Behind every man is a GREAT woman...even a Superman

"She's...I don't know...not as beautiful as a movie star, but she has...a quality.  Something I've never seen in any other woman.  Almost a fire in those big, dark eyes."

Quote by Clark Kent: Man of Steel Comics issue#2

She's beautiful...

she's smart...

she's sassy...

she's Lois Lane

Introduction

by Ficassidy

I’ll never forget the first time I was ever introduced to the Lois Lane and the world of DC comics.  It all happened at a country club that my dad was a member of so he can play a game of “squash” with his friends. Being a kid who easily got bored watching his squash matches all the time, my younger sister and I decided to skip one of his games and visit to the club’s library instead.  Being an 8 year old then, I wasn’t very interesting in books without pictures so I decided to grab two thick hardbound dusty books with comic drawings all over the cover (I was an Archie comics fan then so I knew that if it had comic drawings then it’s something definitely worth checking out.)

Both books were a compilation of Pre-crisis Batman and Superman comics that covered every issue from the 1930s to the 1970s.  I read the Batman comics first and I became an instant fan. I wanted to re-read the whole thing again and then decided to skip the Superman comics---My sister had other plans though. She wanted her turn to read the Batman comics or “she’ll tell mom that I don’t like to share”.  So I reluctantly handed over the thick book and started reading the first story in the Superman compilation book.  It was the first Action comics 1938 issue that I read and I was instantly captivated by the Lois Lane character.  She was feisty and a very brave woman, even if she always managed to get herself in trouble.  I liked the fact that she loves getting involved in the adventures and isn’t afraid to stand up to her boss and to the thugs in the comics –which unfortunately makes her the person to be saved all the time.  I read one issue to another and by the time I finished the whole compilation, I was a full-fledged Lois fan.  She was unlike any character I grew up being exposed too.  When I was a kid it was all about being a princess, liking Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, but then here comes Lois Lane who changed my perception of a cool heroine forever!

Lois Lane in spite of being a fictional character inspired me to be a go-getter, to be more independent and self-sufficient.  My interest in the media and journalism also stemmed from her.  Lois Joanne Lane, being a pop culture icon, had inspired many people out there throughout the years and will continue to do so forever.

Lois Lane comics history summary by Ficassidy: Coming soon!

Click on the Following:

In the Beginning - How the character of Lois Lane all began!

Golden Age Comics - Lois in the Golden Age

Silver Age Comics - Lois in the Silver Age

Modern Age - Lois in the revamped post-crisis Modern age

Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane - The story behind Lois Lane's montly issue from the Silver Age

Lois Lane's Evolution in Comics - An image filled history of Lois Lane in the comics by Zoomway

LOIS AMSTER

With his background working on the high school newspaper, it seemed natural for Siegel to make Clark Kent a reporter, and to give his character a relationship with a female collegue similar to one he had experienced himself. Siegal had had his share of adolescent crushes, including one of a student named Lois Amster. He confessed to this infatuation in a later life, while insisting that the “less said about it, the better,” and there is little doubt that the pretty and popular Lois gave her name and something of her personality to her comics counterpart. Since Siegel evidently never seriously approached Lois Amster, nobody knows if she would have treated him with the same disdain that Lois maintained for the humble Clark Kent, but when Amster was interviewed about their relationship (or lack of one) half a century later, she recalled only that Siegel “used to stare at me. He was a strange guy, and I never had any friendship or conversation with him.” [Superman:The Complete History by Les Daniels pgs. 19-20]

JOANNE CARTER

Lois Lane was redeemed by many positive qualities, including courage, independence, and ambition. Some of these traits can perhaps be attributed to another young woman whom Siegel and Shuster met while they struggled to set Superman flying. Joanne Carter started out as an artist’s model for Joe Shuster; years later she would become Jerry Siegel’s wife. Theoretically, she was hired simply to pose for drawings, yet there seems little doubt that her spunk, enthusiasm, and determination had a real effect on the personality of Lois Lane. “There were, three gutsy kids, all with a rapport, somehow drawn together by fate,” she recalled in 1996 shortly after her husband’s death. “And we hit it off as friends right away.”

“I wanted to make the strip more realistic and true to life,” Joe Shuster said, which was “the main reason” for hiring a model. To the best of his and Joanne’s recollection, their work together, which may have taken place as late as 1937, involved preparing new versions of the strips originally drawn in 1934. In all that time, the third version of Superman had failed to find a publisher. The perfectionist Shuster worried that his drawing might have been to blame, so he answered a classified ad in the Cleveland Plain Dealer placed by a model looking for work. Joanne Carter, a self-described “skinny little kid” has audaciously taken the ad because she couldn’t think of any other way to earn money, and when she arrived at the Shuster family’s apartment a comedy of errors ensued. Although he may have been polite to say so, the artist was apparently expecting someone a bit more voluptuous, while the young model couldn’t believe that the awkward adolescent who answered the door could be the “Mr. Shuster” who had hired her. A brief conversation revealed that she had no experience beyond posing in front of her bedroom mirror, but that may have struck a cord with Shuster, who often looked at his own reflection while trying to capture facial experessions. With his mother chaperoning, the pair set to work in a poorly heated room. “I was turning blue in my sister’s bathing suit that was too big,” Joanne recalled. “He said,’Never mind, I’ll put a bit more here and a bit more there.’ But he used my face and my hairdo and my poses.

“I was very much excited about the strip, “said Joanne. Also excited was Jerry Siegel waiting in the Shuster living room for a look at the model whose hour-long session was costing $1.50. “He was flipping through a magazine very fast, very impatient, when we came out,” Joanne remembered. “I said I loved Superman because Joe had told me all about it. Jerry was so wound up, so full of energy. He said, ‘Superman is going to fly like this,’ and he took a flying leap from the chair and crashed into the couch. Then he went over to Joe and grabbed him around his shirt and said, ‘This is the way Superman is going to lift the bad guy, then just toss him and he’ll go straight through that wall.’ And I said, ‘Wow!’” [Superman: The Complete History by Les Daniels, pgs 20-22]

Years later after the success of the Superman comics…

The schoolgirl who had modeled for Lois Lane had kept in touch with Joe Shuster through the mail, and he escorted her to a costume ball given by the National Cartoonists Society when she visited New York. “It was at the New York Plaza, and all the great comic artists were there,” she recalled. “Jerry and I were reunited at that time. He stayed in New York, and a few months later we were married.” There’s no record of how Joe Shuster responded to this sequence of events, but there was another problem to consider: at that time, Jerry Siegel was married to another woman.

