LOBO versus SUPERMAN
Blood Brawl (DC)
Where: Adventures of Superman #464 When: March 1990 Why: Dan Jurgens How: Dan Jurgens & Art Thibert
The Story So Far...
Superman's gladiatorial exploits on Warworld have spread the legend of his strength across the galaxy! As fallen champion Draaga embarks upon a determined quest for redemption; prospects of a main event rematch have space pundits placing their bets across the universe -- inviting unlikely new contenders!
Talk of Superman's reputation proved a professional and personal insult to the bar crawling mercenary: Lobo! Now the Main Man is headed to Earth to prove he's the best there is at what he does by killing The Man of Steel! Tracking Superman to the South Pole, Lobo and his drunken buddies are crashing The Fortress of Solitude for a fight to the death!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Superman 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Superman 6 (Mach-Speed)
Stamina: Lobo 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Superman 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Lobo 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Superman 5 (Lasers)
Total: Superman 33 (Super)
For the first time in all the galaxies! Unstoppable force meets immovable object for the ultimate battle of intergalactic super-powered survivors!
Lobo isn't just the last survivor of the planet Czarnia -- he's responsible for its genocide! Born with a lust for violence unseen by the peace-loving Czarnians; Lobo notoriously unleashed a species of flying scorpion that hunted all the defenseless population to extinction - bar himself!
Lobo's name is said to mean "he who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoy[s] it" in the Khund dialect. These gratuitously destructive urges are facilitated by super-human strength and durability, as well as a capacity to endure, or heal from, severe injury. These powers can sometimes be inconsistent in their depiction. He inflicts punishment on others with an arsenal including guns, a titanium chain, and his space motorcycle.
Lobo's reputation for toughness fuelled controversy when he was defeated by Wolverine in Marvel versus DC #3! The exact details of how he was bested remain foggy, but we can assume Wolverine's accelerated healing factor helped him endure Lobo's vicious offense. That could be the biggest obstacle he faces in his first attempt to snuff out the indomitable spirit of Superman!
The last son of Krypton gains high-level super-human strength, speed, stamina, and durability as he's nourished by Earth's yellow sun. That said, he's not undefeatable! In Action Comics #586, New God Orion showed Superman can be beaten into submission with brute force, albeit on the distant planet Apokolips.
Another ultra-violent 90s anti-hero, Venom, was able to upset Superman during their preliminary crossover in DC/Marvel: All Access #1. No defeat of Superman was more famous in the nineties than Doomsday's, with their initial encounter seeing the Justice League sharing defeat, in Superman #74.
There's no doubt Lobo has the strength to equal Venom's feat of frustrating the Man of Steel, but achieving anything more permanent than temporary victory is highly questionable. On Earth, Superman has the home advantage, and even though Lobo will fight dirty, Supes isn't above getting gritty when he has to.
The Tape: Superman Ranking: Superman (#5)
What Went Down...
Having received a vision of intruders in the Fortress of Solitude: Superman arrives to order their exit! Drunk and unimpressed; Lobo can't help but rise to a challenge, subverting Superman's boasts for a speedy knock-out at the first sign of a punch. Instead of pulling his arm back -- Lobo delivers a sudden kick!
His patience wearing thin -- Superman recovers to his feet and orders Lobo out of the Fortress with a charging uppercut adding authority!
The Man of Steel snatches Lobo by the collar and lifts him into the air. He makes the mistake of presuming he's proven his toughness and the unlikelihood that Lobo will succeed in killing him. Words that only provoke the mercenary!
The Czarnian uses his legs to kick out and reverses the hold, turning it from a one-handed choke into a side headlock. Superman dismisses Lobo's boastful credentials as Darkseid's first-choice assassin, earning a vicious pummeling!
A rapid-fire barrage of punches smash into Superman's face! Even he can't react to counter act the speed and strength of Lobo -- helpless as the mercenary moves to repeatedly ramming him head-first into his own Fortress!
At last the wall gives out, burying the enduring fighters in debris! The ceiling collapse is a much needed reprieve for Superman, who manages to slip away in the cloud of dust and rubble. Short-lived -- as Lobo soon emerges to take a swig of Okaran berry juice and continue his drunken search for supremacy.
