Lobo #7 (1994)

On Psoriasis-3, Biter Wylie and his gang are led onto the gallows before a merciless crowd. He scorns the onlookers for their judgement, telling them they should all try cannibalism. He tries to take one last bite from his executioners as the noose is slipped around his neck. The trapdoors snap open, but before the rope has reached its length, Lobo swoops in to severe it, rescuing the outlaw to Wylie's bewilderment. A miserable drunk is slumped against the wall of a filthy alleyway on Jim Beam's World. Three troublemakers arrive to mock "Ratty" and shoot the bottle in his hand. The inebriated Ratty recollects how there was a time he could have fashioned a weapon to take them out right then and there, before cutting his finger on the broken glass. The thugs laugh in his face and threaten to turn him in or put him out of his misery. Their attention is diverted when Lobo appears behind them. He guns down the three punks and walks off with the diminutive Ratty in hand. A guard outside the front of Penal Colony 412 finds himself sucking vacuum when a metal hook cracks his spacesuit. Inside the prison a sadistic interrogator is trying to compel Shaola into revealing the whereabouts of the jewels she stole. Too preoccupied preparing the hot iron with which he plans to sear the truth, he fails to notice an intruder culling his guards and freeing his captive. Shaola hurls a scaling poker of her own through the torturer's chest before Lobo hands her a helmet and blasts an exit from the penitentiary. Lobo pries apart the bars of a cage in the Galactik Zoo on Karoki, freeing an old acquaintance who's been hiding out. A large four-armed gorilla emerges and attacks its emancipator. Lobo tries to talk reason into the beast when, Gus, a two-armed gorilla in the next exhibit, calls out in a Scottish accent to free him once he's finished. High atop a mountain outcrop on Frontier World Z-113, Lobo sits down with Ma Barker in her homestead, swigging moonshine as he discusses hiring the services of her two boys. Lobo explains he's putting together a team for a big job, with a pay check of one million credits each. Ma agrees and unlocks her savage Cyclopean sons, Bob and Clyve, from their cave. Ma tells Lobo to give them a "severe lickin'" if they're troublesome as they board his ship. Lobo transports the confused miscreants to a large space spaceship to meet their mysterious benefactor. The masked man explains he selected them all because they are losers who squander their potential. This mission is a chance for them to redeem themselves and walk away with the biggest bonus they'll ever see. The stranger hands the briefing over to the robotic General Angrad of Planet Kannit, while he takes Lobo with him to talk privately. The mastermind removes his disguise and Lobo questions Vril Dox's need for theatrics when the mission is supposed to be suicide. Dox is just covering all his bases. If there are survivors, he can't risk exposing L.E.G.I.O.N. to the scandal of hiring outlaws for secret missions. The renegades on Kannit are too much for L.E.G.I.O.N. alone, and should they succeed, they could potentially spread their "foul doctrine" throughout the sector. Lobo knows Dox has to have a hidden agenda but he doesn't care, as long as Dox isn't double-crossing him. Entering Kannit's atmosphere, Lobo preps his team and hands out weapons. Biter Wylie thinks Lobo is a fool for handing him a gun and attempts to blast him in the face, resulting only in the hollow "click" of the trigger and the subsequent "krannch" of Wylie's nose. Lobo informs them they with receive their ammo once they're on the ground. In the thick of a war zone they'll have not choice but to rely on each other. The bay doors open and Lobo tells them to follow the General's lead as the android commander jumps, only to explode from incoming fire within seconds.