#cw nuclear holocaust

[pixeljade]

I do keep seeing posts that say "whys Joe even funding Israel except that he loves Genocide" or "Why is there discussion of leaving NATO in the senate survey" and like. Here. Let me explain this to you. (DISCLAIMER: I hate Joe Biden I'm just doing this because understanding your opponents motivations makes it so you can more effectively fight them)

When you're President, issues are not just single simple issues. Theres a shitton of moving parts, and he cant be obvious about his awareness of all these parts for transparency's sake because that also gives his enemies (which would include those of us who want Both Parties Gone) an upper hand. Joe Biden views Israel as a necessary US base of operation in the middle east to defend the USA in case of an attack by China and (more pressing lately) Russia.

See, with Russia attacking Ukraine, Ukraine is thinking of joining NATO as a means of better defending itself. They've been talking about it for ages but really started getting the ball rolling when Putin attacked. NATO is a treaty organization which, if Ukraine does join, all the other members of NATO would be forced to come to its aid (i.e., literally all of them would be considered At War With Russia). On top of this, Russia has strong allies with a lot of anti-USA powers, including China. I wouldnt even be surprised if North Korea shows up. If this is starting to ring bells relating to the world wars in history class, good, because thats exactly what this scenario would entail. Another, open world war. Yes people scream 'world war 3' over the tiniest provocation but its just as foolish to claim its impossible. Add in that Putin has said he will gladly use nukes if he has to, and...well. you can put two and two together. It wont be a pretty picture.

Anyways, the middle east is, and has been, a central point in our proxy wars against Russia for ages. This is both because of the resources (oil) there, as well as its potential as a strong base of defense for the west against the east. Israel in particular is USA's biggest military defense resource, as they have a shit-ton of anti-ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capabilities. Simply put, they serve as a bulwark against the forces of the east. They're also one of the biggest deterrants against all-out world war; because if anyone DOES try to send a nuke out west, we'll just blow it up before it hits us and then have Israel nuke them back, with far less time to defend.

So lets put ourselves in Joe's shoes knowing all of this. It starts to feel a bit like he HAS to keep giving Israel what they want in order to prevent world war 3 and/or nuclear holocaust, huh? This should also clarify why he said "If there were not an Israel in the middle east we would have to make one", and why he reportedly is very upset with all the Palestinean death yet still gives Israel weapons. Its a shitty appeasement tactic with an eye on global politics. (Side note: astute readers may also note that the actions regarding China are part of this, including the tik tok ban. They are correct.)

But does this make his actions correct? Fuck no. As many have noted Israel wouldnt even be able to continue existing without assistance from America, and Israel would likely be the first place to be destroyed by Russia if they seek to win, if it were weakened sufficiently. Meaning Joe could EASILY turn the tables on Israel and threaten to (or actually) cut them off and say "Fine, if you want to go that way then enjoy the hellfire that comes for us all, chuck." He could also decide to start rebuilding relations with China despite our differences, and therefore deprive Russia of allies in the world war 3 scenario. He could also build up these same defense systems in another middle eastern allied country (which I'd be against because colonialism is part of the problem). And that's simply taking it from the perspective of Joe, I, personally, do not think that America should remain in its current form. It has far more blood on its hands than just the Palestinean blood, and its destruction (preferably without nukes) could allow better things to take root.

Anyways, like I said, this is so that we might better defeat our enemies, so if you're wondering what the implications here are, I'd say start getting involved in politics at a local level. Not just protests, go to city council meetings! Its mostly boring stuff but once you get a hold on what it all means (and you will!) You'll start to see ways to shift the American culture away from this war-dependent fascistic society which has been surging so terrifyingly. You will start to see the glimmers of hope which shine through the sludge that it is American Politics.

Anyways if someone says this is a pro-Biden post im going to stab you with a million knives.

