Dear Watchers: an omniversal comic book podcast

>> Rob: Forget dc. Let's celebrate some d she. Welcome to Dear Watchers in Omniversal comic Book Podcast, where we do a deep dive into the multiverse.

>> Guido: We are traveling with you through the stories and the worlds that make up an, omniverse of fictional realities we all love. And your watchers on this journey are me, John, Girl Reporter, Guido, and be Superman Play. Wasn't it Girl Reporter? The first story we read today? I think it's Girl Reporter. I'll check that before we get to it. Well, we are not a DC Comics podcast, even though it feels like we're becoming one. But that's in large part because we made a commitment in our 150th episode anniversary to do some more DC imaginary worlds. And we're really excited for July Superman. So, I don't know. I don't think between now and July will be a D.C. exclusive Promise podcast. Don't think. But in researching today's episode, I stumbled upon so many things involving Supergirl. They just. James Gunn had just shared that, extraordinary picture that got me squealing of Supergirls sitting in the chair on the first day of production, and that makes me really excited. So we are going to have to cover a wacky Supergirl story very soon. But we're not a DC Comics podcast. In fact, there are so many what if titles on the sts right now, they're doing a big what if Galactus series. You're going to say something about dc, though. What do you want to say about dc?

>> Rob: Well, I think, and I think I mentioned this the last episode. The thing is, we go to our local comic book store, Earthworld in Albany, and we're looking. I look through the new releases, and I just. Some of these Silver Age titles, and it's like, how can we not cover this? They just, like, jump off at you.

>> Guido: Yes. They are, like, they say, perfect and kooky.

>> Rob: Judge a book by its title, by its cover.

>> Guido: But that, oh, these ones you cans do. Yes, you absolutely, absolutely can. And yeah, so the what if. There's a bunch of Galactus titles. They're pretty cool. They're doing, like, what if these different people, including Rogue and Gambit, were Galactus Heralds? Which there was a what if in, the original series about that question. But clearly they're gearing up for Galactus in the Fantastic Four movie with all of these publications. So there's a lot in the elseorlds to.

>> Rob: I expl. You are. And people might not believe this. I know you're behind on, a lot of comics now.

>> Guido: So have you been reading these? I have almost three short boxes behind. Like, my TO reads are in short boxes. Usually I have like a, short box and maybe a little pile on top, but I currently have three short boxes, so it's not going well.

>> Rob: So you haven't read the new what ifs then?

>> Guido: No.

>> Rob: Which one you were just talking about? Okay.

>> Guido: Nope, sure have not. But I am looking forward to it.

>> Rob: Discover them together. Because usually you've already read these, like, months or years in advance.

>> Guido: Well, I'm sure I'll preview them before we get to them, but we'll see. And maybe not. Maybe they'll be our next episode. Who knows?

>> Rob: Exactly. Well, if you are joining us for the first time, we have three parts of our journey through the multiverse today. Origins of the story, exploring multiversity, and pondering possibilities. So thanks for coming along.

>> Guido: Yes. And remember to leave us a five star review wherever you're listening. Find us on Blue sky at, Deer Watchers. And you can actually go through our back catalog of episodes@, deerwatchers.com and.

>> Rob: With that, welcome to episode 152. And let's check out what's happening in the Omniverse with our travels to today's alternate universe.

>> Guido: I really do just want to play that whole song and we'll explain what it is in a moment.

>> Rob: Well, today we have all the multiversal coverage that's fit to print as we answer the question, what if Lois Lane thought Superman abandoned her and hi Jins.

>> Guido: Ensue as they always do. Yes, this is our first visit to this Earth, though it's kind of two Earths, but it's also just our first visit to this title, which will not be a surprise to anyone who's started this episode or heard our last two episodes. In terms of these alternate Earths, Our first DC imaginary earth coverage was actually Superman and Lois. Back in episode 51, we interviewed Lois Lane expert Tim Hanley. Back in episode 61, he literally wrote a book on her. And we expect him to come back soon and talk Batgirl with us because he has a new book about her. But we've actually otherwise never focused exclusively on Lois. Last episode, of course, we focused on Jimmy and his imaginary alternate universes that maybe are supposed to be canonical but make no sense. And so here we are doing it with another member of the super family.

>> Rob: And what is your relationship with that member of the super family, Lois Lane? Because everybody knows Lois Lane. I think we talked about this in maybe Even last.

>> Guido: Yeah. Because we said Jimmy was like the third.

>> Rob: Yeah.

>> Guido: Known character.

>> Rob: People know Batman. They probably know the name Lois Lane more than they know most superheroes. Like when before the Iron man movie came out. Imagine much more people could name Loest than they could name Tony Stark.

