Sidecar to the Superman Motocyle

In the historic first issue of Action #1 (1938), only three characters debuted that would remain throughout the more than sixty year history of "The Man of Steel", Clark Kent, Superman and Lois Lane.

Long before there was a Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Daily Planet, Lex Luthor, or even Kryptonite, there was Lois Lane. She would be the sidecar to the Superman motorcycle from that point forward.

Perhaps the most difficult comic book logic to follow from the old lore was why Superman wanted Lois Lane to fall in love with him as Clark Kent when it was made quite clear that Clark Kent was a "role" he played.

No matter, the die was cast. Clark would chase Lois and Lois would chase Superman. She had fallen in love with the true persona, while Clark inexplicably wanted her to fall in love with his secret identity. A dysfunctional love triangle was born.

Though a boss today would be ousted faster than you can say ACLU for claiming a story is too important for a girl, in the late 30s and on into the 60s, it was more or less par for the career course.

Complicating matters was the fact that Clark Kent got an amazing number of Superman exclusives as well as Superman-aided headlines. This led to the demotion of Lois Lane to "lovelorn" columnist and the promotion of Clark Kent.

This, in turn, created a bitter rivalry between Lois and Clark. Lois would often dupe Clark by sending him on wild goose chases so that she would have a chance to cover the story instead.

Lois kept her fashion sense while leaving her common sense behind on occasion when chasing a story. To beat Clark to the "scoop", Lois would take ever gutsier and reckless chances. All of this, unfortunately, was often for naught. Clark, with his "super" advantage, usually won the day and the story anyway.

It could be argued, however, that going out on assignment with Clark wasn't very fruitful either since he had somehow mastered the arts of hypnosis and the Vulcan neck pinch.

Lois, being rendered unconscious by Clark when convenient to the plot, often awoke with a headache and no story.

With the arrival of the 1950s came competition for Lois in the forms of a mermaid and a childhood sweetheart. Next