Created by Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen, interstellar mercenary and bounty hunter Lobo was introduced - although initially rarely used - as a hardboiled villain in Omega Men #3 (June 1983). However as the '90s came around a new version of the character was introduced. This time the character was an anti-hero biker headlining his own comic. This version of Lobo was intended to be a satire of all the extreme anti-heroes that were popping up in comic book world at the time, Marvel in particular. This was a time when classic characters like Spider-Man, and Thor were given horrible new costumes; every character became a bad-ass, absurdly over-muscled Arnold Schwarzenegger replica. There was a propensity to go Xtreme with not just the art but also the dialogue. And while these characters ultimately got laughed out of the room Lobo thrived. And not because fanboys were necessarily in on the joke, they just seemed to really like the character. It would be like if the Scary Movie franchise became successful and nobody realized that the films were making fun of other popular scary movies. In a 2006 interview with Newsarama, Keith Giffen explained, "I have no idea why Lobo took off... I came up with him as an indictment of the Punisher, Wolverine hero prototype, and somehow he caught on as the high violence poster boy. Go figure."
Jesse Gumbarge is editor and chief blogger at JarvisCity.com - He loves old-school horror films and starting pointless debates. You can reach out at: JesseGumbarge@JarvisCity.com
