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Maxwell Lord: J. M. DeMatteis Not Buying "Villain" Tag; Gunn Checks In

Maxwell Lord co-creator J. M. DeMatteis hopes James Gunn's DCU goes with his, Keith Giffen & Kevin Maguire's take on the character.


Earlier today, reports hit that DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn & Peter Safran had found their Maxwell Lord in Sean Gunn (Marvel Studios' "Guardians of the Galaxy" films). Created by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis & Kevin Maguire, the character first debuted in 1987's Justice League #1 in a vastly different way than where the character would end up. Once an ally of the Justice League, Lord eventually took a turn into "big bad" territory – especially when it came to Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman (leading to a bit of a neck-twisting moment for Lord at one point). Another interesting point is that the character was granted the ability to control the minds of others (but not without paying a price – thus, the nose bleeds) – meaning his threat factor increases ten-fold.

maxwell lord
Image: Marvel Studios/DC comics

Of course, it makes perfect sense that DeMatteis would comment on the news – making sure folks know that their version of Max wasn't a "big bad," adding that he hopes that Gunn goes with Giffen, DeMatteis & Maguire's version. Here's a look at the post:

maxwell lord
Image: Threads Screencap

Well, it didn't take long for Gunn to take to Threads to share his thoughts on the topic of Lord as a villain, seemingly siding with DeMatteis when it comes to pushing back on the idea of Lord being solely a "big bad" (though dropping "reductionist" has us thinking that maybe Gunn's not ready to consider him one of the good guys, either).

Maxwell Lord: J. M. DeMatteis Not Buying "Villain" Tag; Gunn Checks In
Image: Threads Screencap

Recently, the character was brought to life by Pedro Pascal in the Gal Gadot-starring Wonder Woman 1984). And while Gunn didn't officially confirm the news, the news could make things interesting when you consider what overall role Lord could play in the DCU – could we be looking at an evil version of the MCU's Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), where he has storyline threads across the films and series? At the time of the initial reporting, no one specific project was attached to Gunn's Maxwell Lord, leading to speculation that it could be a more across-the-board DCU role.


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Ray FlookAbout Ray Flook

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought onto the core BC team in 2017.
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