• Story: Greg Rucka
• Art: Mike Perkins
• Colour: Andy Troy

For a book that started out with so much urgency I’m left wondering what the point was. I mean there are some interesting ideas here, the ones tying into the real world the most vital of all, but it doesn’t translate into a satisfying conclusion, however valid Greg Rucka’s comments on journalism and storytelling are. I was hoping to understand much more about Lois, but this current iteration isn’t even bothered that her aged up son is adventuring away on his own in the future. I enjoy Mike Perkins’ art but even he can’t rescue this from being a confusing mess.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad to see Renée Montoya, and initially it felt like she was being used properly, but I don’t know a thing about the continuity her arc was tied to and nothing was revealed even in editorial boxes. I’d love to see a Question mini or ongoing featuring her, but effectively shoehorning one in here resulting in Lois launching an organisation for helping DC characters whose stories have been fractured by various Crises made little sense. There must have been a better parallel with Central American asylum seekers’ lives similarly interrupted by Trump. Surely the priority could have remained Lois walking us through just America’s journalism problems in the DC Universe, rather than justifying the revelation of the multiverse to the public ‘because journalism’? The conversation she has with Renee about the importance of the truth was powerful, but undermined by the confusing and excessively vast context Rucka sets it in.

Perkins’ art coloured by Andy Troy though is really nice. I have noticed angular issues keep coming up with some faces, leaving it not to everyone’s taste, but I really enjoy the energy and believable emotions he brings with his line work. It’s Andy Troy though, more than anyone else, with his bright, vibrant colours, who helps this issue end on the bright, upbeat and clear tone it desperately needed.