| Lana Lang | |
| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Superboy #10 (September-October 1950) |
| Created by | Bill Finger John Sikela |
| In-story information | |
| Team affiliations | Daily Planet Lexcorp |
| Supporting character of | Superboy Superman Supergirl |
Lana Elizabeth Lang is a fictional, supporting character in DC Comics' Superman series. Created by writer Bill Finger and artist John Sikela, she first appears in Superboy #10 (September-October 1950).
Lana traditionally has been Superman's romantic interest when they were teenagers in Smallville. In the Silver Age, she regularly appeared in series featuring the character’s teenaged self, Superboy. She also often appeared as an adult in Superman series, vying with current love interest Lois Lane for his attention.
In the modern DC Comics continuity, she and Clark Kent were and still are close friends with a certain degree of romantic tension between them. For a time, Lana is married to Pete Ross, Clark Kent's best friend as a youth, and has a son named Clark by Pete.
Lana has been featured in most other media adaptations of Superboy or Superman as a teenager, including the series Smallville where she is played by Kristin Kreuk. She has also appeared in many adaptations of Superman, although her role is generally smaller. An exception is the 1983 film Superman III, where she was played by Annette O'Toole (who also plays Martha Kent in the TV show Smallville) and was the character’s main romantic interest. Prior to Smallville, Lana was a regular cast member in the half hour live-action Superboy television series, played by Stacy Haiduk in the entire 100 episode run. Up to this point in time, it was this series that gave the Lana Lang character more exposure than any other media adaptation of the Superman saga. The show ran from 1988–1992 in first-run syndication.
Lana is one of several Superman characters with the alliterative initials "LL", including Lex Luthor, Lionel Luthor, Lightning Lad, Lightning Lass, Lena Luthor (whose surname was changed to "Thorul" in the Silver Age, to distance herself from her criminal brother), Lois Lane, Letitia Lerner, Lori Lemaris, Lucy Lane, Lara Lor-Van (Superman's Kryptonian mother), and Linda Lee (aka Supergirl). Even Superman's birth name is Kal-El, and his father's Jor-El.
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In the original Superboy stories, Lana was the girl who lived next door to the Kent family in Smallville, and was a romantic interest of Superboy. In the Silver Age stories, Lana often behaved like a younger version of Lois, spending much of her time trying to prove that Superboy and Clark Kent were one and the same.
At one point, Lana once rescued an insect-like alien trapped by a fallen tree in Smallville. In gratitude, the alien gave her a "bio-genetic" ring which allowed Lana to gain insect (and insect-like, such as arachnids) characteristics. Lana created a yellow honeybee-like costume and mask, and took the name "Insect Queen", under which identity Lana had several adventures.
Lana also had various adventures with Superboy, and several with the futuristic superhero team the Legion of Super-Heroes. Also appearing in some Silver Age stories was Lana's uncle, Professor Potter, an eccentric inventor.
After Clark and Lana graduated from high school, Lana went to college, and eventually became a television reporter; as an adult, she became a rival to Lois Lane for Superman's romantic affection in various 1960s stories, often appearing in the title Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Lana became an anchorwoman for WGBS-TV's evening news in Metropolis, as a co-anchor to Clark Kent. Her attraction to Superman during this time had also died off, leaving Superman to Lois. Lana later became romantically linked to the alien super-hero Vartox. Eventually, she and Clark Kent became romantically involved in stories prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
In the early 1980s, with the use of the multiverse system DC had in place, Lana Lang was also shown in several stories to have had an Earth-Two counterpart (Earth-Two at the time the home of the Justice Society of America and DC's Golden Age versions of its characters, versus its mainstream universe of "Earth-One"). In this story, set in the early 1950s, Lana Lang joined the Daily Star staff as a television critic. She relates to Clark Kent that she and her family left Smallville when she was very young, explaining why they hadn't met during their youth unlike the Earth-One versions.
Later, she became an Insect Queen like her Earth-One counterpart; in this case, Lana had received a mystic amulet from her archaeologist father, said amulet having been created to allow a Pharaoh to control and divert the locust hordes that threatened ancient Egypt. Unfortunately, the charm associated with the amulet was set to be energized by the sound of approaching insect wings; by unfortunate coincidence, the sound of Superman's super-speed flying was similar enough to activate the spell. Lana was thus compelled to create a Chitinous golden-brown costume (woven by silkworms under her control) and adopt a villainous alter ego, the Insect Queen. After an initial clash with Superman, the Insect Queen fell under the mental influence of Superman's enemy, the Ultra-Humanite, who kept her under the spell's compulsion and prevented her from reverting to normal. Earth-Two's Superman was able to locate an antidote to the spell, which Lois Lane used to remove the compulsion (Superman Family #213, 1981), letting Lana break free of Ultra's influence and making her able to use the amulet's power at her own discretion. The Earth-2 Insect Queen would later use her abilities to aid Superman in times of need. This version of Lana Lang phased out of existence during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
In Frank Miller's classic graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Lana is The Daily Planet's managing editor. A portly, no-nonsense middle-aged lady, she is Batman's most outspoken supporter, appearing in a series of TV debates in which she and others argue over his methods and influence.
