Everyone Loves Deadpool, But Here's 8 Reasons Why You May Love Lobo Even More
With his penchant for murder, mayhem, and manically funny wisecracks, The Merc With The Mouth known as Deadpool has very little competition when it comes to fan-favorite mercenaries, but DC Comics’ Main Man called Lobo has to be at the top of the list.
An alien bounty hunter with the power to rival Superman and the attitude to match, the Last Son of Czarnia is, in many ways, DC Comics’ most apt counterpart to Marvel’s Wade Wilson. But while they’re alike in more than a few ways, there are just as many reasons to consider Lobo – not Deadpool – comics’ top cutthroat.
8 Lobo Has A More Diverse Clientele
Both Lobo and Deadpool are two of the top hired guns for their respective universes, but in Lobo’s case, that’s the literal truth. After all, the Main Man is one of the most feared beings in the galaxy, known far and wide as much for his brash, relentless, and brutal nature as he is for his undeniable results. An unflinching man of his word, once he’s accepted a contract, Lobo will stop at nothing to complete it.
Deadpool is undeniably one of Marvel’s greatest mercenaries, but he’s still generally Earth-based, and it’s not like Wade Wilson’s reputation as a hitman carries much weight among the Kree or the Skrulls. Whereas, on the other end of the spectrum, Lobo is a big enough deal to have caught the eye of cosmic heavy hitters like Brainiac, the Green Lantern Corps, and even Darkseid himself. Lobo is the Biggest Bastich of the Universe, and that’s just what his clients pay for.
7 Lobo Is DC Comics’ Greatest Tracker
Some of Lobo’s greatest advantages as a bounty hunter are his unparalleled senses. An expert tracker and hunter, Lobo’s sense of smell is powerful enough that, once he has the scent of his prey, he’s capable of tracking them across the universe. The Last Czarnian’s sense of hearing is similarly heightened, allowing him to hear even in the soundless depths of space. Like all Czarnians, Lobo even has an extra sense that allows him to detect the weakest point of any opponent unfortunate enough to get in the way of him and his target.
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As one of Marvel’s deadliest, Wade Wilson is no pushover when it comes to tracking down a target, but he’s not exactly known for having enhanced sensory and tracking abilities like his old pal, Wolverine. Deadpool has to rely on more conventional methods of manhunting to find his foes, while Lobo, who’s name is translated as “one who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it,” only has to follow his nose.
6 Lobo Is Literally Built Different
The Main Man is one touch customer, with strength, stamina, and durability high enough to have fought the likes of Superman, Atrocitus, and the Justice League to a standstill. But in the rare instances where he can be hurt, Lobo has an unparalleled healing factor to more than recover from any injuries he can incur. Able to heal almost instantly, the Last Czarnian is practically unkillable by any conventional means, and his unique healing factor is strong enough that he has even been able to regenerate himself completely from little more than a puddle of blood.
Derived from the mutant powers of Wolverine, Deadpool’s healing factor his similarly well known, but it isn’t on exactly the same level as Lobo’s. While small doses of his blood have the capacity to heal other’s, it’s not a like a single drop of blood is all it takes for Deadpool to make a comeback. And considering the rigors of space, it’s likely that Wade wouldn’t even be able to survive in Lobo’s usual hunting grounds for more than five minutes.
5 Lobo Is Completely Self-Sustaining
Along with the rest of his incredible healing factor and overall endurance, another massive boon in the Last Czarnian’s arsenal is his self-sustaining physiology. Totally immune to the heat of a sun and the cold of space, Lobo is able to function without air, food, water, or sleep, making him perfectly suited to be one of the stars’ greatest predators. In many ways, Lobo’s physicality is his greatest asset, and it is traits like his impressive self-sustenance that lend themselves to his overall unrelenting nature.
