What Makes Lois Lane Actually Great

So recently the internet had a bit of a shock upon realizing that Lois Lane is in fact not just a pretty face and body and waifu material, but has some actual character flaws to her. Some have taken a lot of issue with recent events, made a few (kinda unjust) comparisons here and there, so on and so forth. So as a Superman fan of a good few years now, and because like everyone else with an account on one social media platform or another I just have to get my say out, I thought it'd be an opportune time to ramble about a long-time question: if Lois is so flawed, reckless, and kind of a jerk at times, what on Earth does Clark Kent see in her?

Well...let's stop and take a look at Lois Lane as a whole. She is absolutely not a perfect human being, and she has several flaws. She's impulsive. She's reckless. She's not above using underhanded methods to achieve her goals. She can be downright spiteful at times.

But see, there's a flip side to all that. That same impulsiveness and recklessness is a side-effect of genuine determination and drive. She has genuine disgust for wrong-doers and the corrupt, and will fight tooth and claw to expose them and bring their misdeeds to the public light if that's what it takes to bring them down and bring positive change. She's willing to risk her life to do so even at the risk of Superman not being able to save her, and she probably was doing it before he was even around. And she genuinely cares about her friends and loved-ones, sometimes ferociously when they're threatened. For all of her numerous glaring problems, Lois Lane genuinely cares about making the world a better place and the people she loves.

And that's the key to it. She makes a lot more sense as a character whom Clark loves when you stop to think about his relationship with humanity. We're a flawed race and society, nobody needs to say that twice. We fight. We kill. We discriminate. We hurt ourselves over and over seemingly without end or lessons learned. It's easy to look at all that and come away thinking we're hopelessly fallen and never going to get any better.

But it's also just as easy to miss the good that people do, the genuine efforts to make things right, and the victories and progress that are actually made. Humanity gave Clark everything good he ever had. If there were truly no hope amongst our kind, there never would've been a Jonathan and Martha Kent to raise him. He sees and is grieved by our worst, but he knows what we can be and are at our best, and that's why he'll go to bat for us no matter what.

And in a microcosm of that, that's why he'll go to bat for Lois Lane too. And that's why she works.

And let's not forget, Clark and Lois have been married for around 27 years worth of comic publications by now, and not even the New 52 with its pushing of the SuperWonder ship could keep that down forever. They've stuck together loyally at each others' sides ever since, have a son whom they love and have raised up pretty well, and they're arguably the most stable and healthy A-lister superhero relationship in comics right now; none of the off-and-on that Batman and Catwoman have, and Lois would probably kick Mephisto where the sun don't shine if he even tried to pull a One More Day on the two of them. This is a woman who once protected her son from a villain with a life-force draining Bat-mech designed to fight Darkseid, after all.

There's a good reason why Clark Kent loves Lois Lane and why they're perfect for one another, and a much better character than she's often given credit for.

~Fin~

Comments

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

Well said, my friend. Well said indeed. ^^