You'll Never Guess Who Superman's New Arch-Rival Will Be!

Superman used to be the butt of jokes regarding his underwear being on the outside. DC fixed that by giving him a new 'armored' look. A jeans and t-shirt look was made to accomodate Grant Morrison's run on Action Comics; which he has re-claimed now that he's been de-powered and his identity exposed.

It was also said that just putting on a pair of glasses and slouching his shoulders as Clark Kent shouldn't be enough to conceal his identity. DC is now addressing that problem as well in an attempt to phase out any of the old Superman tropes.

And they're using Lois Lane to do it.

In an interview with Comic Book Resources, John Romita Jr doesn't pull any punches when speaking of Lois Lane. He explains that not only is she annoying, but she should consider herself stupid for not figuring out Clark's identity 25 years ago:

    It's time for her to say, "You lied to me, you bastard. I should have known. And how come I couldn't tell it was you with your glasses on?" [Laughs] "I'm so stupid. You look exactly the same." She should have known 25 years ago."

While Lois has been mostly irrelevent in the New 52, she appears to be coming into her own, early on post-convergence. However, it may not be the way her fans had hoped. Her relationship with Clark Kent has been completely wiped from record and that has upset many fans who refer to themselves as 'Clois Shippers'. But this is a new era and DC is trying to tell new stories with these characters.

After 75+ years of storytelling it's hard to come up with something new. That's not going to stop the current Superman talent from trying. Not only has DC moved on from the Lois and Clark dynamic, but according to Romita Jr. it should never happen again:

    "I think, to make her different, you have to make her completely independent of any cliché ever written about this female character, because she's original female heroine. And there is no way of doing anything original with her unless you take what everybody else expects her to do and don't do it."

So cancel those wedding plans and don't look for Lois to be Superman's 'sidekick' anytime soon. It appears the two of them are on their way to being pitted against each other. Given that Lois is a reporter in today's modern world where you get paid for juicy headlines and getting clicks, tracking down stories about Superman seems like a perfect fit. Don't expect Superman to be accomodating either. It should be a fun little tug-of-war between the two iconic comic book characters that will need to be more prose than punchy.

Lois is no longer enamored with the Man of Steel. As a matter of fact, she's angry with him for keeping secrets from the planet all this time. You can bet the investigative reporter in her wants to know what else he's hiding. Lois Lane has always been a strong character in Superman's supporting cast, it's a trait that many have lauded her for. So while it's taken a few years for her to answer the bell...

expect her to come out swinging.

Head over to CBR for the full interview with John Romita Jr. and Gene Luen Yang that covers a range of topics regarding TRUTH.