"DO YOU THINK I'D WANT AN ORDINARY GUY?" THE SEXY-BEAST SUPERMAN, PART 1

There is this myth out there, that writing a Superman comic is difficult. That this particular character is way too powerful to tell interesting stories about him. His body, soaking up the radiation of the yellow sun, is impervious to every weapon known to exist. Not only can he fly but fly in space without needing a breathing device to provide oxygen, or a space suit to shelter him, lest he develops an embolism or is freezing to death. And his mind is such, that not even the isolation of the void of space will unduly affect his state of mind. More so, as a mere infant he was sent across the stars to Earth. Superman will fly so fast, that he is not only able to break the sound barrier without neither the plane nor the effort it took Charles Yeager to master such a feat, but he can even break the time barrier. Thus, even when he was still a boy, he would have adventures with other kids who were to be born a thousand years hence. He could even reverse the spin of the Earth itself, by turning the planet on its very axis, thereby forcing the flow of time in the other direction. There is this belief, Superman comics are hard to write because we, a modern audience, simply cannot relate to what Superman stands for. Here he is an all-powerful alien, the Champion of the Oppressed, a character who embodies the ideals of a bygone era free from irony. A boy scout to lead mankind to a better place. It would seem that Superman has lost his meaning today since ours is a much darker world than what the world was like at his inception in the late 1930s, which of course it wasn“t with a Great Depression and another world war about to start. But then again, maybe people were simply much bigger optimists and much more naive back in those days? And what about his character? The very idea of somebody who is all good, who represents a beacon of hope, with the very symbol on his chest to symbolize just that, as a more modern telling would have it, seems almost downright offensive to some writers. This idea of somebody who cannot be corrupted, who will smile at you even when you hurl insults his way, or bullets for that matter, to these writers, feels off. In order to be believable, Superman needs to be flawed. Or dark even. In this world, our world, or at least as it is perceived by these writers, people would not trust such a being. Not only is he a figure of authority, of government even, but he can end all life on most planets in a day“s work. Would we not reject him, hate him even? But then, there are the stories that deal in the other extreme. The stories that explore his human side. Stories that focus on what it means to be human, what this means for him and to him, in his world. These are the Clark Kent stories. The stories of the ultimate immigrant who tries to fit in, and yet knows that he never can. Or the stories of The Last Son of Krypton, who keeps mementos from his lost home world hidden away in his secret storage room of solitude. This is the Superman who cries. And then, to bring it all back to the process of how he was created in the first place, one powerful idea, the amalgamation of bits and pieces from pulp novels and the power fantasies of a boy from Cleveland who came from hunger and who had lost his father at a young age in a store robbery gone wrong, there are the stories by writers who use the tools of postmodernism, but in playful manner. The writers who will guide readers through his decade-spanning history to reveal the fun and quirky elements, to remind us with a whimsical wink and some emotional heft, that there is a reason why we need Superman. Not in a real-life, flesh and blood sense, mind you, but as a metaphysical and metafictional construct, so we experience why stories can be powerful, why we tell tales in the first place, why they resonate with us. In these stories, that let us re-experience all his goodness, and perhaps godliness, in a fictional context, we can briefly glimpse at the character as how he was when he came to be, and this pure idea, this Ur-Superman is all we want to be, but know we can never be. This Superman does not judge us. He is kind in ways we too often are not. This Superman understands, and nods while he pets Krypto“s head gently.

Superman is an idea. First and foremost. Neither his immense powers, what he stands for or symbolizes, or what we think he should represent, or his character make him difficult to write. Even though he very much is a man of many different identities, Last Son of Krypton, adopted son of Kansas farmers, reporter for a metropolitan newspaper, news anchor, Superman, The Man of Steel and The Man of Tomorrow, and national and global icon even, this shouldn“t really pose a challenge, either. Don“t we all get to play many roles during our lives? But what a writer would be well-advised to do, is to find the balance that lies between the core of what makes Superman, well Superman, and how to let him speak for the times he finds himself in. While this is mostly true for any fictional character who has been around for many decades, this seems difficult with Superman. This isn“t even surprising, since even history books or tales about real-life people tend to re-conceptualize the exploits of these historical figures in ways that will make them appear less positive. Some of their deeds, perhaps their whole way of life, actually removed decades from our own time, if not centuries, become problematic to us almost by default when viewed in the context of our modern sensibilities. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, we choose to filter out all perceived short-comings, the traits that made these people flawed, but human, so they will be more acceptable to presently perhaps much more sensitive audiences, who don“t want to see any expected faultlessness in the character of a revered person lessened by allowing for all too human contradictions. But then again, are we not very good at ignoring any negative aspects when we want to like somebody? And with Superman, does a writer not lose the essence at the center of the character, when attempting to make him relevant for a current audience, as he (or she) will expose him to harsh realities and human weaknesses? When Superman appears in a present-day context, should he not stand head and shoulder above our contemporary morals and trivial dilemmas? Is he not supposed set an example, is he not the ideal we strive towards? While he lives like one of us, must The Man of Tomorrow not stand above our petty shortcomings and shallow cravings? Yes, he could doubt himself. Maybe for two issues. But then, don“t we want him to take flight and to lead us? Was Superman not the best motivational speaker we could ever imagine? Especially, with the world around us seemingly falling apart more and more, should we not cast our lot with a supergod who can turn back time itself? Was he not the light to show us the way, to tell us that we could be a great people? That we wished to be, that we had a capacity for good? Is this not the minimum we can expect from Superman, that he will assure us that we are worth saving?

