When Babs met Lois Lane

[sailorlibra.insanejournal.com]

From Gail's run on BoP comes one of my favorite Lois showings in a non-Superman book.

Context: Babs is in trouble with a government agent she used to know who is seeking to control her. While she's talking to Katarina--the government agent--someone interrupts them. (Note that the first two scans are from BoP 101, whereas the rest are from BoP 102, thus staying within the scan number limits.)

Comments

[starwolf_oakley.insanejournal.com]

Even though she doesn't appear on panel in these posts, there was something about Katrina Armstrong I found... fascinating. Gail Simone said was going for a "female Jack Bauer" in Katrina, dedicated and/or obsessed with protecting America in a way all too familiar to anyone who spends time around Bruce Wayne.

I hope Katrina returns in one way or another. If Barbara is going to spend her time mentoring Stephanie Brown, maybe a newer "take" on Birds of Prey could take the field.

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I thought it was interesting that she had all this clearance and a clear goal in her mind, one that was pretty noble in intention. She was a way better archenemy for Babs then The Calculator.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

I found her interesting because she's got the whole "mean girl from school" thing, and yet it didn't stray near cliché. In the end, despite the threats and bullying and attempts at usurping Barbara, Katarina actually wanted to do good, she just went about it in completely the wrong way.

[edited for splelling]

[gailsimone.insanejournal.com]

Katarina will return.

Greg Rucka put her in a hole, I can give her a ladder! :)

[warpedhand.insanejournal.com]

Because of this stupid community, I went back and saw the handlebars on the second page. Fortunately, I wasn't too far gone to enjoy how badly Babs underestimated Lois.

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

And what's weird is that there are any on the page following!

[gailsimone.insanejournal.com]

My fault, I forgot to tell Nicola.

I love how she drew this scene...two terrifying women and neither is quite willing to say what's really going on.

Nicola rules.

[chains_of_irony.insanejournal.com]

handlebars?

[lencannon.insanejournal.com]

I think is good way of showing them as each masters at their field, but I don't like it. I think the assumption that Lois Lane is going to fuck over Superman's friends and a member of the JLA would never, ever occur to Oracle, ever.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

Is it possible that Lois may not have known that Oracle worked with and was an ally of Superman's, though?

[thebigapricot.insanejournal.com]

Oh, I loved this. But how real was the threat that Lois would expose her? Or was this Lois just warning her about Katrina?

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

she's a repoter. which means she had to get to the truth. Just to satisfy her own curiosity. But rather than have someone else "force feed" it to her, Lois needed to know what side Babs was on, because Lois suspected someone was using her as a weapon to take Oracle.

And Lois had to see what was in Babs' arsenal, to see if both women could trust one another to keep the other's secret.

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

Honestly, I always found this scene a bit... weird. Clark and Babs aren't precisely friends or anything, but they're definitely allies. If I'm Lois, I hear about this "evil hacker Oracle" who needs to be exposed, I do some digging on Katarina and Babs, I hit the Justice League connection, and I immediately turn to Clark and go "hey, you have a coworker named Oracle?"

Clark says "sure, yeah, she's one of Bruce's. Great with research, good friend of Canary. Why do you ask?"

And that's the end of it.

I mean, Lois is not going to go after one of the people who helps keep her husband safe. And Babs would be perfectly aware of that. So it's not an especially plausible scene to me as a reader - Lois is not a bad guy, and even if Barbara's fear and backpedaling made any sense to me, I wouldn't be able to sympathize with it in the least, because regardless of what she might think, it's obvious to me she's not in the least bit of danger here. And Lois tweaking Babs and messing with her head doesn't make much sense to me either - I can see her bringing up the evidence against Babs just to let her know what trails she needs to cover better, but I'd expect her to make her distaste for Katirina clear right out of the gate. As is, she's basically just being an inexplicable ass here to someone she knows is a white hat.

I mean, maybe she's got issues with some of Barbara's methods or missions, enough to feel she deserves to be messed with a little, but there's nothing in the actual conversation to suggest that, and it still wouldn't explain Barbara's freakout or give me the reader any reason to think Lois is a threat.

[manofbats.insanejournal.com]

To me it read like Lois was just curious and trying understand Barbara without being the wife who stays at home and only gets to know her husband other "co-workers" through dinner chat.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

see this makes me feel like Barbara's a very bad judge of character. And honestly, while they don't always have to get along perfectly about everything I think the Batclan and Superman Family should know each other well enough that everyone should know each other's identities.

[schala_kid.insanejournal.com]

And honestly, while they don't always have to get along perfectly about everything I think the Batclan and Superman Family should know each other well enough that everyone should know each other's identities.

Clark knows the secret identity of Bruce's kids and I have no doubt that Bruce did his research on Clark's. Kara, Kon, Tim, Barbara, Dick know everything about each other. Dick has history with Clark, Kara is unofficially one of Bruce's kids, Tim is a detective and he and Kon are best friends and there's no secrets between them, Barbara is Oracle so she knows everything.

Cass knows about Kon because she read his movements and he told her but no one outside the Batfam knows about her, PG probably knows because she was Helena Wayne's BFF but I am not sure if the Batfam knows her story, Chris Kent knows Tim Drake is Robin and vice versa and he probably knows about Bruce.

I don't know about Huntress, Azrael, Jason, Damian, Natasha, Flamebird/Thara, Steel and Mon-El.

As for the non-crime fighters, Alfred knows (he's Alfred) the Kents don't know anything about the Bat family, and Lois knowing Bruce's identity is kind of ambiguous (although from Hush onward it is kind of obvious she does and Bruce knows she does too but they just humor each other). She used to be in the dark about it, during the whole President Luthor thing Lois and Batman sneak into the white House to get Lex's K-ring and Batman says something that leaves Lois confused and then is surprised that Clark hadn't told her his secret identity.

