Guest Post: The Brief Feminist Revolution of Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane

I’m traveling this week and once again I have some great guest posts for you. The wonderful Tim Hanley is back today with the fascinating tale from the early 70s when DC Comics had Lois Lane embraced “Women’s Lib” as the feminist movement was known then. I was excited when Tim brought up the topic because not only do I love Lois Lane he also writes about Dorothy Woolfolk one of the few female editors at DC in early days. Woolfolk is the person who invented Kryptonite known the world over as Superman’s weakness. Here Tim writes about when DC had Dorothy take over the “lady” books at DC including Wonder Woman and Lois Lane and how she had Lois embrace the budding feminist movement and for a brief time become:

His thoughts follow. (And mine, I love this piece so much I have asterisked some points and inserted comments after.)

Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #1 premiered in 1958 as DC Comics continued to expand their Superman brand. The Silver Age of comics had just begun, and superheroes were more popular than ever. Almost everyone in the Superman family had their own series, even Jimmy Olsen and Lois. 

The main plotline of Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane was made very clear in ads for the new series. A fact sheet on Lois ended with “AMBITION: To become Mrs. Superman.” Most of the stories revolved around this goal. Lois worked at a diner in hopes that Superman would come by because she heard that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. She tried to use reverse psychology to make Superman fall in love with her. She even resorted to trying out an experimental youth ray so she’d look younger (and turned herself into a baby).

When Lois wasn’t plotting to get Superman, she was hatching elaborate schemes to get good stories for the Daily Planet. Superman didn’t care for her reckless style, and often tried to teach her lessons so she’d see the error of her ways. They usually turned out like this:

Whether it was because Superman rejected her or yelled at her, Lois spent a big portion of the series in tears. What’s worse is that in this story, Lois didn’t actually have kryptonite vision. Superman was pretending to be hurt and mad to teach Lois not to mess with his stuff. Lois, however, was so distraught that she moved to Alaska, weeping the whole way.

So Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane was an odd book. Superman’s emotional abuse continued throughout the 1960s, but by the early 1970s Lois started to branch out a bit, journalistically. She became very involved in civil rights and turned herself black to understand life in Metropolis’ “Little Africa” borough, got involved with the Native American community by momentarily adopting an orphaned Pueblo baby, helped Hispanic mothers get access to daycares, and stood up for women’s rights wherever she could. The stories were fairly hackneyed, but at least the book was trying to address real-world issues. Lois was still hung up on Superman, though.

Then in 1972, everything changed. Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane got a new editor, Dorothy Woolfolk (the assistant editor on the Golden Age Wonder Woman, who you may remember as Dorothy Roubicek from my previous guest post). Woolfolk edited several of DC’s romance titles, like Heart Throbs and Young Love, and took a new angle with Lois. One of Woolfolk’s assistant editors, Jeff Rovin, later said that Woolfolk “was very much a feminist, and wanted Lois Lane and the love comics to reflect that.”

Woolfolk took over the series with Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #121, and launched a new direction for Lois with writer Cary Bates and artist John Rosenberger. Lois’ sister had died in the previous issue, and after some soul-searching Lois decided to end things with Superman:

Because of her sister’s death, Lois felt like she had to do twice as much with her own life, and Superman was holding her back. She also quit her job at the Daily Planet to become a freelance journalist so she could focus on stories that were important to her. Without a steady income, Lois left her luxury apartment and moved into a cheaper place with three other girls: Julie Spence (the black one!), Marsha Mallow (the chubby one!), and Kristin Cutler (the non-descript one who didn’t do all that much!): *

The girls all called each other “sister”, and regularly accompanied Lois on her journalistic adventures. They embodied the focus on sisterhood that was at the core of the women’s liberation movement, and always had each other’s backs.

Although he was initially understanding of the break-up, Superman soon became annoyed with Lois. When she repeated that she wanted to do twice as much with her life now, this is what happened: **

In the old days, Superman was always frustrated with Lois, but now Lois was frustrated with him and wouldn’t take his patronizing attitude anymore. He still saved Lois from time to time, but got little more than a quick “Thank you” in return, and got an earful if he tried to reprimand Lois for getting into a dangerous spot. Lois still loved Superman, but she knew he wasn’t good for her so she moved on. 

The new, feminist Lois Lane was so popular and controversial that the series added a second letter column to deal with all the mail that was pouring in. The page was run by a “mystery columnist” who identified himself only as “Alexander the Great”, and was pictured in a mask:

Lois was in full feminist swing, sticking it to The Man (and the Superman) with her feminist sisters, but the new letter column went in a different direction. Let’s take a look at some of Alexander the Great’s thoughts on Lois and women’s lib generally:***

• “She’s always been such an obnoxious dame - is it possible for anyone - superhuman or not - to deal with such a personality? I don’t think so.”
• “Women should know their place. Lois has never known hers.”
• “Lois apparently never appreciated what she had - a good job and a great guy. So he bosses her around: So what?”
• “There is only one way to do things, and that’s the MAN’S way.”
• “Forget Women’s Lib. If we gave them the world, they’d RUIN it!”
• “Lois is getting out of hand and it’s time Superman did something about it.”
• “Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of Editor Woolfolk? Women’s freedom is one of them, or course, and, crusader that Ms. W. is, she’ll use any medium to fight for her sense of justice. So, fellow (male)-leaders… duck!”
• “If I were you, I’d get together with Superman and form Men’s Liberation… to free us from those nutty Women’s libbers.”
• “As far as I’m concerned, Lois has a tender spot… but it’s between her ears! Any chick who would snub Superman has to be nuts!”

This may have been satire, but these comments are very reminiscent of anti-feminist rhetoric at the time. Other editors may have been working out their frustration with the book’s new feminist agenda, trying to counteract the messages Woolfolk wanted the series to impart. Or they might’ve just been kidding around. We don’t know either way. We don’t even know who “Alexander the Great” was.

But what we do know is that Woolfolk was out as editor after only seven issues, replaced by Robert Kanigher with Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #128. The series only lasted nine more issues before it was rolled into The Superman Family in 1974, and Superman and Lois were back together soon after. Lois’ feminist revolution was short lived, but it made for some fun stories. 

Woolfolk’s influence also lasted beyond her departure from the book. She brought in Deborah Anderson as assistant editor for a few issues, and stayed on under Kanigher for a little while, while Maxene Fabe wrote Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #129. So many women working on a comic was rare for the era (and still is today, unfortunately).

Woolfolk’s run on the series was brief, but it was memorable. Hopefully someday soon we’ll see Lois Lane starring in her own series again, though they should probably come up with a better title. ****

Isn’t this a great post? Thanks Tim. And please stop by Tim’s blog and check out his posts on BC about the gender breakdowns of comics.

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* Female bonding apparently included body shaming!

** I think Superman’s “it will be my superpleasure” is one of the favorite panels ever!

*** As I said to Tim, I think half of those comments have been left as comments on my site!

**** I’m cynical so I wouldn’t be surprised with Superman’s Ex-Wife, Lois Lane!