Lobo

Origin

Pre-Crisis, Lobo was a member of the Velorpian race. Velorpians were difficult to kill, because they possessed the ability to replicate themselves from any injury short of complete vaporization. This led to overpopulation and a legacy of greed. The Psions eventually gave the Velorpians a poison that would lead to their downfall. Lobo was the only survivor.

Hired by the Citadel to attack the Omega Men, Lobo felt there was a breach of contract when he was not trusted to capture Tigorr alone. In revenge, Lobo helped the Omega Men assassinate the Gordanian leader. Lobo would later help the Omega Men for free, attributing his “going soft” to the sight of counterfeit Velorpians.

The last story of the Vega star system ended with Lobo taking the contract on his former partner, Bedlam.

Post-Crisis, Lobo was born on the peaceful planet Czarnia. By some accounts, he tore out of his mother’s womb. By others, his mother told him to find what he did best before he killed her. Other accounts claim his parents became hermits due to the evil they unleashed. There were many theories as to why Lobo inflicted violence, which was unheard of on Czarnia. Though the exact cause was never determined, it was concluded that Lobo was just plain bad.

At the age of two, Lobo requested a song to be played continuously on station Cosmic Rock Zombie. It was “I Killed My Folks (No Accident)” which Wolfman Wilf played non-stop out of fear for his life. Lobo had become fed up with being like others, and set out to establish his own identity. This meant a wardrobe change.

By age 16, he had killed half the planet’s population. By age 17, he had engineered a plague that caused irreversible neural damage and excruciating pain for days before the victim died. Having made himself immune, he murdered 5 billion Czarnians while he played death metal. Only one Czarnian survived the plague – Lobo’s fourth grade teacher.

Having no plans to rule a dead planet, Lobo set out to find employment to feed his space dolphins. After several failed jobs, he became a bounty hunter. One of his contracts from Manga Khan was to kill the Justice League.

Creation

Initially, Lobo was a recurring character in the Omega Men and created by Keith Giffen and Roger Slifer. He was created, according to Giffen, as satire for violent anti-heroes like Wolverine and Punisher. Everything about him is outlandish and excessive, from his origin to his powers, even his very language. He was retconned by Alan Grant and Simon Bisley in 1990 and his popularity soared. Stan Lee said in interviews that Lobo is his favorite DC character.

Character Evolution

As a bounty hunter Lobo will take up any contract if the money’s right. Whether it be his fourth grade teacher, Santa Claus, or God himself, Lobo will get the job done. He has been barred from Heaven and Hell, effectively making him immortal by default. His speech is peppered with (what Detective Comics hoped was) family friendly profanity such as “frag” and “bastich.”

He is not all that bad though, as he’s always true to his word and a conservationist of Space Dolphins.

In his travels around the universe, Lobo has frequently found himself either on Earth or encountering its heroes. Lobo is rarely diplomatic and these encounters often become violent. Lobo’s first trip to Earth (as well as many later encounters) saw him clash with Superman. As both of them are immensely powerful and unable to decisively beat the other, Superman usually has to find a way to appease Lobo before the damage (and the death toll) gets too severe. Due to his inability to beat Superman, Lobo will often challenge him in an effort to finally prove he is better.

Major Story Arcs

Justice League International

Lord Manga hires Lobo to kill the Justice League International team of Martian Manhunter, Big Barda, Rocket Red, and G’Nort,

who are fallowing Lord Manga and the Cluster to get back the kidnapped Mr. Miracle. Lobo’s payment is 10 year supply of “dolphin mix”, perfect for his Space Dolphin pets. When Lobo catches up to the Justice League, he destroys Rocket Reds suit, and nearly kills Martian Manhunter. But then Big Barbra uses her power rod to teleport Lobo to earth where he falls on top of Guy Gardner starting a fight with the recently back to his old self Green Lantern.

