PKJ Action Comics Discussion and Spoilers

[Superfamily]

It’s almost as if DC Comics, and specifically the Superman office, with zero diversity in its creators and a history of mistreatment of women both on and off the page, has a chronic, specific problem with misogyny and this misogyny has had a marked impact on the way that office treats Lois Lane.

It’s almost as if the women who have been flagging these problems for YEARS now, expressing concern and expressing why the way the office treated Lois in marketing, on the page and in story direction was uncomfortable, sexist and crappy were.....oh...yeah....CORRECT.

Guys, it’s not that you are wrong. You are 100% right. This is all extremely crappy to Lois, extremely sexist and reeks of what happens when you let a bunch of men go unchecked for years on end.

But I knew all this already. Some of us have been sounding the alarm bell on this for years. It’s just that no one ever wanted to hear it. Yes, the office is phenomenally sexist towards Lois and will do literally anything and everything to downplay hey importance in narrative. Had more of you cared and fought back against this years ago, they wouldn’t have continued to get away with it. They are getting away with it now because too many guys let them do it. Had more men demanded more diversity in that office years ago and spoken up when the office treated her like crap....we would’ve be here.

I could care less about any of this because I’ve long ago stopped caring about Superman comics. Distinctly because of sexist stuff like this.

I agree with everything you wrote

[Flash Gordon]

An ongoing run? Gail Simone. It’s a disgrace.

It's a damn disgrace. We really need a female perspective to the Superman mythology desperately at this moment.

[Superfamily]

So far I didn't like anything I heard about the superbooks, I love Jon, but what they are doing with the character is very sad, nothing is being organic here .. And I'm not a fan of superbooks that marginalize the supporting cast of superman ..

[Celgress]

I agree with everything you wrote

As do I. Lois Lane has been marketed into irrelevancy by decades of character and franchise mismanagement (not that Clark has fared much better). The last version of Comic Book Lois I actually liked and found engaging until Rebirth was All-Star Lois who isn't even Prime canon!

Edit - I get the impression DC Editorial has thrown up their collective hands deciding that these characters are beyond salvage thus they are "starting over fresh" with Bland Teen Jon and his supporting cast. If I'm right this is a terrible misstep that will fail spectacularly.

[Superfamily]

It's a damn disgrace. We really need a female perspective to the Superman mythology desperately at this moment.

I think the time has come for us to have the view of the superman and all his mythology about female optics,, I don't just say in the comics, I say in the movie theater too, let the women write about him now .. if they want to shake things up, they can shake things as they should, go to the problem right ..

[Sam]

I could go for some Kelly Sue written Superman.

[Nelliebly]

It's a damn disgrace. We really need a female perspective to the Superman mythology desperately at this moment.

Yes we do. But they would have to care about that first and the fandom would have to actually take a stand for what’s right to achieve it and they don’t and they won’t. Which is why we are here.

Superman and Lois might be a train wreck and I’m sure I’ll have problems with it because I don’t like Todd Helbing and I’m already annoyed at things revealed about him but at least there are women and non-white people in the room. They are going to make mistakes but I’m going to hope they figure it out down the road.

Smallville was a train wreck at times but it got Lois right. It also had a female showrunner by the end and female writers on staff.

Comics have nothing. They are behind the curve, dated and not inclusive. And then people wonder why Lois gets treated like garbage. Gee I wonder why.

[Celgress]

I think the time has come for us to have the view of the superman and all his mythology about female optics,, I don't just say in the comics, I say in the movie theater too, let the women write about him now .. if they want to shake things up, they can shake things as they should, go to the problem right ..

On the plus side, I seriously doubt anyone could do any worse than Bendis has so, yeah, let's go for it. I do, however, have one major caveat, the new female creatives must not be saddled with keeping in place Bendis' garbage changes by DC Editorial as such a situation effectively cripples anyone no matter how talented or visionary.

[Superfamily]

On the plus side, I seriously doubt anyone could do any worse than Bendis has so, yeah, let's go for it. I do, however, have one major caveat, the new female creatives must not be saddled with keeping in place Bendis' garbage changes by DC Editorial as such a situation effectively cripples anyone no matter how talented or visionary.

I agree with everything you wrote ..

[Yoda]

Bendis' Lois got off to a shaky start, and Action 1004 remains an abomination, but he eventually got her voice and characterization to a place I liked a lot. She had a lot of Erica Durrance in her throughout the Leviathan arcs and that was great use of her. Rucka flaming out on her book continues to boggle my mind. He wrote probably my favorite comic version of Lois in Adventures of Superman and to have him just completely **** the bed was shocking to say the least. I'd love for some interview to actually delve into what he thought he was doing there versus what actually happened.

But yes, the success Lois has had over the years happens despite whatever the comic side is doing. She's one of DC's best known characters, one of the best known women in pop culture, and part of one of probably the top 5 romances in pop culture. Yet the comic side of it can't seem to figure out what to do with her. I thought there were one or two women in the Super editorial office at this point, but maybe they aren't there anymore or just don't wield the type of influence that is necessary to cut off some of this nonsense at the pass, but for whatever reason, they seem to keep the sexist tropes or uses that sideline and minimize her role. It is definitely rooted in a lot of sexist or mysognistic ideas about what role a woman should have in the narrative. The TV arm at least seem to recognize her value and the potential.

