TITLE: Superman: Lois and Clark #1
AUTHOR: Dan Jurgens
PENCILLER: Lee Weeks
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASED: October 14, 2015

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

It would be unfair to say that Lois and Clark relies entirely on nostalgia to carry itself. But let’s be honest: For those of us who sting long for the pre-New 52 era, that’s a big factor. If you were first exposed to DC Comics in the ’80s, ’90s, or 2000s, this is your Superman. The post Crisis on Infinite Earths, pre-Flashpoint Superman. Not to mention Lois Lane, and their young son Jon.

After the events of Convergence, Clark, Lois, and baby Jonathan find themselves on the New 52 Earth mere hours before the events of Justice League: Origin. In a very different world, the family changes their last name to White and begins a life of relative anonymity. Lois begins publishing books under the name “Author X,” while Clark works as a farmer. Young Jonathan is oblivious of his parents’ old life. But with Clark unable to stay out of the game entirely, his son is starting to pick up on things.

It’s an interesting move, bringing these versions of Clark and Lois back. I read one reviewer say that DC is trying to “have its cake and eat it too” with this title. That’s a fair critique. After all, the “main” version of Superman has had his identity exposed to the world, is de-powered, and has never been in a relationship with Lois Lane. To bring the married versions of these characters back, existing in the same universe alongside their New 52 counterparts, might be considered a cheap move. It’s undeniably a ploy to bring back older readers. But even if it is a cheap ploy, it’s got the potential to be a pretty good one. This issue consists mostly of exposition and character re-introductions. But some compelling seeds are planted for future issues.

Full disclosure: I haven’t read Convergence: Superman (also by Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks) yet, so the circumstances of Jonathan’s birth aren’t fully known to me. But there is one thing I’m confused about. Justice League: Origin took place “five years ago,” right? And that was in 2011, so we might be able to say that it was six years ago. In this issue, we see that Jon was a baby at that point. But according to the solicitation for this issue, Jon is nine years old. How does that work?

Regardless, seeing pre-New 52 Clark and Lois again is awesome for a longtime fan like me, in the hands of renowned Superman scribe Dan Jurgens no less. There’s one moment in particular that hits you right in the feels. Jurgens and Weeks revisit the final moments of the Justice League’s battle with Darkseid in Origin. Then in the background, we zoom in on a familiar figure. Then we cut to a splash page of the Man of Steel himself watching from afar. For a longtime fan like me, this was a heart-warmer. I remember the initial awkwardness of the New 52. But these pages almost tell us: “Guess what? Superman, your Superman, was there all along.” It’s a hokey notion. But it made for the kind of feel-good moment that I suspect this series aims to provide.

Much of the issue consists of Clark and Lois awkwardly reciting exposition, via both dialogue and narration, the latter being done by Lois Lane. If it had just been Lois, that would have been fine. But there’s an obvious contrived nature to Clark saying lines like: “When we were first imprisoned on Telos, we didn’t know our Earth — our whole universe, was gone forever.”

A portion of the issue is devoted to Clark trying to prevent the space shuttle crash that turned Hank Henshaw into Cyborg Superman. This notion of Clark and Lois trying to alter events in this timeline to prevent certain tragedies that occurred in their timeline is interesting, and is certainly a goal worth revisiting in future issues. Though I suspect their interference it’ll wind up having more negative effects than positive.

Lee Weeks does some fantastic work in this issue. His work has a certain elegance to it that is very much befitting of this version of Superman. He’s also tremendous at conveying this Superman’s advanced wisdom and experience strictly via his art, without making the character look old, per se. Look at Clark’s face on the cover. It’s not just the beard and the glasses. It’s the eyes. It’s the line work on his face. I would argue once we get into the issue you can see it in his posture. Weeks has the opportunity to do some fantastic work here.

Also, can we please keep Tony Daniel away from this title? He did a variant cover for this issue, and it was everything we don’t want it to look like.

Lois and Clark is an interesting little experiment for DC. They brought their multiverse back in Convergence, and this is the first time since then that they’re making major use of it. A successful run for this book could pave the way for the return of other characters. Hell, in this very issue we saw that Parallax/Hal Jordan is out there in the multiverse somewhere…

Image 1 from dangermart.blogspot.com. Image 2 from comicsverse.com. Image 3 from adventuresinpoortaste.com.

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