More gossip from the world of comics.
The other day I posted about how this week's issue of ALL-NEW X-MEN revealed that the character of Iceman was gay. I found it interesting, but since I don't really know much about Iceman and have read X-MEN only infrequently, it didn't seem to me like a grossly uncharacteristic retcon. It didn't make me angry.
This, however, bugs the heck out of me:
What Has DC Comics Done to Lois Lane?
More comment below:
To begin with, DC has been hinting at some major changes to the status quo as the result of its CONVERGENCE event which began recently. As part of the annual Free Comic Book Day, the company is releasing a promotional give-away comic titled DIVERGENCE which, apparently, is going to show how the Newly-Improved New 52 of DC is going to differ from the Old New 52.
The page released to promote DIVERGENCE and FCBD tells us that Superman's Secret Identity as Clark Kent has been revealed to the world, and this revelation has been made by Lois Lane.
Oh yes, there is a long tradition back in the Silver Age of Lois pulling some underhanded stunts and going to Lucy Ricardo-like extremes to attempt to prove that Supes and Clark were one and the same, but I'd thought that her character had developed past that in the decades since. And even in the Silver Age, I think that Lois was doing it mainly for her own curiosity and wouldn't actually publish her proofs if she thought it would hurt Superman. (I could be wrong about this; I'm sure there are SA stories featuring Lois that refute this; but please leave me to my delusions).
The shift in the Lois/Clark dynamic from the cartoonish rivalry and the weird love triangle of the Silver Age to the more romantic relationship of the '80s and '90s was one of the better things about the Superman stories from that era. Clark and Lois actually married, and as a married couple, often acted as partners in their day job as journalists.
Some years back, Joe Quesada, the Editor-in-Chief at Marvel Comics, decided that he didn't like having Peter Parker married to Mary Jane, and so he undid the marriage by -- literally -- having Peter make a deal with the Devil to make it so it never happened. At the time I said that Quesada wanted to make Spider-Man single again in the worst possible way; and that's the way he did it. But at least, Quesada could say that he was bringing Spider-Man back to his core identity.
In recent years, we've had Clark's marriage to Lois retroactively undone; we've had Superman start dating Wonder Woman; we've even had Wonder Woman take up journalism so that she could do some of the stuff Lois used to. And we've had Lois shoved further and further into the margins.
Now this.
However. That said, the comic this page and this revelation is taken from is called "DIVERGENCE". Maybe DC is trying to psych me out. Maybe it will be revealed that the images of this page are taken from an Alternate Universe and don't reflect how reality will shake out once this summer's Big Event has run its course. DC has done this sort of thing before; and so maybe they will get the last laugh.
I still would like to see Lois treated better.