(The Greek gods actually exist in the DC Universe, and appear quite often in Wonder Woman). Sometime later, however, Zeus was drawn into a plot engineered by the children of the god Ares - Deimos, Phobos, and Eris - to merge Gotham City with Ares's throne capital, the Aeropagus.

When the Joker escaped, he ignored Zeus's pleas for help because the Joker finds him annoying. Maxie's escape attempt was disrupted when he collided with a tree. Returned to Arkham, Zeus is one of the villains that escaped when Bane brought down the walls of Arkham Asylum during Batman: Knightfall. This plot is foiled by Batman and the Outsiders, who beat the Olympians in a series of Olympic-style games. He attempted to kidnap Olympic athlete Lacinia Nitocris and force her to marry him and become a mother figure for his daughter Medea. Zeus fought Batman on several occasions before being committed to Arkham Asylum, where he remained until escaping to form a team of superhuman agents, the New Olympians. He became a crime lord, and uses his cunning and intelligence to rise to power amidst the chaos in Gotham City's underworld caused by the city's numerous insane criminals. Completely delusional, Maxie Zeus believes he is the reincarnation of the Greek god Zeus himself. Through unrevealed circumstances he lost his wife and his sanity. Maximilian Zeus, a slightly built, almost mild man, was a history teacher and a married man.