>> Guido: Yes, I think that's true. And probably in large part thanks to Margo Kiddder. I think of course most people agree that's an iconic performance of Lois Lane. Though I have an addendum to that in a moment when I finish my background with Lois. I'd say my background with Lois. I've always. Since I've always been someone drawn to female characters and sort of snarky, sassy characters at that, which she's not always been written as, but has at times probably again thanks to Margot Kidder. She is someone who's interested me. But as we're gonna explore in our history, she. There's not a lot of content to have gotten in on her. My era of Superman as someone growing up was around death. And at that point, the prior to death, of course, she finds out Clark is Superman. Love that story. Post death, they're married. Love, love, love that story. So she's a big part of the Superman. I don't have like a low lane. I really appreciate character and am, moderate fan of her. The one addendum mal make is that I think Bitsy Tulluck's performance of Lois Lane in Superman and Lois is. Sorry, Margot Kidder better than Margo Kidders. I think it is the best. Lois Lane. I think Bitsy Tulluck raised the bar for Rachel Brosnahan. And we'll talk about what we're hoping to see from that. But I think that Lois in Superman and Lois is the lowest in my mind. So highly recommend that. And that made me.

>> Rob: You guys are on nickname basis.

>> Guido: I didn't realize that she goes by Bitsy. I know she's credited, but like she goes by Bitsy. I don't know what to tell you. It's I don't call you Robert. That's true.

>> Rob: That's true.

>> Guido: So what is your background with our girl reporter?

>> Rob: Well, very much like my background with Jimmy that I talked about on last episode. I think my entry point into Lois Lane was Terry Hatcher. Actually, on. And I think Terry Hatcher's performance owes a lot to Margo Kidder. And it's interesting. I think we'll get into this when we talk about today's issues where the lowest in the issues we're talking about doesn't have that sarcastic strong feel that then I think those later on screen Lois' do. But I think I loved also growing up watching a lot of older movies, this was a character that kind of drew a lot from especially in the Margo Kid or Terry Hatcher performances of like those quick witted, tough.

>> Guido: Yeah. Claudut, Colberte kind Kathariine Hepburn.

>> Rob: Totally, totally. So I think I always did love that aspect and very much that that performance and Margo's performance and then later in comics. But like kind of Jimmy, even though I read some Superman comics, maybe at the time I was reading it, Lois was a little bit more off to the side. I never remember seeing her as big of a presence in the comics as say Mary Jane was in the Spider man comics that I was reading at the same time. I don't know if that's actually just like my memory or if that was actually.

>> Guido: Yeah, I suspect it is but I don't know. Who knows.

>> Rob: Well that's our origin of the story. So let's go way on back to the 1930s to talk about the real.

>> Guido: Or a the story to get to the 1930s. We're going toa take a detour via 1979 because the audio I'm playing, I'm suspending our usual audio for this amazing song. Apparently comes off a flexi disc distributed with a Superman annual in Antigua and lost until last year apparently. All very strange. Couldn't find a lot of information but it's a fantastic song. So here we go on our way to origins of the story.

>> Guido: Very emo Superman in that song. I love it.

>> Rob: You know who we need to investigate the origins of that song? Lois Lane.

>> Guido: We do.

>> Rob: Out in a second.

>> Guido: Well let's go through some of her history, her creation and her publication background.

>> Rob: Yeah. So Lois Lane debuted with Superman back in action comics has one from June 1938. According to a 1983 Siegel and Schuster interview. Writer Jerry Siegel first conceived Lois Lane in 1934 when the two were still developing Superman. And she was inspired by the Warner Bros. Torchy Blaine film series character who was a tough female reporter Guido. Do you know this character at all? I did not.

>> Guido: I'm know of Torchy Blaine. It's not movies I've ever watched. I don't think they're quite as revered or maybe not even quite as good as stuff like His Girl Friday and the other sort of things we were referring to I think.

>> Rob: But yeah there still I would getna guess that like tough female report. Oh yeah, like that Catherine.

>> Guido: There were so many examples of it, although some of those are actually into the 40s, so maybe they're even taking inspiration from Lois.

>> Rob: Totally. And in 1988, Siegel also shared that his eventual wife, Jo Man Carter, was Schuster's original art model. So they actually w she was the model before they got married. They didn't get married for several more years. And he said because the name of the actress Lola Lane, who also played Torchy laaine, appealed to me, I called my character Lois Lane. And strangely, the characterization of Lois is amazingly like the real life personality of my lovely wife.

>> Guido: How nice.

>> Rob: Yeah.

>> Guido: I'm not surprised.

>> Rob: And then Joanne was also like a big fighter for getting the rights and getting. Oh.

>> Guido: Back to the family.

>> Rob: Well, so she had that gumption that from Lois.

>> Guido: Yeah, you could see that. That's very cool to know. someone, I hope, if they haven't, someone should write a biography of Joanne Carter. That'd be pretty cool. So in terms of comic book worlds, there's a backup series of stories. More on that in just a moment. And then Lois led two issues of DC's showcase, the anthology title that would debut different ideas, characters or concepts. And as Lois was becoming increasingly popular, she gets her own title. Superman's girlfri friend, Lois Lane. It is. There is a space between it which sometimes trips you up when you're like web searching for this titleus.

