Lobo is a fictional character that appears in the comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Omega Men #3 (June 1983), and was created by Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen. An alien, Lobo works as an interstellar mercenary and bounty hunter. Introduced as a hardened, rarely used hardboiled villain in the 1980s, the character remained in limbo until his revival as an anti-hero biker in the early 1990s.
The character enjoyed a short run as one of DC’s most popular characters throughout the 1990s. This version of Lobo was intended to be an over-the-top parody of Marvel Comics superhero Wolverine. (In issue #41 of Deadpool, another Marvel series, Lobo was parodied as “Dirty Wolff”, a large blue-skinned man who drove a demonic motorcycle. He was also parodied in the Image Comics series Bloodwulf and as “Bolo” in the Topps Comics series Satan’s Six).
Jason Fuchs impressed Warner Bros. enough on Wonder Woman that he was given a second writing assignment, bringing Lobo to life in a film that might potentially be directed by Michael Bay (Transformers).
Michael Bay recently surfaced as a potential director for WB’s live-action Lobo movie but he’s apparently hesitant as the project as it currently exists would cost $200 million to film. That would be the version scripted by Jason Fuchs (Pan, Wonder Woman). LRM recently caught up with Fuchs, where he disclosed the comic book creators he studied while penning the screenplay.
“I think when you’re working on comic book characters, especially ones that are near and dear to my heart, like Wonder Woman and Lobo are, you want to create something that’s true to what the original text is. I think Wonder Woman really captures the feeling of — not only the original Moulton Marston comics, but the George Perez run in the late-80s. It feels like reading those comics up on the big screen. So for something like Lobo, without saying too much about it, it’ll feel, I imagine, quite different because the Lobo comic itself is quite different. What Keith Giffen and Alan Grant put together was something really unique, and hopefully, we’ll capture some of that same spirit when we make the movie.”
With so many film projects on their plate, what are the odds that a Lobo film ever progresses further than in-development? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.