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[Variant cover by Dan Mora]

Crush is a new character in the DC Universe. Even though she was part of the Teen Titans for a bit, she still needs a writer with a vision to reach her full potential.Crush & Loboshows that’s what Mariko Tamaki can and hopefully will be for her. The solo series fully embraces the DC Pride initiative and gives us a few more sides of Crush on a very entertaining journey.

Space can be weird

Tamaki mentioned in oneinterviewthat working with letterer Ariana Maher and illustrators Amancay and Tamra has reminded her how ridiculously fun comics can be, which is easy to feel when readingCrush & Lobo. Every element is there to make it a pleasant read, from the vibrant colors to the narration and the characters. When narrating, Crush is a self-aware character; she constantly talks about the type of character she is, how ridiculous these situations are, and even thanks us for reading. But she doesn’t do that like Deadpool; it’s not a resource to make it seem like knows she’s in a comic book, it’s only a way to make her speak to the reader and turn the story into something even more enjoyable.

Tamaki also brings randomness to the comic, making everything funnier. You can find little details like Crush’s ringtone being her favorite scream, but there’s much more. Since the story is mostly set in space, Tamaki can be as weird as she wants and still make everything easily blend in. Chapter 3 starts with an alien mantis in a therapy group talking about feeling lonely after his mom ate his dad’s head. To me, this scene represents the peak of what “fun” is in this story, only maybe losing to Crush searching for Lobo and finding many people that strangely resemble him. It represents the potential you have in this kind of setting. Of course, you don’t need to be in space to create great jokes, but if you have that, use it. That really makes me excited for a sequel. I want to see the weirdness of space being used to the fullest. Be it with space lizards, fake Lobos, animals that should never have human emotions and strange daddy issues, Tamaki shows she can be creative and implement tons of elements to make a story more entertaining.

Crush: Maybe not the best girlfriend ever

Like many coming-of-age stories, Crush is an edgy teenager that doesn’t fit in and is in self-destruct mode. She just quit the Titans, doesn’t talk to any of them, and keeps beating aliens up for her whole day. Her only meaningful connection is with Katie, her girlfriend. The first chapter is the cutest thing ever; Katie seems like a really easy-going person that loves Crush. And both of them can be themselves around each other. Saying the dance scene (in the picture above) is beautiful is an understatement. That’s why I wanted to see a lot more of Crush and Katie hanging out and having fun together, but that’s not the point of the book.

在这一期的末尾以及整个系列中，你会意识到《Crush》在情感上是不可获得的，并且并未多次获得Katie所需要的内容。他们的关系远非完美。暗恋对象不准备在恋爱中做很多通常必要的事情，比如见凯蒂的父母;她试图用她的工作作为逃避他们的借口，或者她干脆逃跑。《Crush》中有很多她伤害Katie的闪回。显然，《Crush》需要成长并更多地了解自己，这也是该系列的主题。

Crush知道她需要处理自己的问题，甚至Katie也表示如果她这么做，他们就有机会了，而她的主要目标是Lobo，所以Crush去监狱见他。即使在被骗并不得不抓住他来拯救自己之后，她脑子里唯一想的就是凯蒂。很明显，她有多在乎她，她没有很好地处理分手(或生活中的其他事情)。Crush认为自己就像Lobo一样;一个不值得信任的暴力的人，只会伤害别人，简单地说，是最坏的。

当Crush遇到喜欢Lobo的外星人Julia时，她想尽办法让Julia相信Lobo只会伤害她。不幸的是，Julia的天真和乐观并没有让她相信Crush所说的任何话。对Julia来说，Lobo并不坏，她是唯一一个真正理解他的人。

