Superman’s Jimmy and Lois revived

Bill Knight column for 7-1, 2 or 3, 2019

I was a youngster when TV’s “Adventures of Superman” introduced me to DC characters, including Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, who I enjoyed as much as donning a pair of plastic sunglasses I could remove to become “Supes,” with a bath towel cape. I was about Kindergarten age when I discovered “Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen,” the comic where he was equipped with a signal watch to alert Superman of emergencies, and a few years later saw “Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane,” featuring a frequent subplot of trying to prove Superman and Clark Kent were the same guy. Decades later, my son and I visited the Super Museum in Metropolis, Ill., where the street named Lois Lane (see what they did there?) runs east of Masonic Cemetery.

Now, both Lois and Jimmy are in new, 12-issue titles by award-winning, best-selling creative teams. “Lois Lane,” by Gregory Rucka (“Queen & Country”) and Mike Perkins, is expected soon, and “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen,” from Matt Fraction (“Invincible Iron Man”) and Steve Lieber, is due out this month.

Each character has a long history with Superman/Clark Kent, of course, in various media (and effects). In comics, the original Jimmy Olsen comic was an amusing book that lasted 20 years, with Olsen a cub reporter, then photojournalist. Throughout the years, his exploits had him transform into weird personas such as Elastic Man and a giant Turtle Man. On the screen, TV’s Jack Larson’s Jimmy Olsen was the best; the rest were mostly forgettable until TV’s “Supergirl” cast Mehcad Brooks (who’s also the Guardian in the show) as James Olsen.

Lois, introduced in 1938, was a star reporter based on Torchy Blane, a heroine in nine films in the 1930s. The popular Lois Lane comic, published from 1958-74, was a largely light-hearted series where she occasionally had her own super-powers, and in the ’70s it even mirrored social change, once having the intrepid newswoman mimicking 1961’s “Black Like Me” to experience racism as an African American. Noel Neill, appearing as Lois in two serials and eventually the first TV series, is the most memorable, but Amy Adams (“Man of Steel,” etc.) might be the best, following by Margot Kidder in four movies from 1978-87, and Teri Hatcher (ABC’s “Lois & Clark”); Dana Delaney had the best voice of eight animated features.

Recently, Lois is portrayed as a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who consistently places herself in harm’s way, and Superman is less important in her escapades than decades ago. (In fact, in print and on film, they wed in 1996 and in 2016 had a son, Jonathan, the current Superboy). Now she’ll be probing conspiracies and mysteries threatening her and Clark, and virtually everything else.

Jimmy’s new showcase will be less realistic, with a lighter tone and even some scenes written and illustrated just for laughs. Olsen is expected to travel widely, a 21^st century Ernie Pyle having adventures in various fantastic settings throughout the DC universe(s). However, Fraction and Lieber also throw some too-realistic barbs at contemporary newspapering by noting that Olsen, now a star photographer at the Daily Planet, must do double- and triple-duty shooting and uploading video and posting countless bits on social media.

Both books were foreshadowed in the “Superman: Leviathan Rising” one-shot comic by Brian Michael Bendis (the author of “Powers” and a prolific veteran of DC, Marvel and other publishing houses), a six-issue series with key roles by Plastic Man, Question, Martian Manhunter (a personal favorite!) and Lois, depicted as a woman not to be trifled with.

One new DC villain, Ms. Leone of the Invisible Mafia, warns another new baddie, the camouflaged Leviathan, that Lois is no “soft target.”

“She is a very dangerous woman,” Leone says. “Regardless of her relationship with the big blue broken boy [Superman], she’s actually the daughter of one of the most dangerous men in the world, and she has autonomous access to the publish button of one of the biggest news services in the world. And. she. is. not. afraid. to. use. it.”

Zack Quaintance of comicsbeat.com comments, “Both of these comics look very, very good. Rucka has a long history of telling great DC superhero stories with strong female protagonists – from Wonder Woman to Renee Montoya. Fraction and Lieber, meanwhile, are the only team I can see doing Jimmy Olsen. They’re that perfect for this.”

I feel like a kid again.