It doesn't take long for Lobo and his cohorts to catch up with Superman, waiting in a Kryptonian holograph room. The Man of Steel baits his charging opponent, who runs headlong into a camouflaged wall simulating wide-open landscape!
Inebriated, Lobo feebly contemplates his dulled senses. He's soon set upon by Superman, who smashes the re-motivated Czarnian through the floor into a lower level of simulation! There, the Man of Steel presses his advantage, slugging Lobo with a devastating right hand in a mock Kryptonian gathering!
Supes trash talks his drunk opponent, questioning Lobo's intelligence - even before he tries to drink from a holographic fountain.
Seeking a slice of reality and the means to turn the tables back in his favour -- Lobo rips up the very floor beneath his feet! Superman dodges the resulting sheet of techno-wreckage - and fires back with a blast of heat vision!
Unfortunately, extreme heat has no effect on the powerful Czarnian!Lobo shrugs the burning attack off and rips away a smaller piece of floor to improvise a simple metal prod. Jamming the strip into Superman's chest gets him close enough to take control with a high thrusting kick to the face!
The Man of Steel smashes through another holographic wall, tumbling to his back, where Lobo takes the mount position to rain down with double barreled fists! Lobo only stops when Superman's gaze betrays his greatest fear!
Already bruised & battered, Superman has no choice but to run from the fight as Lobo closes in on a particular chunk of ice easily removed from the wall. Behind the plug is a small canister containing the one thing that could actually help Lobo fulfill his wish of killing Superman: Kryptonite!
Lobo finishes off the last of the Okaran alcohol and orders his boozed up travelling buddy Raof to teleport them to the surface. He's going to look for Superman -- but it turns out Superman is there waiting!
Superman is hidden within the telepathically controlled armor of a Kryptonian Warsuit! He fires on his adversary, but Lobo narrowly avoids the energy blast and pops the lid on the canister of Kryptonite Superman so fears!
The open canister bathes the warsuit in the green glow of radiation. It protects Superman from the worst of it, but he still feels its debilitating aura!
As the radiation begins to wear Superman down, the warsuit lurches clumsily toward Lobo. Time now against him, Superman maneuvers to flick Lobo with his massive robot gauntlet. It sends Lobo spilling to his space cycle -- a gambit with the worst possible results, or so it seems...
Lobo uses the hog's weapons to fire deadly missiles on Superman! They collide with the warsuit in a massive explosion! When the dust clears - Superman lies exposed and bloody amidst the twisted metal of the destroyed armor!
Lobo at last claims supremacy as he gazes upon Superman's corpse and accepts the adulation of Bibbo Bibbowski. He is the cabbie's new favourite. With that, he finally succumbs not to any injuries, but the alcohol in his blood! Passing out onto the snow, he's loaded onto his hog and teleported away by Raof.
As they disappear, so too does the horrific vision of Superman's body! An illusion cast by a holographic projector hotwired into the warsuit at the last moment! The Fortress of Solitude is a lonely sanctuary once more as the Man of Steel exits the armor and retires to his citadel of Kryptonian science.
The Hammer...
Once again we're tasked with parsing a winner from a complicated conclusion!
I can't help but think of The Dark Knight Returns #4, where Batman famously donned a mechanical suit against a superior opponent, before faking his own death with the fight's conclusion. I wonder if that moment might've been on writer Dan Jurgens' mind. Maybe not, but 1990 was just four years removed.
A key difference in "DKR" is the dominance Batman had established prior to his final moments. He was very much in control of the battle before orchestrating an exit with his faked death. He earned his win as well as devising an escape.
In today's example: Superman was very much on the backfoot against Lobo. Not so much faking his death to bolster an unlikely moral victory, as much as avoiding a fight he was already losing. Both the DKR and today's fights involved the scourge of kryptonite. For these reasons - we've gotta call Lobo the winner!
You'd probably think that's something I've done often, but no. This is only the second Lobo fight to feature on the site! A curious omission, if, like the premise of today's featured issue, you assume Lobo's reputation for brawling perfectly fits the bill for a "Comic Book Fight Club". After all, what else is Lobo known for?
