Description

Lobo: UnAmerican Gladiators                                                                       Comics Lot
Featuring “Lobo” cover art by comics legend… Mike Mignola!  Awesome!!
Lobo created by: Keith Giffen & Roger Slifer
Writers: Alan Grant & John Wagner
Artist: Cam Kennedy
Colorists: Digital Chameleon & Carla Feeny
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editors: Frank Pittarese, Dan Raspler & Peter Tomasi
All Covers by: Mike Mignola

It’s called the Maim Game!A popular TV show where the contestants face a variety of lethal challenges (including the other gladiators!) in an attempt to win cash, fame, and prizes. Of course, anything that promises huge amounts of mayhem and destruction is sure to bring Lobo running. Chain in hand, the Main Man signs up as the star contestant. The contest becomes an interplanetary blood battle with sixteen of the universe’s most deadly hombres fighting to the finish. But is there ever any real doubt who’ll be the last one standing?

Story/Spoilers
In issue #1, “Fragituri Te Salutamus!”, Johnny Caesar is on a XSTV television advertisement promoting “the fiercest – the bloodiest – televisual spectacle of all time” gladiatorial challenge on Mondo Carno called The Maim Game. Lobo has received an invite. Driving to Mondo Carno on his spacehog, he is cut off by a bus called Big Time City Tours containing a number of other invitees, including B.D. Rickenbacker ,Killer Kowalski, and the decapitated head of Yancy Queeg in a bucket. B.D. talks to the head while Killer questions why B.D. even bothers talking to them. Offended at being cut off, Lobo catches up and kills the driver. B.D. is angered but Killer informs him that it is “Mondo Carno, B.D. Anythin’ goes!”. The three, tickets in hand, head off to the Maim Game facility. In town, Lobo is challenged to a carnival style fight with a fighter named Big Charlie for any prize in his stall. Lobo easily dispatches him with a hook and chooses a fish as his reward. He ends up in a saloon and puts the fish in a water glass.

Waiting in the check-in line are B.D. and Killer. An unnamed team insults Yancy’s bucket, with one member saying that if he needs to go to the washroom during the show he’ll “know where to dump it”. This enrages B.D. who starts a brawl but it is quickly stopped by the clerk who informs both teams that a disqualification will result if there is any more unsanctioned fighting. In the saloon a drunk with a shirt labeled Mondo Carno Official Bully comes up to Lobo and drinks the water glass with the fish in it, but Lobo goes down his throat with his right fist and retrieves the fish. B.D. and Killer encounter the Satan Brothers, Ronald and Larrence, who they presumed were dead: B.D. says that “You’re the ones who murdered my pop – an’ Sparky – an’ the Prof!”. One of the brothers grabs B.D’s hand and sets it on fire, and B.D. threatens to retaliate but is restrained by Killer. Killer suggests they follow their original plan of recruiting allies to begin the competition so they find a better chance and addresses The Beast from Sixty Fathoms. Elsewhere, the show floor manager Victor goes into Caesar’s dressing room. He informs Caesar that Lobo is a no-show. Victor also smells his wife’s perfume in the room and finds his half-naked wife Candy in his trunk. He questions her being there and her state of undress but Caesar ushers him out saying that the show is on in five minutes. After Victor leaves Caesar and Candy embrace, with Candy asking “Do you think he suspects..?” The show begins on a large stage with all the gladiators present, and the opening ceremonies called The March of The Gladiators begins, hosted by Johnny Caesar. Lobo sees this on the television and is informed he is late by the barkeep, but he is busy in an arm wrestling competition against a man with an enormous right arm. To hasten his exit, he cheats by eye gouging his competitor and slamming his fist onto the spiked pad, then incites an assault on himself in the bar by taking the pot all to himself.

The March of the Gladiators continues with Candy showing off the prizes to be won, including an entire planet called Zarotey. Lobo handily dispatches the bar patrons and heads to the television set. His last minute replacement, a “berserker from the fringes of beyond” named Ulric Badelfslayer, is being introduced when Lobo bursts onto the set and pulls him away, taking his place. Caesar praises Lobo’s stunning entrance and he wins a video recorder for it. The final teams are introduced and the television broadcast cuts to commercial.

