Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Lois & Clark Why did Lois fall for Lex?

As many of you probably know, I keep criticizing Clark mercilessly for keeping his secret from Lois for too long. But for some reason, I never seem to criticize Lois. Why not? Was Lois some kind of saint who never did anything wrong in the show?

Of course not. On the contrary, most FoLCs would say that Lois was the one who was at fault, so that she needed to open her eyes and stop putting down the wonderful guy who wanted to marry her.

But as I've said many times, I don't think of LnC as an entity separate from the rest of the Superman mythos. I see it as a part of the whole Superman story. So when I look at LnC I always compare it with the larger Superman mythos, and I judge it according to how I think it improves on the larger mythos, or in some cases, how it detracts from it.

When Joe Siegel and Jerry Shuster created Superman back in 1938 (actually, back in 1934) they turned their hero into a wet dream for frustrated teenaged boys. Think of it. The original Clark Kent was a total nobody - okay, he was enough of a somebody to have a job, but that was about it. His boss, well, bossed him around, and the beautiful girl he admired, Lois Lane, despised him. How many young boys couldn't identify with a loser like that?

But the nerdy Clark Kent harbours this amazing secret - he is really Superman, by far the most powerful being on the Earth, who makes the entire world go "oooohh" and "aaaaahhh". Interestingly and depressingly, his superhero qualities don't rub off on his Clark Kent persona in the slightest - the sorry reporter is still a hopeless loser, who gets absolutely nowhere with the girl. The man with the double identity lets off steam by repeatedly becoming the mighty hero who keeps stunning the world and rejecting the girl.

As you can see, this leads to a situation where Clark Kent/Superman can never get the girl at all, because as the bumbling Clark Kent he just can't win her, and as the mighty Superman he simply doesn't want her. I would go so far as to say that the original Superman mythos is at least in parts a depressing story about revenge: it is about the geeky loser in love who becomes the mighty Atlas just so that he can get back at the girl and turn her down himself. There is something sad, selfish and depressing about this. Don't get me wrong now, people, but this can be considered as an extremely, extremely "light" variation of the hunger for revenge that drove Viginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho. It is clear that Cho fantasized, among other things, about having a stunningly beautiful girlfriend (who like to be spanked by him to boot). But Cho could never get himself a girlfriend. Instead he punished the people who had rejected him, not primarily by rejecting them back, but by killing more than thirty people.

The long and short of it is that after many years as a comic book reader, I came to the conclusion that there is something sad, depressing and slightly ugly about the way that canon comic book Superman treated Lois Lane. Okay, but what about canon comic book Lois, then? Was she such a saint? Didn't she deserve some of the things that were coming to her?

Yes, she did deserve it, some of it. But not all of it. Yes, she treated Clark Kent very condescendingly, very disrespectfully. But didn't he deserve at least some of it? Did he really, truly have to behave like such a total geek? I couldn't blame Lois for not wanting such a bumbling loser of a man. But I got even more irritated by the fact that Clark didn't have to behave so stupidly. He chose to act that way, to protect his secret identity. But in doing so, he also chose his secret identity over the girl he liked. He couldn't honestly expect her to like the stupid facade he showed her, so how could he be angry at her for rejecting him?

On the few occasions when Clark decided to shape up and be the nice and interesting man that he could be if he chose to, Lois always responded favorably to him. In the comics, there are two major storylines that began when Clark started to shed his idiot persona with Lois. There was an "alternative" story in the seventies, where Clark got amnesia and forgot that he was Superman. Right away he stopped playing the geek with Lois, and she immediately started to like him. It didn't take them long to actually get married, and this was the beginning of DC's "alternative" story, Mr. and Mrs Superman. Then in the nineties, Clark had become the "real" person in the comics instead of Superman, and he just decided that he wanted to date Lois. As soon as he made it clear that he was romantically interested in her she reciprocated his interest, because now he was a likable guy.

Now let's compare these "canon" version of Superman, Clark Kent and Lois Lane from the larger Superman mythos with their counterparts in the show. It is immediately obvious that LnC Clark Kent is a nice guy who is seriously interested in winning the girl. Nerdy Clark is gone! Very, very good!

