Justice League 23.2
By- Margeurite Bennett (w) and Ben Oliver (a)
There seems to be a disturbing new trend in comics- mostly over at DC comics at least- redesigning to draw in new crowds, and subsequently alienating all the fanbase they already have. In another odd effort, our old DC anti-hero, space biker friend Lobo has been reimagined as an impostor with the new, sleek and ruthless "real" Lobo on a new mission to remedy this situation. By remedy I mean hunt him down and reclaim his name and reputation from the traditional Lobo.
Now I know that this isn't really a "redesign" because there are 2 distinct versions. In the comics universe this happens all the time- think of all the various Supermen, Batmen, and so on.
I generally don't have an issue with attempted redesigns, aside from the heinous new Mr. Freeze and the rampant over objectified ladies costumes(or lack of said costumes in recent history), but Lobo has a certain persona to uphold. When the characterization changes so drastically it feels like a slap in the face. Lobo is a free-for-all, space bounty hunting, swearing, beer guzzling, interstellar Randy Macho Man Savage with an odd charm and charisma buried in layers of abundant violence.
I waited until after reading the issue to toss up this blog post, and I am not impressed. And I'm definitely not impressed with his stupid catchphrase- "Sorry. Not sorry." The only way I can see this playing out well is if "old" Lobo ends up kicking new Lobo's ass and they end up realizing that, yes, more than one person can have the same name as another person in the entire freakin' Universe.
When I say I'm not impressed, I also must say that I'm not completely unhappy with this either. Sure, they made this new Lobo an overly serious and gritty assassin, and in effect creating yet another generic badass killer, but as I said with the Mr. Freeze post- at least DC is trying something new. One might wonder how this character would've gone over if he wasn't labelled as Lobo at all. Although the idea of having an impostor is a pretty decent, maybe I would've enjoyed it better if "new" Lobo was the impostor.
As I already said- this is how this story line should/will probably end- traditional Lobo putting his boot through "new" Lobo's Czarnian skull, cracking a one-liner, and flying off into space on Space Hog.
One last note on the topic of redesign- on the positive side- this is actually a really good move by DC, it shows they are at least attempting to appeal to females with a good looking male lead. Considering comics have been targeting young males with scantily clad ladies for quite some time it makes sense they finally started listening to their followers.
The negative side of all the redesigns, however, is that they run a very high risk of alienating long time fans at the slim chance of gaining a handful of new readers. Fans won't stick to reading comics based solely on name. If the redesigns are too foreign, stray too far from what makes them interesting and long lasting the old fans will abandon them, and it is quite baffling why they continue to try and take time tested characters away from the diehards and try and sell them to a new crowd. Why not try something new without taking away from the fans that have invested years of dedication?
I mean what if this is just a ploy to get old Lobo fans to duke it out with new Lobo fans...
...until the New 52 Universe gets it's own reset...
My apologies if this is very post sounds very self contradictory. Oh, and Ben Oliver's art is what sold me on buying the issue.
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