For decades, Lois Lane’s been the butt of jokes involving Superman’s double identity. A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who gets fooled by a pair of glasses? Come on, girl. This week, Lois puts it all together. And, yeah, she’s pissed.
We’ve known that she figured things out recently, but we haven’t known how. Two months ago, a short story in a free anthology comic showed that Superman’s secret identity had been revealed to the world in the current version of the DC Universe. Lois Lane was the person responsible for letting everyone know that the Man of Steel and Clark Kent were the same guy. The stories immediately following focused on how Clark was adjusting to his new reality.
The latest issue of the Superman comic finally shows how Lois put the pieces together, along with her understandably angry reaction. The main storyline started in last month’s Superman #41, which had Clark and Jimmy investigating a gun-running ring’s possible connection to a corrupt senator. Lois gets involved because she’s Lois Lane, dammit, and there’s no way she’s getting sidelined when a big story is going down. A series of events and a battle with villains later and we get this scene, where Lois comes upon a Clark Kent whose clothes are so tattered that she can see his Superman uniform beneath them. She’s done being fooled.
Secret identities are relics of old-school superhero formulation, ways of creating drama that have had a hard time surviving in the modern day. Part of the reason we’ve seen some secret identities go away is the tension behind hiding behind a lie to serve the greater good. The idea of keeping the secret seems ever more childish, selfish or dishonest.
Lois’ reaction scenes in Superman #42 get right to the heart of that dissonance…
especially when she learns that Jimmy has known that Clark is Superman.
The issue ends before we see Lois write or publish anything about Clark’s identity. What remains to be seen is if her fateful article will be driven by a sense of being betrayed and/or a commitment to journalistic duty.
Superman #42 feels like a bit of redemption for Lois.
The character started off as a wish fulfillment fantasy in the early days of her existence, a brash scoop-hustling reporter who nevertheless swooned at every encounter with Superman. As time went on, various creators’ fixation on centering stories on Lois’ snoopiness, obsession with finding out who Superman was, and/or getting him to marry her made her little more than a punchline.
In later iterations, she was written as less easily duped but the idea that she could see Clark and Superman so often and not put two and two together remained a glaring flaw, especially for someone presented as a world-class journalist.
Finally, she seems independent and smart. And she’s got a legit gripe with Clark Kent. Other post-reveal scenes between Lois and Clark have shown a continued tension between the two. They’re definitely not friendly anymore. Maybe they don’t need to be.
Comments
14 responses to “Lois Lane Finally Figured Out That Superman Is Clark Kent”
Was a pretty meh issue
Why does Clark Kent have an emo haircut?
Haven’t/don’t read the Superman stuff, but this set of panels appears to sum up mens views of telling women uncomfortable/compromising truths quite nicely.
Jimmy knows because he doesn’t react like a volcano, and can be trusted to keep his mouth shut.
Lois, however, turns exothermic, does the most childish and immature thing possible and vents about it. To the world.
Talk about a massive inferiority complex.
To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s furthering gender stereotypes or portraying them accurately.
What I do know, is that Lois used some flimsy excuse to start pulling Clarkes clothes off once they’re alone in the jungle, after beating up some ninjas.
Yeah, still undecided, could go either way.
If these panels are representative of the comics as a whole, then the writers probably need to start talking to behavioural specilaists or psychologists, because Superman comes off as some guy who’s been caught having a drink with the guys, and Lois is reacting like some needy housewife who has always suspected he’s been sleeping with her sister.
Hardly the stuff of mature adults, let alone superheroes and hardened journalists.
Then again, the closest I’ve ever been as a superhero, was some nifty Spiderman underwear at the innocent age of 6, so hardly an authority on these things.
To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s furthering gender stereotypes or portraying them accurately.
The thing about stereotypes is that they exist because people who embody them exist. That isn’t to say that the stereotype is representative of everyone, but it is true often enough that you would be safer to put money on it than not.
In this case, I would say it is portraying them accurately. Lois has often been shown to react in a jealous manner and get especially salty when made to look like a fool so this reaction isn’t entirely out of character for her both as a person and a professional.
Well, it took her long enough.
Uh, hello… Lois already figured it out in the 90s in Lois & Clark! You know… the true Supes canon.
Yeah, but then Superman kissed her.
I wonder why he didn’t use that power more often…
Oh god, Dean Cain and Terri Hatcher.
That show was pretty awful……….pretty sure I might have watched them all as a kid.
I think you mispelt ‘excellent’
I think he meant “awesome” xD
She made a database of all of superman’s facial features and then noticed Clark had bruises on the same areas of his – identical-to-superman – face, and that’s finally tips her off?
You’re forgetting, this is the New-52 – everyone’s an idiot, not just Lois.
Man that artwork is horrible
I always thought Lois Lane to be thick in the head… How could she be fooled by a man just by wearing pair of glasses? And then she seem like he just pulled off an entire mask…