But hey, what's this? Lois still rejects Clark, even though he is now smart, sexy and personable, and she rejects him in a really cruel, mean way. This is something I don't recognize and don't understand. In fact, her behaviour is so hard to understand for me that I don't take it too seriously. There are hundreds and hundreds of fanfics out there describing how Lois learns to acknowledge to herself that Clark is a great guy. My enjoyment of these stories - which in many cases are splendid - is diminshed by the fact that I don't understand why she ever disapproved of Dean Cain's Clark Kent in the first place. "My" Lois, the one I grew up with, the one who is the original version of her, would see Dean-Clark's great qualities immediately.

Yes, I know. LnC's Lois Lane comes with a baggage. She grew up with an adulterous father who put his daughter down by telling her that she wasn't any good because she was a girl. And she was severely burned by the betrayal she suffered at the hands of fellow reporter Claude. So, okay - I can see that there are some reasons for her to be suspicious of Clark Kent. Still and even so, to me it is impossible to regard Lois's contempt for Clark Kent as altogether believable, and I really can't believe that her questionable contempt for Dean's Clark Kent is the main obstacle to their togetherness.

However, the thing about the show that I find impossible to wrap my head around is Lois's acceptal of Lex's proposal. There was nothing like it in the comic books. But more than that, the whole idea that Lois would fall for Lex is so totally objectionable to me that I can't really enjoy any story that has the Lois/Lex relationship at the center of it.

To show you what I mean, let's consider the "classic", "canon" versions of Clark, Superman and Lex Luthor as they were portrayed in the larger Superman mythos. Clark Kent was the big zero, the nobody. Superman was the strong good guy, and Lex Luthor was the strong bad guy.

We know from real life that the strong bad guys have no trouble getting themselves girlfriends. Prominent mobsters, various gang leaders, charismatic rap singers who sing about raping and punishing girls - whatever these guys lack, it's not girlfriends. And doesn't O.J. Simpson, who probably murdered his ex-wife, have a new girlfriend now?

What is it that attracts women to dangerous and scary guys like these? Part of it is probably the same thing that makes many schoolchildren side with the school bully instead of with his victim. You want to hang with the strong guy, not with the loser. Because if you antagonize the imposing bully, he can turn you into his next victim. Purely and simply, we are scared. We want to stay close to the scary guys and flatter them into giving us their protection. At least we hope that they will not actively turn their scary might on us.

But this doesn't explain why so many women seem so interested in getting together romatically and sexually with bullies and criminals. The traditional explanation is that most of the women are drawn to these guys because they hope to "save" them, to turn them into nice guys. My good friend Arnost rejects that explanation. Arnost claims that much of our human behaviour is driven by primitive forces that our conscious minds don't even understand - namely, our behaviour is driven by the needs of our genes. According to Arnost, the only thing that interests our genes is that we should multiply and have children. Never mind that many modern people aren't too interested in having children in the first place. Our genes view people of the opposite sex as a means for us to have children. But not only do our genes want us to have children, they want us to have many grandchildren, too. And for our genes, this is the all-important question for any female: Who is the best father for her children? Who can create the best possible chances for her children to become successful themselves, so that they, too, can have many children?

Now remember the popular bad guys. There are always swarms of girls surrounding them, aren't there? Okay, so now imagine that one of these women hanging around the dangerous guy gets lucky and manages to have a child by that guy. Imagine that the child is a boy. Suppose the boy grows up to be just like his father, dangerous, criminal and charismatic, and surrounded by hordes of girls. What are his chances to impregnate many of these hopeful girls and leave behind a multitude of children? I would say that his chances are pretty good.

This is a depressing view of humanity. It says that many women want to have children (especially sons) by bad guys, because they hope that their sons will become bad guys themselves, who will be considered attractive because of their badness, so that they can have many children of their own. If this is true, it means that many women are deliberately trying to have sons that will become dangerous individuals and bad for society.

My friend Arnost also insists the human beings are pretty good at reading other human beings. Usually we recognize the bad guys. We know who they are.

In the comics, Lois always knew that Lex was bad. In LnC, she didn't have a clue about his evil nature. This is something I can't accept. Lois is an award-winning investigative reporter. In my opinion, it is impossible to be so dense and clueless about people's true nature and still manage to uncover important and hidden truths about various shady dealings and criminal people.

So, frankly, I don't believe that Lois didn't know that Lex was a bad guy. I'm not saying that she necessarily knew just how bad he was, but I insist that she had to know that he was bad. And if she fell for his proposal, what does that say about Lois?

