COMIC REVIEW: FTN reviews Superman: Lois Lane #1

Written by Marguerite Bennett

Pencils by Emanuela Lupacchino, Meghan Hetrick, IG Guara, & Diogenes Neves

Inks by Guillermo Ortego, Hetrick, Ruy Jose, & Marc Deering

Colors by Hi-Fi

Published by DC Comics

The time is finally here! Lois Lane is finally getting her shine in the New 52 in the form of a one-shot written by Marguerite Bennett. Lois has been many things throughout her time in every form of DC continuity. She’s been a damsel in distress, a heroine, and a role model for women all over the world, but at her core, Lois Lane is the embodiment of a courageous, passionate human being. In this amazing one-shot, we get a bit of back story for Ms. Lane; it’s something that the New 52 has really been missing and I was so happy when I saw that this book was announced. The theme of this book is the relationship between Lois and her sister, Lucy. “You never learned to fly and I never caught you, but you’ll never have to fall alone.” This is a story full of, to quote the cover, “Monsters and Mayhem in Metropolis,” but at its core, this is a story about family coming together in the face of adversity.

The only other experience with Marguerite Bennett’s writing I’ve had was with her issue of Batgirl, which I loved, but after reading this I have to say…DC Comics NEEDS to give her a series, preferably one with a strong, female lead. I absolutely love the way she portrayed Lois in this book, and to me, THIS is the Lois Lane that should grace the pages of our comic books. In this story she’s loving, courageous, intelligent, and forever a great journalist and with Bennett writing her she’s not just a strong, female lead, but she’s someone that we could all strive to be like; I absolutely loved that about her in this book. I think it’s great to finally see a character in the DC 52 that ISN’T a superhero doing such heroic things; that left Bennett with the freedom to make Lois seem more human than any character being currently written at DC. She doesn’t always have to make the ‘right’ choice. I won’t spoil anything, but there’s a situation in the book that Lois makes the decision most of us would make, even if it isn’t the ‘right’ choice.

Holy cow! There are a TON of artists on this book. I wasn’t aware of it until I was looking at the credits to do this review, but I don’t understand why there are so many names attached to it. Normally you can tell when a book changes artists, but I really didn’t in this title. Maybe it was the great storytelling, or maybe they all just put extra effort into making sure their styles matched up well in this issue, but I didn’t take much notice in the art changing around like I do in most titles that have multiple artists on it. Nay saying the artist swaps aside, I really did enjoy the art in this issue. There are plenty of monsters and action throughout the issue; it was a lot of fun to see them flex their creative muscles thinking of all the different mutations and then watching the monsters in action.

I said it before and I’ll say it again…DC needs to give Marguerite Bennett her own title, preferably one centered on Lois Lane! I absolutely loved this issue and I wish this was an on-going series, but I enjoyed this issue for what it was: a self contained story that really shows off just how special Lois is as a character and Ms. Bennett and her crew couldn’t have pulled it off more perfectly. We see literally every aspect of Lois as a character: a heroine, a role model, and while she put herself in a ‘damsel in distress’ situation, she made it perfectly clear that with someone as talented as Marguerite Bennett writing her, she’s more than capable of taking care of herself.

4.5 out of 5 nerds