The Lobster | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Dark Horse Comics |
First appearance | Hellboy: Box of Evil #1 (August 1999) |
Created by | Mike Mignola |
In-story information | |
Species | Human |
Notable aliases | The Claw |
Lobster Johnson (also known as The Lobster or The Claw) is a fictional character featured in the Hellboy and Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. He was created by Mike Mignola.
Within the Hellboy universe, the Lobster was a vigilante who worked in secret in New York City during the 1930s. Although the public believes that the Lobster was only the hero of pulp serials and comics, he was a real man who faced gangsters as well as paranormal threats. The Lobster had a reputation for violence, such as killing mobsters and burning his trademark lobster claw symbol into their foreheads with the palm of his gloved hand. This behavior was similar to the Marvel UK comic book character Night Raven, the Phantom and the pulp magazine hero The Spider.
Lobster Johnson appeared in the 2019 Hellboy reboot, portrayed by Thomas Haden Church.
The Lobster started his career in 1932, working with a small but trusted group of allies out of a secret base in the sewers of New York City. Together they fought against gangsters, spies, and the like. [1] In 1937 the gang came up against one of their most imposing enemies to date - the inscrutable and immeasurably powerful Memnan Saa, during the case of the Iron Prometheus. [2] Though the Lobster and his allies escaped the confrontation with their lives, tragedy dogged them thereafter as they continued to research his crimes and history. One by one, the Lobster's allies met various gruesome and mysterious ends, until the Lobster called off the search. The deaths seemed to weigh heavy on his conscience - always a quiet man, he became increasingly cold and taciturn. Not long after this, he accepted an offer of employment from the United States Government, a chance to lay some ghosts to rest. [3]
Aided by a new sidekick, the Lobster spent the late 1930s combating the Nazi threat to the United States. One of his unsuccessful missions involved the escape of a Nazi criminal in Colorado who destroyed a train full of scientists bound for the Manhattan Project, resulting in the death of his sidekick. [4]
The Lobster's final mission was an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Nazis from launching a space capsule at Hunte Castle, Austria, on 20 March 1939. Arriving seconds too late to stop the launch itself, he managed to force the roof of Hunte Castle closed, but the capsule burst through regardless. The subsequent explosion and fire completely gutted the castle. Besides Nazi scientist Herman von Klempt and one German soldier, there were no survivors, including the Lobster himself. [5]
According to B.P.R.D. Director Tom Manning (in The Conqueror Worm), Lobster Johnson was a fictional character created in the pulp magazines and made briefly popular in a couple of movies such as The Phantom Jungle (Republic, 1945), in which he was portrayed by Vic Williams. [6] In the backup materials of The Iron Prometheus, we learn of his appearances in pulp magazines, comic books, movie serials, and masked Mexican wrestling movies. It is revealed that the character is properly called "The Lobster". "Johnson" was the last name of his alter ego, crippled millionaire Walter Johnson, created by the author of the pulp stories. It was the masked Mexican wrestling movies that combined the names as "Lobster Johnson".
"Latchkey Memories from Crab Point" is a memoir by Guy Davis, presented in the back matter to the B.P.R.D.: The Black Goddess trade paperback, in which he recounts childhood memories of seeing "the cut-up and dubbed version of the Mexican Lobster Johnson films!" presented on children's after-school television as a black-and-white serial called The Masked Claw. [7]
Death was not the end for the Lobster. The Lobster's ghost was one of the strongest yet seen in the Hellboy universe. He was completely corporeal when he chose to be, firing his pistol with deadly effect and burning his sign into the forehead of his victims. It would appear that the Lobster's death greatly increased his powers, as opposed to the Ghost of Rasputin, who was rendered almost immaterial by his death at Abe Sapien's hands.
