Who is Lois Lane's mother?

[Bored at 3:00AM]

We know almost nothing about her. I seem to remember her being at Lois & Clark's wedding, but she's been a non-entity for almost the entirety of her published history (that I've read anyway)

I assume she's dead and that's why she never appears, but she isn't even mentioned.

Who is this woman?

[Quinlan58]

I remember she was established as dead when Lois was a young kid in the New 52 (thus making Lois Lucy's parental replacement), and from what I hear she had that same role in Smallville. Nothing much to her other than "she was a great mother and then her death was my formative tragedy", which is a real shame, the property has a huge problem making mothers relevant figures already.

Hopefully Superman & Lois (with its wonderful focus on Martha's, Lara's, Lana's and sadly to a lesser degree Lois' relationships with their children) gives us something on that front.

[bat39]

Does she even have a name?

It'd be interesting, if they set about giving her a backstory, if she too was a journalist. I mean, I guess Lois' desire to become a journalist and expose the truth behind powerful men and institutions could be a rebellion against her father and her military upbringing, but maybe she wanted to follow in her mom's footsteps?

Depending on what sort of person she was, and what she did, it could add some additional depth to Sam Lane as well.

[superduperman]

Apparently whoever Bendis decides she is.

[manwhohaseverything]

Lois lane is lois lane's mother.don't believe me?

[Phoenixx9]

Does she even have a name?
.

Yeah, it is "Lois' mother". But really, anything is okay as long as it is not "Martha", lol.

She has always been "dead" as far as we have heard.

[Frontier]

Her canon name is "Elinore" and I think she was around for a bit in Post-Crisis before she died circa-Infinite Crisis.

From what I remember she would often try and mediate between Sam and Lois but apparently cheated on Sam because of how cold and distant he often was.

[Betinayen]

I think Lois' mother's name is Ella Lane, but not much is known about her.

[Jim Kelly]

Ella Lane appeared about as often as Sam Lane in the pre-Crisis comics--not a lot but enough that we knew some details about both of them. They both lived in Pittsdale and had a small farm--Pittsdale was near an air base.

Post-Crisis, she was still Ella but we didn't see as much of her as we saw of Sam Lane.

On LOIS & CLARK, Phyllis Coates--Lois Lane from THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, season 1--appears as Lois Lane's mom in the final episode of season 1, when Lois is going to marry Luthor. However Coates doesn't appear as the mother after that--but she is name checked in season 3, episode 4 when the Planet is raising money for the Coates Home For Children. Later that season, Beverly Garland makes her debut as Ellen Lane (split from Sam Lane), in episode 11. Ellen and Sam are featured some more times in season 3 and 4--six episodes in all for Garland.

[Will Evans]

Does she even have a name?

It'd be interesting, if they set about giving her a backstory, if she too was a journalist. I mean, I guess Lois' desire to become a journalist and expose the truth behind powerful men and institutions could be a rebellion against her father and her military upbringing, but maybe she wanted to follow in her mom's footsteps?

Depending on what sort of person she was, and what she did, it could add some additional depth to Sam Lane as well.

It’s Elinore. She played more of a supporting part post-crisis and pre-flashpoint.

Supposedly post-flashpoint, she had Hispanic ethnicity. Making Lois and Lucy, like a quarter Latina.

Since the new 52 she’s been deAd

[Jim Kelly]

Elinore, sure, as a retcon. But it was Ella before that. And it was definitely Ellen on LOIS & CLARK--I rewatched all four seasons and did a post on that, not so long ago, where I tracked these kinds of things.

To me Elinore, Ella and Ellen are different names. My mother's name is Ellen. My father's brother's wife was named Elleanor--different names. Neither was ever called Ella. Elleanor could be shortened to Norie or Nora. I think the reason that LOIS & CLARK changed it to Ellen was because Ella sounds old fashioned.

If they wanted her to be Spanish, why not call her Elena?

Given Mort Weisinger had L.L. on the brain back when Ella was first introduced in the 1960s, maybe he thought eLLa would be a coy way of getting in his L.L. reference for the mother of the two L.L sisters.

[exile001]

I remember that early in the Post-Crisis reboot Lois' mother has an illness caused by working at one of Luthor's plants. Lex would provide a medicine he whipped up and eventually used this to force Lois into a relationship.

After that, I think she was just the nice parent to Sam's distant, strong-headed, Clark disliking jerk.

[Nelliebly]

I remember she was established as dead when Lois was a young kid in the New 52 (thus making Lois Lucy's parental replacement), and from what I hear she had that same role in Smallville. Nothing much to her other than "she was a great mother and then her death was my formative tragedy", which is a real shame, the property has a huge problem making mothers relevant figures already.

Hopefully Superman & Lois (with its wonderful focus on Martha's, Lara's, Lana's and sadly to a lesser degree Lois' relationships with their children) gives us something on that front.

This is not an accurate description of Superman and Lois at all.

Lois’s relationships with her boys, in particular with Jonathan, have been given plenty of depth and attention in recent episodes. I agree that in the beginning of the season she wasn’t given the same time with them but that completely changed as the season progressed.

The boys in ::general:: have not dominated the episodes as much as the season went on (which is a good thing imo) so there has been less of the teen stuff taking up the show but Lois’s relationships with her boys, especially, Jonathan have been given plenty of depth now.

[Quinlan58]

This is not an accurate description of Superman and Lois at all.

Lois’s relationships with her boys, in particular with Jonathan, have been given plenty of depth and attention in recent episodes. I agree that in the beginning of the season she wasn’t given the same time with them but that completely changed as the season progressed.

The boys in ::general:: have not dominated the episodes as much as the season went on (which is a good thing imo) so there has been less of the teen stuff taking up the show but Lois’s relationships with her boys, especially, Jonathan have been given plenty of depth now.

True. Focused too much on my old complains about the show without revising them.

[seismic-2]

In the Superman Wedding Album we saw that Ella was a control freak, trying to micromanage every detail of the shower, the ceremony, and the reception, generally driving Lois nuts. We also saw that she definitely had a mind of her own, standing up to (and getting the better of) Sam Lane when they argued. I suspect that Lois takes after Ella a lot more than she would like to admit.

SupermanWeddingAlbum_EllaLane.jpg