After all, was this not the reason why on his mighty chest Superman wore the word hope? But can he, and should he? If there ever was a time to put this balancing act between the ideal and the zeitgeist to the test, to see if Superman would make it out in the end with all his values intact, or if he was to be turned away too much from what he should stand for and irrevocably so, this period must have been the 1970s. Up to that point, almost as if he had been exposed to a chunk of Red Kryptonite, Superman could have noticed the many mutations manifesting themselves in him, had the yellow sun also gifted him with the superpower of self-awareness. During the late 1930s, the time when the character became a cultural icon, Superman was all about assured masculinity. He would knock wife-beaters and corrupt politicians around, while showing off his powerful physique with no shirt on, and neither super scientist Lex Luthor, then sporting a mop of red hair, or any trap or futuristic death ray device he could come up with, proved a real challenge. Superman was untouchable. Nothing could harm his super-thick skin, and criminals could not bribe their way out with him. Then during the war, while on the covers of the three comics that featured his adventures (there would be a fourth title by the mid-40s), Superman smashing the iron war equipment of the powers of the Axis with abandon, his fingers slashing through tanks with swastikas as if these were made out of papier-mÃ¢chÃ©, as Clark Kent he had failed an eye exam and thus he and his super alter ego were relegated to guarding the home front. Then after the war, during what is now known as The Weisinger Era, he became middle-aged somehow, as he found ever more pieces from his doomed home world, even survivors, and visiting Krypton“s past itself on occasion. Writers like Otto Binder and even his co-creator Jerry Siegel would add to his backstory in profound ways. Binder in that he gave him a female cousin. Imagine how this must have affected him, to learn that he wasn“t the last survivor of Krypton or the last of his proud lineage. Best of all, Superman was no longer alone. And Jerry Sigel, his spiritual father, gave him a whole history of a time when, as an adolescent, he was unsure of his powers and his place world, but was allowed to grow up in a sheltered special place, that was an idealized rural setting in which there was apple pie, baseball, every face was white, and every neighbor knew your name. Superboy offered a valuable learning experience to young readers, who saw firsthand how he figured out his moral code while he was a teenager. Whereas it might have proven challenging to identify with a powerful alien, even one who looked like any other boy at that time, more handsome of course, he was also like the big brother you never had and who showed you what was right and what was not. Sure enough, when you were like five years old, a towel around your neck and a garden to play in, was all you needed to pretend you were either Superman or his younger incarnation. It was only so much harder once reality set it. You could not fly, but perhaps you could follow his example. But by the end of 1960s, this pretend-play proved increasingly difficult. Superman had always been taunted as The Man of Tomorrow, and whereas the book with his name was still the best-selling comic every year, his writers found themselves more and more out of touch with the times. To the tune of Bob Dylan“s “The Times They Are A-Changin”“, Superman, reflective of his middle-aged writers“ inability to get with it, and the character“s sudden lack of standing with a generation about to break free from all authority figures, became a wanderer and a searcher. The Man of Tomorrow realized he was very much a guy of the past, and thus he had to affirm that he still had a place in society, that he still mattered. Metaphorical, similar to what his writers went through with experiencing their failure to connect with their own children any longer, Superman needed to reconstitute his manhood during various trials. He died and found that he was replaced. He lost his powers and tried to carry on as a masked vigilante. But Batman told him in no uncertain terms that he was not cut for that. He lost his memory and he assumed a number of identities, like trying on new suits to see if one better fit to the demands placed on him during this time of unrest. Through all this, his alter ego Clark Kent remained steadfast. Good, reliable Clark, who was wearing the same suit every day. In the end, Superman remained unchanged, like he always had. When the summer of love ended with a shock in the real-world, even though he was fictional, the goodness he stood for, the American way and all that jazz suddenly seemed a safe place. The hero no longer looked that quaint. Superman was a beacon of hope the world needed. But then, after the early hangover of the post hippie period, the world once again changed dramatically. The world welcomed the age of polyester, and with it came the women“s liberation movement, complicated relationships and the key parties of the middle class. And every dream home of suburbia was like a version of the shrunken city of Kandor, not teeming with insect-size citizens, but with the conflicts of home life one could find in Dave Berg“s Mad cartoons. During the 70s, among a near-nude Burt Reynolds centerfold for Cosmopolitan and the first big-budget movie that made its audience believe a man can fly, there would be yet another incarnation of The Man of Tomorrow, one which showed him as super-potent and sexually frustrated. Sexy-Beast Superman.