I guess that's the reason I tend to feel a pang of resistance when it comes to "The Main Man". Lobo was conceived as a parody of the ultra-violent anti-heroes dominant in the early modern age of the eighties and nineties, but somewhere along the way, - the joke was lost. Instead of reflecting back upon the wanton excesses of characters like Wolverine and The Punisher at their worst; Lobo became a more enduring, un-ironic beacon for their most insane, mindless, ugly impulses.
It would be a mistake to say Lobo is exclusively a joke without a punchline. That's just a lingering facet that sometimes get in the way of my enjoyment of the character. Not so much in today's example, though. As a contrasting foil for the usually upstanding Superman - Lobo works pretty well! It's still a bit of a poor excuse for an issue-long fight, but at least there's a bit more going on beneath the surface!
I've got to admit, I've also got a real affection for this time in comics. 1990 in particular just has an interesting texture. Print was inky. Characters were classic and colourful, but refined. There was experimentation, but it came from a place of knowing, with more restraint than the destructive years that followed.
1990 wasn't the best year for Superman, but it was a time that had all of those qualities. Adventures of Superman #464, and the Lobo fight in it, is Part 2 of a small arc called The Day of The Krypton Man. In it, the Eradicator device slowly imposes its influence on Superman, reverting him to a more cold and calculating Kryptonian dressed in the traditional garb introduced by John Byrne.
A lot of The Day of The Krypton Man involves big dumb alien brawls like the Lobo fight, but it all looks great, and just has a fun vibe. I'm sure we'll come back to more of it at some point in the future. Hopefully my scans will do future issues more justice than this one.
If you just can't wait to get more Superman smackdown in your life, be sure to follow links throughout this post to discover more from The Man of Steel's battle log! You can also dive into the Secret Archive for a complete index of featured fights organized by publisher, series, and issue number!
Join the fight by liking and subscribing to Secret Wars on Infinite Earths on Twitter and Facebook! There you'll get daily links to battles inspired by the topics of the day! Be sure to like, share, or retweet your favourites to show your support and help steer future selections on The Comic Book Fight Club!
Winner: Lobo
#371 (+225) Lobo
#553 (new) Roaf [+1 assist]
#5 (--) Superman
Where: Adventures of Superman #464 When: March 1990 Why: Dan Jurgens How: Dan Jurgens & Art Thibert
The Story So Far...
Superman's gladiatorial exploits on Warworld have spread the legend of his strength across the galaxy! As fallen champion Draaga embarks upon a determined quest for redemption; prospects of a main event rematch have space pundits placing their bets across the universe -- inviting unlikely new contenders!
Talk of Superman's reputation proved a professional and personal insult to the bar crawling mercenary: Lobo! Now the Main Man is headed to Earth to prove he's the best there is at what he does by killing The Man of Steel! Tracking Superman to the South Pole, Lobo and his drunken buddies are crashing The Fortress of Solitude for a fight to the death!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 6 (Invincible)Intelligence: Superman 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Superman 6 (Mach-Speed)
Stamina: Lobo 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Superman 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Lobo 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Superman 5 (Lasers)
Total: Superman 33 (Super)
For the first time in all the galaxies! Unstoppable force meets immovable object for the ultimate battle of intergalactic super-powered survivors!
Lobo isn't just the last survivor of the planet Czarnia -- he's responsible for its genocide! Born with a lust for violence unseen by the peace-loving Czarnians; Lobo notoriously unleashed a species of flying scorpion that hunted all the defenseless population to extinction - bar himself!
Lobo's name is said to mean "he who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoy[s] it" in the Khund dialect. These gratuitously destructive urges are facilitated by super-human strength and durability, as well as a capacity to endure, or heal from, severe injury. These powers can sometimes be inconsistent in their depiction. He inflicts punishment on others with an arsenal including guns, a titanium chain, and his space motorcycle.
Lobo's reputation for toughness fuelled controversy when he was defeated by Wolverine in Marvel versus DC #3! The exact details of how he was bested remain foggy, but we can assume Wolverine's accelerated healing factor helped him endure Lobo's vicious offense. That could be the biggest obstacle he faces in his first attempt to snuff out the indomitable spirit of Superman!