Let's consider again Lois's three suitors, Clark, Superman and Lex. Clark is the traditional hopeless nerd. I can't blame Lois for rejecting him. (But I dislike her for rejecting Dean Cain's Clark - and at the same time, I don't entirely believe that she rejected him.) Superman, on the other hand, is the strong good guy. The guy who, apart from the fact that he was punishing her for rejecting his Clark persona, is an unselfish hero who works for the greater good of society and mankind. Lex, finally, is the strong bad guy, who rides roughshod over anyone who stands in his way, and who ultimately only wants what is best for himself.

I don't blame LnC's Lois for falling for Superman. I think she read him very well - he is a hero who is incredibly strong and marvellously good at the same time. I don't blame her for wanting him. But I shudder at the episode where Clark proposed to Lois and she not only turned him down, but she also asked him to go get Superman for her. She was telling Clark that he had nothing to offer her. I don't believe that she would reject Dean's likable Clark so out of hand - this is not the Lois I want to believe in. And she absolutely wouldn't have asked him to go get Superman instead, so that she could ask Superman if he would consider marrying her instead. The Lois I believe in wouldn't be so horribly cruel even to the goofiest version of Clark. And finally, when Superman, the strong good guy, rejects her, she decides to settle for Lex, the strong bad guy, instead. In my opinion, she must know what she was doing. She must know that she was deliberately choosing to pledge her personal loyalty to a man who was, for all intents and purposes, a criminal. I can't believe that she would do it. I can't accept that she would it. Canon comic book Lois wouldn't have done it. And the Lois that I can like and accept wouldn't and couldn't do it.

So, bottom line, this is why I keep critizing Clark even though I hardly ever criticize Lois. I criticize Clark for hiding his double identity from Lois, because I recognize that behaviour in him and I believe that he would do it. And I hate it when he does it, because I'm convinced that it primarily serves to keep him and Lois apart.

But I don't recognize Lois's relationship with Lex. It was never there in the comics. In the comics, Lois was not a woman who would choose to ally herself with a bad guy because she hoped she would get favors and advantages that way. And, bottom line, I can't and won't think of Lois as a woman who would really, truly damn the serious consequences to society for her own personal gain. To me, Lois, like Superman, is a person who fights for the greater good. Therefore, her relationship with Lex is not just abnormal, but impossible. To me, the world of Lois and Clark doesn't make sense if Lois ever fell for Lex.

Ann

Oh, Ann, you're great at quoting the comic book canon, but you forgot a little parallel there. In fact, I'm talking about a parallel world, Earth III. There, the counterpart of each and every superhero is evil. (And I must admit that I'm well aware of the irony of LnC Lois becoming Ultrawoman for one episode: The "Superman" of Earth III went under the name of "Ultraman"...) To battle this evil, this world's Lex Luthor decides to become the world's first superhero - and he even marries 'his' world's Lois Lane. So, please, don't tell me that a Lex/Lois pairing couldn't happen in the comics!

And I truly see a big parallel to the situation in LnC: As on Earth III, the LnC Lex Luthor is a truly nice guy - at least on his surface. Lois doesn't know about his criminal activities, I think. She never gets to witness anything strange about him. In the series, it's always Clark who catches him in the act, or at least talking about his evil deeds. To nearly everyone else, he seems to be the perfect gentleman, philantrophist and do-gooder. And in the series, he does a great job of courting Lois.

Only in one of the last episodes before the near-wedding does confess that he isn't always a nice guy, but the way he does it... Needless to say, Lois believes that he is referring to playing it rough, using his elbows - and not his guns and henchmen!

And about Lois being an investigative reporter who wouldn't be fooled by Lex with his perfectly hidden 'secret': Lois has been fooled by a pair of glasses for years, and she spent much more time with Clark than with Lex. Besides, during the crimes Lex had committed, he usually had an alibi. Clark took off with a weak excuse whenever he needed to be Superman. And it happened quite often - often enough for Lois to refer to this habit of Clarks as his "vanishing act". And still she didn't see the truth before the end of the second season. so, please don't tell me she can't have been fooled by Lex, too!

