Superman is the worst thing that happened to Lois Lane, according to author Tim Hanley

Investigating Lois Lane: The Turbulent History of the Daily Planet's Ace Reporter by Tim Hanley
Published by: Chicago Review Press
Cover Price: $17.99 (print or Kindle)

At the conclusion of his new book INVESTIGATING LOIS LANE, Tim Hanley writes, “Superman is the worst thing to ever happen to Lois Lane.  At the same time, he’s also the reason she exists.”  By the end of this excellently researched piece, I was forced to agree.

Lois Lane is a character that switches between chasing down the hard stories as the ace reporter of the DC universe and being little more than arm candy for the man of steel, sometimes both within the same issue.  Hanley follows Lois from Action Comics #1 all the way up to the present, with information covering every major comics line, radio show, movie serial, television show, and cartoon.  The book can get preachy at times, especially in regards to Lois’ poor treatment in the modern age.  I do understand that we want to believe that we’ve advanced as a society to a point where a female character shouldn’t exist solely to provide emotional depth with her death, and I do understand Tim Hanley’s feelings about the fact that we haven’t, but it does lead to a significantly more emotionally charged reaction than the relatively even attitude that he portrays the rampant casual misogyny of her early appearances with.  All in all, this work was both well-researched and well-written about a character that everyone knows of, but few of us really know.  Hanley’s book examines Lois Lane to such a degree that you will feel like you finally know her after reading it.