Lois Lane #9 Review

Who Needs Superman?

Written By: Greg Rucka

Art By: Mike Perkins, Andy Troy, Simon Bowland

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: March 4, 2020

Let's head back into the intriguing world of journalism and escaping hired killers....... actually, I was trying to be sarcastic there, but that does sound pretty intriguing, but for some reason, I haven't been getting that out of this book, that doesn't seem to really know what it wants to be.  Previously, we saw the hired killer Kiss of Death come after Lois, based on what she might know about insider trading or corporate secrets, but instead of following that angle, it's time for Lois to save her hotel room maid, who is about to be deported thanks to the hired killer that needed to take her place.  Let's jump into this issue and see if Lois Lane can save her maid and keep herself from being killed..........

So if you read that intro paragraph you pretty much know what this issue is all about and in case you forgot already, go back and read the issue because it will tell you a bunch more times about what our heroes Lois Lane and Renee Montoya are dealing with, with an extra helping of Lois being called crazy because she doesn't want Superman's or anyone else's help in dealing with this hired killer that's still gunning for Lois.  

There's a bunch of scene changes here that really don't matter in the long run, Renee goes to Gotham to get info from Batman, then we reiterate that Lois doesn't want help, but ultimately this little jaunt doesn't do anything for our story and somehow everything leads to Jessica Midnight, who we've seen in the background for a couple of issues, but who hasn't really given up the beans about what she's up to or who she really is besides for a Checkmate reference.  Well, she shows up to Chicago and is brought to Renee Montoya and for doing nothing for the majority of the book, they certainly go for a big twist that feels out of nowhere by the end of the book.

All in all, I'm not a fan of Mike Perkins art and that doesn't change this issue, but what I'm less of a fan of is meandering through an issue, where nothing really happens because it feels apparent that there isn't much of a story to this series overall.  Lois never seems to feel like she knows what she's doing at any given time and I'm not sure what she's supposed to be doing at this point either and really want to know how any of this relates back to that Russian journalist that was murdered at the beginning of the series because that feels so removed from what we're dealing with now, not to mention all the strange interruptions to this series to deal with things going on in other Superman books, that I'm not sure that there is an overall plot to this maxi-series.  Hopefully, something comes together with the last bunch of issues because as of right now there really hasn't been a whole lot to enjoy out of this series.

Bits and Pieces:

Lois Lane continues to bore me as the series feels like it still doesn't know what it wants to be and as Lois seems to solely do anything here just to say that she doesn't need Superman's help.  I'm not a fan of the art and the progression to what we're dealing with now feels so strange and completely different from where we started, but not in a natural way.

4/10