Justice League International #12 – “Who Is Maxwell Lord?” – Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire/Al Gordon
This one continues from last issue, with a rather upset Metron wanting to know why the Justice League suddenly busted into his lair. Since Mr. Miracle knows Metron, it’s up to him to calm the riled New God. With his unmatched intellect, Metron soon realizes that the League was drawn to this place just as he was, in the hope of starting a conflict between the two parties. Metron remembers the flicker of consciousness he felt in his robot and puts the pieces together. The sentient computer intelligence that’s behind all
this is monitoring things and when it sees there’s to be no fight, it realizes it’s been found out and withdraws. Meanwhile, Green Flame and Ice Maiden are disappointed in the pay cut they have to take now that the Justice League has superseded the Global Guardians as an international superhero force. Green Flame convinces Ice Maiden to blow their last paychecks on a trip to Brazil, and figures if they can’t beat ’em they may as well join ’em … so they apply for membership in the JLI. Metron destroys his robotic probe and tells the League he’ll find and eliminate the sentient computer that tried to set them 
up. They leave him to it and head back to New York. Max Lord is still there, thinking about how he sent the team into a probable trap. His sentient computer comes back online and tries to persuade Max to go ahead with their master plan … replacing the world’s leaders with androids. We get Max’s origin and learn how he was a Trump-style businessman who wanted to climb the corporate ladder no matter the cost. He worked his way up in a big company and was going to take out the boss in a climbing “accident” when he had a stab of conscience. When the boss had a real accident, Max tried to help him but
ended up encountering the sentient computer, which showed him the possibilities if he laid his conscience aside. Max became president of the company and (with the computer’s help) he became the most powerful businessman on the planet. The computer thought humans were heading for destruction and came up with the plan to replace the world’s leaders. Max went along with it, manipulating the formation of the new Justice League, adding members that he wanted (like Booster Gold in issue 4), and making sure the world saw them 
as heroes when they defeated the rogue satellite (in issue 7). But Max’s conscience kicks back in and he smashes the computer. Metron senses the disappearance of the sentience and lets Mr. Miracle know before heading back to New Genesis. But now that the computer is “dead”, the gunshot wounds it healed reappear and Max keels over, bleeding like hell. The Leaguers find him and get him to hospital in time and after a mind-scan from J’onn J’onzz, they decide to give Max a second chance.
Infinity Inc. #49 – “The Sandman Cometh” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Vince Argondezzi/Frank McLaughlin, Sam Kieth
This one continues from last issue, with Albert (Nuklon) Rothstein visiting Lyta (Fury) Trevor and her parents, Derek and Joan. They look at photos of Lyta’s birth mother (the Golden Age Fury from Young All-Stars) and Joan tells Albert how she joined the Justice Society as Miss America. (This was Roy’s way of replacing the Golden Age Wonder Woman, but that eventually gets superseded by a time-travelling Hippolyte.) Derek takes Albert for a spin in his P-38 and tells him he had a strange dream about a
red-and-gold clad man in Lyta’s room. Derek chased the guy outside, who threw something at him before vanishing. Derek woke up the next morning out on the lawn, so maybe it wasn’t a dream. Albert confides that he wants to propose to Lyta and help her raise her baby and Derek thinks that’s a great idea. Albert isn’t sure how to bring it up with Lyta, but when she watches a videotape sent by Mr. Bones, he kinda gives it away. Lyta is touched but tells Albert she loves him like a brother, not a husband. Later that night, Albert hears noises from Lyta’s room and finds the red-and-gold dude leaning over her bed. 
Albert jumps him. But the guy is stronger than he looks and ends up putting Albert to sleep with a handful of sand. Yeah, this is the 1970s Sandman created by Jack Kirby, who we last saw in JLA Annual 1. The next morning, Albert tells the others about the intruder and calls Infinity Inc headquarters to get Obsidian to check the computers. They find out they’re dealing with the Garret Sanford version of Sandman, but that still doesn’t explain what he wants with Lyta. At HQ, the Infinitors are holding a meeting, but when Skyman shows up he looks like he hasn’t slept in a week and is kind of a dick to everyone. Brainwave reads the trouble in Skyman’s mind and takes him out for a
private chat. Skyman admits he’s been having weird dreams lately about fairy tale characters asking him for help, but now he’s starting to see them when he’s awake and is afraid he’s losing his mind. Back East, Sandman shows up in Lyta’s room again, but this time she and Albert are waiting to grab him. They capture him, but Lyta recognizes his voice and when she unmasks him, they see he’s not Garrret Sanford … he’s Hector Hall, Lyta’s estranged husband and father of her unborn child.
Young All-Stars #11 – “Like Son” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Michael Bair/Malcolm Jones III, Grant Miehm
This one starts with the Young All-Stars landing in Indian Creek, Colorado, Arn Munro’s hometown. Arn was hoping to pay his mom a quiet visit, but she’s apparently told the whole town about the special visitors (and that her son has super-powers), so the team is mobbed at the airport. Arn is surprised, but can’t get too mad at his mom and the townsfolk are thrilled to see real-life superheroes (although a few of them are wary of Tsunami). Arn’s girlfriend (Dottie) is glad to see him too, but Fury’s not so happy to
meet Dottie. After a brief speech by the mayor (ended when Flying Fox summons a wind to blow the mayor’s speech all over the place), they head back to Anna’s place, where Arn tells them he won’t be going back to New York with them. Dyna-Mite doesn’t take that well, as he’s kinda attached himself to Arn since TNT died (in issue 1). Arn tells his mother about Hugo Danner’s diary (which he read last issue) and she confirms that Hugo is Arn’s father. Arn wonders how, since Hugo died before he was born, but Anna says Hugo didn’t really die in South America like the diary claimed. Anna tells Arn how Hugo came to see 
her after his supposed death and they ended up banging, even though she was married to someone else. Anna was ready to leave her husband, but Hugo decided what they were doing was wrong, so he left … and she gave birth to Arn nine months later. Over diner, Anna tells the others how Arn inherited his father’s super-powers, but they didn’t kick in until a few years ago. At first, Arn was excited, but he soon felt like using his powers to play sports was cheating, so he hid them and promised his mom he wouldn’t tell anyone until he turned eighteen. Of course, now everyone knows (even though he’s still not quite eighteen), which makes him wonder about his future. He takes off to think, making Fury wonder if he went to meet Dottie, but Anna
tells her about Arn’s favourite spot (the “fortress” built by his father years ago) and she goes to look for him there. He tells her about how Hugo hung out there as a kid and ran off some snooping professors. Arn speculates that Ubermensch might have gotten his super-powers from those professors, if they somehow got hold of Abednego Danner’s formula. He wants to track down the professors to check and Fury convinces him the other Young All-Stars can help. He agrees and they end up banging. Later, Arn tells the others he’s sticking with the team and they’re all happy (especially Dyna-Mite).