Lois Lane
Encyclopedia : L : LO : LOI : Lois Lane
Lois Lane is a fictional comic book character who appears in DC Comics’ Superman stories. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in Action Comics #1 (1938).
Lois is Superman's chief romantic interest and, in the current DC continuity, his wife. Like Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent, she is a reporter for the Metropolis newspaper, The Daily Planet.
Depictions of Lois Lane have varied in the nearly 70 year history of Superman comic books and other media adaptations. During the Silver Age, she was the star of Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane, a comic title that had a light and frivolous tone. However, the original Golden Age version of Lois, as well as versions of her from the 1970s onwards, portray Lois as a tough-as-nails journalist and intellectual equal to Superman.
Profile
Aspects of Lois' personality have varied over the years (depending on the comic writers' handling of the character and American social attitudes toward women at the time), but in most incarnations she has been depicted as a determined, strong-willed person, whether it involves beating her rival reporter Clark Kent to a story or (in what became a trademark of 1950s and 1960s era Superman stories) proving to others her suspicion that her fellow reporter Clark Kent was in reality Superman. She also traditionally had a cool attitude toward Clark, who in her view paled in comparison to his super alter ego. At times the character has been portrayed as a damsel in distress.Lois is regarded as attractive, but not in the exaggerated "supermodel" sense often seen in superhero comics' depictions of women. Her appearance has varied over the years, depending either on current fashion or (especially more recently) the way she's depicted in contemporary media adaptations; for instance, in the mid-1990s, when Lois and Clark began airing, Lois received a hair cut that made her look more like Teri Hatcher, and her eyes were typically violet to match the Lois of the television cartoon after that show began airing.
Lois is the daughter of Sam and Ella Lane. In the earlier comics, her parents were farmers in a town called Pittsdale; the modern comics, however, depict Sam as a retired soldier, and Lois as a former "army brat," with Lois having been trained by her father in areas such as hand-to-hand combat and the use of firearms. Lois also has one younger sibling, her sister Lucy Lane.
In the current comics, Lois is married to Clark Kent (and aware of his secret identity), but has kept her maiden name for professional purposes.
Character history
The comics have seen several incarnations of Lois Lane over the decades.Golden Age
In the earliest Golden Age comics, Lois was featured as an aggressive, career-minded reporter for the Daily Star (the paper's name was changed to The Daily Planet in the early 1940s), who, after Clark Kent joined the paper and Superman debuted around the same time, found herself attracted to Superman, but displeased with her new journalistic competition in the form of Kent. Starting in the late 1940s or early 1950s comics, Lois began to suspect that Clark Kent was Superman, and started to make various attempts at uncovering his secret identity, all of which backfired (usually thanks to Superman's efforts).
In the Golden Age comics, Lois also had a niece named Susie Tompkins, whose main trait was getting into trouble by telling exaggerated tall tales and fibs to adults. Susie's last appearance was in 1955; subsequent comics presented Lois' only sibling, Lucy, as single and childless.
After DC instituted its multiverse system in the early 1960s for organizing its continuity, it was deemed that the Lois of the Golden Age comics (i.e., comics published from 1938 through the early 1950s) lived on the parallel world of "Earth-Two" versus the then-mainstream (Silver Age) universe of "Earth-One." In 1978's Action Comics #484, it was revealed that sometime in the 1950s, the Earth-Two Lois became infatuated with Clark Kent after the latter lost his memory of his superheroic identity (thanks to a spell cast by the old Justice Society of America enemy the Wizard), with the result of Clark acting more aggressive and extroverted. Clark and Lois began to date each other, and were soon married; however, during the honeymoon, Lois discovered that Clark was indeed Superman, and after recruiting the aid of the Wizard, restored Clark's memory. A series of stories in the 1970s and 1980s titled "Mr. and Mrs. Superman" presented the further adventures of the now-married Lois and Clark (in several of which Susie Tompkins made a return as a recurring character).
During the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries, the Earth-Two Lois Lane was seen for the last time, as she, the Earth-Two Superman, and the Earth-Prime Superboy are taken by Earth-Three's Alexander Luthor, Jr. into a paradise-like dimension at the end of the story (after all the parallel Earths, including Earth-Two, had been eliminated in favor of just one Earth), after which this version of Lois was (seemingly) permanently discarded from DC's continuity.