[kidovna]

Will and Mike, 1991

the buttons under the cut

for love and for life, we are not going back

No blood for oil

Earth Day

No Reagan

Silence = Death (Pink Triangle CW: the holocaust)

Nuclear Arms

Will Powers (the album)

NASA

The Hellfire Club and Peace sign pins are self explanatory <3

This started because @astrobei said "Mike's the type of guy to look intimidating in a leather jacket from behind, but he turns around and he's wearing a ghostbusters t-shirt" and @cherbearsz reminded me that Will would probably start wearing brighter colours again when he's starting to accept and love himself :')

[kylekozmikdeluxo]

CW: mental illness

At age 31, I think back to when I was 13. Reverse the numbers, haha. 13, back in the years 2005 and 2006. I'll stretch things a little further to 2007, when I was turning 15...

A lot of these last few years, amidst an ongoing pandemic that continues to mutate in messed up new ways, late stage capitalism clamping down on all aspects of life, and fascists trying their damnedest to regain power and poison the population with hatred- that seems pretty bad, right? Amidst all of this chaos, I've been re-unlocking myself. Or at least younger versions of me that needed fine-tuning, but were instead locked away or over-corrected.

These last three years, however, have not been an easy journey...

For me, this is crucial for my own creative endeavors, namely my writing and my slow move into comic-creating.

At 13-14, I would write and draw some pretty wacky stuff. A lot of it was nonsensical and mostly non-sequiturs, but not in the way something like the Lewis Carroll ALICE stories - off the top of my head - were or similar works of nonsensical storytelling. There really wasn't much of a vibe to it, these were more the ramblings of a young, overexcited autistic who wasn't given the tools to navigate through and around a very neurotypical-inclined world... and a young autistic who had much to learn about the world around them. For example, I had as much understanding of politics as - say - a leafblower. And for context, we're talking the mid-2000s here, where things were much tougher than they are now...

I look back on a lot of that stuff and I often wince at it... Well, the aspects of them that I consider bad, were bad, even. But there's a lot of stuff in there that I still love and still try to incorporate into what it is I do nowadays. That spontaneity, that I miss- That I feel like I might've lost because of my over-correcting of myself, and because I'm three decades old and regularly deal with adult stuff/responsibilities that wrack my autistic/ADHD brain that also dials up my health issues *and* my executive dysfunction to 11.

You see, I made the mistake of showing this stuff that I wrote and drew to the wrong people when I was 13/14... And I got the expected smackdown for it, I acted like a dingus in retaliation, and in the process... I did it to myself and my work, and a lot of it took a hit when I was 15, when I went through a really toxic depressive self-hatred period of my life.

After snapping out of that before I turned 16, I began to write weirdly again, but as I was getting closer to graduating high school... I was reading film criticism, I was "studying" film, I was starting to understand what apparently made good storytelling what it was. And this was on the cusp of the era where straight white men really dominated the film conversation on YouTube and message board forums. The likes of Doug Walker, the Red Letter Media crew, etc.... We were now in the era of multi-part "essays" on why the STAR WARS prequels were worse than nuclear holocaust, tryhard videos on why flawed but distinct blockbuster movies from the '90s should be forgotten and written off as mistakes... Like a young adult trying-to-be-straight fool who wanted to prove themselves and be a "good" storyteller... Someone who knew what they were doing and was destined to make all the things... I had these people on all the time, partially because I really liked the funny bits, but also because... You know...

That isn't to say I always agreed with the Plinkett stuff or the Nostalgia Critic videos. Often times, I vehemently disagreed with a lot of Doug's "observations" on various movies (particularly in his Disneycember reviews from the days of yore), and also was like "Whaaa?" at a lot of what was in the RLM videos... But I typically watched their stuff circa 2011-2017. This was all while I was slowly lurching through college, eventually going for an art degree and getting it. This was during the relatively quiet Obama years and then the spring-launch back into GOP misery when The Former Guy got into office.

