Scott Lobdell

Scott Lobdell (born 1960) is an American comic book writer. He also wrote the script to the 2017 slasher film Happy Death Day.

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 1990s Lobdell became known for his work on Marvel Comics' X-Men-related titles, specifically Uncanny X-Men, the main title itself, and the spin-off series that he conceived with artist Chris Bachalo, Generation X. He wrote the first 28 issues of Generation X, and at one point was writing both main X-Men titles for a lengthy run. Generation X focused on a number of young mutant students who attempted to become superheroes in their own right at a separate school with the guidance of veteran X-related characters Banshee and Emma Frost. He also had runs with the Excalibur and X-Factor titles. Scott Lobell was the primary creative force behind most of the major X-title related storylines, especially the major cross-overs, 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". He returned briefly to Marvel in 2001, to try and tie up loose ends he left behind and wrote one last storyline, dubbed "Eve of Destruction".

Many of the concepts and even characters created by Scott Lobdell and fellow X-Men writer Fabian Nicieza were used throughout the run of the popular 1990s X-Men: The Animated Series. Lobdell is even referenced in episode #46 of the show, "One Man's Worth", where he poses as a human used to fuel Trevor Fitzroy's mutant power to travel through time. The scene shows Master Mold saying "Lobdell, I have a job for you." He is then grabbed by Fitzroy, who absorbs his life energy and creates a time portal.

Lobdell had writing stints on Marvel's Daredevil, Alpha Flight and The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini-series with artist Gene Ha. He also wrote several of the first issues of the "Heroes Reborn" reboots of both Iron Man and Fantastic Four.

Lobdell was responsible for having the Marvel Comics character Northstar come out as a homosexual. While the character's orientation had been hinted at previously by other writers, Marvel had a "no openly gay characters" policy in place during the Jim Shooter editorial years. Lobdell broke from this having Northstar out himself publicly as a gay superhero in order to bring attention to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Royalties from that issue were donated to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. He would later introduce the first new gay superhero of DC's New 52 relaunch, codenamed Bunker, to the Teen Titans lineup. This would be the most prominent gay character in the team's history since Hero Cruz joined Titans LA [for a single issue].

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.

As of August 2008, Lobdell is 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.

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. and a new Teen Titans comic starring Red Robin, Superboy, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and three new characters. His run on Teen Titans ended with Volume 4 Issue 30, the series was relaunched soon afterwards with writer Will Pfeifer and art provided by Kenneth Rocafort. The team now comprises Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Bunker and new members Raven and Beast Boy.

On July 19, 2011 Lobdell announced a creator-owned book called Awesome that he was working on in conjunction with Ilias Kyriazis.

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.

Personal life
During a Q&A for The New 52 and his career as a writer, he has answered a question about why he does not have a social media outlet any more. His reasons for this include his accidental spillover from his personal to professional life and his run-in with Ron Marz on Twitter over Miles Morales and the Man of Steel casting of Laurence Fishburne as Perry White.

Controversy
In 2011, his portrayal of Starfire in the first issue of Red Hood And The Outlaws came under fire. The writing of the character was scrutinized by comics media and fans. Mathew Peterson of MajorSpoilers.com stated that a "juvenile treatment of sexual matters here renders one of the main characters into nothing more than a punch line, and in a book with only three characters, that’s unforgivable," referring specifically to its sexualized portrayal of Starfire as a "'perfect-10 love doll imaginary girlfriend'". Andrew Hunsaker of Craveonline.com said that writer Lobdell's take on Tamaraneans (Starfire's race) "has reduced Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran into essentially a highly advanced Real Doll. Complete with installing a lack of memory of anything related to humanity." Hunsaker further opined that it "seems as if Lobdell has taken great pains to strip all the emotional motivation behind Kori's gregarious outlook and reduce her to nothing more than a sex vessel. It is pretty insulting not only to women, but to male intelligence to boot."

Laura Hudson, editor-in-chief of ComicsAlliance, wrote that "There's a difference between writing a female character as sexually liberated, and writing her as wish-fulfillment sex object, but Starfire sure is making a case for the latter in [a] charmless scene" wherein Starfire defends her offer to have sex with one of the characters by saying that "love has nothing to do with it". Hudson also cited this characterization of Starfire in a later article, remarking that portrayals of women as sexual objects "don't support sexually liberated women; they undermine them".

Lobdell also received criticism for attacking Ron Marz on social media. Lobdell accused Marz of having a "brain tumor" when Marz denounced racism on his Twitter.

In 2013, Scott Lobdell admitted to sexually harassing comic book artist/writer MariNaomi on stage during the Prism Comics Panel at Long Beach Comic Con. MariNaomi submitted an article to XoJane discussing how she felt harassed by a fellow panelist when he questioned her sexuality on stage, made offensive comments about her appearance and Asian racial features, and made sexually inappropriate jokes about her during the panel. MariNaomi did not name her harasser, but Scott Lobdell later admitted that he was the panelist in question, and issued an apology to MariNaomi through Heidi MacDonald, chief editor of ComicsBeat.com.