In 2001, Hellboy (a lifelong Lobster fan) and Roger the homunculus encountered his ghost in the haunted ruins of Hunte Castle, beginning a long association between the Lobster and the BPRD, and with Roger and Johann Kraus in particular. The Lobster was instrumental in helping them defeat Rasputin, the Conqueror Worm and Hermann von Klempt, completing in death the mission he had failed to do in life. [8]
Having seemingly formed some bond with Roger during the mission, it was to the homunculus that he next appeared, when in 2003 he helped Roger and Liz Sherman resolve another of his failed missions - bringing to justice the elderly German saboteur in Colorado. [4] The Lobster was quiet for some time after this, although his ghostly presence was half-felt by Johann several times in the basement of the BPRD's new WWII-era base in the Colorado mountains. [9]
It was not until his old adversary Memnan Saa began to make his presence felt to the BPRD during the war against Sadu Hem's frog monsters that he returned in earnest; briefly taking possession of Johann's ectoplasm in the wake of Ben Daimio's disastrous end of relations with the team to break the hold Saa had gained over Liz. [10] With something of his past association with Saa thus revealed, the team held a séance not long afterwards in which his spirit gave them their first clues in the search for Saa, using the information he had uncovered decades before in his investigations. [11] When the BPRD finally traced Saa to his base somewhere on the Stanovoy Ridge, the Lobster again took possession of Johann's form in the closing moments of the denouement in an attempt to defeat his old nemesis. [3] With all his business on earth thus concluded, Kate took him back to Hunte Castle in Austria, where he relinquished his hold on Johann's ectoplasm and rejoined the ghostly throng inhabiting the castle - having found his own sort of peace in an afterlife where he could continue his battle against Nazis and the forces of evil forever after. [12]
The Lobster was an expert combatant. He usually wielded either one or two pistols, but he had used a submachine gun on at least one occasion. He showed skill with both weapons. The Lobster had also occasionally used other weapons such as swords, spears, or even the leg of a broken chair. He was also shown to be a proficient unarmed fighter.
The Lobster somehow remained alive after explosions and possibly being hit by gunfire in Lobster Johnson: The Burning Hand #2. There has not yet been any explanation of the Lobster's powers, however.
In the stories set in the 1930s, the Lobster possessed technology that was advanced for its time. He had used a bulletproof vest on at least one occasion, and he also used a radio that was small enough to be built into his helmet. It is not shown in the comics who invented these.
Lobster Johnson has an internal numbering on the inside cover of its issues.
Issue | Title | Date | Story | Art | Colors | Cover | Collection |
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#1 | The Iron Prometheus | September 5, 2007 | Mike Mignola | Jason Armstrong | Dave Stewart | Mike Mignola |
|
#2 | October 3, 2007 | ||||||
#3 | November 7, 2007 | ||||||
#4 | December 5, 2007 | ||||||
#5 | January 2, 2008 | ||||||
#6 | The Burning Hand | January 11, 2012 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Tonci Zonjic | Dave Stewart | Dave Johnson Mike Mignola (variant) |
|
#7 | February 8, 2012 | Dave Johnson | |||||
#8 | March 14, 2012 | ||||||
#9 | April 11, 2012 | Dave Johnson Mike Mignola (variant) | |||||
#10 | May 9, 2012 | Dave Johnson | |||||
#11 | The Prayer of Neferu | August 22, 2012 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Wilfredo Torres | Dave Stewart | Tonci Zonjic |
|
#12 | Caput Mortuum | September 19, 2012 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Tonci Zonjic | Dave Stewart | Tonci Zonjic | |
#13 | Satan Smells a Rat | May 22, 2013 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Kevin Nowlan | |||
#14 | A Scent of Lotus | July 24, 2013 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Sebastián Fiumara | Dave Stewart | Tonci Zonjic | |
#15 | August 21, 2013 | ||||||
#16 | Get the Lobster | February 5, 2014 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Tonci Zonjic | Dave Stewart | Tonci Zonjic |
|
#17 | March 5, 2014 | ||||||
#18 | April 2, 2014 | ||||||
#19 | June 4, 2014 | ||||||
#20 | August 13, 2014 | ||||||
#21 | A Chain Forged In Life | July 29, 2015 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Troy Nixey | Dave Stewart | Tonci Zonjic |