Crush在Lobo身上看到了自己，在Julia身上看到了Katie。在某种程度上，她是对的。如果你想让血和睾丸激素从你的书中喷涌而出，那么Lobo就是Crush，茱莉亚是凯蒂最甜蜜最天真的版本。这些成年人是Crush和Katie可能成为的那种人，但不是他们自己。暗恋对象不一定是她的父亲;她还有机会。有机会向凯蒂道歉，见她父母，送她礼物，做她以前没做过的事。她可以做得更好。Katie知道这一点，并且仍然关心Crush，这就是她一直给Crush发短信的原因。

《粉碎传奇》在这部漫画中经历的一切都让她意识到，也许现在做得更好还不算太晚。而Lobo在这一意识中扮演了一个重要的角色，所以让我们关注一下主要的人。

Annihilation

You might have noticed I haven’t talked much about Lobo for a comic calledCrush & Lobo, but that’s because he actually doesn’t appear a lot, even though he is relevant. His importance to the comic is what he means for Crush and their father-daughter relationship.

Father-daughter dynamics are pretty popular in media. We have the perfect examples inThe Last of Us乔尔和艾莉，还有《x战警》漫画中的洛根和劳拉。在这两部电影中，有着痛苦过去的超然父母形象因为女儿而变得更好。随着时间的推移，乔尔开始暗示，他开始真正喜欢上了艾莉，她正在成为对他很重要的人。The story seemed to be only about Joel dropping a girl from one place to another, but it developed into a tale about a father allowing himself to love and be loved again and sacrificing everything – even the rest of the world – to save someone he loves.

Logan and Laura have a very similar relationship; they become so important to one another that Laura assumes the mantle of Wolverine, honoring her father’s legacy. But, in a way,Crush & Loboexists to break that dynamic. Even though it seemed that Lobo had changed, everything was a ruse. No matter what happens, he will never become someone better or sacrifice anything for his daughter. For Crush, being like him is a curse.

Lobo invites Crush to visit him in prison, promising he has changed. But he implants his monitor chip on her, making all the robot guards think Crush is her father. It works mostly as a joke, but everyone seeing her as Lobo has a deeper meaning. Even though the inmates know she’s not exactly her dad, they still act like she kinda is and call her things like “New Lobo” or “Other Lobo,” showing how she sees herself. To herself and to others, Crush is only a projection of Lobo. She can’t be better than him because she is him. His enemies are her enemies. His flaws are her flaws. That’s why when talking to Julia, the sole thing she thinks about is the time she hurt Katie; Lobo abuses and uses other people without batting an eye, he’s scum, so – in her eyes – that’s what she is too.

After capturing her father, Crush is tricked again, but now by the prison’s warden. In the last issue, Crush finally teams up with her dad and realizes the only thing they can accomplish together is annihilation. He suggests they should keep working together, but quickly changes his mind and points a gun at Crush. She almost accepts his offer, but refuses it and points a gun at him too, so they go their separate ways. It may feel anticlimactic, but by not accepting to go with her dad, she refuses the idea that she’s just like him and that it’s too late for her.

One thing I didn’t like much about this comic is that throughout basically the entire series, we saw Crush comparing herself to her dad and how awful they are, but we didn’t see many moments in which she changes her opinion and realizes that she might still have a chance to be better – only in the last issue. But she also knows that she can’t lie her way into being a better person, she actually needs to put in the effort. So I’m hopeful we will see more of that in a sequel.

接下来是什么?

At the end of the last chapter, we have been presented with some elements that will be part of Crush’s next story. She finally texts Katie, but isn’t given a definitive answer about their relationship; the new warden of the prison hires her to find and arrest escaped prisoners; also, the weird pink alien she fought a few times in the series calls someone and tells them to deal with Crush.

Crush is kind of like an empty canvas; her “world” is still small. Mariko Tamaki can, for example, develop what Crush will want to do in the future, her love life, and friends (connect more with Emiko or other characters). There’s a lot more that can be done and I want to be here to read it. To me,Crush & Loborepresents a good start to something that can be great.

Sources:

https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2021/06/01/crush-lobo-finds-joy-in-its-very-imperfect-protagonists