Yes, the Main Man is no stranger to gluttony and debauchery, but he ultimately doesn’t need any sort of outside sustenance or stimulus that can get in the way of him completing his mission. Fans have seen Deadpool survive for extended periods of time without food and water, but the Merc With A Mouth still needs to breathe. In fact, suffocation and drowning have proven to be effective methods of incapacitating beings with incredible healing factors like that of Deadpool, Wolverine, and Akihiro.
4 Lobo Is A Mad Genius
Lobo initially comes off as little more than a cosmic meathead who thinks with his fists first and foremost, but his brutish nature belies a genius-level scientific mind. After all, the only reason that Lobo became the Last Czarnian is because he killed the rest of his species as a child for the sake of an “experiment.” Having genetically engineered a plague of scorpion-like creatures, Lobo unleashed the swarm on the rest of Czarnia’s citizenry and essentially wiped out the entire planet within a week with the only survivors being an old teacher of his as well as a troupe of Czarnians bottled by Superman’s foe Brainiac.
A good enough merc to always plan ahead and track down most Earthly prey, Deadpool is incredibly clever and an excellent tactician in his own right, but he’s nowhere near Lobo in terms of raw intelligence. And though Lobo has practically never used his intelligence for the greater good, aside from building his own space bike, his sheer genius cannot be denied, grotesque and genocidal though it may be.
3 Lobo Can Multiply (Not Just Heal)
As if one Lobo wasn’t more than enough chaos for the universe, The Main Man has, one more than one occasion, has had competition for that moniker in the form of Lobo clones that are capable of generating from even a drop of his blood. Such an ability comes in handy when one drop of blood is all that’s left of the Last Czarnian, but it can be as much of a curse as it is a blessing.
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In fact, a pool of Lobos blood can create an entire army of Lobos – as seen in Young Justice #37 by Peter David, Todd Nauck, and Lary Stucker – which only leads to more mayhem when the multiple Lobos turn on one another until there’s only one Main Man standing. Deadpool may have his multiversal Deadpool Corps, but, much to the relief of probably everyone in the Marvel Universe, it’s not like he can regrow an entirely new Deadpool from a severed hand.
2 Space. Dolphins. Need We Say More?
Lobo is without a doubt one of the meanest bastiches the DC Comics cosmology has ever seen, but even a brutal bounty hunter like the Last Czarnian has a soft spot. In Lobo’s case, that soft spot comes in the form of a lovable yet mysterious race of Space Dolphins. Seemingly the only living things that can provoke anything close to love in the heart of the Main Man, and on more than one occasion, he’s fought to protect and even avenge his pod from anyone who’d hurt them entirely free of charge.
Lobo loves Space Dolphins so much that he even once became the Archbishop for the First Celestial Church of the Triple Fish-God, an entire cosmic religion with the Dolphins at the center. Deadpool may have once been the King of Monsters and a close friend to the adorable Jeff the Landshark, but nothing beats Space Dolphins unless they want Lobo to frag them.
1 Lobo Is Truly Immortal
With his durability, self-sustenance, and healing factor, it’s abundantly clear that Lobo is extremely difficult to kill. However, there have been instances where The Main Man has died – they just didn’t take. Lobo is entirely immune to disease or the effects of aging, meaning that dying any sort of natural death is out of the question. But it’s the rare handful of times he’s been killed that have actually made him more unkillable than ever. After one such instance, Lobo did indeed die and was sent to Hell, only to be kicked out after overwhelming his demonic captors.
Then shunted to the innately peaceful Heaven, Lobo was even less at home and was permanently barred from ever returning to the afterlife. Even if Lobo is somehow killed, his spirit is entirely unable to pass on and is forced to roam the Earthly plane, capable of possessing others should he so choose but, more importantly, able to return to and inhabit his own body once again regardless of its current state. Deadpool is undoubtedly a major handful and a headache for anyone who crosses his path, but even the Merc With The Mouth hasn’t been barred from eternal damnation or salvation just yet. Unfortunately for the DC Universe, the Last Czarnian has. And that’s just one of many reasons why DC Comics’ Lobo is The Main Man even when compared to Marvel’s own Deadpool.
