Superman: Lois Lane #1 – Review

By: Marguerite Bennett (writer); Emanuela Lupacchino, Meghan Hetrick, Ig Guara, and Diogenes Neves (pencils); Guillermo Ortego, Meghan Hetrick, Ruy Jose, and Marc Deering (inks) Hi-Fi (colors)

The Review: Lois Lane is DC’s oldest leading lady, the first woman in the company’s long and storied history. She’s been many things, a journalist, a spitfire, a farce, “Superman’s Girl Friend”, an army brat,  a friend, a wife, a respite, but, despite it all, at times it feels like she’ll never escape the specter of the damsel-in-distress. Perhaps excepting ‘useless’ Aquaman and ‘boring’ Supes, I’m not sure that there’s a character of her stature who’s stuck with such an unfair rap. She held a long-running series, but only as “Superman’s Girl Friend: Lois Lane”. Where does she go now?

Separated from her superpowered husband by the New 52, Lois has lost ground to the new continuity, often feeling less like a character and more like a proof that Superman’s status quo has changed. He’s a younger, hipper Superman who understands concepts like Kryptonian battle armor and ‘the friend zone’. Accordingly, we have a younger Lois, who’s missing huge swathes of the life fans knew before. Enter Marguerite Bennett.

Bouncing between Lois’ youth and her present, Bennett grants us a touching look at Lois and Lucy Lane. From the first page, the relationship between the girls is tender and real. There’s a quality of truth that draws a knowing smile or nostalgic laugh from even the most commonplace elements of the sisters’ playtime. Even better is the strong sense of the girls’ present relationship, despite their brief interactions. Even in their best moments there’s a tension in Lois and Lucy clearly feels like she can’t fully trust her sister.

Anyone with a basic knowledge of feminism can tell you that the Bechdel Test is a simplistic and highly incomplete judge of a work, but this issue is kind of what it aspires to.

Flashpoint: Project Superman #2 – Review

By: Scott Snyder & Lowell Francis (writers), Gene Ha (artist), Art Lyon (colorist)

The Story: “I’m only hurting you because I love you so much,” takes on all new meaning.

The Review: Traditionally, we tend to see Superman’s values and virtues as something bred in him by the good, wholesome, Midwestern upbringing of Ma and Pa Kent.  It’s what allows us to believe that such an all-powerful alien would have such adamant devotion to a world full of bickering, selfish, violent earthlings.  In this title, we remove the Kents from the picture entirely, and discover that perhaps Superman’s goodness is more innate than we give him credit for.

After all, in the Flashpoint world, he has extremely little reason to care for anybody on Earth, given the circumstances with which he arrived and has been treated since.  We’re spared nothing regarding his suffering; we see him in crawl spaces, a bowl of food on the floor and a hamster-like water drip against the wall; he’s forced to endure dozens of humiliating and painful scientific inspections; his captors coldly put him through frightening “drills.”

During this early period of his life, he forms attachments only with Subject Two (in our world known as Krypto) and General Sam Lane, the former proving to be sadly short-lived, the latter tenuous at best.  Lane’s affection for Kal (as he insists on calling what everyone refers to as “Subject One”) is touchingly ironic, but naturally portrayed.  It makes sense Lane’s military work drove his family away, leading him to turn his fatherly eye on a child, even an alien one.