Should Lois Lane Learn Clark Kent's Secret?

[brucekent12]

It looks like Geoff Johns is putting Clark back at the Planet in Superman. If they start dating (and I think/hope they do) Clark should tell Lois the story. Even in the New 52 she's an ethical reporter and wouldn't tell the secret, just like Lana wouldn't. And its harder for Lois since she is one of the best reporters in the business, and let's face it ,this would be THE scoop of the decade. And of course with Clark also in the news biz, Lois would be easier to protect.

[Slaughter]

Why not? Man of Steel did that with Lois knowing Clark's identity and it worked fine

That's because Superman came before Clark (not that Clark didn't exist, but he was just some unknown dude from Kansas), whereas in all other versions we always got Clark Kent (the reporter) first and then Superman.

[Heasensy32]

Lois needs to stay far far away from Superman as much as possible, the man can't expand or be in his naturally fantasias with a normal human chick and him being grounded to the point he becomes dependant on Lois as a measure of his humanity. Seriously it's old and it's boring, I thought Lois fans would be offended by this too, Superman is too perfect and ideal to be a dynamic with for any human minus Bruce, Lex and by proxy John Constantine, she'd be irrelevant and pure romance fan service.

She can't cover any story specifically space and demensional adventures. Plus super would become lame to me that he has too pretend he lacks insight on stuff that Lois know despite he's beyond human capacity in Intel and resource. I think Lois and Jimmy should move to Gotham or keystone. That's more her level without it looking pis and contrived. You know, we need a super human reporter in metropolis, not as strong or powerful as superman but strong enough to hang in danger and it being believable.

[Agent Z]

Sure I'd like it if Lois learnt about Clark's powers. Provided its done well of course.

Lois needs to stay far far away from Superman as much as possible, the man can't expand or be in his naturally fantasias with a normal human chick and him being grounded to the point he becomes dependant on Lois as a measure of his humanity. Seriously it's old and it's boring, I thought Lois fans would be offended by this too, Superman is too perfect and ideal to be a dynamic with for any human minus Bruce, Lex and by proxy John Constantine, she'd be irrelevant and pure romance fan service.

She can't cover any story specifically space and demensional adventures. Plus super would become lame to me that he has too pretend he lacks insight on stuff that Lois know despite he's beyond human capacity in Intel and resource. I think Lois and Jimmy should move to Gotham or keystone. That's more her level without it looking pis and contrived. You know, we need a super human reporter in metropolis, not as strong or powerful as superman but strong enough to hang in danger and it being believable.

So dating a normal human is to limiting but having them for a friend (Bruce) or enemy (Lex) isn't?

[MarvelMaster616]

I think so, yeah. My reasoning is just that its one of the few dynamics we haven't seen yet between Lois and Clark before.

We've had Lois having a crush on Superman, being a rival to Clark, and not knowing the secret.
We've had Lois liking Superman and liking Clark while not knowing the secret.
We've had Lois dating/engaged/married to Clark knowing everything.

We have not, however, seen Lois and Clark as platonic friends and rivals, while at the same time her knowing Superman and Clark are the same guy. To me this opens up some interesting avenues. You have a reporter of high integrity who knows one of the worlds best kept secrets. But its a best kept secret regarding her best friend and the world's greatest superhero. How does she deal with vowing to protect that secret while at the same time being dedicated to truth without the romantic element as a potential influence?

Should be noted that hinting as of late marks the high likelihood that this might be played with Perry White first, as he's likely to learn the secret in Johns' Superman run. But as that will probably be a father-figure type role, plenty of room to have Lois learn it and be a caretaker of the secret from a peer and friend standpoint like Lana (she's different from Lana because again, as a reporter, there's a dichotomy there that's not present with Lana).

I say yes for the reasons stated above. We've never really seen Lois and Superman work in a situation where Lois knows his secret, but not within the context of a romantic sub-plot. I think it does open up some new concepts that are worth exploring. How does this affect Lois professionally? How does it affect how Superman operates? During the Doomsday story when he was missing, Batman had to cover for him. I think that can only go so far. Having someone like Lois to act as a bridge of sorts to his civilian life, which he does try hard to protect, could create a new range of stories. I would be all for this. And this is something that actually could happen. It depends on what direction DC wants to go with Lois. Given that Lois knows his identity in the movies, I think it's certainly possible they'll do it in the comics.

[The World]

Lois needs to stay far far away from Superman as much as possible, the man can't expand or be in his naturally fantasias with a normal human chick and him being grounded to the point he becomes dependant on Lois as a measure of his humanity. Seriously it's old and it's boring, I thought Lois fans would be offended by this too, Superman is too perfect and ideal to be a dynamic with for any human minus Bruce, Lex and by proxy John Constantine, she'd be irrelevant and pure romance fan service.