Meanwhile, I was still trying to write my weird stuff, but a lot of it got very over-explainy. Like, the weird stuff that just comes to mind... Whenever I wrote it down, in the text, I would overexplain things. I'd write some bullshit reasoning as to why something weird happened in the story, or if the character had a vision, it would be a lot more explicit instead of how a better storyteller - to my estimation - does it. By letting the story itself feel, to immerse the audience in that feeling. The opposite was what I was doing, it'd be like the filmmakers at the Disney studio coming up with some rhyme or reason as to why - say - Dumbo and Timothy both saw Pink Elephants metamorphosing into all these weird-ass things instead of the film just simply showing them accidentally drinking a bucket-full of wine, blowing bubbles in a stupor, and then seeing all that stuff... And then waking up high in the tree. How could I admire such filmmaking in a classic Disney film, and yet not write that way myself?

Because I suppressed it. I was told that it was all awful, that I was "high" when I wrote it, that it was garbage. That it would never go anywhere... So a lot of that correcting of everything, as if a CinemaSins *ding* was going to go off if I so as much wrote a scene as I felt... Was a big mistake.

Yes, I had a lot to learn, and a lot of growing to do. At 31, I'm still growing. I recently came out as queer because I hid/denied a lot of that throughout my life, my politics were very muddy and unfocused for a long while until I shifted more left, you see...

Some people are "late bloomers", they take time to grow into the people they want to be. The problem is, this capitalistic world is constantly telling you that you missed the boat. That you had to be this spontaneous, amazing, do-it-all person at age 18. That I should've been interning at, say, DreamWorks Animation halfway through college. Or should've published my first graphic novel around that time.

At age 31, I've achieved none of that. I had to unlock many parts of myself before I could really seriously commit to making something and confidently putting it out into the world. I mostly hid behind blogging about animation news and making videos about my Disney VHS collection, to the point where social media algorithms have pigeonholed me as that and nothing more than that. And given what all these platforms have become, it's hard to escape that image of you, to stomp that out and be your rebooted, better self.

So what makes that journey hard is that when you see other people seemingly flourishing, you feel like you've missed the boat and that you don't have that spark anymore. Or that you're trying too hard. It can be quite grim being this age, because the world is constantly bellowing at you that you had to have made it as a 20-year-old. You should've traveled, achieved your goals early on, had an amazing social life, etc.

The way I see it now, I'm freeing my 15-year-old self from a prison cell. A once-spontaneous person who was spiraling into despair, and was kind of broken by it... And it's like I'm telling them it's gonna be ok, encouraging them to embrace their weird, guiding them to shed their immature "edge" and lack of self-awareness... Guiding them with my current knowledge, so that they can channel that spontaneity and weirdness into something.

When I threw away the "rule book" when COVID-19 hit in early 2020, and started writing like I used to, when I was 12-15 back in the mid-2000s... It was a real joy. It was a stepping stone to what it is I do now, but it was an important first step.

[intersex-ionality]

Ger Queer (Disabled) Anon: You’re right, I should probably disengage; I realized I was being triggered as I was sending these (yes, actually triggered, I know what it feels like, I’m a survivor so everyone can please not debate the validity of that, thank you). Thank you for your concern; And really, redefining Gen. Trauma like that is … pretty eye-opening, because it puts words to the things I and lots of other queer and disabled folks live with in this country, and cannot name properly. 1/10

           But I think it’s also important to note that I wasn’t *just * talking about Generational Trauma. There’s real, legal repercussions and waves of the NS-Regime felt in these communities to this day, both in law and in general attitude of the rest of the population! Denazification was a fucking joke, and these laws either are still in place, or where until not long ago. Again; justice and police are full of Nazis here, too   

           Secondly, this is an US-centric discussion led almost exclusively by US-Americans and it’s shouting over and tokenizing German marginalized ppl to a horrifying degree. To put it mildly; Germany was an US-proxy-nation for way to long; Ya’lls government put down in ‘45 in writing that, basically, you wanted (West)Germany to be an ideological colony and messed with the new gov and law, overstayed their welcome as ‘liberators’ by about 30 years and stored a whole bunch of Nuclear Warheads here.                  