The last son of Krypton gains high-level super-human strength, speed, stamina, and durability as he's nourished by Earth's yellow sun. That said, he's not undefeatable! In Action Comics #586, New God Orion showed Superman can be beaten into submission with brute force, albeit on the distant planet Apokolips.
Another ultra-violent 90s anti-hero, Venom, was able to upset Superman during their preliminary crossover in DC/Marvel: All Access #1. No defeat of Superman was more famous in the nineties than Doomsday's, with their initial encounter seeing the Justice League sharing defeat, in Superman #74.
There's no doubt Lobo has the strength to equal Venom's feat of frustrating the Man of Steel, but achieving anything more permanent than temporary victory is highly questionable. On Earth, Superman has the home advantage, and even though Lobo will fight dirty, Supes isn't above getting gritty when he has to.
The Tape: Superman Ranking: Superman (#5)
What Went Down...
Having received a vision of intruders in the Fortress of Solitude: Superman arrives to order their exit! Drunk and unimpressed; Lobo can't help but rise to a challenge, subverting Superman's boasts for a speedy knock-out at the first sign of a punch. Instead of pulling his arm back -- Lobo delivers a sudden kick!
His patience wearing thin -- Superman recovers to his feet and orders Lobo out of the Fortress with a charging uppercut adding authority!
The Man of Steel snatches Lobo by the collar and lifts him into the air. He makes the mistake of presuming he's proven his toughness and the unlikelihood that Lobo will succeed in killing him. Words that only provoke the mercenary!
The Czarnian uses his legs to kick out and reverses the hold, turning it from a one-handed choke into a side headlock. Superman dismisses Lobo's boastful credentials as Darkseid's first-choice assassin, earning a vicious pummeling!
A rapid-fire barrage of punches smash into Superman's face! Even he can't react to counter act the speed and strength of Lobo -- helpless as the mercenary moves to repeatedly ramming him head-first into his own Fortress!
At last the wall gives out, burying the enduring fighters in debris! The ceiling collapse is a much needed reprieve for Superman, who manages to slip away in the cloud of dust and rubble. Short-lived -- as Lobo soon emerges to take a swig of Okaran berry juice and continue his drunken search for supremacy.
It doesn't take long for Lobo and his cohorts to catch up with Superman, waiting in a Kryptonian holograph room. The Man of Steel baits his charging opponent, who runs headlong into a camouflaged wall simulating wide-open landscape!
Inebriated, Lobo feebly contemplates his dulled senses. He's soon set upon by Superman, who smashes the re-motivated Czarnian through the floor into a lower level of simulation! There, the Man of Steel presses his advantage, slugging Lobo with a devastating right hand in a mock Kryptonian gathering!
Supes trash talks his drunk opponent, questioning Lobo's intelligence - even before he tries to drink from a holographic fountain.
Seeking a slice of reality and the means to turn the tables back in his favour -- Lobo rips up the very floor beneath his feet! Superman dodges the resulting sheet of techno-wreckage - and fires back with a blast of heat vision!
Unfortunately, extreme heat has no effect on the powerful Czarnian!Lobo shrugs the burning attack off and rips away a smaller piece of floor to improvise a simple metal prod. Jamming the strip into Superman's chest gets him close enough to take control with a high thrusting kick to the face!
The Man of Steel smashes through another holographic wall, tumbling to his back, where Lobo takes the mount position to rain down with double barreled fists! Lobo only stops when Superman's gaze betrays his greatest fear!
Already bruised & battered, Superman has no choice but to run from the fight as Lobo closes in on a particular chunk of ice easily removed from the wall. Behind the plug is a small canister containing the one thing that could actually help Lobo fulfill his wish of killing Superman: Kryptonite!
Lobo finishes off the last of the Okaran alcohol and orders his boozed up travelling buddy Raof to teleport them to the surface. He's going to look for Superman -- but it turns out Superman is there waiting!
Superman is hidden within the telepathically controlled armor of a Kryptonian Warsuit! He fires on his adversary, but Lobo narrowly avoids the energy blast and pops the lid on the canister of Kryptonite Superman so fears!
The open canister bathes the warsuit in the green glow of radiation. It protects Superman from the worst of it, but he still feels its debilitating aura!
