Cracktopia: Lois Lane, Singlehandedly Solving the World's Problems
Early Lois Lane comics tended to feature Lois being wacky. Later comics get even odder, in different ways. Near the end of her run in the early 70s, Lois starts taking on all the pressing problems of the day, from biker gangs to drug abuse to racial relations. The results are...odd.
Here Lois is getting to know a fiery black activist, Dave, and his girlfriend, Tina. Tina is quite chilly to Lois at first:
No comment necessary there, I suppose. Oddly, as Lois gets more liberated, she seems to spend more time crying about Superman...
Dave and Lois are attacked because Dave is fighting for against slumlords. They are rescued by Thorn, who is a DC superheroine who mostly appeared just in Lois Lane.
Thorn's backstory: timid, shy Rose Forrest has a split personality and fights to avenge her father's murder by night as the Thorn, remembering nothing in the morning.
As a girl I found "Rose and Thorn" thrilling (as an adult, well, lets just say her stories weren't very exciting in reality). I can't imagine why a young girl almost paralyzed with shyness would find the story of a meek woman who dresses up in a green bustier and kicks ass interesting...
"The Baleful Beauty"! She was also often called "The Vixen of Vengeance"!
Dave's manly ego is hurt by having a woman save him, so Lois gives him a talking-to. Can she overcome years of gender stereotyping?
Well...that was easy.
Dave takes Lois to an activist meeting, where she meets with hostility. Can Lois ever counter a centuries-old racial divide?
Oh. Well gee, that was easy too!
Dave's girlfriend, Tina, remains hostile until a neighborhood party is interrupted by violence:
Lois is badly burned and Thorn shows up to save the day and deliver a homily:
I can't be the only person who read that and exclaimed, "Oh, he can't be the first black columnist on the whole damn--oh, she means at the Daily Planet."
So there you have it: racial harmony in 28 pages! Lois should be working for the UN!
Don't get me wrong, it's kind of cool to see superhero comic books trying to deal with important issues. It's just not really a genre well-adapted to reflect the complexity of said issues.
Here Lois is getting to know a fiery black activist, Dave, and his girlfriend, Tina. Tina is quite chilly to Lois at first:
No comment necessary there, I suppose. Oddly, as Lois gets more liberated, she seems to spend more time crying about Superman...
Dave and Lois are attacked because Dave is fighting for against slumlords. They are rescued by Thorn, who is a DC superheroine who mostly appeared just in Lois Lane.
Thorn's backstory: timid, shy Rose Forrest has a split personality and fights to avenge her father's murder by night as the Thorn, remembering nothing in the morning.
As a girl I found "Rose and Thorn" thrilling (as an adult, well, lets just say her stories weren't very exciting in reality). I can't imagine why a young girl almost paralyzed with shyness would find the story of a meek woman who dresses up in a green bustier and kicks ass interesting...
"The Baleful Beauty"! She was also often called "The Vixen of Vengeance"!
Dave's manly ego is hurt by having a woman save him, so Lois gives him a talking-to. Can she overcome years of gender stereotyping?
Well...that was easy.
Dave takes Lois to an activist meeting, where she meets with hostility. Can Lois ever counter a centuries-old racial divide?
Oh. Well gee, that was easy too!
Dave's girlfriend, Tina, remains hostile until a neighborhood party is interrupted by violence:
Lois is badly burned and Thorn shows up to save the day and deliver a homily:
I can't be the only person who read that and exclaimed, "Oh, he can't be the first black columnist on the whole damn--oh, she means at the Daily Planet."
So there you have it: racial harmony in 28 pages! Lois should be working for the UN!
Don't get me wrong, it's kind of cool to see superhero comic books trying to deal with important issues. It's just not really a genre well-adapted to reflect the complexity of said issues.