Superman Isn’t Lois Lane’s True Love

At the risk of courting indelicacy and making a good Midwestern boy like Clark Kent blush, the only real conclusion here is that Lois would really like her husband to wear a very special outfit to bed. It’s not, of course, the outfit that he wears when he’s leaping tall buildings in a single bound. However, it turns out that it’s not the famous Superman cape that revs the engines of Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Lois Lane.

We would never kink shame our favorite fictional reporter, but it is kind of interesting that the wholesome hero Superman actually has a wife with a naughty mind who enjoys dressing him up in a very special way. Beyond that, though, this throwaway line would seem to confirm what some members of the fandom have been arguing from the very beginning. At the end of the day, Superman might be the one who saves Lois Lane when she’s falling to her death, but Clark Kent is the man she married, and she prefers the Kansas farmer rather than the Kryptonian Man of Steel.

If you want to play armchair psychologist, there are some fascinating conclusions to draw from the fact that Superman is not Lois Lane’s true love. For example, the superhero will be the first to admit that he and his iconic costume have always been a symbol more than anything else. Very few people know Superman, but the world knows what he represents; Lois, meanwhile, knows him better than anyone else, and she prefers the real man rather than the symbol.

Now, as much as we love Kill Bill, the next part is going to make Quentin Tarantino fans mad: despite the titular villain’s great speech in the climax, the Clark Kent identity is not, in fact, Superman’s judgment of humanity as weak and clumsy. Those qualities have always been nothing but cover for his fantastic abilities, and everything else about Clark–his personality, his passions–is an authentic representation of who and what he is. While some writers have fun teasing that Lois Lane is basically in a throuple with two men who are actually one and the same, she prefers the authenticity of Clark Kent.

Ask anyone with a few long boxes of DC Comics, and they will tell you that Superman is the opposite of Batman: while Bruce Wayne sees his real face as the mask and Batman as the true self, Clark Kent knows that Superman is simply a costume that he wears to inspire others. His wholesome heroics and iconic uniform have helped this Boy Scout touch the lives of people all around the world. But when it’s Lois Lane who wants some touching, forget the cape and tights: she’d rather see this muscled Midwestern in his overalls.