SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Lois Lane #1 by Greg Rucka, Mike Perkins, Paul Mounts and Simon Bowland, on sale now.
It's no surprise why Lois Lane is the DC Universe's star reporter, but her latest breaking story might be the biggest of all.
Thanks to the duplicitous moves of an emotionally broken Wally West, Lois revealed the existence of Sanctuary to the world -- by way of the deadly massacre there. Meanwhile, at last check, she's still composing her tell-all book that might compromise her very own husband. But her latest bombshell in Greg Rucka and Mike Perkins' Lois Lane #1 might top both of those. Lois has uncovered some troubling findings that go all the way up to the government's highest levels -- and that scandal is eerily close to real world events.
Lois Lane Just Broke a Political Scandal
In Lois Lane #1, Lois has apparently earned a coveted role as The Daily Planet's White House correspondent. During a press conference, Lois grills the president's press secretary -- the satirically named Lee-Anne McCarthy -- about some questionable payments received by the president's administration. The president, per DC's common historical practice, is not named, satirically or otherwise.
Those payments, according to Lois, came from large corporations -- Lexcorp among them -- in exchange for government contracts. Those contracts? To build what Lois calls "tender care camps," facilities that she states are specifically intended to separate refugee families.
In the DC Universe, Lois has uncovered that members of the president's own administration are profiting from a humanitarian crisis.
Good thing it's only comics, because that would be a pretty damning scandal in the Earth-Prime White House.
Sadly, a number of the elements used by Rucka are anything but fictional. A humanitarian crisis has been ongoing at the United States' southern border for months. The U.S. Government deemed it necessary to separate children from the rest of their families as a means to deal with this crisis. And only within the past couple of weeks, news reports have emerged regarding deplorable conditions at the camps where these children are being held.
Substitute the "refugees" Lois mentions for "immigrants," and there's a very familiar crisis brewing in the DC Universe -- and not the kind of crisis that usually unfolds in a DC comic.
A Whole Different Kind of Crisis
In the real world, the U.S. Government's stated intent regarding isolating immigrant children is to deter subsequent illegal immigration across the southern border. The move hasn't affected such immigration, however, and instead has only created another, and arguably worse, problem: The government has offered no clear method on how to eventually reunite these families. Worse yet, it's been discovered these children are lacking basic living necessities while being held in the government's custody.
In the DCU, the crisis -- or as much as is known so far -- is simply rooted in greed. The president's administration is taking kickbacks from businesses building holding centers solely for children. In order to carry out this scheme, though, the government would need a plausible reason to separate these children from their families in the first place. Perhaps the president of Earth-0's United States of America felt this would similarly deter the arrival of any more "refugees" into the country.
The implied accusation of Rucka's thinly veiled allegory is clear. Was there another reason, besides as a misguided deterrent, for the president's administration to order the separation of immigrant children from their families? Was there perhaps a more selfish motive among the president's team? A financial motive?
No such credible accusations have been made. And no such evidence is known to exist. But Rucka postulates a troubling possibility: That there might have been a financial incentive for the current administration to undertake its recent actions.
Lois won't be asking any more hard-hitting questions of the president's press secretary, though. In another example of art imitating life, her credentials come the story's end are unsurprisingly revoked. Perhaps, say, Cat Grant's fluffier questions would be more to the White House's liking.
Our world needs a Lois Lane to ask the tough questions and an administration brave enough to allow her to ask them.
The scandal continues in Lois Lane #2, on sale Aug. 7.