One of the biggest mystery in the DCU these days is who is and ultimately behind the Leviathan uprising in the Superman corner of the DCU.

Leviathan, the worldwide criminal organization that is shrouded in secrecy and whose ranks are filled with assassins, super-powered warriors and some of the best scientific minds on the planet, was first introduced back in 2010 during the Batman: The Return event by Grant Morrison.

When they first arrived in the DCU and was discovered by Batman who perceived the threat to be so great that it resulted in Batman seriously stepping up his game. As Bruce Wayne, he started a global initiative of Dark Knights called “Batman Incorporated” (first appearing in Batman and Robin #16 ) to combat Leviathan, which saw the concept of Batman being the commodity franchised around the world. At the time it sounded quaint and even funny, but it was done to show just how dangerous Leviathan was and that Batman needed a global army of Batmen to combat it.

Leviathan first became known to the heroes of Earth as a terror group who kidnapped the child of a Yemeni shiekh. However, Batman suspected that something was up, and discovered that Leviathan was working with the shiekh, and was planning to attack the world with mind-controlled children and engineered metahumans. Batman also connected the organization to an apocalyptic vision he’d received while coming back from the dead.

At first, Batman believed that Leviathan was controlled by Doctor Dedalus, a Nazi master spy imprisoned on the Falkland Islands, with a predicted lifespan of months due to Alzheimer’s’. It wasn’t until later that Batman would go on to discover that Leviathan had been founded and was led by Talia al Ghul after she left her father Ra’s al Ghul’s League of Assassins.

Post Flashpoint and during the New52, Talia took control of the League of Assassins and added its agents to Leviathan. During this time she disowned Damian when he chose to stay with Batman instead of the returning to the League of Assasins and placed a $500 million bounty on him, leading to him being attacked by assassins. These events of Leviathan led to the death of Damian at the hands of his clone and the death of Talia’s own death at the hands of Kathy Kane, the original Batwoman and headmistress of the Spyral intelligence organization.

During the DCYou interlude prior to Rebirth, Talia was resurrected via Lazarus Pit but was amnesic and unable to remember recent events or even her own identity and lived for a while in the wilderness near Nanda Parbat. Following the events of Dark Nights Metal, Talia returned and found Leviathan to be in the midst of civil war and that she was ousted from her position as leader of Leviathan.

The organization had been fractured into various factions, led by competing leaders, and is once again killed, this time by The Silencer aka Honor Guest, a former assassin who she trained and mentored. Once again she was revived by her followers using a Lazarus Pit and used her return to consolidate Leviathan, the organization she created, once again. It seemed that Talia was back in control of Leviathan until the recent events that take place in Action Comics and the Superman: Leviathan Rising one-shot.

During Superman: Leviathan Rising, Talia has some of the organization’s men kidnap Clark Kent, hoping the Man of Steel would retaliate by dismantling Leviathan. This reveals that Talia is no longer in control is now just another Leviathan pawn. After Her plan fails, the new Leviathan’s leader ejects Talia from the organization she started in the most dramatic, potentially life-endingly way possible.

Luckily she is saved by Superman.

—

So who is Leviathan?

Now that there is a new Leviathan leader, the organization didn’t waste time dismantling the DC Universe’s most secret organizations. During the “Leviathan Rising” prequel storyline, which ran in Action Comics #1007-1011, the organization started taking down the following covert ops operations:

A.R.G.U.S. – Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans

The D.E.O. – Department of Extranormal Operations

S.H.A.D.E.- Super-Human Advanced Defense Executive

Task-Force X (Spyral – the UN’s covert operations agency Suicide Squad)

Leviathan also takes out terrorist groups such as:

League of Assassins

Kobra Kult

Given the teasers in Action Comics, we are also led to believe that Checkmate and Cadmus are other organizations on the hit list.

—

There have been only a few vague clues as to who is the mysterious person behind the mask and pulling the stings of Leviathan.

Leviathan knows a lot about the heroes and claims to have worked with them in the past.

Leviathan seems to know things from the Pre-Flashpoint Era

In DC’s Year of the Villain #1, Damian Wayne asks his father to help him prove that Leviathan is not Jason Todd, the antihero known as the Red Hood, which then played out in Event Leviathan #2.

