Lobo (DC Comics)
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Lobo is a DC Comics antihero. Created by writer Roger Slifer and artist Keith Giffen, he first appeared in Omega Men # 3 (1983).
Lobo is an alien from the planet Czarnia who works as an interstellar mercenary. Although introduced as a hardened, rarely used noir villain in the 1980s, Lobo languished in limbo until the early 1990s when he was revived as a one-note gag. Lobo enjoyed a short run as one of DC’s most popular characters throughout the 1990s.
The nineties version of Lobo was apparently intended to be an over-the-top parody of Marvel Comics antihero Wolverine. Ironically, in an issue of Deadpool, another Marvel series, Lobo himself was parodied in the likeness of Dirty Wolff, a large blue skinned man who drove a demonic motorcycle. Wolff's face was obscured by a muzzle over the course of the issue, at the end of which he was killed in an explosion.) The modern version of Lobo has the dress and attitude of a caricatured version of the Hells Angels and has an extreme love of bloodshed and destruction. His character is that of an ultra-violent clown. While he likes to call himself "The Main Man" and "The Ultimate Bastich," he has a habit of getting into sticky situations that he can't quite handle. He has been featured in a number of comic books noteworthy for their ironic portrayals of over-the-top violence.
"I have no idea why Lobo took off," Giffen said "I came up with him as an indictment of the Punisher, Wolverine, bad ass hero prototype and somehow he caught on as the high violence poster boy. Go figure."[1] (This quote refers to how Giffen wrote Lobo in the nineties. Roger Slifer as the writer of Omega Men #3 created Lobo's eighties incarnation.)
Lobo has made a few appearances in the animated series of the 1990s/2000s-era DC animated universe. At one point, an animated series and video game starring the character were to be released, but both were canceled.
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[edit] Publication history
Lobo was originally a regular character in Keith Giffen and Roger Slifer’s Green Lantern spin-off Omega Men, where he was originally called a Velorpian whose race had been exterminated by Psions, not a Czarnian. After a well received appearance in Justice League International, Lobo became a regular character in L.E.G.I.O.N. and its successor series R.E.B.E.L.S. Then in 1990, he appeared in his own miniseries, Lobo: The Last Czarnian, by writer Alan Grant and artist Simon Bisley.
Grant's humor and Bisley's art helped to make this four-issue series a hit, leading to many subsequent miniseries and specials. These include Lobocop (a RoboCop parody), Blazing Chain of Love (in which he is sent on a job to a harem), Paramilitary Christmas Special (in which he is contracted by the Easter Bunny to assassinate Santa Claus), Infanticide (where he kills his daughter and all of his other bastard offspring that she has gathered to try to kill him), Convention Special (a send-up of comic book conventions), and Unamerican Gladiators (in which Lobo takes part in a deadly televised game show). Lobo also starred in his own title for 64 issues, from 1993 to 1999.
Over the years, Lobo has guest-starred regularly in other series, even in cross-company interactions with such non-DC characters as The Mask, Judge Dredd, and the Authority. During the Marvel vs. DC crossover series, he fought Wolverine and lost due to popular vote by real-life fans.
In the Lobo series and miniseries, everything is excessive, from the main character's perversions, mindless violence, and vocabulary to the colors and the grotesque graphics. He commonly refers to "do-gooder" superheroes as "The Big Cheese". Everything in the series is laughable (in the sense of being ridiculous, if not always amusing), even his profanities ("Frag", "Feetal's Giz", and "Bastich"), which are used to replace vocabulary unwanted by a family-friendly DC and to satirize similar expressions in other comics.
See the DC Database for a Full List of Lobo's Appearances.
[edit] Background
Lobo is a Czarnian (originally a Velorpian in the Omega Men series), possessing exceptional strength and fortitude. He enjoys nothing better than mindless violence and intoxication. Killing is an end in itself: His name is Khundian for "he who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it". He is also arrogant and self-centered, focusing almost solely on his own pleasures, although he proudly lives up to his word. Lobo is the last of his kind, having committed complete genocide by killing all the other Czarnians for fun (his previous origin was that Psions had exterminated his race). Lobo cannot stay dead, as both Heaven and Hell threw him out in the series 'Lobo's Back'
As detailed in Lobo #0, Lobo unleashed a violent plague upon his homeworld, killing most of its citizens.
Lobo's friends include Dawg,a bulldog that he often claims isn't his when it gets into trouble; and Ramona, a bail bondswoman/hairdresser. Dawg was stomped to death by Lobo in Lobo #58 in which he claims to Superman that the dog is not his (for the final time).
His enemies include the do-gooder superhero parody Goldstar, Loo, Vril Dox, Bludhound, Etrigan the Demon, and General Glory. Lobo generally tries to kill anyone he's hired to capture, including his fourth-grade teacher named Miss Tribb, his children, Santa Claus, and Gawd. Simon Bisley's dark humor fits well within the pages of his artwork by having countless mutilations of background characters occurring in each panel.
