Here is the Claw!
In the Hellboy universe, an interesting hero-pulp inspired character that soon came to prominence is Lobster Johnson. His first appearance was in a short story called “The Killer Inside My Head” and is set in the late 1930s. Here, working with a single assistant, he is after a strange killer.
This story introduces us to this mysterious character. He is dressed in a leather outfit that includes a leather helmet and goggles (which may be some form of night vision goggles). He has a belt with smoke grenades and a .45 automatic. On his chest is a large lobster claw, and he is able to burn this symbol onto the foreheads of the bad guys he kills using one of his gloves. This is similar to The Spider‘s red spider stamp.
When he is introduced into the main Hellboy storyline, he is a ghost. He appears as such in the Hellboy mini-series/graphic novel “Conqueror Worm” and helps Hellboy and Roger the Homunculus defeat the evil in Hunte Castle, which was where Lobster Johnson was killed leading a group of U.S. soldiers to stop the Nazi space program in 1939. For several more storylines in the B.P.R.D. series he appears as a very powerful ghost. Soon we would get stories of him set in the 1930s and learn more of his history. But not all of it.
So far, we have had four Lobster Johnson collections of stories set in the 1930s.
We now know that properly, he is called “The Lobster.” The “Lobster Johnson” name was created much later by the makers of masked Mexican wrestling movies. In the 1930s, he assembled a group of assistants (like the Shadow) who sadly most were killed after he went up against Fu Manchu-like villain Memnan Saa (in the first Lobster Johnson series). However, we don’t know who the Lobster really is. Hints about his origin are given in the most recent mini-series/graphic novel, “Get the Lobster.” Whether we will ever receive his origin will remain to be seen.
In addition to the four collections, a novel, “The Satan Factory,” was published in 2009.
While I am not aware of any immediate plans for additional Lobster Johnson stories, but would expect that we will see more. If you enjoy Hellboy (or even if you don’t), check out this original pulp-inspired character.
