Lois Lane and Supporting Cast (Fall 2017)

Lois Lane would defiantly be the most important supporting to the man of steel during his 80 year duration. Being there from the very beginning, Lois was a Pulitzer prized winning journalist who would be Superman’s love interest and Clark Kent’s journalist rival (Wallace 40). Any media Superman was in outside of comics, Lois was right there with him. From radio, television shows, toys, movies, etc. While starting out as a hard hitting journalist, the comic code came to be and Lois was put in a less hard hitting role and more into a stereotypical house wife way. She was also in the main focus of where Lois transformed in an African American for a day. In every major Superman story, Lois would be there in the fray. Her father, General Sam Lane, has never liked Superman and has been an enemy of his at times. Since her introduction in Action Comics 1, she has been at the center of some of the most shattering events some of which put her in danger. However, she has always been saved by Superman. The manner in which she is depicted varies in the different comics and media adaptations. In some stories, Lois Lane is portrayed as a superhero with superpowers. An example can be seen from a story in Action Comics 60 where she dreamt that she had acquired superpowers after a blood transfusion from Superman (Tsirbas n.p.). In the Golden Age comic books, she is portrayed as a tough journalist who is intellectually equal to Superman. In the comic book series dubbed ‘Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane,' she is the protagonist (Tsirbas n.p.).

Her personality has changed over the years based on aspects such as American social attitudes towards women. Her first character alteration was evident in the miniseries dubbed ‘The Man of Steel.' She was depicted as a strong, opinionated, but sensitive character evident from her relationship with Jose Delgado (CBS Interactive Inc. n.p.). In other books, she is described as strong-willed, smart, and an independent woman. Her physical appearance has also been varied over the years based on aspects such as contemporary fashion. For example, in some of the traditional comics, she was portrayed to have black hair. However, most of the comics written during the 1990s portrayed her with auburn hair. Clark would eventually reveal his identity to her and they started dating. Like all relationships, it wasn’t perfect. They would eventually marry but in the New 52 reboot of 2011, all their histories were wiped and started fresh (Wallace 40). This time around, Lois never dated Superman and Superman dated Wonder Woman (Wallace 42-43). When the Superman from the previous continuity started showing up with the Lois from the same one, things starting getting complicated. Eventually Superman of the New 52 died, Lois of the New 52 got his powers for one issue and then died, and the previous iterations took over. This helped start the current Rebirth of the DC comics. Eventually Pre 52 and New 52 Superman and Lois histories would merge into one. In Rebirth, their old history would re-emerge and this time have a son named Jonathan Kent.

Jimmy Olsen is a photojournalist fictional superhero character. “He mainly appears in DC comics Superman stories” (Superman wiki).  The character was first introduced as Jimmy Olsen in the radio show The Adventures of Superman on April 15, 1940” (Superman wiki).  Jimmy work as a reporter and photographer for The Daily Planet.  Jimmy has a really strong relationship with Superman. You can almost say they are best friends.  During the silver age jimmy had starred in his own comic book which was Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. In today’s world, the Jimmy character has not changed at all. He is still a reporter and he is still best friends with Superman. But,now, Jimmy wears casual clothes instead of bow ties. “In the 1990s, Jimmy moved to Metropolis broadcaster, Galaxy Broadcasting, where he became more brash and arrogant” (Superman wiki).  He became like this because he was going to release Superman secret identity on live air.  After wasting his time slot, he was fired from his job, but he was later hired back at the Planet.  “Jimmy Olsen has many transformations and Jimmy possesses a watch which emits a high-pitched signal only Superman can hear” (Superman wiki).

Superman, over the years, has become an extremely popular and globally recognized character. Capitalizing on the increasingly progressive society of the time, creator Otto Binder took hold of the opportunity to create a strong female counterpart for Superman, and in the long run, it has proven to have been a good decision. Created in 1959 and debuting in Action Comics No. 252, Supergirl was a fairly popular character at the time of her introduction. She was created to bridge a gap between male readers and female readers, an excellent move by D.C. comics that helped (in the wake of the introduction of Wonder Woman) to both empower women and expand the comic market to appeal to a wider fan base.