So why do my explanation of the LLC triangle not work? If she can’t have Superman what kind of man to you think she would go for? To me, Lois lacks self-esteem. She needs to be confirmed by others in every aspect of her life, her strength and independence are reactions to this. But deep down she is looking for her father, someone that can shield her from all the troubles of the world when she falters. Thats why she is attracted to men of power, Clark Kent OTOH, seems to be more in the mould of her mother or sister more likely to need help when the going gets tough.

But you are right even in the modern comic Lois never were interested in Luthor. Then again in say “Man of steel” Luthor came on to her in a rather conquering, boorish fashion, something Lois obviously doesn’t take well too.
But in L&C he treats her with courtesy, respect and seemingly gives her space. He is the American dream personified, why couldn’t Lois be attracted to him? If the world and Lois cannot see through Superman, why should they be able to see through Lex Luthor?

The classical Gary Stu like superman certainly have an large element of the revenge of the nerd. (Then again I’ve never much appreciated him. I’ve never understood why he was so nice and caring towards humanity except possible because he was a product of his Kryptonian heritage.)

Perhaps he unconsciously thinks that she really should be able to see through him?
This is the classical female technique If you can’t figure out what you did wrong I certainly aren’t going to tell you.

For me it’s about patterns. Lois expect to date suave city-men that that can give her the confirmation that she needs. Not naive country-boys from the mid-west, no matter how broad their shoulders are. Once someone is labelled it becomes difficult to see them as someone else.

I also got the feeling that he is similar to Claude in several ways charming, well-traveled etc and got some of the things she liked to give him, moreover she IS taken by him and my impression was that she treats him extra harshly to convince herself that she really isn’t attracted to him.

I agree that one is artistic license, sure she is ruthless sometimes but I couldn’t imagine that he would dismiss his suit so callously, It ranks up there with the proposal scene in level of character assassination, but at least here it’s easy to understand what the writers were aiming for.

And that decidedly not was she is doing in L&C either.

Ann, Olympe, Arawn - so many interesting thoughts.

As you went on to say, Ann, there's more to it than that, but that was originally part of the huge appeal, I guess, to many teenage boys at the time.

I do, though, because I think it shows the complexity of S1 Lois.

If you look at the whole season, you see lots of signs that Lois is attracted to Clark. In fact, classic approach-avoidance behaviour on her part. She's always touching him, something she doesn't do with others. When she senses she's about to take a step closer to him, she pushes him back. "Don't fall for me, farmboy" .

In S1 we see a woman who's been burned in her emotional relationships with men. (no need to go over these<g>). So what does she do? She throws herself into her work and it defines her - besides she's good at it. That's her pride, her satisfaction.

So what to make of the new co-worker, Clark Kent? I think Arawn may have a point when he suggested that Lois was a big city girl and the ways of the small town farmer's son were alien to her - there's a bit of a cultural gap there.

But more importantly, Is he a threat to her job? Why has her boss decided she needs a partner? What's Kent up to? (it's a cut-throat workplace on big city newspapers) What's with these moves he's putting on her? No guy before has ever done that without being after something. So what does Kent want?

And yet, she meets his eyes, they laugh together, she touches his arm. And in PML, we know who she wants. <g>

And then, Superman! A hero - remote and so he's safe. It's okay to have a crush on him, to admire what he does. And amazingly he seems to like her. He holds her in his arms, touches her hair, tells her she's "special to him".

Now here comes the complication. In ASU, it's clear Lois has more than fully accepted Clark. She's got feelings for him. So what does Clark do? Absolutely nothing - no dates, nothing to move his relationship with her ahead. What is Lois to make of that? As well, we see none of the intimate Superman-Lois scenes either.

So here's Luthor, a man she's know about but met for the first time the day (a day later?) than she met Clark. In his own way, he's a Superman - think Bill Gates maybe - corporate giant, philanthropist. Plus he's attractive, sophisticated, and he's clearly interested in her. He's a lot older than her - is there a bit of the father substitute thing going on? She's always been rejected by men she cared for in her past, but Luthor isn't rejecting her - that's got to be appealing to her.

Now for That Scene in the Park - you know the one I mean - the one over which even Ann, Major Defender of Lois Lane, gags.

Me too. But....
Watch the scene, and look at Lois's face and her posture. She's genuinely distressed by Clark's confession to her. And she does love him - she tells him that and I don't think we doubt it, especially given how she pursues him in HoL. She thinks, now that she loves him like a brother, but in HoL she understands the truth about her feeling for Clark. Again the conflict within.

