Girl reporter Lois Lane is in a pickle.
She wants to interview the residents of Little Africa – Metropolis’ answer to Harlem – but none of them will talk to her, and she thinks it’s because of the color of her skin.
Rather than do what most journalists would do, that is, build relationships with community leaders to win trust, Lois decides she must become black.
What some reporters won’t do to make a deadline.
Can a woman have a Bat-career?
That was the question DC Comics struggled with in the 1950s.
The Dark Knight’s first and best female companion debuted in “Detective Comics” No. 233, cover date July 1956, in the story “Batwoman.”
Trapeze artist, motorcycle rider and heiress Kathy Kane donned cape and cowl to fight crime like her idol. Her career seemingly ended after her first mission when Batman discovered her secret identity. He warned her that if he could do it, criminals could do it as well, jeopardizing her life.
Never mind that he is the World’s Greatest Detective and not the average Gotham crook or that he could have helped Batwoman shore up her security. No, she had to know her place.
And Batwoman agreed she would retire.
Thankfully, that’s not the whole story. Even in the 1950s, Batwoman proved to be too popular to sit at home. So DC had to settle this story hole it had dug.
The Silver Age Superman fought everything from Brainiac to bug-eyed aliens, but his greatest and most persistent threat came from those closest to him.
Girl reporter Lois Lane and first love Lana Lang both wanted to expose his secret identity or trap him in marriage. Many times they figured the first would naturally lead to the second.
The Man of Steel was pretty good at putting them off, doing his super-thing while one of his robots or Batman covered for him by pretending to be helpless schlub Clark Kent.
But there came a moment when the two alleged loves of his life teamed to learn his greatest secret and forced him to turn to an unlikely source for help.
Continue reading “Is This the Saddest Superman Story Ever Told?”
DC and IDW Publishing’s “Love is Love” welcomes the best and brightest comics creators today to honor the victims of the Pulse shooting in Orlando in June.
Marc Andreyko (“Batwoman”) has gathered such talents as Paul Dini, Gail Simone, Phil Jimenez and Brian Michael Bendis as well as a few folks you don’t typically associate with comics: Patton Oswalt, Taran Killam, Morgan Spurlock and Matt Bomer.
Most of the stories in this 144-page trade paperback run just one page.
One page?
What kind of impact can one page deliver?
Continue reading “DC/IDW’s ‘Love is Love’ Honors Pulse Victims”
In Warner Bros.’ “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” DC Comics’ two greatest titans go mano-a-mano.
The loser: Audiences.
Warning: There be spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film – and I encourage you to wait until it’s on TNT some Sunday morning next year – tread at your risk.