Damian’s theory is interesting but seems to be more self-serving than anything and he always hasn’t shown the best judgment when it comes to Jason. Following the events of No Justice and the new direction for the Teen Titans during the New Justice era, Damian was using Jason as a contact for capturing criminals and holding them prisoner. After the Teen Titans are nearly killed following one of Red Hood’s leads, Damian attacked Jason in the pages of Teen Titans Annual #1 which left Damian really beat up. This leads me to believe that Damian used the opportunity to get can be considered an unbiased source of information. Jason also doesn’t really fit the criteria I mentioned above, so other wards Red Hood is a Red Herring.

–

So who does fit the criteria…?

If you ask me Leviathan is none other than Maxwell Lord.

Last seen in the pages of No Justice, Lord was one of the metahuman psychics that Waller uses to hack Brainiac.

Prior to that, Lord was the primary antagonist in the Rebirth Justice League vs Suicide Squad miniseries, when he stole the Eclipso diamond and attempted to remake the world by expanding his mind control powers.

As a tie-in to this event, Maxwell Lord got his own “Rebirth” story in Justice League (2016) # 12 as part of the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad.

Lord being Leviathan makes sense in more ways than one.

Maxwell Lord is familiar with the many spy and terrorist organizations of the DCU as outlined by Waller in the issue:

Lord is the only remaining “royalty-ranking” member of Checkmate

Lord was the co-head of Cadmus Project and Executive Commissioner of the OMAC Project (New52)

Received poor marks when tasked with working with other agencies such as S.H.A.D.E and Spyral

Maxwell Lord was once part of the Justice League and an ally of the heroes:

Lord initially worked behind the scenes to establish the Justice League, while under the control of a villainous computer created by Metron, who wanted Lord to set up a worldwide peacekeeping organization as part of its plan to dominate the world.

Lord pulled together several former JLI members, including L-Ron, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, and Fire as the “Super Buddies” who he advertised as “Heroes the common man could call.”

Many of the Leviathan agents can’t remember anything following their attacks

Lord controlled Superman and had him beat up Batman in the lead up to Infinite Crisis. The only way Wonder Woman was able to stop him was to kill Lord, which turned the public against the heroes

After his return in Brightest Day, Lord amplifies his powers and makes the world forget he exists.

Lord is able to manipulate Lobo during the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad event, leading Batman to blow off Lobo’s head to stop him.

If Lord is in fact Leviathan, he could be attempting to use his powers, which may be dampened as a result of Waller putting him on drugs to prevent him from using his powers, to try an recruit the heroes such as Batgirl, Plastic Man, and The Guardian.

Maxwell Lord has it in for both Waller and the heroes.

Leviathan tries to appeal to Plastic Man by telling them their pasts are similar:

Maxwell Lord IV is the son of Maxwell Lord III, a successful businessman and head of the Chimtech Consortium. Maxwell III set out to be an excellent example for his son by striving to always do what was right.

When Max was 16, he came home to find his father dead in an apparent suicide. His father had discovered that his company had produced a highly carcinogenic product, and could not bear to live with the guilt and shame caused by the realization.

When Max was 16, he came home to find his father dead in an apparent suicide. His father had discovered that his company had produced a highly carcinogenic product, and could not bear to live with the guilt and shame caused by the realization. Lord’s mother was convinced by her husband to employ a similar practice, cajoling heroic metahumans to help Lord.

During the JLI-era, when Doomsday killed Superman among others and ultimately, due to Mongul’sinvasion and destruction of Coast City, Maxwell loses his mother, still residing in their Coast City home.

This event fuels his hatred and paranoia against the metahumans, as well as leading him to believe that not only can metahumans not be trusted but that their personal battles and scuffles are enough to shatter world safety.

—

The biggest question if Leviathan is Maxwell Lord is how does he know about the events that happened pre-Flashpoint and New52?

Perhaps he gains this knowledge during the Brainiac hack in No Justice.

— — —

To me, Maxwell Lord is the clearest choice. I have read other things that’ll say it is Oliver Queen, which to tell the truth, I am not sure why he is even part of the story given the end of his Rebirth series following Heroes In Crisis and No Justice

I have also seen theories that say it is Roy Harper, who died during Heroes in Crisis.

The only other longshot I could think of would be Savior, Tim Drake who was trapped by Mr. Oz/Jor-El in Superman Reborn and A Lonely Place Of Living. Superman Reborn and A Lonely Place Of Living.

Only time will tell who is really under the Leviathan mask.



