Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: DC Next Level, KO, lobo, Skottie Young

Lobo Remembers When He Used To Wear Lipstick (Lobo #1 Spoilers)

Lobo Remembers When He Used To Wear Lipstick (Lobo #1 by Skottie Young and Jorge Corona DC Next Wave Spoilers)

Today sees a new Lobo #1 by Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, part of the DC Next Level launches, and following on from the events of DC's K.O. And he is very much looking like his old self…

I mean, not his old old self, not the original version, the assassin and mercenary created by Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen in Omega Men way back in 1983. And looking more like this, skintight suit and everything.

Because Lobo was then redesigned by Simon Bisley in 1990 –  and looked like Simon Bisley. A hulking, ultra-violent, crude, motorcycle-riding Czarnian bounty hunter with a massive healing factor, near-immortality, and over-the-top 1990s anti-hero excess. He was deliberately a parody of gritty '90s characters like Wolverine or Punisher, mean, foul-mouthed, and gleefully destructive, with absurd feats like killing his entire species or fighting Santa Claus.

Then, in 2013, DC introduced a completely revamped version of Lobo, primarily designed by Kenneth Rocafort, first in Justice League and then in his own short-lived solo series. This version was younger, slimmer, and more "pretty boy" or pretty-faced, often compared to a Twilight vampire or a Jersey Shore/emo aesthetic, lean build, longer hair, and less brutish. Repositioned with a somewhat different backstory and lacking much of the original's cartoonish, parody-level humour and exaggerated machismo, the backlash was immediate. Many saw it as a betrayal of the character's core identity, stripping away the fun, ridiculous excess that made Lobo unique and replacing it with a generic "edgy" young anti-hero look/personality that felt like pandering to trends rather than honouring the source. The decision to have this new Lobo kill off or replace the classic version, in his debut solo issue,  felt like a direct insult to longtime fans. No epic clash, just dismissal.
The series itself bombed commercially and critically.

DC eventually returned to the classic version and retconned the "New 52 Lobo" as an impostor who had stolen the real Lobo's identity. The classic, bulky, crude Main Man returned as the true version. But then in the recent DC K.O.: Wonder Woman vs. Lobo, the New 52 version appeared thus:

Well, with the new Lobo #1 out today, we do get a return to the Simon Bisley design, ahead of the new Supergirl movie, in which he is played by Jason Momoa, and very much based on the Simon Bisley design and attitude. But the New 52 version won't go without comment…

Even as we get Lobo's perspective on his DC's K.O. fight with Wonder Woman… as well as what else he got up to in the DC Universe since Rebirth…

And now he is dealing with a universe full of Alpha and Omega energy generated by DC's K.O. all over… as a multinational corporation buys up Lobo.

And every assassin and mercenary going. But it's not the business they want, so much as it is the rights…

So, a) Lobo doesn't like the Deadpool And Wolverine movie from Marvel, Fox and Disney, and b) they are making a movie about Lobo. Just as Lobo is actually about to appear in Supergirl. Will this be the hand biting the mouth that feeds, ripping it off by the wrist, guzzling it down in one, before digesting and excreting Warner Bros at a later date? This might well reflect Simon Bisley's feelings about his version of Lobo being used, specifically based in Simon Bisley's look, without sufficient credit and payment as well… Lobo #1 by Skottie Young and Jorge Corona is published today from DC Comics.

Lobo #1 by Skottie Young, Jorge Corona
VRRRRROOOOOOMMMMMMMM! The Main Man's back, baby! And his ride is a motorcycle that moves at the speed of sound, but only if that sound is a rippin' guitar solo, and you better hop on before he leaves you in the dust with all the bastiches he's fragged for money or convenience! The Eisner-nominated creative team that brought you a fantastic parable of adolescence in the Midwest, the story of an artist who embraces darkness a little too closely, and the tale of a gunslinger with too much grit to stay buried brings you a classic yarn spun in the star-kissed threads of the cosmic DC Universe. It's a guts-soaked path from DC K.O. to the end of the universe, where Lobo is going to scratch his name and number in the Source Wall with a cool knife. Don't miss the mayhem, special guests, or tasty, tasty continuity! Don't you do it!

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