Friday, July 22, 2016

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #114

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #114 (On Sale: July 22, 1971), has a nice cover by Dick Giordano.

We begin with Lois Lane and The Rose and the Thorn in "The Foe of 100 Faces" by Robert Kanigher, Werner Roth, and Vince Colletta, with an inking assist by Murphy Anderson. Lois Lane ventures into a black community to recruit a young black writer to work for the Daily Planet. When she arrives she finds Dave Stevens and his girlfriend Tina in the middle of planning a protest. 

As Lois and Dave walk outside of their building, they are attacked by henchmen from the 100. They are rescued by the vigilante Thorn and proceed to the protest site where they are fighting for better community conditions. Unbeknownst to them, the 100 have planted henchmen to disrupt the protest and violence soon breaks out. 

Thorn and Superman arrive to put down the violence. Superman offers to help with some construction that would be beneficial to office buildings and the community. Superman constructs a housing model and the community comes out to celebrate it. During the celebration, members of the 100 show up and throw a firebomb at the occupants. Lois picks up the bomb and throws it out of harm's way. 

As Lois disposes of the bomb she spots Thorn sneaking into the housing community. She follows and witnesses Thorn battling members of a group known as America Awakes which is a splinter group of the 100. Thorn subdues the gang members and Lois receives medical attention for her burnt hands. Dave Stevens is hired as the first black writer for the Daily Planet and Lois receives love and respect from Dave’s girlfriend Tina.

This issues reprint is "The Reptile Girl of Metropolis" by Leo Dorfman and Kurt Schaffenberger and reprinted from Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #61 (1965). When Lois attends a nuclear experiment she is transformed by a radioactive accident into a reptilian. The nuclear physicist she was working with is also transformed. However, the scientist and the reporter are really imposters. The real Lois was taken prisoner during the experiment and held captive.

Lois escapes by drugging her guard, then she contacts Lucy and Jimmy. Lucy helps capture her imposter, then she joins the physicist to learn more. When she returns home, Lois discovers that Lucy was overpowered and the imposter escaped.

Lucy and Lois then track down the imposters. They watch as the pair is abducted by tiny aliens. Lois returns to the Daily Planet to report her story and discovers the reptilian imposter at her desk. Both imposters reveal themselves and turn out to be Superman and Supergirl.

Superman then explains that he found a scout to an invasion fleet, who planned to abduct the physicist. He and Supergirl disguised themselves so that they would be taken instead. Working together, the two heroes were then able to thwart the invasion and return to Earth.

Edited by E Nelson Bridwell.

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