Siegel’s first wife, Bella, sued for divorce on July 14, 1948, and a decree was granted on October 7. The speed of the divorce annoyed Judge Samuel Silbert, who had rules that the divorces in his court should be held up for six months to prevent the tendency to “jump in and out of marriage.” Nonetheless, the October 15 issue of the Cleveland Plain Dealer proclaimed that on the previous day Siegel had married “Miss Jolan Kovacs, a model known professionally as Joanne Carter.” Later, the newspaper reported that Siegel had asked the license bureau to keep the wedding a secret, so that it could be exclusively announced by Walter Winchell, the powerful New York columnist. [Superman: The Complete History by Les Daniels pgs 72-73]

Director Bryan Singer with Joanne Carter-Siegel and Family

Image from the Bluetights.net video blogs, screencap from SupermanHomepage.com

Pre-crisis

Golden-age

Introduction by John Byrne from DC comics Lois and Clark TPB comic compilation

When she’d been introduced back in 1938 she’d been glamorous, tough, resourceful, fully in charge of her own life and career.  (I’ve often wondered if some part of her did not come from His Girl Friday, from Rosalind Russel’s portrayal of Hildy Johnson, a perfect template for Lois.)  She was a little reckless, sometimes, but she’d survived before Superman arrived on the scene, and it would be reasonably safe to assume she would have continued to survive without him.  Unfortunately, she would not stay that way.

Photo cover scan courtesy of Netmaster

fromKryptonsite.com

Pre-Crisis

Silver-age

Introduction by John Byrne from DC comics Lois and Clark TPB comic compilation

By the fifties, when I first met Lois, she had changed considerably.  The role of women in society had changed, and Lois mirrored this.  When the boys came marching home from the war they expected the Girls to march back into the kitchen, and with very few exceptions they did.  Those exceptions, “Career Women” as they came to be called, were seen as aberrations, and when they found their way into fiction they usually fitted a single mold: bitter, frustrated, left eternally empty and unsatisfied by their decision to abandon the “correct” role of wife and mother.  Lois became prime example of this: no matter that she was the best reporter –or “girl reporter”, since one had to qualify these things – on the Daily Planet, she would never be satisfied, never being whole until she had (a) tricked Clark into revealing he was Superman and (b) won from this marriage to the Man of Steel.

 I cannot say what readers thought of Lois when she was first introduced in the first issue of Action comics, but I know how we felt about the woman she’d become by the fifties –we hated her.  The extraordinary misogynist picture painted of her (and to a slightly lesser extent, the young Lana) embodied everything boys hated about girls.  (Remember when boys hated girls?  When they didn’t figure out the relationship was suppose to be something else until they hit puberty?  Simpler times, simpler times.)  Lois was nosey, clinging, inefficient –a royal pain in the butt.  And a long fall from 1938.

Photo courtesy of http://www.supermanhomepage.com

Post-Crisis

The Modern-age aka. The Superman Comics Revamp of 1986:

Lois History by John Byrne in Superman: The Man of Steel TPB volume 2. Comic compilation.

Lois Lane is the daughter of Samuel Lane, who led a career in the U.S. Army.  As a result, Lois grew up on army bases around the world.  (Sam Lane now lives in retirement with his wife, Ella; Webmaster’s note: Sam Lane died defending the earth in the DC comics “Our Worlds at War” arc.)  Lois has only one known sibling, her younger sister Lucy, who is now an airline flight attendant.

Lois became a reporter for the Daily Planet, Metropolis’ leading newspaper.  She first reported on crime for the Planet and swiftly became the newspaper’s star reporter.  Lois Lane is now a feature reporter for the Planet with her own regular column.  In addition, Lois is a successful mystery novelist writing in the Agatha Christie tradition.  She won an Edgar award for her mystery novel Shadows on the Grass.  She is well known to the public in Metropolis, in part due to her television appearances.

Lois Lane has long been romantically pursued by billionaire Lex Luthor.  However, Lane has continually resisted Luthor’s advances, since she is unwilling to be added to his long list of sexual conquests.

Years ago, Lane was aboard the experimental space-plane Constitution when it was to land at Metropolis International Airport as part of the celebration for the city’s 250^th anniversary.  However, a small civilian plane collided with the space-plane, causing them both to plunge uncontrollably from the sky.  Both aircraft were rescued by Superman (wearing ordinary clothing) in his first public use of his superhuman powers.  Disembarking from the space-plane, Lane confronted Superman, and he and she were immediately attracted to one another.  Superman soon flew off, and he adopted both his costume and his new bespectacled appearance for his true identity of Clark Kent shortly thereafter.  He called his costumed identity “Superman,” after the name Lane had given him in her newspaper story about him.

Lane was determined to get the “story of the century,” the very first interview with Superman.  After continually missing opportunities to contact him, she finally drove her car off a pier.  As she had hoped, Superman rescued her (knowing she had an aqualung with her) and gave her an interview.  But Lane then discovered that Clark Kent had already submitted an interview with Superman to the Planet, thereby winning a job there.

Lane has never forgiven Kent for scooping her on this story, and they have remained professional rivals.  But they nonetheless spend much time together.  She grudgingly finds herself attracted to Kent, unaware that he is Superman.  Lane had been involved with many of Superman’s adventures over the years.  As for Superman, he is determined to win her love as Clark Kent, no matter what.

Ever resourceful, Lois still manages to sneak out a piece of paper by hiding it in her mouth. The next day, she returns to the Daily Planet. Perry, impressed with her daring, agrees to hire her.

Article source:

http://members.aol.com/MG4273/lois.htm#LoisLane

Lois Lane

Lois Lane had her own magazine from 1958 on. The stories in it were uneven, but the tales in which Lois worked as a detective were especially good. Over the years, many of the best of these were written by Robert Bernstein. He also wrote some major detective tales for Jimmy Olsen, that have considerable similarity of style. The great Otto Binder also contributed some tales to the magazine, especially dealing with science fiction. Leo Dorfman also wrote some major scripts.

Lois Lane (the magazine) first appeared as a 1957 two issue run of the tryout magazine Showcase. The Showcase issues had as filler little comic panels dealing with the history of newspaper reporting, such as "Odd Newspaper Items!" and "Newspaper Talk". These were similar to educational, one-page features that appeared in the newspaper comic book Big Town, and might have been reprinted from that magazine. Since Lois was a reporter herself, there was definitely an affinity between the two books. Lois Lane's reporter job frequently had her functioning essentially as a detective, just like the newspaperman hero of Big Town.

The Sightless Lois Lane (1957). Writer: Jerry Coleman. An accident causes Lois to go blind. This is a touching tale, emphasizing Lois' courage and decency. The accident occurs in a nuclear lab; a similar Lois accident will open Coleman's "The Ghost of Lois Lane" (Superman #129, May 1959). People in Coleman's stories bear their afflictions gracefully. Coleman characters are often forced to confront new environmental circumstances.

The Acting Stories

Lois Lane in Hollywood (1958). Writer: Otto Binder. Lois Lane wants to play herself, in a film Hollywood is making about Superman. This story is a good natured spoof of Hollywood, in the tradition of Kaufman and Hart's Once in a Lifetime, Fitzgerald's Pat Hobby stories, and many other works. It shows plenty of charm, as well as elements of mystery. The tale has the "series of related events" construction often used by Binder.

