Who are Pete Ross and Lana Lang to you?

[kryptonian]

Pete Ross’s only real notable trait was that he was Luthor’s Vice President

[Thor-Ul]

Pete Ross’s only real notable trait was that he was Luthor’s Vice President

In recent times. Traditionaly, before the crisis, he was Superboy's own confident. He knew the secret before Lana, he was honorary member of the Legion. He was Smallville Jimmy, basically but more.
He was really perjudiced by the Crisis and never had emigrated to Metropolis, as Lana did.

[Thor-Ul]

Sounds like the Winter Soldier storyline.

No, that was Conduit.

[JBatmanFan05]

To me, Pete and Lana are square pegs DC keeps trying to force into the round hole of Clark's adulthood.

As someone else already said, they were just stand-in's for Lois and Jimmy during Clark's Superboy years, and they work fine as such. But I don't think anyone has found a viable use for them in adulthood. In fact, I think they both (Lana especially) tend to damage the brand and its characters when they show up.

Lana (not always, but often) tends to end up being written as a source of martial conflict between Clark and Lois, and it makes all three of them look bad (though DC was able to make the Clois marriage look bad without Lana too).

Pete is just kinda.....there

Even when not written at their worst, Lana just usually ends up looking like a diet version of Lois, and Pete a less quirky and fun version of Jimmy.

I think that these characters work great as people from Clark's childhood who he rarely sees anymore.

Amazing Ascended, this really captures my thoughts about them as well. Eerily so. You diagnosis them and cure them, I think you offer the best solution to putting the characters on the right track and keeping them there...."as people from Clark's childhood who he rarely sees anymore."

[Thor-Ul]

Over on a fan fiction site there is a guy bashing Superboy for his treatment of Lana Lang in some of those Silver Age tales. And it got me thinking about how the decades changed characters like Lana (and her adult version Lois).

Lois was originally a 1930's "modern woman". She could handle herself as well as most men, even if they didn't always agree. Sure, she played "damsel in distress" a lot but to be fair in a lot of the stories where this happened Lois was not being some dainty lil thing but simply had gotten herself into a situation where most people outside of action heroes would be at a disadvantage. Being outnumbered by muscle bound thugs or guys with guns would have left your average grocer, pastor or mailman in the same predicament Lois was in. Lois might have been a bit overconfident of her ability to handle danger or maybe a bit nieve sometimes about how dangerous her actions were, but she wasn't shown as being weepy and prone to hysterics. She wasn't passing out from fright in situations where jimmy or Perry wouldn't.

Then by the late 1940's when the servicemen were coming home and all the "Rosie the Rivoter" imagery was turning into June Cleaver, Lois became more sitcom character than dashing reporter. She was Lucy Ricardo to Superman's Ricky. Her role was to get up to wacky hi-jinks to complicate Clark/Superman's life. And as the comics code had reduced comics from "Pulp movie seriels" where menacing criminals performed gory crimes, no one really complained about Lois no longer being gutsy since there were no serious criminal threats left for Lois to need saving from. So if Lois was now "menaced" by a villain out of a bad episode of Scooby-doo no one blinked because Superman wasn't exactly dealing with wife-beaters, mass murderers, or gangland violence anymore either. It was a world where Myxyzpltk pulled zany practical jokes, Lex Luthor was more interested in robbing Ft Knox than fomenting wars for profit, and exposing Clark's identity was a bigger threat than most villains posed.

And into this world was introduced a junior Lois Lane whose job was to have zany adventures with Superman a few decades before the ones he had as an adult with Lois. And unlike Lois, Lana had never existed as a "modern woman". Lana was a sitcom character from day one. She was the zany girl who'd do whatever a plot required. She'd drink any chemical concoction she found thinking it would magically make her life perfect. She and everyone else in Smallville lived in a world where every week some outlandish incident occurred but then life just went back to normal. Superboy was public enemy #1 this week, a robot the week before, and walking around with an anthead the week after.