Next in issue #2, “Veni, Vidi, Fragi!”, A commercial advertises the murder-themed park facilities on Mondo Carno, including such attractions as Suicide Park where there are “(o)ne hundred and one wonderful ways to die!”. Following this, the first event in the Maim Game begins. It is called Beat the Reaper and is a deadly obstacle course where there are no rules except for finishing. Johnny Caesar begins the race. The first obstacle is a climbing wall. B.D. Rickenbacker triggers a trap, which requires the correct answer to a question to avoid punishment. He answers “Stallone” to the question of “Who led the Mongol hordes” and triggered a mechanical punching glove to knock him off the wall. From L.E.G.I.O.N. headquarters, Vril Dox is seen to be watching the Maim Game, and is confronted by Phase about why he is doing it. He mentions that he can’t do anything about it because Mondo Carno is in unregulated space despite him trying to shut it down recently.

Back in the game, Lobo sacrifices his lead to go to the back of the race and kicks Lieutenant Mitch Murphy off climbing ropes into the waiting maw of a massive crocodile. B.D., still begrudging the loss of the driver of the tour bus, knocks Lobo into the crocodile’s mouth as well. Just as B.D. was receiving Lobo’s prizes for killing him, Lobo bursts out of the crocodile’s gut, getting back into the running. Both B.D. and Lobo meet on the Minefield after passing through the Pinball Pit. Lobo knocks Yance’s bucket away, melting it on a damaging tile somewhat but not destroying it. Suddenly, Caesar announces that it’s time to Meet the Reaper, and massive machine shaped like the Grim Reaper, complete with scythe, is revealed in front of the minefield. It immediately kills The Flies and then goes for Lobo, who is able to avoid it’s attacks and ends up destroying it instead. Killer and B.D. are still in the pinball pit, and Killer is about to be impaled on one of the massive spiked balls just before Caesar calls an end to the game for Lobo beating the Reaper. As a prize, Lobo wins his weight in gold.

Killer and B.D. argue about Yance at the end, but get a spot prize of barbed-wire nose rings. Caesar announces that 10 out of 16 teams remain (the six individuals and teams that were eliminated are Clawdius the Fourth, Pieor the Ultraboar, The Ivy League, The Flies, the Ladies from Hell, and Krakas the Khund) but more must be culled. Back at L.E.G.I.O.N. headquarters, Dox reveals to Phase that the reason he is allowing Lobo to participate in the Maim Game is that he believes that it is fixed. If he can prove that then he has the evidence he needs to shutdown Mondo Carno – though he gave Lobo no knowledge of this plan.

Next in issue #3, “E Pluribus Fraggum!”, Round 2 of the Maim Game, Suicide Park, is about to begin. Before it does, Johnny Caesar goes to the Casualty Ward, where Vyle Deeds, Russell Muscle, and The Flies are recovering. Johnny Caesar presents them with a platinum trophy, but before they can receive it, The Satan Brothers gun them down. Lobo and the rest of the surviving gladiators watch this on a television set in a bar, and he asks why the moratorium on killing other competitors doesn’t apply to the Satan Brothers. B.D. Rickenbacker and Killer Kowalski in the meantime try to form an alliance with Lobo.

In Johnny Caesar’s trailer, Candy Immature informs Caesar that Victor Immature has found out about their affair. Victor appears and informs the pair that “nobody cuckolds Victor Immature!” as he threatens to reveal the truth about the Maim Game – that it’s fixed. However, before he can do that he is knocked out by one of the Satan Brothers. They are then told to go after Lobo and eliminate him. On Cairn, Vril Dox reveals to Phase that the last two winners of the Maim Game have either been killed or disappeared and that Caesar must have a plant as a team to ensure that Lobo and the other competitors are killed. In Suicide Park, the competition begins, with the rules stipulating that the competitors must kill each other as well as aid any of the patrons of the park looking to end their lives. Lobo starts near the Biker Kebab – a motorcycle ramp leading to a wall of massive spikes – and uses his hook ‘n’ chain to liberate a bike from a suicider. He quickly kills Maw and Paw Muscle as he rides around the arena. Meanwhile, members of the Lost Platoon injure Voracio the Predator but didn’t realize that they were on the Deathslide and all end up becoming victims of it, eliminating them as well.

