PREVIEW: Superman #42

[Rakzo]

Well, Yang didn't do a good job at making Lois a particularly likable, nor smart, character based on her actions here.

Still, some of the ideas were good.

[superduperman]

So all a woman can be if she's not a love interest is an antagonist? Whatever. It's hard to really disagree under the circumstances. Despite the powers that be at DC trying to spin Lois not being with Superman as some liberation for her character to finally spread her wings and shine outside of his shadow, she's been largely marginalized. I don't even think it's because they don't know how to tell stories with her, but more that they refuse to tell them. They keep handing off friend or confidante roles that she could play to other characters like Lana and Jimmy. It also speaks to a problem, not with her character, but Superman's. Lois functions well in The Daily Planet or in journalism stories, but there has been a consistent avoidance of journalism, the "Clark Kent" identity, and the newsroom. As soon as Johns got Clark back at work, Truth tore it away.

Pretty sure that's not what I was saying. In fact, it sounds like we might be on the same page here. That the current version of her doesn't serve any real purpose because they don't know what to do with her. Part of having a cast is giving each of them a role. She doesn't appear to have one. Jimmy is the best friend. Perry is the boss. What is Lois's role? You throw in enough people, some get crowded out by others when they don't have enough to do. They are adding new members to his cast while Lois gets left out of stuff. And she was there from the beginning! No, I don't "hate" the character, but I also don't see what they are doing with her that makes her useful right now. Not her fault as a character, just an editorial problem. When the reboot first happened, they gave her a generic boyfriend. The assumption at the time among a lot of fans is that he would be dropped eventually and that her and Clark would start dating. That's never happened. She's been reduced to a sidebar character. Her meatest role in a Superman story was becoming the host of Brainiac. The one writer that gave her a pretty good role was Scott Snyder and he was borrowed from Batman (I'm usually kind of critical of Bat-people taking the reins of Superman but he did a pretty decent job)!

[Auguste Dupin]

I still don't think she will expose Superman to hurt him, I think Clark will ask her to expose him. Even if it isn't the HORDR crew, someone will try to blackmail Clark with his secret someday, so he will ask Lois to run the story so that nobody will ever have leverage over him again.

I didn't get the impression Lois was set up to do something on these lines either. And I wouldn't call the HORDR crew out yet. After all, the leader did escape with his knowledge of Clark's secret, so I think it's obvious at that point that there will be some form of retaliation.

[misslane]

The writers who write Lois to be hated are, truly, the ones who really do "get" Lois Lane. I'm terribly sorry, Lois fans, but you are not the final arbiter of who Lois Lane definitively is. You're simply a bunch of tantrum throwers who are not getting the Lois they "want". And Lois is much more than that.

You're no final arbiter either, and the judgmental and name calling approach you've taken to discuss your opinions of Lois don't exactly reflect well on you. Believe it or not, like Superman, Lois has had a lot of incarnations across time and media, including live action portrayals which are how most Lois fans found her at first. Lois fans like her for a range of reasons that aren't rooted in dismissing all of her flaws, but embracing the good that has been portrayed in her character (sometimes alongside more flaws than others). We can acknowledge the good aspects of her characterization in the Golden Age, for example, but appreciate that the character evolved and improved as society evolved and improved, and would prefer if new takes on her didn't regress her or transform her in a negative direction.

Anyway, I have a lot of respect for the comic critic and analyst, Colin Smith, who writes about comics on his blog Too Busy Thinking About Comics. This is what he had to say about Lois Lane after a recent reread of early Golden Age stories:

To my surprise and, yes, delight, such a perspective also changes Lois' function in the Siegel and Shuster tales. If Clark is a symbol of the limits of what can and should be fairly expected of the woman or man in the street, then Lois represents those brave and determined souls who press on when success is almost impossible to achieve. As such, her strength is also her tragic weakness, for she constantly perseveres in the face of almost certain defeat. Rather than the snotty, intolerant bully that she could often appear to be, Lois can actually stand for all of those who won't give into the common sense of self-preservation. When she passes judgement on Clark's supposed timidity, she's expressing her loathing for a culture that's willing to co-exist and even collaborate with oppression. When she mocks Clark for refusing to fight with a mobster, it's in the light of the fact that she's already landed a mighty blow on the gangster's cheek. (It's a heedless act of defiance that will swiftly find her being kidnapped and facing a profoundly unpleasant fate.) Rather than worshipping some ludicrous ideal of male power, as the early Lois has often been accused of, surely she's merely longing to find a partner and lover who'll fight with as much boldness and conviction as she herself habitually displays.