>> Rob: Is she that. Does that mean that she's his female friend rather than his love?

>> Guido: Or maybe at the time, grammatically girlfriend, as one word was too colloquial. You know, there was a lot of, like, that sort of things didn't get added to the quote unquote dictionary for some time. Maybe it's that.

>> Rob: I'm not totally sure the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is chainsaw. two words, not one.

>> Guido: I don't know why that is. So Superman's girlfriend, Lois lane, debuts in 1958, runs for 137 issues to annuals. Many of the issues had lo us into some fantastical highjinks. A, la, Jimmy Olsen. Lots of competing with Lana Lang. It's a romance title, and we'll talk a lot more about it when we get into it. 80 of the first 81 issues were drawn by Captain Marvel artist Kurt Chaffenberger. In 1962, Lois is at the peic of its popularity and the third best selling comic book in the US after Superman and Superboy. So that we can see. Yeah, we can see why this summer'superman movie release is a big Deal and Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane ended one year after Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen. The two titles became part of the Superman family which ran for some time from the 70s into the 80s. And we'll have more on Lois later. Comics in our third segment. One thing I want to say is these titles are also not collected. It's very unusual. There's, there's issues or stories that are put into like Lois anthologies or they did one edition of the first eight issues but there has not been for some shocking reason an omnibus of these things. So I'm going to continue our collection of single issues because these are so fun to read.

>> Rob: A lot of them also aren't line either. Right, right.

>> Guido: There are about 20, 25 maybe of the 137 issues that are digitally available on DC Universe Infinite. And it's not clear why but that is some of the publication background that leads us to where we are today. But that's not all about Lois Y of course.

>> Rob: Well Lois continued to be a mainstay of both comics and in TV and film with far too much history to go into here.

>> Guido: I know from the serial to everything.

>> Rob: Cartoons, video games played by no less than nine actors in live action projects alone. That's not even counting animated projects. So there's been a lot of Lois Lanes out there.

>> Guido: That there have been. And we are going toa start with our origin issue.

>> Rob: Yes. So this is Superman Volume 1 issue has 28th June 1944. It's a backup story in the issue. It's called Lois Lane, Girl Reporter. The Suicidal Swain.

>> Guido: Yeah, and that shocking title. I feel like we need a content warning here on this segment. The issue does not give you a content warning but has lots of jokes about suicide. So get ready. It is written by DCE C. Cameron, penciled by Ed Dor Broatka who also does the inks, edited by Jack Schiff. Don Cameron had created the Toy Man, Tweedle Dumb, Tweedle D and Liberty Bell. Also introduced Batman's Hal of Trophies and the Batboat. So big into these kind of weird things and created Alfred as Bruce Wayne's butler. The artist Ed Brotka was one of Schuster's earliest assistants and did the inkings for Schuster and other artists. Co created the Toy man with Don Cameron. So we can see this team is a big part of D.C. at this time. And we chose this story because it is again her first headlining story if you will. She's of course been in the title, but this is the first Time that she gets her own subtitle, if you will. Lois Lane, Girl reporter. And it continues throughout Superman's series for a bit here. So why don't you summarize this really wacky, issue story here.

>> Rob: So a man is threating to jump from the ledge of a skyscraper, and Lois attempts to talk him down. But then Lois learns that the man was only up there because his girlfriend gave his gift of nougats to her dog. And in his. In her ire, she can't believe this. Lois accidentally falls, but is saved by a series of awnings. And eventually Ann net Jimmy is impressed that Lois didn't even need Superman to save her. And the man from the ledge has come to his senses and says the next time he will only kill himself for Lois.

>> Guido: Yeah, okay, so a lot in there, but peeling back some of the layers. First of all, I thought it was really fun. I liked it. I liked the absurdity. I think we talked about this a bit on our Jimmy Olsen episode. And every time we visit these Golden Age comics, I think we're left with the question of, like, did the writers know what they were doing? And here for sure, 100% like the idea that he's killing himself for the dog. It's not that even like Lois says, oh, did your girl, the person you like, marry someone else? And he's like, no, he just gave my. She gave my candies. The. She gave my candies to her dog. Like, the writer knew what he was doing here, which is really fun. What I was struck by is how much of the other stories we read today and we're looking at considering reading are bound up in here. Like, this question of, like, when did Lois need Superman? How do realities. Does she always get saved by Superman? Is she to relian on. On being saved by Superman? So it was really interesting to see that. That in her first solo outing, that's part of what they're exploring with her. Ah. What did you think?

>> Rob: Man and Clark don't have a single appearance.

>> Guido: No, I'm sure that's intentional. Yeah.

>> Rob: Can t will the future you describe be averted divertgin going back to what were saying on my chest but Iess like a when comes hard I can't be l that pro wild But I wish I tried to deceive you a little from the star I might be power influen f maybe ju'higher than the building and I Dr. But if I had one power, it'll be to cat you back again.

