I'm not talking about the Supes/WW-ship (which I hate with the passion a Boston Sox Fan holds for the Yankees). Nor am I talking about the recent events. I'm talking about the roots that shaped Lane in the popular culture.
At her worst, Lois Lane:
- Is too $#%(ing dense to figure out who Superman is, in spite of spending generations staring both him and Kent in the face.
- Is a conniving shrew, constantly out to expose Superman's identity to prove her own cleverness.
- Is a hopelessly pinning broad, constantly out to entrap Superman into romance.
- Is a Mean Girl that never grew out of it, based on the way that she treats Clark Kent.
Now, I don't claim that's all there is to her, nor does it completely encompass all the ways that writers have characterized her over the decades. I do wonder, however, if it could have been different.
I once heard that writers in the early 1940s wanted Superman to reveal his identity to Lois, to basically change their relationship to something more like that shared by The Flash and his girlfriend, Joan Williams, and they were told no. Had that happened, would a lot of the negative stuff that came to be associated with Lois also have happened? In saying no to making Lois Superman's confidant, did DC deal the character a lousy hand?