Lords of Chaos and Order

Lords of Chaos and Order
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	(retcon): More Fun Comics #55 (May 1940) (actual): DC Special Series #10 (Jan, 1978)

The Lords of Chaos and Lords of Order are complementary groups of supernatural entities with godlike powers that appear in DC Comics. They have also been retconned into the histories of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, Doctor Fate, Kid Eternity, the Phantom Stranger, Shazam, Hawk and Dove and The Sandman. The first Lord of Order to appear in comics was Nabu in More Fun Comics #67 (May 1941) created by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman. Nabu's first appearance was later retconned to be in More Fun Comics #55 (May, 1940), where he was inside the helmet, though not explicitly stated in the story. However, the concept of the Lords of Chaos and Order was introduced years later. The term never appears in Golden Age stories.

Chaos and Order have been fighting a never-ending battle for aeons, characterized by an endless cycle of reversals for domination back and forth between the two sides. Originally, the struggle was depicted between Good (Order) and Evil (Chaos). However, later interpretations cast it as a struggle between stagnation (Order) and anarchy (Chaos).

The two opposing forces are bundles of mystical energy who usually depend on servants to accomplish their goals. They can take physical form by possessing a living being, as in the case of Nabu or Mordru, or empower humans to act as their agents, as in the case of Terataya and T'Charr (a Lord of Order and a Lord of Chaos respectively), who empowered Hawk and Dove to act in their stead.

Both sides have otherwise maintained a tenuous balance of power concerning their involvement in outside conflicts. For instance, when the Spectre appealed to the Lords of Order to allow their followers on Earth to join the defense of Earth from a massive invasion orchestrated by the Dominators, he was turned down. They argued that intervening in this conflict would mean that the Lords of Chaos would retaliate by aiding the invaders, thus escalating the battle to a monumentally disastrous scale that would devastate all concerned.

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Wikipedia