I've finally read a Lois Lane comic - as in, a comic where she is at the center of everything, in her own story. Beforehand, I'd barely read anything with her in it.
But with 2023's 'Girl Taking Over: A Lois Lane Story', written by Sarah Kuhn and illustrated by Arielle Jovellanos, I can rectify that. And after reading, I can conclude that it has earned its place on my DC comics bookshelf, among other stories about awesome and badass female DC characters. Lois is unique: she doesn't have to be a superhero to be super - ordinary humans are just as capable of amazing feats and achievements, in order to save and change the world. Perseverance, resolve, self-confidence, a circle of loving and caring support, and speaking your truth are key. The long, arduous, exhausting, frustrating, overwhelming, and painful road to success - filled with so many of life's disappointments - may well be worth it in the end.That's what intrepid, fiery, hardworking young aspiring reporter Lois Lane learns. Things will certainly not be easy for this biracial woman in the patriarchal society.
In this 21st century reimagined origin, for YA audiences, Lois is half Japanese from her mother's side, and this is important to the story being told. Racism and sexism are put under a planet-sized magnifying glass and examined and shed light on. It's heartbreaking to see her having to deal with so many racist dickshits throughout her life, and she being made to hide her pain and never show how much it affects her - be the perfect model minority, and "bounce back", and justify her existence, in a world that will refuse to see her no matter what she achieves. It isn't healthy, and it isn't making her happy. She shouldn't have to put up with this. It is systematic bigotry and abuse, plain and simple.
Lois is a writer, an exposer of truth and justice, an unmasker, not a coffee girl. Not the token exotic Asian intern.
Is this still happening in 2023? After MeToo and Times Up??? Holy shit, white people are terrible, monstrous human beings. When will this pattern, this systematic prejudice, end? I could tell Sarah Kuhn put some of her own personal experiences into 'Girl Taking Over'; it is raw, heartwrenching and anger-inducing to read about.
Lois's friends and cohorts are all POC. Asian racism and sexism are centralised, but that doesn't mean other, interconnected, severely outdated brands of racism and supplementary prejudices are ignored. Everyone, and everything, is important. Intersectional feminism and all that.
For feminism is freedom. For everyone.
Even with 'Girl Taking Over''s serious subject matters and issues - including cultural appropriation, conglomerate company takeovers, diversity performance in the workplace, undermining and gaslighting minorities in the workplace, the truth behind a lot of women being blacklisted anywhere, abusive men in positions of power knowing and enabling each other, abusive men in positions of power are more cartoonishly evil than 'Captain Planet' villains, and the importance of breathing exercises (with other people, too) in moments of stress - it is also a cute, touching and well developed story about friendship. It is about seeking truth, outward and inside yourself. It is about life, and how it doesn't go to plan, and how it goes outside of one's determined, well thought out control. It is about learning to stop and look around you, to appreciate the people you meet on your journey; your goal of reaching your dreams, which may or may not change overtime.
It is about many important things.
The artwork is bright, colourful, clean, hyper, and brilliantly expressive. I love it.
Sadly, the comic isn't pristine perfect. It isn't quite what I'd call "great", nor "breathtakingly fantastic and revolutionary". One fatal flaw is the romance between Lois and the darkhaired, glasses-wearing, hunky nerd boy Noah (does it exist to show she has a type, or what?). While it is cute and funny when it shows up, it is but a little footnote. It isn't needed, and could easily have been cut out entirely and not affect anything. I'd thought we'd gotten past the cultural notion that every story has to have a romance in it years ago.
Another flaw: side characters and their relationships are underdeveloped, including a sapphic one, which shockingly feels tacked on. Most of Lois's new friends kind of fizzle out towards the end, though they still show up in groups in panels, so they're not outright forgotten. This could be due to the limited Lois-central-POV narrative choice.
Despite these weaknesses, 'Girl Taking Over: A Lois Lane Story' is a vital DC YA graphic novel; a relevant Lois Lane writing and art piece for the 2020s. There are no superheroes here. No Superman. No supernatural and/or sci-fi elements whatsoever are present. Just the very human Lois, and her friends. In the real world, or real world adjacent.
It is the origin of Lois Lane: the world's greatest reporter; not Lois Lane: Superman's girlfriend.
(It really could have done without the romance she has with some other guy, I swear.)
Lois is kind, caring, thoughtful, friendly, determined, diligent, stubborn, strong, moral, and incorruptible. She will become all of these things fully, anyway - for she is young, and has lots to learn yet.
Keep writing. Keep writing your truth, girl. Never be silent. Never hide. Never give up taking back your voice, and the voices of others who are marginalised.
I see it now. I understand and appreciate her more now: Lois Lane has the power to awaken and inspire others, young and old, without being a superhero.
(And race-swapping, and talking about race, remain critically important and societally relevant. Fuck you, racists.)
Final Score: 3.5/5
EDIT: Adding to the cute factor: one of Lois's friends, Jasmin, creates comics about mermaids, and Lois drinks a unicorn-themed sugary coffee, or "cappufrappacinno".
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