Okay, I know this is way old by now, but I have just been reading the stories leading up to Infinite Crisis for the first time.
[BTW :spoiler: if anyone (like me a few days ago) hasn't read this.]
Did the general plot that lead to Wonder Woman killing Max really make sense? Are we supposed to assume that Maxwell Lord was suicidal? IMO, that's the only way the arc computes. Even at the outset, I'm not really even satisfied with Max having the ability to weave this intricate paranoid and delusional tapestry into Superman's head and create these complex hallucinations that goad Supes into attacking various people and have it go unnoticed for a long period of time. The story is that Max has been up to this for years, building up a paranoid mental infrastructure in Superman and no one who works with Superman (including at least one telepath) has noticed it. Of course, it's not impossible, but it's just a disappointment as a story crutch. Instead of a clever hook that holds your interest and makes you anticipate the next step, it's a lame bit of backstory filling that makes you hold your nose and wonder if the next step is worth taking. I understand that they want to imply that Maxwell Lord had to slowly work his power on Superman and has can't just instantly take control of one of the Earth's most powerful heroes at will. But, it would have been better to come up with some other mechanism whereby he does this, rather than try and get us to believe that no one Superman works with, or Lois, or Superman himself, notices anything wrong over all that time and gets Superman to look into with J'onn or whoever.
But, even accepting that shoe-horned premise that Max has established this level of control over Superman, why would Max reveal that he is controlling Superman? And, by causing Superman's violent behavior, he is guaranteeing that someone will figure out Superman is being controlled and, eventually that Max is controlling him. Why bother? To beat up Batman? That's just stupid. And, fundamentally, having your enemies know that you are controlling Superman is not a position one wants to be in. Why? Because, when you mind control someone like Superman, you instantly become the weakest part of that arrangement. Every opponent Superman will face would rather put a bullet into Maxwell Lord than try and take down Superman. And, given that Max is having Superman beat the heck out of (and maybe kill) them, they will be more than willing to kill Max when it becomes obvious that it's the quickest and maybe only way to save their own lives and potentially many others' lives. Max is too smart and too much of a strategic thinker not to have considered what would happen the second it becomes clear he is controlling Superman.
So, IMO, even if Max has that level of control, he isn't going to use it unless he absolutely has to because it paints a target on him. And, as cool as Batman is, why waste what is likely to be a one-shot use of Superman just throwing Bats a beatdown, especially when Max has control of an army of OMACs?
Anyway, I read that arc over the weekend and I finally finished the rest of Infinite Crisis, thinking it might be made clear at some point. It never was and it sort of seems like the whole arc was sort of a throwaway so that they could show Superman fighting Wonder Woman (and Wonder Woman killing someone, which did have some repercussions in Infinite Crisis...).
And, like I say, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Max to even do that unless he is basically suicidal, which, frankly, doesn't really strike me as Maxwell Lord. What am I missing here?
Maxwell Lord was hugely out of character for the entire story arc, full stop. I mean, he had mind-control powers and was blatantly revelling in being evil ... WTF?
In my mind, the story arc was really about reintroducing Checkmate into the DC universe as part of the big Infinite Crisis event.
The Maxwell Lord I grew up with would never have killed Ted Kord, fired him, embarressed him, a number of things, but never killed him. It really bums me out the way they took a character that Giffen and DeMatteis worked so hard at giving depth to and turned him into a second rate villain a la Funky Flashman. And don' t get me started on how they've managed to knock off most of the JLI era Leaguers (except for Gardner, that jerk)