The Satan Brothers assist a suicide, granting them the prize of a voucher for a Miracle from the Healers of Helzapopin, which is the only prize that B.D. Rickenbacker wanted. Voracio the Predator is dragged underwater at the Drowning Pool and killed by the The Beast from Sixty Fathoms, who is then eliminated himself by Wolfman Marv. Killer Kowalski eliminates Rocky Stonebone. Lobo confronts the Satan Brothers who fire upon him from the Hive of Death. Lobo’s bike is destroyed, so he charges the brothers, but finds that the hive exterior is weakened and falls into it, being stung by massive wasp-like insects. Caesar announces “We can say goodbye to Lobo! No one has ever survived the Hive of Death!”

Finally in issue #4, “Ad Astra Per Fragua!”, Lobo is carried out of the Hive of Death after apparently succumbing to his wounds. Johnny Caesar announces that the amount of teams left to compete is down to four. On Cairn, Phase chastises Dox about Lobo’s apparent death, and even Dox is dumbfounded. Caesar celebrates with Candy Immature backstage. He proudly exclaims that with Lobo killed, the Satan Brothers will have no problems winning the tournament and the secret of the games being rigged will remain hidden. The only loose end to tie up is Victor Immature, who is trapped within a trunk. Caesar goes to kill him with Candy being complicit in the decision, but finds that Victor has escaped the trunk. Beakly enters the room telling Caesar that it is nearly time for the final game to air, after which Caesar sends Beakly on a mission to find the escaped Victor.

Beakly goes to the mortuary, where he gathers the two workers there to start looking. Frenzee, the final round of the Maim Game, begins – it is a deathmatch held in a barbed-wire wrestling ring. Each remaining team takes a corner: The Satan Brothers, Killer Kowalski and B.D Rickenbacker, Wolfman Marv and Dirty Deedes. In the mortuary, one of the sheet-covered corpses is revealed to actually be Victor, and at the same time, Lobo awakens from his injuries. Victor reveals to Lobo that since everyone though he was dead, he was eliminated from the Maim Game, but also reveals that it doesn’t matter anyway because the games are rigged with the Satan Brothers being Caesar’s plants. Lobo is outraged and heads to the ring. Back in the deathmatch, the Satan Brothers kill Dirty Deedes and Killer Kowalski eliminates Wolfman Marv. The Satan Brothers close in on Rickenbacker and Kowalski, ironically smiting Rickenbacker with Yance’s bucket. However just as things are looking like the end for the Outcasts, Lobo runs over the crowd and gets in the ring, stealing Caesar’s mic along the way. He, along with Rickenbacker, easily begin to tear apart the robotic Satan Brothers while commentating to the TV audience with the mic. Caesar and Candy flee. After the Satan Brothers are dead, the Outcasts suggest that they share the winnings with Lobo, with Rickenbacker especially wanting the Miracle Voucher to return Yance to life. However Lobo reveals that it’s all rigged and that there are no prizes, and sets off to find Caesar. Stunned, the Outcasts follow Lobo to get their vengeance on Caesar also. Lobo heads to the space port and steals a shuttle, learning from a technician that Caesar and Candy have just left their own ship. That proved to be a ploy by Caesar as the shuttle was on autopilot – he and Candy were hiding in the space port. On the television monitor, they are stunned to see that Victor is alive and well, and has taken over the broadcast.

Extremely embittered at Johnny Caesar for stealing Candy away from him, he travelled to the nuclear power plant that powers Mondo Carno and tampered with the coolant, causing a meltdown that will not only kill him but everyone on Mondo Carno. Just as Lobo realizes Caesar’s trickery, Mondo Carno is demolished in a massive nuclear explosion. On Cairn, Phase sarcastically congratulates Dox on having Mondo Carno destroyed at the cost of Lobo and thousands of lives, but just as Dox responds that he can’t be responsible for the “actions of a lovesick dwarf”, Lobo calls in to him. Dox is stunned to see him alive, but Lobo’s immediate request is to be bankrolled for creating his own version of Mondo Carno, Mondo Lobo. Dox declines and ends the transmission. The Outcasts begin to argue about Yance once again, so Lobo, annoyed, sends them to the back for some drinks. As they head to the back, Lobo detaches the storage compartment of the shuttle with them in it and flies away as the two continue bickering, unaware.

Comics Lot contains: Lobo: UnAmerican Gladiators (1993) Issues #1-4.  DC Comics

Comics are bagged & boarded and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

All First Printings
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: 1993
Format: FC, 32 pages, Comic, 10.25 x 6.7
UPC: None Stated

Collectible Entertainment note: Comics 1,2,3,4 are in Very Fine condition.  Beautiful Set!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious Lobo collector and/or enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Recommended.

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