Lois Lane, Working Girl (1958). Lois Lane continues her acting aspirations in this second 1958 story. Mainly this story is about Lois' going to work in a pretzel factory to research an acting role. It rings every possible change on the theme of pretzels. The Superman family often did this, pick a subject, and then see what ingenious story ideas they could develop from it. Pretzels perhaps seem prosaic, but they emerge as unexpectedly interesting in this tale. Chesterton said that mystery stories reveal the hidden poetry of everyday life. This is a good example of his dictum, where an everyday object like a pretzel is looked at for the plot ideas it might suggest. (I've been resisting saying that this story about pretzels is full of twists!) Lois Lane's super-baby son had twisted a floor lamp into a pretzel shape on the Al Plastino cover of Showcase #9, and both Jimmy Olsen and Lois will twist themselves into pretzel-like knots in tales in which they get elastic powers. So pretzel imagery was common in the Superman stories.

Lois Lane's Soldier Sweetheart (1960). Writer: Robert Bernstein. Lois Lane dates a soldier. This was the last story in which LL aspired to an acting career. In some ways, it turns the plot of "Lois Lane in Hollywood" inside out. The Superman family comics frequently used the word "Sweetheart". It was a wholesome term that implied affection.

Early Ingenious Tales

During its earliest issues, Lois Lane published several tales noted for their plot ingenuity. They are not by the same writers or on the same subjects, but they do tend to suggest a group based on their clever plot ideas.

The New Lois Lane (1957). Writer: Otto Binder. Lois decides to stop trying to find out Superman's secret identity. There are plot ideas concerning Superman's secret id here that recall "The 1,000 Lives of Superman" (Superman #99, August 1955). This tale is milder than some of the extremely clever stories that will later appear involving Lois search for Superman's id. But it is still pleasant. The story also brings in some welcome humor, gently spoofing Lois' long standing search for Superman's id. The story has Binder's typical challenge plot, in which one character (Superman here) keeps trying to achieve some goal, which is ingeniously frustrated repeatedly by circumstances (here inadvertently aided by Lois Lane). The challenges are not static: each one also considerably advances the story. They have a contrapuntal effect here: Superman does one story element, then circumstances do another story element moving in the opposite plot direction. The tale has the same formal feel as a piece of music.

It has a nice finale, which puts some personal meanings for Superman into this search. Like many Binder tales, this one ends with the protagonist thinking, a mood of calm reflection in which he learns some positive new truth from his experiences. As in other tales as well, Binder's Superman gains new sympathy to Lois. See "The Old Man of Metropolis" (Action #270, November 1960) for another Binder example.

This is Binder's first script for Lois Lane. Right from the start, he depicted Lois as a dynamic larger than life person with a vivid personality. He also regards her as essentially kind and decent.

This story depicts a Superman trophy room at the Daily Planet; this is similar to Jimmy Olsen's collection of Superman souvenirs in his apartment that Binder created in "The Man of Steel's Substitute" (Jimmy Olsen #1, September-October 1954). The tale also features a coin-operated machine on the street that gives you your weight and fortune. Similar machines popped up frequently in Superman family stories. Today they seem like relics of the distant past. One wonders if such a machine existed in real life near the DC headquarters in New York City.

The Man Who Was Clark Kent's Double (1958). Writer: Jerry Coleman.

Superman's Greatest Sacrifice (1958). Writer: Robert Bernstein. Lois meets a woman who is her double. This story is loaded with plot twists. It bears some resemblance to Otto Binder's "Jimmy Olsen, Superman's Ex-Pal" (Jimmy Olsen #2, November-December 1954). Bernstein loved stories about doubles and impersonations, frequently using them for complex and ingenious plots.

The Amazing Superman Junior (1959). Writer: Jerry Coleman. Superman and his friends plot to convince Lois that she has traveled into the future on a rocket ship, and that she is meeting all of them as old men. Their plans go awry in unexpected ways, and there is a mystery story concerning what is causing this, and how. Jerry Coleman often included mysteries in his plots, and this one is solved in a way that recalls other Coleman mysteries of the late 1950's. This hoax / counter-hoax construction is typical of Coleman. After one person stages a hoax, another stages a counter hoax to pay them back. Both characters tend to be astonishingly resilient; neither bears the slightest grudge at anybody for having fooled them. Instead they treat it as a good joke, something that entertained them and that they enjoyed

Lois Lane's Kiss of Death (1959). Writer: Robert Bernstein. Lois literally becomes a femme fatale: every man she kisses dies. The tale shows Bernstein's raucous humor and gusto, as well as considerable plot ingenuity. The tale evokes archetypal images. This story is in the tradition of "The Witch of Metropolis" (#1, March-April 1958), written by Otto Binder. In both tales Lois is frightened when she seems to develop supernatural powers. I prefer "Kiss of Death", partly because the imagery seems much more gripping. Also, this second tale is more plausible.

The Adult Lana Lang

The Girl in Superman's Past (Showcase #9, July-August 1957). Writer: Jerry Coleman. This is apparently the first story anywhere in the Superman family to introduce the grown-up Lana Lang. As a teenager, Lana had been Superboy's girl friend in Smallville. The teenage Lana had long been a character in Superboy. The grown-up Lana is a rival for Superman's affections, and Lois' persistent nemesis throughout her magazine's history.

Jerry Coleman wrote several tales in which Superboy is paired with another youthful hero, most importantly "The Origin of the Superman-Batman Team" (Adventure #275, August 1960). Here he is creating another team, Lois-Lana, which is far more antagonistic. Lana is consistently more selfish and more mean-spirited than Lois.

The rivalry in this tale for Superman's affections, and the attempts by the women to set "traps" that will reveal which one of them Superman prefers, will become permanent traditions in the Superman family. This tale seems to be the origin of these plot ideas. Coleman's characters often dig relentlessly, trying to uncover the truth. Lois' and Lana's attempt to learn the truth about Superman's affections is in this tradition.

The story treats Lois and Lana in absolutely symmetric fashion. Everything that happens to one, happens to the other, in exact parallelism. This is an interesting formal pattern. It also has a satiric, comic quality: the two are exactly balanced in Superman's affections.

Lana gets a job in Metropolis here. There is perhaps an element of satire in her choice of profession: she is a TV broadcaster, and there will be suggestions in later tales that this is more superficial than Lois' job as print reporter. In this story she does commercials; in later tales, she will be a TV news reporter.

The Girl Who Stole Superman (#7, February 1959). Writer: Jerry Coleman. The grown-up Lana Lang makes a permanent re-entry into the lives of Lois and Superman. The Superman family introduced several other major female characters in 1959, notably Supergirl, Lois' sister Lucy Lane and mermaid Lori Lemaris, so there was a major push during this era to increase the female content of the stories.

The story is also notable for artist Kurt Schaffenberger's depiction of Superboy in Revolutionary War costume, during a flashback sequence.

