Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Leviathan Theory: Event Leviathan #6 Cover & Maxwell Lord


I have a #Leviathan Theory and I am sticking to it.
Leviathan is Ted Kord, with the help of the other Charlton Heroes.
Much of that has been driven by the Watchmen-like vibes I have seen in a number of stories. The Watchmen characters were based on the Charlton characters. It is a sort of dark mirror image of each other once over sort of theme.
I had a cutesy little catch phrase too! 'This time I'm right!'

I have back-up theories. I have reviewed the clues. You can read all those posts here:
comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/search/label/Leviathan%20Theory

But I started this whole #LeviathanTheory thread with the idea it was Ted and I have to stick to that. In poker talk, I am pot committed.

Unfortunately, I am starting to think, this time I'm wrong.

Because when I saw the covers to Event Leviathan #6, my mind started leaning towards Leviathan being Maxwell Lord.

Part of that is the shadows of the Leviathan Troops in this Bryan Hitch cover. While I know they are the helmeted troops we have seen in this title, in silhouette, they look an awful lot like OMACs.


And in the Main cover, we see the Leviathan mask peeling away revealing a 'third eye' in the middle of the forehead. While you might think of Despero or Starro, it feels more like the Brother Eye eye.


I mean, those guys on the first cover look like this.

And given Maxwell Lord's connection to OMAC's back in the Infinite Crisis time, it all seems to make sense.



I'm not going to go over Lord in depth like I have other back-up theories.

But he died, came back as a Black Lantern, was resurrected in Brightest Day, and has been seen in Rebirth. He is a character that, in theory, could have seen other timelines and be aware of other histories like Leviathan seems to have seen.

He has mind control powers which would explain agents from other spy organizations suddenly jumping on the Leviathan band wagon.

He would know Plastic Man from the Justice League.

He would certainly know all about the espionage circles given his time in Checkmate.

But most importantly, even though his motives and ends aren't always clean, he feels he has to save the world from itself That sounds very much like Leviathan. Here in Justice League vs. Suicide Squad he comes right out and says it.


Moreover, there is a certain feel of personal hate towards Amanda Waller in Event Leviathan.

Leviathan seems as cool as the other side of the pillow, calm and collected. But he personally joins a hit squad to go execute Waller. And he talks to her in an angry tone.

He even asks her if she has learned anything.


Waller and Lord have a ton of history and not much of it is collegial.

Lord wants absolute control of the world. Waller has tried to stop him.

They probably hate each other!


Heck, at the end of Justice League vs Suicide Squad, Waller has Lord in a bubble being pumped with blood thinners. He would bleed out if he used his powers. That bubbly tech looks like some of what we have seen Leviathan utilize.

But it is Lord's line here 'look on her works ye might and despair' that was a last puzzle piece for me. That is, of course, a paraphrase of the poem Ozymandias by Shelley.

Ozymandias ... like the character in the Watchmen. Remember all those overtones I talked about. Maybe Lord considers Waller like Veidt and feels he needs to stop her.

All right, there is a lot I could unpack about Lord. Maybe in a longer post.

But for now, OMACs, Waller hate, and an Ozymandias poem is a decent start of a back-up theory.

2 comments:

Martin Gray said...

You need assistance.... remember, the letters of 'EVENT LEVIATHAN' give us 'Nathaniel' as in Captain Atom, 'Eve' as in Nightshade and, er, 'T' and 'V' as in Ted and Vic... that's all your Charlton conspirators right there!

DanielT said...

Lord was always the obvious choice and that's why I hate the idea and hope Bendis goes in a different direction, even if it isn't the Charleton characters.