Normally, I’m a proponent of taking steps to wipe out things Rob Liefeld has done, but this… this seems weird. Apparently, the Lobo we’ve seen in the New 52 is an impostor, and the real Lobo is this guy.
Gone is the burly, proudly-disgusting KISS wannabe, and in his stead we’ve got this attractive young gentleman designed by Kenneth Rocafort. DC’s Bob Harras says we’ll meet him in the Villains Month issue Justice League #23.2: Lobo.
“In this one-shot, you’ll be introduced to the real Lobo,” Harras says. “A ruthless killer, Lobo is on a quest to kill the man who has taken his name. This Lobo is equal parts strong, vicious, and driven. There’s a darker and more logical idea about what a force of nature like him is capable of. After all, this is someone who can infiltrate high society, fly a space ship, and adhere to a very specific moral code that’s not your typical anti-hero one. Oh, and, this one-shot takes place very far away from Earth. And when I say very far away, I mean it takes place literally on the other side of the galaxy.”
Harras also describes the new look. “In this design, Ken updated Lobo’s facial tattoos and weaponry by adding laser edges to his blades and gloves that’ll give him extra strength with their mechanical usage. In the end, Ken transformed Lobo into a lean, mean killing machine.”
So, basically, they’re taking a complete joke character like Lobo, who was created by Roger Slifer & Keith Giffen as a satirical indictment of the Wolverine/Punisher antihero prototype and then inexplicably caught on with the fans of “extreme” anyway, and they’re taking away the space-hog he rides, his disgusting manners and complete hatred of everyone and everything but dolphins to make him into something dark and serious and… erudite?! With… *gasp*… a moral code?!
Feetal’s Gizz, man, this seems like the opposite of fun. Lobo’s supposed to be able to throw down with Superman, and now he needs gloves for strength? And Lobo can “infiltrate high society?” What? Why? Why can’t he remain just this big, profane, obnoxious, ass-clown-and-proud-of-it kind of biker bastard? This fraggin’ guy would probably have something to say about all this.
One supposes that they might try to have the best of both worlds, and keep the obnoxious fragger who showed up in Liefeld’s Deathstroke comics as well, who’s more in line with this guy, and although it’s highly probable that Liefeld’s version of Lobo was awful (who read those books?), this redesign seems like a bad choice.
An interesting note, though – when Liefeld loudly and hilariously quit DC a year ago, one of his criticisms of the company was about how they wanted him to present Lobo. ” As to Lobo, I was specifically directed not to adhere to the biker bad boy look. No leather jacket, no chains, skull, etc. Not my call,” he complained. So it sounds like this isn’t a response to Liefeld’s work, but something DC has been wanting to do for a while.
Now they have. What do you think of it?
