Superman and Lois Lane Appreciation 2019

[cookies]

From Mysteries of Love in space #1:

STAAAAHP!!! She wrote a story...dedicated to him!!! TT^TT

this story touched me personally. speaking from experience, a man that can cry in front of their spouse always the strongest and bravest in my eyes because they trust you completely in their vulnerability and they know you're strong enough to share their burden :')

[cookies]

Oh, man! That Jeff Loveness story was so sweet and touching. It was the best of the bunch from the special and truly highlighted why Clark and Lois are the premier DC couple after all these years.

Slightly unrelated but I would love to see Loveness tackle a full length issue or, even better, a mini-series focused on the Superman family. Get on it, DC!

THIS! im 100% sure he can write a great Superman story because his love for these characters is showing in his work. im totally ignoring Bendis run atm and only cares about clois artwork lol.

[cookies]

Don't forget his editor, Brian Cunningham, who's also on record as being against the marriage.

I think it's already obvious that the goal is to portray the public marriage of Lois and Clark as a sham and then use "but they're still really married in secret" as a crutch to blow off angry fans. I think it's also apparent that the people in control, as with New 52, don't like Lois Lane very much in general.

why people like them in charge of Superman story? it's ridiculous and disrespectful to the original creator himself and his wife imo. just read what Jerry Siegel said about Lois.
"My wife Joanne(Lois's middle name is Joanne) was Joe's original art model for Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane back in the 1930s. Our heroine was, of course, a working girl whose priority was grabbing scoops. What inspired me in the creation was Glenda Farrell, the movie star who portrayed Torchy Blane, a gutsy, beautiful headline-hunting reporter, in a series of exciting motion pictures. Because the name of the actress Lola Lane (who also played Torchy) appealed to me, I called my character Lois Lane. Strangely, the characterization of Lois is amazingly like the real-life personality of my lovely wife."

there was a real life love story behind it.

[Miles To Go]

[cookies]

when you thought Smallville was the slowest burn for Clois, then you remember this cartoon series existed.

[Miles To Go]

Comicuno, a comic reviewer I normally trust, really liked AC#1007 but here she comes to the conclusion Bendis writes a stronger Lois when she's involved in her own individual arcs.

[Miles To Go]

[Yoda]

Comicuno, a comic reviewer I normally trust, really liked AC#1007 but here she comes to the conclusion Bendis writes a stronger Lois when she's involved in her own individual arcs.

I don't know that we've seen enough yet to make that call, but I kinda agree. AC 1007 was probably the best written scene she's had so far. Not a high bar to cross, but it was better than anything we've seen from him in her other three appearances (Man of Steel, Action 1004 or Superman 7). If this arc brings her into the actual story, instead of Lois just being used to move along a plot and spout Bendis' interview quotes, I hope he eventually writes her as well as he's written Clark/Superman. I live in hope.

I mean, Lois is not that far off from characters like Jessica Jones or even a Deana Pilgrim, so the fact that he's struggled so much with her few appearances really took me by surprise.

The weird thing is, apparently before Bendis came aboard Lois was going to be out of the books entirely for a significant stretch. I don't know if that was Jurgens/Tomasi plan or what but apparently it was Bendis' idea to bring her back into the books.

[rpmaluki]

I think most of the flak Lois gets now stems from longstanding hatred for her as a character and particularly as Superman's lady. The moment she's written a certain way, she's accused of maligning Superman like she's some sort of villain. Because Bendis is playing hide and seek with her POV (an acute annoyance I might add), one whiff of an independent direction for Miss Lane, where she's doing her thing, it brings out the absolute worst from some and they view her actions like a personal attack on their person. It happened in Truth and I think it's happening in HiC. It's spreading to the Super books. It would not matter whether her actions are right in the grand scheme of things, or that she has a difference of opinion with Clark on some things (not the end of the world). For some, she is, has always been and will always be the bad guy no matter what. Unfortunately she'll never win where they are concerned and I refuse to pay attention to people's biased perception of her character. As long as Bendis doesn't purposefully screw her over to shill a new pet character, I will try and enjoy what he offers, unless it's really just bad, and in that case I will say so and have in the relevant threads.

I love the idea of Lois having her own story (waiting on that book and tv show), I'm rather desperate for it. For the most part I have reserved giving my thoughts on the latest issue where she's concerned because of the writer and his fetish for decompression and I can't truly judge where she's at when I'm only looking a small piece of the bigger puzzle. All this means is that i'm sticking around because I genuinely am curious about where this all goes. I am not ready to pull out my pitch fork and torch and bemoan the day they hired Bendis (honestly I wish they hadn't simply because he's past his prime but that's another topic altogether). I doubt I will want to throw him a parade at the end either but I know I am one of the few that's more hopeful about his run than not. I like how he writes Superman/Clark, so I am giving him a chance with Lois and Clois (and Jon).

[Miles To Go]

The weird thing is, apparently before Bendis came aboard Lois was going to be out of the books entirely for a significant stretch. I don't know if that was Jurgens/Tomasi plan or what but apparently it was Bendis' idea to bring her back into the books.