After the 1985-1986 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths was written, various aspects of Lana's history were retconned, starting with comics writer John Byrne's miniseries The Man of Steel, which was designed to rewrite Superman's origin from scratch. In the post-Crisis version of events, Lana was a childhood friend of Clark, with a certain degree of romantic tension in the air as Lana had long pined after Clark, who had loved her only platonically in return.
After they graduated from high school Clark took Lana on a private walk, saying that he had to tell her something important, which Lana honestly expected to be a marriage proposal. He then divulged to her that he had superpowers, displayed by flying her around the world, before explaining that he felt he had to leave Smallville to help humanity as a whole. Kissing her goodbye "like a brother," Lana was left in considerable shock, not only over the revelation of Clark's superpowers, but also over the final realisation that he held no reciprocal romantic feelings towards her, leaving Lana heartbroken and alone. When Lana finally aired her grievance with him years later, Clark felt very bad over how he had hurt her.
When Clark appeared in public as Superman some years later, the lonely and depressed Lana deduced his true identity and became something of a stalker, to the extent that Lex Luthor noticed the frequency with which she appeared in the vicinity of the hero and actually had her tortured in an attempt to gain whatever inside knowledge of Superman she might have. However, Lana bravely kept Clark's identity a secret and upon his rescuing her their relationship became more healthy once again, albeit still at a distance. Unlike the pre-Crisis Earth-One continuity, Lana did not go on to have a journalistic career, compete with Lois for Superman's affections, nor play a significant role in Clark's life in Metropolis.
Years later, the post-Crisis Lana eventually married Pete Ross. The two settled into a quiet life in Smallville, where they had a son they named after their mutual friend, Clark, after Lana asked Clark to save the baby's life when a car accident caused him to be born eight weeks premature; although Clark's efforts to take him to receive care were interrupted by the attack of the Brainiac-controlled Doomsday, Brainiac's subsequent attempts to use the baby's DNA to create a new body for himself brought the baby to full term. Pete began a career in politics that got him elected to the United States Senate. In 2000, Senator Ross became Lex Luthor's vice presidential running mate in Luthor's bid to become President of the United States, and after the two won, Lana moved to Washington, D.C. Eventually, Luthor was forced from his office, and Pete Ross became president (and Lana the First Lady of the United States). As she and Pete began to drift apart, Lana began to subtly attempt to regain Clark's affections, much to the anger of his (now) wife Lois Lane. Pete and Lana briefly reunited after Superman saved them from being killed by the villainous Ruin in Adventures of Superman.
In Superman #654, Perry White reported that Lana had become CEO of Lexcorp following the ousting of founder Lex Luthor. In Superman/Batman #49, it is revealed that she sold Kryptonite to the government to prevent Lexcorp from going under, and had caches of Kryptonite placed all over the planet, as a last-ditch defense if Superman should ever go rogue. When Superman and Batman come to remove the Kryptonite, Lana refuses to hand it over, and pushes a button which turns the caches into "dirty bombs" which spread Kryptonite molecules through the entire planet, forcing all Kryptonians to vacate. However, Toyman uses special nanobots to remove all of the Kryptonite molecules, undoing the damage. Superman meets with Lana again, with Lana telling him she was left with no choice. Superman responds by telling her the reason he is with Lois instead of her: because Lois would never have pushed the button. After Superman flies off, someone is shown watching Lana crying on a screen, saying to her "you did perfect".
She later tries to help Superman, facing the time-travelling strongman Atlas (DC Comics), by sending the Luthor Squad. This act activates a dormant program inside the Lexcorp mainframes, an holographic version of Luthor. The holographic copy of Luthor informs Lana that by helping Superman she has violated the Lexcorp standard contract of employment, that prevents Lexcorp employers to use Lexcorp resources for helping Kryptonians, under the penalty of termination. So, Lana Lang is instantly fired, given a short amount of time to leave Lexcorp for good.
