The Perpetual Bride

It really didn't seem to matter who Lois was going to marry as long as she found someone willing to tie the knot. While Superman was her first choice, she seemed prepared with a number of contingency plans.

Though the idea that Lois Lane was so desperate to be married that even the Prince of Darkness would do seems strange, the weird wedding scenario was a popular recurring theme in the Lois Lane comics.

An interesting aspect to these wedding-themed issues was Superman's presence as something of a silent witness to the proceedings. His thought bubble narration providing a bit of exposition for the cover art.

Back in the era when covers sold comic books, the Lois Lane books were truly clever and often quite deceptive. The adage of not judging a book by its cover was probably never more apropos than when judging an issue of Lois Lane.

Whether Satan, or a death row inmate, the imagery was intriguing and preposterous all at once. There would usually be nothing remotely similar inside the comic itself that quite lived up to the promise on the cover, but "truth in advertising" wasn't a high priority.

The comics of this bygone era were not trying to be deep, or to dazzle readers with clever plot lines, they were merely trying to sell comics, and on that front, they succeeded.

Even Superman's sworn enemy, Lex Luthor, was acceptable husband material. Like most such issues, these stories were labeled "imaginary," as if somehow other stories involving a flying caped superhero were true-to-life dramas. However, the imaginary story concept survives to this day in the DC Comics universe as "Elseworld" stories.