Written by Mariko Tamaki
Art by Rafa Sandoval
Published by DC Comics
Buy it Digitally from comiXology
Maxwell Lord has betrayed Wonder Woman, again.
Diana was just waiting for this to happen. She saw it as an inevitable truth.
She didn’t want to work with Lord in the first place.
After racing around the globe to hunt down Lord’s stolen mind-control tech, Lord at least was not working against her goals. But the inevitable truth about Lord is that his deceit, duplicity, and quest for absolute power lie at the root of everything he does.
Before we launch into the main action of “Max Lord’s Revenge – Part 2,” Tamaki takes us into Lord’s mind.
Namely, to a memory related to his father’s death, a turning point in his life that festered into his contempt for superheroes and authority figures. “I understand a truth they have had the privilege and the power to ignore.
And so, while Diana defeated Count Vertigo and liberated the people of Zandia from his attempted coup in the last issue, Lord found more of that tech and is ready to graft it to himself. “A truth about the meaning of good and evil,” he says to himself. “About the battle they can never win.”
Tamaki shows throughout the issue how Diana and Maxwell’s outlooks color their tactics and ends. Diana seeks harmony and cooperation, even in conflict, while Maxwell goes for dominion. She approaches with humility and quiet strength, and he approaches with trickery and emotional manipulation to underscore his mind-control illusions. One goes for the truth, and the other chooses lies.
The issue also shows off the limits of truth and lies through language, and how Diana’s Amazonian determination can challenge Lord’s commands. His use of mind control on Diana is to make her do things against her will. To make her believe a lie and act on it.
However, the harder Maxwell Lord goes on the lie, the more effort it takes to maintain it. He weakens just as he thinks himself strongest against the Amazon.
Of course, you’d think Lord’s power makes him weak because dude suffers nosebleeds of great volume whenever he uses those mind powers. His laundry skills must be amazing, and is he always on the verge of passing out?
Let’s just say it doesn’t end well for our master manipulator or his pity party of a motivation. And that’s before the next cliffhanger shows up with a rather pointed return.
Didn’t anyone think that, after seeing how a couple of folks weaponized that tech, Maxwell Lord would be greatly tempted to take the tech back and use it? I guess not, otherwise this part of the arc would have ended rather quickly.
Wonder Woman needs a serious chat with Etta Candy about putting her on a case with somebody who has tried to kill her multiple times, including twice in this issue.
I guess you could say Wonder Woman is the check against Lord, and he’s the only expert on the tech under such short notice. But what, Mister Terrific isn’t around?
Comics are weird.
