Lois Lane

Revision as of 10:27, 16 June 2006

Introduction

The persistent, curious, impulsive, intelligent, headstrong, audacious, hard-working, ambitious, lovely woman reporter for the Metropolis Daily Planet who is, second only to Superman himself, the single most important person in the chronicled adventures of Superman, fulfilling as she does the tripartite role of Clark Kent's journalistic colleague, Superman's romantic pursuer, and the person most tirelessly determined to verify her long-held suspicion that Clark Kent is secretly Superman. Lois Lane appears in the chronicles more often than any other character except Superman, and is the only supporting character to have appeared in the chronicles since their inception in June 1938 (Act No. 1).

Lois Lane's Personal Life

Lois Lane by Joe Shuster

Lois Lane, the daughter of Sam and Ella Lane (SF No. 172, Aug/Sep 1975), was born on her parents' farm, near the U.S. town of Pittsdale (SGLL No. 68, Sep/Oct 1966). The month when she was born is impossible to determine, for her birthday is celebrated in the chronicles in September-October (WF No. 36, Sep/Oct 1948: "Lois Lane, Sleeping Beauty"), in November-December (S No. 37/2, Nov/Dec 1945: "Pranks for Profit!"), and in December (Act No. 139, Dec 1949: "Clark Kent...Daredevil!").

Lois appears to have had two sisters: a younger sister, Lucy Lane (Act No. 272, Jan 1961: "Superman's Rival, Mental Man!"; and others), and a second sister, whose first name is never given, who married a man named Tompkins and gave birth to a daughter, Susie Tompkins (Act No. 59, Apr 1943: "Cinderella --a la Superman!"; see also Act No. 98, Jul 1946: "Starring Susie!"), who is Lois Lane's niece. Some historians relegate the appearances of Susie Topkins to the Earth-2 continuity (See Lois Lane of Earth-2). The Earth-1 Lois Lane has a cousin named Louis Lane who resides in Pittsdale (S No. 349, Jul 1980: "The Turnabout Trap").

Lois attended school in Pittsdale (SGLL No. 68, Sep/Oct 1966). Her closest friend in high school was a girl named Helen, who later became the wife of Bill Minton (WF No. 21, Mar/Apr 1946: "The Plane of Tomorrow!"). Lois's high-school beau was Finney Floor (S No. 66/3, Sep/Oct 1950: "The Machine that Played Cupid!").

After high school, Lois attended Raleigh College, not far from Metropolis, where she exhibited a keen aptitude for science (S No. 181/1, Nov 1965: ptsI-II --"The Super-Scoops of Morna Vine!"; "The Secret of the New Supergirl!"), honed her fledgling journalism skills on the Raleigh Review (SGLL No. 68, Sep/Oct 1966), and displayed a sufficient artistic talent to acquire a reputation as the "class artist" (Act No. 272, Jan 1961: "Superman's Rival, Mental Man!"). Lois's school-mate Brett Rand had a crush on her during this period, but there is no indication that she ever reciprocated his affections (S No. 139/1, Aug 1960: "The New Life of Super-Merman!").

After graduation (S No. 181/1, Nov 1965: pts. I-II --"The Super-Scoops of Morna Vine"; "The Secret of the New Supergirl!"), Lois set out for Metropolis, determined to fulfill her "lifelong ambition" to become "the best reporter in Metropolis" (Act No. 202, Mar 1955: "Lois Lane's X-Ray Vision!"). She may have taken "a course in nursing" during this period (Act No. 191, Apr 1954: "Calling Doctor Superman!") or served a stint as a waitress at Harry's Dog House (WF No. 47, Aug/Sep 1950: "The Girl Who Hated Reporters!"). Eventually, however, she obtained employment on the Daily Star (Act No. 1, Jun 1938; and others), followed by employment on its successor in the chronicles, the Daily Planet (S No. 4/1-4, Spr 1940; Act No. 23, Apr 1940; and others).

