Review: “Lois Lane: Fallout,” by Gwenda Bond (Switch Press)

An entire novel about Lois Lane in which Superman doesn’t make (much of) an appearance? Great idea, huh? And In Lois Lane: Fallout, Gwenda Bond has provided a genius execution of this idea, in the first of what looks likely to be a series from Switch Press.

Much of the social media buzz about this book has focused—appropriately—on this teenaged Lois as a woman claiming her own place in the story. But I was most struck by Lois as a human. After all, she possesses one power that Superman doesn’t, absent a source of Kryptonite: the ability to risk bodily harm. In Fallout, she does just that, and she inspires a rag-tag team of student journalists to do the same.

That’s another thing about Fallout: Bond focuses heavily on journalism, specifically the kind of journalism that takes risks and digs deep to expose injustice. Lois risks all to tell the truth, and in the process makes herself—and truth-tellers everywhere—Superman’s true equals. Even if you’re not a big comic book fan, Lois Lane: Fallout is worth reading on that score alone.