Do you remember when you learned Darth Vader turned out to be Luke Skywalker’s father? That was a great reveal and pretty shocking too. How about the Planet of the Apes (1968) where we find out the main character has been on Earth for almost the entire movie when he sees what is left of the statue of liberty? These are great reveals and nice twists.

It’s just too bad DC and Phil Jimenez failed to capture the same kind of magic. Superwoman was promoted as a Lois Lane as Superwoman book for months before the first issue (don’t believe me? Ask anywhere on the internet). The first 3 or 4 covers even features none other than Lois Lane as Superwoman with only one or two “alternate” covers featuring Lana Lang as Superwoman. It doesn’t matter if the information given for these issues did not specifically mention either Lois or Lana, this book was promoted as a title with Lois Lane as the star.

Another clue that led me believe Lois was the main star was the fact that her costume was far and above a LOT better than than that white and red UGLY piece of crap Lana wears. Plus, Lois needed a little redemption after she ratted out Superman’s identity to the world. Becoming a Super-Hero would give her that redemptoin. Sadly, she will never get it...

I held onto hope as long as I could, hoping that DC and Jimenez would have some sense of common decency and reveal to us the New 52 Lois was still alive after she appeared to die in Superwoman #1. Lana may have been the narrator of the first issue, but that wasn’t proof she was the main star since Lois Lane narrated several Superman books in the past and she’s a supporting character in them. So, I held onto the hope that Lois would be revealed to be alive and Lana would be the one to die in the end of Superwoman #2. After all, this was promoted as Lois’s book not Lana.

But I was wrong and a few of those fans out there that saw the twist coming and gussed correctly were right. The New 52 version of Lois Lane is, indeed, dead and that leaves Lana Lang as Superwoman. And I can’t even begin to tell you how mad that makes me because I was invested in Lois Lane as Superwoman NOT Lana Lang. I have no interest in Lana or seeing her as a Super-Hero (especially with such a lame and ugly costume). DC and Phil Jimenez are guilty of false advertizing for the sake of a plot twist for shock value and nothing more. They pulled the WORST kind of reveal ever to be pulled off because they lied to the audience, making most of us believe this was about Lois Lane as Superwoman. These guys need to take cues from those people who made Star Wars and the Planet of the Apes because THAT is you do a surprising twist. Promoting a book as Lois’s title then killing her off and giving us a character the audience wasn’t ready to recieve is NOT a good twist.

Judging by the mixed to negetive fan reaction on the net, I’m not alone in feeling this way. Just look around and you’ll see a lot of fans are crying foul over this. And it’s because of this that Superwoman now has a mountain of difficulty to overcome. And this was a problem that was easily avoidable. It’s just too bad DC and Jimenez didn’t bother to think about that. And yes, I am aware that killing off the New 52 Lois might have been a DC mandate. But Jimenez STILL chose to write the book when he could have said no. And to me, that does make him partly to blame.

I have a prediction and I’m calling it now. This title will have no legs and it’ll be cancelled within a year, MAYBE two. I’m not going to predict if Lana will die because I could care less. I’m DONE with this book and I will NEVER buy another comic with Phil Jimenez’s name on it. Ever.

I really doubt this title was ever intended to be a long-runner anyway. It exists to form part of the ongoing Rebirth riddle. And two years would actually be a good run in today's climate.

I still fail to grasp why anyone suddenly has this deep love for N52 Lois when no such feeling existed before, and now that the real Lois is back, she's no longer needed

DC prefers to lie their fans. Without Lois, this comic doesn't interest me.

Yup. I get being upset out of principle, because the bait-and-switch was a shitty thing to do, and New 52 Lois was treated like garbage, but yeah... No one was actually all that invested in THIS Lois in particular before this title.

I think it was less a love of new 52 Lois and more a love of Lois in general. If they hadn't ruined Lana in the new 52 version it might be worth reading , but she's an engineer you know.

I just read the issue. It's absolutely fine.

Yeah, there's some lines I groaned at because they pander a bit to SJW types ("mansplaining"), but it pushed the story along relatively well. Lana still has her issues with medication, there's a plot thread developing with the prison Atomic Skull broke out of which concerns John Henry, and we got a (predictable) reveal of who was behind the Ultra Women. The cover also isn't misleading as that very scene plays out in the story.

Give it a go folks. Lois' loss isn't that big a deal.