|
Kevin Nowlan (framing sequence) | |||||||
#22 | The Glass Mantis | December 30, 2015 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Toni Fejzula | Dave Stewart | Tonci Zonjic | |
#23 | The Forgotten Man | April 6, 2016 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Peter Snejbjerg | Dave Stewart | Tonci Zonjic | |
#24 | Metal Monsters of Midtown | May 25, 2016 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Tonci Zonjic | Dave Stewart | Tonci Zonjic |
|
#25 | June 29, 2016 | ||||||
#26 | July 27, 2016 | ||||||
#27 | Garden of Bones | January 11, 2017 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Stephen Green | Dave Stewart | Tonci Zonjic |
|
#28 | The Pirate's Ghost | March 29, 2017 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Tonci Zonjic |
| ||
#29 | April 26, 2017 | ||||||
#30 | May 31, 2017 | ||||||
#31 | Mangekyō | August 2, 2017 | Mike Mignola and John Arcudi | Ben Stenbeck | Dave Stewart | Tonci Zonjic |
|
Number | Title | Collects | Published | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus |
| June 18, 2008 | 9781593079758 |
2 | Lobster Johnson: The Burning Hand |
| November 14, 2012 | 9781616550318 |
3 | Lobster Johnson: Satan Smells a Rat |
| February 12, 2014 | 9781616552039 |
4 | Lobster Johnson: Get the Lobster |
| December 17, 2014 | 9781616551995 |
5 | Lobster Johnson: The Pirate's Ghost and Metal Monsters of Midtown |
| December 13, 2017 | 9781506702063 |
6 | Lobster Johnson: A Chain Forged in Life |
| March 7, 2018 | 9781506701783 |
Lobster Johnson has a brief cameo in the second animated Hellboy film, Blood and Iron appearing during a flashback scene showing Hellboy's birth and Malcolm Frost's reaction to the creature. [13] After the credits, there is a teaser for the unproduced third film The Phantom Claw, where he would have helped Hellboy and Kate Corrigan in battling the ghost of Rasputin.
Guillermo del Toro planned to feature Johnson in Hellboy II: The Golden Army , but was cut due to Mike Mignola's wish to remain true to the character's origin. Del Toro has stated that Johnson would have appeared in the unproduced Hellboy III and expressed interest in casting Bruce Campbell in the role. [14]
Johnson was featured in Hellboy (2019), portrayed by Thomas Haden Church in a flashback and mid-credits scene. [15]
Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2, and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers. The character has been adapted into three live-action feature films — two starring Ron Perlman in 2004 and 2008 in the title role, and one in 2019 which starred David Harbour, as well as two straight-to-DVD animated films, again starring Perlman, and three video games — Asylum Seeker, The Science of Evil, and as a playable character in Injustice 2.
The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is a fictional organization in the comic book work of Mike Mignola, founded by the United States and United Kingdom governments, charged with researching the occult, paranormal and supernatural, and defending against their dangers. The B.P.R.D. originally appeared in the Hellboy comics and has since been a major part of its expanded universe.
Abraham Sapien, born Langdon Everett Caul, is a fictional character in the comic book series Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola. He takes his name from "Ichthyo sapien", the fanciful species designation chosen for him by his colleagues in the 19th-century Oannes Club, and from Abraham Lincoln, on whose assassination date the Oannes Club abandoned Abe's body in a suspended animation tank beneath a Washington D.C. hospital, leaving only a cryptic note as explanation. He is occasionally referred to as an "amphibious man."
Mike Mignola is an American comic book artist and writer best known for creating Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including B.P.R.D., Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, and various spin-offs. He has also created other supernatural and paranormal themed titles for Dark Horse including Baltimore, Joe Golem, and The Amazing Screw-On Head.
Elizabeth Anne "Liz" Sherman is a fictional character appearing in the Hellboy comic book series created by Mike Mignola. A firestarter, she becomes a ward of the B.P.R.D. at age 11 after burning her family to death in a traumatic accident. Sherman later hones her abilities and becomes a longtime field agent for the Bureau alongside Hellboy and Abe Sapien.