Lois Lane as Reporter

The Mystery of Skull Island (1960). Writer: Robert Bernstein. Lois and Clark go undercover as servants in a spooky mansion to investigate a murder mystery. Bernstein was also the author of many of the Jimmy Olsen tales in which he goes undercover as a reporter detective. These stories were appearing in Jimmy Olsen during the same period as "The Mystery of Skull Island". Like them, this tale has few science fictional elements, being a "realistic" thriller.

How Lois Lane Got Her Job (1960). Writer: Otto Binder. This story shows how LL got her job on the Daily Planet by getting three scoops. In each, she was unintentionally aided by Superman, who was doing something in the distant background. But mainly it shows Lois as a gutsy, intelligent reporter. In the first story, Lois serves as a sleuth as well, solving a mysterious series of thefts to get a scoop. This is one of the first reporter-sleuth tales in Lois Lane, a role in which she will increasingly function over the years. The Lois Lane of this and subsequent tales is a feminist creation, one who does her job well, and on equal terms with men. It is a much better portrayal than much of what has gone before.

During issues 8-16, Lois Lane published a series of tales which were of poor quality, and which did not treat their heroine very well. Perhaps typical was "Lois Lane's Signal-Watch", in which LL gets a Signal-Watch from Superman and uses it for idiotic purposes, such as fixing a broken heel. (This story is not to be confused with a completely different, and much better story with the same title, which appeared in issue 38 of January 1963.) This truly terrible piece show Lois as a stereotypical irrational woman, a common sexist caricature of the period. Clearly the editor realized a change had to be made. Starting in mid 1960, and tales like "How Lois Lane Got Her Job", he published a set of stories in which LL was shown to be an outstanding reporter, skillful and courageous at her job. This was something of a new image for LL. It persisted, and became the standard characterization of Lois over the next five years.

The Star Reporter of Metropolis (1960). This story, like the previous one, shows Lois Lane's daily life as a reporter. It is not a great story, but it does serve to build up the portrait of Lois as a character, showing what she does on her job, and how she does it. It also shows Lois as kind hearted and generous, an important element of her characterization.

A brief passage in the story has comic elements, describing the casting of a film about the Daily Planet staff with big stars of the day: Perry White would be played by Clark Gable, Clark Kent by Rock Hudson, and Jimmy Olsen by Dwayne Hickman, of Dobie Gillis fame. This would have been terrific casting, and one is sorry that no such movie was ever made in real life. All of the characters are plainly thrilled to be played by such big stars, and are having a comic ego trip. Lois is to be played by "Dolly Day", a fictional blonde bombshell of the time, who seems a little like Marilyn Monroe. The Superman series often spoofed Hollywood, but it also treated it as a universal American aspiration. (Bill Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead also wants to have a film based on his life, with Tom Cruise in the lead role!)

The Sleeping Doom (1960). Writer: Robert Bernstein. Lois needs to stay awake, in order to prevent an alien invasion of Earth. This story is most unusual. It shows Lois single handedly battling a science fictional menace, one with elements of such sf films as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Lois shows real courage and presence of mind in this story. The tale has many surrealist elements. It centers on Lois' attempt to stay awake, itself a genuinely surreal subject for meditation. The story is unusual in that much of it takes place within Lois' mind - she needs to stay awake to save humanity - and it has that quality of "interiority" that is so important in the symbolic Romance. We also follow Lois as she does her daily routine as a reporter, so the tale is interwoven with her career activities. The tale benefits from touches of humor, a humor that also reinforces the surrealistic character of the piece. Humor flows through the whole Lois Lane series. Lois Lane has the status of Everyman, someone that every human can identify with, a non super-powered person who works hard at her job. Humor aids this characterization, and the general tone of a wry portrayal of daily life.

Bernstein wrote several stories in which humans were threatened by aliens. He created "The Superboy Revenge Squad" (Superboy #94, January 1962), a group of powerful alien beings determined to destroy Superboy. Bernstein's aliens tend not to be the marauding monsters of 1950's sf movies. Instead, they are sophisticated, humanoid beings of advanced scientific capabilities. They have the ability to monitor Earth and Earth creatures with high tech surveillance devices. They can see everything, or nearly everything that goes on on Earth, and often they also can read the minds of Earth creatures. Because of this, much of the struggle of humans against the aliens actually takes place in the minds of humans. How can human beings organize their thoughts so that they can evade the mind control and mental surveillance capabilities of the aliens? This is the challenge that our protagonists face. Humans are often driven to schemes of extreme deviousness and ingenuity in this quest. It makes for imaginatively plotted tales.

Bernstein's alien stories have formal similarities to his undercover reporter stories. When Jimmy Olsen or Lois Lane go undercover, they tend to enter the turf of a bad guy. He controls everything in this domain, and they are in constant danger after they enter this region. In the alien stories, all of Earth becomes the domain controlled by the aliens. So do the minds of humanity. The whole of Earth becomes the "domain" of the aliens, and his protagonists are in constant danger in it, just as they were in a gang hideout run by a human crook in undercover tales. Another similarity: in the alien tales, the protagonists often have to do things to disguise their minds or thinking, in order to evade the aliens. This sometimes involves taking on new personalities and behaviors. This has similarities to the undercover tales, where Jimmy or Lois will disguise themselves, adopting a new persona to infiltrate some gang of crooks. A difference here is that while Earth gangsters can only see the outward appearance and behavior of the disguised Lois or Jimmy, the aliens can often look right into the protagonist's mind, or they can monitor all conversations in which the hero takes part, or both.

Lois Lane's Darkest Secret (1961). Writer: Robert Bernstein.

The Madwoman of Metropolis (1961). Writer: Robert Bernstein. Lois disguises herself to follow up a mystery lead. Jimmy Olsen often disguised himself while solving mysteries as a reporter detective. Here Lois does the same thing. The disguise certainly is a doozy. Robert Bernstein also wrote such Jimmy Olsen in disguise detective stories as "Jimmy Olsen, Juvenile Delinquent" (1959) and "Miss Jimmy Olsen" (1960); this tale is related to these.

Super-Powered Women

The Forbidden Box from Krypton (Showcase #10, 1957). Writer: Otto Binder. Lois opens a box of Kryptonian objects, which give her super-powers. This tale is mainly notable for some spoofs of the Superman saga. Binder enjoyed poking fun at the oft-repeated cliches of the Superman story. Here Superman's constant need to rescue Lois gets sent up. So is Superman's flying in and out of the windows of the Daily Planet. Other aspects of this tale are far less good. Superman usually was skeptical whenever Jimmy or Lois got super-powers, and worked to eliminate them. This seems terribly petty.