That, again, has me worried. Solictis for trades that still credited Jurgens as writer on Amazon hinted there would be a shake-up with the Kents. It's probably always been the mandate to break the family or alter the dynamic and Bendis is doing his best to reach a compromise with everything, giving the relationship some angst/drama required for Didio's line-wide preferences while trying to maintain the bond and the hope.

All this has me quite worried Doomsday Clock will indeed be what really shakes up the marriage, I know you think otherwise, but I'm going off of the parts of the story that point to Clark having noone to turn to before he faces Manhattan and the meaning of Geoff's words in an interview a while back (which included the question "do you give up if they give up?")

[Yoda]

Yeah, there is a so much to unpack with the amount of really disgusting hate Lois gets. People are predisposed to attack her every action. Personally, her actions in Heroes in Crisis rang pretty true to me. It was a no win situation and she effectively dealt with a mess Clark, Bruce, and Diana created. Giving her hate for that requires an active misreading of what happened in the book. It's a toxic portion of fandom for sure.

As for Bendis, I really think I will like where he ends up with Clark, Lois, and Jon, but I'm not sure I'll like how we have to get there if that makes sense. I'm not a marriage purist so to speak. I like it, don't get me wrong, the stories I started reading with Death of Superman so that and Triangle Era are my introduction to the character, but I think the relationship itself is more important to me more than the actual formalities behind it. Meaning, if as long as they don't New 52 it, I'll be able to deal with things somewhat.

What I won't like, and which could probably drive me off the books again, is if they basically make "Cheater Lois" her "secret identity" to correspond with "Coward Clumsy Clark". That's not something I'd really think I'd be able to stomach. I can see the commentary on one level - women are treated like that in the real world without justification, Lois dealing with that undeserved flack could make for a good story. But it poisons the Lois & Clark roles to the point where how would you seriously write stories with them together with that as the underlying dynamic? It won't work and will be so contrived. I don't know.

[rpmaluki]

I mean, Lois is not that far off from characters like Jessica Jones or even a Deana Pilgrim, so the fact that he's struggled so much with her few appearances really took me by surprise.

Jessica headlines her own book, that's already an advantage over Lois. I don't know Deana Pilgrim, so I can't comment on that.

[rpmaluki]

Yeah, there is a so much to unpack with the amount of really disgusting hate Lois gets. People are predisposed to attack her every action. Personally, her actions in Heroes in Crisis rang pretty true to me. It was a no win situation and she effectively dealt with a mess Clark, Bruce, and Diana created. Giving her hate for that requires an active misreading of what happened in the book. It's a toxic portion of fandom for sure.

As for Bendis, I really think I will like where he ends up with Clark, Lois, and Jon, but I'm not sure I'll like how we have to get there if that makes sense. I'm not a marriage purist so to speak, I like the stories I started reading with Death of Superman so that and Triangle Era are my introduction to the character, but I think the relationship itself is more important to me more than the actual formalities behind it. Meaning, if as long as they don't New 52 it, I'll be able to deal with things somewhat.

What I won't like, and which could probably drive me off the books again, is if they basically make "Cheater Lois" her "secret identity" to correspond with "Coward Clumsy Clark". That's not something I'd really think I'd be able to stomach. I can see the commentary on one level - women are treated like that in the real world without justification, Lois dealing with that undeserved flack could make for a good story. But it poisons the Lois & Clark roles to the point where how would you seriously write stories with them together with that as the underlying dynamic? It won't work and will be so contrived. I don't know.

I'm hoping Bendis is a lot more sensitive to that kind of negative blow back from re imagining the triangle for two and avoids it somehow by not reliving the past. With Jon's situation being what it is, revealing him as Superman's son should not change the current family dynamic of Clark, Lois and Jon as a family. It is a simpler, cleaner solutions that won't trample on anyone's dignity. I honestly don't see Lois or Clark wanting to label the years of being happily married to one another as a charade to sell a relationship that is long dead in the public's eye. It's more important that Lois and Clark honour their vows to each other regardless of who Jon's father is. That is the truth.

[Yoda]

Jessica headlines her own book, that's already an advantage over Lois. I don't know Deana Pilgrim, so I can't comment on that.

She was the co-star of Powers. A female police detective, kinda rough around the edges, very direct, take no crap from anyone, but genuinely cares about people and her partner, and willing to jump into things and get stuff done. Less of a mess personal life wise than Jessica Jones, but a very independent strong character. So in that sense, I meant that Jessica Jones and Deana Pilgrim have somewhat analogous character traits and arcs to how Lois' character is at her best. They kinda all fall along the same spectrum of characters, with Lois kinda being the most complete and healthy version of that. Basically, if he wrote those women so well, and I think he more or less did, he should not have struggled so much to find Lois' voice here. She's basically a character he's written well in other contexts.

[Artemisfanboy]

What really worries me is the good possibility this some editorial Agenda to get rids of marriage, they're going to force it to stick and there's no hope of any of this getting undone. I feel aging Jon up like this a mistake and going lead to him being written out if not undone. And it would be absolutely stupid for Lois and Clark to throw away their public lives together.