Also I am pretty sure Clark doesn't give his co-workers' identities to Lois so it doesn't surprised me that she had to figured out Babs = Oracle all by herself (or that she could, she's Lois freaking Lane after all).

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

The Joker comment surprised me.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Why? The Joker is nothing if not mercurial, he might get bored with something and just stop.

[wetstereorebel.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, this art is gorgeous. That's the best looking Lois I've seen in a while.

[sailorlibra.insanejournal.com]

I know, right? If Lois ever gets another series--or even a miniseries--I will cry if Nicola Scott is not the artist. She just gets Lois Lane.

[yaseen101.insanejournal.com]

A very good scene IMO, but some of the dialogue feels off for some reason.

[retro_nouveau.insanejournal.com]

Did Lois stick Babs with the check? XD

The eye colors make me very happy.

[misterfedex.insanejournal.com]

Nobody ever said being a reporter pays that well...Lane comes from at least two generations of bastards, so stiffing the check might be something she'd do.

Sorry, I always despised Lois. I was actually rooting for her to be offed in Identity Crisis. Can't even figure out entirely why.

[jaybee3.insanejournal.com]

I always thought this seemed off a bit. Either OOC or a complete desperation move on Babs' part. In fact, it's probably one of Barbara's worst moments EVER - in which she would trash the life of the hero (and his wife) to protect herself - and from what? If she had ever gone through with her bluff to put that photo on the web her credit with the rest of the super-hero community would have gone to zero overnight, she would have been finished - even with (dare I say it) Dinah, Dick and especially Bruce. Superman is the one they all look up to. You do not threaten Superman - ever. You do not try to blackmail Lois Lane (who has most heroes on speed-dial) - ever. Protecting "Oracle" would have been worthless to her if she had gone through with it.

Like I said this is one of Barbara's worst moments - and one of Lois's best. I could easily have seen Lois threaten right back (LL does NOT like being threatened - and no one threatens her man) and Lois would have much more ammunition. But Lois was come through it all, didn't even blink.

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

It's called Mutually Assured Destruction. Like she gives a shit what the cape community thinks of her for outing Superman. If she outs Superman, it's because Lois outed her, and at that point, she's running for her life. "Oh no, Bruce won't take my calls" is not particularly high on the priority list compared to "oh no, Blockbuster is knocking on my door with a bag full of dull knives and bamboo splinters."

It's absurd and OOC that Babs should be worried about Lois as a threat, absolutely. But to threaten Lois with the outing of Superman is an absolutely valid and appropriate nuke.

[jarodrussell.insanejournal.com]

I think, deep down, it was this arc when my love of Oracle turned to hatred. The idea that after taking on countless government agencies, super-villains, and goodness what else, someone as glaringly inconsequential Spy Smasher could shake Barbara made me realize she wasn't up to playing on the same level as I'd fooled myself to thinking she was.

This story, which obviously didn't have her enlisting Lois to help her take down Spy Smasher in what might have been a pretty kick ass CMOA...Spy Smasher sits down to read Lois' expose on Oracle and finds her face, history, and pattern of abuse plastered on the front page, which gets her burn noticed and black listed...seems to be when Oracle stopped trying to out maneuver her opponents and started thinking she could use brute force to win her fights, such as calling in a two-page spread of guests to scare off a bad guy.

Call me wrong. Call me crazy. Call me whatever. However, in the years since this, watching Burn Notice and Leverage, I can definitely say for sure that Oracle isn't even close to the same league as Michael Westen and Nathan Ford when it comes to being a mastermind, and for my money...this scene kind of proves it. If you can't realize Lois Lane might be more interested in helping you bust a hyper-corrupt spy than blackmailing her husband's colleague, the GTFO.

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

Dude, her wife just walked out on her. Cut her some slack, no one's working at peak after that shit.

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

I actually hated this scene when I read it. I couldn't stand it. It felt very out of place and out of character for both.

[lieut_kettch.insanejournal.com]

I have a feeling that the entire conversation was played out for any listening devices Katrina may have planted in the restaurant.

Lois would never, ever endanger anyone who keeps her husband safe from harm. Babs' inner monologue I attribute to residual Bat-paranoia plus the fact that she's still reeling from the double whammy of being taken over by Spy Smasher's operation and Dinah leaving her the team.

[sxyblkmn.insanejournal.com]

one of my favorite scenes :)

Ethical

[(Anonymous)]

Am I the only one that thinks Lois Lane is highly unethical?

Seriously, why is Lois held up as an example of a good journalist?

Re: Ethical

[sailorlibra.insanejournal.com]

How is this unethical?

[salamangkiero.insanejournal.com]

I think that this was a way for Lois to size up if she could trust Babs. It's not about Clark saying she can be trusted, but whether or not Her own instincts will tell her that the person in front of her can be trusted. It was also a brilliant game of "Go Fish," as she had to know how good Babs' info network was - the fact that Babs had a photo ready was proof enough for her of how extensive the Oracle Network is.

Given Lois Lane's stature, I expect no less than what she did. It may be a bitch move, but you simple sometimes have to establish exactly who you can trust, who you can throw off a cliff, and who you can trust even when both of you have knives drawn at each other.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

I have to say, one of the thing I appreciate about Nicola Scott's artwork in comics is the fact that she actually has the characters wearing realistic and fashionable clothing. Unlike a lot of comic artists who can't get past 1995 and have every other woman wearing a belly shirt.

[janegray.insanejournal.com]

Well, I really liked this scene :)