A few days ago, the Twitter comics community was all abuzz about a hypothetical Lois Lane series. Now, there was no indication that this was being considered by the kind folks at DC editorial; rather, some devoted Lois fans talked about how great such a series could be, spread a #LoisLaneSeries hashtag, and eventually got various comic creators to join in on the Lois Lane appreciation. The topic got so much attention that Ron Perazza tweeted from the DC Nation twitter “Appreciate all the support you guys have for a #LoisLaneSeries – we’ll let the folks in DCU editorial know you’re interested.” After this, I can think of no better time to debut Multiversity’s newest weekly column, Fund It!, wherein I pick a character/team/concept and a writer and/or artist that would do them justice and tell you why. Follow the cut to see why I think Greg Rucka would be the best writer for a new Lois Lane-centric series.
(And yes, that is the first picture I found on Google image search, but I found it oddly accurate for what I’m going for with this.)
I swear I start everything I write about Greg Rucka with this some variation of this phrase, but it bears repeating: the first thing that many readers (including myself) think of when they think of Rucka’s writing is his tendency to use strong female leads. Is that all he writes? Well, of course not. It’s just a personal preference, and that’s perfectly fine — especially since he’s great at it. Since we’re talking Lois Lane, the most prominent journalist in the DC Universe and the woman who Superman fell in love with, we need someone who can really write a strong, independent female character — after all, as close as Lois and Clark are, Lois continued to kick ass and take names while Superman was in outer space during New Krypton. However, there are many other creators who are well known for writing strong female characters; creators that are actually female, which was something that some participating in the #LoisLaneSeries discussion on Twitter were insistint upon. Still, I feel that Greg Rucka has a certain something that could truly bring such a series to life.
Some of you may remember a series from a few years ago entitled Gotham Central. It was an interesting title, in that while it wasn’t a superhero comic per se it was still in a superhero setting. Often compared to television shows such as The Wire, Gotham Central focused on the police forces of Bruce Wayne’s home town and how they dealt with the hardships they faced living in one of the most dangerous cities of the DC Universe. The series would tell stories featuring characters as fantastical as Mr. Freeze to those as disturbingly real as crooked cops like Jim Corrigan. Co-written by Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker, the book was a critical success — though not much of a financial one — garnering the two writers with Eisner and Harvey award nominations and winning both awards for best serialized story in 2004. Eventually Brubaker left the title, leaving Rucka to tie off all the loose ends that remained. In the end, what made Gotham Central exciting (besides, you know, an all-star creative team) was this concept of how a real profession adjusts to residing in a world with superheroes.
That is what I want to see done with Lois Lane. Well, not exactly that, as she has no previous experience as a police officer, but you know what I mean. A series focusing on Lois’ exploits as a reporter and how that affects how she perceives the superheroic world could be very interesting and refreshing, and a nice break from the non-stop action of DC’s standard fare. The title could use Lois’ position as a vehicle to examine the political, economic and moral implications that living in a place like the DC Universe would bring. Think Transmetropolitan, but with superheroes in the background and significantly less swearing. Rucka already gave Lois a bit of this attention in this manner during his final arc on Action Comics, and I enjoyed it just as uch as the main story. To help things out, there’s already a fully-fleshed out supporting cast to work with! The Daily Planet’s staff is very diverse and interesting, from the proud Perry White to the snooty Cat Grant, but usually the most attention they get is at the exposition of a Superman story, right before the action kicks in. I want more of these characters, and a Lois Lane series would be a great way to get them. Gotham has its policemen and women, and Metropolis has its reporters, and Lois Lane, The Daily Planet, or whatever you would want to call it could serve as a great counterpart to Gotham Central, highlighting DC’s other major city from the eyes of its most notable citizens.
Continued belowIn terms of art, I haven’t quite decided who would work best. As the concept is more rooted in reality than most superhero comics, I tried to think of artists that would fit that bill and came up with a few artists similar to Michael Lark — the original artist for Gotham Central. I then realized that I was mistaking gritty for realistic, which is a whole different animal. While Lark’s style fit the tone of Gotham Central to a t, Metropolis is a lot “brighter” than Gotham. Instead, I think someone like Alex Ross would suit this hypothetical series very well, as his lack of heavy stylization makes even the most gaudy superheroes look like real people, which is what we are going for here. Maybe not Alex Ross in specific, as his work can be a bit too static for my liking, but someone who is similar while throwing in a bit more stylization could be perfect.
I have one final thing to say regarding why Greg Rucka would be the best choice for a Lois Lane series: his devotion to research. When Greg Rucka writes anything based in reality, from forensic research to court procedures, he makes damn sure to get it right. Read this inspiring blog piece that he wrote and you’ll get just a taste of how seriously he takes research. When J. Michael Straczynski started his short-lived run on Superman, he made a small fuss about how many writers never quite got how to write a newsroom scene, and that he was going to set it right. We haven’t really received too much of a look at the goings-ons of The Daily Planet in JMS’ run so far, but you can be sure that if Rucka was writing such a scene he would be right on the money. I know that there have been rumors of a falling out between Greg and DC editorial, but maybe when those bridges are repaired we can one day see this dream series come to life, and I’ll be the first to pre-order it.
(If that fails, I would pay out the nose for Peter Milligan and Mike Allred to reunite on a miniseries based off of the surreal Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane that spanned from the 50s into the 70s. You would, too.)