In 2005's Infinite Crisis miniseries, it was revealed that the Earth-Two Lois Lane, along with the Superboy, Alexander Luthor, Jr. and Superman, have been watching the events of the post-Crisis DC Universe from their pocket dimension. This version of Lois is frail, and died for reasons not explicitely revealed, though probably connected to her octogenarian status. Lois Lane died in the arms of Superman in Infinite Crisis #5 and after Earth-2 Superman's death at the end of Infinite Crisis #7, they are shown reunited in the stars.
Silver Age
As the audience for comic books began gravitating towards young boys in the mid-to-late 1950s, the Superman stories shifted in focus more toward science fiction-inspired plots involving extraterrestrials, fantasy creatures and bizarre, often contrived, plots. Lois's main interests in various late 1950s and 1960s stories became vying with her rival Lana Lang for Superman's affections, attempting to prove Clark Kent and Superman were one and the same, and tricking or otherwise forcing Superman into marriage. For Superman's part, his rationale for resisting her is that she cannot be trusted not to expose his secret identity to advance her career and marrying her would put her in too much danger from his enemies (ignoring the fact that his romantic relationship with her is already public knowledge). This change in Lois' personality from her earlier 1940s self might also be a result of American society's attitudes toward women and their societal roles in the 1950s.
Lois became more and more popular during this decade, and after a one-shot story in 1957 in DC's title Showcase, Lois was given her own comic, titled Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane. Most of the stories in this title placed a greater emphasis on Lois' romance with Superman, and were drawn by DC comic artist Kurt Schaffenberger; indeed, Schaffenberger's rendition of Lois became cited by many as the "definitive" version of Lois, and he was often asked to redraw Superman comic artist Curt Swan's renditions of Lois and Lana by Superman comic editor Mort Weisinger.
By the end of the 1960s, as attitudes toward women's role in American society began to change, Lois did as well. 1970s stories featuring Lois depicted her as being fully capable of taking care of herself, engaged in more solo adventures without Superman being involved, and her being much less interested in things such as discovering Superman's secret identity. For example, in her solo stories in Superman Family (an anthology title started in the mid-1970s from the merging/cancellation of several previous titles, including Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane and Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen), Lois regularly battled criminals in her investigations and defeated them with quick wits and considerable skill in the Kryptonian martial art of Klurkor, taught to her in the bottle-city of Kandor.
After the 1985-1986 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths, writer and artist John Byrne was hired to revise the Superman comics, thus eliminating the Silver Age version of Lois from continuity; before this happened, a final non-canonical "imaginary story" Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? was written by writer Alan Moore, meant as a send-off for the "pre-Crisis" versions of the characters, including Lois.
Modern Age
Lois underwent a character alteration beginning with John Byrne's The Man of Steel miniseries, which was designed to rewrite Superman's origin from scratch. In the modern version of events, Lois was a tough-as-nails reporter who rarely needed rescuing. She was depicted as strong, opinionated, yet sensitive.
Another major change made was that Lois did not fall head over heels in love with Superman. One reason for this was the changed nature of the Superman/Clark Kent relationship: before Superman had been the man who disguised himself as Clark Kent, but now Clark Kent lived a life in which his activity as Superman was decidedly secondary. After some time, Lois and Clark began dating. In the early 1990s, they became engaged and Clark revealed to Lois the secret of his dual life.
DC had planned on Lois and Clark being married in 1993's Superman #75. However, with the then-upcoming television show , DC decided they did not want to have the two married in the comics and not married on TV (as it turned out, they desired to have the wedding occur simultaneously in both the comics and the television program). Partially as a result of this, Superman was killed in Superman #75 instead, dying in Lois's arms after a battle royal with the monster Doomsday. After a period of time, Superman returned to life, and both he and Lois resumed their relationship, though not without a few problems occurring (such as a brief reappearance of Clark's former college girlfriend, Lori Lemaris).
In 1996, coinciding with the Lois and Clark television program, Lois and Clark were finally wed in the one-shot special , which featured the work of nearly every then-living artist who had ever worked on Superman. The Wedding Album itself, however, was forced to spend part of its opening pages accommodating and reconciling the then-current comic storyline of Lois and Clark having broken off their engagement (the television program's producers had failed to provide adequate lead time for the Superman comics' writers).
