When Lois Lane Got Caught Up In Her Own American Hustle

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Feb 24, 2020

In their look at old cultural references in comics, CSBG shows when Lois Lane got involved in her own ABSCAM plot.

This is Foggy Ruins of Time, a feature that provides the cultural context behind certain comic book characters/behaviors. You know, the sort of then-topical references that have faded into the “foggy ruins of time.” To wit, twenty years from now, a college senior watching episodes of "Seinfeld" will likely miss a lot of the then-topical pop culture humor (like the very specific references in “The Understudy” to the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding scandal).

Today, based on a suggestion from reader Matthew O. we look at the Lois Lane story that referenced the "ABSCAM" scandal.

ABSCAM refers to "Arab Scam" (later changed to "Abdul Scam" when people got pissed that they called it "Arab Scam") where the FBI disguised agents as Arab sheikhs from a fictional Arabian company to bribe Congressmen. They convicted seven Congressman following the sting operation.

The whole deal was tuned into a movie a few years back called American Hustle, which co-stared Amy Adams...

Adams, of course, later played Lois Lane in Man of Steel.

And Lois Lane had her own ABSCAM scandal in Superman Family #208 (by Gerry Conway, Bob Oksner and Vince Colletta). Lois is at the dentist when she hears voices...

No one will believe her, but Perry lets her follow her instinct and it appears as though she has stumbled onto another FBI ABSCAM operation...

She blunders into the sting, but it turns out that these sheikhs are very real!

This time, it was the congressmen that were working with the FBI to take the sheikhs down, not the other way around. So Lois got a big story, just not the one that she thought she was getting from the start...