Review: Lois Lane #1

LOIS LANE #1
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Mike Perkins, Paul Mounts, and Simon Bowland
Edited by Jessica Chen, Mike Cotton, and Brian Cunningham
Published by DC Comics
Release Date: July 3, 2019

Journalism is a tough business, it takes extraordinary people to chase down a story that could possibly get them killed in pursuit of the truth. Lois Lane knows all about truth, justice, and the American Way being the best investigative journalist at the Daily Planet. With a new series under her belt and her important role in the ongoing Event Leviathan storyline, DC is giving Lois a lot of room to have a life outside of her superhero husband.

In a world of Supermen, Justice Leaguers, and Cosmic God’s lies a woman getting the story that needs to be told completed over the TAK TAK TAK of her laptop and the news delivering the latest from the White House. Being on the ground floor of the DCU provides for a unique perspective for any person, but Lois isn’t tied to any one corner of this huge universe and is more concerned with where the story takes her. Rucka gives us the corners of Lane’s life as it stands right now, far and away from the Man of Steel and his superhero activity. Lois is a woman with an agenda and showcases her urgency to her life’s work that has the grit and determination that rivals anyone else’s.

Rucka takes the time to show all of the facets of what Lois’s life looks like, from the investigative reporting and clue-hunting to spending time with Clark, and in the field as a mystery happens upon her doorstep. Fleshing out Lois beyond her job and relationship to Superman and beyond the pages of Action Comics is something is no small feat. The hook of what Lois Lane is doing when she isn’t involved with Superman has proven to be interesting enough with this new #1. The Superman Family of titles has had good fortune with balancing the ground and cosmic levels for each of the characters and with Lois being tied to both it’s nice to see more of her day today. Perkins art, previously seen in the Leviathan Rising Special continues to carry a muddled yet realistic approach to portraying Lois’s world. The pencils nail the facial expressions, subtly as this is a conversation heavy issue and it carries across environments and phone calls. It’s a very noir styled look for the book, complete with rainy windows and Perry White alerting her to the death of a fellow reporter. The art may be initially uncomfortable for some but the pencils bring you into that unsure world, of shifting sands and shady business. Mounts on colors bring the book together, with the dark corners and shading being a personal winner for the book. Certain colors persist as visuals for us and it matches Perkins pencils with being heavily involved with the shadows, the creepy, and the threatening.

The world of the DCU isn’t without its Superheroes and Rucka maintains that Superman is a piece of our protagonist’s life. When Superman is around whether it’s walking around Downtown Chicago or the two of them being a loving couple, the colors are warmer, inviting, and embracing with just enough of the grounded and shadows that want you to look around the corner and smaller details that lay out what kind of world Lois is involved in. As a journalist, Rucka begins the start of this twelve-issue series with a topic that strikes at the heart of politics right now, and could not be a better sequence for how a book can speak to the real world while balancing superheroics. Rucka continues the voice of Lois as writers have always written her, a strong and an independent woman journalist who gets her story no matter the level of danger. It’ll be interesting to see how the series evolves and how far the initial story of a dead journalist and her day job coincide but thus far, the creative team gives us a lot to go on in the world of Lois Lane.

The Verdict: 8.0/10