Time for an other "spur of the moment" blog. This time I'll be tackling the comic book poison many people know as Scott Lobdell. People wonder why DC keeps giving him work at this point? Is it cus he's friend with powerful people? Is he charming?..... Is that rumor about him blackmailing Didio true? But, I digress. I can't say I know much about the man, aside from a few scandals. I hear he's done some good work on X-Men and Red Hood (I liked his work on that, sue me). For this blog in particular I'll be focusing on his Superman run in the New 52. As the title suggests, he did make some good contributions that would have worked better in the hands of more skilled writers. So let's take a look, at sometimes this clock was right.

Honorable Mentions

Doomsday Virus

Despite it being a weak event, the concept of Doomed wasn't entirely all that bad. Specifically how Doomsday latches onto a new host (heck, it gave us Doomzarro) . I can't give full credit to Lobdell, since it was a team effort, so I can't truly say for sure who came up with the entire idea, but some of the upgrades weren't that bad either. In the end, I can only speak as an aspiring writer, but there is a story that could have totally been told as a sequel to these events. Especially if you keep that sassy inner Doomsday we saw in the pages of SM/WW. Now for the real list

Rich JImmy

This was done by him but it's so minor and a personal taste thing. I think in the right hands this could be some character defining stuff. Personally. I prefer the Rich Kid who doesn't want anything to do with his parents or their money, so he bailed, as opposed to some random kid from a small town trying to make it big.

Krypton's Rough Past

This would be on the main list, but much like the Doomsday Virus, it's not entirely certain this was all him, and it's more about the implication of her words. In Byrne's run, the Kryptonians did come off as arrogant. This more implies that Kryptonians weren't well liked at all. You fuse both these things, and that's how I'd love to see the Kryptonians (relax, I don't mean Superman). Often at times, Kryptonians just feel like future humans, not very alien at all. If given a chance, I would make Kryptonian arrogance a major part of their history. Now for the real list...

3) H'el

Originally intended to be a Zod/Bizarro fusion, comes the New 52 Rogue H'El. He's at the bottom of the list for a reason, since I can't really talk that much about him, but he is a cool looking villain with some good motivations. I liked both origins he had, and thought the tragedy added some good motivation as a villain. He was smart and a powerful threat. Plus, you gotta admit. H'ell might be a cheesey name but it's pretty dope.

2) Teen Doom

This is the complete opposite of H'El. While H'El was superficially cool, but with very little to offer storywise, this is a horrid design but ripe with potential. Some may look at this book and all they see is Lobdell trying to write Peter Parker. but you gotta look deeper than that. Teen Doom is a character that I would have loved to see become a Part of the Superman Family, alas he'll most likely get swept under the rug. Similar to Pre 52 Superboy, who was part cloned from Lex's DNA, this has that same level of irony, except deadlier. The powers of the being who killed the Man of Steel, have now been passed onto a human. Even if this person has the best intentions, the rage can possibly overcome him and maybe it'll be too much for him to handle. Can Superman ever come to trust someone so dangerous? Superman's Family should be weird and all over the place, so Teen Doom definitely fits. IMO, this character could come to rival anyone on the Superman Family in terms of importance and what they bring to the table.

1) Modern Day Journalism

Now we're getting somewhere. This is probably the biggest thing Lobdell did that went criminally underused and then ignored by Geoff Johns just so he can return to the same old song and dance that is the Daily Planet. But before I loose my shit over the laziness that was Johns arc, let me explain. Things may get a big boring and technical, but it has to do with the state of the media. Lobdell had the idea to have Clark quit after the Daily Planet became less about telling the news and more about selling papers. This mirrors today's media in which it has become rampant with corruption, lack of ethics and sensationalism.

Okay, so no one is exactly reading Superman comics for the Day to day of a dying medium. Kids aren't opening up comics and shouting "F**K YEAH! NEWS!". That being said. it's still an integral part of the characters mythos, and it should be a subject he tackles. It should appall someone with a small town upbringing and possibly even someone who grew up wanting to be a journalist (in my head canon it should kinda be a factor as to why he still works there).

Here's where a lot of people get it wrong or dumb down the situation. When Clark quit, Cat Grant wanted to start a blog with Clark. Not bad, a humble way to start and fight the ma-PEOPLE LOST THEIR SHIT! It seems they stopped reading when the word Blog was mentioned. and they acted as if he was a hipster or trying to be edgy/cool (even the CV podcast said that). Clark isn't tweeting or trying to get famous. he just wants to be an honest journalist. Some of the biggest scoops and information getting out there has been done online by whistle blowers or online groups. If Clark put on an Guy Fawkes mask and told Metropolis about corruption in City Council, would that really make it better? It's not the execution that you should be focusing on, but the message.

There was so much that could have been done, and you could have easily made this into a huge journey for Clark. From roughing it, to making it big, to handling their new found fame, and maybe his eventual return to the DP. It's a classic tale of Man VS the Machine, while also changing up the dynamics for a bit. So, did Lobdell make it work?..... of course not. It felt like he forgot about it honestly, Soule did some stuff with it, as did Pak for like one issue, but for the most part it was either underused or he'd start something with it and then just forget to finish up the storyline. I can kinda get why Johns did what he did, but it was the lazy execution as well as his mediocre arc that made it all the more infuriating.

Whoooooo boy! That was a long segment for that last one. you can tell that's the one I'm most passionate about. I do wanna clarify that I don't think that Lobdell was a good writer, just simply saying that even he had some good ideas even though he failed with the execution. Anyway, that'll be all for this Blog. Hope you enjoy it and comment below!