New Supergirl writer Sterling Gates tells Newsarama "We're integrating Supergirl's book more into the Superman universe, and that includes having a supporting cast that overlaps with that world. I'm very interested in tying her back in to Metropolis and making sure that her world is a part of the Superman universe. Cat Grant will be a regular supporting cast member, as will Lana Lang."[1]
Lana takes it upon herself to reach out to Supergirl. She offers her advice and friendship. Around the same time, Perry White has been actively pursuing Lana to take over the Business section of The Daily Planet, a position which Lana was afraid to accept, following her bad experience with Lexcorp. Eventually, Lana and Supergirl decide together that Lana will accept the position, and that Supergirl will take on the secret identity of Linda Lang, niece of Lana Lang. Lana now lives in Metropolis with Supergirl, and is working as the editor of the Business section of The Daily Planet.
She briefly returns to Smallville to attend Jonathan Kent's funeral. However, she still hasn't enough resolve to patch up things with Clark, so leaves before giving him her condoleances. [2]
In the failed 1961 TV pilot The Adventures of Superboy, Lana Lang made her first live-action appearance, portrayed by Bunny Henning, alongside Johnny Rockwell as Superboy.
Beginning in 1966, Lana appeared in The Adventures of Superboy segments that were featured in the animated series The New Adventures of Superman and other series. She was voiced by Janet Waldo.
In Richard Donner's Superman in 1978, Lana Lang had a brief appearance in a scene at Smallville High. She was shown to be a cheerleader at the school with a fairly obvious crush on Clark, even though her current boyfriend was a football player named Brad. She was portrayed by Diane Sherry.
In the 1983 movie Superman III, Lana was played by Annette O'Toole. In an interview for the documentary Look Up In The Sky: The The Amazing Story of Superman, O'Toole states that the producers of Smallville (where she plays Clark's own adoptive mother, Martha Kent) were not aware that she had appeared in Superman III until after she was cast in the TV series. In Superman III, Lana is a divorcee with a son named Ricky. Lana's former boyfriend Brad, a former jock and Clark's childhood bully, is now a security guard and is still vying for her attention (Brad possibly inspired the character of Whitney in the series Smallville).
In the late 1980s-early 1990s Superboy television series, Lana was played by Stacy Haiduk. In this version, she was a lifelong friend of Clark, who accompanied him to Shuster University (named after Superman's co-creator) and later the Bureau for Extra-Normal Matters, where she and Clark investigated all of the unusual incidents that took place in Capitol City, Florida.
Lana also appeared in the Superman 1988 animated Saturday morning television series produced by Ruby-Spears Productions and had a 13-episode run. It's also notable for being the first appearance of the Superman mythos following John Byrne's major relaunch of the character from 1986. The final four minutes of each Superman episode were devoted to a brief snapshot from the "Superman Family Album." These biographical segments deviated from the contemporary comics to have Clark have his powers fully developed since infancy as opposed to developing as he matured. These stories depicted the Smallville misadventures of the young Kryptonian immigrant as he faces typical childhood trials with his first day at school, an overnight scouting campout, getting a driver's license, his first date, and more. Lana was featured in some of these "Superman Family Album" flashback segments, but never appeared during the regular episode story segment.
Lana made one appearance in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, where she was played by Emily Procter (best known as Calleigh Duquesne in TV's CSI: Miami). Lana's appearance was in an episode set in an alternate universe where Lois was dead and a blonde Lana was engaged to Clark, encouraging him to keep his abilities secret, constantly telling him that he would be locked up and sent to a government laboratory if people knew what he was capable of. When the mainstream universe's Lois persuaded that world's Clark to become Superman, Lana ended their relationship.
The pilot episode of Superman: The Animated Series followed the "post-Crisis" comics, with Lana being the first person Clark confided in about his superpowers. Because of this, when Clark became Superman, Lana was able to deduce his secret identity. Lana, as an adult, appeared in later episodes as a world-famous fashion designer. In the episode "My Girl", Lana is seen dating Lex Luthor, which eventually places her in danger when she tries to pass information on to Clark/Superman about Luthor's plots; Clark says in this episode that he and Lana dated in high school. The young Lana was voiced by Kelley Schmidt, and the adult version by Joely Fisher.