Bunch of crybabies. You want Lois read Superman and Action Comics. She's great, not good... great in both of those.

Lana Lang as Red Superwoman is really effin cool. And with John Henry in the book as Steel and SuperLex having a strong presence I am not about to complain.

I'm just happy that Superman's whole supporting cast outside of the Planet have their own book and that the art is strong.

Lois and Lana kinda suck by themselves anyway(With or Without Superpowers), they need superman but that just makes them boring side characters no one cares about.

LOL. Sorry they don't perform "feats" that you can bulletpoint list and stat up like some anime nerd.

Kids these days. smh

Clearly wrong.

Kinda have to agree about the life expectancy of this book having taken a massive blow. I can see the appeal of Lois Lane with superpowers, it's fun, it's been done before, and in a way we had her in the E3 Superwoman... if we could ever figure out if she's E3 Diana or not... But Lana Lang? Sorry, but who is interested in the 3rd wheel of the Superman-sphere getting superpowers? I didn't even know she was back in action in this post FP world and now she's starring in a book now practically built on Lois' corpse.

Now, New 52 Lois ofc wasn't the greatest character ever, but her getting superpowers atleast put everyone in a nice place where you could have normal Lois from the past with the kid and Superman, and another Lois kicking ass with superpowers somewhere else, the best of both worlds.

Following the flow of this comic was very... difficult.

@knight101:

It was all part of Johns plan. Didn't you see how the supposed Super-League turn out to be, The Final Days Of Superman.

You can't expect a guy that did everything in his power to wreck the New52, to make it good with characters that come from the New52.

Worst. He's treating fans like they are a bunch of idiotic morons and sadly I got to say, some have fallen in the trap and are calling this Rebirth crap, a masterpiece. Only if it's a masterpiece mess.

Look at Steel. He was way cooler in the New52. Now they put him back into that thin can of a suit, with that S shield that looked like something he hammered blindfolded and then put on his chest.

And to make things worst we got that brainwashed or braindead fandom saying things like "Now we got the real Superman","Now we got the real Lois"... They wouldn't know real if reality came up to them and punched them in the face.

I got to say I don't dislike Lana, nor do I dislike the suit. At least she's not as pathetic as pre-New52 Superman was when he possessed similar powers. At least she doesn't need a containment suit, and she actually uses her technical expertise and scientific knowledge to better use her powers. If you remember to Superman in her situation, he was a pathetic sad sight to be seen.

But don't worry. What goes around comes around. DC won't be able continue to simply pile up all this inconsistency, breaking of continuity, misleading fans, trying to please everyone, and sell old stuff as new, original and creative. When everything really new they trash it and everything old they grab on to that even as it sinks them.

The true Superman fans that haven't already, will eventually come around, and see Rebirth for what it truly is. A huge lie!

@heavenlydarkdragon: I think the Rebirthh hype is coming in the wake of the problems of the DCEU. Since its attracting new readers it also placates the fanboys as well. I'm enjoying some of it so far, but it's just comics in my eyes, not some FANTASTIC masterpiece that people say

Resulting to insult will not help your argument any (not that you had one)

As for "not knowing reality", pretty sure most of us have girlfriends/wives/kids.

I do enjoy drinking the unmanly tears of EW52 Supporters, especially when they act in this pathetic and as entitled a fashion.

This "lie" dominated the August marketshare, this "lie" continues to be a success, and that, my ill-informed friend, is the gospel truth. Time to conceed defeat. The true fans have spoken, and they ain't you.

#TeamLana

I have a good number of feats for Pre-Crisis Lana and Lois.

Lana Lang is a much better character than boring Lois.

Careful you've triggered the Lois Lane fans now.

So guess you were screwed if you just flat out didn't like Lois Lane...

To be fair, Geoff Johns has got to be the best hypeman going today. Throw out a few lines about "hope" and "optimism" bring back a red-headed Wally West and pin New 52 on "10 missing years" and Doctor Manhattan, and you can basically do anything you want.

Say what you want, but he certainly knows how to make people feel good.

@nerevarine_11:

The hype I already expected. Specially for the pre-Flashpoint fans that never got closure. And in many ways Rebirth is offering that to them. Closure.

