Lois Lane Silver Age

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 Lois Lane  Lois Lane Biography Versions of Lois Lane - Golden Age Silver Age Modern Age Earth 2

The comics have seen several incarnations of Lois Lane over the decades.


Silver Age and Bronze Age

When the reading audience of superhero comic books became predominately young boys in the mid to late 1950s, the focus of Superman stories shifted toward science fiction inspired plots involving extraterrestrials, fantasy creatures, and bizarre plots. Lois' 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. Superman's rationale for resisting her matrimonial desires was that marrying her would put her in increased danger from his enemies, and that she could not keep his secret identity hidden. Regardless, Lois married several times in the Superman stories of this era, including to Superman imposter from Kandor, the villainous Zak-Kul and a man from the future. All these marriages were either annulled or otherwise forgotten.

Lois became more and more popular during the 1950s, and after appearing as the lead character in two issues of DC's title Showcase in 1957, DC created an ongoing title for the character, titled Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane beginning in March 1958 and running for 137 issues until September 1974. Most of these stories placed an emphasis on Lois' romance with Superman, and were drawn by artist Kurt Schaffenberger; indeed, Schaffenberger's rendition of Lois became cited by many as the "definitive" version of Lois, and he was often asked by DC editor Mort Weisinger to redraw other artists' depictions of Lois Lane in other DC titles where she appeared.

While Lois had started to become suspicious of Superman's secret identity during the Golden Age (as early as Superman #7 in 1940), her suspicions reached their peak during the early Silver Age, with many stories in her solo series focusing on her attempts to prove Superman and Clark Kent were one and the same. To wit, various stories from this era show Superman using various means to protect his secret identity from Lois, including his Superman robots or Batman disguising himself as Clark/Superman.

Lana Lang, a character introduced in the Superboy series, was initially introduced in Superman's setting in Superman #78 in 1952, but became a permanent part of the Superman era stories with Showcase #9 in 1957. From that point on, Lana Lang became a frequently seen rival of Lois for Superman's affections.

By the end of the 1960s, as attitudes toward women's role in American society changed, Lois' character changed as well. In Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane issue #80 (Jan. 1968), the character's fashions were updated to a then more contemporary look.[28] Stories in the 1970s depicted her as fully capable and less reliant on Superman. She engaged in more solo adventures without Superman being involved, and was much less interested in discovering Superman's secret identity. In her solo stories in Superman Family (an anthology title started in the mid-1970s after the cancellation of Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane and Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen), Lois regularly battled criminals and often defeated them using her quick wits and considerable skill in the Kryptonian martial art of Klurkor, taught to her by Kryptonian survivors in the bottle city of Kandor. There were also several cameos of the New Gods, including Desaad and Darkseid.

During the Silver and Bronze Age, Lois' backstory became more fully fleshed out, with various stories explaining her life before becoming employed at the "Daily Planet." This backstory was attributed to the Lois Lane of Earth-One.

As summarized in various stories, Lois was born to Sam and Ella Lane, and grew up on their farm in the small town of Pittsdale. While Lois was a toddler, she encountered a rattlesnake in the woods near the Lane family farm. The snake was scared away by one of Kal-El's baby toys which had landed nearby in one of Jor-El's experimental rockets. At the age of two, Lois suffered measles, and at the age of three, whooping cough. At an unspecified time during Lois' childhood, her younger sister Lucy Lane was born.

During Lois' adolescence, she won a youth contest run by the Daily Planet, with the prize being a trip to Metropolis to spend a week working as a cub reporter for the newspaper. There, she first met Clark Kent of Smallville, who was the other winner of the contest. Lois found Clark dull, and became more interested in asking him for information about Superboy after learning Clark came from Smallville. During the week in Metropolis, Lois made a bet with Clark to see who would get the most scoops, which turned out to be Lois, as Clark was forced to constantly go into action as Superboy. Lois also met Superboy for the first time while uncovering a criminal enterprise for one of her stories. At the end of the week, Clark paid off Lois' bet (an ice cream sundae), and the two returned to their respective hometowns.

Lois would meet Superboy (but not Clark Kent) again during her adolescence, while attending an all-girls summer camp near Smallville. There, Lois met Lana Lang, a fellow camper, for the first time. Lois would make further attempts at landing a job with the Daily Planet during her teenage years[33] and spent time writing for her hometown's newspaper, the Pittsdale Star.[4]
Upon finishing high school, Lois left Pittsdale, and attended Raleigh College to study journalism. While in college, Lois worked for the student newspaper, the Raleigh Review, as a reporter and eventually its co-editor.

After graduating from college, Lois became permanently employed at the Daily Planet, soon becoming its star reporter. Lois eventually saw her longtime coworkers, Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen, also join the Planet's staff.

Lois also held a backup solo series in the short-lived 1982–1983 series The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl.

After the 1985–1986 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths, writer and artist John Byrne revised the Superman legend, and eliminated 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. Also published at the same time (but in Earth-One continuity) was a two-issue miniseries titled Lois Lane, in which she investigates the problem of missing children.