Given that degree of recklessly principled courage, it's hardly surprising that Superman is always having to rescue her. For it's not her weakness or her irresponsibility or even a contemptible reliance upon him that leads her constantly into inescapable danger. Rather, it's her principles, skills and fortitude matched to her determination not to be cowed by tyrants minor or major. Without the miracle of Superman, Lois, and everyone like Lois, would most probably struggle to survive. For if Siegel and Shuster's tales are to be trusted, there were limits to what could be achieved in late-30s America through a refusal to ever be intimidated. Such constraints, these early Superman stories suggest, mark the point at which anonymity and a judicious use of the bully's own methods become the only rational approach. Yet Lois believes in the system, and believes that it could be saved if only everyone would stand up like her and fight. For all that it's an admirable belief, it ignores the reality of oppression. Overwhelming force is rarely defeated by brave acts of individual principle, and, for all her wonderful bravery, little that Lois might do when faced with hand-guns and blackjacks could protect her. It's a fact that appears to suggest a world too depressing for Lois Lane to live in. Accordingly, no amount of bullets that head her way seem likely to dent her faith in the good cause, the correct action, the individual conscience dauntlessly expressed. By contrast to her, Superman is a far more cynical character. Although he'd later become the ultimate Boy Scout, here Superman is truly anything but. To be a good Scout is to work within the system while trusting in its integrity and decency. But Superman only shows himself in public in Siegel and Shuster's earliest work when the very same system has profoundly failed. If America were consistently possessed of integrity and decency, then Superman would never have needed to wrench on his tights and march so conspicuously into the fray. (Source)

[DeathFalcon182]

Can this thread be a discussion thread for the issue and not bethe lois thread ols? Like seriously the forums have turned into a very bad place with this whole Lois shenanigan.

Anyways i really liked the issue, this time the solar flare use actually made sense and art has been pretty good considering what it was like around issue 37-38.

[UltimateTy]

This was a good issue. I rolled my eyes at the part Lois found out Clark was Superman but it didn't ruin the issue.

[misslane]

This was a good issue. I rolled my eyes at the part Lois found out Clark was Superman but it didn't ruin the issue.

Why did you roll your eyes?

[dexx707]

This issue was pretty decent to me. I liked the fact that they called Lexcorp old news, and that data is the new wave. It's especially funny considering that Jesse Eisenberg is playing Lex in the new film and makes Lex look like a data billionaire than a science one. Glad that toyman is still making his appearances throughout the superman storyline, also Lol at the "I think I'm in love" bit. The reveal of the villain was.... underwhelming. Yet another punk kid that thinks that they can take on a super hero just because they got a meta-power and some money. I do find the guy... alien? robot? being-thing that touched superman interesting. I'm just wondering why superman isn't actively looking for this guy/thing in his other Truth stories.

Sigh.....now on to Lois....I seriously don't like her (the feeling is closer to hate but I typically feel that you can't truly hate something without feeling love for it or loving it's polar opposite ex: I hate hilter's philosophy and actions, but I love Martian Luther King Jr's). She's the type of woman, journalist, and human that just give all of them a bad name. I can't go into as much detail as some other posters on Lois's comic history because I just simply could give less of a crap about the actions of the personified image of damsel in distress. To me the only time she seemed even slightly appealing was I her smallville incarnation and that was because she was waaay less obnoxious than everything else I saw of her. Also her Flashpoint incarnation I like that she became more than a nosy reporter (In fact I kinda wanted more of a back story on the spy who infiltrated the amazon army learned their skills, culture, gained their trust, got some powers, but stayed true to her original mission).

This though..... how she reacted, how she snubbed his explanation, how she seems to utterly lack empathy for a person who's suppose to be her friend. It just frustrates me, he literally just saved your life 30secs beforehand. This entire truth storyline intrigues the hell outta me. But fact that it was Lois who exposed Clark for whatever reason short of saving another person's life is just stupid. Even the excuse that "If she hadn't the bad guy would have." and? So what!? That's what bad guy's do. Lois as his friend should have idk maybe got the first interview with him after he's expose. That probably would have been just as big of a scoop, and would have allowed Clark to maybe explain his reasons (Though I really don't think he needs too. i don't care who he his or what he does anyone who does what he does deserves to chill out every now and again).
Even in this issue she tells Clark that she has a program that can track superman's whereabouts..... who the hell does she think she is!? The f*#$ing NSA!? Who's to say that that program that she developed did'nt some how end up in the HORDR didn't get a hold of that then use it to track superman? Even if they didnt why would she create such a thing? whatever..... but it gets worse. This program tracked how weak superman was getting.... so your "friend" is losing his powers, essentially becoming human? So you take his secret ID and expose him for a story...... now every villain, nutjob, and wannabe tough-guy is basically now knows it's open-season on superman and everyone he loves. nice Lois. real nice.

