In 85 years of action and adventure, there’s only ever truly been one woman for Superman. It’s the greatest love story that comics have ever told: Clark Kent loves Lois, Lois loves Superman, and somewhere along the way, she falls for Clark as well. It took until 1996 for them to finally get married, and even then, a line-wide reboot kept them apart through half of the 2010s, but they’re together again now and it doesn’t seem like that’s likely to change any time soon.
And yet, as strong as his image is today as a husband and father, for over sixty years, Superman was a bachelor. And that means even when you’re destined for Lois Lane, you’re going to play the field a little to explore your options. And there were quite a lot of women who were left heartbroken when Superman was taken off the market. Let’s take a look into Superman’s date book to see the partners who might have been, from the most famous to the ones you may not remember.
The Contenders
Lana Lang
The Betty, if you will, to Lois Lane’s Veronica. Lana was Clark’s first childhood sweetheart growing up in Smallville, stepping in for Lois in his adventures as Superboy. Lana was frequently featured as a rival to Lois Lane’s affection for Superman in Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane, and even got a Superman of her own to marry in the original “Superman Red/Superman Blue” Imaginary stories. Since partway through the New 52, Lana has had a new Superman to call her own: you’ll see her with her beau in the upcoming Steel series, John Henry Irons.
Wonder Woman
The relationship Alan Moore once dismissed in “For the Man Who Has Everything” as “too obvious,” one has to at least entertain the thought experiment: what would happen if the world’s greatest superhero and the world’s greatest superheroine got together? The first time they tried it, it was a ploy—part of an attempt to dissuade a villain called the Revenger from targeting Lois. After that, Wonder Woman is forced into a relationship with Superman by the god Eros after she rejects him in 1981’s DC Comics Presents #32. 1983’s Wonder Woman #300 features a fantasy sequence where Diana imagines what her life might be like if she married Superman.
The first serious attempt at a romantic pursuit between the two was in 1988’s Action Comics #600, when Wonder Woman’s publicist sets the two up on a date. Superman gets fresh a little too fast, and together they manage to fend off Darkseid from an invasion on Mt. Olympus, but they ultimately decide they’ll probably work better as friends.
Kingdom Come in 1996 is the first to suggest a long term relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman, with the two finding new love for each other years after Lois Lane’s murder by the Joker. This would continue to be a trend in Elseworlds stories, including The Dark Knight Strikes Again and Superman: Red Son.
But it’s in the New 52 era, where a continuity reset erased Superman’s marriage to Lois Lane, that Superman and Wonder Woman seriously give it a go. The two share a kiss in Justice League #12, both identifying as lonely gods who have trouble finding people who can relate to them and resolving to find that solace in each other. Technically, it’s a relationship which lasts the rest of Superman’s life, until he dies in the very last New 52 Superman issue. Not long after, Wonder Woman’s Superman is replaced in the DC Universe by his Pre-Flashpoint counterpart, restoring his marriage to Lois and allowing Diana to pursue Steve Trevor.
Lori Lemaris
The third serious contender for Superman’s heart in the Silver Age was, quite infamously, a mermaid. Superman first met Lori in the liminal time between Smallville and the Daily Planet as a student in Metropolis University, which Lori attended disguised as a human in a wheelchair. The two got serious enough that Clark was going to propose to her, until she revealed her secret and insisted they were too different to ever be together. Superman would live to love again, but Lori would always be the fish that got away. (I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m trying to delete it. Sorry.)
The Alternates
Lyla Lerror
I guess you could say that Lyla Lerror is Superman’s earliest love interest, in that she was dead not too long after Superman was born. In 1960’s Superman #141, Superman finds himself stranded on Krypton years before its destruction with no way to return to Earth. Resigning himself to live the rest of his life on his home planet, he falls for Lyla, a blonde Kryptonian actress. An accident while filming a movie sends Superman back to his own time, with no way to rescue Lyla or anyone else he met during his time on Krypton. But Lyla clearly remains in Superman’s thoughts, as a dream of his life with her remains in the Black Mercy-induced trappings of Superman Annual #11, “For the Man Who Has Everything.”
Lisa Lasalle
The Superman: Earth One graphic novels introduce a brand-new love interest into Superman’s life—Lisa Lasalle, a former sex worker who Clark rescues from an abusive relationship, echoing a famous sequence from 1938’s Action Comics #1. That’s probably on purpose, come to think of it. Lisa remains in Superman’s life for the rest of the series, taking him to his first Rocky Horror Picture Show screening, meeting his mom, and one time hitting Zod with a truck. Clark and Lisa are presumably still together on Earth One.
Beautiful Dreamer
A young New God from Jack Kirby’s Forever People, Beautiful Dreamer becomes an unlikely romantic partner to the immortal Superman by the 23rd century in John Byrne’s Superman & Batman: Generations. We get it; as much as he loved Lois, it’s hard to go through eternity alone.
Supergirl
Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking, but I promise it’s not as messed up as you think. Okay, it’s still pretty messed up, but bear with me. Back in the ’90s, Supergirl was a young woman named Linda Danvers, an earthbound angel in human form who merged with a protoplasmic Matrix Supergirl created by an alternate Lex Luthor from an extinct pocket universe. In Peter David’s Supergirl series, this Linda Danvers finds herself in another alternate reality with a Silver Age Superman. When he discovers that this Supergirl isn’t really his cousin, they fall in love and get married. It’s not weird. I mean it. He only THOUGHT she was his cousin. It’s not like this is the actual Kara Zor-El Supergirl. That would be crazy. Who’s next?