Hellboy: Conqueror Worm is a Hellboy comic book mini-series, written and drawn by Mike Mignola and published by Dark Horse Comics.
The Ogdru Jahad are fictional supervillains in Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic series. They are the Dragon of Revelation, and are destined to end the world. Though the Ogdru Jahad are the central antagonists of the franchise, they are not active. Their release from imprisonment instead being the object of many other villains' plans, namely Mad Monk Grigori Rasputin and the Neo-Nazi Thule Society and former Merlinean sorceress turned evil Nimue, the Blood Queen. They were imprisoned in their Golden Cocoons by the Right Hand of Doom shortly after the creation of Earth, but not before they spawned 369 children, known as the Ogdru Hem.
Karl Ruprect Kroenen is a fictional supervillain in the Hellboy comic book series, created by Mike Mignola.
The Ogdru Hem are fictional supervillains in the Hellboy universe. After awakening, the demonic Ogdru Jahad gave birth to the 369 Ogdru Hem. The Ogdru Hem are essentially weaker versions of their parents, but even so they wield unimaginable power. All of the Ogdru Hem were imprisoned by the Watchers, but many are now re-emerging, with the aid of Rasputin and other agents of the Ogdru Jahad.
John Arcudi is an American comic book writer, best known for his work on The Mask and B.P.R.D., and his series Major Bummer.
Roger the Homunculus is a fictional character featured in the Hellboy and B.P.R.D. comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. He is an unusually large homunculus, a humanoid being said to be created by means of alchemy. Initially revived by Liz Sherman, Roger is one of the early supporting characters of the "Mignola-verse", appearing alongside other "enhanced" B.P.R.D. agents including Sherman, Abe Sapien and Johann Kraus under Dr. Kate Corrigan.
Katherine Corrigan is a fictional character from the Hellboy and B.P.R.D. comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics and created by Mike Mignola. Her appearance is based on Mignola's wife, Christine. Within the world of the comics, dubbed the "Mignola-verse", Corrigan acts as B.P.R.D. field leader to "enhanced" agents including Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Roger the Homunculus, Liz Sherman and Johann Kraus.
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin is a fictional supervillain in the comic book series Hellboy. The character was created by Mike Mignola and John Byrne, and was based on the real life Russian mystic of the same name. Rasputin serves as the second archenemy of Hellboy after the Ogdru Jahad.
Hellboy is a 2004 American superhero film based on the Dark Horse Comics character of the same name, created by Mike Mignola. Directed and written by Guillermo del Toro, it is the first live-action entry in the franchise. The film stars Ron Perlman in the title role, alongside Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, Karel Roden, Rupert Evans, and John Hurt. The film draws inspiration from the debut comic Hellboy: Seed of Destruction. In the film, a charismatic demon-turned-investigator named "Hellboy" works with the secretive Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense to suppress paranormal threats, but a resurrected sorcerer seeks to make Hellboy fulfill his destiny by triggering the apocalypse.
Herman von Klempt is a fictional supervillain created by writer/artist Mike Mignola for the Dark Horse Comics series Hellboy. He first appeared in the Comics Buyer's Guide.
Hellboy: Wake the Devil is a five-issue comic book mini-series in the Hellboy franchise, conceived and illustrated by Mike Mignola and published by Dark Horse Comics. Various elements and sections of plot were later used in the animated film Hellboy: Blood and Iron.
Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others is the third trade paperback collection in the Hellboy series created by Mike Mignola, published by Dark Horse Comics on August 5, 1998. The book collects various mini-series, one-shots and back-up features featuring the fictional paranormal detective Hellboy.
The Hellboy Universe is the fictional universe of the Hellboy comic and its various spinoffs, created by Mike Mignola. Its first appearance was in a black-and-white, four-page promotional comic by Mike Mignola with a script by John Byrne published by Dark Horse Comics in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2, distributed at the San Diego Comic-Con. The Hellboy Universe currently spans over eighty trade paperbacks. It is also sometimes informally called the "Mignolaverse".
B.P.R.D.: The Black Flame is the fifth trade paperback collection in the B.P.R.D. series.