Physically, Lobo resembles a chalk-white human male with blood-red pupilless eyes surrounded by black mascara-like patches. Like many comic book characters, Lobo's body is highly muscular. Although he was originally portrayed as having neatly trimmed purple-grey hair, this was soon redesigned to be a long, straggly, grey-black mane; and more recently into dreadlocks. Similarly, the orange-and-purple leotard he wore in his first few appearances has long since been replaced by black leather biker gear, which more recently has been replaced with both the robes of his office and pirate inspired gear. His arsenal include numerous guns, and a chain with a hook on his right arm. Extra weapons may include "frag grenades" and giant carving blades.
In addition to his ever-present lust for violence, Lobo also has a strict personal code of honor — he will never violate the letter of an agreement, although he may gleefully disregard its spirit. Also, he is extremely protective of space dolphins, some of which he feeds from his home. A few have been killed in separate incidents, which he avenges with his usual violence.
[edit] History
Lobo acted as an independent bounty hunter until he was tricked by Vril Dox into nominally joining his interstellar police force, L.E.G.I.O.N., although he continued solo activity (which seemed to often bring him to Earth and in conflict with its heroes).
Lobo had trouble with a clone that had survived previous misadventures. A battle between the two made it unclear who had survived.
Lobo frequents the business of Al, a rotound diner operator, where he frequently flirts with Al's one and only waitress Darlene. Though Lobo protects these two from any harm, which is frequent, he doesn't seem to understand the distress caused when he tends to destroy the diner. Al and Darlene later prospered, also due to Lobo's violence (he had destroyed a city, except for the diner, all the construction workers thus came to it). He even ended up destroying a diner Al had given to him as part of a birthday celebration.
Lobo has participated in many money making schemes, such as being a priest and being a pop-rock idol. Most of these schemes tend to end with the violent deaths of nearly everyone involved.
Lobo has many friends among the bounty hunter world, though many tend to die around Lobo, either shot by him or killed by enemies he faces.
Lobo fought Aquaman when a traveling space dolphin visiting Earth was killed by Japanese fishermen. He relented in his violence when he learned Aquaman also loved dolphins; he felt he could not hurt a fellow dolphin lover.
Lobo has teamed up with Guy Gardner more then once, helping him to destroy various alien threats to Earth. Lobo frequented Warrior's, Guy's bar, where he enjoyed free drinks.
Lobo fought the Authority in a violent, dimension-crossing adventure. Jenny Quantum had found a comic book detailing his murder of Santa Claus. Enraged and confused, she split the dimensional barriers, allowing the team to confront Lobo and various characters from said comic book.
After an extended hiatus, Lobo has recently reappeared in mainstream DC continuity encountering the heroes stranded in space (Adam Strange, Animal Man, and Starfire) after the events of Infinite Crisis. To everyone's surprise he did not kill them, apparently contending he had found religion, becoming the spiritual leader of the whole sector 3500, left in shambles by a still unknown assailant. He's the current caretaker of the Emerald Eye of Ekron.
[edit] Powers and abilities
His superhuman (or super-Czarnian) abilities include high levels of superhuman strength and durability which, however, seems to vary greatly depending on the writer, enabling him to fight beings such as Superman and withstand explosive blasts, the ability to survive unaided in space, a healing factor that heals great amounts of damage, a superhuman sense of smell which allows him to track objects between solar systems, and the ability to regrow an entire new Lobo from each drop of his own spilled blood. This last ability was removed by Vril Dox. However, Lobo was seen regenerating out of a pool of blood in 52 #20 and Lobo himself has supposedly died many times. He still retains his ban from both Heaven and Hell, and is thus immortal.
Despite his violent and loutish nature, Lobo has displayed a genius level intellect such as when he created a virulent plague of immense proportions, and its antidote, in about a week's time, and obliterated his entire species,with the very ironic and unfortunate exception of his 1st grade teacher, when he set it loose on Czarnia.
He, at times, uses high grade weaponry and explosives. His favorite weapon to use is a large chain wraped around his right wirst with a large hook at the end of it.
[edit] Li'l Lobo
In 2000, Lobo was transformed into a teenager by a magical accident. In this state, he joined Young Justice and eventually accompanied them to Apokolips, where he was killed in combat. However, the aforementioned magical accident had restored his ability to regrow from a single drop of blood, and millions of Lobos rushed into battle against Apokoliptian soldiers, whom the Lobos quickly defeated. The Lobos then turned on each other, until only one was left; in the process, the surviving Lobo regrew to adulthood.
An additional teenage Lobo remained however, having hidden from the fight; he rejoined Young Justice and chose to rename himself Slo-bo. Eventually, this clone began to degrade, becoming blind and so grew on the brink of death. Before he could die, however, Darkseid teleported him to the headquarters of Young Justice One Million in the 853rd Century, turning him into a (still aware) statue in the process.
[edit] Ultimate Bastich
In the two-part Lobo vs The Mask crossover, Lobo is hired by a surviving council of numerous devastated planets to hunt down a terrible killer, the same one who destroyed those worlds, in exchange for a billion credits. His trail led to Earth, Lobo encounters the current wearer of the ancient mask, the resulting battle destroying Manhattan and leaving Lobo nothing but a severed head, waiting for his body to re-grow.
