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James Gunn’s Superman is a reset for the DC Comics Universe on the big screen, moving away from Zack Snyder’s portrayal of superheroes as godlike beings, and favoring a sillier world where metahumans are commonplace. That includes the Justice Gang, a questionably named superhero squad funded by billionaire Maxwell Lord. His name is referenced several times during the film, and the character (played by Gunn’s brother and frequent collaborator Sean Gunn) gets a cameo where he mocks rival billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult).
Lord and the Justice Gang also make an appearance in the first trailer for Peacemaker season 2, where John Cena’s anti-hero fails to pitch himself as a new member of the group. The character’s presence has big implications for the DCU that could stretch beyond that show.
Maxwell Lord has been appearing in DC Comics since 1987, when he was introduced playing very much the same role he does in Superman: a businessman helping to found the Justice League. Given that the Justice Gang is headquartered in a building that looks like the classic Hall of Justice from the Super Friends cartoon of the 1970s and ’80s, and the group’s name is repeatedly called a work in progress, it’s likely they will eventually become DC’s most iconic band of superheroes.
But Lord’s motivations are far from philanthropic. In the comics, he wants the Justice League to be a force he can use to take over the world with the help of an alien computer. Superman inspiring the Justice Gang to intervene in a war might be playing right into Lord’s hands by making governments fear their power.
Running a superhero team is expensive. Batman is often depicted as funding the Justice League, but Matt Reeves’ The Batman feels very much like it’s happening in a different universe from Gunn’s Superman. Whether or not this version of Maxwell Lord has an alien computer, it’s likely that Gunn’s version of the character is also planning on using the Justice Gang for his own ends. With luck, they’ll be able to make the most out of his seed capital before his dark motives are revealed in Peacemaker or a later project.
In some versions of the comics, Lord is a spymaster working with or against ruthless U.S. government operative Amanda Waller. Sometimes he’s a metahuman with the ability to manipulate people’s minds. It remains to be seen whether either of those qualities will be part of Gunn’s take on the character.
Where else has Maxwell Lord appeared?
A lot of places! A version of Lord played by Pedro Pascal was the primary villain of Wonder Woman 1984, where the businessman granted wishes around the world with the power of a stolen artifact known as the Dreamstone. A different version (played by Peter Facinelli of Twilight fame) appeared on the first season of the CW’s Supergirl, where he was responsible for creating a Bizarro version of Superman’s cousin.
In season 9 of Smallville, Lord (played by Gil Bellows of Chucky and American Gods) is one of the leaders of Amanda Waller’s intelligence agency Checkmate. He’s in a role most like his Superman one in Justice League Unlimited (voiced by Tim Matheson of Jonny Quest and The West Wing), where he manages a group of government-backed heroes that are inspired by characters from Super Friends. They’re revealed to have been created through genetic engineering by Project Cadmus, and implanted with false memories used to control them.
