It is no secret that I love Lois Lane. She is absolutely my favorite character in the Superman universe. I have seen a lot of interpretations of the character from animated to live action and I have discovered the Lois Lane that I love the most is Erica Durance’s Lois. I have said this before but I adore how her Lois is sarcastic, funny, loyal, brave, is no damsel in distress and yes sexy too. She is also vulnerable and her chemistry with Tom Welling’s Clark only makes me love her Lois more. Plus, the whole Lois and Clark romance, while a slow burn on Smallville was realistic and while I didn’t like that they didn’t get together right away, I did enjoy watching their journey towards romance.

Which brings us to Smallville season 11 and I was so happy to hear that Lois herself is the main focus of the side arc that is published between the main arc “Argo.”

As issue 41 opens up, the industrious Lois Lane is on a plane over the Atlantic Ocean where a young girl with a Superman T-shirt on wants to know all about Superman. She lists all of Superman powers to the little girl but she really wants to know what he is like as a person. Lois call Superman the “nicest, sweetest, most caring man I’ve ever known.” The girl then asks Lois whether or not she likes-likes Superman, instead of answering Lois asks her back what does she think.

When Lois gets up to presumably use the facilities, she is accosted by two flight attendants who wants to know from Lois what she really thinks Superman is like since she writes about him all the time. Before Lois can get a word in edgewise, the two flight attendant, a woman and a man, gush about him and objectify him. When they ask Lois whether or not wears underwear under his suit, she answers how would she know since she is engaged and flashes her engagement ring. One of them doesn’t understand how she can be engaged when an “Adonis” like Superman is on speed dial. But the real question both want to now is how much steel is in the man.

This unfortunately results in Lois’ fist hitting one of the flight attendants in the face as well as the air marshal too. We know all this because Lois has telephoned Perry White in London about her troubles. But Lois, as always, manages to get out her jam and is back on track to her purpose of her trip.

Which is Lois is back in Africa, this time near Tinasha, tracking down someone called the”Angel of the Plateau.” This vigilante has taken on a local warlord who has “recruited” men and children from their villages to be his soldiers.

All of a sudden, Lois’ UN convoy is under attack and as it looks like a truck is about to fall on her, a mysterious caped figure catches it before it lands on our favorite Daily Planet reporter.

Lois thinks it is Clark that saved her and wonders how he knew she was in danger but when the person turns around it isn’t Superman we see but Lana Lang.

Issue 45 makes me a bit mad as I was hoping for a bit of closure on the Clark/Lana relationship. Anyways, the issue opens up with taking us through Lana’s journey from losing her parents because of the meteor shower to her getting the power suit and wanting her and Clark to protect the world together. We see flashbacks of the Pilot and “Power” in here. We also see a replay of Imra’s conversation from “Legion” about how Lana has a destiny of her own that is separate from Clark’s.

We are now back to the present day where we Lana in our Angel of the Plateau guise stopping the warlord’s child soldiers from attacking Lois and her UN convoy. Lana manages to stop the children and she leads them away to protect them from the warlord’s retaliation. Lois sees this and follows Lana to get the story. They end up in a makeshift camp and Lana tells that the children are safer here than back with their families.

Lois then asks Lana whether or not there are any side effects from the kryptonite poisoning and this is the panel that pisses me off. Lana said that there was only one and we see the final Clark and Lana kiss from “Requiem” that clearly indicates that the side effect was that she can’t be with Clark anymore. So it is obvious that Lois knows the reason why Lana and Clark broke up which is reassuring that Clark has told her and it is clear that Lana knows that Lois knows about Clark. And it is clear that Lana is still in love with Clark and that makes me so mad. Does Lana even know that Clark has moved on and is now in love with Lois and engaged to her? I hope so!

Anyways, we then go to the warlord’s lair and he and his men discuss how the Angel can’t be stopped but the warlord has hired an American consultant to help them defeat her and this person is John Corben aka Metallo.

When we open up issue 46, we see Lois going through a scrapbook that Lana has of Superman’s exploits. Lana discusses how she had to give up everything, including Clark. Lois mentions what Lex did to them (so it is confirmed that Clark told her why he and Lana broke up). Then Lana asks how he is, Lois pretending to think she was asking about Lex tells her that he is still the same jerk but with no memory. But Lana presses to know how Clark is. While twirling her engagement ring, Lois mentions how is it nice to have Clark home and that Lex was still up to his old tricks by placing that radiation trace on him that only allowed Clark and Lois to meet on official Superman basis. Lois then mentions how they did manage to work out on how to see each other outside of that. Lana seems a bit disappointed in hearing that and maybe internally peeved that Clark found a way to be with Lois when they couldn’t be but didn’t make the effort for her.