>> Guido: Yeah, I agree. It's interesting. I know throughout. But I think you're right. She's still being written as a proto feminist, if you will, or some certain extent a certain type of feminist in this. And I think that is also interesting to see. I agree.

>> Rob: My favorite line might have been the lead cop character. Like he then sees that Lois has also gotten out on the ledge and he says, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to get up there soon. It's gonna be a threesome.

>> Guido: Oh, see, I thought you were gonna say my favorite is toward the end when she's falling, the cop says, I can't bear to look. Ms. Lane was a fine girl. A bit difficult at times, but a fine girl. I love that he thinks she's dying. And it's really important to say a little difficult, but yeah. So it's really a perfect WAC fun story line.

>> Rob: Which is very much, I think, written as a joke, maybe one that m hasn't stood the test of time where like.

>> Guido: Well, I don't know that it was a good joke then either. I'm not sure there was ever a time in what joking about suicide was the right course of action.

>> Rob: It is almost like it's actually more ridiculous way to end the book than and the story than the rest of the story actually was. I don't know, maybe the nougat is pretty ridiculous.

>> Guido: Yeah, well, or you can just take it as the guy is kidding. But yes, it is a ridiculous way to end the book. So it's a really fun first outing for Lois Lane, girl reporter.

>> Rob: Well, Guido, are you ready for more Lois falling and more dogs eating things that they shouldn't? Because it's all coming up in our next issue. This is exploring multiversity M. And this week we are asking the question, what if Lois Lane thought Superman abandoned her and hijinx ensue.

>> Guido: And don't worry, if you are looking for the song, it's going toa return in the final se.

>> Rob: This is Superman's girl friend Lois Lane, number 30 from January 1962. It's got three stories or one story with, well, two stories with one's got two parts. Who knows? It's when Superman abandoned Lois Lane. Superman s secret family and the robot paradise.

>> Guido: Yes. And we chose this issue. It's not the first Superman's girlfriend, Lois Lane. It's not the best Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane. It's not the wackiest Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane. But it seems like it balanced a few key elements and we actually chose it before even reading the Initial story. And it's got a lot of great connections. This first story, when Superman abandoned Lois Lane, the writers unknown, which is not too uncommon, sadly from this era. It is pencilled and inked by Kurt Schaffenberger and edited by Mort Weissisinger. Kurt Schaffinger, as mentioned earlier, known for the Marvel family and Captain Marvel work, worked on Lois Lane and stayed at DC for 40 years where his lowest work was so iconic and the definitive representation that he was often asked to redraw other artists depictions. And he worked on more Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and whatever happened to the man of Tomorrow, which we have covered on this show before retiring. And that is the first story. The second two stories which are one, are written potentially by Jerry Siegel. It's again not credited, not clear where someone has that idea, but that was indicated on the Internet. And it is penciled and inked again by Kurt Schaffenberger, edited by Mort Weissisinger. So let's talk about this first story.

>> Rob: Yes. So tired of Lois always relying on him to save her, Superman decides to teach Lois a lesson. While she continues to put herself in dangerous situations with a mobster, drug smuggler and octopus, Superman secretly saves her without letting Lois know. The trick works and Lois thinks Superman has abandoned her and only wants to take safe assignments from now on. But when the mobster comes for revenge, Lois is finally saved by Superman. Only plot twist, it's not Superman, it's Jimmy in disguise. Thinking Superman will now save her from now on, Lois jumps back into danger, leaving Superman pissed at Jimmy.

>> Guido: I don't even think that summary got to the best parts of this issue.

>> Rob: That that's the broad strokes of this story.

>> Guido: So first of all, I think one thing, and we haven't really talked about this, people who have existed on the Internet for more than a decade remember the Super o, what was it called? Super Dickory. Maybe it was all about finding pages from early Superman issues where he is a quote unquote Dick, where he is a jerk person. And this issue is such a good example of that trope that existed. And a lot of people might not realize just how common a trope that was. Like Superman really was a jerk. And in this one he is.

>> Rob: This just came up in the Superman Christmas issue that we covered just around Christmas time, where Santa Claus gets like made to be super.

>> Guido: Yeah, he's a jerk. To Santa Claus, Superman is like.

>> Rob: And he keeps think Superman wants him to lose weight. And Santa's like, I've lost enough weight. And Superman's like, no, you Haven't. And like, Superman's eating an ice cream cone in front. In, front of Santa while Santa's exercising.

>> Guido: But he's like. He's not just stern and obnoxious to her. He's then like Clark and watching her and just thinking how badly she needs to be taught a lesson. And then the dog. Explain the dog plot because it is really fun to read.

>> Rob: So Lois and Clark are going to a dog show to cover the dog show, which alone is kind of a weird thing. Then loest spots, like, this drug smuggler who's putting opium into one of the dog trophies and is gonna get that out. That also. That too. Very bizarre.