And what is Clark Kent doing proposing to a woman he hasn't even dated?

And now for the Truly Insensitive, She Should be Burned at the Stake request to Clark - could he bring Superman to her?

But Lois needed to talk to Superman at that point. She thinks she loves the guy. He's given her some reason to think he cares - and just as Clark had burnt his bridges with her that morning, she's now about to do the same thing with Superman. So stupid.

Okay, I'm assuming that Lois's need to talk to Superman at that point was as reasonable as Clark's need to talk to her that morning in the park. But... how was Lois to contact Superman? She had no way, other than to yell "help Superman" , a hugely unethical action if her life was not in peril. It didn't even cross her mind. But she'd long suspected that Clark was able to get in touch with Superman. And she had no way of contacting him. What was she to do?

So she asks him the Evil Question. And she knows it's not quite right - watch the scene and look at her face.

So why Lex? Rebound - her emotions were not totally engaged. As well, she's 27 - not unusual for a woman to be thinking about marriage at that age. A tougher woman would have shrugged and said if I can't have the man I love, that's life. I have my Work. But a lot of woman settle.

Why not Clark? How could she go back to Clark and say, Okay, Supes dumped me so I'm available?

Now the big question - why didn't she know Luthor was Evil? Well, she had no proof - nothing to even hint in that direction. Plus lots to hint that he was okay - all that philanthropy. She didn't have the "inside" information that Clark Kent had about Luthor.

But yeah, her instincts should have warned her, and they didn't. And that makes her story interesting.

anyway, my take on it.

c.

Ooooh. I agree with some of what Arawn said and also what Carol said. I actually decided a couple of months ago that I wanted to write a fic about this very thing - the rejection of Clark and acceptance of Luthor and why Lois did what she did. It's been a fun topic to explore.

I feel very strongly that Clark was the only one who could see Luthor for who he really was - and that was only because of his position as Superman. He knew things that no one else could have possibly known.

I can also see how Lois would just think Clark was being jealous when he began attacking Luthor's credibility. He had previously warned her about Luthor in a very cautious, reserved kind of way. But he didn't out and out try to tell Lois that the man was evil or that she was getting in bed with the devil until AFTER Lois had rebuffed his advances. So that made him look like he was just being petty and jealous.

Also, I never felt that Clark was "proposing" to her when he met with her that day in the park to tell her his feelings. He never actually said the words "will you marry me". All he did was tell her that he loved her and that she had to have known. I always felt more like he was saying "Please don't marry Luthor. I love you and I want the chance to get to know you better. If you have any feelings for me, then you'll wait and see if we have anything." I just don't consider that an out and out proposal.

Now, Lois's response for me was not unexpected... and I will also argue that it's not out of character. I think like some of you said, that she was afraid of her feelings for Clark and she was pushing him away. She hadn't come to accept herself that she loved Clark, so how could she possibly admit it to him? What I did think was exceptionally cruel was her asking him to go fetch Superman. But again, I think that was a knee-jerk reaction. I think Clark floored her with his confession and she was afraid and confused and Superman was her port in the storm. Clark did seem to have some kind of connection to Superman. But, while I do think it might have been unorthodox for her to yell "Help Superman" to get his attention, why couldn't she have just yelled "Superman". He would have come even if she had just shouted his name - and then the whole "help" ethics thing wouldn't have been an issue. <shrug> But like I said before, I think the "asking for Superman" was a knee jerk reaction. Clark had just flat out asked if she was in love with Lex, and she stammered over her answer and I think it embarrassed her and sort of threw her for a loop. She knew there was one person she really did love - Superman.

But anyway, what I liked particularly about the whole scenario was that Lois realized she was in love with Clark *before* she knew that Lex was evil. And also that Lois broke things off with Lex *before* the cavalry showed up to stop the wedding.

I think Lois is a very complex character with deep trust *issues* - even with trusting herself. So based on her actions in other episodes (even future episodes in later seasons), I can see her doing exactly what she did.

So there's my take - if it made any sense. <g>

-- DJ

It makes lots of sense, DJ

Yes, that's how i always looked at it too. I wonder some people thinking Clark was proposing.

Oh yes. That's why the show was so interesting - because the characters of Clark and Lois were complex, neither completely the saint.

