Issue #12: "Who is Maxwell Lord?"
Story:
Giffen & DeMatteis
Art:
Maguire & Gordon
Cover
Price: $ .75
Cover
Date: April 88
Length:
22 pages
Members: Green
Lantern (Guy Gardner), Black Canary, Mister Miracle, Oberon, Maxwell Lord,
J'onn J'onzz (Martian Manhunter), Blue Beetle, Batman, Booster Gold, Captain
Atom, Catherine Cobert (not pictured), Rocket Red #4 (Dmitri)
Opponents: Max computer/Metron's information retrieval unit
Featuring: Metron, Green Flame, Dr. Mist, Ice Maiden, Belphegor, Max's computer/Metron's information retrieval unit, Royal Flush Gang (flashback)
Absent: Catherine Colbert
Deaths: Ms. Wootenhoffer
Story:
Continued from last issue, the League is now face to face with Metron, one of the New Gods. He accuses the League of, by entering the cave where the Construct led them, trespassing and "violating the sanctity of [his] earthly chambers." He also accuses them of damagin his information retrieval unit. Beetle believes Metron to be speaking of the Construct and begins to accuse him of sending it after them when Mister Miracle quickly moves to hold his teammates back, saying they should let him do the talking because he knows Metron. Captain Atom still believes Metron will attack and moves to counter when Miracle pushes him back out of Metron's way. Miracle eventually convinces Metron that his team means no threat or harm.Things to Watch:
As this goes on, we see that events are once again being monitored on a computer screen. The computer is noticeably upset with the fact that the League and Metron are talking and not fighting.
Metron then reveals that he was summoned to Earth by the retrieval unit itself and Miracle begins to think they've all been set up. Metron then probes to find that his earlier suspicion that he had sensed sentience in his computer was correct and the computer realizes it is found out. Metron soon destroys the unit, but the "awareness" fleas and he leaves to seek it out and eliminate it.
Meanwhile, at the Dome, former HQ of the Global Guardians, the team is still in the process of disbanding. Two of its members, Green Flame and Ice Maiden pick up their final paychecks and decide to seek membership with the JLI.
Back in New York, Max is having a dilemna, saying to himself that he has sent the League into a trap. Just then, his deviant computer sends Ms. Wootenhoffer's (Max's now-former secretary who turned out to be a Manhunter intent on killing him) dead body flying into the room. As the computer tries to convince Max to help him gain more power, Max begins to flashback:In retrospect, Max realizes the shame in his actions and destroys the computer. However, since it was the computer that repaired Max after he was shot by Ms. Wootenhoffer, his reapirs begin to come undone and he begins to bleed massively, passing out. He is then seen in a hospital where it is undetermined whether he will be allowed to maintain his association with the League. The decision, it is said, shall be left to J'onn... This last frame depicts Max, still unconscious, with a League-issued signal device placed in his hand.He tells how he befriended the president of the company he had worked for just so he could move up the corporate ladder. They went on a climbing trip on which Max planned to kill his boss and make it look like an accident so h, himself, could assume leadership of the company. Before he could do this, however, his boss had a real accident and fell into a cavern. Max could have left him there to die, but his conscience ultimately would not let him, so he climbed down to him. On his way down, he came across a small cave in which here was a computer that seemed to be calling to him. It convinced him that, together, they could become quite powerful. In a way, Max was reborn.
He was soon named president of the corporation and was so successful that he eventually formed Maxwell Lord Enterprises, all the while helping the computer gain power, so he could gain as well. Metron's machine formulated a plan to save Earth's population from itself... But it needed power, so it took advantage of the newly-formed League. Max and the computer were responsible for the terrorist act on the UN (issue #1), made possible to show the world they needed the League. They were also responsible for the attack of the Royal Flush Gang (issue #4) which allowed Booster to prove his worth to the team. They were even responsible for the highly dangerous satellite attack (issue #7)that nearly set off many US nuclear weapons. So, of course, whenever, in those earlier issues, it seemed events were being monitored on a computer screen, it was this machine doing so.
