Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related What's so great about *Clark*, anyway?

Oh no! I'm definitely impressed by Superman - more than impressed - and Lois' infatuation with Superman is but natural! Who wouldn't be?

It's just that when it comes to finding love, Clark Kent's the one who comes to my mind, and Superman... well... as I said, it is great wonderful fantastic perfect mind-blowing etc. etc. that Clark's Superman too, but even if he weren't it wouldn't probably matter to me - I'd have watched the TV series!

But I do have to accept that what actually lured me was "The new adventures of SUPERMAN" in the title of the series! So Superman definitely impresses me. He was the first attraction but as I got to know that Clark was the man under the suit, I changed my mind.

But hey, I was in on the secret from the beginning (one of the perks of being in the audience) but poor Lois got to find out only at the end of second season. So I guess Lois' behavior was natural!

And that was the main attraction of the show!

I'm not unimpressed with Superman, per se, I am just a lot more impressed with Clark (and no, this is not about how hot he looks in a suit and tie ... actually, now that I am thinking about that ... ). To me, they aren't two different people; Superman is the public (flashier) essence of who Clark truly is -- and that is why people say they have a lot of the same characteristics. It is Clark who has the innate need to help people, and to keep his loved ones safe. If he has to put on a cape and tights to do it, so be it. If he has to be somewhat detached as Superman, it is for a good reason. So while I have no issue with Superman, he's fairly one-dimensional if you take away Clark's characteristics.

I also think part of the reason why Lois was so attracted to Superman is her personality. She wants to be the best. She thinks she is the best. She won't settle for anything but the best. So why not go after the best option available? In the beginning, Lois' self-worth was, in large part, defined by her ability to attain the unattainable, i.e. her investigative pieces, so I'm sure that in her mind, snagging Superman would be the ultimate achievement in her personal life. He would be her own six-foot-tall Pulitzer Prize.

Superman had the power and the presence that Lois so badly sought in her own career, but it turned out that she was a lot more like the farmboy from Kansas than she wanted to admit. He was ambitious and caring and he wanted to make the world a better place. And like Lois, Clark had yet to find the one person with whom he could truly be himself.

I personally think Lois was right in choosing Clark. She had been burned badly in the past and she needed someone who could restore her faith in men -- and in love. She needed someone who would look at her like she was the most beautiful woman in the universe, but also would respect her as a journalist. She needed someone who would complement her Type A personality and someone who could see through her caustic demeanor and break down her emotional walls.

Clark did all of that. Just as Lois helped Clark create and define his public persona, Clark helped mold Lois into the woman we saw grow and learn to love and trust.

Some people have said that they hate the Lois of Season Four because she had lost her edge, wasn't Mad Dog Lane, was too soft, etc. I disagree. I don't think Lois became soft so much as she grew as a person and learned that there was more to life than chasing her next Kerth Award. She gained a family who loved her and her own parents began to mend their fractured relationship. She saw a future beyond going home to her empty apartment and eating ice cream for dinner, and didn't take as many unnecessary risks because her actions didn't just affect her any more. She found the love of her life, and for the first time in her life, she wasn't alone.

Did it change her? Yes. Life is a catalyst for change. Love and loss and joy and heartbreak ... they all change you. But if you're lucky, you emerge as a stronger person.

Clark led Lois down that path. And that is why I will always feel that he was the one for her, not Superman.

Toc's post makes me think of Superman's debut in Action Comics. It also sheds fresh light on Lois' awe for Superman. (You're right; who can blame her? )

But love is more than just awe, isn't it? And we all seem to relegate Lois' feelings for Superman to "Just Awe." Some of you have pointed out that if you take Clark out of Superman, there's nothing there. Point taken. *But*, Clark *is* in Superman. Er...how to explain...

When Lois meets Superman, she meets a man with looks, powers, do-goodingness, *and* a personality. Clark does not step outside of his body when he becomes Superman. As I said before, Superman *is* Clark, *and* more. Would you rather get an A or an A++?

Yet we are taught to consider Lois as shallow. Superman is a facade, despite being Clark's personality, heart, and the gifts he was born with.

The director of Superman Returns once had an epiphany mid-interview, and stated: Clark in the newsroom is an act. (Even) Superman is over the top. The *real* man is Clark on the farm, where a boy's best friend is his mother and he is truly himself.

This has been mentioned in fic, IIRC. But if neither Superman nor Newsroom-Clark are the real, complete, undistorted picture, then why is Lois rewarded for choosing Newsroom Clark and belittled for choosing Superman?

I know that when Shuster and Siegel first drew Superman, they meant Lois to be the butt of a joke. The hot girl shuns the nerdy everyman while panting over the buff hero, but they're the same guy! Ha ha ha! Since Clark represented the actual state of the author and the reader, this was a misogynistic wish-fulfillment fantasy wherein Lois had to learn her lesson and accept us (the nerd) or else be laughed at behind her back. This triangle has become justified in the 70ish years of the Superman mythos, but it never really went away.

I have to stop typing now because my stomach hurts from too much pie. But do you see my point?

Good question. And I think Lois is being treated unfairly.

I, too, agree that "Superman only" wouldn't be a good husband to Lois Lane. But why should she be expected to choose Newsroom Clark, who also isn't the real, complete, undistorted picture?

When I think of Lois, I see this long line of different comic book Loises from different eras, as well as Margot Kidder-Lois and Kate Bosworth-Lois. I see Teri Hatcher-Lois, too, but I don't see her exclusively.

Anyway, I can imagine Clark coming clean with all these Loises. And he is comic book Clark/Superman and Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh and Dean Cain, all rolled into one. All of these Clarks tell all of these Loises that he is Superman. And all of these Loises reply, speaking as one:

"Thank you for telling me. Right now I'm not even angry at you. Tomorrow I may tear you limb from limb, but right now I just want to get to know the man that you really are. Because I think that I'm going to love you."

Ann

This is why I disliked Season 3-4. Yes there I said it. I disliked it and thought the show jumped the shark when Clark proposed to Lois.

Why?

It wasn't because Lois found out he was Superman. It was because well... she got over it so quickly and they were jumping into marriage so quickly. Who finds out that someone has this totally different side they have been hiding and just decides that's okay? I mean they did have her debate over it a few episodes and then she was okay.

Sure he wasn't a killer or doing evil things... but that means that as much as she knows about him she doesn't know everything! It took her two years to learn this side of Clark, shouldn't it take more than what it did to learn everything about him?

I always wished that she would have found out and then they would have gone another season with her getting to know the real Clark. The mixture of the two. I would have loved to have seen her mad at him for a while and him wooing her big time as the man with the powers. I don't know there are so many delightful possibilities!

To me it made no sense that they would have just jumped into being engaged so soon after she found out and then rushing off to get married.

I loved Clark... I loved Superman... and I would have loved to have seen Lois falling in love with the man that was both of them instead of just one or the other.

Keep in mind everyone... we didn't fall in love with Newsroom Clark, we all fell for the real Clark. The one who got to use his powers in front of us in goofy ways and who consumes his mothers meals at break neck speeds. He's the one we write our stories about not the one who is just plain old Clark.

Lois just got one side of him and that wasn't fair to her.

I heartily second every word that Jojo just said.