Scott Lobdell (; born 1960) is an American comic book writer and screenwriter known for his work on numerous X-Men series for Marvel Comics in the 1990s, various work for DC Comics in the 2010s, namely Red Hood and the Outlaws, Teen Titans, and Superman, and comics for other publishers, including the Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers series by Papercutz or Fathom by Aspen MLT. He also wrote the script to the 2017 slasher film Happy Death Day.

Lobdell began reading comics at 17 and started his writing career in college. He became known for his work on Marvel Comics' X-Men-related titles in the 1990s, including Uncanny X-Men, Generation X, Excalibur, and X-Factor. Lobdell wrote for other Marvel series, such as Daredevil, Alpha Flight, and Iron Man, and addressed the HIV/AIDS epidemic through the Northstar character's coming out storyline. He returned to Marvel in 2001 and worked on other projects like Stan Lee's Mosaic and the Galaxy Quest series. Lobdell wrote for DC Comics, including Red Hood and the Outlaws, Teen Titans, and Flash Forward, but faced criticism for his portrayal of Starfire/Koriand'r. He has won industry recognition, including a nomination for the Comics Buyer's Guide Award for "Favorite Writer" in 1997. Lobdell faced controversy for a Twitter incident with Ron Marz and for sexually harassing comic book artist/writer MariNaomi during a panel at Long Beach Comic Con.

Career

Early career
Lobdell did not begin to read comics until he was 17 years old, while lying in bed after lung surgery. Later, he went to college to study psychology, but quit two years later when he began to write. While in college, he wrote for the college newspaper and interviewed Marvel editor Al Milgrom. Lobdell started submitting various stories to Marvel, but was systematically rejected by various editors, including Tom DeFalco. Later, DeFalco started editing Marvel Comics Presents (a bi-weekly book) requiring many writers, pencillers and inkers. Lobdell submitted a story about a character from Contest of Champions. Because the characters involved were rather obscure, DeFalco did not need to extract approval from other editors, and he decided to give Lobdell a chance.

Marvel Comics
In the 1990s, Lobdell worked on Marvel Comics' X-Men-related titles, specifically Uncanny X-Men and the spin-off series Generation X. He wrote the first 28 issues of Generation X along with runs on Excalibur and X-Factor. Lobdell was the primary creative force behind most of the major X-title related storylines throughout a majority of the 1990s, including "X-Cutioner's Song", "Fatal Attractions", "Phalanx Covenant", "Age of Apocalypse", the "Onslaught" saga, and "Operation: Zero Tolerance".

Lobdell had writing stints on Marvel's Daredevil, Alpha Flight, The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix and early issues of issues of Iron Man and Fantastic Four during the "Heroes Reborn" event. Lobdell wrote the 1992 issue of Alpha Flight in which the superhero Northstar – originally intended to be gay, but closeted by the publisher's existing policy against openly LGBT characters – declared that he is gay, in a storyline intended to also address the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Lobdell returned to Marvel in 2001 to conclude plots he left behind with one last storyline, "Eve of Destruction".

Other work
Lobdell wrote the script to Stan Lee's Mosaic and an upcoming film from POW! Entertainment featuring Ringo Starr. He also participated in the Marvel Comics and Image Comics (from Jim Lee's WildStorm) crossover mini-series WildC.A.T.s/X-Men.

In 2008 Lobdell became the regular writer for Galaxy Quest, a series published by IDW Publishing, with art by Ilias Kyriazis, centered on the eve of the relaunch of the Galaxy Quest series, now titled Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues.

To date, he has written the majority of The Hardy Boys Graphic Novel series by Papercutz.

Lobdell has also performed as a stand-up comedian.

Lobdell created Paranormal Activity: The Search for Katie with art from Mark Badger it was released in December 2009 on iPhone.

Lobdell wrote the screenplay for Blumhouse’s slasher film Happy Death Day. The film was released on October 13, 2017 by Universal Pictures.

Lobdell's original comic book series Ball and Chain sold to Netflix on May 14, 2020. The comic is being adapted into a feature film starring Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson and Emily Blunt. Emily V. Gordon is writing the screenplay.

DC Comics
In 2011, Lobdell took on the writing duties for Red Hood and the Outlaws, which debuted as part of DC Comics' company-wide title relaunch, The New 52. His portrayal of Starfire/Koriand'r in the first issue was criticized as shallow and sexist by some critics.

He also wrote a new Teen Titans comic starring Red Robin, Superboy, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, and three new characters, including the gay Hispanic superhero Bunker. His run on Teen Titans ended with Volume 4 Issue 30, the series was relaunched soon afterwards.

In 2019, Lobdell wrote a new Flash book focusing on Wally West following the limited series Heroes in Crisis, titled Flash Forward, which began publication in November.

Awards
His work has won him recognition in the comic books industry, such as a nomination for the Comics Buyer's Guide Award for "Favorite Writer" in 1997.

Controversy
In 2011, Lobdell explained that among the reasons he no longer had a social media presence was the unintended spillover from his personal to professional life, and a run-in he'd had with writer Ron Marz on Twitter. Lobdell had accused Marz of having a "brain tumor" in response to comments in which Marz characterized as "racist" complaints by some fans that Afro-Latino character Miles Morales would replace Peter Parker in Ultimate Spider-Man, and that African-American actor Laurence Fishburne had been cast as Perry White in the film Man of Steel.

In 2013, Lobdell admitted to sexually harassing comic book artist/writer MariNaomi on stage during a Prism Comics panel at Long Beach Comic Con. MariNaomi had submitted an article to XoJane describing how they had felt harassed by an unnamed fellow panelist, who had questioned their sexuality on stage, made offensive comments about their appearance and Asian features, and made sexually inappropriate jokes about them during the panel. Lobdell later identified himself as the panelist in question, and issued an apology to MariNaomi through Heidi MacDonald of ComicsBeat.com.

Bibliography

Comics
 Angel: Only Human
 The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (4-issue mini-series)
 Alpha Flight vol. 3 #1–12
 Ball and Chain (4-issue mini-series)
 Buffy the Vampire Slayer (with Fabian Nicieza) #47–59
 Daredevil #376–379
 The Darkness #23–38
 Excalibur #31, #35–41, #53, #58–60, #68–71, #75–82
 Fantastic Four #1–3, 4–5  (with Chris Claremont, 1998)
 Flash Forward #1-6
 Galaxy Quest #1–5
 Gen¹³ #45–54
 Generation X #1–28
 Ghostbusters: Displaced Aggression #1–4
 Iron Man #1–7 (1996)
 Manifest Eternity #1–6 (Wildstorm, 2006)
 Nightwing (vol.4) #51-58
 Red Hood and the Outlaws (vol. 1) #0–18,32-40, annual #2 (2011-2015), Red Hood and the Outlaws Rebirth #1, (vol. 2) #1-50, annual #1-3(retitled Red Hood: Outlaw)
 Red Hood/Arsenal (2015-2016)
 Uncanny X-Men #286–349, 350 (with Steven Seagle), #390–393
 Wildcats #1–9 (1997)
 X-Factor #90–95, #106
 X-Men (vol. 2) #6–11, #46–69, #110–113

Television and film
 Godzilla: The Series S2 ep.3 (1999)
 Man of the House (2005)
 Mosaic (2007)
 Happy Death Day (2017)
 Critters Attack! (2019)

References

External links

1963 births
Living people
American comics writers
Marvel Comics people
American male screenwriters