Lobo is a Czarnian with exceptional strength and fortitude. He enjoys nothing better than mindless violence and intoxication, and killing as an end in itself; his name roughly translates as "he who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it". He is arrogant and self-centered, focusing almost solely on his own pleasures, although he proudly lives up to the letter of his promises – but always no more or no less than what he promised. Lobo is the last of his kind, having killed most of his species with a scorpion-like creature. It is later revealed that some Czarnians survived: Lobo's teacher and former military officer Miss Tribb, and the population of a city that
Brainiac stole centuries prior. , Jack Jadson, and The Hories. Physically, Lobo resembles a chalk-white human male with red pupilless eyes and blackened eyelids. Like many comic book characters, Lobo's body is highly muscular, though his initial appearances were thinner compared to later iterations. Originally portrayed with neatly trimmed purple-grey hair, this was soon redesigned as a gray mane, later a long, straggly, gray-black rocker hair, dreadlocks, and more recently a pompadour. Similarly, the orange-and-purple leotard he wore in his first few appearances was replaced by black leather biker gear and was later replaced with both the robes of his office as a putative Archbishop and pirate-themed gear, then later a sleeveless flight suit/jumpsuit. His arsenal includes numerous guns and a titanium chain with a hook on his right arm. Extra weapons may include "frag grenades" and giant carving blades. Lobo has a strict personal code of honor in that he will never violate the letter of an agreement, though he may gleefully disregard its spirit. He is surprisingly protective of space
dolphins, some of which he feeds from his home. A few have been killed in separate incidents, which he avenges with his usual violence. Lobo's friends include Dawg, a bulldog that he often claims is not his when it gets into trouble;
Jonas Glim, a fellow bounty hunter; Ramona, a bail bondswoman/hairdresser; and Green Lantern
Guy Gardner. Dawg is stomped to death by Lobo in
Lobo (vol. 2) #58, in which he again claims to
Superman that the dog is not his; this is for the final time. Somehow, Dawg later appears alongside Lobo when Lobo goes to Earth to fight Green Lantern and Atrocitus. His enemies include the do-gooder superhero parody
Goldstar, Loo,
Vril Dox, Bludhound,
Etrigan the Demon, and
General Glory. Lobo generally tries to kill anyone he is hired to capture, including his fourth-grade teacher Miss Tribb, his children,
Santa Claus, and Dawg, although his main targets are Superman and
Deathstroke. Lobo frequents a restaurant, Al's Diner, where he often flirts with waitress Darlene Spritzer. Though Lobo protects these two from frequent danger, he does not seem to understand the distress caused by his tendency to destroy the diner. Al and Darlene later prosper due to Lobo's appetite for destruction; he destroys the city, except for the diner, leaving hordes of construction workers with only one place to eat lunch. He also ends up destroying a diner Al gives to him as part of a birthday celebration. The last revelation of Lobo and the diner appears to be in the pages of
Lobo (vol. 2) #1,000,000 (November 1998), where his last adventure is depicted. By the time of the action, he is already obese and working as a carnival attraction, scaring tourists into leaving their money behind. Then, a sexy client appears to offer him one last job: finding legendary evildoer Malo Perverso. At the prospect of a last well-paid job and a chance to score with the client, Lobo quickly agrees, and he again invades the diner to use their Tesseract teleporter to reach his gear. It is revealed then the "client" is none other than Darlene, who wanted to see him in his prime rather than see him sink into sloth. After reaching his gear, Lobo invades the HQ of the International Justice Legion Wanna-Bes and crushes all opposition to hack their files on Malo Perverso. There, he is attacked by Perverso, who then reveals himself to be Clayman. Clayman also squeals that the real Perverso went into a black hole. Lobo, still eager to find his bounty, goes into the black hole. Ironically, due to Lobo's interference in a planetary conflict in the same issue, Al later gets a package through the Tesseract for Lobo – which promptly blows the diner up yet again. At one point, Lobo has trouble with a clone of himself that had survived previous misadventures. A battle between the two makes it unclear which of them survived. Lobo has participated in several money-making schemes, such as being a priest and a pop-rock idol. Most of these schemes tend to end with the violent deaths of nearly everyone involved. He has many friends among the bounty hunter world, though many tend to die when they are around Lobo, either by his hand or at the hands of the enemies he faces.
Crossovers Lobo has both clashed and cooperated with
Superman. He has also encountered
Batman a couple of times, although one of these encounters was in an
Elseworlds continuity. He has both fought and teamed up with Guy Gardner more than once, helping him to destroy various alien threats to Earth. Lobo often visits Warriors, Guy's bar, where he enjoys free drinks. He fights
Aquaman when a traveling space dolphin visiting Earth is killed by Japanese fishermen. He ceases fighting when he learns Aquaman is not only a friend to dolphins, but was raised by them. Although Lobo feels he cannot hurt a fellow dolphin lover, he has no such mercy for the fishermen. Lobo also has appeared with
the Authority. In one such appearance,
Jenny Quantum finds a comic book detailing Lobo's murder of
Santa Claus; she experiences a fit of rage and confusion. She breaks the barrier between her dimension and the dimension Lobo inhabits in the comic book, and Lobo finds himself in a fight with the Authority. Lobo has also had run-ins with
Hitman,
Valor,
Starman, the
Ray,
Deadman,
Green Lantern, the
JLA,
StormWatch,
Mister Miracle, the
Legion of Super-Heroes,
Captain Marvel,
Wonder Woman,
Doctor Fate, the
Sovereign Seven,
Supergirl, and
Superboy, among others.