It seems extremely fitting that the changes that came with the new decade were at first not felt in books that featured Superman, but his friends, his younger self and his lovers. Like the real-world 1960s came to an end with the murders on 10050 Cielo Drive, nearly a year earlier, going by the cover date, National Comics presented one of its darkest tales up to this point. While the Legion of Super-Heroes (of which Superman“s younger and time-travelling self was a member) had seen its fair share of dark stories, and death, while not common-place, had claimed the lives of Ferro-Lad and Lightning Lad (who got better) and one of Triplicate Girl“s three bodies, making her change her name to Duo Damsel while the trauma lingered, Adventure Comics No. 369 and 370 (1968) by Jim Shooter, Curt Swan and Jack Abel showed readers what the world would look like if you woke up one morning and the fascists (or, depending on your point of view and political affiliation, the communists) had taken over your hometown. Smallville, the scenic little city in the heart of the American heartland, this Norman Rockwell pastoral painting of white picket fences of tranquility, was run over by gangsters at first, but then by heavily armed soldiers who actively destroyed property and pushed scared citizens around, and all this as a means to force the group of outsiders who were hiding in the midst of these helpless town“s people, to reveal themselves. Teenagers were questioned, herded around and detained, because among them there were those who were different. And they even came to Pa Kent“s small general store, because his son resembled one of those they were looking for. And while Clark was watching, he received a beating. These men were out for blood, clearly. So terrified were the kids that were being hunted, they would even wipe all memories of the strange double-lives they all led from their consciousness, understanding full well, that the man who wanted them delivered to him, could read their very own secret thoughts. Mordru, the evil wizard and arch-enemy of Legion had taken control of the past, even moving the whole town of Smallville up into space, shielded in a snow globe like force field, like the home of Superboy itself was but a remnant of the past, and in it, the only opposition he might still face to his complete rule over the whole planet. Like it would become a trope in any slasher-type horror film a scant ten years later, this ancient evil had been set free by a transgression of teenage lust. New to the Legion, pretty Shadow Lass had wanted to familiarize herself with the layout of the Legion headquarters when, like in a fairy tale, the blue-skinned beauty from the world of Talok VIII happened on a secret the teenage superheroes had hidden deep in the lowest of their sub-basements. The Legion had their own howling man tugged away in a block with no windows and no air to breath. While she herself had not been clued in, nobody had told her about the room she could never go inside, it was another member of the team who should have known better. Mon-El, the hunk from Daxam, who personality-wise, and even physically, with his slightly bend posture and a mop of straight jet-black hair, was a progenitor to every emo kid to come, had clearly noticed the bathing suit and go-go boots wearing girl. Like any boy with raging hormones wanting to impress a girl with his eclectic record collection, he had to show off, inadvertently freeing Mordru the Merciless from his prison. And like with a parent who had unexpectedly returned home while the home alone kids had a thing with their friends going on, the party was over. Outmatched with an adult in the room, Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Superboy and Duo Damsel did what any teenager would. They ran, all the way to the time in which Superboy lived, and to a town that felt like it was forever frozen in 1954. In comics, it may well have been. Desperate not to be detected, the Legionnaires tried to fit in as regular teenagers. And with Superboy“s knowledge of this time, they are successful, that is until Lana Lang spies them. Not only did she know Superboy, but she was familiar with his futuristic friends. On occasion, Lana had adventures with them as reservist of their club after an alien creature had rewarded her kindness with a special gift to grant her with a very unique set of superpowers. The problem in this situation was, of course, Mordru was in control of everything. He could even see through the green eyes of a homecoming queen, raised on corn and fresh milk. What she saw, Mordru saw. At the end of the tale, stunned readers glimpsed a costumed foursome cowering at the feet of a 100-ft wizard who seemed to represent the man any self-respecting teenager would rail against at that time, and in our world. In these kids, the fear of the man they couldn“t beat was so deep-seated, a foe who happened to casually mention that he“d already taken care of all their friends in the future, that they, assuming the worst, knew they needed to hide from the evil wizard once more. This time by putting a mental block in place, lest Mordru prying mind could find them. But their plan backfired. While intended to last just one hour, Mordru“s mental scan caused their mind-wipe to last. It fell to Pete Ross, Clark“s friend, who unbeknownst to him had discovered his alter ego, to enlist the help of Lana to bring back Clark“s memory of the time when he could fly. So, it came to pass, that readers spied the girl with the wasp waist scaling the outside wall of the house where Clark lived, only now her lower torso was that of a fly, the size of which to match her human upper body. The image made even more bizarre that while this transformation had taken place, she still wore her ribbon in her hair which even had a cute little bow, and her face was now semi-concealed by a domino mask. She was the Insect Queen, and she and Pete freed Clark from the self-imposed denial of his identity as a superhero. After he had restored the memories of his fellow Legionnaires and a ruse of theirs to trick the wizard failed, Mordru put the foursome and their ally Lana Lang on trial. While the five youths had to face a jury made up of old men, all criminals from various worlds, Pete Ross was allowed to defend his peers. In the mock trial, its outcome long determined, the two lads and three girls were found guilty.

