Superman #43 discussion (spoilers)

[DochaDocha]

Well, I was wrong, they did answer the only question that really mattered. And my opinion of it was... scratch my head.

On the plus side, I did appreciate the in-jokes about old Superman stories.

Since Lois thought she was doing him a favor, her intentions were obviously good. That mostly absolves the character, IMO. On the other hand, like I said, I have to scratch my head. Who foils plans to extort a friend by carrying out the extortion plan? I guess the point being made was Lois thought Supes was being tortured, or was about to be killed, so that makes it more digestible. Still, on initial read, something was lacking emotional OOMPH! or at least not everything clicked in my head. Will have to read it again.

BTW, I know a lot of times we say, "Why don't you just call the Justice League," and we say for the sake of the story you have to ignore that once in a while. However, it feels kind of weird when throughout the most part, Superman doesn't call the JL, and then we actually see them later in the issue. I guess I wouldn't have added that panel.

Finally, in this issue, Lois says, "Tell me you wouldn't have risked DOZENS OF LIVES to save ME." Well, in the previous continuity, the answer was no, he wouldn't risk dozens of lives to save his wife. Just an observation.

[adkal]

Well, I was wrong, they did answer the only question that really mattered. And my opinion of it was... scratch my head.

On the plus side, I did appreciate the in-jokes about old Superman stories.

Since Lois thought she was doing him a favor, her intentions were obviously good. That mostly absolves the character, IMO. On the other hand, like I said, I have to scratch my head. Who foils plans to extort a friend by carrying out the extortion plan? I guess the point being made was Lois thought Supes was being tortured, or was about to be killed, so that makes it more digestible. Still, on initial read, something was lacking emotional OOMPH! or at least not everything clicked in my head. Will have to read it again.

The images (and now heightened awareness) of what he went through in his early days, coupled with his increased vulnerability (fork-stab) and the energy-leechers (and what they appear to have done to someone else), Lois was (likely) convinced (as you suggest) that he was going to be killed by them and only because he was holding back to protect others.

So she took away the 'threat' of exposure by exposing and so exposed the vulnerable to the dangers that had been threatened just moments before...insisting that 'everything's going to be okay. We'll get through this together'...

Only...there's no plan.

Whoops.

BTW, I know a lot of times we say, "Why don't you just call the Justice League," and we say for the sake of the story you have to ignore that once in a while. However, it feels kind of weird when throughout the most part, Superman doesn't call the JL, and then we actually see them later in the issue. I guess I wouldn't have added that panel.

It's also dumb that the League had no contingency for such a situation - one that could readily and easily have been initiated by Cyborg.

Whoops.

Finally, in this issue, Lois says, "Tell me you wouldn't have risked DOZENS OF LIVES to save ME." Well, in the previous continuity, the answer was no, he wouldn't risk dozens of lives to save his wife. Just an observation.

Yeah...guy even refrained from killing the Joker to save her...

(as posted elsewhere):

Yeah, that was...underwhelming.

'Lois did it because...reasons.'

spoilers:

...and, somehow, Thunderbolt Ross - sorry, General Lane - was either really close by and able to get to the site very quickly, was given some form of heads up by Lois and got to the site very quickly, somehow traced (via military resources) Lois' transmission (which became viral in minutes, with no one bothering with any fact-checking), or maybe he had been tracking the leak from within from which Hordr had pulled the 6 year old torture footage

end of spoilers

Also, Lois was
spoilers:

very tactile with the face holding etc, especially considering their earlier point about both being in relationships

end of spoilers

And then, after being betrayed by Betty, Hulk leapt away as Thunderbolt Ross threatened to blow him up.

[Darth Kal-el]

Well I wouldn't forgive Lois for this. She made him a promise and broke it putting others he cares about in danger. They had a plan. She would investigate and he would buy time. She is the worst friend. He wasn't about to die, he is Superman. Lame excuse. She just wanted the story

[Tayswift]

Well that was awful...Lois couldn't take the decision for him. what as that burned body coveniently doing there?

pretty bad deservice to Lois, very bad stereotype. she didn't needed to reveal his identity, that was pure impulse.

wow this is what zero women on creative teams do

[Last Son of Krypton]

Finally, after months of waiting, we know why Lois did what she did and... that's all? It was obvious from Yang's first issue what her reasons might have been. In recent interviews, there was talk of multifaceted motives, in this issue I haven't seen anything like that. I don't see any complexity except that in the consequences.
While I'm liking "Truth" and the new status quo, I find that "Before Truth" is a waste of time.

Right now, to me Yang seems the new Scott Lobdell. Please, somebody saves the main Superman series.

[Desean101101]

Well that was awful...Lois couldn't take the decision for him. what as that burned body coveniently doing there?

pretty bad deservice to Lois, very bad stereotype. she didn't needed to reveal his identity, that was pure impulse.

wow this is what zero women on creative teams do

Really? This what we are defaulting to because you don't like it? We already know why Lois is with her dad, she got military protection for everyone close to superman. We already know that the military is protecting the daily planet and Lois has Metallo protecting her till all of this dies down some.

