Does anyone have a favorite canonical love interest for Jimmy?

[Tzigone]

Just kinda curious if anyone likes any of the relationships he's had in the past much.

[Riv86672]

I’ve always been a Jimmy/Lucy Lane shipper, though I don’t mind him playing the field either.

[Tzigone]

I’ve always been a Jimmy/Lucy Lane shipper, though I don’t mind him playing the field either.

I do have a fondness for them. But I'm not sure how much of that is just nostalgia. Maybe even live-action nostalgia (I confess to liking the Supergirl movie as a kid).

[Jim Kelly]

I like old school Jimmy and Lucy. But it's not because I think they're a sweet couple and they should totally be together forever, sigh. No. The writers--and I think this is especially so with Otto Binder--were having a lot of fun with Jimmy and Lucy. They are both completely screwed up and there's so much hilarious dysfunction in their romance.

Jimmy is an idiot--he's the George Costanza of the Daily Planet--he goes after women he can't have. And Lucy isn't much better. She'll dump Jimmy if she gets a better offer. But they are both so inept that they can never do better than each other. And yet when they do get married (a few times), that can't last either.

To me this is some of the best writing, because those characters ring true. There are a lot of people like that, who stumble through life, not sure about what or who they want. And I have a lot of affection for both those characters, because they aren't perfect, they don't know what they want, they are real.

[Riv86672]

I like old school Jimmy and Lucy. But it's not because I think they're a sweet couple and they should totally be together forever, sigh. No. The writers--and I think this is especially so with Otto Binder--were having a lot of fun with Jimmy and Lucy. They are both completely screwed up and there's so much hilarious dysfunction in their romance.

Jimmy is an idiot--he's the George Costanza of the Daily Planet--he goes after women he can't have. And Lucy isn't much better. She'll dump Jimmy if she gets a better offer. But they are both so inept that they can never do better than each other. And yet when they do get married (a few times), that can't last either.

To me this is some of the best writing, because those characters ring true. There are a lot of people like that, who stumble through life, not sure about what or who they want. And I have a lot of affection for both those characters, because they aren't perfect, they don't know what they want, they are real.

If I wasn’t already a fan of them as a couple, this post would have gotten me 90% there.

[Flash Gordon]

I'll throw in for Jimmy Olsen and Lucy Lane and their chaotic selves, too. Dysfunction works best for the adventures of Superman's pal.

[Timothy Hunter]

I like old school Jimmy and Lucy. But it's not because I think they're a sweet couple and they should totally be together forever, sigh. No. The writers--and I think this is especially so with Otto Binder--were having a lot of fun with Jimmy and Lucy. They are both completely screwed up and there's so much hilarious dysfunction in their romance.

Jimmy is an idiot--he's the George Costanza of the Daily Planet--he goes after women he can't have. And Lucy isn't much better. She'll dump Jimmy if she gets a better offer. But they are both so inept that they can never do better than each other. And yet when they do get married (a few times), that can't last either.

To me this is some of the best writing, because those characters ring true. There are a lot of people like that, who stumble through life, not sure about what or who they want. And I have a lot of affection for both those characters, because they aren't perfect, they don't know what they want, they are real.

Lies I say! LIES! Jimmy Olsen is a super genius and the smartest man alive! You know how Scott Snyder wrote Batman as Batgod and made him prepared for every possible situation due to infinite pre-time? That's how Jimmy Olsen should be written.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Superman, obviously

Seriously, though. Jimmy loves Superman more than any of his established love interests.

[Vordan]

I’ve always been a Jimmy/Lucy Lane shipper, though I don’t mind him playing the field either.

Yeah this. All-Star Superman was my first intro to Lucy, and carving “I love Lucy” on the moon basically cemented those two as endgame for me. Was shocked when I saw that wasn’t the case in main canon.

[Frontier]

Yeah, when I think of Jimmy and romance, Lucy usually comes up first.

[Jon Clark]

I'd go with Jimmy and Lucy from Pre-Crisis, but the Imaginary Tale that had Linda Danvers marrying Jimmy while she had amnesia was one I'd have preferred if it had been more than a one-shot.

The post-Crisis/pre-Infinite Crisis Lucy was better off with Ron Troupe and better off alone Pre-Flashpoint. I definitely couldn't see him dating successfully any of the Supergirls that have appeared since the Crisis (or even the Supergirl that existed by the Bronze Age).

Jimmy hasn't really had any relationships that lasted or were even memorable since the 1986 reboot. The closest I can think of was the bad attempt to drag in Smallville's Chloe Sullivan into the comics just prior to Flashpoint or that weird Lena Luthor/B13 thing in a 12-issue mini. And neither of them worked well enough to want to see them revived for the current continuity.

[Jim Kelly]

I'd go with Jimmy and Lucy from Pre-Crisis, but the Imaginary Tale that had Linda Danvers marrying Jimmy while she had amnesia was one I'd have preferred if it had been more than a one-shot.

That was one of the earliest Jimmy Olsen-Supergirl stories that I had the chance to read, when it was reprinted as a Supergirl back-up in two parts, in ACTION COMICS 351 and 352 (June and July 1967 cover dates), from SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN 57 (December 1961). "Jimmy Olsen Marries Supergirl" was written by Jerry Siegel with beautiful artwork by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye.

I just love that story. Swan and Kaye's Linda Danvers looked like Shelley Fabares on THE DONNA REED SHOW--I instantly had a crush. And I could understand why Jimmy would fall in love with her.

But, in the second part, it takes a weird turn. Linda married Jimmy when she had forgotten she was Supergirl, but then she remembers she is Supergirl and so she sets out to make her husband fall in love with her as Supergirl--even though that would mean he'd be cheating on his wife, Linda. Jimmy being Jimmy does fall in love with Supergirl--although he at least feels morally wrong to having feelings for another woman--but Linda/Supergirl is fine with this and they lived happily ever after.

So often people dump on the old stories for being overly silly, as if the writers didn't know what they were doing, but that weird psychology tells me that the writers did know what they were doing. Of course, this would go over the heads of the target audience, but I imagine that the editor and the writers were doing this for themselves. They got it, even if we didn't.

Apparently Grant Morrison said that a lot of this psychology came from Mort Weisinger's therapy sessions with his psychiatrist. But I only know this from having read it on the message boards.

That "Jimmy Olsen was . . . an idiot" is something Cary Bates said in "The Men Behind the Super Typewriter" (Guy H. Lillian III interviews Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin), THE AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS 2 (September 1974):

G.H.L. III: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE "WEISINGER PLOT?"

BATES: He chose to concentrate on the vast SUPERMAN mythology he created. When he ran the SUPERMAN books, he built up this family, but seldom got into Clark's personality or Lois'... there were standard bits, Lois was curious, Clark was always meek and mild, Jimmy was always an idiot, and this is how the readers identified them for many years. But single-handedly Mort kept SUPE going strong in no less than seven books for several decades. His track record was amazing.

When I read that it turned around my perception of the old Jimmy Olsen stories and they made a lot more sense to me.

However, I'd say this depended on the type of story. A given issue would have three different stories. In one story Jimmy could be an idiot, chasing after women, and losing in the end. In another story, he could be the heroic friend of Superman, selflessly putting himself in danger for his pal. And, in yet another story, he could dress up as a beautiful woman and glory in the attentions he received from male admirers.

[Riv86672]

Yeah this. All-Star Superman was my first intro to Lucy, and carving “I love Lucy” on the moon basically cemented those two as endgame for me. Was shocked when I saw that wasn’t the case in main canon.

Plus, their couple name would be “Jucy”. That’s too funny!