Originally, Lois Lane temporarily took on the role of Superwoman after receiving a blood transfusion from the man of steel. This took place during a ‘dream sequence’ while she was in the hospital. This was sort of a way of feeling out how readers would react to the Supergirl concept. After Lois’s positive reception as Superwoman, writers were more confident in introducing a female super. Originally Kara Zor-El, Supergirl was introduced as Superman’s cousin, and she shared both his powers and his weaknesses. Through some farcical sequence of events, she was also jettisoned to earth. Supergirl has had many iterations over the years, her first being her 1959 incarnation as Kara Zor-El. After a shift in company policy, Supergirl was briefly put out of production in 1986, but then re-introduced in Superman v2 n16 as the character ‘Matrix’. At this point, Supergirl’s entire backstory, including the portions in congruence with Superman, were re-written. She changed from an exiled Kryptonian to a bio-experiment conducted by Lex Luthor. As Matrix, she fell briefly in love with Lex Luthor, and after realizing his evil nature she left him to ‘find her own way’. After her Matrix stint, Supergirl was re-vamped using the ‘Matrix’ model into ‘Linda Danvers’, her own entity in her own 1996 Supergirl comic. At this point her backstory was again reimagined. She was raised in Leesburg, by her father, Fred Danvers. Linda Danvers was formed when Matrix sacrificed herself to save the child, and the two merged into one person. This created an angelic character, still identified as Supergirl, but with a different set of powers almost entirely (ex. Wings, teleportation). Another iteration of Supergirl was Cir-El, debuting in the 2003 issue of Superman: the 10 Cent Adventure #1. Cir-El initially introduces herself as the future daughter of Superman and Lois Lane. Later, it is discovered that she was actually a human altered by villain Brainiac to look and appear to be a Kryptonian. Cir-El eventually dies during an altercation with Brainiac.

Supergirl is not one character, in fact, she almost completely lacks the static nature other characters often have. She entered the female superhero scene after Wonder Woman, and therefore had an easier time finding success in the market. Supergirl, and her various backstories and iterations, is an essential character in the Superman comic cannon, and one that helped to usher in many important events and characters in the Superman comics themselves.

Over the years there were at least three characters that used the Superboy name, Clark Kent depending on the version you look at, Conner Kent, and Clark and Lois’ sun Jonathan Kent. Conner Kent (shown) was a project of Project Cadmus that was half Superman’s DNA and half Lex Luthor’s DNA. He debuted in Superman #500 in 1993. He was made in case Superman ever died or turned villain (Wallace 44). During the story arc of Reign of the Supermen, Conner, alongside John Henry Irons, made his debut and was one of three others who was calling themselves Superman (Wallace 120-121). Conner would later drop it because of the actual Superman returning from the dead. Conner Kent would experience his own death in the Infinite Crisis story arc, dying in action while fighting against Superboy Prime, a version of Clark Kent that got corrupt trying to bring back his earth from the Crisis on Infinite Earths arc. He would later also get his own resurrection and fight during the Blackest Night and New Krypton events. When DC rebooted in 2011, Conner was also brought back but this time he was created by N.O.W.H.E.R.E.  Originally sent to kill Wonder Girl (Cassi Sandmark), he would meet the teen titans and join them instead (Wallace 44). He would later die and be brought back again but with DC’s recent rework with Rebirth, the current Superboy is the son of Clark and Lois, and Conner hasn’t made his official appearance yet.

John Henry irons was created by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove. Jack (2017) states, “When Superman saved Irons from a fatal fall off a Metropolis Skyscraper, he challenged the construction worker to make his life count for something” (pg. 1). Irons really admired Superman’s work as a hero. Jack (2017) states, “After several weeks without a Superman, new heroes appeared and declared themselves to be Superman” (pg. 8). Irons and many others started to then take the spot-light that Superman had. The media started to give Irons the nickname “Man of Steel” because of his heroic deeds on earth. He carried a sledge hammer and wore a high tech suit with the S-shield (121). After Superman’s return, he would drop the "Man of" part and became only known as Steel. Steel would join the Justice League and be a part of major storylines in DC’s history. He would help Superboy, Supergirl, and Superman in the event Reign of Doomsday.

Imagine a threat where Batman isn’t smart enough, the Flash isn’t fast enough, or Superman isn’t strong enough to deal with it on their own. For this very scenario, the Justice League of America, later know just as The Justice League, was born. Made up by a core group of superheroes including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter, to fight against Earth’s greatest threats.  The Justice League of America was the Silver Age equivalent/successor to the Justice Society of America. The Justice League of America first appeared in DC comics The Brave and the Bold #28 in March of 1960. “Divided we may fall… but united, we can stand. Now and forever… as the Justice League” – Superman. The Justice League was created by Julius Schwartz and Gardner Fox (Wallace 50). In any major event that would the affect the earth or multiverse, they would be at the front lines spear heading the conflict. The first major conflict was Starro the Conqueror, an intergalactic being with mind controlling powers. This is probably the best well known superhero team in comics and have been in the media, starting from the Superfriends, to the Justice League in November 2001, to Young Justice (not the main focus of the story though), to the movies currently with the release of Justice League in November 2017.