But to fans that have already closed that chapter of their comic book lives, Rebirth is of course not appealing. The New52 made a lot of mistakes, but the biggest mistake was not doing it NEW. The New52 was never NEW, if anything it was trying to do something new while holding on to some of the past. And that to me was what really messed things up, because we had stories where they either messed with past facts or assumed that every reader knew what they were talking about. That's where comic's like those of the Green Lanterns succeeded where Super related comic's failed. In Green Lanterns and all the other Lanterns related comics there was a sense of new, with little breaks in the continuity. People that read Blackest Night and Brightest Day, once the transition was done to the New52 fans (me included) were given the reassurance that the New stuff didn't discarded the best of the old.

Unfortunately the same can't be said for other comics.

Some like Superboy and Superman comics failed mostly because of the new teams that came and messed everything up, but also because the fans that had gotten no closure continously kept throwing the New52 to the ground and praising the old stuff, like there hadn't been any real motive as to why a reboot was done.

Flashpoint happened because DC sales were at a all time low, they were losing fans left and right, even the DCEU was producing almost nothing worthwhile. They only had the Christian Bale Batman movies and nothing else, while Marvel was beating them in all fronts.

Even now DC new position in sales is all due to the hype. Once it passes, Marvel will beat it again. As it as been doing for years now.

Having Superman and his son might be fun for now. But what about later. When fans start looking at the son and see a copy of the father.

It will most likely happen to them what happened to the original Kon-El. When he had his own power set based solely on his TTK he stood out as his own character and fans for the most part had come to accept him and even wanted to see if he would develop new powers of his own. But DC decided to do away with the TTK for the most part and give him kryptonian powers. The moment they done that, the character fell so fast that they had no choice but to kill him off during the Infinite Crisis.

Totally agree.

Even If I didn't really like Lana during the New 52, The first issue from this comic is all that I needed to know that this wasn't for me.

Hey, at least they didn't hype up the death of Lois like they have for every single modern superhero death; at least it was a surprise.

Anyway, I was against this concept from the get go. Superman's supporting characters shouldn't have superpowers. They are supposed to be the ones that ground him. They are supposed to remind him that there is a normal world outside of superhero shenanigans. It's kinda hard to do that when they are zipping through the skies on superpowers too.

Like I said in another thread, I really can't seem to care if new52 Lois is dead. She really hadn't done anything in these last 5 years to endear her to me like pre52 Lois had. I will mourn new52 Superman as a guy who always seemed to get the short end of the stick, but Lois was never the love of that Clark's life (as much as people hated the relationship, Diana was)

Why the heck would a farmboy from Kansas need grounding?

I never get this idea that unless everyone around him is human, Clark suddenly becomes (oddly enough) Doctor Manhattan. Did his parents do nothing for him?

@scouterv: In my view, if Clark spends all his time around superheroes and super-powered people, it is possible he could lose touch with the normal people. One of the many problems with the new52 Superman is that DC intentionally separated him from all vestiges of normal human life. They killed the Kents, had him quit the Daily Planet, never had him romantically involved with Lois. It really seemed like Jimmy was his only non-superhero friend.

Hell, it is a problem with superhero comics in general nowadays. Writers are much more interested in superheroics and tend to minimize or completely ignore their human lives. People always talk about how superheroes should be relatable; showing their real lives make them relatable and give them motivation to fight.

That's my thing. I don't care about a hero being relatable. That's a good bonus, but not why I read stories about Superman. Not even why I read stories with Green Arrow.

And I disagree with the idea that Superman could lose touch with humanity just because of the things you pointed out. For one, if even if he did quit the Daily Planet, he was working with another woman--a human, he Jimmy was still his friend. Batman is often considered his best friend and he's human. Even a human with powers is still a human, so he could still look to Lana.

It was shown when they first met that Superman knew why he was fighting when Wonder Woman didn't grasp his attachment to humanity. And he taught her, showing he already knew that. Then there was the scientist that was helping him train in The Block, Shay, who was merely a super smart human, but also a confidant of sorts with Superman.

@zariusii:

I do enjoy drinking the unmanly tears of EW52 Supporters, especially when they act in this pathetic and as entitled a fashion.

Please refrain from insulting other fans and users. This is a warning.

@lunacyde: but heavenlydarkdragon can call the rebirth fans "brainwashed or braindead" in same post that zarius is replying to and that's cool? Nice.

By the way, what's up with Superman and L.L. initials? Lana Lang, Lois Lane, Lex Luther and etc.

@rubear: thats his fetish, they say everyone has one.

Did anyone have high expectations for this??

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't new 52 comics notorious for having covers that misrepresented events within the actual Comics?