CREDITS: Produced by Boyd Kirkland.
REVIEW: Lobo's relatively crude (in animation as well as content) webseries represents 14 episodes that normally stay under the 3-minute mark, making up three stories and one interlude (Lobo for President, which annoying interrupts one of the stories, but I suppose was released at a convenient time in an election year, i.e. 2000). Most of the Flash episodes have an interactive element, which you have no control over if watching converted to video on YouTube, but which are actually some of the best bits. These might be killing aliens, getting different results on an animation, inspecting elements for cut scenes, or my favorite, playing golf, complete with commentator, with a disembodied head. Some of it is extremely juvenile though, like the pointless(?) farting competition.
All three stories have the same raucous tone, action comedies that trade on gore and light profanity, much like the Lobo comics did. Some of the gags are amusing, like several of Lobo's regenerations from fatal wounds, his jumping back onto his leg stumps, waking up in a bag of body parts. I also liked the keyboardist whose eyes fall on his instrument, playing Beethoven, and the space penguin that evidently landed wrong in one shot. But there's a LOT of this kind of stuff and it does wear thin after a while. The very fact that there are space penguins in this should be evidence enough not to take anything seriously. Just like the comics, really. The webseries is equally filled with outrageous-looking aliens (the hard-of-hearing mechanic who is literally all ears is a favorite) and nearly plotless mayhem.
Those three stories are: "Lobo Is a Four-Letter Word" (episodes 1-5), in which Lobo's favorite waitress is kidnapped by rival bounty hunter Sunny Jim; it's the most basic Lobo tale. In "Bustin' out of Oblivion" (6-8 and 10), Lobo must break a friend's brother out of jail, but he really doesn't want to go; it's okay too, but probably the least of the stories. And then "When Pigs Fly" forces the Main Man to get a difficult bounty so he can pay to get his bike back; while the hyper-violence gets tiring by this point, it's still the better bit. Episode 9, Lobo for President, offers some parallels with Donald Trump 16 years before the fact, and is just a violent ad for the candidate. If you're going to sample a single episode, this would be it.
IN THE COMICS: Only a few of the characters in the webseries are from Lobo comics. Darlene (surname Spritzer) is a redhead there, not a blond, and first appeared in the monthly (not mature readers) Lobo series' first issue where she was also a waitress at Al's Diner and Lobo's chief love interest. Lobo has had a connection to penguins since his Paramilitary Christmas Special. Other references include a PlayBo magazine in Lobo's possession essentially showing Lobo as a woman (from Lobo's Back #2). Speaking of Lobo's Back, the same joke is done with the End on episode 9. President Lobo's poster and a cut scene of an alien in a toilet look pulled from Simon Bisley art. And in episode 14, Lobo throws Major Snake into "Ramona's Bail Bond and Unisex Salon"; Ramona was a major player in the Lobo's Back miniseries.
SOUNDS LIKE: Kevin Michael Richardson takes over the role of Lobo from Brad Garrett; he would go on to voice the Joker in "The Batman". I takes him a few episodes to get Lobo's voice "right". He also played Slaz, Fat Whutzat, and Mudboy. Tom Kenny (the PENGUIN on "The Batman") is Sunny Jim (part of the time), Major Snake, Stumpy, Sniff, and the Space Penguins. Dee Bradley Baker (for the DCAU, he will be everything from Blockbuster to Baby Etrigan) also played Sunny Jim, but also Tubo. And that's Grey DeLisle (Azula in Avatar) as Darlene an the Nutcracker Sisters.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - Goofy, gory fun, but highly disposable.
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