Anyways, they hear a disturbance outside and it is John Corben. While he and Lana are fighting, Lois tells Lana the backstory of John Corben. One of the questions that we had was how did Corben get back in season 10’s “Prophecy” his green kryptonite heart when Lois gave him a red one in season 9’s “Upgrade”. Corben fills in the blanks and said the red one didn’t take and Toyman gave him his new heart and when his part in Marionette Ventures didn’t work, Corben hired himself out. As they continue to fight, it looks like Lana’s suit starts to absorb the kryptonite in his heart. It appears that he is weakened but instead he has grown stronger. Perhaps this means that Lana is rid of the kryptonite.

In Issue 50, we do indeed find out that Lana is now free of the Prometheus suit that she stole in season 8’s Power as John Corben aka Metallo has taken the kryptonite from the suit to power his meteor rock heart. It seems that General Lane and his men are part of the fray to take down Corben but he ended up getting the upper hand by taking down one of Lane’s choppers and is using the blades a a weapon. Lois wishes she could call Clark using her Superman watch that allows her to reach him in case of emergencies but that went missing in the opening issues of this arc. Even if she did have it, Clark wouldn’t have come anyways considering he is stuck in the 31st Century. It would have been interesting to see if she tried to reach him, if she could.

So Lois and Lana team up to try and stop Corben who is determined to stop the “Angel.” When Corben starts to fire on Lana, Lois, who is wearing a bulletproof vest, jumps in the way to save Lana. Lois is happy that her face and legs and arms were spared but her boobs took a beating. Lana goes off to confront Corben and Lois, hilariously says to Lana to avenge her boobs.

They determine the one way to stop Corben is to remove his heart and the two ladies eventually stop him and pull his heart out. The men from the DEO take Corben away and Lois tells Lana that her story probably won’t feature Corben nor Lana in it but just some bare facts about the “Angel”.

Talk then turns to Lana and what she will do now that she doesn’t have the power suit like will she go home. She tells Lois that she will stay in Cameroon to help the children and stop the warlord but not in the way she was doing it before. She adds that the children still need the “Angel.” Lana then asks when the wedding is between her and Clark, stating that she saw Lois’ engagement ring. Lois’ responds that they will get married eventually. Lana tells Lois that she is happy for both her and Clark. Lois wants to know how Lana is. Lana replies that she is happy and without the power suit, she has never felt stronger.

Overall, I did love this side arc especially all the Lois stuff. Miller does a great job injecting Lois’ dialogue with the humour we’ve come to love about her from the TV show. As for Lana, this arc doesn’t not make me like her still. I didn’t like the fact that she is still in love with Clark even though she knows that he is engaged to Lois. A part of me wants a better reassurance that Clark is with Lois because he wants to be and is deeply in love with her. Lana saying that she is happy for both Lois and Clark on their engagement to me is a lie she tells herself so she can get over Clark.

Since the power suit is what drove her and Clark apart, I am surprised that she didn’t want to go back for Clark. Sure it is noble that she wants to protect the children of Cameroon from the warlord but I think she is lonely as this arc demonstrated especially when we see the one side effect of having the suit is being separated from the man she loves.

That is one thing I really hated about Smallville is that the first 7 season over emphasized what Lana means to Clark that Clark couldn’t live without Lana, his life would be meaningless without her in it, that they were meant to be was extremely annoying as he kept on telling all his friends and family and even Lois. I know that their relationship was very dysfunctional and not happy at all. When I was watching some behind the scenes stuff on my complete DVD set, the creators of the show said that the Lana and Clark relationship was depicted that way to show how Clark learned from it to not make the same mistakes with Lois but it really didn’t come across that way to me.

Anyways,  I want some real closure that maybe will happen in a future arc like Lana actually coming back to Metropolis and Clark actually telling her that he has moved on and only loves Lana like a friend and nothing more. That to me will give me the closure that I need.

But some positives about this arc and of course it is all about Lois. I love how Miller really stayed true to who Lois was on the show and I am glad to still have this version of Lois still in our lives. And now that her adventures with Lana is over, I wonder how she will react when she finds out her fiancee went 1000 years into the future. I guess we will find out as “Argo” concludes over the next three weeks.