And Lana, like 1950's Lois, seemed to go through the same adventures every week.
1)Suspect Clark is Superboy.
2)Devise "foolproof" plan to prove Clark is Superboy.
3)Have plan backfire.
4) Repeat first 3 steps and expect different result.

And prior to the Women's Movement of the late 60's and early 70's no one raised an eyebrow at Lois or Lana being these shallow stereotypes. Lois got back her edge slowly from 1970 on. And with every attempt to redfine her Lana has remianed a flawed person.
The 70's had adult Lana as a TV reporter working next to Clark. But she came off as having adopted a fake sophisticated "European" persona and was more insecure than Lois. Teen Lana devolved into just a female supporting cast member for Superboy with even less of a role once the stories dropped the "snoopy girl who tries to trick Clark into revealing his dual ID" based stories.
Post Byrne she was the girl who got left behind in Smallville when Clark outgrew his life there.
By Flashpoint she had undergone radical shifts being Mrs. Pete Ross, tempoary head of Lex-Corp (while Lex was a public criminal), Supergirl's foster-aunt...
And Post-52 she has continued to morph into a new character everytime someone uses her (Adventure girl, Superwoman, Steel's love interest ....)

I can see than the character of Lana Lang has been really well explained here. Writers really had struggle to find a place for Lana in Superman world, but they can't set on a role because she was the teen Lois for 50' Superboy. And several angles feel like a Lois Lane lite.
You know, for a time I thought than Bendis was going to use her in the role he gave to Thorn in Legion, but I am glad he didn't use her in the end.

[Tzigone]

For me, Lana and Pete belong in Clark's past, not his present (save for occasional visits, perhaps). I don't have a firm grasp on what role Lana should play. I don't like the zany sitcom silver age Lana (or Lois or Jimmy), but can't say what I do like for her to be. For me, I do like old school Pete. Now, I like Clark's supero debut as Superman, not Superboy, so that does change things up a bit. But I like a really good Pete, and am displeased he is always made less good in modern incarnations. I do like the idea of him as the friend that knew Clark's secret, but never told him. And never felt slighted that Clark didn't share the secret with him. And then grew up and went on with his own happy, successful life as a good person who stays good, and doesn't turn against Clark, get viewed as a loser by his wife, and doesn't have anything to do with Lex Luthor.

[marhawkman]

This is one of those thing where I have to use the old Lois and Clark show as an example. They had the Daily Planet cast... and competitors. Lana would be good as a person who does journalism at another paper.

[Ascended]

Amazing Ascended, this really captures my thoughts about them as well. Eerily so. You diagnosis them and cure them, I think you offer the best solution to putting the characters on the right track and keeping them there...."as people from Clark's childhood who he rarely sees anymore."

Aw, thanks for the kind words!

I do like the idea of him as the friend that knew Clark's secret, but never told him. And never felt slighted that Clark didn't share the secret with him. And then grew up and went on with his own happy, successful life as a good person who stays good, and doesn't turn against Clark, get viewed as a loser by his wife, and doesn't have anything to do with Lex Luthor.

I think for Clark's overall mission, it's important we see evidence that his goals and actions are the correct ones. Even cutting out the Legion stuff, Clark's a guy who literally sees the big picture and is looking to help us build a better (specific) world. If Clark's childhood friends don't reflect the positive outcome Clark wants his influence to have, then it forces us to question the need and motivation of Superman himself. After all, if Clark couldn't inspire his two closest friends to be their best selves, how can he convince the rest of us?

[Tzigone]

After all, if Clark couldn't inspire his two closest friends to be their best selves, how can he convince the rest of us?

I strongly disagree with the notion that he has to inspire his friends and colleagues to be their best selves anymore than they inspire him to be his best self. Everyone can do so independently or they can all influence each other, but he's not the guiding savior of mankind, leading our wretched people to the light. I do not like SuperJesus, sent here to save us from ourselves. He guides by example, just as so many others do. He's just a more visible example, and capable of so many more/bigger actions than humans are. But he doesn't make them good, they make themselves that way. Just as he does. Yes, all the characters are influenced by those around them, but it just should not be a one-way, Clark-guides thing to me. It's good for some of them to already be their best selves before they meet him, as he is his best self before he meets them.