This is a remarkable to two-parter for various reasons. While the Legionnaires, Lana and Pete act young, and they look young as far as their faces are concerned, they are built like college freshmen. They boys are athletic to the point of being overtly muscular, the girls are full-figured, long-legged and they wear knee-high boots. They almost appear like the cast of a TV show that has twenty-somethings fill the roles of sixteen-year-olds. And while the art is by long-time Legion artist Curt Swan, it is considerably darker in tone than his patent superhero style in no small thanks to Jack Abel“s heavy inks. And while this was not exactly his last issue on the series (Win Mortimer would take over with issue No. 373), his cover to issue No. 370 which is also very dark in subject matter, felt like a requiem to an era that came to a close on a nightmarish note. Gone was the bright optimism of the 1960s and the looser feel. Even while older kids in the real world began to turn on, tune in and drop out or were drafted into military service soon, these stories with their teen heroes and heroines in colorful costumes were directed at young children. Swan and Abel“s cover looked like it might be more at home on a verboten horror comic than on a book marketed at ten-year-olds. As these Legionnaires and Lana were facing their indictment by a court made up of old men, situated high above them, their faces lit from anger, hands stretched out to finger-point at them like this was the chorus of a tragedy from Ancient Greece, the heroes were in bonds. The boys were tied with ropes, and in stocks respectively. The girls, Shadow Less kneeling, Duo Damsel down on her bare knees, Lana being the only one standing, were in handcuffs and chains. While the Legionnaires had even braced the “The Super-Stalag of Space!”“ two years earlier, this was nothing in comparison, it seemed. If readers, who might not have read the previous issue, since distribution was not reliable back in the late 60s, were hoping that this was one of those fake covers DC Comics was wont to put on their books quite frequently during this period of, they would have been disappointed. Nigh the same image was to be found in the story, only this time it was Shadow Lass who was standing, and Lana had assumed a crouching position. Ultimately, they seemingly were saved by a former colleague of Mordru who once had served on the Council of Wizard, and who had faced the same fate as all his peers, namely, to have his magical powers stolen by the villain. And he now even sacrificed his life during this attempt to free the Legionnaires. In the end it was Mordru“s own lust for power, and his hatred for the Legion who had inconvenienced him so in the past, that did him in, with the heroes and heroines making it out alive by the skin of their teeth. But naturally, the status quo needed to be re-established. Thus, Superboy used his hypnosis ray to make Lana forget his secret identity as Mon-El would use the device on him to make him lose any memory of Pete learning his secret by accident. Then there was another revelation. When the Legionnaires returned to their timeline, they learned that the presumed deaths of their mates had been prevented by Dream Girl who had warned the team in time. This story laid the groundwork for much more adult themed Legion stories. While the four Legionnaires already looked a bit older in this two-parter, in stories in the very near future (both in their time and ours) they would be older and they would act decisively older, all the while their costumes got much sexier, thanks to artist Dave Cockrum. What makes this story so fascinating is how it betrays the writer“s age. Jim Shooter had started to write (and to provide layouts for) Legion stories when he was a kid himself. He was not even seventeen when he wrote this two-parter. No small feat considering how well paced it is. But this was also a story about a generation he himself was a part of. The desperation of the teens feels real and tactile. They are being hunted by a predator-like villain who takes over a whole town and whose eyes and ears are everywhere. From a pure storytelling technique, Shooter does something that is astonishing. In the first part, readers got a flashback sequence of epic proportions. It was Mon-El who related the events to a nigh breathless Shadow Lass like the chorus in Henry V. As with Shakespeare“s play, there is the question if these panels, or the theater, can even contain this much action. We see Mordru“s rise to power as he uses dark magic to enslave a part of the universe while readying spaceships to conquer the other. And when he and his forces came to Earth, the Legionnaires appear tiny when facing off against such an awesome foe. There is the same sense of utter defeat in these teens, once they lay exhausted and broken at Mordru“s feet, like we see reflected on the faces of those four who made it to the present in the current story. In the end, Superboy and Mon-El attempt to entrap the powerful wizard proves successful, but barely so. But while similar flashback sequences had appeared in other superhero books (not only with DC), with the editor providing a footnote to specify the issues these events took place in, this was not the case with this story. That was because Shooter had made it all up. Mordru had never appeared before Adventure Comics No. 369. And why not? At the age of just sixteen, Jim Shooter had understood an important fact about these stories, and stories in general. They are all fictional. So why not create one that never took place in the printed pages of a previously published title but had happened in the lives of these teens? Boiled down to its essence, this two-parter by a teenage writer, represents a story about a generational conflict, of young versus old, of teens wanting to break loose, to not having to conform to the ways of their parents any longer, or to suppress their wants and needs, yet still having to fear the consequences of being found out for who they were and what they did. To put it bluntly, they Legion kids were getting ready to experience sex while knowing full well, that they older generation would not approve of their ways and their choice of lifestyle. This is a story about kids who were too young to drive a car, but who had grown into bodies that told them it was alright to follow their bodily desires. It was no coincidence that Mon-El freed Mordru as he was trying to hook-up with Shadow Lass. The evil wizard was as much a manifestation of his guilty conscience as he was the monster from his own id, buried deep within his own emotionally repressed psyche, and henceforth loosened on the world. Going forward, Mon-El did engage in a relationship with blue-skinned beauty, and just hinted at between the panels, readers got the message. These two were having sex, of course. And so were other Legionnaires. When Dream Girl, the ultimate good girl art pin-up member of the team, woke from one of her vision-filled dreams, next to her on the bed, under a blanket, readers glimpsed the outline of another person, presumably that of her boyfriend Thom Kallor, who went by the name Star Boy. As their members got married, some even got kids of their own, The Legion of Super-Heroes was getting all grown-up. The times were a-changing.

