Comics Fondle

Lois Lane–Convict
by an unknown writer and Kurt Schaffenberger

…Lois Lane casts aside her integrity for easy money…

Lois stops on her way to work and admires an expensive dress in a shop window. A gangster approaches her, offering to give her the money to buy the dress if she sits on a story, only for a few days. Lois initially declines, but her mother needs surgery so she finally agrees. Unable to resist the dress, she buys it and shows it off, telling Perry she wants to check her sources on the story. After the three days she agreed to sit on the story, the gangster appears again, offering her money for a car. He blackmails her with a photo of her taking the initial bribe. Time passes and the bribes continue, until she’s in a jewelry store and pays for some bracelets with marked money. Sent to jail, Superman does shows to try and raise bail money, which succeeds–until Lois comes clean with him and admits she accepted the bribes. Her gangster friend helps break her out of jail and takes her to meet the criminal mastermind she’d been about to reveal in her story. Except Superman arrives and captures the gang and Lois reveals it had all been a scheme–she needed a way to confirm the accused mastermind was the actual mastermind. The district attorney and Superman helped her put it together.

It should come as no surprise I read this story as another example of the writer portraying Lois as the simple-minded female, willing to peddle her morality for a nice dress. Whoever wrote it did a really good job too… I was so appalled by the portrayal, I totally forgot there needed to be a “return-to-the-status-quo” resolution to the story. My critical thinking skills, so caught up being rightous, shut down and I got roped in. It wasn’t until almost the last page (and of an eight-page story, it’s a long time) I realized something major was going to have to happen.

In many ways, Convict was the kind of story I was expecting to be in Girl Friend. It’s centered around Lois and it, eventually–the story does intentionally make her appear mercenary throughout–shows her using her intellect to break a difficult story. It’s exactly the type of story I should have been reading for six issues….

Just wish I knew who wrote it, so I could give him some decent credit.

Technorati Tags: Comic Book, DC Comics, Kurt Schaffenberger, Review, Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane

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