In the 2000s television series Smallville, Lana, played by Kristin Kreuk, is again the (often forbidden) love interest of the young Clark Kent, with at least some of each episode devoted to their potentially romantic relationship. Lana's character featured in a number of episodes in which she is exposed to temporarily power-bestowing and/or personality-changing events, or needs to be rescued from life-threatening danger. In a marked contrast to the redhead Lana Lang who appears in the Superman comic books, Kreuk is a brunette with an olive complexion, being part Chinese, part Dutch. Lana is said to be descended on her mother's side from a French witch, Countess Marguerite Isobel Theroux, whose vengeful spirit returns at one point to possess her. Clark's high school crush, he also carries the guilt for her own orphanhood, as the arrival of his spaceship heralded the meteor shower that killed her parents and resulted in her living with her aunt, Nell Potter.
In Smallville, Lana and Clark's relationship is depicted (at least initially) as the complete reverse of the post-Crisis version, whereby it was "Clark who long pined over Lana without the other really knowing." This initial scenario also incorporated elements of the 1978 movie continuity by introducing the character of Whitney Fordman, Lana's quarterback boyfriend and Clark's antagonist at the beginning of the series. Although their relationship goes through many permutations in which Lana does develop her own genuine feelings for Clark, the series' ongoing premise very much relies on a hitherto unprecedented notion that Clark had been deeply in love with Lana throughout his entire youth.
The relationship between Lana and Clark was a slow-burner, off-and-on until the 100th episode (season five) when Clark reveals his secret to her. The relationship blossoms, but the consequence is her death. Clark's biological father Jor-El rewinds time and Clark relives it again, losing his adoptive father Jonathan Kent instead. Clark and Lana fall out over his inability to confess his secrets to her, and she is drawn romantically to the morally questionable Lex Luthor.
Season 6 deals with the developing relationship between Lana and Lex. The two are engaged with Lana's apparent pregnancy bringing the pair closer. Lana discovers the pregnancy to have been faked by hormones, a ploy (as revealed by creator Al Gough in an interview with TV Guide) by Lex to force her to marry him. On the day of her wedding to Lex, Lana tricks and traps Chloe in a wine cellar, a situation that requires Clark to save her. From her hiding place, Lana discovers Clark's powers as he saves Chloe, prompting her to decide to leave Lex for Clark. Lionel later threatens her with Clark's life, forcing her to reverse her decision so that she can help him work against Lex's plans. Now married to Lex, she begins to discover his dark secrets, culminating in an eventual decision to divorce him. After he slaps her and threatens to kill her, she fakes her own death in order to frame Lex for murder.
In Season 7, Lex is able to evade a murder sentence and, deducing that Lana has faked her own death, tracks her to China. She threatens to kill him with a gun, but reconsiders and eventually returns to Smallville, to Clark's surprise. There, she meets her ex-boyfriend's Kryptonian cousin Kara. Just before she faked her own death she had stolen $10 million from Lex and got back together with Clark. She uses the $10 million to monitor Lex and his activities, using a foundation dedicated to helping those affected by the meteors as a front, a secret she keeps from everyone. In the next episode she takes some of Clark's powers through kryptonite that was struck by lightning. Clark later reversed the effects by doing the same thing to her, resulting in the release of the liquified, living remains of Brainiac and his ship. Later on after Clark does not listen to Jor-El, he freezes Clark. During this time Bizarro returns to have a relationship with Lana. Due to her lack of awareness, Lana enjoys the new version of Clark.
Following the subsequent destruction of Bizarro at the hands of blue kryptonite, Lana returns to the farm where she and Clark share a stable but shaky relationship for the next few months, mainly hampered by the fact that Lana lived with "Clark" for two weeks without ever noticing the difference. She continues to maintain the Isis Foundation as a front for spying on Lex, and maintains a working relationship with Lionel. In the seventh season episode "Veritas," Lana falls victim to Brainiac's brain-probe, which causes her to do whatever Brainiac commands even if it causes her terrible pain, aware of everything around her but appearing completely oblivious to others, as if senile. After relaying to a distraught Clark the message, "You're too late, Kal-El," Lana is catatonic at the end of the episode. However, in the season finale, Lana returns to normal when Clark finally destroys Brainiac. By the time Clark gets to the hospital to see her, Lana has already left. A nurse gives Clark a CD that Lana left for him. The CD has a video message from Lana informing Clark that she is leaving. She says that although she loves him deeply, she does not want their relationship to prevent Clark from becoming the hero he is destined to be. Lana tells him "I love you, Clark. More than you will ever know" and cries, ending the video. Clark then turns around and is enveloped in a tearful hug with Lois.
Lana's first guest spot was on Chloe's wedding, in the tenth episode "Bride". Oliver Queen discovered her in Cuba and persuaded her to return for the wedding, and she officially ended her relationship with Clark at that time.
Kristin Kreuk is going to appear only four more times as Lana Lang in Season 8 of Smallville.
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