I love dive bars. I love every part of what makes a dive bar special. I love the cheap drinks, how everything always has a fine level of stickiness, and the feeling of whether any of these people really belong here. But what I love most is the characters I have met at them. For example, I once complimented a man’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy tattoo and he proceeded to take off his shirt in the middle of the bar to show me the rest. There’s a certain level of magic that anything can happen in a dive bar. Lobo is the dive bar hero. Lobo #1 is a bat out of hell with its own voice, style, and an overwhelming feeling that everything may have a fine sheen of stickiness to it as well.
Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and Nate Piekos bring the main man to DC’s Next Level initiative with a frag. The issue follows Lobo hunting down a bounty before he gets called off and learns about major changes in his career perspectives. It’s a perfect jumping on point for anyone who’s never read the character before. My knowledge of Lobo only comes from Crush, his daughter. But that is succinctly solved by two great spreads covering his origin story and everything else you need to know (even that little stint during the New 52 when they made him a twink).
I felt hesitant about Lobo to be fully transparent with you because 95% of the time, humor in comics doesn’t do much for me. Not many comics nail the comedic pacing needed to get a real laugh out of me but Lobo got me. Imagine the worst guy you know, just a pig-headed asshole who always makes you laugh despite how he reeks. That is Lobo. Every interaction from this first issue is dripping with personality that makes you laugh at his brigadocious comments or the things he does. It has a real gritty feeling to some of the humor that works well for the story the team is telling.
But it’s in the art where that grit, grime, and stickiness truly shine brighter than any neon bar sign. Jorge Corona and Jean Francois create a brilliant intergalactic dive bar scene with a dozen or more quirky aliens. The bartender has an almost phallic shaped neck and is covered in disgusting boils or maybe mushrooms on her skin. She’s only on the page for a moment but the level of design for her and everyone else in the issue is perfect. The intergalactic dive bar and its regulars have a gnarly aspect to them that makes it all stand out on the page begging to be picked through with a fine tooth comb. I would watch out for fleas though with this clientele.
Corona’s art and Francois’s colors meld together in such a vibrant way. Each scene never feels drab despite it being dirty and grimy around the edges. It makes it all feel like a true stand-out from everything else on the shelves in the best way. The art matches the voice of Young’s Lobo scripting incredibly with its style. Nate Piekos’s lettering has the same level of crust that the rest of the art and dialogue have in the best way. Piekos has been one of the most consistent knock-it-out-of-the-park letterers working today, so seeing his design choices in this was just bliss. I found myself flipping through the issue again because it feels like one of those perfect projects you hear about that doesn’t quite hit the mark. Instead, this comic blasts a huge smoldering hole in the target.
But let’s talk the meat and potatoes here, we’re driving into spoiler country so beware or don’t. The issue lampoons the idea of the anti-hero and its rising appeal in media but it doesn’t stop there. A major corporation sweeps onto the scene and buys the entire bounty hunting buisness. It’s a very funny take on the idea of large corporations swallowing up all the different IPs and whatnot that used to be a place where normal people could create something new. While I realize DC Comics is owned by one of those mega corporations and, Satan willing, not any others any time soon, I still love this idea for the story. You can still create art that has something to say on big business’ dime. Doing it through Lobo wasn’t something I went in expecting. I honestly was ready for a Deadpool-like romp which would have just been like what it’s like to be in a dive bar’s bathroom. Instead, we get to experience an opening to a story that has some teeth to take clear shots at so many things and land them with grace.
Everything about Lobo #1 has the soul of a dive bar in it. From its chain smoking goatee-faced hero to the design of every alien in the issue, everything has character. It hasn’t been stripped clean of what makes it unique to fit into the mold of the Big 2. It reads like drinking the best cold beer after a long week as you hear someone breaking the balls on a pool table. While it’s grappling with some really big overarching ideas, the debut issue gets everything into a headlock while jamming to Motley Crue. I cannot get enough of Lobo and it was nice to walk into a dive bar of a comic rather than a fragging Applebees.