowledge about that is vague as of yet. So for those of you who do know any details please do share with the rest of us. One of my favorite shows is 1000 Ways To Die which showcases all the various ways people have managed to get themselves killed from everything like swallowing a tape worm larvae in order to lose weight to using dynamite to go fishing. So I can think of a lot of ways I would like to see Maxwell Lord die many times over. It was too fast the way Wonder Woman killed him he deserved worse, much worse. The list of heinous acts committed by Maxwell Lord is longer then my . . . arm. And chief among them was Ted Kord's (Blue Beetle 1) murder. But at least Blue Beetle went out in style with "Rot in Hell Max!" as a response to Lord's final ultimatum. For some helpful insight on Maxwell Lords resurrection you might want to check out: http://idol-head.blogspot.com/2011/02/2009-black-lantern-maxwell-lord-design.html
The transformation of Max Lord into a full on supervillain has been an interesting development for me. You will probably not find a bigger fan of the Giffen/DeMatteis JLI books than me.
ReplyDeleteHence, I was quite surprised, and not pleasantly, when Max was revealed as a bad guy at nearly the same moment that he shot Blue Beetle (one of my favorite characters) in the head.
I was not happy at all with either of these events, as you can imagine. However, fast forward to today, and "Generation Lost" is my favorite book from DC Comics at the moment. They have taken an idea that I was very much against and turned it into a story that I am really enjoying.
That's a pretty good trick, right there.
i was staying in Lake Tahoe back in 1987 when one day i came across a copy of the Giffen/DeMatteis JL #4 at a 7/11. i was looking for reading material for the 4 hour car ride back home. it blew me away! i'd never seen the Justice League members portrayed with such compelling personalities. Booster Gold who i wasn't really that familiar with cracked me up and his fight with the Royal Flush Gang kicked ass! first thing i did when i got back home was make it my life's calling to track down issues 1-3. Keith McGuire's pencils were amazing especially when it comes to facial expressions.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.asitecalledfred.com/comics101/111.html
Yeah, at the 80's felt the same way. Amazing expressions, life like heroes with life-like reactions & sense of humor. Loved it then.
ReplyDeleteNow, I'mkind of fed up of Giffen's humor. I think he should tone it down in Booster Gold, which is one of my favorite hero characters, when he is not turned into a clown.
About Lord, I'm with Bollweevilprime. I was shocked when he just turned evil. It also was a Lex Luthor kind of being a villain. He's convinced he's right, and just protecting the non powered population.
I miss the car salesman, ambitious, but principled enough that the Martian Manhunter, gave him his trust.
I adored all of those old Giffen JL books. Booster Gold and Blue Beetle were two of my favorite characters (and I just realized should have been on the bromances posting over on Dan's blog a few days ago). It really shocked me too, BollWeevil, when Max turned into a bad guy. I kept waiting for his redemption. And waiting...and waiting. It never happened. When I received from my friend the first few Generation Lost issues I absolutely squealed with delight..I had my favorite Justice League team back! Yes, they're a bit messed up. They were never taken very seriously in the first place, and now Max is screwing with everyone's heads to make them seem even less reliable. I'm eating this up. It works...it really works. But there's a part of me that is still that little girl reading her dad's back issues waiting for Max's redemption.
ReplyDeleteAliera: I miss him, too.....I miss him, too :)
ReplyDeleteRandom: Like I said, I'm liking the series too, despite myself.
And what's worse through all of this: my name is Max!
Why did they have to take a (somewhat) likable jerk with my name and turn him into the guy that shot Ted Kord? Why??? :)
:) My little boy's middle name is Max...well. Can be shortened to Max. It's like I said, we've been waiting...how many years now for them to turn him back around? We're due right? Right?
ReplyDeleteWe are so due.
ReplyDeleteOh, and my full name is Maxwell, too. Your son's parents have excellent taste. :)
ReplyDeleteMax, if you've ever seen Office Space then you should just be lucky to not be named Michael Bolton. on the rest of the comments can i just say that good looking women talking about comic books turns me on something fierce!
ReplyDeleteso i guess none of you people have any idea what i'm talking about with my Firestarter reference huh? bloody savages.
I caught the Firestarter reference. Hell, King's a hometown boy, I grew up on his books. I guess that explains a lot.
