Jason Momoa’s Lobo Needs To Enter The DCU This Way
For as entertaining as he was in the DCEU, Jason Momoa always felt a bit out of place as Aquaman…basically, portraying the King of Atlanta as a crude dude with all the muscles and none of the brains seemed like an odd creative choice from the beginning.
Apparently, James Gunn agrees: according to an unconfirmed report by Variety, Momoa is likely to appear in Gunn’s all-new DCU as Lobo, a kind of intergalactic antihero. This kicked off endless fan speculation about how the DCU should introduce the character, and our take (hotter than the Man of Steel’s eyebeams) is that Lobo should be the Big Bad in Superman: Legacy.
James Gunn is said to be considering Jason Momoa as Lobo in the revamped DCU
Now, fans of DC Comics’ “Main Man” might object and say that Jason Momoa’s Lobo needs to be introduced in his own film. Why, then, do we think he should fight Superman to kick off the DCU?
Despite the fact that the old DCEU made the mistake of not establishing its universe through enough solo movies before rushing into ensemble films, the blunt truth is that a solo Lobo origin movie might kill the DCU before it manages to go up, up and away.
We’re not saying that because we’re haters but because we were longtime fans of the character’s DC comics appearances that made the character popular long before anyone dreamed of having Jason Momoa play Lobo. After the character’s introduction as a forgettable villain in the ‘80s, he was reintroduced in the ‘90s as a kind of ongoing satire of Wolverine.
Accordingly, some of Lobo’s most memorable adventures were parodies, including Lobocop (a parody of Robocop) and Unamerican Gladiators (a parody of the insane reality show American Gladiators).
Eventually, DC’s writers discovered that the real secret sauce for a good Lobo story was to throw the egotistical macho man into stories featuring more familiar characters. For example, Justice League International #19 gave us a memorable knockdown, drag-out fight between Lobo and the hotheaded Green Lantern Guy Gardner, and the two would later become friends and drinking buddies.
Lobo was also one of the best parts of the ambitious 52 series, and we loved his story involving finding religion (sort of) and helping out Adam Strange, Animal Man, and Starfire (but not before ripping the latter’s top off, of course).
With all that in mind, why do we think that Jason Momoa’s Lobo should first appear in the DCU as Superman’s big villain in Legacy? For one thing, it would give Superman a different kind of villain to face.
Lex Luthor may be a calculating schemer and Doomsday a force of nature, but Lobo is someone who is just as likely to buy Superman a drink as to punch him out.
In addition to just being entertaining, Lobo being the villain in Superman: Legacy would open the door for his inevitable redemption arc, and how cool would it be the see these two eventually team up to fight Darkseid?
Jason Momoa should fight Superman in the next movie for the man of steel.
On a related note, having Jason Momoa’s Lobo fight Superman conveniently gives the Man of Steel someone just as tough as himself to fight. Because Superman is supposed to be so strong, it’s often difficult for screenwriters to come up with a fitting foe, and that’s why he just kept fighting Kryptonians (like Zod) and Kryptonian creations (like Doomsday) in the DCEU.
Using Lobo as the next film’s Big Bad means that we could have an equally tough foe for Supes to face, but he’d have a fun personality and interesting motivations of his own (something we could never say about Steppenwolf).
Finally (if selfishly), we’d love to see Jason Momoa’s Lobo fight Superman on the big screen because the small-screen confrontations between these characters kicked so much ass in Superman: The Animated Series as well as Justice League. These outstanding animated shows helped establish the benchmark for bringing DC Comics to life, and we’ve been waiting all these years for live-action movies to similarly impress us.
It hasn’t happened yet, but seeing Lobo as the Main Man pounding on David Corenswet’s Superman in Legacy is likely to give our inner child a grin so big they could see it on Czarnia…or at least, they could if Lobo hadn’t killed everyone back on his homeworld.
