What says Christmas more than a space-faring anti-hero mercenary who rides a flying motorbike, smokes huge stogies and has been known to wipe out entire alien civilisations just for looking at him funny? Lobo, aka The Main Man, aka Scourge o' the Cosmos, aka The Ultimate Bastich is perhaps not synonymous with the festive season, and yet he was blessed with a seasonal story all his own in a 1991 one-shot called The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special. The cover of which saw him gutting Santa with a bowie knife. Wait 'til you hear the premise, too. Not exactly discerning in who he chooses to work for (so long as he gets paid), Lobo has flitted between being a straight-up villain and more of an anti-hero in the DC Universe according to who hires him, in this case Lobo's on the payroll of the Easter Bunny who, drunk and jealous of Father Christmas's popularity which far outstrips his own, takes a hit out on Jolly Old Saint Nick. "WARNING: Contains Bad Taste In The Form Of Ultra-Violence, Icon-Bashing, And "The Finger." More Offensive Than Christmas Usually Is. That's the disclaimer on the front of The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special, and even that doesn't seem like enough to warn people off what's inside. Creator Keith Giffen apparently created the character as an indictment of violent heroes like Wolverine and The Punisher, an intent somewhat lost when you have the character murdering elves, beheading Kris Kringle with one of his own shivs, and the gunning down Rudolph for good measure.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
