You know, I had a plan to plot an Aquaman-related character in this week to go along with the new movie, but when the site went down for a couple days, it threw me off a bit. Then I was thinking about who to feature, came up with this week’s entry, made the banner image, and remembered I was going to do the Aquaman-related character afterwards.
Well, that character can wait, I suppose. Let’s look at Lucy Lane, Lois Lane’s kid sister.
Lucy Lane first appeared in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #36 back in April of 1959 from writer Otto Binder and artist Curt Swan. Lucy was a flight attendant and basically the object of Jimmy Olsen’s desires. Most Lucy stories had Jimmy doing things that, to any sensible adult, look like pathetic ways to win a woman’s attention, but it was the Silver Age, and despite the best efforts of everyone involved, I think you’d have a hard time making Jimmy Olsen look cool no matter what he did.
And that is basically what Lucy Lane was: a young woman Jimmy Olsen kept trying to impress. But that was the Silver Age. Characters are allowed to be more three-dimensional and all now, right?
They sure are! Post-Crisis, Lucy reappeared as an air traffic controller, something that does acknowledge her work in the airline industry from before. She also dated Jimmy Olsen for a period but ended up later dating African American reporter Ron Troupe, eventually finding herself pregnant by Ron, and then marrying him. Ron, like Clark Kent before him, was not exactly warmly embraced by General Sam Lane, but the general idea was Sam didn’t approve of anyone his daughters were involved in and Ron’s race had nothing to do with it.
However, during a storyline called “New Krypton” year later, Lucy resurfaced, whatever past she had with Ron essentially ignored (as it was with Ron when he returned to work at the Daily Planet), and Lucy was now in the military to try and win over her presumed dead father or something. Given that Lucy’s past with Ron seems to have been forgotten or ignored, I think it’s safe to say it doesn’t much matter what Lucy’s reasons were. She just joined the army. Now Lucy is on the outs with Lois because Lois put her feelings for Superman (not Clark) ahead of her duties to the (presumed deceased) Sam Lane.
You know, I just wrote that sentence and had to remind myself these are comic books aimed at a general audience because that is a ridiculous thing to say to your sister no matter what universe you live in.
However. it was during this period that Lucy gained a supersuit that imitated the powers of a Kryptonian plus other alien races, taking on the name of Superwoman. At this point, Lucy’s backstory came out: she grew up in big sister Lois’s shadow and largely blamed her parents. She mostly wanted to impress her dad, but then Lois went all doe-eyed over Superman or something, so Lucy more or less changed her mind. When Sam appeared to die, Lucy joined the army and quickly rose in the ranks to becoming a senior officer…which is not how it works. Enlisted personnel don’t quickly rise through the ranks no matter who they are, and becoming an officer often requires going at the least to officer training school. But I digress. Suffice to say, Lucy’s reasons for blaming Lois for stupid things makes a little more sense in context, but it’s still stupid.
Anyway, Lucy’s new superpowers actually were dangerous and warped her mind as dangerous powers often do. I mean, look at Watson. At one point, she seemed to die, but then came back after sucking the life out of some guys, and was last seen locked in a containment cell…at least until the New 52 came along and she was rebooted again. That Lucy was, well, Lois’s sister who got mad a couple times when Clark would disappear at inconvenient times, and later took some experimental drugs that turned her into an insect woman while her roommate became a werewolf.
So, that’s Lucy Lane, I suppose. It is worth noting Lucy has made a couple live action appearances. Two actresses, Elizabeth Barondes and Roxana Zal, played her on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Peyton List played her in a few episodes of Smallville. And finally, actress Jenna Dewan played her on the CW series Supergirl and Superman & Lois, which is a bit interesting since the two shows may have shared some actors but did not share continuity, so Dewan was technically playing two different versions of the same character.
That seems oddly appropriate actually.
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