Supergirl (Kara Zor-El)
Oh, for the love of—
All right. Give me a second here.
What you have to understand is…well, the 1960s were a pretty strange time, with a different set of values. Elvis Presley, for example, charted with a song called “Kissin’ Cousins” about how it’s okay to make out with your family. And in 1962’s Action Comics #289, Supergirl sets out to find Superman the perfect love interest, who just so happens to be nearly identical to her. While Kara’s scheme fails, Superman confesses that if he were interested in marriage, it would be to a girl like her…if only Kryptonian law didn’t forbid cousins from marrying, unlike many places on Earth.
That’s it. That’s the reason Superman didn’t marry his cousin. Because of a Kryptonian law. Who knows, maybe Clark was just trying to spare a lovelorn Kara’s feelings, but…we’re not sure that’s better. I’ll say this much: whoever came up with this story has some weird ideas about Superman.
…What? It was Jerry Siegel? We…better move on.
The Flings
Superwoman (Luma Lynai)
A hero from the distant planet Staryl, Luma Lynai is the hero Supergirl set Superman up on a date with in Action #289 who looks and acts suspiciously like Kara. They seemed to hit it off, and might have even worked too, if Earth’s yellow sun wasn’t poisonous to her.
Cat Grant
Even in disguise as a mild-mannered reporter, there’s no getting around the fact that Clark Kent is a hunk. When he first arrives at the Daily Planet in the Post-Crisis Superman comics by John Byrne, gossip columnist Cat Grant takes an immediate shine to their new hire, and they even date for a time as Clark fails to capture Lois Lane’s attention. Clark’s obvious torch for Lois is too great an obstacle for their relationship to survive, and even discounting that Cat wasn’t too fond of how Clark was always looking to fix her problems. Cat Grant isn’t a woman who needs saving.
Sally Selwyn
Poor Sally Selwyn did absolutely nothing wrong and deserves a happiness she never got. In 1965’s Superman #165, Superman finds himself with no memory of his former life in the middle of nowhere after exposure to Red Kryptonite. The amnesiac and sickly Kryptonian adopts the identity of “Jim White” and falls for the ranch hand who rescues him, who grows to love him in kind. The two are nearly married, until the wheelchair-using Jim White plunges into the sea, apparently to his death, only to be rescued and recovered to full health by Lori Lemaris. Later, in Superman #169, a new Jim White enters Sally’s life—Ned Barnes, a criminal who altered his identity to look exactly like Superman and happens upon her by accident. This ersatz Jim White dies as well, leaving her to mourn her lost love a second time, as even Superman grows to pine for a woman who only ever loved him for himself. They would never meet again. Justice for Sally Selwyn!
Lola-La
More proof that Superman is nothing if not a romantic—the moment he loses his memory, he’s going to find someone to fall head-over-heels for. Superman finds himself on the Neanderthal and dinosaur-populated Island X with no memory of who he is. He soon falls for a beautiful native woman and the two are quickly betrothed. It’s only the intervention of Lois Lane which stops the wedding at the last moment, who restores Superman’s memory with a fairytale kiss. Pretty wacky, I know, but this sort of thing happened all the time with comics like Superman: The Man of Steel #6 back in…1991? Really? If you say so.
The Hopeless Hopefuls
If Superman existed in real life, you could imagine that plenty of women would be open to a relationship with him. I mean, think of all the people who have crushes on celebrities WITHOUT any superpowers. Superman does his best to tolerate women like Kelly in Superman Adventures #2, who put themselves in danger specifically to get his attention, but it’s the suitors with superpowers who really give him trouble—whether they’re alien queens like Maxima, who came to Earth hoping to snag Superman as a mate, Orella, an Amazon who claims Superman as her husband when he becomes stranded on their island in Superman #180, or villains like La Encantadora and Obsession hoping to mash mandibles with the Man of Steel. Superman doesn’t have the time to entertain every proposal for his affection, but there are always going to be women out there who find a way to make that his problem.
Beyond the Comics
Outside the gutters of the printed page, Superman’s date book extends ever further. In Superman III, “psychic nutritionist” Lorelei Ambrosia is dispatched to seduce a Tar Kryptonite-poisoned Superman, only to find herself falling for him.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace introduces Lacy Warfield, the daughter of a media tycoon who finds herself smitten with Clark, not Superman.
Lady Zara, a survivor of Krypton, arrives in season 3 of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman insisting that by Kryptonian rite Kal-El is her betrothed.
For a brief time in Superman: The Animated Series, Superman is brainwashed by Darkseid to forget his past on Earth and has a new relationship with the Female Fury Lashina.
Oh, speaking of Female Furies… No, never mind. That’s it. No other Superman love interests in any media whatsoever. Certainly not omitting anyone on purpose. Don’t look up Action Comics #593. This article is over, no further questions. Leave Superman alone, he’s a happily married man.
Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Community as HubCityQuestion.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC Entertainment or Warner Bros., nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
