May 22, 2007

Review of LOIS LANE #110

Synopsis from the Unofficial Superman Index:Lois Lane honors a dying Indian mother’s last wish, and becomes foster mother to her baby, Little Moon, despite vocal opposition from both whites and Native Americans.Some choice comments from the Ye Olde Comick Booke Blogge:On the cover, an angry mob is hurling rocks at Lois Lane, who appears to be on her way to play the mascot at a Florida State football game. But these angry folks aren't just drunken Gators fans. Instead, they're... um... well, I'm not really sure which of the many angry groups from this story the mob is supposed to represent, but I'm guessing it's white people who don't think a Native American baby should be allowed to live in a two-bedroom walk-up brownstone in Metropolis because there's too great a risk of it growing up to kill General Custer and thus should have its head crushed by a flying brick.Lois goes to cover a Pueblo Indian rain dance outside Santa Fe. The Indians, however, aren't dancing, and the people who paid to see the event are getting unhappy.

As calmer heads prevail, Lois Lane learns the Indians are planning to all become suicide bombers and destroy a dam the construction workers are building. The Indians then explain the reasoning behind their plan by pretty much paraphrasing all the political points made in Little Big Man with Dustin Hoffman. The white man killed all the buffalo, put them on reservations, and so on.
Superman eliminates the threat but an Indian woman is injured. She gives Lois her baby Little Moon, leading to:Lois takes a leave of absence from work to care for Little Moon, but her decision to care for the baby stirs up all kinds of controversy, pitting Native Americans against their natural enemy (other than construction workers), feminists.

Native American protesters face a frustrating catch-22. Most of the time, the topic of protest is something along the lines of "treat us with respect, we're not all caricatures with big feather headdresses," yet to be recognized, they have to wear their headdresses and full outfits to the protest.

1 comment:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
Oddly, though it only is a comic book story, the gist about 'Natives-only' when it comes to adopting and/or raising Native children became the truth in real life, in many states and among many tribes. Unfortunately, it also guarantees hundreds of orphaned or abandoned Native children a life without parentage or families. It is a painful and shameful issue that nowhere is near a realistic resolution...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'