He’s arguably one of the most well-known aliens within the DC Universe, but the New 52 revamped Lobo’s story in an unusual way. Having not particularly liked the character before this, I tried to go in with an open mind.
‘Targets’ tells the story of Lobo, a Czarnian, who works as an assassin for hire. However, the Lobo that we have come to recognize previously happens to be a ‘fake’ and in enters the ‘authentic’ one. This Lobo is young and handsome and once upon a time was the Czarnian Emperor’s bodyguard who went rogue allegedly killing his entire planet. This novel now focuses on his latest job which is to stop either other bounty hunters from destroying the entire planet Earth. Along the way, he has a number of flashbacks of his life before all the killings.
The story in the present was fairly easy to follow, it’s your standard hired gun, killing other hired guns. However, the flashbacks, although interesting create confusion as to why the character has decided to become an assassin in the first place. I presume they will get to this in later novels. In terms of character development, bar the scenes in the past, there is little character development during the story.
The artwork, I have to say, was enjoyable and the covers were really good too. The one I ended up picking was one by Francis Manapaul whose artwork seems really simple, but I love the style.
Favourite Panel:
Wait. Which one is the real Lobo?
Favourite Character:
The human bounty hunters assigned to helping Lobo are quite entertaining, but Emily the youngest of them, who has a penchant for tech has so much sass!
Rating:
Story Arc: ★★
Character Development: ★★
Artwork: ★★★½
Enjoyability: ★★½
Re-readability: ★★
Level: Intermediate