Kilg%re

Maxwell Lord
Art by Jason Fabok and Alex Sinclair
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Justice League #1 (May 1987)
Created by	Keith Giffen J. M. DeMatteis Kevin Maguire
In-story information
Alter ego	Maxwell Lord IV
Team affiliations	Checkmate Extremists Justice League Black Lantern Corps
Notable aliases	Black King, Lord Havok
Abilities	Telepathic persuasion

Maxwell Lord IV, or simply Max Lord, is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Justice League #1 (May 1987) and was created by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire.

Depicted as a shrewd and powerful businessman, Maxwell Lord was influential in the formation of the Justice League International in the DC Universe.

Maxwell Lord IV is the son of Maxwell Lord III, a successful businessman and head of the Chimtech Consortium. Maxwell III set out to be a good example for his son by striving to always do what was right. When Maxwell IV was 16, he came home to find his father dead in an apparent suicide. His father had discovered that his company had produced a highly carcinogenic product, and could not bear to live with the guilt and shame caused by the realization.

Lord's mother was convinced by her husband to employ a similar practice, cajoling heroic metahumans to help Lord. Thus, he sparked the plans to bring the Justice League, leaderless and broken after the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, under his exclusive control.

Lord initially works behind the scenes to establish the Justice League, while under the control of a villainous computer created by Metron. The computer wanted Lord to set up a worldwide peacekeeping organization as part of its plan to dominate the world.

A later retcon changed his controller to the villainous computer program Kilg%re (pronounced Kilgore), which had taken over Metron's machine. A much later, post-Infinite Crisis retcon mitigated the Kilg%re's and the New Gods' influence, stating that Lord already had plans for taking over the League, and that he would have pursued them regardless.