After a brief fight that is finally broken up by Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, Lobo learns that the rest of the Justice League will return and so he makes up a lie that Big Barbra sent him to wait for them. That is how Lobo got teleported with the rest of the team to Apokolips, when Big Barbra boom tubed the team to help rescue Mr. Miracle. While on Apokolips he tried to full fill his contract but was stopped when Lord Manga, who made a deal with Darkseid, calls off the contract. Lobo is fully paid but still angry he didn’t get to kill anyone.

Lil Lobo

In the aftermath of the Sins of Youth event wherein Klarion turned several adult superheroes into kids, Lobo became trapped in the body of teenager. He tried to force Klarion to return him to his natural age, but found that he was now immune to Klarion’s magic. Accepting his new status as the “top teen”, Lobo allied himself with the teen superhero team Young Justice and went on multiple adventures with them. During his tenure as a member he started to develop feelings for his teammate Empress and even took her on a date.

During Our Worlds At War, while Young Justice had been sent out on a mission to Apokolips, Lobo was slaughtered by an army of Parademons and seemingly killed by the Black Racer. As his body lay lifeless on the ground, an army of clones regenerated from drops of Lobo’s blood. Rapidly reaching adult size and savagely fighting each other until only one remained as the main man. Now returned to his former adult appearance, Lobo went on his way continuing to live his life as if his time with Young Justice never happened. Future encounters with his former teammates seem to indicate he has no memory of his time with them.

Lobo’s blood also produced Slobo, a clone whose growth was stunted, leaving him as a scrawny teenager. While all the full-sized Lobos fought each other to the death, Slobo hid in Young Justice’s ship and eventually returned to Earth with them to take Lobo’s place on the team.

52

Later, Lobo took a vow of nonviolence from the “Great Fishy One” as seen in the series 52 and had taken a quest to find the Great Emerald Eye.

Upon completion of the quest, Lobo discovers that the eye is the only weapon capable of destroying the Great Fishy One and is seen using it, supposedly to free himself of his vow.

Reign in Hell

Recently, it was revealed that Lobo has been trapped in Hell for quite some time, his sins and guilt being used to power an entire region of Hell. Supposedly, the Lobo seen before is actually a clone of the real Lobo created by Neron and set loose upon the universe. In the fight between Etrigan and Blue Devil, Lobo is released, and proceeds to slaughter his way through Hell, looking for Neron, the one who imprisoned him. His onslaught is stopped by Zatanna, who, after realizing she cannot stop him without killing him, simply freezes him and departs.

Lobo later appears after the events of Blackest Night. Atrocitus hires Lobo to eradicate Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris and Sinestro. However, he fails at his mission and as he departs from Earth, he manages to obtain a Red Lantern ring. It is revealed then that Lobo did not fail his mission, it only appeared so. Lobo was hired by Atrocitus to put on a show, and make Atrocitus look good towards the Green Lanterns. Hal Jordan even stated himself that Lobo usually puts up more of a fight, and it was then revealed that Lobo was only there for the sake of giving Atrocitus favor from the Lanterns.

R.E.B.E.L.

Due to the fact that the Space Church that Lobo oversaw, was spending more money then it was taking in Lobo needed to work for Vril Dox as his personal enforcer. While under Dox’s employment Lobo fought Altin Ad’Ms, the green lantern of sector 2828, to a stand still. He was later tricked into thinking that there was another Czarnian still alive but it turned out to be Astrild Storm-daughter, using a combination of pheromones and her powers to confuse Lobo, for this trick Lobo later killed Astrild. After tracking Astrild to the Psion homeworld he would go toe to toe with Smite, Astrild only true friend. The fight would only pause because Lobo was winning and wanted to get drunk instead of fighting. Hours later Lobo and Smite are found at a bar just sharing a Psion beer and war stories. Lobo then explains to Smite he shouldn’t be mad at Lobo, he should be mad at Starro, the man who sent Astrild after Lobo. Lobo is last seen with Smite about to attack a helpless Starro.

