Lois Lane #1 // Review
On Monday, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and a few other Congresspeople toured the Border Patrol Concentration Camps to document the mistreatment of detained asylum-seekers at the hands of our own government. Superman and Lois Lane may be fictional, but given the events of Lois Lane #1, it seems likely they’d approve of AOC and her colleagues’ work.
The story continues the current status quo of the Superman comics, with Lois operating primarily out of a hotel room in the Drake in Chicago and living separately from her husband. A photograph of Lois kissing Superman has surfaced, so people think she’s cheating on Clark Kent, and she’s still dealing with the fallout. The inciting incident here is when Lois learns that a colleague/rival in Moscow has been murdered, so she sends the Question--Renee Montoya!--to retrieve the dead reporter’s hidden notes. The moment everyone will be talking about, though, is the final scene, in which Lois derails a White House press briefing to grill the press secretary about the monetization of “tender care” facilities at the border, leading to the revocation of her White House press credentials. Art imitates life.
Greg Rucka, it should surprise nobody, writes a killer Lois Lane. The banter between Lois and Perry White is excellent--realistic but witty, and accurate to the relationship between old friends and colleagues. The relationship between Lois and Clark is similarly practical; this is a couple who have been together for a while but still can surprise one another, who are settled and secure but still have a spark. Much of the issue feels like Rucka’s work a decade ago on Gotham Central.
Adding to the similarity to Gotham Central is the gritty, photorealistic art of Mike Perkins. Perkins’ Lois is pitch-perfect, and his eye for detail is excellent (for example, of course, Lois contacts the Question using an iPad in one of those typewriter keyboard things). Colorist Paul Mounts and letterer Simon Bowland do excellent work supporting Perkins and Rucka and telling this story.
This timely and political first issue of Lois Lane is an instant classic and a great start to the series. If the next eleven chapters match the quality of the first, then the eventual hardcover collection will look great on any collectors’ shelf, right next to the Gotham Central omnibus.