>> Guido: Yeah.

>> Rob: And Lois is gonna go, like, confront him. And of course, Clark Slooperman is trying to teach him a lesson. So instead there's like an ice cre.

>> Guido: There's a. Lois decides to have ice cream instead.

>> Rob: Also decides to have ice cream. Yes.

>> Guido: So she stops for ice cream, and this black dog appears out of nowhere, eats her ice cream and dies. Because the ice cream was poisoned. Because the person selling the ice cream was trying to kill Lois.

>> Rob: Well, so Lois thinks like, she thinks that's not even the actual case. Right? Yeah. Well, I don't know.

>> Guido: I can't tell if the poison is real. No, that.

>> Rob: But real. Like he.

>> Guido: Well, because they're. Well, because they know Lois is on to them. Like, Clark keeps saying the gangsters are gonna get you. But you're right. I don't know. Maybe the poison is a setup. Because what does it turn out? So the dog apparently dies first.

>> Rob: Yeah. We see this black dog die on screen, which, I mean on panel, which is like kind of traumatic on.

>> Guido: And there's an excellent, excellent. I bet this. This panel was even taken by, what's his name? Who copied all the comic images and is a famous artist.

>> Rob: yes.

>> Guido: Can neither of us think of his name? It doesn't matter. He copied other people's work. But there's this great panel with the dead dog. And Lois, like, with her hand on her face and tears coming downuse. She's looking at a dead dog.

>> Rob: She thinks the dog is not actually dead. It is in fact crypto, which Superman has one painted black to used his ventriloquist powers to control.

>> Guido: To get. To get crypto to come eat the ice cream and play dead.

>> Rob: And then to get the paint off of him, he blowtrches the paint off of crypto. So there's a lot going on there. One of the other fun lines I love is like, ah, is that the dog? Eats this ice cream. And then Lois was like, the ice cream must have been poisoned because there couldn't have been anything else in that ice cream that it could have hurt the dog. It is chocolate ice cream. Even specific.

>> Guido: And I thought it was going toa be the opium. I thought the opium was gonna be hidden in the ice creamah.

>> Rob: But I love. And then like yeah, so know that chocolate ice cream. Chocolate was bad for dogs in the 60s, I guess. Maybe.

>> Guido: I don't know. I mean that's one of the ridiculous like I'm gonna teach this broader lesson moments. But then Superman just like has Aquaman's pet octopus attack Lois Lane while she's skin diving for a story. I don't know what is going on. I mean, this is Jimmy Olsen level wackiness at this point.

>> Rob: There's like a treasure down there or something that. Yeah. That police.

>> Guido: And so she thinks she's gonna be killed by this octopus, which of course she's not because it's a a controlled experiment the whole time. So it just has the perfect level of Superman is such a jerk and Lois is stupidly in love with.

>> Rob: And then I think the final reveal, which is that when Superman does save her in the end, it's in fact Jimmy. It'actually was set up earlier because Lois actually makes a point that Jimmy has a box of costumes that she says very early on, because she gets a window washers costume to spy on the mobsters. And the only reason she's uncovered is because they spot her red fingernails and they're like, there's no way a window washer could have red fingernails. Yes. Then I love the idea when Jimmy actually you he's uncovered. And then Superman does say to him, you know, Jimmy, if they just shot a little higher.

>> Guido: Well, because he had a bulletproof vest. He bullet m vest so that the bullets would bounce off of him. And yes, I love the climax. The second to last panel is Superman telling him like they could have just shot your head. And Jimmy's like, oh my gosh, I could have died. It's ridiculous. Ridiculous and fun. And it is really funny that again, this isn't the first issue of Superman's girlfriend, but this story is so has so many echoes of that Superman girl of Lois Lane girl reporter story in the early Superman like just this question again, as I mentioned earlier of does is she over reliant on him and is he gonna set better boundaries? Which is ridiculous and just makes him a jerk. But that's sort of the plot here. And I think the plot of a lot of these titles.

>> Guido: And even to the point where it has the like falling out of the window and will he save her as the trope which is part of that Lois Lane girl reporter. So let's get to the COVID story. So each issue had multiple stories, but had one featured on the COVID And this one I'll describe. The COVID is. Is before you summarize it, we have Lois Lane again in ah. A definitely lifted by Roy panel of Lois crying because he's watching Superman. She's watching Superman with a myr woman in a wheelchair with a child myrr person in a cube. And they are a happy family. And Lois is so sad because on a secret distant planetoid he has a mermaid wife and a merman son. And that's why he won't marry her for all this time. So that is the COVID was another.

>> Rob: Issue that Lois became a mermaid or Lana became a mermaid. There was more mermaids involved.

>> Guido: Lois becomes a mermaid. And then of course there's the famous actual mermaid that Superman u has a relationship with. So that's what. And he. She refers to that in the story even. So why don't you summarize this tale.

