th bastich to read this.Last Updated: April 5, 2006
Maintained and written by this bastich: Craig H. Rettig (crettig@yahoo.com)
Additional stuff by: Thomas Holmes and Marc Singer
Some guest-star and merchandise information provided by Jeremy D. Palka, Lucio Luiz, F. Smeets, Paul Dawson, Francesco Ardini, Michael R. Grabois, Evan Long, and Andy Mangels
NOTE: This document contains many spoilers. So don't come cryin' to me if an ending or two get given away somewhere in here.
Lobo® is a registered trademark of DC Comics, Inc. This document, however, is Copyright © 1996–2005 Craig H. Rettig. This document may be distributed and/or translated freely, as long as it remains free of charge and kept in its entirety.
E FRAGGIBUS REX
Lobo is an alien humanoid being from the planet Czarnia. Born in the Earth year 1599, Lobo is 6'4", 250 pounds, with red eyes and black hair (DCU Heroes Secret Files #1). Lobo is the last surviving member of his race, because he killed almost every other Czarnian on a whim one day.
Czarnia was a planet of peace and tranquility until Lobo was born. No one knows why he was the way he was, it just happened that way. Upon his birth, he bit off four of the midwife's fingers (Lobo, Vol. 1, #1) and immediately started chasing the doctors around with scalpels (Lobo, Vol. 2, #0). Lobo ripped out his elementary principal's throat when he was five during a temper tantrum (Lobo, Vol. 1, #1).
At age two, Lobo made his first on-air music request to Cosmic Rock Zombie Radio, where he threatened the DJ, Wolfman Wilf, to play I Killed My Folks (No Accident) by Oedipus Wrecks 24 hours a day, 365 days a year under penalty of grievous bodily harm. Lobo then broke into a medical clinic and forced the staff (at gunpoint) to implant a radio receiver into the audio lobes of his brain, permananently tuned to Cosmic Rock Zombie Radio. Naturally, he slit the staff's throats and burned the place down when the operation was finished (Lobo, Vol. 1, #1, Lobo, Vol. 1, #4, and Lobo, Vol. 2, #0).
In his early teens, Lobo formed a heavy metal band, The Main Man and the Several Scum-Buckets (NOTE: Lobo, Vol. 1, #4 lists them as The Main Man and Several Scumbags, but we'll have to assume Ms. Tribb's memory is slightly faulty, as the #0 issues are supposed to contain the definitive origins of the characters). Their first concert was at the All-Czarnia 9-Octave Chime-Haiku Festival. During the show, the severely high noise killed the other guys in his band, electrocuted the judges, set fire to six rows of Section D of the audience, and killed the man who ran the Herbal Tea Booth. Lobo then got ticked off when he didn't win First Prize (Lobo, Vol. 1, #4 and Lobo, Vol. 2, #0).
At age eighteen, he killed every other member of his race, just so he could be unique in the universe (Lobo, Vol. 1, #1, Lobo, Vol. 2, #0, and DCU Heroes Secret Files #1).
Later, Lobo worked as a bounty hunter/assassin for a while. On a personal mission to eviscerate Garryn Bek of LEGION, who had accidentally run over one of his pet space dolphins, Lobo met Vril Dox II. While the two initally got along, both individuals' natures took over, and the two fought to determine if Lobo would stay or not. During this fight, Cosmic Rock Zombie Radio went off-the-air, and Lobo, without his usual musical motivation, lost the fight to Dox and had to join LEGION. When LEGION was taken over by Dox's son Lyrl, Lobo was forced to join Dox's new group, the REBELS. Eventually, Dox got upset at Lobo and kicked him out of REBELS. Lobo has since gone back to bounty hunting.
In Lobo, Vol. 2, #22, Lobo sold his "soul" to Neron to get his radio receiver removed, because a stand-in DJ named Tony LePoni decided to play soul music instead of Lobo's song. Lobo proceeded then to shoot Tony and blow up the radio station.
On a personal note, Lobo's favorite color is Sepulcher Black. He is a man of his word, who would rather kill the promisee than renege. He also loathes the following: square jaws, goody-goodies, democracy, flags, the philosophy that Good will always triumph over Evil, short hair, brown shoes, Equality for Women, Equality for Men, basic rights, and most everything else that is commonly considered decent (Lobo, Vol. 1, #2).
Note: It seems either DC or Keith Giffen couldn't decide on Lobo's original planet, as during his time in Omega Men, he was recognized as, and called himself, a Velorpian (Omega Men #10).