           Germany is a ‘white, western country’, so Ammis think they know what they are doing, but I can guarantee both sides of this argument that you 100% are missing the majority of nuance, history and current-day insight here. Also, if you really think that as an American you get to tell German marginalized ppl how to interact and grapple with their (traumatizing) history, you are so far out of your lane, you managed to get into opposing traffic on a six-lane high-way.            

           [cw discussion of slurs, Porajmos] This shit’s complicated and nuanced. Treat it as such. Next: Grouping Jewish and Roma ppl as separate in these discussions is a fucking joke. Roma are closer to how queer ppl where treated in the cultural reprocessing of the Holocaust then they are to Jewish ppl; there used to be laws criminalizing them on the books until the 70’s and the German equivalent of the g*psy-slur and related sentiments are still in widespread use.       

           I won’t say much more then that because those are quantifiable facts, and the tokenization of Porajmos is already disgusting enough in this discussion. Also, if you’re so hellbend on it, you also have to take the Jehova’s Witnesses, but for some reason no one ever ‘wants’ them. I wonder why.          

           [cw euthanasia, ableism] There’s also almost no acknowledgment of disabled and mentally ill ppl in this discussion, but I chalk that up to the left’s general unwillingness to interact with ableism and the fact that there’s few woke points to be earned in arguing that injecting newborns with neurotoxins and experimenting on kids with learning disabilities and Neurodivergencies and whatnot wasn’t that bad, actually.         

           ‘Queer ppl can just hide their queerness’; except we can’t. We couldn’t in the 30s: Arrests for Queerness where treated like parking tickets or DUIs back in the day; get arrested, pay a fine, spent a night in the slammer, have your name taken down on the list. Trans ppl used entertainment laws to get ‘cross dressing permits’ and extra passports with their real name and gender; they were all on record. We are out and on record now.          

           Imagine if the Gov started rounding up ppl for littering-charges and parking tickets, except the ‘littering’ is 30 years worth of data on kissing your significant other in public. Berlin was an international queer heaven, right until the day it wasn’t anymore. At times, there where more openly queer establishments and groups then in LA rn. Again; I chalk this up mostly to ppl having absolutely no clue of our shared history as a community.           

           I’m not even touching on disability in any of this, really. Basically, I’m begging ppl to consider what the fuck they are talking about. It wasn’t ‘a bit’ of history we lost there, there it wasn’t just a question of ‘going back in the closet’ and it wasn’t over in ‘45. It wasn’t over in ‘94. And now I’ll remove myself from this discussion.          

Thank you for taking the time to write all this out for us all to read. I don’t read German, and I expect most of my followers don’t either, which makes following German news and media difficult at best. For all that I try to ensure that people who were and are today still impacted by the legacy of the Nazi regime still get to talk about that impact, I know that my understanding is ultimately limited by my experiences.

Even knowing that Germany wasn’t reunified until well after I was born, it honestly never occured to me until this moment to consider how that forced carryover and extension of the legacy of WW2 and American imperialism would impact German culture today, especially queer German culture.

Thank you for explaining things that I would never be able to.

I hope that, in the future, your experiences are given more weight.

I also hope that you recover from the harm that this conversation has done to you so far. I’m sorry you were exposed to it, and I’m sorry that it’s probably going to continue to be a thing, because it’s become such a popular talking point lately.

With any luck, everyone will snap out of this collective nightmare soon.

[aion-rsa]

Max Lord: 15 Truths About DC’s Biggest Liar

Hopefully you are reading Josh Williamson’s new “Rebirth” mini series, “Justice League vs. Suicide Squad.” If not, let us be the first to tell you that the insidious Maxwell Lord is back in a major way! This opportunistic businessman turned cold-hearted villain seems to be up to his old antics, but this time he has “the original Suicide Squad” under his control.

