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Saturday, December 07, 2019 

The Superman Homepage pans Rucka's 6th Lois Lane issue

The Superman Homepage site, biggest fansite I know of dedicated to all that is the Man of Steel and more, reviewed Greg Rucka's 6th issue of Lois Lane's solo book, and handed it a negative opinion. The review gives some eyebrow-raising ideas what could be wrong with the yarn spun, which takes place after Lois' father Sam is killed in Event Leviathan:
The funeral ends and some time later at a bar, Lois is confronted by her sister Lucy. During the funeral, Lois was unable to accept the United States flag presented to her as a token of appreciation of her father’s service. Lucy accuses Lois of making the funeral all about her and storms off. Lois is comforted by Clark and laments that her father almost saw the good in Superman.
Hmm, based on what politics Rucka's brought about, I'm sure that shunning of a flagstaff was no accident. If he's going to turn this title - or any other Superman title - into a showcase for his leftist agendas, he's done nothing more than slap Siegel and Shuster in the face, along with anybody else who supported "the American Way" in decades past. Lest we forget, some of this direction ties in with the mess Brian Bendis is preparing too.

The reviewer, amazingly enough, recognized this debacle enough to give it a negative take:
Just when I thought I was finally rid of the disaster that was Event Leviathan. This is a filler issue. While it’s nice to see Lois’ reaction to the death of her father, I’m left wondering what this has to do with the main plot. I know it’s unfair to criticize something because it doesn’t play out how I imagined it would, but it also seems like the story is being sidestepped to address some change Bendis decided was a good idea. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want a story to stay focused. I guess what I’m getting at is that this feels more like a collection of unrelated issues than a series with a purpose. It’s like DC wanted to get Lois’ perspective on all of the changes being made, but didn’t want to put a Lois Lane ongoing into production. Perhaps it’s just me, but all momentum is gone. There are six issues left and I can guarantee there will be at least one issue dealing with the fallout of Clark revealing his identity to the world. The A Plot doesn’t matter anymore.

While this issue itself isn’t the worst book I’ve ever read, it does nothing to service the story at hand. Sam didn’t die as a result of anything happening in this book, he died in a completely different series for an unrelated reason. Sure, it’s sad that Sam’s died (again), but it adds nothing and will very likely have no bearing on subsequent issues.
Mainly because Rucka's clearly more interested in furthering his metaphorical putdowns of America and Trump. To the point he turns Lois' own father into a sacrificial lamb for his agendas. And while Lucy Lane may accuse her older sister of making their dad's funeral all about her, it's really Rucka making it all about himself and his dismal politics at the cast of characters' expense.

And since Bendis is part of this mess, here's another reviewer's take on the 11th Young Justice issue, which Bendis wrote:
This was only the start of my displeasure with this issue sadly. We are introduced to the character of Naomi, and yet learn as little about her, as we have regarding many of the new characters of the team. I felt as though we just walked into the middle of an episode of a totally different show, as I read the opening pages of this issue, and was introduced to Naomi. Bendis writing was extremely confusing during the start, more so than usual, and the dialogue between the characters was exposition times 10, with a touch of incoherence in the form of Naomi’s confusion about her “home world”. Also what happened to characters that had superhero names? This new trend of calling heroes by a single name seems like it’s a page out of the WWE handbook. Naomi really isn’t a name that excites for a new character.
It does sound awfully dull on its own. It's one thing if you have a cast member with just a simple personal and family name. Snapper Carr was one in the Justice League, and Donna Troy made the shift successfully enough by the 90s. It's another entirely if those who still go by superhero codenames are forcibly reduced to just their real names, and in the case of Bendis' creation, the most uninspired approach.

There had once been a Lois solo book in the Silver Age (1958-74), and I see no reason why it couldn't be tried again, but when somebody as bad as Rucka is given the writing gig, that ruins everything. If these reviewers really want to do some good, they'd call out SJWs like Rucka and Bendis for the bad they bring to comicdom and request of fans not to support their work. Such awful people don't belong in comicdom.

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Siegel and Shuster never used the phrase 'truth justice and the American way'; that was added by others. They were working class second-generation immigrant kids who believed in fighting for the underdog, in the rights of labourers and ordinary people, and who hated the right-wing dictatorships that had come to power in Europe; they were not right wingers. And different people have very different ideas of what the American way is; Trump's idea of it clashes with the ideas held by other Americans, and many think his ideology and program is unAmerican.

As far as the use of street names goes, I didn't much like it when Hank started going by just the name Dr Pym for a while. But Thor and Dr Strange and Dracula and Nick Fury and Howard the Duck got along well just using their birth names, and I like Luke Cage or Cage a lot better than Power Man. Naomi works as a name exactly because it goes against type; it stands out from other titles because it leaves you wondering what is going on and who this person is.

Comicdom is a big place, one to which all kinds of people can belong; if it has room for aliens from outer space and monarchs from the depths of the ocean and green-skinned monsters, it has room for leftists and and conservatives as well as right-wingers. Superman once fought in the 1940s for 'truth, justice and tolerance'; maybe he was on to something.

Namor works as well as calling him the Sub-Mariner, and people think of him as having something to do with submarines rather than the Ancient Mariner, so Namor might be the better choice. Chalk him up as another hero who works best under his birth name.

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