I tried to explore these issues, especially with respect to Lois, in Yesterday Upon the Stair and more recently in The Fact of the Matter, and so I did a lot of thinking about them . (sorry for the tacky mention of my stories)

Still not sure that Lois would call for Superman for a purely personal reason - what if he were in mid-crisis rescue mode or something? But I do agree that her request was spontaneously made - she didn't know *what* to do.

c.

I haven't been around as long or thought as hard about these issues as many of you, but I still find this a very interesting conversation. I did have one thought on the topic:

To quote CC:
I agree - Lois didn't know what to do. Added to her life-long trust issues, her life was in turmoil because she'd lost the support she felt from working at the Planet, her interactions with her surrogate father, Perry, and her 'little brother', Jimmy. Now her best friend, whom she's clinging to - asking him to come with her to LNN - declares his love for her. In effect, Clark removed his unconditional support by making their relationship too risky. Lois is already feeling like her life is on shaky ground and her best, 'safe' friend cuts her adrift. What's a girl to do but turn to her *other* good, 'safe' friend, Superman?

I know there's more to it than that, but Lois may have asked to talk to Superman because (in her mind) she no longer had anyone else safe to talk to, someone that could give her a firm foundation in her life that had seen so much upheaval?

I'm sure there are stories out there that explore it, but Superman could have given her an answer that would give her a place of safety without agreeing to a romantic relationship. It asks a lot of Clark, who was hurting, but could he have done it and would it have made a difference?

BJ

Well, it's so interesting to read your very thoughtful replies to this, guys.

And I think each of you have a point. Not only that, but in many ways, you are more right than I am. Because the rest of you start from the show and analyse that, whereas I start from the comics and from what I think that Lois and Clark ought to be. Let me explain, however, that what I really compare the show with is not the old, classic Superman, the guy who was a hopeless nerd when he was Clark Kent and who became Superman at least in part so that he could reject Lois. No, I'm comparing the TV show with the comic books in the early nineties. Back then, Clark Kent wasn't too different from Dean Cain's version of the Farmboy from Krypton. Comic book Clark from the early and mid nineties was attractive and likable, and he very much wanted Lois, too. And she responded. Because comic book Lois from the early and mid nineties loved Clark back, and she did so in what I thought was a mature, positive way. Comic book Lois from the nineties could never have fallen for Lex. She had no Claude in her past. And whatever Sam had done to her, she didn't let it color her perception of Clark.

I guess that, bottom line, it has hurt me that so many people have seemed to be angry at Lois, because they thought that Season One Lois was such a bitch. And I've just wanted to protest that Lois was never like that! That's not the Lois I've grown up with!

But the rest of you people here look at Lois the way she was presented in the show and try to analyse the woman that you saw there. You're doing an admirable job, too. I particularly appreciated Arawn's and Carol's observation that Lois was really very attracted to Clark right away, but her attraction to him scared her and made her push him away even harder, because of her bad experiences in the past. Of course Arawn has an important point, too, when he points out that Farmboy Clark seemed to be the wrong man for Lois to fall for, whereas suave city-man Lex was the right kind of guy. And like some others of you pointed out, Clark wasn't proposing to Lois in the episode where tried to persuade her not to marry Lex. But Carol is right again when she points out that Clark hadn't been actively dating Lois or trying to move their relationship forward, so it was hard for Lois to know that Clark's interest in her was as serious as Lex's interest in her seemed to be.

In other words, First Season Lois is much more of a complex, insecure character than a heartless bitch.

But I will keep insisting on two things. If Lois's instincts told her that Clark was a desirable, attractive guy that she very much wanted, then her instincts should have warned her off Lex more than they did. Yes, like some of you pointed out, her instincts did make her reject Lex in the end. They didn't totally let her down.