Yep, Lobo excelled in the ways of science, and during biology class, created an insect that was 117 microns long, airborne, and of a scorpion-like appearance. These little buggers would burrow into a person's skin and cause great black blisters and severe blood poisoning, inducing paralysis but not reducing the pain at all. Victims took about five days to die their agonizing and messy death. The entire time, Lobo, who had made himself immune to these creatures, sat up in his balcony getting drunk and playing thrash metal on his guitar. Around five billion people died over that short period of time, and Lobo just laughed (Lobo, Vol. 1, #1 and Lobo, Vol. 2, #0).
The only other Czarnian to survive this occurence was a Miss E. Tribb, Lobo's fourth-grade teacher, who was off-planet at the time. Eventually, Lobo did break her neck and kill her, too (Lobo, Vol. 1, #4).
Um... no. The word "Lobo" comes from a Khundish dialect, and roughly translates to "He who eats your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it."
Lobo is extremely strong and resilient to damage, able to trade punches with Superman. Lobo also heals extremely quickly in addition to his durability.
Lobo possesses a tracking sense that locks onto a person's aura, and he can track them across the universe if necessary.
Lobo apparently has a light enough constitution to get drunk on occasion (okay, a lot of occasions). Lobo apparently does need to breathe, as he has been subdued by gas in the past, yet he is somehow able to survive in the vaccuum of space unaided. He is also apparently susceptible to typical human male setbacks including balding and weight gain (Kingdom Come #2 and Lobo, Vol. 2, #1,000,000).
Lobo has a very analytical mind that can quickly analyze an opponent and find its primary weakness (Lobo, Vol. 1, #2).
The original Lobo had the ability to make clones of himself by spilling a drop of blood. However, Vril Dox II, leader of LEGION at that time, poisoned Lobo to remove this ability (L.E.G.I.O.N. '89 #7). However, Lobo had a clone escape, who may have replaced the original Lobo, that still possesses or possessed the ability to replicate (Lobo, Vol. 2, #9). L'il Lobo did have the ability to replicate. Slo-Bo does not. If Slo-Bo's assumption about Li'l Lobo's clones is true (Young Justice #38), the current Lobo should have the ability to replicate, but this has not yet been shown.
This seems to be Lobo's most-used exclamation, and may be a shortened form of "Feetal's Gizzard". Webster's Standard Galactic Dictionary mentions an ancient Curse of Feetal, but says no more on the subject (Lobo, Vol. 1, #2).
Waaay back in Omega Men #3, dated June of 1983. Cover price was $1.00 U.S./$1.25 Can. The creative team was as follows:
Lobo had his own monthly series called Lobo (Duh!). However, the fraggin' bastich management at DC Comics decided to canel it at issue #64, so now you just have to watch for appearances. Lobo has also had numerous guest appearances, usually easy to spot. Also, here is a list of all the Lobo series, mini-series, and one-shots he appeared in:
I try to keep this list as complete as possible, but if you see that I'm missing something, let me know.
* Indicates a reported, but unconfirmed by the author, appearance. No guarantee on whether or not Lobo is actually in this issue. (Technically, there are no guarantees for un-starred entries, either — Deal with it.)
Some info provided by Jeremy D. Palka, Lucio Luiz, F. Smeets, Paul Dawson, Francesco Ardini, Michael R. Grabois, Evan Long, Andy Mangels, and the Comic Book Database (CBDB.com).
Yes and no. There was a 13-minute American Film Institute student film based on Lobo's Paramilitary Christmas Special made in 2002. It starred Andrew Bryniarski as Lobo. More details about the movie can be found on the Internet Movie Database.
While it hasn't been officially distributed, you can often find a copy on eBay and other online auction sites. It may also be available through the various peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, such as Gnutella and eDonkey.
You can't. See, DC Comics, in their infinite wisdom, decided to cancel the series at issue #64. You can send your hate mail to DC Comics at:
DC Comics
1700 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
U.S.A.
or by visiting the DC Comics web site.
Credit (or blame, depending on your outlook) is given to Roger Slifer for the character concept, and Keith Giffen for the character's visuals.
NOTE: This section contains spoilers. You may or may not want to skip it.
When Vril Dox II killed the drug-lord Kanis-Biz, Biz's followers attacked LEGION headquarters. Dox had Lobo make clones of himself to repel the attackers. Dox then poisoned Lobo so he could not make any more clones. All but one of the clones were killed in the fight. The one that remained smelled a suicide mission and hung back. This clone had not been poisoned and therefore could still make clones. This clone left Cairn and went to the planet Kannit, where he started building a new faction to conquer the universe. At the conclusion of the issue, Lobo and the clone were fighting, and one of them walked out; no one knows which one. Therefore, if the clone Lobo survived, then Lobo still has his ability to replicate, otherwise not (Lobo, Vol. 2, #9).