RELATED: Evil Geniuses: The 15 Smartest Supervillains In Comics

His look in his “New 52” debut appearance, in “OMAC” #2, eschewed his trademark business suit and Checkmate looks, for a very sci-fi, Jack Kirby-influenced redesign. So, his arrival at the end of “Justice League vs. Suicide Squad” #1 in his classic Black King duds seems to infer this may be the pre-New 52 version of Max. Whichever Max it is, we thought it was a good time to give you the lowdown on this powerful mind-controlling baddie, and explain why he’s such a huge creep.

HE ESTABLISHED THE JLI

The version of the League that becomes Justice League International is initially brought together by Doctor Fate after the 1987 “Legends” miniseries. Fate believed that there was always need of a Justice League, but it is Maxwell Lord who gets them the United Nations charter, encouraging a more global membership, setting up embassies worldwide and renaming the team to reflect its global reach. Lord quickly goes from liaison to team leader in the first tentative displays of his manipulative powers (even if, at this point, they weren’t “super” in nature).

While Lord’s public persona is that of a business mogul who lacks ethics, he is actually much worse. In “Justice League” #1 (1987), he hires low-level criminals to fake a terrorist attack on the UN to bring the newly formed Justice League closer together. He continues manipulating the JLI for years, even going so far as to start a Justice League Antarctica branch staffed by former Injustice League members and headed up by knucklehead Green Lantern, G’Nort.

HE WAS MANIPULATED BY ALIEN A.I.

The cover of “Justice League International” #12 (1988) by Kevin Maguire famously shows Lord as half human, half robot, and the issue reveals his secret origin. It turns out his machinations to establish the Justice League as a UN sanctioned team were not his own. In a very convoluted bit of continuity, Lord finds an alien techno intelligence while spelunking, which immediately starts influencing his actions. The being was named Kilg%re and like all good computers, it was chiefly concerned with world domination. It was Kilg%re who suggested Lord ingratiate himself with the Justice League.

Further, the more global approach Lord encouraged once he had gained their trust was also just a part of the alien intelligence’s grand scheme. Eventually, Lord broke free of the techno life form when he destroyed the computer that housed it… or so he thought. This weirdness was all taken a step further when Lord gets brain cancer and the long-thought dead Kilg%re pops back up to transfer Lord’s consciousness into an android. This is a somewhat despised part of Max Lord’s history, to say the least.

HE WAS SHOT

The 1987, the company-wide “Millennium” crossover that was spearheaded by Steve Englehart told the story of a Guardian of the Universe (aka, Green Lantern’s bosses) and a member of their sister race, a Zamaron, who were visiting Earth to grant a chosen few accelerated evolution. The plan was for this group of 10 men and women to become the new Guardians of the Universe. As is often the case when the Guardians are involved, their own creations came back to bite them in their little blue butts. The Manhunters had infiltrated Earth’s superhero community and were ready to strike when the purpose of the ancient aliens’ visit to Earth was revealed.

Rocket Red #7 of the Justice League International turned out to be one of these overzealous robots, as did Max Lord’s secretary at the time, Mrs. Wootenhoffer. The Manhunter��shoots Max four times before his computer (which we don’t know is Kilg%re at this point) neutralizes the threat. He survives the sustained injuries, but he suffered. And at least you can’t say that Max never took one for the team!

HE WAS POSSESSED BY… DORMAMMU?

To keep it simple, the best way to describe Dreamslayer’s group of super villains, The Extremists, is to say that they are analogues for Marvel’s greatest villains, like Doctor Octopus (Gorgon), Magneto (Doctor Diehard) and Doctor Doom (Lord Havok). Dreamslayer is the DC version of Doctor Strange villain Dormammu. These super-powered terrorists were denizens of an alternate dimension and hailed from a planet called Angor. When Dreamslayer discovered a way to get to Earth, he immediately launched an attack with robotic versions of the Extremists. His actual teammates had died in the nuclear holocaust they had caused on Angor.