ReplyDeletethat's right Craig your from New England. i hear that's a real swinging town bro :)
ReplyDeleteFirestarter, huuh?
ReplyDeleteMaxwell is a very nice name, to both of you with the attatchment to the name.
In Europe (Not england) we can have as many names as a crazy parent decide. So there is no thing as a middle name. You just go with the one you're more confortable with.
People, DC wants to cancel Doom Patrol.
ReplyDeleteIf you would like to join a petition to ask them not to cancel here is the link
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savethedp/
Sorry for using you blog for this Dave, but I thought more people should see.
ReplyDeleteOh! Sorry, Dave, with all Max talk I forgot to mention it. Yes, I've seen Firestarter. Movie freaked me out. Made me want to scream at E.T. "Run away from the demon child!" anytime I watched it from that point out. So yeah. Caught that. And thanks for the heads up Aliera! And not to take away my awesome parenting credit, but his full middle name is Maximos, (I couldn't sneak Maxwell in, not after I got the first kid named Kathryn Ann and the second named Gwendolyn...heehee).
ReplyDelete...we named Zoe after a Muppet. So much for my parenting skills.
ReplyDeleteYeah Dave. Of course in the dead of winter, there ain't a hell of a lot else to do up here. UMaine made somebody's party schools list back when I was there. It's no wonder, the nearest big town, Bangor, is 20 minutes down the highway. If you don't have a car, you're stuck on campus, because there isn't much within walking distance. And my freshman year there were no cable or phone hookups in the rooms, so your choices were: study, drink, or hook up.
Hey! They do the same thing in Southern Illinois! Or Central Illinois. Or any part of Illinois that isn't Chicago. It's all the corn and soybean fields. Makes you wacky. They might do that in Chicago too, but I wouldn't know. When I'm in Chicago it's to go to a baseball game. South side style.
ReplyDeleteyeah well where i live there is always plenty to do and the weather is nice year round. but then again the cost of living here is insane. average gas price right now is $3.43 per gallon thanks to all this shit going on in the Middle East especially now with things really starting to erupt in libya. i know that's more then any of you are paying for gas right now.
ReplyDeleteat any rate, i can tell you all that there is plenty of deviant sexual behavior going on around here. there's two major sex clubs in S.F. called the Power Exchange and the Citadel that largely cater to this sub culture of BDSM (bondage dominate submissive masichism)folks we also have here. then of course there's a ton of "massage" parlors out here where you can get a happy end if your willing to pay a bit more.
but i digress, this is a blog about comics so don't worry Aliera about that link. the funny thing about the Doom Patrol (one of the coolest names for a group ever) is that i didn't learn about them until the mid 80s which had much to do with DC's Who's Who. i started to get a bit intrigued with them right before the 1987 series came out so i checked out the first issue. this was pretty much the same time i started getting the Suicide Squad after my friend showed me issue 1 cause he dug all the violence. plus that was the time where people were buying the first issues of most any new series because of the potential back issue value some day. but unfortunately unlike the Suicide Squad the new Doom Patrol series didn't keep my interest and i quit picking it up after issue #3. but i thought the giant size Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad Special was pretty good though. maybe i'll do a posting on that some day.
Oh lucky you! Here gas is 1.49 euros a Lt. That more. THere are people gettin their cars removed by the police and don't go there to retrieve them because they can't pay the ticket.
ReplyDeleteI remember those Doom Patrol times, back then. They didn't pick my interest either, but now it was the original team again, and were on the verge(I think)of becoming even more interesting.
CDerosby, those were not bad choices in UMaine. :P
I for my part, in that time just kept my head on books studying, or reading comics.
Your average geek.
Randomnerd, your girls's names are beautiful.
My boys are Daniel ande Vicente Miguel. I like the El sound.
Those are brilliant names! I like the El sound too. :) Most of my knowledge of Doom Patrol comes through my reading of the Titans and Garfield (go figure). But I'd hate to see it go away.
ReplyDeleteGarfield Logan from the Titans or Garfield the Cat?
ReplyDeleteGarfield Logan from the Titans. Although he does make a lovely feline. :)
ReplyDeleteYes he does. My favorite Titan from all times.
ReplyDelete