Lois Lane

37 years ago - Lois Lane is born on an army base, the daughter of General Sam Lane.

29 years ago - 12-year-old Lois befriends Titano, an infant ape being reared as a test animal by the army.

19 years ago - 18-year-old Lois Lane studies journalism at Metropolis University.

15 years ago - 22-year-old Lois Lane graduates and is hired to work at the Daily Planet by Editor-In-Chief Perry White, quickly establishing herself as a formidable reporter. She -goes out with Metropolis man-of-the-year Lex Luthor.

14 years ago - 23-year-old Lois Lane is promoted to full staff reporter at the Daily Planet by Perry White & receives her first award for journalistic excellence. She discovers how talented Jimmy Olsen is, and invites him to start submitting his photography to the paper.

13 years ago - 24-year-old Lois Lane meets Clark Kent. She writes the first story about Superman, coining the name.

10 years ago - 27-year-old Lois first meets the Daily Planet's new Entertainment & Arts editor Cat Grant. they do not like each other.

9 years ago - 28-year-old Lois meets Lana Lang when she visits Metropolis to introduce Clark Kent to her fiance, Doug Parker. She's not sure if she likes her.

8 years ago - 29-year-old Lois tracks Cat Grant's ex-husband Joe Morgan to his Swiss villa when he kidnaps their son Adam before the judge in their custody battle can make a ruling, exposing his career as an international smuggler.

7 years ago - 30-year-old Lois Lane travels to Smallville with Clark Kent for the wedding of Lana Lang, where she first meets Jonathan & Martha Kent. Clark reveals his secret to her, and she is furious at him for his deception and herself for not seeing it. She and Lana are kidnapped by Bizarro, and Lana helps her understand Clark's need to keep his secret and how important it is that he's opened up now. She accepts him, and goes to the Fortress of Solitude where she meets Krypto. Later she helps Clark calm Titano when he is mutated by Gorilla Grodd.

5 years ago - 32-year-old Lois Lane watches Clark Kent 'die' saving Metropolis from Doomsday, and mourns him alongside Martha Kent, especially after Jonathan Kent's heart attack. She is nearly tricked into accepting that Cyborg Superman is actually Clark, but is ultimately able to see through the lie. She is eventually reconnected with Clark upon his return.

4 years ago - 33-year-old Lois Lane is almost subjected to the bio-energy catalyser explosion that mutates Kitty Faulkner, causing Clark Kent to worry that the rampaging Kitty is actually Lois. She and Clark are married. Mr. Mxyzptlk appears a week before the wedding to torment them, but ultimately he wishes them well.

now - While taking 37-year-old Lois on a trip across the galaxy, Superman is caught by General Zod & Mongul. They are taken prisoner on Warworld. Mr. Mxyzptlk appears on Warworld during their imprisonment, taunting them with false rescues.

It's wild how often, whenever you write about other superhero's love interests, you find yourself referencing Lois Lane. Superman and Lois really are the prototypes of the entire genre, and in the same way that every superhero ever created owes some degree of thanks to Superman, every love interest... and in fact every supporting character... really owes the same thanks to Lois.

Lois Lane's Comic History

Lois's first appearance was in the iconic Action Comics #1 in 1938, the very first comic to feature a comic book superhero. She is in fact the only other major character to debut in this issue. Like Superman, there were obviously precedents that were drawn from when establishing the character archetype that Lois represents, but she is still pretty much inarguably the very first supporting character in Superhero history. We all know the iconic image of Superman hoisting a car full of thugs on the cover of this issue, but we might not remember that Lois was IN that car, having just been kidnapped.

Also like Superman, much of the core characterization that we would come to associate with the character would actually be developed later on, particularly in the Adventures of Superman Radio Serial, where we'd start to see the plucky, tenacious girl reporter that we'd all associate with Lois for the next eighty years.

Of course, during a lot of that period, Lois has undergone an absolute gauntlet. She really struggled under the weight of expectation for what a female character was supposed to be, often depicted as nagging and marriage obsessed. Still, she continued to retain an independent streak, even if all that meant was that she would continue to try to solve Superman's secret identity and not take no for an answer. (This led to some absolutely insane reactions by readers, one of which is detailed in this article by CBR.com.)

Lois would also have a huge spectrum of adventures of her own, and even her own extremely long-running ongoing series. She'd fall in love with a wide variety of other characters, turn into centaurs, and had at least a half-dozen superhero identities of her own. The archetype of the superhero's love interest has grown and shifted over the decades, but make no mistake, every possible permutation of this relationship happened with Lois first. She's been literally everything.

While Lois had her story reset as an even tougher and more proactive and action-oriented character when John Byrne reimagined the Superman mythology, the next really big chapter in the story of Lois & Clark came in the '90s when he finally chose to reveal his secret identity to her, and then a few years later (after he died and got better) they were married in what I truly believe is one of the single most important comic book weddings to ever happen.

Our Lois Lane Story

Lois is one of those characters that I think we all have a pretty solid grasp on, and honestly that's a hard-won battle. The burden of expectation has been on her for decades, and we've seen so many takes on her, and yes in the end we all understand that she is a tough, smart, relentless reporter with a huge sense of justice, and that it's her compassion and strength, and yet her vulnerability, that exemplifies everything Superman loves about humanity.

We want to establish that she's the daughter of an army general, that she grew up on bases, and that she exploded into the world of investigative journalism so intensely that she's practically a superhero in her own right. We ARE going to include the idea that Clark did keep his identity secret from her for some time; mostly because his final decision to reveal himself to her is so much bigger that way.

And yes, she and Clark are married. I think we're well past the point where I have to convince people that this is the correct evolution for these characters.

Lois's Future

When we first started this project, and I wrote about how the next step in the lives of Superman and Lois would be for them to have a son, it was a pretty revolutionary idea. Since then, not only have they had a son, but he's been rapidly aged and as of the time of this writing is actually leading a version of the Justice League. Also, there's currently a live-action TV series where Lois and Clark have retired to Smallville to raise teenage sons. It's basically become an understood part of the mythology of Superman and Lois that they are parents.

In our timeline, the birth of Jon Kent is still about a year away. Lois has gone into space with Clark, and while there they've been imprisoned by Mongul on Warworld. This story will unfold as they are saved by the rest of the current Watchtower... but in the meantime, they are away from Earth's sun for a time, and that makes a certain event possible.

One major change I'd make, though? There's no way Lois goes to Smallville to raise their kid. Clark might step back from being Superman full time and let Kara & Connor step up, but Lois is never going to step down from the Daily Planet. That paper is in her blood.

Related Characters