Supervillain Origins: Lobo

Supervillain Origins: Lobo

This pasty-faced alien mercenary and bounty hunter single handedly wiped out all life on his homeworld. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we will explore the comic book origins of Lobo.

As with most comic book characters, there are often re-imaginings and different versions to a character’s past. We have chosen to primarily follow the storyline that unfolded in 1983’s “Omega Men” #3, before being expanded upon in 1990’s four-part mini-series “Lobo The Last Czarnian” and 1995’s “Year One Lobo.”

A Green Lantern spin-off, Lobo first appeared as a minor foe of the intergalactic Omega Men superhero team. One of several bounty hunters, he boarded the Omega Men’s ship and captured Kalista, a royal with the codes to a planetary defense shield.

Originally a hardboiled villain, this DC creation was eventually remade, serving as a satirical take on violent anti-heroes like Marvel’s Wolverine and Punisher. This 1990 retcon meant transforming him into a more outlandish and excessively violent character with an over the top devil-may care attitude.

This introduced the space biking bad ass hanging out on his home world, which he had wiped clean of his peace-loving race. A violent misfit from birth, he was shown to have created a plague of flying scorpions to accomplish this planet wide genocide, just so he’d be unique before traveling to other worlds.

First becoming a police cadet on an alien, his outright disregard for life and the law led him to kill his superior officer, before stumbling upon a newspaper ad for a bounty hunter.

Once established as the top mercenary in the universe, this self-obsessed merc for hire eventually read his unauthorized biography. He was interrupted when hired to escort a prisoner, who happened to be the mysterious author of the book.

Forced to leave the company of his pets, telepathic Space Dolphins, he arrived at the Legion holding prison, with his reputation as the scourge of the cosmos preceding him. There, he discovered that his mark was another Czarnian, his fourth grade teacher Miss Tribb.

Immediately annoyed by her existence, and her need to discipline and correct him, Lobo was enraged by his employer’s orders to keep her alive, since he held harbored his own desire to kill her.

This predicament caused further problems when he refueled at a space truck stop, and he was forced to defend Miss Trib after she enraged the space truckers with her running commentary.

This meant that Lobo would henceforth be pursued on his quest by spacetruckers , as well as an alliance of Elderly out to free their member.

This was further compounded when one of Lobo’s scheduled check-ins gave Miss Tribb the chance to sneak away and attend a violent Oprah show, spurring Lobo to intervene and cause the dancers to chase him down as well.

It was here that the Czarian ability to self heal was revealed, as he cut off Miss Tribb’s legs so she couldn’t escape again, knowing they would eventually grow back.

Lobo’s misadventures likewise led him to make enemies with a cult operating a spelling bee to cleanse the universe of the illiterate and to eventually hide out on a paradise planet. There, he pitted his countless adversaries against each other, leveling them and the paradise in the process.

Finally delivering his bounty, alive but not kicking, he was congratulated for a job well done before breaking Miss Tribbs’s neck, having already kept his word to deliver her alive.

The poster boy for dark comedy, extreme violence, alcoholism and interesting use of profanities, Lobo has been featured in various media and comic book crossovers. He has also paid numerous visits to Earth, where he has caused trouble for Superman and other DC heroes. Interestingly, he has been deemed so bad that he has been banned from both heaven and hell, effectively making him immortal, in addition to his healing factor and super strength.

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