>> Rob: Well, with the help of a new super telescope, Lois sees that Superman secretly has a mermaid wife named Mookie and a mermaid super sunn named Nipper on another planet. Lois is distraught and tells Superman off. The man of Steel is determined to find out what's really going on. And eventually it's revealed through lots of flashbacks, lots of explanationh. The other Superman is in fact a robots. And so are Mookie and Nipper. Those three are left to live their life together and Lois is once again back in love with the real Superman.

>> Guido: And dreams of as happy an existence as the robots have one day with Superman. Yeah, this I. I can't even believe how ridiculous this story is. I don't know what. I don't know what to say or where to begin.

>> Rob: Yeah, well, even the idea that Superman would have like this secret life because it's like a story that you would see on like a Lifetime movie where like this guy actually has like this whole separate family that nobody hears.

>> Guido: Well, and I love like that. But they again, this is definitely where you know, they know what they're doing because they lean into it for a bitch. He's watching them. And I love like the sequence where he bakes a super pie with his heat vision which is basically just like a big giant 12 foot round pie. Like so she's Watching her, his apparently happy life. And then I love the sequence where the mer child who can just seemingly just float in the air. I don't know what is going on back to there.

>> Rob: Like, Before you get to that part. So, yeah, he bakes this pie. And then the next day at the Daily Planet, Lois says, like, oh, like. Or see Superman? It was like, oh, Superman, what did you.

>> Guido: Oh, yes. How difficult was your space mission? And he says, easy is pie.

>> Rob: Easy pie.

>> Guido: Right.

>> Rob: She's like, that's jerk.

>> Guido: Right. Because it leads to the second moment where she's watching again and she sees the merboy floating in the air, licking a giant lollipop. So. No. Makes no sense.

>> Rob: Yes.

>> Guido: Superman breaks the lollipop up, I guess, because he's not supposed to be eating it that much. And when he returns to Earth, he makes it. She says, I bet this mission was easy too. And he says it was as easy as taking candy from a baby. So she's convinced that this is proof. What she's seeing on screen is, therefore, Superman with this Myrr family. But then it turns out that he goes there and they find out that it's this whole line of robots which are canonical. These are canonical robots that Superman created. but he gives this whole backstory on how he created four of them. And we get a whole training montage, which is really fun, of how he trained the four of them to do.

>> Rob: Different things for these panels from previous issues. I don't think they were.

>> Guido: I doubt it. I highly doubt it. Because I don't think they did stuff like that.

>> Rob: And I don't think, like, the artist was working on Superman proper. So I think they were up for.

>> Guido: No, I think this was made up. But he trains these robots. They can't. They're not affected by kryptonite. So he has them fake falling down if they see a green boulder. So that's a fun one. I like that. He teaches them how to turn into Clark. And they have a signal so that they never get too close to each other so that, no one ever sees two supermen next to each other. So he's really thought of everything. But then, the story gets even more convoluted because Superman becomes invisible. And because of that, one of the robots goes to save some spacecraft and ends up on this planet.

>> Rob: Yeah, it's, like, partially destroyed. Yeah.

>> Guido: And so they're on the planet where there's a mermaid, Mookies living on a dry planet and she can't find water and she's In a wheelchair. I'm very confused by this. I guess she has no.

>> Rob: Like, she can'I.

>> Guido: Guess so. I don't know why. Well, I guess I do know why the sun can fly. Because it turns out that Mookie dies. It's a very dark issue.

>> Rob: Dies.

>> Guido: And so robot.

>> Rob: She fixes the Superman robot, but then she's like, I'm. At least. I'm going to die, but at least I can save this one robot. And then it's like. And then she's dead. And then the Superman robot is like, okay, but she's dead. But she fixed me, so I'm gonna make a robot of her.

>> Guido: And he decides to complete it, they need a robot child. So he makes a robot child who has superpowers and is a merboy. And so that's. The whole plot, is that this robot is living with this robot.

>> Rob: Even says at one point before mew, we get the Superman robot reveal, but we don't get the Mookie reveal right away. And then Lois real Lois says, like, but robots can't. Robots and mermaids can't have children.

>> Guido: Yeah, it really. It's. It's. This one is more like a Jimmy in the way that we were talking about last episode. Like, did you just throw a dart at, like a board to try to figure out the plot? In this one, it's like they drew out of a hat, robots, mermaids, and Lois Lane thinking Superman has a secret family. All right, let's make that plot and pull. Tie it all together.

>> Rob: Although I'd say, like, the one issue with this one versus the previous story in the same issue is that, like, Lois doesn't have a lot of agency or things to do in this one. Like, in the other one, we see her kind of. She. You know, maybe she's not always the brightest because she's, like, really jumping into the deep. Into the pool constantly. But, like, she's going for it. And here it's just, like, all she can think of is that Superman has this other family. And, like, in this. In the final part of this story, like, Lois almost has nothing to do because the whole thing is basically flashback exposition.