As the radiation begins to wear Superman down, the warsuit lurches clumsily toward Lobo. Time now against him, Superman maneuvers to flick Lobo with his massive robot gauntlet. It sends Lobo spilling to his space cycle -- a gambit with the worst possible results, or so it seems...
Lobo uses the hog's weapons to fire deadly missiles on Superman! They collide with the warsuit in a massive explosion! When the dust clears - Superman lies exposed and bloody amidst the twisted metal of the destroyed armor!
Lobo at last claims supremacy as he gazes upon Superman's corpse and accepts the adulation of Bibbo Bibbowski. He is the cabbie's new favourite. With that, he finally succumbs not to any injuries, but the alcohol in his blood! Passing out onto the snow, he's loaded onto his hog and teleported away by Raof.
As they disappear, so too does the horrific vision of Superman's body! An illusion cast by a holographic projector hotwired into the warsuit at the last moment! The Fortress of Solitude is a lonely sanctuary once more as the Man of Steel exits the armor and retires to his citadel of Kryptonian science.
The Hammer...
Once again we're tasked with parsing a winner from a complicated conclusion!
I can't help but think of The Dark Knight Returns #4, where Batman famously donned a mechanical suit against a superior opponent, before faking his own death with the fight's conclusion. I wonder if that moment might've been on writer Dan Jurgens' mind. Maybe not, but 1990 was just four years removed.
A key difference in "DKR" is the dominance Batman had established prior to his final moments. He was very much in control of the battle before orchestrating an exit with his faked death. He earned his win as well as devising an escape.
In today's example: Superman was very much on the backfoot against Lobo. Not so much faking his death to bolster an unlikely moral victory, as much as avoiding a fight he was already losing. Both the DKR and today's fights involved the scourge of kryptonite. For these reasons - we've gotta call Lobo the winner!
You'd probably think that's something I've done often, but no. This is only the second Lobo fight to feature on the site! A curious omission, if, like the premise of today's featured issue, you assume Lobo's reputation for brawling perfectly fits the bill for a "Comic Book Fight Club". After all, what else is Lobo known for?
I guess that's the reason I tend to feel a pang of resistance when it comes to "The Main Man". Lobo was conceived as a parody of the ultra-violent anti-heroes dominant in the early modern age of the eighties and nineties, but somewhere along the way, - the joke was lost. Instead of reflecting back upon the wanton excesses of characters like Wolverine and The Punisher at their worst; Lobo became a more enduring, un-ironic beacon for their most insane, mindless, ugly impulses.
It would be a mistake to say Lobo is exclusively a joke without a punchline. That's just a lingering facet that sometimes get in the way of my enjoyment of the character. Not so much in today's example, though. As a contrasting foil for the usually upstanding Superman - Lobo works pretty well! It's still a bit of a poor excuse for an issue-long fight, but at least there's a bit more going on beneath the surface!
I've got to admit, I've also got a real affection for this time in comics. 1990 in particular just has an interesting texture. Print was inky. Characters were classic and colourful, but refined. There was experimentation, but it came from a place of knowing, with more restraint than the destructive years that followed.
1990 wasn't the best year for Superman, but it was a time that had all of those qualities. Adventures of Superman #464, and the Lobo fight in it, is Part 2 of a small arc called The Day of The Krypton Man. In it, the Eradicator device slowly imposes its influence on Superman, reverting him to a more cold and calculating Kryptonian dressed in the traditional garb introduced by John Byrne.
A lot of The Day of The Krypton Man involves big dumb alien brawls like the Lobo fight, but it all looks great, and just has a fun vibe. I'm sure we'll come back to more of it at some point in the future. Hopefully my scans will do future issues more justice than this one.
If you just can't wait to get more Superman smackdown in your life, be sure to follow links throughout this post to discover more from The Man of Steel's battle log! You can also dive into the Secret Archive for a complete index of featured fights organized by publisher, series, and issue number!
Join the fight by liking and subscribing to Secret Wars on Infinite Earths on Twitter and Facebook! There you'll get daily links to battles inspired by the topics of the day! Be sure to like, share, or retweet your favourites to show your support and help steer future selections on The Comic Book Fight Club!
Winner: Lobo
#371 (+225) Lobo
#553 (new) Roaf [+1 assist]
#5 (--) Superman
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