But what about Superman“s younger self? What about Superboy? Like his adult counterpart, Superboy spent much of the 1960s in a stage of total awkwardness. Superman was a full-grown man. While there was this sense of restlessness and this feeling of doubt that maybe the changing times had passed him by, and at night, this dull pain, that came with leading a solitary life, some things had stayed the same. Barring any Kryptonite close by, he could always rely on his powers, and in them and the fun they gave him, feeling the wind whizzing on his naked face whenever he took flight, he could rediscover some of the confidence he had felt during the early years after he had come to Metropolis. As a boy, he was still figuring it all out. It wasn“t a secret that young Clark was lanky, clumsy and accident-prone, but whereas this was all an act, lest anyone learned that he was an alien and a superhero, it had also made him self-conscious. While he had powers beyond imagination, there was also a lot of angst that came with that. What if people found out who he truly was, and they came after the kind, older couple who had adopted him? Ma and Pa Kent, his parents who had to make the transition from farmers who lived off the crops of the land, to owners of a small business, a little general store. Uprooted from their farm, they resided in the city, such as it was. And what if Martha or Jonathan fell ill, or got hurt in an accident? Superboy“s stories at that time reflected a sense of existential displacement and lack of orientation. Like his grown-up alter ego, whose adventures were published concurrently, Superboy was very much a seeker in the 1960s. But, lacking experience and assuredness of his adult-self, he wore his anxiety on his sleeve. In a way, Superboy was character tailor-made for a generation of adolescent baby boomers. By design, he was the ideal role-model for an army of kids when Jerry Siegel had invented him as a means to have yet another version of Superman available in an additional comic, albeit one young readers could relate to. But he was The American Dream by the way of Edward Albee. He was beautiful, perfectly built, yet soft at the centre, and in the 1960s, he and many teens found out that the centre could not hold. Superboy“s adventures in the first years of the decade mirrored the optimism of the early 1960s, but soon he was seen hiding in an alley, his athletic figure slumped with shame and dejection, his trusted dog Krypto as his sole companion, like readers saw on the cover of Superboy No. 146 (1968). And a year earlier even, the whole town of Smallville hated him. And so did his foster parents. And there were the times when despite his unbelievable powers he could not defend Jonathan. But this was nothing when compared to the double-punch that came at the end of the decade in issues No. 160 and 161. In the first story he thought he had killed a pretty foreign exchange student when she asked him to embrace her tightly, too tightly as it would seem. Believing he had caused her death in a moment of passion, the Boy of Steel flew off into outer space and to the Moon to put himself in exile as punishment. Luckily for him, nothing was as it had seemed. But then, with another powerful cover by Neal Adams, readers experienced his newly found self-hatred first-hand when an issue later he attempted to rid himself of his superpowers. Without them, he figured he had a shot at leading a normal life like his peers at his high school. But as long as he had to pretend he was meek Clark, to not reveal that he was an all-powerful alien, he could not dare to take part in varsity sports, guys would constantly challenge his manliness, and worst of all, Lana kept him in the friend-zone. What if he was like any other guy who was allowed to prove himself without having to fear that he severely injured a fellow student when playing football or crushing a girl to death in a passionate embrace? He would find out what that was like, eventually, but when he wasn“t just a man, but a Superman. But once the 1970s rolled in, he needn“t worry about getting the attention he craved from his pretty neighbor. It was like everybody“s hormones got kicked into hyperdrive and so was their libido. Having to stay on the sidelines all of a sudden made him interesting for Lana who could not figure out something about him, as astonished readers learned in Superboy No. 197 (1973). While lounging with him on a meadow she asked him point-blank: “Well, I“ve never asked you this before, but I“ve often wondered”¦ how come you never try to kiss me?”“ To confuse matters even further, Lana was quick to point out: “I“m not saying I“d let you, but I“d be flattered if you“d at least try!”“ Being so up close and personal with a hot girl who was intent on making out with him, made even The Boy of Steel, who could suffer the heat of a sun gone supernova with a smile, start sweating instantaneously, and in such profuse manner, that Lana normally should have been appalled or, under different circumstances, was seen as running to the next house to phone a doctor. But these were no normal conditions. These were the 1970s. And thus, to answer her own question, she would stop at nothing while she commented: “I know how bashful you are Clark”¦ but brace yourself and kiss me anyway! Satisfy my curiosity!”“ But she did get stopped anyway when Clark thought it a good idea to have a bunch of apples raining right down on her unprotected head with the help of his invisible heat-vision, because, luckily, at this very moment his buddies from the future paged him, and Legion business came first. But what to do with the girl he had callously rendered unconscious? Why, leave her there under the apple tree in her white dress. And off he was to a future in which everybody showed of a lot of skin in their skimpy pre-disco outfits. Those were strange days indeed. And once there, to take in the sights of a time that stood in stark contrast to what his own time had to offer, technically Lana and he lived in the 1950s, he was back with Lana. And that was where readers found him in the next issue. Once again decked out in white, Lana was walking with him arm in arm across the grounds of a carnival. When the teens entered a big tent that housed a horror show, one of the monsters at the heart of the maze was all too real. There was a gigantic gorilla who had escaped from another attraction of the carnival, and naturally the beast would swoop up Lana in its huge, hairy paws. But even in the guise of Clark Kent, the kid from Krypton knew how to take out such a simple threat without the girl noticing his superpowers. If only life could be this easy all the time.