>> Guido: Oh, yeah, it's exposition heavy. Which stops it from being fun. It's too long. It's too dense. It's not a fun highlight. The first story, I think, is a good representative highlight of the fun you can have in Superman's girlfriend, Lois Lane. This one, I think, is y.

>> Rob: Still bit quite as much when Superman. One of my favorite lines here, because these all have Such great lines. One of my favorite lines is when Superman does come back, the real Superman, to visit Lois, he says, I've just come back from another space mission. Mind if I admire your baby blue eyes? Talk about creepy. Like, are they? And they're not even. What's also weird is, doesn't Superman, like, not always want to be in a relationship with Lois? So why is he coming in saying, like, I want to stare into your eyes, lady.

>> Guido: I don't know what's going on. And then he, at the end, he says, I'm happy we're friends again. Like, I guess. Cause she was angry at him. So, yeah. That wraps up our first foray into Superman's girlfriend, Lois Lane. It will surely not be our last.

>> Rob: Yeah, because I think we were just flipping through and there's one where, like, she becomes overweight. And I mean, there's so many differently. Like, there's like, they go from Jimmy.

>> Guido: Olsen wacky to like, really quite dark. She has. She's killing Superman with her kiss. She emits kryptonite. So they can't be together. I mean, it gets really fun. It's such a fun subversion. I mean, we talked about Jimmy Olsen being inspired by Archie, clearly, visually and maybe tonally to a certain extent. This is in the same way, I think, being inspired by romance comics, but putting it in a superhero universe, which is really fun. And.

>> Rob: But also some of those sci fi, to a lesser extent, horror comics. Like I saw. There's one, issue where Lois gets a typewriter and the typewriter can tell. Write someone's obituary before they've actually died. And of course, then it wrs her obituary and she like, sees how she's gonna die. And that's like such a classic, like Tales from the Crypt kind of set up, but just put on to Lois Lane. So I think those romance stories, those kind of sci fi fantasy stories, those horror stories, all kind of the light version of those. But they were able to put this into this world.

>> Guido: Or the classic trope of becoming the person you love and the person you're jealous of. Baby. Which is great. That's an issue we're gonna cover one day where Lois becomes, But she becomes Lana and Clark's Superman.

>> Rob: Becomes Baby, but then super and then baby.

>> Guido: It ends. A Superman bottle feeding her while she's thinking as a baby how much she hates Lana.

>> Rob: I thought you crazy. When she is providing corporal punishment to Superman's.

>> Guido: Oh, yes, and her arm hurts.

>> Rob: Superman's a baby and her arm hurts because he's got Buns of Steel. It's like, oh, there's a lot of. And all this, of course, is like the person you have a crush on. So there's a lot of weirdness going on.

>> Guido: We'll cover lots of it. But before we do, we've got a third segment.

>> Rob: Yes, it's time to ponder some possibilities. To Guito. What are we talking about for pondering possibilities?

>> Guido: It's our first foray into Lois, so let's talk a little bit more after the end of this title. she's in Superman's family and then she has a two issue miniseries in 1986. It's actually something we should cover at some point. It has incredible Gray Maro art. It's written by Mindy Newell. It's most famous though because it has a dead child on the first issue on the COVID It is quite dark.

>> Rob: Not a dead baby Super Superman, a dead child.

>> Guido: And it's quite dark. And it's the same year as like Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. So I was reading a great article about this title and how it sort of should be considered in that of the era of dark superhero stuff. Outside of that, it's really Flashpoint where she gets her own title focus and after that, back in the core universe. Greg Rucka most recently wrote a kind of 12 issue, I think maxi series of her. So we haven't had a lot of ongoings recently. She's spoiler Superwoman in the main title, but not a lot spinning off with her. My first question is, do you think she can carry an ongoing title?

>> Rob: Oh yes, I think Compl.

>> Guido: Why don't they do one Sex is m. Simple answer.

>> Rob: Yeah, I mean, because again like we. When you think of her compared to other like female counterparts, like Mary Jane Watson for example, like it like that's not a character that you would necessarily see have a solo part. But like Lois is like this investigative reporter and I think when you look to like that it was Superman. The TV shows was Superman and Lois, Lois and Clark. Like she has as much agency as the guy with all that basically can do anything in the world. So yeah.

>> Guido: And the Rucka maxi series, which is the most recent does that. It's really focused on her investigative journalism. It really tells a story that has little to do with Superman, which is good. But yeah, I don't know why we haven't got it ongo. Maybe that'll change post movie, but I.

>> Rob: Think maybe something that has a bit of like a. All the President's Men and that is it is to it. And like I even think of like, oh, even seeing her in like a comic strip form where she's also kind of investigating that. I could see that there like a Mary Worth or in, in that ilk. So yeahah. I'm surprised that we have not seen something that kind of follows that aspect of it.

>> Guido: It is funny that there isn't a daily strip of her. There probably could be. Not that daily strips are that popular.