Lois Lane's Professional Career

Lois Lane is “the Daily Planet’s star woman reporter” (WF No. 47, Aug/Sep 1950: “The Girl Who Hated Reporters!”), ranking alongside Clark Kent in the Daily Planet’s reportorial hierarchy. Described as the newspaper’s “sob sister” (S No.7/1, Nov Dec 1940; and others) and as its lovelorn columnist (Act No. 44, Jan 1942; and others) in many early texts, Lois Lane has risen through the journalistic ranks to become one of the Daily Planet’s “star reporters” (S No.27/1, Mar/Apr 1941; “The Palace of Perilous Play!”; and others) and, with Clark Kent, one of the newspaper’s “two brightest satellites” (S No. 26/2, Jan/Feb 1944: “Comedians’ Holiday!”). Particularly adept at covering local news (S No. 44/3, Jan/Feb 1947: “Shakespeare’s Ghost Writer!”), she has performed the full range of journalistic duties, including stints as wan correspondent (Act No. 23, Apr 1940); weather editor, described as “one of the lowliest jobs on any newspaper” (WF No. 25, Nov 1946: "Mad Weather in Metropolis!” see also WF No. 51, Apr/May: “The Amazing Talents of Lois Lane!”); question and answer editor and head of the lost and found department (WF No.51, Apr/May 1951: “The Amazing Talents of Lois Lane!”); editor of the Daily Planet’s Paris edition (Act No. 203, Apr’55: “The International Daily Planet staff cartoonist (Act No. 72, Jan 1961: “Superman’s Rival, Mental Man!”); and “acting editor” in the absence of editor Perry White (S No.1 124/1, Sep 1958: “The Super-Sword!).

The texts describe Lois Lane as a “courageous girl reporter” (Act No. 27, Aug 1940), a “glamorous girl reporter” (S No. 34 2, May/Jun 1945: “The Canyon That Went Berserk!”), “a competent reporter who’s always on the job” (S No. 61/2, Nov/Dec 1949: “The Courtship of the Three Lois Lanes!”), “one of Metropolis’s smartest reporters” (S No. 68/2, Jan/Feb 1951: “Lois Lane’s Royal Romance!”), the “star girl reporter for the Daily Planet” (Act No. 172, Sep 1952: “Lois Lane…Witch!”), the “audacious girl reporter of the Daily Planet” (Act No. 189, Feb 1954: “Clark Kent’s New Mother and Father!”), “the prettiest girl reporter in Metropolis” (Act No. 195, Aug 1954: “Lois Lane Wanted!”), a “well-known newspaperwoman” (S No. 109 Nov 1956: “The Puppet with X-Ray Eyes”), and a “famous reporter” (Act No. 225, Feb 1957: “The Death of Superman”).

Lois Lane is also referred to as “Clark Kent’s rival reporter at the Daily Planet” (Act No. 176, Jan 1953: “Muscles for Money”). Indeed, the rivalry between these “two famed reporters” (Act No. 58, Mar 1943: “The Face of Adonis!”) is a keen one. Lois, in particular, is fiercely, sometimes unscrupulously, competitive, resorting to such tactics as intercepting Kent’s telephone messages (S No. 14, Jan/Feb 1942; and others), sending him off on wild-goose chases (Act No. 5, Oct 1938; and others), and even seducing him into letting her accompany him on an interview and then slipping knockout drops into his drink so that she can cover the story alone(Act No.6, Nov 1935).

Although, particularly after 1940, Lois Lane and Clark Kent develop a friendly working relationship and frequently cover news assignments together, their reportorial rivalry has remained a heated one for four full decades and continues to constitute one of the major themes of the chronicles. The texts repeatedly refer to them as the Daily Planet’s “best reporters” (S No. 44/1, Jan/Feb 1947: “Playthings of Peril!”), its “star reporters” (S No. 27/1, Mar/Apr 1944: "The Palace of Perilous Play!”; and others), and as the “two best-known reporters” in Metropolis (WF No. 23, Jan/Aug 1946: “The Colossus of Metropolis!”).

In the largest sense, however, the Lane-Kent reportorial rivalry is a sham, for the headline stories for which they compete so assiduously are invariably stories about Superman, and the outcome of the contest to see which of them can publish a particular story first is just as invariably determined by whether Superman decides to give Lois Lane an exclusive account or to write it up himself as reporter Clark Kent. (TGSB)

Nevertheless, “newspaper reporting is [Lane’s] first love” (S No. 58/2, May/Jun 1949: “Lois Lane Loves Clark Kent!”), and she is capable of “running any risk to get a scoop story (WF No. 84, May/Jun 1953: “The Death of Lois Lane”). “… I guess I’ve got printer’s ink in my veins,” muses Lois in November-December 1946 (“Lois Lane, Actress!”).

