Lobster Johnson (also known as The Lobster or The Claw) is a
fictional character
In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...
featured in the ''
Hellboy
Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers ...
'' and ''
Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense
The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (the B.P.R.D. or BPRD) 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 ...
''
comic books
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
published by
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known ...
. He was created by
Mike Mignola
Mike Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comics 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'', '' Wit ...
.
Within the ''
Hellboy
Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers ...
'' universe, the Lobster was a
vigilante
Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without Right, legal authority.
A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a pers ...
who worked in secret in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
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
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization a ...
and burning his trademark
lobster
Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...
claw
A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or tarsus ...
symbol into their foreheads with the palm of his gloved hand. This behavior was similar to the
Marvel UK
Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US-produced stories for the British weekly comic market. Marvel UK later produced original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Di ...
comic book character
Night Raven
Night Raven is a fictional superhero appearing primarily in Marvel UK Comics, a division of Marvel Comics.
Night Raven first appeared in ''Hulk Comic'' #1 (March 7, 1979 in comics, 1979).
Publication history
Originally created by editors Dez Ski ...
, the
Phantom
Phantom may refer to:
* Spirit (animating force), the vital principle or animating force within all living things
** Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living
Aircraft
* Boeing Phantom Ray, a stealthy un ...
and the
pulp magazine
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...
hero
The Spider
The Spider is an American pulp-magazine hero of the 1930s and 1940s. The character was created by editor Harry Steeger and written by a variety of authors for 118 monthly issues of '' The Spider'' from 1933 to 1943. A 119th Spider novel manuscr ...
.
Lobster Johnson appeared in the 2019 ''
Hellboy
Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers ...
'' reboot, portrayed by
Thomas Haden Church
Thomas Haden Church (born Thomas Richard McMillen; June 17, 1960) is an American actor. After starring in the 1990s sitcom ''Wings'' and playing the lead for two seasons in ''Ned & Stacey'' (1995–1997)'','' Church became known for his film work, ...
.
Fictional biography
Life and death
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
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Together they fought against gangsters, spies, and the like. 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. 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
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...
, a chance to lay some ghosts to rest.
[''BPRD: The Black Goddess'']
Aided by a new sidekick, the Lobster spent the late 1930s combating the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
threat to the United States. One of his unsuccessful missions involved the escape of a Nazi criminal in
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
who destroyed a train full of scientists bound for
the Manhattan Project, resulting in the death of his sidekick.
[''BPRD: Night Train'']
The Lobster's final mission was an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Nazis from launching a space capsule at Hunte Castle,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, 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
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.''
Character biography
A German scientist born in 1885 Frankfurt, vo ...
and one German soldier, there were no survivors, including the Lobster himself.
Legacy
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.
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
Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components and elements of a book into a coherent unit. In the words of renowned typographer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974), book design, "though ...
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''.
Afterlife
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
Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers ...
(a lifelong Lobster fan) and
Roger
Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...
the
homunculus
A homunculus ( , , ; "little person") is a representation of a small human being, originally depicted as small statues made out of clay. Popularized in sixteenth-century alchemy and nineteenth-century fiction, it has historically referred to the ...
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
Johann Kraus is a fictional character in the comic book series ''Hellboy'', created by Mike Mignola. He is featured in the comic book '' B.P.R.D.'', published by Dark Horse Comics. Kraus is a disembodied ectoplasmic spirit with psychic abiliti ...
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.
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.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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.
Skills and abilities
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.
Publication history
Issues
''Lobster Johnson'' has an internal numbering on the inside cover of its issues.
Trade Paperbacks
Appearances outside the ''Lobster Johnson'' series
*''
Hellboy: Box Full of Evil'' (2 issues, August–September, 1999) by Mike Mignola,
Matthew Dow Smith
Matthew Dow Smith (sometimes credited as Matthew Smith) is an People of the United States, American Comic book creator, comic book artist.
Bibliography
* ''Astronauts in Trouble: Live From the Moon'' #1 and #2
* ''Bad Luck Chuck'' #1-5 (Dark Ho ...
