Lois Lane #11 – Greg Rucka, Writer; Mike Perkins, Artist; Andy Troy, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: The penultimate issue of Greg Rucka’s Lois Lane miniseries is a compelling if kind of messy read, pulling in content from across Rucka’s twenty-year career at DC. When we last left off, Lois had introduced Renee Montoya and the rest of her ragtag group of noir allies to the concept of the multiverse, including the fact that they had all been rebooted. Sure, not everyone took it too well, but it wasn’t like they had time to figure it out because they soon came under attack from the assassin who had been pursuing them—and Renee seemingly took a fatal hit protecting Lois. That’s where we find ourselves at the start of the issue, with Renee at death’s door and Lois trying to keep her alive and the other members of the team safe from afar. It’s a tricky balancing act to pull, but Rucka manages thanks to his deft handling of large casts and slow-burn storytelling.
This series has always been deep into comic book lore, and so it’s not a surprise that there’s more to the reveal of the mystery assassin’s secret identity than lets on. She’s also a player from the past, with a history with Renee and a mind that’s been screwed with by the multiverse. In many ways, there are no actual villains in this story—besides the larger one of the Religion of Crime—and it’s more of a multiversal survival support group. With only one issue to go, there are a lot of character dynamics to still work out and a lot of dangling threads. Like all things Rucka, this is a strong series, but there’s just one problem—I’m not sure it’s a Lois Lane series. It’s gone so far from its original plot that it’s hard to recognize, and much of the plot centers around Renee’s long and twisted history as the question. I think it’ll read a lot better in collections without the gaps between issues.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