New 52/Deathstroke

During his first New 52 appearance, Lobo was discovered unconscious among other alien bodies in the wreckage of his crashed slaver ship known as The Ark. Lobo was then transferred from New Mexico to a maximum security prison in Colorado. After an attempted prison escape, Lobo’s tremendous strength and ferocity were finally set to scale. Although subdued with reverse polarity restraints, Lobo eventually manages to overpower the device and break free. Easily defeating those who tried to stop him, Lobo, who was now bitter towards Earth from his time at the prison, vowed to destroy the planet. Before escaping the facility Lobo went after the prison director, Maxim, who hired Deathstroke , Zealot and The Omegas to track down and defeat Lobo before he could kill him. Lobo was then stopped on The Ark seconds before he could finish the job.

New 52/Stormwatch

In New 52 Stormwatch, Lobo makes an appearance that is similar to his appearance pre New-52. It could suggest that the Lobo we saw in Deathstroke was retconned, and that the version shown here is the Lobo they’re sticking with. In Stormwatch Issue 20, Lobo is seduced by a strange form of alien, trying to suggest that Lobo helps them in their plan by persuading him with space dolphins. Lobo, with his love for space dolphins accepts the deal.

Villains Month

The Lobo which appeared in Deathstroke and Stormwatch was an imposter and the real has a slicker costume which is a drastic change from previous interpretations of the character although the personality remains similar. The real Lobo is given information that the imposter is located on Earth. The true Lobo is going to Earth to meet the imposter calling himself The Main Man.

DC Rebirth

As of DC Rebirth, Lobo’s history has been altered. Now resembling his original incarnation, he now has a history as a member of Amanda Waller‘s original Suicide Squad alongside Emerald Empress, Doctor Polaris, Johnny Sorrow, Cyclotron, and Rustam. On their first and last mission, they fulfilled their mission, but Cyclotron convinced most of the team to use the device they were meant to secure to enhance their powers. Lobo, uninterested in power, simply walked away. However, Waller agreed to double Lobo’s pay (she offered rewards in exchange for the team’s cooperation, money in Lobo’s case) in exchange for killing Cyclotron. He agreed, but once he did the deed, Rustam revealed that Cyclotron was a living bomb meant to kill them if they got out of line. The resulting explosion leveled the island they were on, killed most of the inhabitants, and put the entire team into comas. Deciding to sweep her catastrophic failure under the rug, Waller had them all put in am off-the-books prison forever.

However, Maxwell Lord learned of the team’s existence, used his mind control powers to compel Waller to give up their location, and broke them out. Once free, Lobo joined his former team in killing every last guard before Maxwell offered them a job, join his Nightmare Army in exchange for a chance to kill Waller. Lobo agreed to help, but he warned Max not to use his powers on him. Ironically, Max was already manipulating him. The group breaks into Belle Reeve to get to Waller, only to find the current Suicide Squad and the Justice League have teamed up to stop them. Once the melee starts, Lobo goes straight for Waller. Though she and Deadshot try to gun him down, he gets close enough to toss his chain at her, only for Batman to knock it away, allowing them all to keep fleeing. Waller and Deadshot keep shooting him, but despite the damages, his healing powers allow him to keep advancing. Once he fully recovers, he bats Deadshot aside and tries to strangle Amanda with his chain. Before he can finish the job, Batman injects him in the neck with one of the bombs Waller puts inside the Suicide Squad’s heads, then detonates it, destroying Lobo’s head.

After Maxwell gets his hands on the Heart of Darkness and uses it to possess most of the Justice League, he has the League level Belle Reeve before leaving to take over America. However, he sends Superman back there to capture Amanda. Moments after Superman leaves, Lobo’s head regenerates. The first thing he does is go after Batman, enraged that he blew his head off, but he tells him he only did it to break Lord’s hold over him. Impressed by Batman’s gutsiness, he then focuses on finding Lord, intending to make good on his promise he made earlier. Batman tries to explain the turn of events, but Lobo ignores him. The rest of the Squad then finds Cyborg, his machine side resisting Max’s control. Cyborg explains nature of the Heart of Darkness. Batman asks Cyborg to use a Boom Tube to get him to the League’s location, but he can only get them close to their location. Before he can leave however, Lobo and the remaining Squad members convince Batman to bring them along. Seeing no alternative, Batman deputizes them all into the Justice League.