Also she didn't just want the story, They just had a very long discussion about what happened to him in his early days at the hands of the military when was weaker than he was normally and he got stabbed by a fork by lois . She had a very real fear of her friend getting tortured again by Energy leechers and other means that he is now more vulnerable to.

Also just because he got free doesn't mean he is Free from being blackmailed. It would be something hanging over his head always until they find every piece of information on Hodr so they couldn't have any back ups uploaded to the deep web, because you know that a evil tech giant with blackmail isn't going to have one copy or even on copy locally on his servers, he probably has multiple copies on time release locks so if he doesn't give a signal to reset it they immediately upload it.

Also there wasn't much the Justice league could do in this situation other than save superman, Cyborg could have deleted it from Hodr's main database but that would only save time to check every computer system in the world which aint easy. Lois did the best thing and Get out in front of the news and not let people make wild notions without a neutral source reporting on it fast. Also if your wondering why she didn't fangirl and stick up for him to much in the article , its because if she had it would have burned the paper credibility even worse than it has for it come out that superman worked at the paper. It needed to be as impersonal as possible to atleast save face for the people at the paper.

[Darth Kal-el]

So out of fear of what the military once did to him she put him in their crosshairs again? She knows what her father is capable of and immediately they try and take him. It was a betrayal of epic proportions, especially after the promise and him agreeing to let her help

[dexx707]

I expected this to be bad.....but not this bad. I was hoping for some fringe of ignorance on Lois's part as to his vulnerability. I was hoping for Lois to atleast be put in a situation where Clark was gonna get exposed and later killed because Hodor (or whatever the tech teen douchebag's name is) just wanted supes powers or something..... This is disturbingly stupid. Not only does it show Lois willingly putting dozens of people in danger but also exposing him to a world that she not only knew would be hostile towards him but was graphically shown how brutal they can be towards him.

Also.... I don't know if was just me.... maybe I'm seeing things but she seemed a bit too close to looking like she wanted a thing with clark now that she knew everything. The last line about sacrificing/putting people at risk for her and "we can face this together" was awfully close to sounding romantic in tone. maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

[misslane]

Well I wouldn't forgive Lois for this. She made him a promise and broke it putting others he cares about in danger. They had a plan. She would investigate and he would buy time. She is the worst friend. He wasn't about to die, he is Superman. Lame excuse. She just wanted the story

I wouldn't say she's the worst friend. Clearly she cares about him very much and, despite her earlier promise, when a dilemma arose she did what she did believing it would help her friend and that, as friends, she could help him weather the resulting storm. If I put myself in her shoes, the threat of Superman dying raises a host of issues (and she did believe he could die, powerless as he was at the time). For example, if he dies, there is no more Superman to help protect the world. Maybe Superman, Lois, and others could have taken down Hordr at some point in the future, but at that very moment the lives of innocent people--not just Clark's loved ones--were being threatened. If I recall correctly, Hordr was essentially holding multiple hostages, and were continuing to bait Superman, in order to lure him into using his solar flare power which they subsequently siphoned for their own use.

Nonetheless, Lois clearly regrets her decision later. It was definitely made impulsively, which I don't particularly like, so when she has time to reflect, she has regrets. She had good intentions, however, and as soon as the situation cools down, Clark may find that it's enhanced his life in some ways rather than ruined it entirely. I do believe her reaction is very human and very sympathetic, but I don't like how out of character this feels for her. Lois would put her faith in Superman's ability to find another way and in journalism to right such wrongs. She's an impulsive and heroic individual, that is true, as is her fierce loyalty and love for her friends; however this doesn't feel like the way the Lois I know would react. The whole thing feels like a mess.

[Prime]

Never was a fan of Lois abd this made me dislike her even more. Wow...seriously? Wonder Woman didnt look happy either in that panel.

[misslane]

Never was a fan of Lois abd this made me dislike her even more. Wow...seriously? Wonder Woman didnt look happy either in that panel.

I would dislike someone for doing something bad or wrong knowing that they were bad or wrong. What Lois did here feels like a well-intentioned and honest mistake that we already know she shows proper remorse for. I find it difficult to dislike someone given those circumstances.

[adkal]

Really? This what we are defaulting to because you don't like it? We already know why Lois is with her dad, she got military protection for everyone close to superman. We already know that the military is protecting the daily planet and Lois has Metallo protecting her till all of this dies down some.

Wait, when did she arrange for all that in this issue? When the heck did she have the time to?

As for them 'protecting' the DP crew - sure didn't look like protection over in SM/WW...

Also just because he got free doesn't mean he is Free from being blackmailed. It would be something hanging over his head always until they find every piece of information on Hodr so they couldn't have any back ups uploaded to the deep web, because you know that a evil tech giant with blackmail isn't going to have one copy or even on copy locally on his servers, he probably has multiple copies on time release locks so if he doesn't give a signal to reset it they immediately upload it.

