Sidecar to the Superman motorcycle

In the course of her forty year affiliation with Superman, Lois had gone from worshiper to pesky nuisance to occasional girlfriend, but by the 80s, she had become a woman who wouldn't settle for cliche platitudes any longer.

In this comic from 1983, Lois seemed to catch a whiff of baloney when Superman went into his usual spiel about belonging to the world and having no time for a real life. Lois, unimpressed by his "broken record" speech, suggested Superman had an all too human problem -- a fear of commitment.

The comics were in transition once again. With the juvenile market steadily declining, and those remaining moving to darker, more violent heroes, the Superman comics seemed to begin targeting a slightly more mature audience.

The problem, however, seemed to be Superman himself. Adults couldn't empathize with a 24/7 superhero and had long outgrown the fantasy desire to be one. Superman found himself in a demographic limbo.

In an attempt to test to the adult market by giving Superman a life, a few grown-up themes in the form of imaginary stories (non-continuity) were introduced.

In this story, Lois finds out she is pregnant again at a point in her life when she thought she would be able to go back to being a reporter.

While the story tried to deliver an important message, and was certainly 80s PC in its attitude, it was basically a standard soap opera premise with a cursory nod here and there to the superhero element. The comics didn't seem to know exactly how to exploit the unique relationship of Lois and Superman.

Though they came very close with the Superman Family comics, there was still a tendency to keep the Superman story line separate from the relationship story line. That was all about to change, however, with Superman's major overhaul in 1986.

With the revamp, Lois would return to being a respected investigative reporter, but would also fall in love with Clark Kent rather than Superman next