Lois Lane: The Partner Era

"Behind every Superman..."

In 1996, Lois Lane and Clark Superman Kent had a double wedding: the comic book Superman: The Wedding Album came out the same time as the TV wedding on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Synchronizing those events wasn’t easy, though: the comics’ Lois and Clark were more or less ready to go in 1992, when the TV show was still filming its pilot episode. So the comics had to throw in four years’ worth of reversible complications. Superman died (and came back), Lois lost her job (and regained it), Metropolis got destroyed (and rebuilt), Superman gave up being Clark Kent (and then he didn’t), and when all else failed, Clark and Lois split up…and…got back together.

What fueled that brief breakup was Lois’ worries about losing her individuality and Clark being too married to his work. Valid concerns! Being a super-spouse is not for the faint of heart. Your partner is always “on call,” gets more attention than the busiest Hollywood star, is at constant risk of death, and might go through other unpredictable changes (Adventures of Superman #562, Superman: Lost #1).

So how do you thrive in that role and as yourself? Tough question, but Lois doesn’t back down from a challenge. She could take a rare day off from work (Action Comics #1064)…

…do some journalism verging on espionage (Lois Lane #1, 2017)…

…or rescue an anniversary meal by doing Clark’s job behind his back when he’s too busy as Superman (Superman #654).

Lois’ modern portrayals haven’t been flawless. Comic-book women had a rough go of it in the 1990s and 2000s, often getting oversexualized or brutalized. As a feminist icon, Lois escaped some of this treatment, but not all of it.

Some sexy content is great. Getting dolled up in lingerie while going all-out for an anniversary dinner (as above) is romantic. There’s nothing wrong with Lois and Clark making love—it’s far preferable to those now-tired riffs off a 1969 essay about whether Super-sex could unalive Lois. (Short answer: Superman develops whatever powers his writers want him to. Super-breath, super-ventriloquism, super-intelligence…et cetera. So if they want him to have the “super-power” to be intimate safely, then he does.)

But some comics art prioritizes eye candy over character. The pose below accompanies a discussion of journalistic ethics—Lois is mulling a story that could harm the superhero community. But, uh, it sure doesn’t look like it (Heroes in Crisis #4).

Other Super-stories revolve around Lois’ death. Or, more precisely, around how Clark might cope with her loss. Nothing wrong with that either, in moderation—Clark’s died a few times and left Lois behind, and the death of a loved one is good story fodder.

But from 2005 to 2015, Lois seemed to die a lot. I mean…a lot (Kingdom Come Special, Flashpoint: Project Superman #3, Superwoman #1, Action Comics #798, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Infinite Crisis #5).

Most of these instances were illusions or alternate realities, but it happened so often that DC seemed a little mean-spirited toward Lois—or at least unimaginative.

Onscreen, Lois tended to fare better. Her film, television, and radio appearances prior to 1991 followed the early comics’ dynamic, minus the crazy extremes Lois got up to in the Silver Age.

In post-1991 adaptations, Lois was sharper and wittier, often figuring out Clark’s secret on her own. She is a reporter, y’know (Smallville, Lois and Clark, My Adventures with Superman—I could’ve also included Man of Steel).

Even other heroes with secrets might have reason to fear Lois getting too close (Birds of Prey #102).

Not too much reason, though. Lois’ “villain” days are more or less behind her. Attempts to recapture them haven’t lasted long.

The 2006 movie Superman Returns took one of Lois’ chief complaints about the relationship—getting her needs ignored in favor of Super-stuff—to a wild extreme. This turned her into a fierce Superman critic for about twenty minutes of runtime.

As the film begins, Superman has flown off to look for Krypton for five years without telling anyone, leaving Lois and her new fiancé to raise a Super-baby. She doesn’t remember conceiving this baby with Superman, “thanks” to the Super-amnesia-kiss she got at the end of Superman II—

Good Lord (SMH). 🤦

At best, Superman was now a Super-stalking deadbeat dad, and Lois looked dumber than even her Silver Age self for not realizing her child had superpowers. The movie was a modest critical and commercial success (I couldn’t tell you why: nostalgia maybe?) but had little influence and no follow-ups.

In 2011, DC Comics tried another reboot, “The New 52.” Post-reboot, Lois was morally grayer and had never dated Clark or Superman. When she discovered the two were one and the same, she told the world rather than let villains blackmail him (Superman v3 #43).

Not a popular move on her part, with Clark or the readers. But then, the “New 52” wasn’t that popular either. These incarnations of Lois and Clark would soon yield the stage to their predecessors. And when we caught up with married Lois and Clark, they’d be focused on raising a Super-kid right.

Next: The mom era.