[NaVi]

It seems normal to me that lois is out of the superman stories, lois is human without power or ability (it is already ridiculous that characters like batman or arrow are part of those stories) does not contribute anything beyond being in the middle or making a fool of superman (that superman needs the help of lois is ridiculous). lois is a clark character, her role is to be in clark stories, street level stories, anything above that is ridiculous and far above lois level.

[Celgress]

Bendis' Lois got off to a shaky start, and Action 1004 remains an abomination, but he eventually got her voice and characterization to a place I liked a lot. She had a lot of Erica Durrance in her throughout the Leviathan arcs and that was great use of her. Rucka flaming out on her book continues to boggle my mind. He wrote probably my favorite comic version of Lois in Adventures of Superman and to have him just completely **** the bed was shocking to say the least. I'd love for some interview to actually delve into what he thought he was doing there versus what actually happened.

But yes, the success Lois has had over the years happens despite whatever the comic side is doing. She's one of DC's best known characters, one of the best known women in pop culture, and part of one of probably the top 5 romances in pop culture. Yet the comic side of it can't seem to figure out what to do with her. I thought there were one or two women in the Super editorial office at this point, but maybe they aren't there anymore or just don't wield the type of influence that is necessary to cut off some of this nonsense at the pass, but for whatever reason, they seem to keep the sexist tropes or uses that sideline and minimize her role. It is definitely rooted in a lot of sexist or mysognistic ideas about what role a woman should have in the narrative. The TV arm at least seem to recognize her value and the potential.

The thing that turned me against Bendis' Lois is the whole Jon debacle. I can't believe Lois Lane would EVER abandon her child to the tender mercies of a semi-reformed sociopath, especially given her own less than stellar father. If Editorial was deadset on Teen Jon, I would have had Lois indeed go into space & take a few of those Super Power pills with her (the ones Luthor has invented multiple times) then either it wore off or Jor-El blind-sighted her before he spirited Jon away. Lois determined to locate her son uses her temporary powers to search for him whenever she could having adventures along the way until she was forced to return home wracked by guilt and a sense of failure.

[Yoda]

The thing that turned me against Bendis' Lois is the whole Jon debacle. I can't believe Lois Lane would EVER abandon her child to the tender mercies of a semi-reformed sociopath, especially given her own less than stellar father. If Editorial was deadset on Teen Jon, I would have had Lois indeed go into space & take a few of those Super Power pills with her (the ones Luthor has invented multiple times) then either it wore off or Jor-El blind-sighted her before he spirited Jon away. Lois determined to locate her son uses her temporary powers to search for him whenever she could having adventures along the way until she was forced to return home wracked by guilt and a sense of failure.

Yeah, I've said this a few times but Bendis' run has some good ideas that were executed really really poorly. That was one of them. I think that whole storyline could have played out better had it not been rushed and had Bendis figured out some way to line the Jor El he wanted to use with the Jor El that came out of Oz Effect. Because they are not the same character. There is too much missing connective tissue for any of it to work, but the idea that Lois would be OK with Jon staying with Jor El isn't a deal breaker to me and I think there's ways to show her coming to that decision. I also think a lot of how Bendis tried to hype things went against what actually happened. For all the hype around their relationship, it functioned essentially the same with Lois just moving around a bit. I did not mind how that all played out. I think on the whole Bendis' use of Lois was much better than Rebirth's outside of a few of the fill in issues in Superman and a little of Jurgen's run.

All that said, it's all preferable to what appears to be going on here.

[Frontier]

Yeah, I've said this a few times but Bendis' run has some good ideas that were executed really really poorly. That was one of them. I think that whole storyline could have played out better had it not been rushed and had Bendis figured out some way to line the Jor El he wanted to use with the Jor El that came out of Oz Effect. Because they are not the same character. There is too much missing connective tissue for any of it to work, but the idea that Lois would be OK with Jon staying with Jor El isn't a deal breaker to me and I think there's ways to show her coming to that decision. I also think a lot of how Bendis tried to hype things went against what actually happened. For all the hype around their relationship, it functioned essentially the same with Lois just moving around a bit. I did not mind how that all played out. I think on the whole Bendis' use of Lois was much better than Rebirth's outside of a few of the fill in issues in Superman and a little of Jurgen's run.

All that said, it's all preferable to what appears to be going on here.

Bendis should've had Lois tell Jon and Jor-El she wanted to go back. Didn't she just leave with, just, like a note or something? And then she avoids Clark for some reason.

[Superfamily]

Yeah, I've said this a few times but Bendis' run has some good ideas that were executed really really poorly. That was one of them. I think that whole storyline could have played out better had it not been rushed and had Bendis figured out some way to line the Jor El he wanted to use with the Jor El that came out of Oz Effect. Because they are not the same character. There is too much missing connective tissue for any of it to work, but the idea that Lois would be OK with Jon staying with Jor El isn't a deal breaker to me and I think there's ways to show her coming to that decision. I also think a lot of how Bendis tried to hype things went against what actually happened. For all the hype around their relationship, it functioned essentially the same with Lois just moving around a bit. I did not mind how that all played out. I think on the whole Bendis' use of Lois was much better than Rebirth's outside of a few of the fill in issues in Superman and a little of Jurgen's run.

All that said, it's all preferable to what appears to be going on here.

for me the voice that Bendis gave to Lois was terrible at first in your superbooks , but I cannot deny that he didn't marginalize Lois ..