While young Clark and adult Clark had their hang-ups when it came to the affairs of the heart, once he got rid of his disguise, Superboy displayed the same behavior his mature counterpart showed. Now able to show off his muscles and trusting that nobody could rival his potent masculinity, when Lana was all by herself in her room, she had kicked off her shows and was reading a magazine on her bed, Superboy simply showed up in her window unannounced. Acting in a way that would have made timid Clark look super-creepy, had he only dared to do that, in his confident Superboy persona, it made him even cooler, as if he were a superpowered greaser who had no trouble getting a girl to elope with him in his hot rod, like he did in Superboy No. 205 (1974). The two beautiful adolescents were traveling through the night sky arm in arm like Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder would in a few years hence. At least he asked her if she told her parents about this nightly excursion, to which the girl breathlessly replied: “Yes! They said it was okay as long as it was you who was taking me!”“ What harm could come from wrapping a girl from head to toe in an indestructible cape and bringing her one-thousand years into the future? From the cover, even a casual reader could have figured out that this was a bad idea. Once Superboy had left, he was duped into flying off into space on a bogus mission, Lana, who the hero had simply stashed with the Legion as if she was a piece of luggage he had brought with him from the past and for which he had no immediate use, and fellow Legionnaire Ultra Boy were facing a firing squad made up of super-teens. Bound to wooden poles, Lana and he looked across the barrels of four raised ray guns like soldiers who had betrayed their regiment. Lana“s sole regret was, that now she wouldn“t get the chance to properly say goodbye to Superboy. And then they were shot by these attractive super-killers. This offered artist Mike Grell the opportunity to depict Superboy“s seemingly deceased neighbor in highly seductive poses. Lana“s body was smoking, quite literally, and Grell positioned her lovely frame suggestively as she now lay on the ground, her eyes close, one naked leg bent, the knee raised, her back arched to allow for her headlights to be prominently featured in not one, but two panels. When the stylish super-executioners just left them for dead, lo, the two teens began to rise up groggily. And since there simply just couldn“t be enough images of a gorgeous teenage girl, this was the 30th century by way of the 1970s, this time Grell showed her backside in a tantalizing way, with Lana just having lifted up her ample posterior as if to meet the readers“ eyelevel, inviting stares. Suddenly, Superboy was back. And he yanked Lana up by the arm. Too beholden was The Boy of Steel by the cleverness of his own deception that he did not stop for a second to make sure that Lana did not show any signs of PTSD or at least wasn“t harmed physically. Luckily for Lana, she was a superheroine herself, and quickly, possibly to overcome any lingering trauma by getting into the action, she slipped into her costume that made the most of her long legs. It was an advantage that the love of Superboy“s adult self did not possess. However, Lois Lane had special powers herself. Contrary to Lana, not only did the future Pulitzer Prize winning journalist have her own series, but her book regularly outsold Detective Comics and the Justice League of America, let alone Wonder Woman, who was touted as the feminist icon in comics at that time. In the early 70s, Lois was anything but. While her look had changed over the years to keep with the times, and once this decade started, her outward appearance was that of a hip, happening woman, her comic was designed to be a romance book. She was into Superman, and The Man of Steel was into her. And yet, especially considering that in the series her age was specified as forever twenty-two, there is something off with the way Superman and she are depicted as a couple. When they are in a canoe in Superman“s Girl Friend Lois Lane No. 117 (1971), Superman in costume, and Lois looking stylish in a mini-dress and laced-up boots, he compares her to a little girl before he kisses her. When, an issue later, they make out on a park bench, she wears a ribbon with a bow and thigh-high boots. But little did Superman suspect that she was about ready to take some inspiration from Nancy Sinatra“s most famous song. And not only were these boots made for walking, out of his life in this case, but he“d soon taste the boot of feminism in a quite literal sense. Fans of the couple were in for a rude shock once issue No. 120 hit the newsstands and spinner racks across a country, that now was in the midst of the women“s liberation movement. Lois, while not burning her bras in protest, was about to start in new life. Which came with a death. Namely, that of her sister Lucy.

After he had given her the run-around so many times, whenever she had again tried to prove that Clark Kent and Superman were the same person or when she annoyed him with another attempt to entangle him in her schemes to get him to marry her, she finally told him it was splitsville for good. Now she was a new, liberated woman. Lois told Superman that she couldn“t be with him any longer. He wasn“t paying any attention to her needs and he didn“t respect her. While she expressed her heart to him, he still did not get it. With having lost her sister in a foreign country, where Lucy had died alone, Lois was working through her grief, while reassessing her world. Superman was not listening, but instead he was telling her what she should do and what she shouldn“t do. While he was concerned with his own needs, Lois gave it to him straight and in words (written by Cary Bates, with plot assistance by Irene Vartanoff) that couldn“t be any clearer: “No Superman, you go on without me! I need… a lot of time”¦ to think about a lot of things”¦ I have to be alone”¦!”“ And even while Superman pleaded with her, Lois turned her back on him, slowly walking away, while he had not understood a thing: “What“s come over her? I have never seen her act this way”¦”“, he wondered. But Lois was lost to her own thoughts: “Now that Lucy is gone”¦ my life can never be the same… nothing can be as it was”¦”“, as the narrator informed readers poetically: “Lois walks on alone”¦ into the gathering gloom”¦”“, and while there was a circular logo on the cover that showed the two of them together, one that appeared on every cover now, this was either a reminder of presumably better days the couple had seen, or put there to announce that the change would be but short-lived. And such it was. Whereas the cover to this issue depicted Lois in a bondage fantasy, as she was bound spread-eagled no less, and even gagged, she was about to break loose at first, and her voice would not be denied. Though the cover for Superman“s Girl Friend Lois Lane No. 121 (1972) gave little indication, this was to be the new Lois now. But, like first she needed to be baptized, Lois was aimlessly walking the streets of Metropolis in the rain, showing signs of trauma from the loss of her sister. When two hoodlums held her up for money, her answer was as straightforward as it had been when Ms. Lane had cut Superman from of her life: “Take it”¦ I don“t care about money.”“ But when a stranger arrived to defend her just then, a young African American woman, who had stepped out of a blaxploitation movie it seemed, and she now was in trouble herself, Lois had her awakening. Not only did she handle these shady guys, but she and the young girl became fast friends, as readers learned that Lois had been AWOL for a while. The old Lois would remain lost, because in her place now stood the new Lois who was ready to expand her scope: “It“s time I started taking a good look at this muddled world around me”¦ and tried to help people in trouble.”“ And thus, decked out in hot pants and thigh-high boots she walked right into the office of her editor Perry White to tell the patriarchy to stop smoking those filthy cigars. However, either because all this was a bit much or because this was just another persona created to help her deal with her grief, this change was short-lived. Not only was she back working for THE MAN, but while she had her adventures, she once again relied on Superman to bail her out. She had wanted to tell him that their relationship needed to change. She had wanted him to understand where she was coming from. Upon reflection, he might have realized that she had a point, but then again, was he not Superman? He didn“t have time for his. And while he allowed Clark to change his wardrobe to get with the times, Clark remained in the friend-zone, when in issue No. 128 it was again Superman who was lounging with Lois on a beach, he in his uniform and Lois in a bikini. And once again, Lois pressured him to marry her. But this time it was for real. They got married. Alas, by the mid-point of this story, Lois was killed by a blast. Superman“s fears, the reason he had given her numerous times why he could not marry her, had proven true. His enemies had violently struck at it him by killing the person most dear to him, Mrs. Superman.