Lana Lang, Superwoman (1960). Writer: Jerry Siegel. In 1960-1961, Lois Lane published a series of tales in which the heroine, and other women, got super powers. The first of these showed how Superman gave Lana Lang superpowers. Lana Lang uses her powers well, with intelligence and morality. The story describes this as a "dream come true" for Lana Lang. Lois behaves with extreme decency, too. This tale is clearly part of the mid 1960 upgrade to Lois' character. The tale is also an sf mystery. Lois and Lana are puzzled as to why Superman gives Lana super-powers. The solution, as is typical of Siegel's mysteries, draws on the Superman family mythos. Siegel was one of the biggest boosters of the mythos, and employed it whenever he could in his stories, especially his mystery tales.

The Battle Between Super-Lois and Super-Lana (1960). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Both Lois and Lana become super after bathing in a legendary Indian cave. This is a sequel to Siegel's "Lana Lang, Superwoman" (1960). Like many Siegel sequels, it is more comic than the original. There is no mystery plot. The story is the one of those tales in which Lois and Lana duke it out for Superman's affections; even better is the later "The Lois Lane - Lana Lang Truce". The story shows several Siegel themes. Lois Lane decks herself out in green Egyptian make-up a la Cleopatra to impress Superman; this is one of many instances of color imagery in Siegel's work. Lois and Lana indulge in super-cooking, some of which takes place in the air; there are similar scenes of super-chefs in Siegel's "The Ghost of Jor-El" (Superboy #78, January 1960). The story also shows Siegel's predilection for rocks and caves. The artwork for the cave is beautiful, and everything related to the caverns comes across with great atmosphere.

The Ten Feats of Elastic Lass (1961). Writer: Otto Binder. Lois uses Jimmy's Elastic Lad serum to become Elastic Lass, a woman who can stretch her body into any shape. This super power story is well done. It was written by Otto Binder, who had created the Elastic Lad series of tales in Jimmy Olsen. There are hints in this tale, that to become a reporter-detective, that Lois has to assume or usurp the powers of men in society. She has to wangle the formula for becoming Elastic from Jimmy Olsen, and faces opposition from him. Her final feat, the one that solves the crime, is also one with phallic connotations. Lois is proud of her work, but tries to conceal her appearance from Superman, feeling it will hurt her romantic chances. The whole story has a feminist undertone.

The Curse of Lena Thorul (1961). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Lois investigates a woman who seems to have supernatural powers. This is one of the few Siegel tales with a female mystery-guest. Siegel wrote around a dozen mystery tales for the Superman family, in which a strange, super-powered being shows up and menaces the continuing characters in the Superman saga. Lena Thorul is the only mystery super-being I can recall who is female. Lena will go on to be a continuing character in the Supergirl stories in Action. This too is unusual for Siegel's mystery characters: usually they are one-shots. One notes Lena was reintroduced in Action by Leo Dorfman, not Siegel himself.

Tales in which Superman Guards his Secret Identity

The Rainbow Superman (1958). Writer: Otto Binder. Superman develops a rainbow aura, which he fears will give away his secret identity. This is one of Binder's stories in which the characters undergo a transformation. As usual in Binder, such a transformation winds up threatening Superman's secret identity. My memory seems to tell me that Superman spent a great deal of time trying to protect his secret identity from Lois Lane. However, an actual check of the Lois Lane magazine reveals very few stories with this theme! This charming tale is about this subject. Lois does not get superpowers in this tale. But so many of the stories involving superpowers also concern Superman trying to conceal his secret identity that there seems to be a link between the two themes.

Lois Lane's X-Ray Vision (1961). Writer: Robert Bernstein. When Lois gets X-Ray vision, she uses it to help her work as a reporter, and to determine Superman's secret identity. One of the best Lois stories. In it Lois uses her new powers to solve mysteries, and is a tale in which Lois is seen as a reporter-detective. It is also a tale in which Superman has to protect his secret identity from Lois' suspicions. Everything works just perfectly in this ingeniously plotted story.

Lois Lane's Wedding Day (1962). Writer: Leo Dorfman. Another ingenious work in which Superman must guard his secret identity.

The Invisible Lois Lane (1963). This tale is modeled on "Lois Lane's X-Ray Vision". In it, LL once again gets superpowers, and once again discovers Superman's secret identity with them. The challenge for Superman is to cover up this discovery. This piece is also well plotted. It is a bit too bad though, that in these stories, it is not Lois, but Superman, who serves as the "thinking" character in the story. "Elastic Lass" is more satisfying than these tales, in that Lois serves as a genuine detective in it.

Time Travel

The Superman of the Past (1960). Writer: Otto Binder. Lois Lane time travels back to the era of Samson. This is the first of the Lois Lane time travel stories. It served as the paradigm for the others, all of which follow its plot pattern very closely. In this story and its successors, Lois Lane travels back in time to a different era. She encounters a Superman like figure in each time period, and goes to work right away on solving the mystery of his secret identity. These stories parallel such Superboy works as "The Mystery of Mighty Boy" (1960), in which Superboy encounters superbeings on other planets whose life parallels his own. They also remind one of the Jimmy Olsen time travel tales, in which he meets Supermen like men in the past, and recreates his friendship with Superman with them. The Lois Lane time travel stories appeared at irregular intervals, and do not fall into any one chronological period.

Otto Binder was the author of many of the first Superman family time travel stories. Binder had Jimmy Olsen travel into the past in "The Feats of Chief Super-Duper" (Jimmy Olsen #14, August 1956). Superman took Superboy's place in early Smallville, meeting his parents again in "Superboy's Switch in Time" (Superboy #53, December 1956), a story whose authorship is not known. Two issues later, Jimmy Olsen went back to early Smallville and met Superboy in "A Visit From Superman's Pal" (Superboy #55, March 1957), and "The Kid From Krypton" time traveled to the same era, meeting Superboy too (Adventure #242, November 1957). Both of these fairly minor tales were written by Binder. Then come the major Binder time travel classics. He sent Jimmy Olsen to the future in "The Boy Who Killed Superman" (April 1958), and Superboy to the future in "The Legion of Super-Heroes" (Adventure #247, April 1958). He sent Superboy to the past to meet Hercules and Samson in "The First Two Supermen" (Adventure #257, February 1959). This story is directly ancestral to "The Superman of the Past": not only does it star Samson, but it has the same kind of plot: Samson and Hercules have secret identities, and their lives parallel Superman's. Then Binder sent Jimmy Olsen to the past on Krypton in "How Jimmy Olsen First Met Superman" (April 1959). All of these Binder time travel stories are some of the most important early works in the Superman family saga.

Then Binder sent Krypto to the past in the short but delightful "How Krypto Made History" (Superboy #75, September 1959), and Supergirl to the prehistoric past in the fun "The Cave-Girl of Steel" (Action #259, December 1959). An unknown author sent Jimmy Olsen to the Old West in "The Gunsmoke Kid" (June 1960). Then Binder sent Lois back to Biblical times in "The Superman of the Past" (August 1960). Jerry Siegel sent Superboy time traveling in "Superboy Meets William Tell" (October 1960) and "The Impossible Mission" (December 1960), and wrote "Superman's Return to Krypton" (November 1960). From this point on, time traveling was fair game for any Superman family author.

