Record: Scott Lobdell

Some may know writer Scott Lobdell for his writing assignments on the X-Men franchise in the 1990s, though he hasn't had much to do with it in a quarter century, if at all. Lobdell began his career at Marvel in the late 1980s, with one of his first stories published in the 1988-95 Marvel Comics Presents anthology, and the most significant contribution he made to the X-franchise was the 1994-2001 Generation X series. In the late 2000s/early 2010s, he wrote for DC, long past a time it could've mattered. Some of his stories are in very questionable taste, and what's really troubling since was the discovery he'd committed sexual harrassment against an artist named MariNaomi at a Prism Comics panel at the Long Beach Comicon, and isn't that odd indeed he'd do that at a panel dedicated to LGBT propaganda?!? Well anyway, here's at least a handful of examples from his stories of the past near-4 decades that might even explain what's wrong with his stances on women.

• If we take the Rogue/Gambit relationship in X-Men as an example, there were at least a few parts in the X-Men where Rogue was shunning Gambit's advances because she didn't want guilt on her conscience of injuring somebody with her siphoning powers. That she'd be scared of causing hurt and injury in itself may be an understandable position, but under Lobdell, any story he wrote where that could occur may be looked upon now somewhat differently, as the guy could be portrayed running the gauntlet of sexual harrassment and intimidation of the lady.
• As some may know, Lobdell wrote several issues of Alpha Flight, the superhero series set in Canada, and the story in issue #106 where Northstar was first telling vocally that he's homosexual. But perhaps lesser known is that traces of Lobdell's regrettable contempt for women may have appeared in said 1983-94 series too, as under Lobdell's pen, Northstar's sister, Aurora, was reverted back to her odd split personality depiction from early in the series, conceived by her creator John Byrne. There was even a story by Lobdell in issue #105 where Aurora and the other team women got arrested for getting drunk and causing damage in a male strip bar while battling the crooked Pink Pearl. Lobdell's characterization of Northstar - and the guest character Major Maple Leaf - was alarmingly heavy-handed, and simultaneously, his characterization of Aurora was too. It was certainly very poor. Lobdell wrote at least 7 issues, and in the long run, none of which did Alpha Flight any favors.
• Years later, when Lobdell was assigned to write Red Hood and the Outlaws, which came at a time when DC pointlessly tried to retcon away prior continuity under the awful Dan DiDio's shoddy management, Lobdell portrayed Starfire as some kind of absurd airhead, who asks Roy Harper/Arsenal (changed to Red Arrow at the time, IIRC) if he'd like to have sex with her, and when Roy asks if there's anything to know about why Tamaraneans like her are interested in sex, she replies that "just that love has nothing to do with it". It was embarrassingly bad and atrocious how a lady who was depicted being as intelligent as she was sexy was reduced to a brainless lemming who seemed to be trying to absurdly submit to almost any man she meets for his sake, but not hers. For all we know, Lobdell may have to shoulder some of the blame for how DC watered down Starfire's sex appeal for the sake of a woke agenda in the 2010s. And he probably doesn't give a damn at this point.

Since the turn of the decade, Lobdell's been mostly retired from comics writing. He may not have been the worst of his kind when it comes to personality and/or behavior, but he certainly alienated quite a few women years back with his rude attitude. Did he support LGBT ideology as much as he did years back to serve as a cover for his downside with the fairer sex? Questions like those are what some undoubtably are asking now.

If Lobdell's retired from comics writing for good, it's surely for the best at this point. From what's listed on his IMDB page, he might still have worked a bit in the film industry, and even contributed to one of the Batman productions of recent on TV. Whatever, his past resume, which includes at least a few horror-themed films, does nothing to improve perceptions of his mindset. It's obviously a shame he had to be as crude as he was in the past, and lead to a situation where one would have to separate the art from the artist, with his work on the aforementioned Generation X being one of the few comics he wrote that had any value to it. We can only hope he's learned some lessons by now, and that perhaps he'll be willing to practice being more of a gentleman, and show more serious remorse for his past mistakes involving women. But only time will truly tell.