Another thing I just can't accept is that Lois was a galactically stupid woman who would misread any guy. There is no way I can think of her like that. Yes, she was fooled by a pair of glasses, but I'll keep insisting that in the LnC universe, as well as in the comic book and movie universe, the laws of nature are different, so that Clark's glasses, different hairstyle, different clothes, different body language, different way of speaking etcetera are enough to fool everybody, not just Lois. In "our" universe, these things wouldn't have been enough to fool the world for long. After all, if Superman had existed for real he would have been the most famous and recognizable person in the world, and even Clark Kent is a moderately public person. In "our" world, there is no way that his cover wouldn't have been blown within days. To see what I mean, imagine that one of today's most famous persons had tried to live a double life in such a way that even his "other identity" was seen in public. Imagine George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brad Pitt. Imagine that any of these guys honestly tried to be "Clark Kent" on top of their well-known super-famous personas. Imagine that they repeatedly switched between their two personas, and that they didn't use more than clothing, body language, glasses or contacts and perhaps a wig to change from one persona to another. How long would it take before their cover was blown? Honestly, it wouldn't take long. But in the LnC universe as well as in the comic books, no one can see that Clark Kent is Superman. That's why I insist that Lois can't be galactically stupid for failing to see it. And that's why I insist that she doesn't deserve to be regarded as galactically stupid when it comes to reading men in general, just because she didn't see through Clark's cover. And that's why we shouldn't expect her instincts to be totally off when it comes to Lex, either - although it's true that LnC's Lex was much more subtle and much better at hiding his evil nature than his counterpart in the comics.

Anyway, it's been an interesting discussion! And I guess you are right - I don't really give the complex Lois Lane from LnC a fair chance, because I'm stuck on the way Lois was in the comics. And ultimately I just need to defend her, you know?

Thanks for discussing this topic with me, people!

Ann

I don't think Lois was ever galactically stupid to not see CK=S, but I agree with many authors when they write her berating herself a bit because I feel she should have wondered more, thought more about it. But I don't think that in any way has anything to do with her reading of men. Her problems with that stem mostly from inexperience in personal matters. And while I do believe S1 Lois could be called a bitch, I don't really blame her for it. If my feelings (and I'm a guy) had been trashed that systematically by that many members of the opposite sex, I'd don't think I'd be Mr. Sunshine to the next one that seems interested in me. Having a relationship with Lex likely made her feel valued and esteemed, which is what she was striving for in her work as well. And one big difference between Clark and Lex is with only a bare knowledge of each, she could be sure that Lex wasn't looking for a one night stand or anything, and Clark was unknown. Yes, Lex did those things with other women, but her relations with Lex never even got as intimate as working with Clark did. She could hide herself from Lex, but Clark knew her too well to get involved. Rejection by Lex? She could tell herself he didn't know her well enough, even though she was glad he didn't. Rejection by Clark? Having someone who knew the true her reject her would feel like a rejection of her very personality, and that she couldn't handle. That's why Clark was off-limits at least as early as HiM, if not earlier.

For me it works like this. We know that Lois social life is extremely limited “she has interviews not dates”. This bugs her because she craves success and being seen as successful, being the girl who hasn’t her dance card filled isn’t what she wan’ts to be perceived as. And suddenly the richest man in America comes and asks her for dates,
Here you have a guy that clearly has options yet chooses her, Quite obviously he is a tremendous boost to her ego irrespective of any attraction she feels to him. And he is funny, interesting, cultured, not difficult on the eyes, seriously what woman wouldn’t ask herself if she makes a mistake discarding such a man?
And I mean how different seem they to be? They are both ruthless go getters. (People just doesn’t now how ruthless Luthor really is.)

But this isn’t enough, Lois is perfectly content to soak up the attention, but she is guarded when it comes to committing to a relationship.(nothing to do with Luthor, just her bad experiences and controll needs.)
Which Luthor realizes So what does he do? He kicks away the foundations that Lois life revolves around, her work, suddenly she is forced to re-examine her priorities and discovers that the world outside the Daily Planet is a scary place but luckily Luthor is there for her, offering her succour, and of course she naturally gravitates to him.
Now the Lois from season one isn't a nice person, but I think the viewers and most certainly Clark realizes her bitchiness stems from fear and not some inhererent evilness. Her work colleagues OTOH probably finds her very difficult.

In comparision, in the comic the “man of steel” you have this exchange:

Give me a chance and I could make you the happiest woman in the world.

By making me wife number seven or is it eight? You do tend to make Henry VIII look like choirboy.

Is that it then Lois? you reject me because I’ve been unlucky in love?


It’s quite obviously a different Luthor and it’s quite easy to see why there are no chemistry there. My impression is that the comic book Lois is also far less complex then the Lois in the series, Comic book Lois have a stable relationship with her family, no bad break ups, doesn’t simply project the bravado, she is spunky through and through. This Lois has no real need to be confirmed, hence Luthor has less attraction.