Sweetheart of Robin Hood (1961). Lois goes back to Sherwood Forest.

Lois Lane, Slave-Girl (1962). Writer: Robert Bernstein. Lois travels back to Ancient Rome. Bernstein also wrote a "time travel to ancient Rome" story for The Fly, "The Fly Versus Taxus the Tyrant" (September 1960).

The Immortal Lois Lane (1962). Lois time travels back to Renaissance Florence.

Science Fiction

Mrs. Superman (1957). Writer: Otto Binder. Lois Lane dreams about what it would be like to be married to Superman. This ancestor of the Imaginary tale is discussed in the article on Superman.

Lois Lane Weds Astounding Man (1960). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Art: Al Plastino. Lois is romanced by Astounding Man, a hero from another planet. This is a strange story, one that anticipates today's cyber life, among other things. It has some very good art toward the beginning, when Astounding Man first appears out of a circular rainbow like vortex. This has a visionary, mystic quality to it. The story also uses scent to convey mystic experiences. The tale is one of Siegel's stories in which the characters meet a strange super-being with awesome powers.

There are previous tales in the Superman family in which Lois was romanced by heroes other than Superman: Jerry Coleman's "The Bride of Futureman" (Superman #121, June 1958) and Robert Bernstein's "The Man Who Married Lois Lane" (Superman #136, April 1960). In all three stories this glamorous super-hero is from another time or planet, and wants to marry Lois and carry her off to his own home, away from everyone she knows in 20th Century Earth. All three heroes are garbed in futuristic costumes, and all three are men who can romantically rival Superman on his own turf, as noble super-heroes. Siegel's tale is closer to Bernstein's, in that his hero is eventually shown to have feet of clay.

Mr. and Mrs. Clark (Superman) Kent (#19, August 1960). Lois Lane's Super-Daughter (#20, October 1960). The Wife of Superman (#23, February 1961). Lois Lane and Superman Newlyweds (#25, May 1961). Writer: Jerry Siegel. A series of Imaginary tales in which LL is married to Superman. Siegel also did the Imaginary stories in Jimmy Olsen, which similarly trace Jimmy's future marriages and their possible outcomes. These LL tales are much too sudsy for my taste, with Lois enduring endless contrived soap opera style suffering. Still, they do explore the possibilities of what marriage between Lois and Superman might be like, with a fair amount of imagination. I've discovered that, in retrospect, that these stories play a role in my understanding of Lois' character. They seem like a blueprint of plot possibilities for Lois and Superman. These tales were strongly influenced by Binder's "Mrs. Superman" (1957).

The Bride of Luthor; The Son of Luthor (#34, July 1962). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Another Imaginary Tale series, in which LL marries arch-criminal Lex Luthor. Siegel had a continuing interest in tales in which Luthor reforms, or shows his good side. LL's affection and support of the reformed Luthor is touching in the first story. Otherwise, this is pretty mediocre.

The Super-Surprise (1961); The Silver Coin of Fate (1962). These are some of several Lois Lane stories in which superbeings or their behavior are not quite right, and the reader is asked to explain what is going on. The stories are given logical explanations, within the elaborate frameworks of the Superman family mythos. They are a kind of science fictional mystery, one in which the reader is asked, not to solve a crime, but to explain a puzzling science fictional situation. An earlier story in the same mode is "The Super-Family of Steel" (1960), written by Otto Binder.

The Super-Suitor of Soomar (1963). Lois goes to another planet, where she meets a woman who looks just like her, and a superhero called "Super-Male" who recalls Superman. This comic story is in the Supermen family tradition, of meeting people from other planets or eras whose live parallel those of Superman, Lois Lane, and other Superman family regulars. Artist Kurt Schaffenberger does a good job with both Super-Male's costume, and with his "Clark Kent" secret identity clothes. Super-Male's appearance suggests almost a parody of male gender ideas, a exaggeration of masculine imagery for comic effect.

The Girl Who Mourned for Superman (1963). Writer: Leo Dorfman. This little tale is fairly minor, but it has an original science fiction idea. It is part of the UN sequence. Schaffenberger's ambassador is also well drawn. The story shows the Superman family's fondness for maps and globes. A favorite scene in the Legion of Super-Heroes series: the globe room in the Legion clubhouse, where there are globe maps of all the inhabited worlds. The Lois Lane stories also included frequent positive references to the UN. Superman was seen as being friendly to all nations.

Non-sf Mysteries with Lois Lane as Reporter-Detective

The Widow in Black (1962). Writer: Leo Dorfman. This is the pilot work in which Lois Lane solves a non-sf mystery. It shows her going undercover as a reporter; essentially this involves her taking on a secret identity, one of the basic themes of the entire Lois Lane comic book. It is structured as a formal puzzle plot mystery; the reader is even challenged at the end, to go back over the tale and look for clues embedded in the story.

Dear Dr. Cupid (1963). Writer: Jerry Siegel. When Lois temporarily becomes the Daily Planet's "Advice to the Lovelorn" columnist, she suspects that anonymous letters she is receiving are actually from Clark Kent. This is not a crime tale. But it does present Lois with a mysterious situation, one in which she finds many clues that need to be investigated. Like the other stories of late 1963 - late 1964, it deals with a non-sf mystery, and one in which Lois is mainly seen in her role of a Planet reporter-detective.

Siegel's plot is very complex. It involves recursive elements: Lois starts out thinking that she is corresponding with the general public; then she suspects that she is getting letters from Clark Kent that involve her personal life right at the office. The story seems to double back on itself, with Lois' replies influencing events at the Planet.

The story is consistent with the way the media are generally portrayed in the Superman family. The idea of broadcasting to a large number of people is not the center of the stories' interest. Rather, each TV broadcast, each article in a newspaper, is a one on one communication between its author and one viewer/reader. This communication becomes another link in the plot. Here, what starts out as advice to the general public soon focuses on communication between Lois and the sender of the notes.

The Incredible Delusion (1964). When Perry White's face is bandaged and hidden from view, Lois becomes suspicious. This is one of the best plotted mystery stories in the Superman family. It is full of unexpected twists and turns. The Lois Lane stories tend to be short, compared to the longer Superman tales. Many are trivial and mechanical, but some show real inspiration. This story shows real artistic economy: every panel counts, and it packs a complex plot into only eight pages. The atmosphere of this story vaguely recalls 1940's mystery movies. So do many other Lois Lane stories. Many of the best Lois Lane tales show her working as a reporter-detective, trying to obtain a crime story. In these tales, Lois will track down a gang of crooks, and meet both thrills and genuine mystery puzzles along the way. This is just like the heroes of such B movie series as the Falcon or the Saint. Lois Lane also shows real gutsiness in these tales. It would be good to see Lois Lane added to lists of female detectives, and included in feminist discussions of the history of women sleuths.

Lois Lane's dream in this tale recalls sf imagery found in Bernstein's "The Sleeping Doom" (1960). This is the only sf passage in the tale.

