Lois Lane #4 Review

No Answers, Only Questions

Written By: Greg Rucka

Art By: Mike Perkins, Paul Mounts, Simon Bowland

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 2, 2019

With the more character-driven aspect of the last issue, I was really shocked at what this book could be because for the most part I really did not like the first two issues with its political/murder mystery angle to the storytelling.  That last issue though.... wow.  I saw what this title could be and because of that, I found myself actually interested for the first time in jumping into a Lois Lane book this issue... hopefully, it lives up to what I want it to be.... or... is just good for other reasons.  Let's jump into this issue and check it out.

Like the last issue, this story is completely character-driven, leaving out the political angles and that journalist who was murdered in Russia..... the only problem is.... the characters aren't written very well.  In the previous issue, we saw Renee Montoya discover that her mentor and friend Vic Sage was still alive and with that realization then, we move to this where nothing is really explained.  Renee has memories of him dying and of him not dying and that's as far as we get with that, besides for pages at the end about what "the truth" actually is and what it means...... it's pretty damn boring for what it should be and goes nowhere in explaining anything to the reader.

Now maybe you're not a Question fan and maybe you're here just for the Jon Kent and Lois Lane parts, where Jon is going to explain how he has to go the 31st Century to join the Legion of Super-Heroes.  You know, the emotion-filled moments where Lois has to contemplate her son leaving again, when the last time he left he was trapped in a volcano on Earth-3 for seven years and tortured by Ultra Man....... what we get instead is the continued character assassination of Jon Kent and Lois Lane as a mother because neither of these characters feels right for their role that they have and for some reason those seven years of volcano time have made Jon start calling Superman "Pa" and I have no idea why.   Ultimately, there's no emotion here and I have no idea why Jon even had to ask his mother because for the most part it just feels like neither of these characters knows each other and has no feelings about either.  It's just a shame really...... there was so much going on with the Super Family at the beginning of Rebirth just to get to this mediocre state.

All in all, the art is a mixed bag for me, where some aspects come off really good, while the other bits just continue to be overly dark and where faces just look strange.  As for the story, I was really hoping to continue the fun I had the last issue with these character interactions, but what I got instead was a hollow facsimile of that, where no one really came off like themselves and where no answers were given about what's going on with these characters...... Just a bunch of talking in circles that amounts to nothing.  Hopefully, the next issue will be better, but I've lost the little intrigue that I had with this title and just expect it to go back to what I didn't care for in the first two issues........ I mean, how long can that story just be left hanging?

Bits and Pieces:

Even though I went into this issue wanting to love it after what we got the previous month, this story is filled with hollow characters that show no emotion and just feel off in general.  If that wasn't enough, the conversations had gone absolutely nowhere and the characters actually go out of their way to continue to talk in circles to the point where it takes up pages.  I didn't have fun with this issue, hate the continued misuse of Jon Kent and thought that the art was a mixed bag.  

5/10