[Jim Kelly]

The writers of Superboy had to invent a lot of stuff that wasn't in the Superman comics. They couldn't just have Clark working at a newspaper for an editor, living in his own apartment, having co-workers on the same paper. Or I guess they could have done that, but it would have been flat.

They had to create a town for him to live in, parents who looked after him and trained him, a number of friends, pets, fellow super-heroes. The Superboy concept is where a lot of the new ideas came into the Superman mythos.

Sure the basic outline of Lana Lang and Pete Ross may resemble Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, but the situation they existed in is entirely different and that's what changes them. Lana and Pete are high school students in a small town--they aren't working at a big city newspaper. Clark's young friends live close by with their own families and they know the Kents. Lois and Jimmy live on their own in the big city and they don't know the Kents, because Jonathan and Martha are long dead.

In the beginning, all the writers had to work with for Superboy was the idea that Clark Kent would become Superman one day. They had to flesh out everything else in Smallville--including the name "Smallville." To say that they just copied and pasted from the Superman stories is undervaluing how much creativity they put into Superboy.

[SecretWarrior]

No, that was Conduit.

I had no idea who this was, but his wikipedia page makes him sound like a great villain.

[marhawkman]

I had no idea who this was, but his wikipedia page makes him sound like a great villain.

He was one of the few villains diabolical enough to make Kal-el consider retiring as Superman. He's also the reason that version of Superman developed a resistance to Green-K.... yeah... Conduit over-used that stuff HARD... and it just... stopped hurting after a while. Yeah, He came up with the tech to fire beams of Green-K radiation... in a power armor suit.... oh and robots... lots of robots... all of which can use Green-K energy blasters.

Yeah..... he made for some.... interesting stories.

[Jim Kelly]

Kenny Braverman seems like a post-Crisis mash-up of pre-Crisis Bradley "Bash" Bashford and Carl "Moosie" Draper.

[RobinGA]

Writers weave people in and out of Clark and Lois' life.

For me personally I think of Pete Ross as an important friend that Clark
had during High School. The two had a close friendship, but they just
started to live different lives. Clark thinks of Pete fondly, but really isn't in
contact with him.

Lana is different. The two obviously dated in High School. But their
relationship evolves over time, she comes to be a close friend. Not a romantic
relationship, but an important confidant, as important to Clark as anyone. I also
see no reason why Lana and Lois can't become good friends. Lana as a journalist
also makes sense to me.

The initial take on Lana that the comics presented in the 1950s and 1960s has Lana
as something of a pest. But she can be so much more than that. Not all relationships
with men and women have to be about romance.

That is at least how I see her.

[Tzigone]

Heh, I'd rather see Pete in the present and Lana in the past and not seen anymore, if I had to pick. Not that I want either in the present.

I don't want Lois and Lana to be good friends, really. I don't want Lois and Selina to be good friends. I don't really have all that much interest in Lois and Diana being good friends. Lois can have her own damn friends instead of just being friends with Clark's friends (or their lovers). Actually use Lucy as a sister and a friend, maybe. Or invent someone. But even if we don't see it much (as she is a supporting character), Lois needs to have relationships that aren't primarily Clark's relationships or because these women are involved with Clark's friends. She needs people in her life that she is more important to than Clark is, you know what I mean? That are primarily her friends, and not just around her because she's married to their friend (or their boyfriend's friend). Where Clark really isn't a factor in the friendship - so not everything/everyone in her life is all about Clark.

I'm not saying the "other half" of a couple can't be friends with their other's half's friends, but I really like having a sense that supporting characters have their own lives and friends and such to hang out with instead of them being entirely dependent on the hero's friends.