Lois Lane's Pen Pal Romance (1964). This tale has a classic construction. Every time Lois thinks she has solved the mystery and thinks she knows what is going on, some new clue contradicts what has gone before. Such a story is very difficult to write, and shows plotting ingenuity. Here, Lois is investigating pen-pal romance clubs that victimize women with phony suitors, swindling them out of their savings. She goes undercover, and is faced with such a suitor herself, an apparent cowboy rancher. She has to decide a mystery: is he a crooked impostor, or a real rancher? This story follows the central Superman family theme of a mystery about "sustaining character". Many of the "character" mysteries involve someone claiming to have superpowers. This one, by contrast, involves simply the possible impersonation of a rancher. Similarly, "The Incredible Delusion" concerns the possible impersonation of Daily Planet chief Perry White. These tales, while being about non-science fictional subjects, show the full gusto of those Superman family tales concerning superpowered beings. Years of enthusiastic practice in constructing such stories have made the writers virtuosic.

Superman's Hometown Sweetheart (1964). Lois tracks down several of the women who dated Superboy as a teenager, with surprising results. There is no crime in this story. But it does have formal similarities with other stories, with reporter Lois investigating a mysterious situation.

Lois Lane's Great Houdini Trick (1965). Writer: Otto Binder. One of the last stories of the Weisinger era, this little mystery is not as inventive as its predecessors. It involves Lois Lane investigating a phony medium. The Superman family was deeply opposed to superstition, and was always exposing it.

The Challenges

Hellene of Troy; The Courtship of Cinderella Lane; Florence Nightingale's Last Stand (1964). This trilogy of linked stories took up an entire issue of Lois Lane. In each tale, Superman adopts a new secret identity in a historical era, and challenges Lois to discover it. The stories are structured as formal, puzzle plot mysteries, and have some links to the other 1964 tales in which Lois solves mystery puzzles. During the same month, Superboy was posing a related challenge to Lana Lang in "The Boy Who Replaced Clark Kent" (Superboy #112, April 1964). There were also stories of puzzles set to the Legion of Super-Heroes in Jerry Siegel's "The Eight Impossible Missions; The Amazing Winner of the Great Proty Puzzle" (Adventure #323, August 1964). In all of these tales, one good character creates a puzzle to be solved by other good characters; there are rewards for the successful solving of the puzzle.

Tales of Romance

Superman's Secret Sweetheart (1958). At Lois Lane's request, Superman helps out an unpopular girl being taunted by campus snobs, by pretending to be her boyfriend. This story is one of the many hoaxes found in the Superman family. Both heroes and villains regularly stage them. This is an archetypal Superman story. It shows him directly intervening in someone's life to help them out. This is a key part of Superman's characterization. It also shows him sticking up for an underdog. There is something deeply satisfying in this tale, watching Lois and Superman standing up to a bunch of bullies. This tale reminds one of Superman's huge power.

Today, women know that their value comes from what they do themselves, not what sort of man they can attract. A tale like this reminds one of how bad things were for women in the 1950's, when their social standing was entirely bound up in their spouse. One longs for the heroine of this tale to break free, and do something on her own. Such an option was not explored in this story. DC Silver Age comics were full of accomplished women: reporters like Lois, Lana and Iris West, business managers like Carol Ferris, not to mention Supergirl, Saturn Girl and other super heroines. It is unfortunate that these possibilities were not raised here.

The Super-Courtship of Lois Lane (1958). The most interesting thing about this story is its art. Superman was rarely shown in the comics wearing anything other than his Superman costume. But in this tale, he is dressed in white tie and tails, and other civilian clothes. The story itself points out how unusual this is. Other scenes show Superman at the beach.

Irresistible Lois Lane (1961). If many Lois stories recalled B detective movie series, this one is closer to film noir. Lois becomes a sizzling femme fatale. This is a genuinely surrealistic piece. It opens with a flying dog skywriting a giant L in the sky, and just keeps getting stranger. The whole story reads like an eruption from the subconscious. Still, this piece has a formal puzzle plot.

The monitoring in this tale relates it to the work of Robert Bernstein. So does the setting among public locations in Metropolis, its affinities with mystery fiction, its dynamic, unusual exploration of romantic situations and images, its rich mix of plot elements, and the way a non-super-powered person likes Lois aids a super-being like Superman.

The Jealous Lois Lane (1962). Lois struggles to control her jealousy, while she is wearing one of Professor Potter's emotion meters that displays her feelings. This comic story is one of many in the Superman family, in which the protagonist ingeniously tries to meet a series of challenges. It has good cover art by Curt Swan showing colored rings radiating out of the emotion meter. This recalls Swan's Superboy #99 cover for "The Kryptonite Kid" in which green radiation is coming from everything.

The Unforgettable Superman (1962). Lois Lane tries to forget her love for Superman, and date an astronaut instead. The Lois Lane magazine had many stories about Lois Lane's love life, hopeless passion for Superman, etc. Many of these tales date badly today. They sometimes turn on sexist assumptions about relations between men and women - unlike the many detective stories with Lois in the lead, which treat her seriously as a detective-reporter with an equal status to men. This is one of the better romantic tales.

In 1962-1963 the Superman family had many tales which referred to the astronauts, then heroes who had newly captured the American imagination. This story, in which both Lois and Lana date astronauts, has the most elaborate look at the astronauts of any of the Superman family stories. In some ways, the astronauts are oddly inconsistent with the world of the Superman comic books. After all, while the astronauts in real life were slowly, laboriously penetrating outer space, Superman in the comics was regularly traveling to other planets. There would be no need for an astronaut program in the world of Superman - he could just have built spaceships for everyone. Despite this, the Superman family included astronaut heroes, simply ignoring this contradiction. Also, the Air Force uniforms worn by the astronauts are virtually the only military uniforms ever shown in the Superman family. While uniformed policemen are omnipresent - the Superman stories often have elements of mystery and crime - the military is not often shown. Superman largely lived in a demilitarized world. Unlike sf of the 1990's, which often seems like a recruiting poster for interstellar war, the Superman family was pacifist in orientation.

The Silver Coin of Fate (1962). Writer: Robert Bernstein. Superman proposes to Lois, under strange circumstances; Lana is suspicious. This story is discussed above under science fiction, but it also has strong romance elements.

The Phantom Lois Lane (1962). The romance stories in Lois Lane can seem a bit wimpy by today's standards. Stories in which the characters show a lot more guts are the tales of ferocious battles between Lois Lane and her rival Lana Lang for Superman's affections.

The Girl Who Refused To Marry Superman (1963). When Superman loses his powers due to Red Kryptonite, he gets a new perspective on his relationships with Lois and Lana. This story shows some of the most human depth, in its look at the affections between Lois, Lana and Superman.

