Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane is a DC Comics series that ran 137 issues from 1958 to 1974. Like the title says, it focus on the personal and professional exploits of Superman's lady love, Lois Lane, an Intrepid Reporter for the Daily Planet. The comic mixed women's issues and experiences of the time period with fantastical plots that come with dating the man from Krypton. Notably, at this point in comic book history, Loves My Alter Ego was in full force; while Lois loved Superman and occasionally tried to wrangle him into marrying her, she was not yet aware of his Secret Identity as her colleague Clark Kent, although she had her suspicions.
The series is also notable for debuting the Silver Age versions of Catwoman and Rose/Thorn.
Compare Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, which starred Lois's friend and coworker Jimmy Olsen; the two titles, along with Supergirl (1972), were later merged into Superman Family. Lois got another ongoing in 2019; for that, see Lois Lane.
Tropes in this comic book:
- Amnesia Episode: Lois gets amnesia a lot.
- In #4, Lois suffers a blow to the head during a rockslide while dressed in a cowgirl costume, and in her amnesiac state winds up concluding that she's Annie Oakley.
- In #11, Lois is left amnesiac after being caught in a plane crash and is left stranded in the jungle. She winds up joining a pack of leopards and becoming a Jungle Princess.
- In #12, Lois is caught in a car crash while in disguise, and comes to genuinely believe she is the woman she's disguised as.
- Amnesiac Liar: In #12, Lois disguises herself as reporter Sheila Dexter to interview a movie star who despises her. However, while driving to meet the man, she gets into a car crash and suffers a blow to the head that leaves her amnesiac and believing she genuinely is her cover identity. It verges into Amnesiac Dissonance when "Sheila" comes to despise Superman and Lois Lane, while simultaneously falling in love with Clark Kent.
- Attractive Bent Species: In issue #92, Lois Lane is turned into a mare with the full roster of Kryptonian powers. Since Superman is obviously out of her league now, she decides she'll just have to become Supergirl's horse "Comet's" mate instead.
- Black Like Me: In the story "I Am Curious (Black)" (issue #106) Lois temporarily changes herself into a Black woman to experience life as a Black person.
- The Cameo: Billy Batson as Captain Marvel showed up in one panel before his character was acquired by DC.
- Contagious Powers: In one issue, Lois and Lana gain Kryptonian-like superpowers by being around Superman.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Superman consistently denies marrying her to avoid putting her in danger.
- Interspecies Romance: In one issue Lois gets turned into a mare with Kryptonian powers, and decides that since Superman obviously won't be interested now that she may as well join Supergirl's super-horse Comet in wedded bliss. Technically, it's still an interspecies romance after this because Comet is actually a Ancient Greek centaur trapped in horse form most of the time.
- Love Triangle: Lana Lang frequently showed up as Lois's rival for Superman's affections.
- Loves My Alter Ego: Much was made of the Dramatic Irony that the Secret Identity of Lois's love, Superman, was Clark, but she didn't know about it.
- Nighttime Transformation: One of the stories in the first issue has an offscreen example with a legend about a girl named Molly Todd who became a hag named Mad Molly every night. Lois is seemingly cursed to suffer the same curse after she breaks a mirror in the presence of Molly's picture, providing the impetus for the story. It then turns out that, actually, she was just turning older at night because of a failed youth serum. Any supernatural feats were only Superman letting her think she had gained powers until the serum wore off.
- Role Swap AU: Lois Lane #47 - "The Super-Life of Lois Lane!" is What If? scenario in which Lois asks one of Superman's supercomputers what would happen if she'd been from Krypton instead of Superman. As Krypton Girl, she has a career exactly the same as Superman's (right down to being part of the Legion of Superheroes), but she also has to fend off the meddling of Clark Kent, who's obsessed with discovering she and Lois Lane are one and the same. One big difference is that due to Lois's very different personality, rather than accept Clark's meddling with good humor as Superman does, she actually quits the Daily Planet to get away from Clark—only to have him follow Lois to her new television job after Perry White fires him for harassment. Ultimately, Clark uses a trick with Red K to expose her, which turns her into an evil giant who banishes him to the Phantom Zone forever.
- Scene Cover: Issue 81 has a cover that shows Superman killing Lois in space.
◊ Although the scene was tweaked a little for the cover, it unfolded almost exactly as shown except that Superman wasn't trying to kill her, as the cover implied, but saving her life. - Shattering the Illusion: Lois hits her head while diving. While Superman rescues her before she can drown, he ultimately finds out that the concussion knocked her unconscious and that she's having a very pleasant dream, one she has no reason to wake up from: she and Superman are finally married. Supes tries to wake her by spoiling the idealness of the dream world, first by revealing his secret identity and then by turning their dream children into handfuls. Lois still manages to find some way to bend the dream back on its ideal course until Superman introduces a new character, Lulu, her replacement at the Daily Planet and implies his dream self is in love with her now. Heartbroken, Lois wakes up.