While that may seem like a lot of backstory to tell you that Dreamslayer possessed Max Lord at one point, the “why” and “how” would be impossible to explain otherwise. When the fiery-headed troublemaker and his replicate Extremists were thwarted on Earth, Deamslayer’s body was destroyed and his spirit returned to his own dimension. However, from there, he was able to possess Max Lord, who he used to mind control The Flash, who then retrieved the powered-down Extremist robots for him. Circuitous, perhaps, but even Max would have to appreciate the lengths to which Dreamslayer was willing to go to manipulate the situation.

HE WAS CREATED BY GIANTS

The names Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis should be familiar to any comic reader worth their weight in long boxes. Giffen is the writer/artist behind such cult favorite characters as Lobo, Ambush Bug, L.E.G.I.O.N. and DC new A-lister Jamie Reyes (aka Blue Beetle III). He also wrote the recently adapted “Invasion!” mini series. DeMatteis, meanwhile, is a writer who started with DC in the late ‘70s on pulpy titles like “Weird War Tales” and “House of Mystery.”

Together, the two created the Justice League International, Justice League Europe, Justice League Antarctica and had a critically acclaimed run on “JLI.” They came up with droves of fun new characters to populate their books including Ice, Rocket Red #7, G’Nort, The Extremists, and, of course, Maxwell Lord IV. The upcoming comedy “Powerless” seems like it must be influenced by Giffen and DeMatteis’ work, as both superheroes that have been revealed so far, Crimson Fox and Jack O’Lantern (II), are their creations.

HE RAN A GLOBAL SPY AGENCY (TWICE)

During the “Countdown To Infinite Crisis” (2005) and “Infinite Crisis” (2005) events, Maxwell Lord assumed full control of the spy agency known as Checkmate. While their organizational structure based on Chess (Black King / Queen, White King / Queen) still existed, the balance of power it was supposed to represent was all but gone. Max also took over Batman’s AI satellite, Brother Eye, and secured the OMAC technology under this agency’s banner.

To say Checkmate’s authority was at an all time high under Lord would be an understatement. When The Black Queen, White Queen and White King conspired to kill Lord, he used his powers to control the Black Queen’s Bishop, Jessica Midnight, and had her shoot all three of them on the spot. Max’s reign of terror as The Black King ended when he got on the wrong side of Wonder Woman, but that’s a whole other entry. During the “Brightest Day” event, it was revealed in “Justice League: Generation Lost” that he was secretly back in control of Checkmate.

HE DEFEATED BROTHER EYE

Max Lord had controlled Brother Eye in the DCnU, similar to how things had played out before “Flashpoint” changed everything. Although, in the New 52 relaunch of “O.M.A.C.” (2011), Brother Eye escaped and sent his O.M.A.C. (a powerful cyborg designed to fight and destroy metahumans) on the offensive against Project Cadmus and Checkmate to maintain their freedom.

In the DCnU, Lord is yet again in control of Checkmate, and Cadmus is under the Checkmate umbrella. So, in response to Brother Eye and O.M.A.C.’s actions, Lord sends in his Checkmate Elite, including Sarge Steel, Maribel and Little Knipper to take the One-Machine Attack Construct down. When they fail, Lord recruits the Cadmus scientist Mokkari to do the job with his Build-A-Friend creations. This attempt is also unsuccessful and finally Checkmate’s sister agency, S.H.A.D.E., is contacted and its top operative Frankenstein manages to stop O.M.A.C. in his tracks. However, it is only when Lord defeats Brother Eye, that he deems the O.M.A.C. as no longer a threat.

HE FOUGHT IN INVASION!