The Lois & Clark episode dealt with all this better

Also there wasn't much the Justice league could do in this situation other than save superman, Cyborg could have deleted it from Hodr's main database but that would only save time to check every computer system in the world which aint easy.

Only it is for Cyborg - a point made repeatedly by him and Batman over the last 4 years.

Barry was there, too.

And Diana

So two speedsters, and the uber-hacker...they could have gotten plenty done.

(and, as I posted earlier, there should have been failsafes in place for such an event - Cyborg has mentioned having protocols, and the Batclan have filters for DNA and fingerprint search pings)

Lois did the best thing and Get out in front of the news and not let people make wild notions without a neutral source reporting on it fast.

She isn't neutral.

[Tayswift]

Really? This what we are defaulting to because you don't like it? We already know why Lois is with her dad, she got military protection for everyone close to superman. We already know that the military is protecting the daily planet and Lois has Metallo protecting her till all of this dies down some.

Also she didn't just want the story, They just had a very long discussion about what happened to him in his early days at the hands of the military when was weaker than he was normally and he got stabbed by a fork by lois . She had a very real fear of her friend getting tortured again by Energy leechers and other means that he is now more vulnerable to.

Also just because he got free doesn't mean he is Free from being blackmailed. It would be something hanging over his head always until they find every piece of information on Hodr so they couldn't have any back ups uploaded to the deep web, because you know that a evil tech giant with blackmail isn't going to have one copy or even on copy locally on his servers, he probably has multiple copies on time release locks so if he doesn't give a signal to reset it they immediately upload it.

Also there wasn't much the Justice league could do in this situation other than save superman, Cyborg could have deleted it from Hodr's main database but that would only save time to check every computer system in the world which aint easy. Lois did the best thing and Get out in front of the news and not let people make wild notions without a neutral source reporting on it fast. Also if your wondering why she didn't fangirl and stick up for him to much in the article , its because if she had it would have burned the paper credibility even worse than it has for it come out that superman worked at the paper. It needed to be as impersonal as possible to atleast save face for the people at the paper.

first she isn't working with her father, Lex luthor is the guy providing secutiry for her and daily planet.

he was weaker, but not a simply human. Lois just panicked and told everyone the secret because seems like women can't take pressure. a friend told me women can't take pressure situation and bam! this comic just confirm it.

Cyborg is very powerful, he could easily erase all the info from internet. he has tech from apokalips

Lois credibility on that article was corrupted, the journalist can't choose sides. he has to listen both sides. it's always good know how journalism works before saying wrong things

this is lazy storytelling, lois revealed because she had to reveal

So out of fear of what the military once did to him she put him in their crosshairs again? She knows what her father is capable of and immediately they try and take him. It was a betrayal of epic proportions, especially after the promise and him agreeing to let her help

SHE ISN'T WORKING WITH HER FATHER

people even read the issue?

[Tayswift]

Never was a fan of Lois abd this made me dislike her even more. Wow...seriously? Wonder Woman didnt look happy either in that panel.

WELL SUPERMAN ALSO ACTED like an idiot, he was being HORDR puppy, but let's blame everything on lois.

also why not dislike the guy who wrote this? characters doesn't write theirselves

[misslane]

She isn't neutral.

Her outing Clark wasn't a journalistic act. I would have liked journalism to have been more of a focus, but ultimately when the decision was made it wasn't made as a journalist for journalistic purposes. This was a personal act on Lois' part.

I have talked more deeply about this already but let's just say that I'm not buying the whole forced romantic relationship between Lois and Clark considering that they're barely friends in this continuity nor the attempts to make Lois sympathetic when her actions say the opposite. Characterization can be pretty clunky.

It's a good thing you're not buying the "forced romantic relationship" because that's not what they're selling. Men and women can have platonic friendships and love their friends of the opposite sex. The love motivating Lois here was not romantic in nature. I also disagree that they're barely friends in this continuity. Sure, they don't get a lot of page time together, but they have shared a handful of significant moments as friends (with both Superman and Clark) where we've seen her care for and support him. And make no mistake, it's Lois' point of view here that matters. Whether Clark feels as deeply or has been as friendly is irrelevant. The truth is that their friendship became more distant than usual because Clark was putting in that distance. Lois, for her part, still wanted to work with Clark as reporters and wanted to still be friendly; it was he who couldn't handle it.

I don't know how Lois' actions reveal a lack of sympathetic motives. You can view her as being foolish in her impulsiveness, but the only emotion fueling her decision was love. She wasn't trying to hurt Clark or other people. She genuinely believed she was saving him and that any problems in the future could be handled. Given that, it makes sense to feel frustrated with her. But to say she isn't sympathetic doesn't ring true to me. I mean, I can't say that if I had been put in her position if I would have behaved differently. I know that I'd like to believe I'd be more prudent, but I can't really say that I would with certainty.