In anticipation for tomorrow’s release of Lois Lane: A Celebration of 75 Years I spent part of my time this past weekend re-reading some old Superman Girlfriend, Lois Lane books.  

That title was both my first comic and my gateway book rolled in to one, way back when I was 5 years old.  It was also the beginning of my life long love affair with Lois Lane.  I’d go to the drugstore with my dad on Sundays and he’d buy the paper for himself and comics for me.   Years later when I relocated across the country and he would visit he joked that he had no idea the monster he was creating.  

A lot of my bronze age books were lost in time but some survived and they mailed them to me when I moved. My mom found more after my dad died when she was getting ready to sell our house. I think some of what she sent on actually belongs to my sister.  In the mid 70s we used to pool our allowances together to buy comics.  One year we saved enough to get a paperback origin of DC characters compilation.  The Hawkman story was a favorite. (Sis: If you’re wondering? I have it. It’s well loved and missing the cover). 

This past weekend one of the issues I re-read is included in the upcoming Lois Lane celebration book.  It’s Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #106 “I Am Curious (Black)!”  published in 1970.  I was 6 (!!!!), younger than my kids are today.   

The story begins with Lois Lane trying to get a story inside “Little Africa” a black neighborhood in Metropolis but finds it hard going because she’s white and nobody will talk with her.  Superman ends up helping by using technology in his Fortress to turn her black for a day.  I’m guessing part of this story was inspired by Griffin’s Black Like Me . (Yes, I know, also the x rated “I am Curious (Yellow)” )

Lois returns to the neighborhood and experiences first hand the everyday racism the residents live through.   One of the first jarring moments is her favorite cab driver Benny drives right past her pretending not to see her and picks up a white person. 

She ends up taking the subway and is started at with suspicion.  

She spends some time talking with people in the neighborhood and then ends up in an alley where a man named Dave Stevens is running an improvised pre-school instilling pride in the kids by telling them that “Black is Beautiful” .   He sees Lois and thinks she looks familiar, but before they can talk Dave sees some high school dropouts off to no good and he’s determined to stop them and get them on the right path.  

Superman flies in but he’s too late to stop Dave from getting shot.  He and Lois take him to the hospital where Dave needs an emergency transfusion.  Superman can’t help but Lois is the right blood type.  

After Lois donates blood and Dave regains consciousness, she and Superman share a private moment and it’s fascinating.  

This story as you can see is dated and gets a little heavy handed but it’s important to remember it took place in 1970.  Civil Rights was passed in 1965. I remember the integration busing in the 1970s. I also remember my Kindergarten teacher calling me (and my sister the year later) “little brown girl” with impunity.  

Things have changed a lot yet racism still exists, it’s front and center in the way our President is treated.  What else is the Birther nonsense but racism?  The list goes on and on and on.   

This story showed a willingness to try and grapple with social problems. Lois evolved from the degrading Silver Age stories she was forced in to and now was shown as a woman with a social conscience and convictions. She was trying to expose injustice.  

However, that doesn’t mean she still didn’t want to marry Superman, which brings us to this scene which addresses interracial marriage during the very early days.  Remember this was a society where it was still very new.  The Loving V Virginia case was decided only three years before in 1967.  

Unfortunately they never finish this conversation because Lois turns back in to a white woman and then a nurse walks in to tell Lois that Dave wants to thank her for saving his life.  She’s worried he’ll hate her now that she’s white. 

Needless to say he doesn’t and the issue ends with hope as Dave and Lois hold hands.  

Cheesy?  You bet!  However back then it felt progressive.  I can only hope that years from now the Kevin Keller wedding issue will look as dated.   

I thought the bronze age on the whole tried to do good by Lois.  There seemed to be an effort to repair the damage done to the character during the Silver Age where she was disrespectfully deconstructed in ways I feel were reprehensible.  

So what are you waiting for?  Pick up the compilation  and celebrate 75 years of Lois Lane.