August 2012
therearecertainshadesoflimelight:
Disclaimer: I love Amy Adams and I’ve been one of the biggest proponents of her as Lois Lane. But if you post something in which you attempt to argue that Lois Lane has “rarely been done right” in live action and then go on to dismiss the other women who have played her including Margot Kidder and Erica Durance (and then you forget that Dana Daleny, Noel Neill, Phyllis Coates even existed…) we are going to have some issues…..
Lois Lane has not “rarely been done right.” Superman Returns is the EXCEPTION to Lois Lane. Not the rule. Superman Returns is a stain on an otherwise STELLAR list of actresses who played the part.
No. Just please stop.
Here’s the deal:
Phyllis Coates was a great Lois Lane
Noel Neill was a great Lois Lane who inspired millions of little girls to go to journalism school and to have careers in the 1950’s. Look it up. This happened.
Margot Kidder was a great Lois Lane who was a feminist in the 1970’s who has spoken openly about the “liberation” she felt playing a career woman on film. She was an inspiration to people. This happened. Look it up.
Teri Hatcher was a great Lois Lane who played a feminist career woman in the 1990’s and millions of little girls (I was one of them) watched on her on TV and grew up wanting to be like her.
Dana Delany did an AWESOME job voicing Lois Lane on the Animated series and on Justice League Unlimited. She was freaking AWESOME and she still uses Lois Lane as her picture on Twitter which is beyond adorable.
Erica Durance played Lois Lane for 7 years. 7 years. She also played her for the longest time period in terms of age: She played her as a woman who began the series at around age 19 and was probably close to 26/27 years old when the series ended. She’s also arguably the only Lois Lane who had a storyline outside of Clark KEnt for years on end before they were romantically involved. She had a relationship with his PARENTS even outside of her relationship with him. She had full character development from start to finish. I am under no false expectations that what was achieved over 7 years with Durance can be achieved in a 2 hour movie.
Superman Returns struggled to get Lois right. That’s it. The rest were all good for their respective time periods.
I love Amy. One of her biggest fans. Think she is going to be fabulous as Lois. I will shout down people who are nasty to her or pick on her. But dude…if you bash my other ladies while you are cheering for Amy I can’t be your friend. Nope.
Why do people feel the need to bash other women in order to raise up another? I don’t understand that mentality, and I agree with everything said above.
Spoilers from ACTION COMICS #12
therearecertainshadesoflimelight:
therearecertainshadesoflimelight:
Grant Morrison’s Action Comics #12 featured Lois and Superman.
Grant Morrison, you are such an asshole.
Would it be too much to ask to get a writer on Action Comics that knows how to write complex, layered women without using them as canon fodder?
Look, let me be straight here: I am a sometimes fan of Grant Morrison but I also think the canonization that people bestow upon him is really misplaced due to the fact that there is a lot of really problematic misogynist and racist shit that seeps into his narratives on occasion. Stuff that gets explained away because he’s Morrison and people love to make excuses for him and his weirdness. I am not a fan of the way he treats women in his narratives 95% of the time. Occasionally, he does something right but most of the time being stuck in his own crazy headspace that people worship does not translate into deep and fair narratives for women. I don’t trust him with iconic female characters. I don’t think he cares enough. Unlike others, I am not looking forward to his Wonder Woman project. At all. I don’t trust him with Diana anymore than I trusted him with Lois Lane or Talia or Jean Grey or any other of the iconic women that he has screwed over over the years.
On the surface, what he does here with Superman and Lois is explained away or doesn’t seem to bad. But it’s actually the epitome of disrespect. Disrespect to a legacy and a history that meant a great deal to people that deserves more and better than to be canon fodder for his latest side trip.
And after months of ignoring Lois Lane and marginalizing her role in the Superman narrative to an unexcusable degree—-and when he did give her page space writing her one note and without any real depth or layers—-using her here as canon fodder to play into the horribly offensive stereotype and cliche of Lois being killed off for Superman’s agony is really gross.
Lois Lane being fridged is a legitimate, actual problem at DC Comics. Because it hasn’t just happened once or twice. It’s happen an inexcusable amount of times as a plot device in the narrative often in misogynist ways that pay no tribute at all to who Lois is and what she stands for.
Morrison, you aren’t evoking my emotion with this scene. You are, instead, reminding me of just what a creative failure the DC relaunch has been for Superman and how horribly and disrespectfully DC Comics handled the dissolve of their marriage. And it’s an asshole thing to do to try and PLAY on that emotion now after you ignored Lois Lane for months on end and marginalized her in your book. This isn’t nostalgic or emotional. It’s just an asshole thing to do, Morrison. Not that I’ve come to expect anything more from you.
All of this here is why I will continue to only buy Smallville and save up for old Superman comics. The treatment of Lois currently in comics continues to make me want to bang my head into a wall.
It’s also why I can’t stand Grant Morrison because the way he writes women is horrible. His New X-Men run is one I absolutely cannot stand because of what happens to basically every woman in that run, but most especially Jean Grey. Some may think his run was revolutionary but I really think it did more harm than any good. I’m just glad his reign in Action Comics is coming to an end and will quietly hope someone who understands all the characters will take over and I can maybe start buying it again.
I don’t even hate him. I think he has written some great stuff. I just think he has proven that he struggles a great deal with complex female characters. His treatment of Jean Grey was very problematic.
Currently, his issues with both Lois Lane and Talia in Batman Inc. are well known to anyone with a brain.
Now, a lot of male writers struggle with writing strong women in a complex way. The problem is that Morrison isn’t just any male writer. He’s one of the most popular male writers out there who has taken on almost cult-like status of worship with his fans. This is a problem. Because people are often so busy kissing his ass that the gender problems in his narratives (as well as racist problems) are often completely overlooked.
What Morrison did here with Lois was cheap and disrespectful. The marriage meant a great deal to a lot of people. It’s bad enough that he has barely given her anything to do in his entire run on the book—-but now he pulls her out for THIS? It’s a cheap ploy and a perfect example of why he has serious issues with the way he treats iconic female characters in these narratives.
It was very cheap and I wish I could say it surprised me that he would do it, but it honestly didn’t. It’ll be heralded by many as a great moment in the comic because of who wrote it and the issues it presents will not be looked at by many. I get liking a writer or an artist and wanting to talk about the good storytelling they do, but when they do it at the expense of characters that’s always a problem for me. Especially when it’s a character I do love.
I’ve been waiting for more Lois in his run, but not in this way. Not when she’s used and the marriage is used in such a disrespectful way. And it sucks even more because I like the art.