Today, Lois lives with Clark in an apartment at 1938 Sullivan Lane in Metropolis.
All Star Superman
In 2005, DC launched a new All Star Superman comic series by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, the series taking place outside normal DC continuity. In this storyline, they are not married, and although Superman has decided to reveal his secret identity to Lois, as of the second issue of the series, she refuses to believe him. At the end of issue #2, Superman (who believes he is dying) presents Lois with a super-powered costume.Trivia
- Lois once owned a cat named Elroy.
- There is a street in the Metro Detroit area (specifically, the city of Southfield) called "Lois Lane".
- Lois's physical appearance was originally based on a model hired by Siegel and Shuster named Joanne Carter.
- Traditionally, Lois has black hair, though for a period from the late 1980s through the late 1990s, Lois was depicted with brown hair in the comics.
- Lois is one of several Superman characters with the initials "LL", including Lex Luthor, Lana Lang, Lionel Luthor, Linda Lee (aka Supergirl), Letitia Lerner, Lyla Lerrol (a Silver Age-era Kryptonian actress) and Lori Lemaris (a mermaid).
- During the years (1942-1984) that Editora Brasil-América (EBAL) published the Brazilian versions of Superman comics, Lois Lane's name was translated to "Miriam Lane" and later to "Miriam Lois Lane".
- The secondary female lead in the musical Kiss Me, Kate is named Lois Lane; she plays Bianca in the show-within-a-show's production of The Taming of the Shrew: The Musical. Whether she was named after the Superman character is unknown.
In other media
- Actress Rollie Bester originated the role of Lois Lane for a radio series with Bud Collyer as Superman in the 1940s. Other actresses to lend their voice to the character were Helen Choate and Joan Alexander. Joan Alexander would also voice the character for a series of Superman theatrical cartoons for Fleischer Studios (1941-1943) as well as a 1960s animated television series.
- Actress Noel Neill played Lois Lane in more venues and instances than any other actress. She played the role in the 1948 and 1950 Saturday movie serials with Kirk Alyn playing Clark Kent/Superman. She continued to play the role in the Adventures of Superman television program opposite George Reeves and had a cameo in the 1978 film Superman as Lois Lane's mother. She was also a guest star in The Adventures of Superboy alongside Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen) as an office worker at the Bureau for Extra-Normal Matters. She also has a role in the Bryan Singer-directed film Superman Returns.
- Actress Phyllis Coates played Lois Lane in the first season of the Adventures of Superman television program. She also portrayed Ellen Lane, the socialite divorcee mother of Lois Lane in the first season of the 1990s television program .
- Actress Patricia Marand played Lois Lane in Broadway musical It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a Superman in 1966. For her performance she was nominated for Broadway's 1966 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Musical).
- Actress Teri Hatcher played Lois Lane on the ABC television series for four seasons, starting in 1993, with the two leading characters getting married during its run; this is the first television or film series that showed Lois and Clark's romance fully realized.
- Actress Dana Delany voiced Lois Lane (in the animated television series in the 1990s) and in the character's subsequent appearances on Justice League and its successor Justice League Unlimited.
- On the 2000s WB series Smallville, Erica Durance plays a young Lois Lane who came to Smallville to investigate the apparent death of her cousin, Chloe Sullivan. After teaming up with Clark Kent to find her cousin, she returned for several guest star appearances in Season 4 before signing to return as a regular in Season 5. This version of Lois is not yet interested in journalism as a career. Currently, she serves as Senator Martha Kent's Chief of Staff.
- Actress Kate Bosworth played Lois Lane in the 2006 Bryan Singer-directed film Superman Returns. In this version, she had a son of debatable patronage called Jason White.
External links
- [I Love Lois (Lane)]
- [Lois Lane Index - her many incarnations]
- [Supermanica: Lois Lane] Supermanica entry on the Pre-Crisis Lois Lane
- [Lois Lane - information from the 90s animated series]
- [Silver Age Lois Lane Annuals - cover gallery]
- [SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND LOIS LANE]
- [Lois Lane Through The Ages]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.