The Superman Dailies '49-'59: The Wedding of Lois Lane and Clark Kent (Part 1 - Engagement Troubles!)

Lois Lane and Clark Kent are celebrating thirty years of marriage this year, having been made canonically connubial in comics with Superman: The Wedding Album, and on television with the Lois & Clark : The New Adventures of Superman episode "Swear to God, This Time We're Not Kidding," both released in October 1996.

Lois and Superman from the cover of Superman: The Wedding Album

Although few other attempts to marry the two characters have enjoyed the longevity of their current cohabitation, the nuptials of '96 are far from the first time the two characters have tied the knot.

Speculative stories often revisited the theme of marrying the series' main characters. The premise was at the heart of Lois Lane's solo comic book debut (Showcase #9, July-August 1957), in which a harried Lois juggles the near-superhuman responsibilities of playing wife to the world's greatest superhero and mother to his rambunctious offspring.    

In Action Comics #484 (June 1978), writer Cary Bates effectively exploited a loophole in DC's complicated continuity to arrange for the the couple to be officially and permanently hitched -- but not in this universe. 

Lois as a speculative Mrs.Superman in Showcase #9 (left) and the real deal in Action Comics #484 (right)  

Bates married off the Lois Lane and Clark Kent of Earth-Two -- ostensibly the world where the Golden Age incarnation of Superman and his supporting cast existed as distinct entites from the mainstream Man of Steel. The couple went on to star in a retro recurring feature as "Mr. and Mrs. Superman," and popped up occasionally in assorted major crossover events.

But the newspaper beat them all -- even if it didn't last.

No other medium got to the church faster than the daily strip, which launched an engagement storyline in late 1949. Lois and Clark went on to get married, launch a husband-and-wife radio show, and even unofficially "adopt" Lois' troublesome niece, Susie, among other shared adventures. Oddly, the marriage was isolated to the daily strips, leaving Sunday's Superman free to play the field.

After a few years, the marriage was erased from the newspaper continuity, blamed on a sinister space scheme to confuse Superman's reality -- but more on that in a future post. For now, enjoy the first installment of the never-yet-collected Superman newspaper strips from 1949:

In Lois Lane and Clark Kent - Engaged!, a full-bellied Clark awakes from a nap on the couch to find that his greatest dream has come true -- Lois loves him! And what's more, they're engaged to be wed! 

But while Clark may be gung-ho, Superman has second thoughts, and the marriage-addled Man of Tomorrow finds himself impulsively proposing to another girl! How in the world can Clark Kent marry Lois Lane while Superman marries Miss Betty Jones? It's a real corker, and it's only the first complication on the road to marital bliss...

Lois Lane and Clark Kent - Engaged!

September 5 - December 24 1949

Story: Alvin Schwartz

Art: Win Mortimer and Stan Kaye (credited to Wayne Boring)

*** To be continued ***