That is another reason I love L&C because Shea play the perfect psychopath, showing Lois attention affection and concern and gives he space as a hyper-intelligent charismatic multi-billionaire should if he had taken an interest in her.

It is kind of silly. But I remember a fic that gave good explanation for this:
Lois is beating herself up for not seeing the obvious and Martha or was it Jonathan? tells her a story about a farmer they knew that looked exactly like Clark Gable with mustache and everything. Everyone who meet him marveled at the resemblance, yet despite that, no one misstook him for Clark Gable, because Clark Gable wasn't dressed as a farmer or plowed fields in Kansas.

Arawn, your take on Lois makes perfect sense. Her behaviour makes sense if we see her as a socially very insecure woman who has this tremendous need to be seen as "right" and "socially successful" by the women who make up the "in" crowd and define what social success really is, women like Cat Grant and her ilk. If Lois is this sort of woman, who measures her own success and happiness by how much the "in" crowd approves of her, then she would certainly fall for Lex Luthor simply because a relationship with him would bring her precisely the social success that she craves. The question of whether or not she loves the man she is going to marry suddenly becomes a moot point.

I have only one problem with this take on Lois - I don't like this version of her very much! I want her to be more independent, more able to stand up for herself, more able to shrug off the fact that others may frown on her for being single, more unapologetic about the fact that she hasn't met the right guy yet, more able to accept the fact that if she never finds him, she will remain single. A pity, but there you have it. That's what I would like "my" Lois to be like - and then of course I want her to meet Clark and have her world turned upside down by him, which is another story...

But, bottom line, Arawn, your take on Lois is a very good one. Many women are totally obsessed with what others think about them, and they will do so many things just to get the approval of others. Lois in the show certainly acted as if she was one of those women. And the show can definitely be seen as a story about how Lois learns to reevaluate her life and her priorities and find out what is really important in her life, now that she has finally met this guy who has been looking for her all his life. And yes, even I agree that Lois becomes a more complex person that way.

Ann

I think that social acceptance was a major reason for Luthor being an option, and Lois didn't really recognize it. She denied that she needed others approval, but the underlying was still there, just as she sometimes denied she was a workaholic just to prove her father wrong and gain approval from him, yet that contributed to it a lot. Lois didn't allow herself to accept most of her feelings, so she was unprepared to accept them when she really needed to rely on them for decision making in her personal life.

I think PML was fairly conclusive in saying that Lois was attracted to Clark while not at all to Lex. So she never really "fell" for Lex. She was following her head and not her heart.

She basically settled because she wanted stability. Lex understood that, which is why he went to the trouble of destroying the Daily Planet. He knew Lois would never have accepted his proposal otherwise.

Despite being supremely confident outwardly, she was a vulnerable lady, riddled with insecurities. That made for a more complex (there's that word again) and richer character than the one of the comic books. The comic book Lois had to fall for Clark when he was strong and respond to him, but had to reject him when he was weak. In L&C, she did fall for Clark but her personal issues caused her to ignore her heart and push him away.

This is a very interesting topic.
I actually think that Lois going for Lex is quite understandable. Didn't he become president in some incarnation ?

Real life is full of examples of people who are so charming and likeable that they swindle very smart people out of millions of dollars. I went to high school with a guy like that -- he was so fun and nice. And he did all kinds of favours for peopel too. Too bad he was also a huge crook ! I think Lois was kind of swept off her feet by his charm - and lets face it, it must have been pretty fun being on such a rich man's arm. But in the end, she did call it off. That took a lot of guts.

Not recognizing Clark as superman has always been harder for me to get. AT least after they became friends. Before that , its easy to think she didn't REALLY look at him. Once they were friends it was , well, galactically stupid.

For what it's worth, I firmly believe that Lois tells herself exactly what Ann said. But there's a wide chasm sometimes between what we believe about ourselves or our motives and what's actually happening. Lex read Lois perfectly - he flattered her into dating him and then systematically destroyed everything that she used to define herself. I don't blame her for almost marrying the guy - for that much money I'd probably marry him too.

That's why I love the Lois of LnC so much - she's not a comic book character (at least not in the first two seasons of the show). She was complex and intelligent and yet so wonderfully blind to what was right there in front of her.