There was a second Lois, who was watching these events unfold, but she was invisible to everyone else. Worse even, she had no voice. Superman was teaching her a lesson. He“d given her an anniversary ring that unbeknownst to her, rendered her invisible and took her voice. The Lois who was killed was a robot he had built of her. And yes, the panel of him building his own Lois, her head already perfected and his fingers buried in the robot“s rip cage of steel, summed it up perfectly. Why bother talking to her if this exercise would show her. Alas, it did not. Neither he nor she had learned a thing. Writer Robert Kanigher clearly had an old fashion idea of how men and women related to each other. But readers could rely on Cary Bates to take things to a more drastic conclusion. The author who would shape the relationship of Barry and Iris Allen in The Flash for years to come, was already honing his skills when in Superman No. 261 (1973) the muscular hero not only knuckled down to a powerful female but stooped so low to even kiss her boots. After he“d done his hero-thing, and he now was playing a prank on an unsuspecting Lois as Clark, Carol Ferris was in town. Finding herself under the influence of a fantastic gem which had been bestowed to her by a group of feminists from a planet on which women ruled supreme, but in the name of love, she was up to no good. As Star Sapphire she made it her mission to humiliate this fine example of male chauvinism. Thus, with Lois watching, Superman, as symbol of female oppression, was not only made into her slave, but he had to lick her boot as well in a gesture of total submission to an all-powerful female, lest other men did not forget their place in this new world order. The irony being, that only with Lois“ help was he able to vanquish his raven-haired opponent who had been made their queen by a race of noble warrior women from space. And by the end of the story, with a wink to readers and Lois in his powerful arms, Superman was sexy as ever in the 1970s, despite just having been mentally castrated a page earlier. All swagger and self-assuredness once again, Superman had not learned a thing. And when a few issues later Clark, while visiting Washington on an assignment, hooked up with Barbara Gordon, a Congresswoman no less, she finds him a bore and has to come to his rescue when he gets abducted. Once back in his identity as Superman, he of course takes control of the situation, shielding her with his cape like he had done for Lana Lang when he was still a boy. Batgirl is highly competent, but once The Man of Steel shows up, she stands behind him, with his indestructible cape wrapped around herself as if it was her personal security blanket, all aspirations of being a liberated woman seemingly gone. Sure, she got back into the action, once Superman, with a self-satisfied grin and his superpowers, had taken out the criminal outfit in a few panels. When Barbara repaid the call in Superman No. 279 (1974), it was his colleague and womanizer in chief Steve Lombard who got thrown around by her judo skills because he had made a pass at her. With a chauvinist like Steve, she pulled rank, how dared he speak to her as if she was some common beauty, she was after all Congresswoman Gordon, and Clark was just the guy to talk to, but once Superman hit the scene, his mighty chest puffed out like there was competition held for a new Mr. Universe, this time at least, she wanted to show him how capable she was. Male readers were assured by the cover, of course, which showed Batgirl in a suggestive pose and in need of rescuing from certain death, that Batgirl would get in over her head like Lois, and that it came down to Superman to safe her. Women“s liberation be damned. Though the cover was misleading, girls wanted to be taken into Superman“s strong arms. Lana, Batgirl and Lois. Especially Lois. And why wouldn“t they? However, when the lonely nights approached, did he not wonder what if it was not Superman who came calling, but Clark Kent? Would he have a chance with the lovely Ms. Lane? A Clark without superpowers no less, but more of a man than Superman could ever hope to be? A man even more so since he would be free from the shadow and the responsibilities of a Superman. A man who had a shot at happiness. In Lois Lane No. 128, Lois had told his superpowered alter ego in no uncertain terms that she did not want an “ordinary guy like Clark Kent”“, but she had yet to meet a Clark who needn“t hold back, lest he was liable to crush a girl to her death like he thought he had done when he was but a Superboy. What if Clark was just a man? He had no way of knowing that regular readers could have answered this question for him.