>> Rob: But they included a daily. In my research they did include a daily strip, but it only ran for literally like 12 strips. Oh, and it was like what they did with Dick Tracy. It was like a addendum to the Superman strip. But it must not have been very successful because it did not even last a year.

>> Guido: Well, on screen in just a few months from when we're recording, we'renna see Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane. What do we want to see from Lois in this new iteration of the universe?

>> Rob: Well, I think and we both love Rachel Bronnahan on the marvelous Mrs. Maisel. And I think that kind of quick witted that. And also that character was obviously from like the 50s and 60s. And I think we so much of associate just that way of talking like we talked about earlier with Lois Lane as well. So I think if they can take some of that from that character and put it into her portrayal here, it's very much how I kind of hear that here. Lois in my head.

>> Guido: Do we want a Superman Clark Lois triangle or do you want her to know?

>> Rob: I would like to go back to the triangle and the reason why is because a lot of the recent versions have avoided it. The Snyder vers, the, even the, the Bryan Singer Superman Returns and then Superman and Lois on television as well have all kind of avoided the love triangle aspect. So I do think it could be time to kind of go back to.

>> Guido: That core original to her not knowing approach.

>> Rob: What do you think? What did you want that or do you want her to know?

>> Guido: It's hard because I know people have talked exhaustively about this for decades. It's hard because you have to suspend so much disbelief in order for that to work. Like there's not a good way for you to believe that she can't tell.

>> Rob: But I think what they did well on Superman and Lois is that like Lois knew but you have that suspension of disbelief for everyone else, like.

>> Guido: Lana that makes more sense because everyone, like when you see someone on tv, you know it's like a celebrity, like if you see them walking down the Street. You might not even recognize them. Like, I think that makes more sense. But the person you. In this world, let's assume they're not living together yet, but they're working together. You worked with someone all day and had feelings for them. I don't see how you wouldn't recognize them with just a slight shift in appearance. So I think that's where you have a suspension of disbelief that has to come in.

>> Rob: Though he will have, like, a magic dog in this one too. So, I mean, a superhero dog. So.

>> Guido: Yeah. And there could be even some explanation or there could be something. I mean, sadly for them, happily for us. David KN Sweat'hair looks awesome as Clark and Superman, but it doesn't look very different either in either iteration. So I'm curious if she'll know or if she'll maybe know herself but not get it confirmed. It'll be like that kind of dynamic's.

>> Rob: Kind of what they do in the original 78 movie. Like, she finds out, but then they turn back. Turn back time to, like, have her not know what actually happens. But, like, they. They all. It was almost like an acknowledgement in the Don or film where it's like, if she's this smart, she's got to figure it out. But then we want to go back.

>> Guido: Yeah'trick. Her. Yeah. So otherwise, I'm expecting that I'm going to like this performance a lot. I think what I loved about my buddy Bitsy's performance is just how much care and strength she had. I think what we know can often become a trope and a caricature. Is the sassy woman. Right. Like that. That can almost become a two dimensional thing.

>> Rob: Yes.

>> Guido: I do not have any thought that Rachel Brosnahan is on. James Gunn are gonna let that happen here. But I think that's what Bitsy TLU did so well is she's this loving emotional core. She has feelings. They vary. She's sad, but she's strong. She's capable. She has agency. She's independent and loves her family. Like. Like she. She's so fully human. And I think that'll be the case here. But I would want to make sure she's fully human because, yeah, I think she's a character who could easily be played. One note. And again, I don't have any expectation that that's gonna be the case here. But I want her to be fully.

>> Rob: Human just like Amy Adams portrayed her.

>> Guido: O God.

>> Rob: No offense to Amy Adams. So she's perfectly fine. I don't think that was her fault.

>> Guido: No. No, but that was terrible. Yes. And very underdeveloped. So. Yeah. And I wouldn't mind some Superman's girlfriend level hijinkx. As we've talked about on every episode we're goingna do about DC imaginary stories at this point. Turn it into a Harley Quinn cartoon.

>> Rob: Exactly.

>> Guido: So let's get a Lois Lane wacky.

>> Rob: We've covered this. And Jimmy, like you could do like kind of what they used to do on classic Warner Bros. Cartoons where it's like maybe the hijinkx can't sustain all 30 minutes.

>> Guido: Right. So here's an eight minute story. Eight minute story. Ye.

>> Rob: Yeah, yeah. Either, yeah, one for Jimmy, one for Lois, or just mix and match them. I think that would be a lot of fun.

>> Guido: Yeah, I would not mind that. But in the meantime, that is a wrap. Deer Watchers, thank you for listening. I have been girl reporter Guido.

>> Rob: And I have been Superman's girlfriend Rob.

>> Guido: And you can follow us on all social media. Dear Watchers, the reading list is in the show notes.

>> Rob: Give us a five star review wherever you listen and we'll be back soon with another trip through the multiverse.

>> Guido: Keep pondering the possibilities.