Indeed, Lois Lane is renowned “throughout the world” for her “courage and ingenuity in getting scoops” (S No. 181/1, Nov 1965:”The Super-Scoops of Morna Vine!”; “The Secret of the New Supergirl”), and her “mania for scoops” or “scoop craziness”, has tended to lead her to do almost anything in pursuit of a hot story. In the course of a journalistic career that has spanned four decades, she has scaled Mount Everest (S No. 49/2, Nov/Dec 1947: “Clark Kent’s Most Dangerous Assignment!”); worked as a trapeze artist (S No. 63 Mar/Apr 1950: “Miss Metropolis of 1950”) and as a private detective (WF No. 45, Apr/May 1950: “Lois Lane and Clark Kent, Detectives!”); journeyed to sunken Atlantis (S No. 67/2, Nov/Dec 1950: “The City Under the Sea") and explored the planet Venus (Act No. 152, Jan 1951: “The Sleep That Lasted 1000 Years”); worked as a policewoman (S No. 84 Sep/Oct 1953: “Lois Lane, Policewoman!”) and joined the WACS (S No. 82/1, May/Jun 1953: “Lois Lane Joins the WACS”); journeyed into outer space as one of the passengers aboard America’s first manned spaceship (Act No. 242, Jul 1958: “The Super-Duel in Space”); and been launched alone into Earth orbit in an experimental satellite after being designated “America’s first female astronaut” by the National Astronautic Space Administration (S No. 165, Nov 1963: “Beauty and the Super-Beast” and “Circe’s Super Slave!”).

In recognition of her unexcelled work as a reporter, Lois Lane has received numerous awards, including “the annual trophy for prize reporting,” awarded to her at a “newspapermen’s banquet” in Metropolis Hall in May-June 1950, and an honorary professor ship in journalism at Quinn College (S No. 64/1: “Professor Lois Lane!”); the coveted Wilson Award, awarded to her by “well-known civic leader” Cyrus Wilson in March 1952 for being “the bravest reporter of the year” (Act No. 166: “The Three Scoops of Death!”); and the highly regarded Metropolis Journalism Award, awarded to her in July-August 1953 as Metropolis’s most outstanding reporter (WF No. 65; “The Confessions of Superman!”). In May-June 1950, Lois Lane is chosen Metropolis’s “Queen of Charities” in recognition of “her many helpful newspaper stories” on behalf of philanthropic causes (S No.64 2: “The Isle of Giant Insects!”), and in July-August 1953, she is chosen as “the bravest woman in America” in a contest sponsored by the Daily Planet (S No. 83/2: “The Search for the Bravest Woman!”).

Lois Lane's obsession with uncovering Superman's secret identity

Perhaps the only major news story that has consistently eluded Lois Lane is the secret of Superman’s dual identity, although the texts are inconsistent on the question of whether Lois Lane would actually publish the secret if she were to learn it (S No. 75/3, Mar/Apr 1952: “The Man Who Stole Memories!”; and others) or whether she would keep the secret to herself in order to avoid damaging the Man of Steel’s super-heroic career.

Clark Kent expresses his own opinion on the question in March 1952: If Lois exposes my secret identity,” he muses, “it will give her the world’s greatest scoop! She couldn’t resist that!” (S No. 75/3: “The Man Who Stole Memories!”).

Although Lois Lane first meets Superman in June 1938 (Act No. 1), it is not until June 1940 that she expresses even a mild interest in learning his secret identity (Act No. 25), and not until November-December 1940 that she expresses a real desire to ferret it out (S No. 7/2). In July-August 1941, for the first time in the chronicles, Lois Lane raises the possibility that Clark Kent might possibly be Superman (S No. 11/1), but not until .July-August 1942 does she actively begin to suspect “that Clark Kent and Superman are one and the same!” (S No. 17/1: “Man or Superman?”). Since that time, the discovery of Superman’s secret identity has remained one of Lois Lane’s constant preoccupations, and her efforts to learn the secret constitute one of the major themes of the chronicles. Despite her persistent efforts to verify her suspicion that Clark Kent is secretly Superman, however, the Man of Steel has always managed, often through the use of elaborate ruses, to persuade her that her suspicions were groundless, or at the very least not conclusively proven.

External Link

• Earth-1 Lois Lane Index by Mike