In Superman No. 192 (1967), Otto Binder and Curt Swan had Superman not only lose his superpowers, but all memories of his super-identity. And in this “imaginary tale”“, Clark had asked Lois to marry him. With The Man of Tomorrow out of the picture, she had said yes. Lois and Clark even had a son. The tale proved so popular with readers, there was sequel in No. 194. Then in No. 201, in a story by Cary Bates and Curt Swan, Clark left Earth and its yellow sun to start fresh on an alien planet. He would build a new life for himself, even find a new love, only for him to learn that he could never escape his responsibilities back on Earth. In Superman No. 209, another tale by Bates and Swan, Clark and Superman became two separate beings. The Clark persona, resenting his powerful other half, simply walked out on Superman. All got resolved by the end of the issue, of course. But what if Clark and Superman could lead their own lives, still as the same man, and not as two entities divorced from each other, but Clark without powers? Little did Superboy suspect that when he shook hands with President Kennedy, he wasn“t the only one not of this Earth. When Jor-El“s rocket had brought him to the blue planet like a Baby Moses from outer space, another vessel from the stars had landed on Earth. This one not carrying an infant, but an agent charged with destroying the new home of the toddler who, decades hence, would become a Superman. And little did Clark know that this tale by Bates, Swan and Elliot S! Maggin in Superman No. 296 (1976) would set him on a course he could only have dreamt of in those lonely nights. He would find an answer to the question in his heart: what if he and Lois became romantically involved? The cover by Bob Oksner seemed to recall the covers for those earlier tales that saw him and Superman split up, only this time it was for real, and then it wasn“t. When he was dressed up as his mild-mannered reporter persona, Clark no longer had his superpowers. Back in his costume, his powers returned. While Clark wondered if this was not the moment he had to make a decision how he wanted to lead his life going forward, of course this was all part of the plan of the alien who had arrived on Earth at the same moment he had and who had walked among us all this time undetected. Consequently, in the next issue Clark explored what life offered to him without him having to spend half of his time in blue tights. Though, since Metropolis was in danger, the issue started with Superman in action. Honestly, did kids not pay their quarter dollar for that? Once he switched to his newly non-powered self, the Last Son of Krypton made a resolution: “For the next seven days at least and maybe forever”¦ there will be no Superman no matter what! Hopefully, I“ll learn what the real Clark Kent is like in the process!”“ Suddenly it was a different world, like the alien world he“d lived on in issue No. 201. He notices how cute his neighbor is, he feels how much pain a little sting from a prickly plant can cause him. And when his colleague Steve Lombard tries to humiliate him in front of Lois, it is regular Clark Kent who pushes him to the ground. And before he even realizes what is going on, Lois shows up as unannounced like he once had in Lana“s bedroom as Superboy. And she is ready to take him on a special night flight, too. Not only does she cook dinner for him, they make out. And the issue ends with the new couple spending another night together. Bates and Maggin started the next issue with a fantastic sequence that was quintessential 70s sweaty romance, like it came right out of one of the steamy paperbacks that were popular during those sexually liberated and oversexed days.

Starting with a shot of just Lois and Clark“s hands in an intimate embrace, readers got to follow the new couple on a stroll, all the while the world around them saw one tragedy after the next. But Clark cared very little now. He had waited many years for just one date with Lois. And this was more, much more. But then he woke up from a nightmare. No, the romance had not been a dream, but him being able to turn his back on a world in constant crisis, that was pure self-illusion. And when Lois rang his doorbell, she wanted to go on another canoe trip, but this time not with The Man of Steel, but with Clark, it was Superman who ran away from the newly found happiness of his alter ego. Thus, when he later met up with her as Superman, all his swagger availed him naught, since now she was into Clark. Whereas being just Clark had given him joy, being only Superman proved difficult. Naturally, in the final installment of this four-part story, Superman figured out that this was all the doing of the alien agent who had taken control of the alien weapons Clark had carelessly stored in his apartment. And it was he who had caused this split in him. He had treated Clark“s clothes with an alien chemical that counteracted the effects of the yellow sun. Of course, he spoils the alien“s plan to destroy Earth. And Superman has learned a lesson he figures. He needed to be both, Superman and Clark Kent. And for this, Clark had to be the opposite of a confident Man of Steel. Clark had to be a man Lois wouldn“t want. This surely felt disappointing to readers who had rejoiced at seeing a Clark who stood up for himself for once. And surely, this would be the end of the romance. But writer Gerry Conway, who had brought together a certain red-haired pair of beautiful people during his stint on Marvel“s Daredevil, would have none of it. When Clark asked Lois out in Superman No. 303 (1976), to his surprise, she said yes. She hadn“t forgotten the other Clark Kent. And when she wondered “What do you suppose turned you into such an hombre”¦ and so suddenly?”“, his reply was “It must have been the beef bourguignon you cooked, Lois!”“ By the end of the issue, when she invited him over to her apartment, and he even brought flowers, this not only turned into a candle-light dinner, but why of course, as she switched off the lights, she had some of that beef bourguignon ready for him. Ms. Lane knew exactly how she wanted her man. And as she closed the door, lest readers spied what came next, Conway let the issue fall shut with the words fans wanted to read “A beginning!”“

Author Profile

Chris Buse

A comic book reader since 1972. When he is not reading or writing about the books he loves or is listening to The Twilight Sad, you can find Chris at his consulting company in Germany... drinking damn good coffee. Also a proud member of the ICC (International Comics Collective) Podcast with Al Mega and Dave Elliott.