Lo-Fi Lobo: JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #18 (JLI 20/?)

[tcampbell1000]

Justice League International #18, on top of its usual 22 pages by its usual creative team, has a 16-page bonus feature by Mark Askwith and James/Jim Webb.. That feature is just fine, but I’m going to blow through it quick so we can devote more time and page space to Lobo.

In the main story, Barda and several Leaguers are in extragalactic space to rescue her husband, Scott Free/Mr. Miracle, from the Cluster’s human trafficking. In the bonus story, Scott and Barda face a different crisis on Earth, when a rogue device from Scott’s predecessor blows up their suburban house.

The JLI offers the Free family safe haven, but after a few days with Barda as a housemate, they decide it’d be easier on everyone to rebuild the Free home themselves.





Which it probably would, despite everything, if Guy hadn’t supplemented the nail supply and forgotten to recharge his ring.



You can guess what happens next. Now, on to Lobo.

Lobo has had a curious evolution. He’s best known as a loud-mouthed fount of endless violence and other offenses against good taste. And he was always a bit of an edgelord: his first act, in Omega Men #3 (1983), is killing an alien Fred Hembeck.




However, early Lobo was thinner, quieter, and more inclined to win his fights with brains than brawn (#3, #10).




Lobo turned up a few more times in Omega Men. In #37, back in 1986, he was hired to kill his own ex-partner Bedlam, seen above, who'd been incarcerated for his crimes. Lobo broke into the prison and fulfilled that contract without hesitation, but he seemed a bit disturbed afterward when he learned Bedlam had signed the contract himself.



As we rejoin Lobo in Justice League International #18, we get an unprecedented look at his softer side.




Lobo loses some of his reluctance to get back to work when he sees the Cluster’s offer: a ten-year supply of “Dolphin Mix.” He soon catches up to the League, interrupting their standoff with the Cluster, and takes over their PA system to announce his presence.



It’s a telling detail that G’Nort, who didn’t even know what a Manhunter was, knows and fears this guy. Lobo also seems to have gotten a power-up, relying more on fists and willpower than any clever strategies, even against foes in the weight class of Superman and Green Lantern.






Still, I cannot get over how subdued Lobo is through most of this issue. He’s not even having much fun! Dude just wants to get back to his fishies! It’s only when Barda pricks his ego that he acts a bit more like the homicidal maniac we know today.




Barda explains she has not atomized Lobo, just teleported him far, far away. No way of knowing where he ended up, could be anywhere in the UNIVERSE, but surely no members of the Justice League will ever run into him again, certainly not in the next few minutes or anything! What a relief.

Back on Earth, Blue Beetle is floating a concept that everyone else thinks is stupid, for what seem like snobbish reasons. Green Flame decides to bring the tension down a notch, saying things she’ll soon wish she could unsay.





There’s a certain cadence in which 1988 audiences would read Guy’s last two words, inspired by ads for the movie Poltergeist II. IYKYK.



Monday?: Guy guys that Lobo guy until he’s guyed by that Booster guy! And the League struggles to contain its disgust at the idea of recruiting (ugh) Superman and the Flash.

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

"Sorry, we can't come to save the world right now. The worst guy ever just popped up. And Lobo's here too."

[iamrman]

Dang, that bonus story isn't included in my trade version.

[tcampbell1000]

It's worth tracking down! Askwith "gets" the JLI's style of comedy as well as the suburban sitcom life the Frees were trying to make for themselves in JLI Annual #2: it lines up pretty well with the Mister Miracle series that was still half a year away from being released.

[mastermahan]

30th century architecture? Dang it, Booster, you forgot what century you're from again.

[scorntx]

Surprised Booster made that flub.
Would've thought someone who ruined his high school football career by taking dives for money might've been a bit better with numbers.

[tcampbell1000]

I must've read this story 30 times and didn't catch that!

[beyondthefringe]

Actually seeing the first few appearances of Lobo and his slow evolution into the bad biker barbarian we all know and are faintly exasperated by, is certainly jarring. One could even say he wasn't truly Lobo until he was fleshed out in the JLI.

But looking at those early depictions, the New 52 prettyboy imposter version doesn't feel quite as farfetched.

[tcampbell1000]

Yeah, New 52 Lobo feels like somebody wanted to get back the Lobo they remembered from Omega Men. "Back to basics" doesn't always work!

I think the last couple of steps in Lobo's evolution were his joining L.E.G.I.O.N., which established him as a regular and played up his personal code, and starring in a couple of specials. By the time he returned to the pages of this book (around #57), he was in his most recognizable form elsewhere, leading to a strange disconnect when he reverted to his more reasonable self. [Edited after rereading the comics in question!]