The Lois Lane - Lana Lang Truce (1964). In this story, Lois and Lana bury the hatchet to work against a common enemy: a superwoman from space who has set her cap on Superman. It is a very entertaining episode. Lois uses especial intelligence in the story, showing her skills as a detective again. Lois always has an idealistic side, and it comes out here again. Another science fictional mystery story with Lois Lane as detective is "The Town of Supermen" (1962), written by Jerry Siegel. This work appeared in Superman magazine, not Lois Lane, but it fits in very well with other Lois as detective tales. In both of these stories, Lois uses her intelligence not so much to solve a mystery, as to find a way to counter a bad guy with super powers and an evil scheme.

This tale has affinities with some of Robert Bernstein's stories. "The Monster That Stalked Smallville" (Adventure #274, July 1960) also featured an alien who could turn Earth people to stone. These stories invoke the ancient Greek myth of Medusa: an interest in Greek mythology was common in Bernstein's stories, as well as Otto Binder's. In both tales, the alien with the stone-changing powers becomes a friend of Superman's and pals around with him. And Bernstein created the Superman Revenge Squad that shows up in this tale. The raucous comedy here also recalls Bernstein.

People Hoax Lois Lane

The Forbidden Box (1962). Superman gives Lois a box as a test, which he defies her not to open. This story is an anomaly in the Superman stories, in that it largely deals with the character of Lois Lane. It is also comic in tone. The solution of the science fictional mystery in "The Forbidden Box" uses elements of the Superman mythos much more typical of Jimmy Olsen.

Lois was put through a series of hoaxes in a number of stories. These stories fall into roughly the same chronological period as the Jimmy Olsen "Fantastic adventure" and "Jimmy Olsen as puzzle creator" tales, and have some formal similarities to them, involving strange, elaborate mysteries undergone by the protagonist. However, the Lois Lane hoax stories are nowhere as enjoyable as the Jimmy Olsen tales, or as central to Lois Lane's history. While some of these Lois Lane stories show imagination, the whole approach has an unpleasant or even distasteful side. For one thing, In some of the tales Lois is being hoaxed by Superman, the man she loves. In others, Lois is hoaxed by gangs of crooks, who usually play on her love for Superman. In either way, Lois' deepest feelings are being exploited. By contrast, Jimmy is usually attacked in a less personal way by a gang or villain. Another difference: in most of the Lois stories, we are in on the plot at the start, or at an early phase of the story, so there is less mystery than in the Olsen tales.

Lois Lane's Signal Watch (1963). Crooks convince Lois that a gang member is really Superman; the Superman impostor also gives her a signal watch.

The Devil and Lois Lane (#41, May 1963). Writer: Leo Dorfman. Lois apparently meets the Devil. This story recalls "The Forbidden Box" in general terms. This tale also uses elements reminiscent of Jimmy Olsen stories to solve its fantasy-mystery. Stories involving deals with the Devil were common in popular culture of the period, both the sf magazines, and such TV shows as Father Knows Best and Twilight Zone.

The Fake Superman (#44, October 1963). Lois again meets a crook posing as Superman. This not bad tale is an instant replay of "Lois Lane's Signal Watch". One odd sidelight: years before, Superman had published a famous surrealist story, "The Night of March 31st" (1961), which deliberately created as many errors and goofs as possible, in its treatment of the Superman mythos. One of the tale's strangest conceits was the bottled city of Kandor appearing not in the Fortress of Solitude, where it belonged, but in an ice cream cart. This story recreates the same concept, but "rationalizes" it as part of the plot.

Lois Lane's Character: Comic Tales

The "Superman - Lois" Hit Record (1963). Writer: Jerry Siegel. This is an unusual tale in the series. During the early 1960's, one of the most popular real life comedy records was The First Family, a gentle, affectionate spoof of President Kennedy. This story suggests a similar comedy record is made about Lois and Superman.

This story is much more similar to the stories in Jimmy Olsen than to a typical Lois Lane tale. It is comic in tone, as in Jimmy, and the entertainment subject matter of "Record" also seems Olsen-like. Its Imaginary Tale aspects are discussed in the article on Superman. Siegel had a real flair for comic spoofs of the entertainment world: see "The Super-Star of Hollywood" (1960) in Adventure, and the "private monster" (1960) stories in Jimmy Olsen.

Superman, Matinee Idol (Superman #19, November-December 1942). Writer: Jerry Siegel. Art: Joe Shuster. Clark Kent and Lois Lane go to a movie theater, where they watch and comment on a new Superman cartoon. Even at this early date, Siegel was showing his interest in spoofing the media. It also anticipates such later Pirandelian tales by Siegel as "The "Superman-Lois" Hit Record" and "Superman's Rival, Mental Man" (Action #272, January 1961), in which Lois encounters fictional characters in other media who resemble herself. The tale is much more awkwardly written than Siegel's Silver age works, however. Another difference: it depicts a real life Superman cartoon, one produced by the Max Fleischer studios, whereas Siegel's Silver Age media tales all deal with fictitious works of art created by Siegel for the stories.

Social Commentary

The Murder of Lana Lang (1963). In this anti-capital punishment tale, Lois and Lana fake Lana's murder to show how easy it is to make circumstantial evidence frame an innocent person. This tale is weak as storytelling, but it has interesting social commentary.

Lois Lane's Anti-Superman Campaign (1966). Writer: Leo Dorfman. Lois and Superman both run against each other for the same US Senate seat, in this book length story. Light hearted take that combines politics, satire, and many favorite characters of the Superman family.

The tale has some interesting feminist sidelights. Lois fantasizes about her future political career at one point. This segment is essentially an Imaginary Tale, embedded within the larger story. This episode is full of ideas about women politicians. It must have been very progressive in its day. Even today, when substantial numbers of women have entered politics in the real world, it is still an impressive segment. Like Dorfman's Imaginary tale about Superman, "The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue" (Superman #162, July 1963), this episode imagines great success and accomplishment in the future for its characters.

Other parts of this story poke fun at political campaigning. Dorfman shows ingenuity at incorporating both Superman and Mr. Mxyzptlk into this, depicting how their powers might be employed in a campaign. Dorfman often wrote stories that involved magic, especially for Supergirl tales in Action, and he is quite comfortable with Mr. Mxyzptlk here. There is also a nice time travel section.

Dorfman's protagonists often become involved in some institution, as the key subject of his tales. Here Lois gets involved with politics. They tend to be quite successful with this institution: Lois is surprisingly successful with her campaign here. Often they have to take on a series of opponents, just as Lois challenges Superman here.

I Am Curious (Black) (1970). Writer: Robert Kanigher. Comics rarely got much credit among critics for the great mass of social commentary they contain. In this story, Lois uses an sf machine to turn herself black for 24 hours. The story, scripted by Robert Kanigher, gives an outstanding look inside the prejudices faced by black Americans. The title playfully refers to two 1967 Swedish films with intriguing titles, I Am Curious (Blue) and I Am Curious (Yellow) - blue and yellow are the colors of the Swedish flag. Kanigher had written tales with Civil Rights themes as far back as "Challenge of the Robot Knight" (1952), in Mystery in Space.