Lobo is next seen Boom-tubing in with the rest of the group. Surrounded by the brainwashed population of Washington D.C., they make a dash for the White House, where Maxwell is trying to shake off the diamond’s influence. As they reach the White House lawn, the possessed Leaguers intercept them. Lobo engages Superman, but as the fighting intensifies, the team notices the sun turning black, and find Eclipso hovering over them. Lobo is eventually taken down by Superman, and as Batman and Killer Frost help him recover, they realize everyone else has been brainwashed by Eclipso. However, Batman has a plan to defeat Eclipso, and orders Lobo to stall for time. He then jumps in to the fray. Before things get serious, Killer Frost finishes the plan: create a prism made of ice to turn Superman’s heat vision in sunlight, Eclipso’s weakness. The resulting blast frees all of the possessed heroes and villains, and wounds Eclipso. Another concentrated blast frees Lord, and by extension, the world from Eclipso’s influence. Once the fighting is over and everyone recovers, Lobo finds his space hog and prepares to leave. Batman then arrives wanting to talk. Lobo reaches for something in his jacket, seemingly still angry at Batman, but it’s revealed it was only a cigar. Lobo expresses gratitude for Batman freeing him Lord’s control, and gives his word to do one job for him if he ever needs it. He then prepares to leave, but Batman tells him he already has a job, the new Justice League he is putting together. This shocks Lobo, and he tries to duck out, but Batman calls him out on whether he really a man of his word, then leaves.

Powers and Abilities

It is said that Czarnians can only be truly killed by other Czarnians (though this does not matter to Lobo either way, as he cannot die by any means). Furthermore, Lobo has been banned from entering either Heaven or Hell. Lobo can survive unaided in the vacuum of space.

As a result of his being banned from the afterlife and ability to leave his body if it is ‘too’ damaged, until his healing factor restores it to a functioning condition, or he simply chooses to reanimate his corpse. While outside of his body, he loses his ability to directly physically affect living beings, but is able to affect other ghosts physically in the same way that he would normally fight a being with a physical body.

Lobo possesses super strength that enables him to lift over 100 tons, which has allowed him to hold his own against the likes of Superman, Captain Marvel, Martian Manhunter and Green Lanterns, among others. He also has superhuman durability and a healing factor that allows him to heal from even the most serious of injuries relatively quickly. Despite his size, Lobo is surprisingly quick. Lobo is able to survive the rigors of space without food or air, although he needs booze regularly. Not for survival, just because. Lobo has an unbelievably good sense of smell that allows him to track anyone he’s met within a few solar systems.

He can also smoke cigars in airless space, because he needs his cigars. He was also able to create copies of himself from a single drop of blood, though Vril Dox of L.E.G.I.O.N. was able to turn off this power. His weapon of choice is a chain and hook (the durability of which has yet to be determined). He also utilizes an arsenal of deadly weaponry, usually guns or explosives that are ridiculously big and loud. Also he has at times shown to have an ability commonly referred to as “Bottomless Satchel” .This means he can pull guns, explosives, ammo, etc. out of no where or out of something that was smaller then the item itself (ex: pulling a cannon out from behind his back) though the New 52 incarnation of Lobo never displayed any of these abilities beyond regeneration. His preferred mode of transport is his SpazFrag 666, a flying motorcycle.