L.E.G.I.O.N./R.E.B.E.L.S. Lobo acts as an independent bounty hunter until tricked by
Vril Dox into nominally joining his interstellar police force,
L.E.G.I.O.N. However, he continues solo activity, which seems to often bring him to Earth and in conflict with its heroes. Or, as in one case, base indifference. He remains loyal to Vril Dox after L.E.G.I.O.N. leadership is usurped by Dox's son, until an altercation between Lobo and Dox prompts Dox to release Lobo from his service. After this, Lobo becomes a full-time bounty hunter again.
Li'l Lobo In the year 2000, a magical accident transforms Lobo into a teenager. In this condition, he joins Young Justice and eventually accompanies them to
Apokolips, where he is killed in combat. However, the aforementioned magical accident has restored his ability to grow clones from a single drop of blood, and millions of Lobos rush into battle against Apokoliptian soldiers, whom the Lobos quickly defeat. The Lobos then turn on each other, until only one is left; in the process, the surviving Lobo regrows to adulthood. His time as a member of Young Justice becomes a distant memory. An additional weaker teenage Lobo remained, however, having hidden from the fight; he rejoins Young Justice and chooses to rename himself Slobo. Slobo's body later degenerates, leaving him blind. Before Slobo can die,
Darkseid transports him to the
853rd century and transforms him into a sentient, immobile statue.
52 In the 2006–07 miniseries
52, Lobo reappears and encounters a group of heroes (consisting of
Adam Strange,
Animal Man, and
Starfire), who find themselves stranded in space after the events of the 2005–2006 "
Infinite Crisis" storyline. To everyone's surprise, he does not kill them. Lobo professes to have found religion, becoming the spiritual leader of Sector 3500, which was left in shambles by an unknown assailant. He is the current caretaker of the
Emerald Eye of Ekron. After helping the lost heroes defeat
Lady Styx, he brings the Emerald Eye to the triple-headed fish god, who agrees to release Lobo from his vow of non-violence in exchange. When told that the Emerald Eye is the only thing that can kill the fish god, Lobo blasts him with it.
One Year Later Lobo appeared in "Deadly Serious", a two-part crossover miniseries with Batman in August 2007, written and drawn by Sam Kieth. In addition, Lobo has fought the
Teen Titans and
Blue Beetle in their respective titles to stop a rocket for the
Reach, in which he failed. In the
Reign in Hell miniseries, it is revealed that Lobo's soul was still in
Hell following a deal he made with
Neron during the 1995
Underworld Unleashed storyline. Lobo's suffering was enough to power Neron's whole castle. Lobo was freed from his prison in a battle between
Etrigan the Demon and
Blue Devil, and he traveled through Hell to seek revenge on Neron. To buy time to fully recover before battling Lobo, Etrigan stole Blue Devil's soul and informed him that he would have to fight Lobo to get it back. During Lobo's rampage he cut off
Zatara's head, forcing his daughter
Zatanna to send him to the Abyss, the soul death. Later, Lobo is shown aiding the JLA during their mission into Hell, where he helps Fire defeat the god
Plutus.
"Brightest Day" In the 2010 "
Brightest Day" storyline, Lobo appears on Earth to capture a bounty on
Atrocitus's head. After fighting
Hal Jordan,
Carol Ferris and
Sinestro, he then flees. It is revealed that the fight was staged by Atrocitus himself. As a payment, Lobo is given a
Red Lantern ring.
The New 52 '' (vol. 2) #23.2 (published September 11, 2013) In 2011, DC Comics rebooted the
DC Universe continuity in an initiative called
The New 52. A reimagined version of Lobo debuted in
Deathstroke (vol. 2) #9, written by
Rob Liefeld. This Lobo is a Czarnian slaver who killed the rest of his race except for his beloved Princess Sheba. A second version, claiming to be the real Lobo and resembling the original version of the character, was introduced in
Justice League (vol. 2) #23.2. He was originally the bodyguard to the Czarnian royal family, who utilized a
Eucharist-like ritual involving the planet's "life blood", pools similar to Lazarus Pits. Drinking or bathing in these pools granted participants regenerative abilities, connecting them and the Emperor to the entire planet. However, an unknown party contaminated the "life blood", causing anyone who participated in the ritual to go insane, which in turn forced Lobo to commit planetary
euthanasia. A new series featuring this version of Lobo debuted in October 2014 and concluded with its December 2015 issue.
DC Rebirth In 2016, DC Comics implemented a relaunch of its books called
DC Rebirth, which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to
The New 52. Lobo debuts in
Justice League vs. Suicide Squad as one of the villains freed by
Maxwell Lord, evidently restored to his pre-
New 52 persona. He is a member of
Amanda Waller's first
Suicide Squad. Batman eventually implants a bomb into Lobo's brain and detonates it, blowing up Lobo's head. After Lobo regenerates it, he discovers Batman did so to free him from Lord's control, and he later accepts Batman's offer to join a new incarnation of the Justice League to repay the favor. In
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, the
New 52 incarnation of Lobo is imprisoned in one of Brainiac's bottles. Guy Gardner almost frees him, before Hal Jordan grabs the bottle and tells him it is better to "leave him on the shelf". ==Powers and abilities==