Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Mike Perkins
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Cover Artist: Mike Perkins
Editor: Mike Cotton
Publisher: DC Comics

Though she’s most commonly known as Superman’s girlfriend, Lois Lane is so much more than that, and this week’s Lois Lane #1 makes an excellent argument as to why she deserves to exist on her own terms.

Lois Lane is the titular character’s first extended series since Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane, which ran for nearly 140 issues from 1958 to 1974. But whereas that one was very lighthearted and breezy, Greg Rucka & Mike Perkins’ take on the character accentuates her investigative reporting skills for a noir-esque conspiracy tale.

Along with this month’s launch of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane is spinning out of/running concurrently with Brian Michael Bendis’ Event Leviathan. Here, we follow Lois as she unravels a mystery that could put her husband Clark Kent (AKA Superman) in danger along with the rest of the world at large.

The interesting thing about Lois Lane’s whole vibe is that you can’t help but compare it to Bendis’ prior work on Alias (and then Jessica Jones) for Marvel, and I don’t think it’s an unfair comparison to make. Bendis himself helped conceive the idea of this series while formulating the plot of Event Leviathan. Perkins’ scratchy art isn’t dissimilar to that of Michael Gaydos’ on the aforementioned Jessica Jones titles. (It’s even more amusing knowing the new Jimmy Olsen series appears to be a tonal cross of creators Matt Fraction & Steve Leiber previous Marvel titles Hawkeye & Superior Foes of Spider-Man.)

But comparisons aside, Lois Lane is definitely offering an exciting new direction for the character. Lane rarely gets a starring role despite her status as one of DC’s oldest characters, rivaled only by Superman himself. (They both debuted in Action Comics #1 in 1938.) Rucka is beloved by many readers for his frequent work with female characters (e.g., Wonder Woman, Lazarus). Lois Lane is no exception. Lois began as a riff on a His Girl Friday-esque journalist. You can see some of that in his characterization of her — she’s sharp, funny, and endlessly inquisitive. There isn’t much darkness in this particular issue. But solicits suggest that’ll change very fast, so it should be interesting to see how she changes throughout the series.

Mike Perkins’ art is another asset to the series. Going back to the comparison of Gaydos’ Alias/Jessica Jones, his particular art style works for this kind of story — something of a hardboiled mystery wherein nothing is “pretty” or simple to grasp. Among the three Event Leviathan projects, they all look distinct from one another, which helps lend individuality to each despite all of them being of a piece with one another.