Undervalued Spotlight #136

Omega Men #3, DC Comics (June 1983)

Now and again Undervalued Spotlight fans will email me with suggestions for future posts. Last week I received an email from Dave with a list of 3 books he felt should make the Spotlight cut. All 3 of Dave’s suggestions had merit though it’s the most modern of his suggestions that I’ll feature today. Here’s a part of Dave’s email;

“Omega Men #3- 1st Lobo tons of rumors that they will make a Lobo movie and that he may appear in Justice League. Lots of potential here.”

“Hope you like these and thanks for all your hard work bringing us the undervalued spotlights!” 

I remember when Omega Men #3 came out in 1983, I bought my 3 copies at the Silver Snail. Those were the days.

Initially when Lobo was introduced in Omega Men #3 he was an alien from Velorpian. Lobo was the sole surviving Velorpian, the rest of his kind were killed off by the Psions.

Lobo as a character changed in the early 1990s, he went from villain to anti-hero and his origin was re-written. In the 1990 miniseries, Lobo: The Last Czarnian, plotted by Giffen, written by Alan Grant and drawn by Simon Bisley, he became the last Czarnian and it was he that violently killing every other member of the species. Nice.

The character was now written as an exaggerated, self centered version of Wolverine and it worked. Lobo was one of DC’s most popular characters of the 1990s he even had his own title that lasted 64 issues (1993-1999).

There were some memorable storylines including the classic Paramilitary Christmas Special (in which he is contracted by the Easter Bunny to assassinate Santa Claus). This was later filmed, check out the youtube post.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9ooZYjF0mI]

I see a bright future for Lobo. Director Guy Ricthie abandoned the Lobo film project back in 2009 because his surprise hit Sherlock Holmes demanded a sequel. The Lobo film project is not dead though, earlier this year Warner Bros pegged Brad Peyton (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) to re-write and direct the Lobo film.

The timing could not be better. Nostalgia waves usually start about 20 years after the fact which means DC should be enjoying a Lobo nostalgia boom for at least the next decade. It is a great time to update the character and add new fans as well.

Lobo is a tricky character to write though, the level of violence does not lend well to mass appeal. The character works best when big doses of humor and parody temper the excesses in violence.

The 42nd edition of the Overstreet Price Guide shows $4/$5/$7 as the 8.0/9.0/9.2 price splits.

Strengths that make this comic book a good long-term investment are:

• 1^st appearance of a popular character for under $10!
• Movie still on the table
• 1983 considered the Copper Age, though collected it still was not hoarded like comics were just a few years later