Lois has always been unappealing to me I found her romance with superman an enigma. The most powerful guy on the planet (top-tier in the universe/multi-verse) is willing to settle down and down grade (yes down grade I don't care how much anyone tries to prop her up a virtual god going for a lowly reporter woman is a down grade) with this average woman is odd to me. If most want to go with the excuse that superman wanted to feel more human? Fine. You wanna go with the love angle? Fine. However don't tell me that she was his best option. Don't state that she was worthy of him (yes worthy like in the case with thor's hammer worthy. As in if you don't meet these standards you get s#!t. The same way relations between real people work). Am I a fan of SM/WW? Yes. Would it bother me if they break up? Only sightly. Would I mind if they dated other people but remained friends? No. But for the love of god keep him away from Lois!

[FanboyStranger]

Anyone else feel that the past two issues have been JR Jr's best art in years? I wasn't fond of the JRJr/Janson pairing in the past, but it's really working here.

[Rakzo]

Anyone else feel that the past two issues have been JR Jr's best art in years? I wasn't fond of the JRJr/Janson pairing in the past, but it's really working here.

JRJR has definitely been improving his work in this title compared to the beginning. I remember finding his early issues pretty rough looking but now it looks much more polished.

[AlexanderLuthor]

I really enjoyed this. Best written Jimmy Olsen in a loooooong time. He's actually quirky and funny and reminds me of the old Jimmy Olsen. I've gone through about 20 years of groaning when he appears because he has been such a cheese ball punk. Hopefully, this new direction keeps up. As for Lois, she has been this way since 1978 - this is Richard Donner's Lois that all of the writers have seen since they were kids...bratty, insolent, pigheaded, annoying and unlikeable. I even read her in Margot Kidder's voice. I don't blame big fans of the character for being disappointed if they want more, but this has been her character for a long time

[AlexanderLuthor]

JRJR has definitely been improving his work in this title compared to the beginning. I remember finding his early issues pretty rough looking but now it looks much more polished.

Agreed. His faces have improved dramatically. The storytelling and action have been pretty solid, but he was drawing some weird looking people early in the run

[raidensix]

How dumb has Superman become? He has several other powers which he has full control of and he decides to use "Solar flare" in an occupied floating office building knowing it will leave him powerless and vulnerable and unable to help clean up the disaster he just caused?

[K. Jones]

Yeah Superman's overuse of the solar flare thing has been pretty lame. I like to pretend maybe it's all just a result of some Doctor Light tampering back in Trinity War. He never needed it before, why so much now?

Beyond that, I dunno. I mean I liked the issue for the most part. We've got some friend/relationships stuff overlayed with some being professional investigative reporter stuff, looking into some seedy corrupt corporation/ethics stuff that looks like it ends up crescendoing into some ultra sci-fi. Which is what every Superman story should strive for at all times. And I think it looks pretty likely that the reason Lois has to reveal Superman's identity is because if she doesn't, Hordr_Root probably will - and if she reveals it, they get to control that information and knowledge, control the narrative, and I guess probably keep the Daily Planet's reputation from going in the trash, too. Frankly it's akin to Snowden going to specific journalists instead of like, WikiLeaks.

Control the narrative, control the conversation. And I think TRUST factors in a huge way, since Clark will have to trust Lois to do this with a deft hand. Even though obviously we know it's not going to be a smooth process for him.

[AlexanderLuthor]

Yeah Superman's overuse of the solar flare thing has been pretty lame. I like to pretend maybe it's all just a result of some Doctor Light tampering back in Trinity War. He never needed it before, why so much now?

Beyond that, I dunno. I mean I liked the issue for the most part. We've got some friend/relationships stuff overlayed with some being professional investigative reporter stuff, looking into some seedy corrupt corporation/ethics stuff that looks like it ends up crescendoing into some ultra sci-fi. Which is what every Superman story should strive for at all times. And I think it looks pretty likely that the reason Lois has to reveal Superman's identity is because if she doesn't, Hordr_Root probably will - and if she reveals it, they get to control that information and knowledge, control the narrative, and I guess probably keep the Daily Planet's reputation from going in the trash, too. Frankly it's akin to Snowden going to specific journalists instead of like, WikiLeaks.

Control the narrative, control the conversation. And I think TRUST factors in a huge way, since Clark will have to trust Lois to do this with a deft hand. Even though obviously we know it's not going to be a smooth process for him.

If there is any consistency to the story though he is blindsided by it. At least that's what we've been shown in the "future". I agree, it would make a lot more sense if he told Lois to do it so they could get out front, but that doesn't seem to be what happens later. Always enjoy your posts btw