Big Head, convincing Lobo he wants the previous mask wearer, agrees to a team-up to hunt the "Ultimate Bastich" down. Big Head leads Lobo on a chase to nowhere, killing even more and blowing up a solar system in the process. Fed up with Big Head, Lobo uses a special "guilt grenade" to force the wearer to remove the mask so that he can use it himself.
Lobo promptly kills an entire intergalactic bar of aliens, and is sucked into a wormhole on his ride through space. Landing in parts unknown, Lobo/Mask heads to a single planet where, crashing the 400th annual Feel Good Games, he insults a king, and proceeds to kill numerous people. A crayon drawing left on his bike with the words "YOU SMELL" incurs his wrath, and he destroys numerous planets hunting down the one who drew the insulting picture.
Waking up one day, Lobo finds himself back on Earth, and realizes the mask used him. Tossing it away, he proceeds to leave only to pass himself arriving on Earth- as it turns out, the wormhole sent him back in time roughly one month. He had been hired to hunt himself, and the alley where he dumped the mask was the same alley where the pickpocket would find it in part 1. However, Lobo breaks the time loop, literally turning himself in as he shaved the other Lobo's head and painted him green for the reward money. Meanwhile, Big Head, realizing that Lobo has broken the loop, decides to have fun of its own on Earth.
[edit] Lobo the Duck
Lobo the Duck is an incarnation of Lobo and Marvel Comics' Howard the Duck in the Amalgam Comics company crossovers. The big arm is derived from Lobo's alternative self, Bimbo, of Lobo's Back #2. He fights characters of DC and Marvel combinations such as the Kidnoids, and Ambush the Lunatik. His friends include Impossible Dawg and Doctor Strangefate.
[edit] In other media
[edit] Animated Lobo
Lobo first appeared on the small screen in Superman: The Animated Series. In the episode "The Main Man", Lobo (voiced by Brad Garrett) was hired by an alien named the "Preserver" to capture Superman and add him to the Preserver's collection of rare and endangered species. Lobo headed straight for Earth and started firing in the middle of a police station until Superman eventually showed up to confront him. The two battled all over downtown Metropolis, a battle which ended with Lobo leaving Earth supposedly to "take five".
Superman followed after Lobo into space, where Lobo lured Superman into a trap set by the Preserver. Superman was eventually captured and placed in a specialized cage, so that the Preserver might preserve Superman as the last remnant of the Kryptonian race. However, the Preserver then decided to add Lobo to his collection as well, since Lobo was also technically the last of his own race. Superman and Lobo eventually joined forces to escape the Preserver, and in return, Lobo promised to leave Earth alone.
Lobo also briefly appeared in another Superman: The Animated Series episode in which Maxima falls in love with Superman.
Lobo eventually returned to Earth, however, in the Justice League episode "Hereafter." Believing that Superman had died, Lobo wanted to join the Justice League, insisting that only he could take Superman's place. Lobo seemed to be motivated more out of ego and a chance "to bust heads" than any actual desire to do good or help others. In spite of his obvious violent tendencies and his lack of any redeeming moral virtues, the League allowed Lobo to help them for a short time while they dealt with a large number of supervillains running amok in Metropolis in response to Superman's apparent death. Lobo battled and defeated the supervillain Kalibak, primarily by piling more & more cars on top of him until he said "Uncle". In the end, Superman returned to the ranks of the League, and Lobo, his membership rejected, was forced to leave. Lobo has not reappeared since the League removed him. Brad Garrett reprised his voice role.
As in the comics, Lobo possessed exceptional strength and durability as well as an arsenal of weapons. However, he never displayed any of the healing powers or advanced senses that he possesses in the comics.
Lobo's gutting hook was never shown during any of the character's appearances. However, he did briefly utilize a steel chain in the second part of the Superman: The Animated Series episode "The Main Man".
In 1999, Batman: The Animated Series writer Boyd Kirkland developed a new Lobo series for Kids' WB with artist Steven Gordon. The series never went into production, as the network passed on it in a last-minute schedule announcement that year, to the surprise of the production team.
[edit] Lobo on film
In 2002, Scott Leberecht directed a film adaptation of The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special as part of the American Film Institute's director's studies program. Andrew Bryniarski stars as Lobo, with Tom Gibis as the Easter Bunny and Michael V. Allen as Santa Claus. The film was made with a budget of $2,400, although many professionals donated time and effort. It premiered at the AFI in May 2002. [2]
[edit] Merchandise
Lobo has only had a few bits of merchandise released, most by DC Direct. The first was a 12" Vinyl figure sold at the WB Stores.The second was a plush Lobo doll. The third was a 6" scale action figure which came with a hook and chain, Dawg, his bike and a spare set of hands to hold the handlebars. The fourth, part of the Reactivated line, is simply the old action figure with a new head sculpt and paint job, with a new chain, no Dawg, no bike, and no extra hands.
