James Gunn has a message for DC fans about Maxwell Lord in 'Superman'

With Maxwell Lord expected to appear in a sequel to Superman, fans have questions about whether he will be a supervillain like he was in the comics.

If he is an outright malevolent character, mirroring the comics, then an observer asked why Guy Gardner, a Green Lantern and part of Justice Gang, was working for him.

And the new DC head, James Gunn, responded and cautioned fans not to assume.

He said on Threads, "Who said he was evil?

Gunn then set the record straight: "The DCU is not a Xerox of DC Comics. It's an alternate universe."

The director, afterward, told his preference for Maxwell Lord, "But as a hint, I'm a huge fan of the deeply flawed but hardly malevolent Max as originally created by [Keith] DeMatteis, [J.M.] Giffen, and [Kevin] Maguire, not the less nuanced evil dude he was retconned into."

"The original Max as presented in JLI was one of my favourite characters," he shared.

Maxwell Lord originally was imagined as morally questionable but not unquestionably evil.

Yet, later he was written as fully absorbed into the dark side, especially after killing Blue Beetles in the comics.

Now, in the Superman sequel, Sean Gunn will portray Maxwell Lord, set to open in theatres on