Due to his omni-physical nature if existing throughout multidimensional realities while not totally situating within any singular totality, The Kollective theorize this is the source of Lobo’s unquantifiable and wildly random power set. Which fluctuates from simply congenial to nigh infinite in proportion and capacity, enabling him to use and adapt multiple new superpowers within every conceivable showing of his publishing. These mysterious scholars having once garnered a unique dark energy which he contains within himself to eradicate two warlike alien species in a parallel timeline. Causing a controlled mass genocide of billions in an instant

Characteristics (New Earth)

• Height: 6’4″
• Weight: 305 lbs (138 kg)
• Eyes: Red
• Hair: Black

Characteristics (Prime Earth)

• Height: 6’6″
• Weight: 210 lbs (95 kg)
• Eyes: Red
• Hair: Black

Alternate Version

Psion Homeworld Mthologogy

For centuries the Czarnians were left alone by the warfaring races of the galaxy, because of the fact that the Czarnians were impossible to kill. For every drop of blood spilled two Czarnians would spring to life. The warfaring races were glad that the Czarnians had no interest in leaving their homeworld. Then one day a misfit Czarnia, Lobo, started making trouble, he was much stronger then the others and more prone to violence, so they banished him. While banished Lobo learned how to kill a Czarnian without spilling its blood. Before the rest of the Czarnians could plan an attack it was too late and Lobo had killed them all. Now because the Czarnians had no interest in leaving the planet Lobo had to wait for a alien race to happen upon the planet so that he could steal their ride, his signature motorcyle.

Tiny Titans

Lobo is usually seen as a mercenary with dirty habits. However, in Tiny Titans, the Main Man is shown as the gym teacher for Sidekick’s University. His cigars, alcohol, nor does his motorcycle appear in any of the issues. In Tiny Titans, Lobo prefers coffee, and has a strict, fit, and stern attitude with the kids in the University.

Other Media

Television

DC Animated Universe

In the DC Animated Universe, Lobo is first seen in Superman: The Animated Series, collecting the last Kryptonian (only to be collected himself and reluctantly team with Superman to escape), then a cameo as he flirts with Maxima, and again in an episode in which Toyman supposedly kills Superman. He returns in Justice League. When the JLA starts looking for a new member to take Superman‘s place, Lobo crashes into the Watchtower in his bike and starts hanging around the JLA even though they obviously don’t want him. While he is shown as being a powerhouse, the DCU’s Lobo is mostly played for laughs. Lobo in the DCAU is voiced by Brad Garrett.

Young Justice: Invasion

Lobo is seen in Young Justice: Invasion when The Main Man comes to earth with a bounty on the alien “Tseng”. Tseng, being disguised in a suit that resembles a political figure, uses this human shell to gain the trust and protection of Wonder Girl and Bat Girl from Lobo’s wrath. Lobo is easily able to fend off the two and in the end is seen capturing Tseng and flying off on his motorcycle. He is voiced by David Sobolov.

Lobo returns during Young Justice: Outsiders (the show’s third season), where the Light hires him to kill Forager, although the real purpose of the mission was to confirm the existence of an off-the books team including Superboy, Black Lightning, Geo-Force, Nightwing, Forager, Halo and Tigress.

Justice League Action

In his most recent appearance in animation, Lobo does appear in the new Justice League cartoon titled Justice League Action.

Just like his appearance in the original Justice League cartoon, he is seen flying his intergalactic bike, using his chain, and gun heavy. He is voiced by John DiMaggio in this series.

Krypton

Lobo appeared as a recurring character in the short-lived Krypton series, portrayed by Emmett J. Scanlan. There was talk of SyFy ordering a solo Lobo spin-off with Scanlan reprising his role, but the project fell apart after Krypton was cancelled.

Web Animation

Lobo

Lobo also had his own webseries which had Lobo using four letter curse words and graphic violence. The TV series was created by Boyd Kirkland for www.loboonline.com, and DC harnessed all of the bad that Lobo could possibly be on the internet. The show had one season with 14 episodes and one special. The Lobo TV series also had sex and gore! The show ended in the same year that it was created in, 2000. Greg Eagles and Kevin Michael Richardson voiced Lobo. Darlene Spritzer was voiced by Grey DeLisle and the other characters were mostly voiced by Tom Kenny with some others being voiced by Dee Bradley Baker and Richardson.