Keith Giffen’s epic crossover, “Invasion!” (1989), was about alien races teaming up to stop the threat from Earth; that is to say, humanity. Well, mostly metahumans, but humanity in general, too. The event featured a plethora of DC Comics’ most popular heroes alongside its cult-favorite second stringers. All of the publisher’s top government official characters and their organizations got involved, too, including Amanda Waller with the Suicide Squad, General Eiling with the military and Max Lord with Justice League International.

However, even after the Alien Alliance had taken over Australia, the US president didn’t want to take action. So, he tells Lord that the JLI are to stand down and to contact Waller directly to stop her from doing anything rash. Eventually it’s all hands on deck though. “Invasion!” is the storyline that was just recently adapted for a monumental crossover that included all four of The CW’s DC shows. However, as good as the four nights of television were, it seems like a missed opportunity that the Arrowverse’s Max Lord (played by Peter Facinelli in “Supergirl” Season 1) wasn’t involved.

HE GOT MENTAL POWERS FROM A GENE BOMB

The alien race The Dominators were the masterminds behind the attack on Earth in “Invasion!” and their ultimate weapon was the Gene Bomb. They had studied human evolution and the emergence of metahumans, and then engineered a device to neutralize metahuman abilities. At the end of the crossover, when the Alien Alliance had come apart and The Dominators had all but lost, they set it off. We see the explosion from many perspectives, as well as what happens to a number of superheroes. What is unexpected is the bomb’s effect on humans with latent metahuman genes.

For some, like Maxwell Lord, it gives them powers. Did the most manipulative man in the DC universe really need the power to control minds? Probably not, but it did make him exponentially more dangerous, and more exciting to see show up in your favorite titles. When Lord collapses shortly after the Gene Bomb is detonated, he is taken to hospital. Though they seem to be sworn enemies, Amanda Waller comes to visit. In a rare moment of emotion, she reveals that she respects Lord and thinks he is (and we quote) “the best” while he is unconscious.

HE BLEEDS POWER (LITERALLY)

Super powers are a lot more interesting when they have a drawback, or a “tell” even. In Max Lord’s case, he gets a nose bleed any time he utilizes his psionic abilities. It’s kind of an awesome plot device because he can’t lie about if he is using his powers or not. When he is trying to control a powerful being, more than one person or creating psionic hallucinations, he may also experience more substantial bleeding from his eyes, ears and mouth, which adds a creepy, even horrific visual layer to his abilities. He’s also usually pretty happy about “pushing” people’s minds, as he calls it, and is often grinning ear-to-ear while hemorrhaging blood from his various orifices.

Perhaps the most gratuitous version of this physical manifestation of his powers was seen in “Brightest Day,” when he manages to mind wipe the entire planet! Even though he takes all the necessary precautions (basically, just multiple blood transfusions), he almost dies from blood loss.

UNRELATED FUN FACT: Aquaman can also get nosebleeds if he pushes his powers to the extreme. It tends to happen when he tries to command gargantuan sea creatures or whole schools of sea life.

BLACKEST NIGHT WAS HIS BRIGHTEST DAY

If you are writing an A-list hero’s next arc or a company-wide crossover and need a conniver pulling the strings behind the scenes, Max is a go-to sociopath. So, when this puppet master showed up in “Blackest Night,” it wasn’t too surprising. Being dead at the time, he was back as a Black Lantern, and his only mission was too get revenge on the one who had taken his life. His death is one of the top entries on this list though, so as to not reveal his murderer, let’s just say he is successful in thoroughly tormenting her.

His manipulations and flat-out mind control of superheroes and politicians alike puts him on par with DC’s worst villains, and unlike contemporaries like Amanda Waller and General Eiling, he seems truly unhinged. So, when he came back yet again in “Brightest Day,” and wiped all of humanity’s memories of him away, it wasn’t looking good for metahumans. However, before he could play his endgame, he is granted a White Lantern ring and told by The Entity to “Stop the war before it starts.” This involves Magog, Captain Atom and a future timeline where Lord has won his war against metas — for many, the darkest timeline.

