Krypton: Who Is Lobo?

Krypton returned tonight for its second season, taking viewers back to Superman’s home planet generations before the Man of Steel’s existence. However, the Krypton fans return to in season two is a very different one, indeed, with Zod in power and Seg lost in the Phantom Zone and those aren’t the only changes in tonight’s season premiere. The episode also saw the character landscape change a bit with the addition of the fan-favorite character Lobo in his first-ever live action appearance.

Announced during San Diego Comic-Con last year, Krypton‘s Lobo is played by Emmett J. Scanlan and, last fall, fans got their first official look the character’s appearance for the show, a look very in keeping with the character’s comic book counterpart.

But who is Lobo? Created by Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen, Zhariff Lobo — best known as just Lobo — first appeared in Omega Men #3 from June 1983. Born on the utopian planet of Czarnia, Lobo is far different than his fellow Czarnians. Arrogant, self-centered, exceptionally strong, and with a love of killing, Lobo is the last of his kind. Vicious and violent, Lobo single-handedly slaughtered his entire world, then became a fearsome mercenary roaming the universe to carry out murder and mayhem.

Despite this murderous nature, Lobo is a man of his word. He has a strict personal honor code with that code being that he will never violate the letter of any agreement he makes. “The Main Man’s word is his bond” and he certainly does mean it, though he does sometimes disregard the spirit of his agreements. When it comes to power and abilities, Lobo has superhuman durability and has been seen in comics to go toe-to-toe with Superman. He also has speed, stamina, regeneration, and immortality, along with genius-level intellect. Interestingly, even for all his roughness and violent tendencies, he does have some soft spots — including Space Dolphins, which Lobo has a strange fondness for and connection with.

While tonight’s introduction to Lobo on Krypton was brief, it does appear that the series is staying fairly true to the character’s comic book counterpart, something that Scanlan himself spoke a bit about to ComicBook.com last month.

“We pay massive respect to all the comics and the heritage of the character. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Scanlan said of his Krypton portrayal. “Physically I ain’t the biggest son of a bitch out there, so it was of the utmost importance I captured this guy’s spirit. Because that’s all that matters really….. You ain’t getting the biggest Lobo in the universe but I promise you you’re getting the craziest.”

“We’re really excited to work with Lobo because in the comics he’s such a broad character, he’s an almost ridiculous character and like some people would say how’s he going to work with the tone of the show,” Krypton star Cameron Cuffe previously told ComicBook.com. “That’s a challenge we’re really excited to work with and I think Seg’s going to be spending a lot of time with him which will be cool.”

And if you happen to like Krypton‘s Lobo, you’re in luck. News broke today that a Lobo solo series is in the works at SYFY.

Krypton airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on SYFY.