WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Wonder Woman #766, by Mariko Tamaki, Steve Pugh, Romulo Fajardo, Jr. and Pat Brosseau, on sale now.
Ever since the lead-up to Infinite Crisis, one-time Justice League International benefactor and Checkmate operative Maxwell Lord has become one of Wonder Woman's most bitter antagonists. Killed by the Amazon superhero to save Superman from his telepathic control, Max was resurrected at the end of Blackest Night and continued to menace the DC Universe into the DC Rebirth era, using his mental abilities to exert his will.
And while the character had been flirting with the possibility of redemption working alongside Wonder Woman, Max has finally shown his true colors as he falls back on his wicked ways in Wonder Woman #766.
After learning his daughter had taken on the supervillain moniker Liar Liar and followed in her father's twisted footsteps, Max agreed to help bring her down by working alongside Wonder Woman and the federal government. With Liar Liar employing her father's powerful mind-control technology, Max's timely assistance proved invaluable in helping Wonder Woman fight past the aspiring villain's telepathic attacks, leading to Liar Liar's defeat and subsequent incarceration. And while Max's daughter was no longer an active threat, his technology had since been sold to nefarious figures throughout the DCU on the black market, prompting him to team with up Wonder Woman to travel the globe and recover it from its new, villainous owners.
Wonder Woman and Max's search led them to the European nation of Vlatava, run with an iron fist by the classic Green Arrow supervillain Count Vertigo. With civil unrest growing in opposition to Vertigo's totalitarian rule, Vertigo obtained the experimental technology to boost his already formidable powers and bring the general populace under his will. Vertigo's initial attack inadvertently blinded Wonder Woman as she and Max made their approach to Vlatava in her Invisible Jet, causing them to crash into the countryside, with Max unaffected by his own tech's side effects. As Wonder Woman struggled to proceed without her eyesight, Max made his ultimate power play.
As Wonder Woman faced off against Vertigo while she continued to recover from his tech-powered attack, Max made a mad dash to Vertigo's castle, where his stolen tech was located. Rather than leap to Wonder Woman's aid once again, however, Max took advantage of the situation to use the technology for himself as the new ruler of Vlatava while Wonder Woman was preoccupied with the other supervillain. And while Wonder Woman has apparently regained her eyesight just in time to rescue Max's first victim from a telepathically induced suicide attempt, the former head of Checkmate has set the battlefield for a rematch against the Amazon superhero.
Maxwell Lord is poised to figure very prominently in Wonder Woman's mythos as one of the major villains in the upcoming DC Extended Universe film Wonder Woman 1984. And while it appeared that the comic book character was moving on a different path, Max ultimately couldn't resist the opportunity to slide back into his villainous ways as soon as Wonder Woman was at a disadvantage. Max has always been an unscrupulous opportunist and has been wary of Wonder Woman ever since his daughter restored memories of his previous death at the superhero's hands. But with his old arsenal at his disposal, Max is set to make sure history doesn't repeat itself as he confronts Diana Prince one more time.