Film

In the year of 2002, Scott Leberecht directed a movie about Lobo called The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special. Lobo is played by Actor Andrew Bryniarski.

In 2009 it was announced that Guy Ritchie would be directing a Lobo movie. A script was written by Don Payne. In the script Lobo would track four dangerous aliens to Earth, where he would hunt them down and become friends with an Earth girl. The movie was targeted to be PG-13. Guy Ritchie eventually left the project to pursue making Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and the film seemed to die out.

Warner Bros. has announced that Journey 2 and Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore director Brad Peyton will replace Ritchie in directing the film. Jason Fuchs rewrote the script with Michael Bay set to direct a DCEU Lobo film due to the success of the Deadpool films.

Animated Films

• An Earth-3 version of Lobo dubbed Warwolf makes a cameo appearance in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.
• Lobo appears in Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Aquaman – Rage of Atlantis, voiced by Fred Tatasciore.
• Fred Tatasciore reprises his role as Lobo in Lego DC: Shazam! – Magic and Monsters.
• Lobo appears as a major antagonist in Superman: Man of Tomorrow, voiced by Ryan Hurst. In the film, he attempts to capture Superman, the last Kryptonian.

Cancelled game

In 1996 Ocean Software began making a Lobo fighting game for the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis.A six page preview of the game was in the magazine Nintendo Power in 1996. The game featured characters such as Loo, Denitro, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and of course Lobo. The game was eventually cancelled and only a prototype of the Sega Genesis version of the game was the only thing to surface.

In 2003 Kemco USA started development on a beat-em-up Lobo game for the Playstation 2 and Xbox. The game was cancelled for unknown reasons a few years later. The players would have been able to control Lobo and use a variety of weapons such as guns, knives, chains, and Lobo’s signature weapon: a hook and chain. No screenshots were ever released by Kemco, and the only thing revealed for the game was a cover art design created by Simon Bisley.

Video Games

• In 2013 Netherealm Studios has made Lobo as the first playable DLC character in the game INJUSTICE: Gods Among Us. He is voiced by David Sobolov, who also did his voice in Young Justice. Lobo also appears in Doomsdays ending. The narrator mentions that Doomsday is excited to confront Lobo in his ending. Lobo also says his trademark swear word “bastich” in the game. In Lobo’s entrance, he is seen flying into the arena on his intergalatic spacehog, the SpazFrag666. He gets off the bike, and pulls out a cigar and a blow torch, while saying “It’s time to liven up the joint.”, he then puts the cigar in his mouth, and lights it up. In Lobo’s outro, he is shown walking up to his laid out opponent, and ashes his cigar above them. He then walks onto his bike, and lays back to relax. In Lobo’s battle ending, his story and involvement in Injustice, is that Regime Superman had hired Lobo to go after the Insurgency. Lobo, after completing his mission and collecting his bounty, which makes him one of the richest men in the universe, he then targets The New Gods of The New Genesis.
• Lobo appears as a playable character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, voiced by Travis Willingham.
• Lobo appears as a playable character in Lego DC Super-Villains, voiced again by David Sobolov.

Merchandise

• Lobo received a figure from DC Direct. A version with his bike and Dawg was also released.
• Lobo was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
• Lobo was featured in Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited line.
• Lobo was featured in Mattel’s DC Universe Classics line.
• Lobo was featured in the DC Superhero line of figurines from Eaglemoss Publications.
• Lobo was featured in Funko’s Pop! line of bobbleheads.
• Lobo was featured in Mattel’s Justice League Action line.
• A minifig of Lobo was featured in the DC Super Heroes: Superman and Krypto Team-Up Lego kit.
• Lobo was featured in the DC Gallery line from Diamond Select.
• Lobo was featured in Diamond Select’s Minimates line.
• DC Direct, Sideshow Collectibles and XM Studios have all produced Lobo statues.
• Lobo was the subject of a Collect-and-Connect wave in Mattel’s DC Multiverse line.
• Lobo was featured in the DC Multiverse line from McFarlane Toys.