Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane

Even the gift of super powers did not deter Lois and Lana in their cat fighting quest for Superman. If anything, that particular facet heightened their determination.

One of Superman's many excuses for not committing to either woman was a fear that she would be in too much danger as "Mrs. Superman." However, with both Lois and Lana equipped with super powers, that excuse no longer worked.

That meant Superman would have to take their powers away, or the unthinkable would happen, he'd actually have to make a proactive decision for once. Since that would never happen, Lois and Lana's super powers vanished.

This comic also contained a catfight between Lana and Lois, but it was staged for the benefit of the villain. By the late 1960s Lana was more of an occasional guest star rather than a featured player.

The Lana/Lois rivalry had grown stale and predictable and even though there was a cultural revolution happening at the time, the comics mainly seemed to reflect the Carnaby Street fashion shift.

Lois was caught in a time warp where, to live up to the title of "Superman's girlfriend," she had to mainly keep her fixation with the Man of Steel and that meant more rivals to battle. Even with Lana Lang benched on the sidelines, there were a couple of other women willing to be Superman's arm ornament.

Just as Lana Lang had the tag of Superboy's childhood sweetheart, Lori Lemaris, the mermaid, was Clark's college sweetheart. One he actually asked to marry him. Poor Lois, if she'd only been from the tuna family, she could have secured a proposal from Superman years ago.

This issue is one of many that illustrates that the target audience for comics in this era (1962) was children. Back in the old days Lori Lemaris was all mermaid. No Splash movie conversion to legs on dry land.

While kids would accept without question that Superman could have kids with a mermaid, any adult reading would be left imaging Superman fertilizing a silt bed at the bottom of the ocean.

Wonder Woman, the Amazon hottie, was often added as a rival to make Lois feel inferior. With super powers, a costume designed for sex appeal rather than function, never having to earn a living, or fear growing old, she was someone no human woman could compete against.

It also pointed out that by the early 70s the comics were being written almost exclusively for adolescent boys. Adolescent girls had few comics marketed for their gender, and female superheroes were created to make boys drool, rather than for girls to dream through.

Sometimes, though, Lois was able to overcome the bias and stereotypes of each era and triumph over her rivals and even give Superman rivals to fret over.