Originally posted by JakeTheBank
Learning towards EJ myself, but yeah. 👆
That's my thought too. Max's personal insecurities aside (not that Joker's a model of mental consistency), I don't think he ever wielded the full power of the Creation Wheel. I might be wrong, because I never read his original "God" arc. But in later incarnations, he held only a fraction of its power...still enough to be a high level reality warper, but not the end-all.
^ During the original arc, Max did hold the full power of God, thanks to the Creation Equation. However, he didn't do a whole lot on the high-end... Not as much as EJ, at least. And like you said, he was pretty emo/mentally unstable at times--that held him back quite a bit, me thinks.
Anywho, EJ may have done more on panel, but I'm not really sure how he's beating a kid who, for all intents and purposes, held the literal power of God..? But yeah, feat-for-feat, EJ wins.