She can't cover any story specifically space and demensional adventures. Plus super would become lame to me that he has too pretend he lacks insight on stuff that Lois know despite he's beyond human capacity in Intel and resource. I think Lois and Jimmy should move to Gotham or keystone. That's more her level without it looking pis and contrived. You know, we need a super human reporter in metropolis, not as strong or powerful as superman but strong enough to hang in danger and it being believable.

That has nothing to do with what the op asked.

[Ascended]

I always assumed telepaths were never played seriously on comics, or it would be just to easy discover some hero ID

Like most things, it really depends on the story and who is writing what.

It used to be that League members were trained in mental defenses to protect themselves from mental attacks. Not that every Leaguer became a psychic or anything, but they were taught how to detect invasive mental probes and put up mental blocks to protect delicate information. Not a foolproof solution to the threat of powerful telepaths and mages, but better than being defenseless. Sort of like how Batman uses "Tibetan meditation techniques" to overcome hypnosis and stuff.

I assume that's no longer a thing, since J'onn isnt on the League and Clark seemed to be completely at the mercy of Queen Bee and Hector Hammond (granted, they're some of the most powerful minds on earth so you gotta cut Clark some slack there, but still).

[Prime]

I don't see why not.

[Powerboy]

Yes, let her know.

Lois not being able to figure out who he is has been done and done and done. We finally had her figure it out and them getting married. Then all of that life experience and character development gets thrown out. Just let her know and get them back to where they were instead of the rehash.

[Punisher007]

Let me make this perfectly clear, YES SHE SHOULD! There's ZERO reason for her NOT to. I just leads to some of the most annoying and overused clichés in comics. Plus it's just more interesting when she does know. That's something that Man of Steel knew and got right. Hell they had her know that he was Superman BEFORE he was Superman. Plus her not being able to figure it out, despite her connections to both Clark and Superman and allegedly being a veteran/skilled investigative reporter, just makes her look like an idiot.

[The World]

Though to be honest aren't secret identities pointless cliches in and of themselves? Isn't that what we've learned from the Marvel movies or the recent X-men movies? Thor, Cap, Tony, Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk none of them bothered with S.I. nor do they lead normal lives and not once has the general audience whined or complained about the absence of that trope, if anything it just allows the character to be their best selves all the time without being dishonest which I think resonates with the general audience. I'm not necessarily even saying they should do that with Superman but you can't deny the level of success it has had for their films which touches a much wider audience than the comics.

[misslane]

if anything it just allows the character to be their best selves all the time without being dishonest which I think resonates with the general audience.

I think Superman is his best self all the time because he keeps his two lives separate and protected. Superman relies on Clark Kent as a grounding and restorative part of his life, which he would lose if his identity was made public.

[rhymeswithparc]

Though to be honest aren't secret identities pointless cliches in and of themselves? Isn't that what we've learned from the Marvel movies or the recent X-men movies? Thor, Cap, Tony, Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk none of them bothered with S.I. nor do they lead normal lives and not once has the general audience whined or complained about the absence of that trope, if anything it just allows the character to be their best selves all the time without being dishonest which I think resonates with the general audience. I'm not necessarily even saying they should do that with Superman but you can't deny the level of success it has had for their films which touches a much wider audience than the comics.

It doesn't make sense for any of those Marvel characters to have secret identities. Almost none of them have established characters outside of their superhero personas and they don't have secret identities in the comics either.

[Ascended]

Though to be honest aren't secret identities pointless cliches in and of themselves? Isn't that what we've learned from the Marvel movies or the recent X-men movies? Thor, Cap, Tony, Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk none of them bothered with S.I. nor do they lead normal lives and not once has the general audience whined or complained about the absence of that trope, if anything it just allows the character to be their best selves all the time without being dishonest which I think resonates with the general audience. I'm not necessarily even saying they should do that with Superman but you can't deny the level of success it has had for their films which touches a much wider audience than the comics.

The secret identity thing is certainly less popular than it used to be right now. And in some cases I think it detracts from the characters (Iron Man and Wonder Woman for example). But I cannot imagine Batman, Spider-Man, or Superman not bothering with one. Some characters still make good use of the concept and that shouldn't be changed just because other characters dont.

[Flash Gordon]

Yeah I don't have any interest in reading about a Clark Kent-less SUPERMAN. The secret ID is really important for that character. BATMAN too.

Look what happened when they unmasked SPIDER-MAN and instead of even telling a story with it, freaked out since- well yeah everyone he knows is going to just die now. BAM retcon.