Speculation #1: Due to Neron's removal of Lobo's radio transmitter, since non-organic material cannot be cloned, it is generally assumed that it was, in fact, the original Lobo, and not the clone, who survived. Also, later issues showed Lobo getting cut and no clones were created, so we can assume it was the original Lobo that is, in fact, still breathing (Lobo, Vol. 2, #22).
Speculation #2: After L'il Lobo was blasted to bits by Darkseid's minions, each drop of blood resulted in a brand new L'il Lobo (Young Justice #36). This would seem to indicate that maybe the clone survived, but Lobo's replication ability may have just returned when he was de-aged by Klarion during the Young Justice: Sins of Youth storyline. Slo-Bo apparently did not have this ability.
NOTE: This section contains spoilers. You may or may not want to skip it.
Basically, Young Justice writer Peter David has said in the past that the worst character of all time was Lobo. So he brings Lobo into Young Justice, just so he can mess with him. Basically, after fifteen or so issues of using Lobo purely as comedy relief, he decides to really screw with him:
"When I... L'il Lobo, that is... got blasted t'pieces, every drop of his blood resulted in a new Czarnian. The first thing on their minds was vengeance on the guys what shot 'em up. But I knew that right after they got done with that, they'd turn on each other, and... they were growin'. By the time they wuz all done, only one would be left standin'... and he'd be an adult Lobo, like Lobo used t'be, in every way. He might not even remember his time as a kid, 'cept as a bad dream. 'Cept, y'see... Everyone o' them new Lobos should'a been identical... but they wasn't. Call it a genetic throwback, recessed gene, billion-ta-one shot, whatever... There was an army of exact Lobo clones... and me. Slower, weaker than the others... spit out from the shallow end of the gene pool. I knew when they finally turned on each other... I'd be a goner in no time. I shouldn't have cared. I did anyway. Like I said... I hid."
Eventually, this clone degraded, becoming blind and on the brink of death. Before he could die, however, Darkseid teleported him to the headquarters of Young Justice in the 853rd Century, turning him into a (still aware) statue in the process (Young Justice #1,000,000).
So basically, what we ended up with was some sort of wimpy version of Lobo who was whinier than Kurt Cobain and only slightly less annoying. However, the only thing good to come out of this is that we now have a "normal" (such as it is) Lobo running around the universe again.
Number one, he's very tough to kill, but he or his clones have been killed on a few occasions:
One can make the assumption that Lobo can never be permanently dead, because he isn't allowed in either heaven or hell (Lobo's Back #4).
Sure, probably lots of 'em, but all the ones I know of can be found on the Bastich, Inc. Links Page or at the Lobo WebRing
Dunno, I'll let you read this article by Thomas Alan Holmes and its reply by Marc Singer from rec.arts.comics.misc and you can decide for yourself (if you haven't already) whether or not this kind of thing appeals to you:
Article 118422 of rec.arts.comics.misc:
Subject: Re: LOBO
From: marcs@wam.umd.--- (Marc Singer)
Date: 11 Jan 1995 23:03:08 GMT
In article <3f1ila$bag@martha.utk.edu>, <tholmes@utkvx.utk.---> wrote:
[Are you a potential Lobo fan?]
> I guess you should ask yourself a few basic questions.
> 1. Did you laugh along with the Joker in the first Burton Batman movie?
> 2. When you watch/read A Clockwork Orange, do you see why Alex enjoys himself in the early parts?
> 3. Do you think the Three Stooges would have been better if they had used live ammo?
> 4. Do you wish Sam the Butcher had gotten the Brady kids into the meat locker?
> 5. Would Heathers have had a positive influence on you had you seen it in high school?
> If you can gleefully answer "yes" to four of these questions, then LOBO may be for you.
Or, if you don't have the patience to answer five questions (which may itself be a big clue as to whether you're a Lobo fan), just try this easy, one-question test!
1. Will you find the replacement of normal words with pseudo-obscenities like "frag" and "bastich" funny, not just the first time but the thousandth?
LOBO HUMOR EXAMPLES
Goldfinger -> Fragfinger
The Piano -> The Frag
The Godfather -> The Frag
Days of Our Lives -> Frag frag Frag Frag
If you laughed all four times, YOU'RE a true Lobo fan! This test may also explain the large number of people who enjoy both Lobo and the Flintstones.
Marc
:-) :-) :-) :-)
Well, that's it. Please send any additions, corrections, comments, cash, and credit card numbers to: crettig@yahoo.com. Flames should be sent to my complaint account at: /dev/null.
"My faith in the natural goodness of the Scheme of Things has been severely shaken, if not totally destroyed. I rejoin the Universal One. Farewell, Paradise! P.S. — For your own sake, create the concepts of Police, Punishment, and Prison."
Like you really care, but you're the th bastich to read this.
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