Falling in Love with Lois Lane: Fallout

Young adult literature has given us some contemporary greats. Harry Potter, Katniss and the genre stretches to include J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as young adult.

In a move to create longer, fleshed out stories for DC characters, DC partnered with Switch Press to bring to life a teenaged Lois Lane for the young adult audience, sleuthing her new high school to investigate a cyber-bullying trend, teenaged Lois is the kind of girl you want on your side. Having just settled down with her family in Metropolis, Lois sets out to better the life of her peers and does it out of the motivation of just being a moral person.

Author Gwenda Bond. Photo credit: Sarah Jane Sanders

Author Gwenda Bond writes the young Lois Lane with all the tenacity and intelligence her older counterpart displays in the comics. Bond, a veteran author of young adult literature such as Girl on a Wire, Blackwood, and The Woken Gods, brings her nuanced style to the DC Comics narrative in Lois Lane: Fallout.

In Lois Lane: Fallout, Lois’ stubbornness is prevalent in her characterization and it shows that Bond has done her homework to get the headstrong and gutsy reporter right. Bond throws in a big Easter egg for fans in setting Lane’s journalistic hero as Nellie Bly, one of the real life muckraking investigative reporters Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster based the character of Lois Lane on.

Lane’s probing personality often gets her in jams, her moral compass leading her down potentially dangerous paths. Sticking true to Lane’s nature, Bond makes it clear that She is a heroine for the ages, and doesn’t need a dystopian society to prove her worth. In such a way, Lane imbibes the spirit of many everyday women.

Lane rallies a group of her classmates and colleagues who work with her at the Daily Planet to investigate the strange dealings of a high school group known as the Warheads. On the first day at her new school in Metropolis, Lois encounters an intelligent, but greatly disturbed peer named Anavi, who claims the Warheads have been messing with her via an online virtual reality game called Worlds War Three. She is intrigued by the claim and slightly disgusted the school’s principle refuses to help the girl. Lois takes on the responsibility, and what ensues is a ride driven by heart.

We have seen Lois Lane depicted as a teenager before, but never truer to her original character is Bond’s adaptation. Lois soars in tackling modern problems, issues that are weighed time and time again with profundity. Bond tackles a relatable young adult problem, cyber-bullying, which adds a breath of realism to the problem-solving solutions Lois seeks out with her new friends.

SkepticGirl1, Lois’ classified screen name, can handle herself; she has the grooming of a military father. But her naivety makes her vulnerable to mistake, but luckily Lois forms a support group. Bond adds in a touch of teenage hormones to add to the complications of being a modern teenager. SmallvilleGuy, aka Clark Kent, isn’t the Superman we know today, but he is still able to help Lois along her own journey. Even if his help just so happens to be sending cute pictures of baby cows. We would love a grown-up sequel down the line where Lois and Clark realize who the other person behind the Internet moniker is.

Overall, Lois shines and Lois Lane: Fallout is a fantastic example of expanding the DC Universe. It is a book even non-YA readers will enjoy. It reads well from cover to cover and create set a whole new young adult generation to adore the headstrong Lois Lane the generations before have known and loved.

Lois Lane: Fallout will be available to purchase on May 1.