&
Ryan Sook
Ryan Sook is an American comic book artist, known for his work on books such as ''Seven Soldiers: Zatanna'', ''X-Factor'' and '' The Spectre''. His style has been compared to that of Mike Mignola, Adam Hughes, and Kevin Nowlan.
Career
Sook's fir ...
.
*''
Hellboy: Conqueror Worm'' (4 issues, May–August 2001) by Mike Mignola.
*''
B.P.R.D.: Night Train'' (1 issue, September 17, 2003) by
Geoff Johns
Geoffrey Johns (born January 25, 1973) is an American comic book writer, screenwriter, and film and television producer. Johns's work on the DC Comics characters Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash and Superman, has drawn critical acclaim.
He serve ...
,
Scott Kolins
Scott Kolins is an American illustrator, writer, and creator of multiple different superhero and science fiction comic books. His main credits are as a penciler but he is an established inker as well as colorist and has some credits as a writer. ...
&
Dave Stewart.
*''B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground'' (5 issues, August–December 2007) by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis.
*''B.P.R.D.: The Black Goddess'' (5 issues) by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Guy Davis.
*''B.P.R.D.: King of Fear'' (5 issues, January–May 2010) by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Guy Davis.
Other media
Film
''Hellboy: Blood and Iron'' (2007)
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. After the credits, there is a teaser for the unproduced third film ''The Phantom Claw'', where he would have helped Hellboy and
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 ...
in battling the ghost of
Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus ga ...
.
''Hellboy II: The Golden Army'' (2008) and ''Hellboy III''
Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and actor. He directed the Academy Award–winning fantasy films ''Pan's Labyrinth'' (2006) and ''The Shape of Water'' (2017), winning the Academy Awards for Be ...
planned to feature Johnson in ''
Hellboy II: The Golden Army'', but was cut due to
Mike Mignola
Mike Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comics 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'', '' Wit ...
'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.
''Hellboy'' (2019)
Johnson was featured in ''
Hellboy
Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers ...
'' (2019), portrayed by
Thomas Haden Church
Thomas Haden Church (born Thomas Richard McMillen; June 17, 1960) is an American actor. After starring in the 1990s sitcom ''Wings'' and playing the lead for two seasons in ''Ned & Stacey'' (1995–1997)'','' Church became known for his film work, ...
in a flashback and mid-credits scene.
Miscellaneous
* In 2007, Dark Horse produced a magnet that bore Lobster Johnson's animated design, based on his brief appearance in ''Hellboy: Blood and Iron''.
* A novel centered around the Lobster, ''Lobster Johnson: The Satan Factory'' by
Thomas E. Sniegoski, was released in July 2009.
* The Lobster is mentioned in an intro dialogue between Hellboy and
Jay Garrick
Jason Peter "Jay" Garrick is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the first superhero known as Flash (DC Comics character), the Flash. The character was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert. ...
in ''
Injustice 2
''Injustice 2'' is a 2017 fighting game, fighting video game it is the sequel to 2013's ''Injustice: Gods Among Us'' and is the second installment in the ''Injustice (franchise), Injustice'' franchise based upon the DC Universe. It is developed ...
''.
References
External links
Review of ''Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus'' #1 Comics Bulletin
Comics Bulletin was a daily website covering the American comic-book industry.
History Silver Bullet Comicbooks
The site was founded in January 2000 as Silver Bullet Comicbooks by its New Zealand-based publisher/editor Jason Brice.
During this ...
Jason Armstrong Cooks with Lobster Johnson Comics Bulletin
Comics Bulletin was a daily website covering the American comic-book industry.
History Silver Bullet Comicbooks
The site was founded in January 2000 as Silver Bullet Comicbooks by its New Zealand-based publisher/editor Jason Brice.
During this ...
, October 24, 2007
Review of Lobster Johnson The Satan Factory Killer-Works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Lobster
Dark Horse Comics superheroes
Dark Horse Comics film characters
Fictional characters from New York City
Fictional Nazi hunters
Fictional World War II veterans
Hellboy characters
Comics characters introduced in 1999
Characters created by Mike Mignola
Vigilante characters in comics