Posted By Dan Greenfield on Oct 17, 2025 | 5 comments

A MARGOT KIDDER birthday tribute…

—

We’ve got a three-fer for you! It’s both Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and Lois Lane actress Margot Kidder’s birthday! So dig this piece — and check out two others, here and here. Far out! — Dan

—

By JIM BEARD

True story: The first time I saw Superman: The Movie, I didn’t care much for Margot Kidder’s performance as Lois Lane.

OK, well, maybe that’s a little strong. I was 13 (how appropriate) and I was used to the comic book Lois and to Phyllis Coates and Noel Neill on television. I can be forgiven, I think, for thinking that Margot kind of came out of nowhere with that accent and that almost-comedic take on the character — but I got over it. It was strange back then; today, we love the lady and see what she was doing as a fresh wrinkle on the character.

And besides, today you have actresses like Teri Hatcher, Bitsie Tulloch, and Rachel Brosnahan following in Margot’s footsteps and very obviously keeping her unique spirit alive in their own Lois Lane performances.

This is all a long-winded way for me to say there’s a lot of room in the universe for different ways to look at different characters, and none of them are truly wrong. Today, on Margot Kidder’s birthday — the late actress was born Oct. 17, 1948 — I’m thinking about the spirit of Lois in the form of all the fun analogues and alternates we’ve seen through the decades, and want to celebrate that along with our beloved Margot. (Plus, check out these 13 Superman wannabes!)

Grab your tape recorder and your pad and pen — we’ve got some investigating to do!

—

Mrs. Lois Kent (First Appearance: Action Comics #1, 1938, DC). She’s the Original, the Mother-Lois, the one that all other Lois Lane’s spring from… sort of. If you think about it, she became an Alternate Lois when Earth-One stole Earth-Two’s thunder and Lois Lane No. 1 became “the other one.” Still, she won her man before E1 Lois did, and while all that malarkey with Infinite Crisis and beyond spoiled what should have been her last hurrah in Crisis on Infinite Earths, she’ll always be that special lady from Action Comics #1 to me.

—

Brenda/Nora Hastings (Wonder Comics #1, 1939, Fox). Debuting exactly 11 months after her progenitor, Ms. Hastings is, unless I’m wrong, the very first Lois Lane analogue in comics history. Why the two first names? Ask creator Will Eisner — he waffled on the Red Cross volunteer’s moniker about halfway through her first and only story.

—

Miriam Lane (Superman #1, 1947, Editora Brasil-América Limitada). Hold it! That date’s right, because we’re talking about Lois’ Brazilian counterpart, Senhorita Miriam. See, when Editora Brasil-América published the Superman comics in Brazil back in the ’40s, Lois became “Miriam.” In further news, anyplace Spanish was spoken, she was “Luisa,” which is downright fascinante, I think.

—

Pearl Pureheart (Mighty Mouse, “A Fight to the Finish,” 1947, Terry Toons). Mighty Mouse was lucky with the ladies, but he was never luckier than when Pearl flashed her pearly whites in his direction and stole his little rodent heart. How cool is it that her name is an alliteration just like Lois’?

—

Loria Rode (Superman #58, 1949, DC). On the far-off planet Uuz, the mighty hero Regor, a Superman wannabe, had to have his own Lois Lane, of course, and thus there was the beautiful reporter Loria Rode to fill the role. There’s just something about the name “Loria Rode” that’s just too good to let go to waste, as it has for over 75 years now.

—

Lois 4XR (Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #28, 1961, DC). I love this one. Lois 4XR is a woman from the far future, a superhero in her own right and suspected to be a descendant of Superman. There’s a story in that, of course, but I’ll leave it to you to hunt down this story (and its earlier ancestor in 1949’s Superman #57). I just dig that costume.

—

Jane Foster (Journey Into Mystery #84, 1962, Marvel). Let’s look at the facts: Both women in professional jobs, both long-suffering with a weak-knee male counterpart who they’d prefer to be more like their powerful heroes, and both very prone to getting into trouble. If Thor is a Superman analogue at Marvel, Jane is very much her universe’s Lois Lane. Boom.

—

Krypton Girl (Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #47, 1964, DC). I love the Silver Age of Comics. Only then could we have gotten a computer-generated “alternate” Lois Lane where she’s the one from Krypton with super powers, and Clark Kent’s the annoying person in her life. And that costume was to die for. I wish we could have just a little Silver Age back in our modern comics.

—

Lonni Lattimer (Thor #280, 1978, Marvel). She was the paramour of Hyperion, another Marvel Superman analogue, and lived out her life on Earth-712 as a, yep, reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper until her demise — off-pane l— years later. Lonni, we hardly knew ye. Great name, though.

—

“L” (Action Comics Annual #6, 1994, DC). There’ve been a lot of Superman Elseworlds stories over the years, but I always thought this one has gotten lost among them, not to mention its Lois. In the story, she has a secret identity of her own, in a way, and helps bring about an ersatz American Revolution with the help of a Kal-El that’s far more human than Kryptonian.

—

Diana Dane (Supreme #41, 1996, Image). Here’s a fun wrinkle in the Lois Lane Analogue Tapestry: The girlfriend of The Big S—that’s Supreme, stranger—is a writer, yeah, but for a, get this, comic book company. It’s meta on top of meta, but we’d expect no less from the way-out and weird world of Supreme.

—

Superwoman (JLA: Earth 2, 2000, DC). You’re saying “Which Superwoman?” Well, here I’m talking about the one who debuted in Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Crime Syndicate graphic novel — the one who took on “Lois Lane” as her alias in the everyday world. She was the lover of that Earth’s Superman, Ultraman, and became Editor-in-Chief of a Daily Planet there. Beyond that, she was also totally a Wonder Woman analogue, but it’s kind of nifty that she was also a Lois.

—

Irene Merryweather (Astro City: Local Heroes #2, 2003, WildStorm). Not to be confused with the Marvel character of the same name, this Irene broke with the alliterative names that many Lois analogues sport, but, I have to say, perhaps no other of her ilk has ever connected so deeply with the Silver Age Lois in terms of going out of her way to expose her hero Atomicus’ secrets to the whole world. And did that go well when she, unlike Lois, finally achieved that? It did not, sir. Boy, did it not.

—

MORE

—

— Thank You SIEGEL and SHUSTER for SUPERMAN — A Hero We Can All Look Up To. Click here.

—

When JIM BEARD’s not editing and publishing through his two houses, Flinch Books and Becky Books, he’s pounding out adventure fiction with both original and licensed characters. In fact, he’s put words in the mouths of Luke Skywalker, Superman, Fox Mulder, Carl Kolchak, Peter Venkman and the Green Hornet… and lived to tell about it.

Check out his latest: Jack of All Comics! is 28 essays by some of today’s most engaging comic historians and fans on nearly every series Jack Kirby worked on for Marvel and DC from 1961 to 1978. It’s better’n a Boom Tube to Supertown, True Believers! Click here to order.