MEL ODOM
Lois Lane, Reporter
I remember reading Lois Lane comics when I was a kid. They weren't my favorites, but I would read them because Superman was in there, and when you've read everything else you've got, you don't have much of a choice.
Please note Lois's role as a possession in these early comics. She's Superman's "girlfriend." I never gave that a second thought when I was younger.
Lois was constantly getting herself into trouble that Superman had to rescue her from. She was also always crying about not getting Superman to love her, or she was jealous of someone new, or she was creeping around trying to find out if Clark Kent was really Superman. Of course, it was actually the other way around. Superman was really Clark Kent.
I had the same problem with the Jimmy Olsen comics. He had the signal watch Superman had given him for when he got into trouble. Man, that thing went off all the time. I was also confused as to why Lois didn't get a signal watch too, and she should have been angry about that, but I don't remember that ever being a problem.
The thing I most looked forward to in the Lois Lane comics were the "Imaginary Tales" where Lois was married to Superman and they had a child, or they adopted Supergirl, Superman's cousin, or Lois got superpowers. Those stories eventually spawned the Elseworlds brand that DC Comics has done so much with.
As an aside, Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler, wrote his own "imaginary" tales. Mostly for his own amusement, I think. An early form of "fan fiction" before that venue had a name.
I got tired of the Lois Lane/Lang Lane rivalry pretty quickly. I think everyone did.
I picked up the early comics ever so often, especially when Lois did something I truly didn't expect. Many of them I read in the old 25-cent GIANT comics that had reprint material. 25-cent comics were EXPENSIVE back then, so I always tried to get good stuff that I had missed.
In the 1970s, Lois became more daring and stepped out away from Superman's shadow, even put him on the chase instead of her speeding after him like a heat-seeking missile.
The initial series ran to issue #136 before getting cut, and Lois had some wild adventures. Some of them tried to be socially conscious, but are kinda cringe-worthy now.
What so many people took for granted was Lois's job as a reporter. That was just a lever to get her into most of her adventures, not really something she did. At least, that's the way I remember the stories.
Last year, though, Greg Rucka (the writer who gave us Batwoman and the new Question) wrote a 12-issue maxi-series that wrapped itself tightly around Lois's job as a reporter. I read the first couple of issues, but I couldn't stand the suspense of waiting all year for the rest of the story. Plus, that stupid pandemic hit and my mind was constantly somewhere else.
Last night, Lois crossed my mind again and I thought about Rucka's series. Lo and behold, it's on Amazon as a complete graphic novel. I picked it up for my LARGE Kindle and plan to read it soon.
I figured I would write a superficial retrospective of Lois and her evolution to the woman she is today. She's come a long, long way. I celebrate the arrival of the Lois we have now. Thank you, Greg Rucka!
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