BOOSTER GOLD SAVED HIS ANCESTOR

In 2007, Booster Gold got a solo series that spun out of the ambitious “52” event. The ongoing title was written by Geoff Johns and followed Booster as he was recruited by Rip Hunter (who just happens to be his son), to be a “time cop” and stop chronal anomalies. During his first mission, he saves one of his and Rip’s ancestors, therefore avoiding them being wiped from history. He also gets to drop in on pivotal moments for various other major DC heroes and villains.

In an ironic turn of events, he is thrown into World War I Germany and ends up saving an American soldier by the name of Cyrus Lord… who turns out to be the grand-pappy of Max Lord, the man who killed is best friend, Ted Kord. Interestingly, this storyline is very similar to the synopsis for “Legends of Tomorrow” Season 2. Not surprisingly, many fans had guessed Patrick J. Adams was playing Booster when his casting was announced.

JUSTICE LEAGUE VS. SUICIDE SQUAD: PART 1

The recent “Justice League vs. Suicide Squad” mini series is not the first time these two teams have faced each other down in a crossover. In fact, it’s not even the second or third time. Back in 1988, there was a two-part “Justice League vs. Suicide Squad” story that started in “Justice League International” #13 and concluded in “Suicide Squad” #13″ The plot involved the Squad going on an unauthorized mission to rescue one of their own from a Russian prison. “Unauthorized” meant they didn’t get the okay from Amanda Waller, who has the president call in the JLI to stop the Squad and avoid an international incident.

The only problem was that Max Lord saw this as the prefect opportunity to expose the Suicide Squad to benefit his JLI, stating that “it would help our standing tremendously with the foreign governments that don’t yet fully trust us.” However, things don’t go according to either Waller or Lord’s plans and their stand-off ends in a stalemate. At this point, Max is still in the hospital recovering from being shot in the “Millennium” event.

HE MURDERED BLUE BEETLE

The most important facts about Maxwell Lord are which major Justice League member he murdered in cold blood, and which of DC’s Big 3 ended up compromising their morals by breaking his neck. But let’s start with Lord’s most famous murder, which broke the hearts of DC fans worldwide. When his former cohort Blue Beetle figures out his nefarious intention to eliminate metahumans in “The O.M.A.C. Project” (2005), he tries to explain himself.

Lord admits his fears about super-powered heroes and villains, and says he had wanted to bring Beetle in on the plan to neutralize this threat for years. In response, Ted clocks him square in the jaw and tries to escape. However, he doesn’t get far before getting jumped by Sasha Bordeaux, followed by a pummelling at the hands of an O.M.A.C. Lord makes him an offer to join Checkmate, but his curt answer of “Rot in hell” prompts Lord to shoot him in the head at point blank range, leaving one of the most lasting images ever in DC comics.

HE WAS MURDERED BY WONDER WOMAN

Max Lord is a master manipulator on the level of Lex Luthor and Amanda Waller, with the big difference between them being that he has powers. Because of his abilities and machinations, he was one of the main villains of the “Countdown To Infinite Crisis” and “Infinite Crisis” events. In “The O.M.A.C. Project” (2005), he utilized Brother I (aka Brother Eye) to catalogue the world’s metahuman population, with plans to eventually wipe them out with scores of O.M.A.C.s. Another aspect of this conspiracy involved him using his mind pushing abilities to control Superman to murder his JL colleagues.

While under Lord’s sway, the Man of Steel served Batman and Wonder Woman severe beat downs. However, Diana managed to get Lord in her Lasso of Truth and when asked how to free Superman from his command, Lord simply answered “Kill me.” She then proceeds to snap his neck in her bid to save the world. As the DC Comics Encyclopedia explains it, “Faced with the choice between saving millions of lives and keeping her oath to never kill, Wonder Woman killed Lord.”

What do you think are Max Lord’s most vile features or moments? Let us know in the comments!

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