Lois Lane was a fast-talking, no-nonsense, take-charge personality who was the star reporter on Perry White's staff long before Superman came to town.

She was a passenger aboard the space shuttle Constitution when Superman made his unofficial public debut. In fact, she was the one who first named him "Superman." (It was a master stroke of synchronicity that the symbol on his uniform, the Kryptonian sign meaning "hope," happened to resemble the letter S.)

Lois tried everything she could to arrange an interview with him, even going so far as to put her own life in danger in the hopes that he would rescue her. It would have been the story of her career, she knew, to be the first to have an interview with Metropolis's new hero. Just her luck that a nobody from Kansas named Clark Kent beat her to the punch.

Although Clark was fascinated by Lois, the reverse could not be said to be true. Lois knew she could never forgive him for beating her to that first interview. Her anger at losing the story increased when, on a visit to Smallville, she met Clark's parents. Trying to protect their son's identity, the Kents made it seem as though Clark and Superman had been raised together as brothers. Needless to say, Lois was not happy with this revelation, and took out her frustration on both Clark and Superman.

Gradually, Lois let her frustration go. For a while, Lois and Clark had an on-again, off-again friendship that bordered on something more. When Clark Kent was thought to have met with foul play (during Superman's self-imposed exile), Lois was heartbroken. When Clark returned, only to leave the staff of the Daily Planet to work for Colin Thornton at Newstime, Lois felt betrayed. His return to the Planet gave them both a chance to reexamine their feelings for one another, and they soon began dating steadily. And finally, Clark asked Lois to marry him.

Before they could even set a date, however, Clark (as Superman) faced the monster Doomsday, and died. His death and subsequent return were hard on Lois, who was of course one of only a very few people that knew that Superman's death meant the death of Clark Kent as well. The four Supermen who arrived in Metropolis after her fiance's death only made things harder for the girl reporter. Eventually, however, the real Superman (and Clark Kent) returned, and life returned to normal--or as close to normal as was possible given the circumstances.

One of the biggest stories of Lois' career came when she investigated the death of Sasha Green, a Lexcorp employee who had been one of Lex Luthor II's personal trainers. Lois discovered that Sasha had not died in Coast City, but had in fact been murdered on Lexcorp property--in all likelihood by Lex himself! Her investigation further revealed that Lex II was in fact a clone of Lex I, and that he was dying!

When Lex, trying to save himself, re-created Bizarro, the imperfect duplicate of Superman kidnapped Lois. After she escaped, she helped Superman track Bizarro down.

Just as Lois prepared to break her story, implicating Lex in the death of his trainer and revealing him to be a clone, Luthor set himself to her destruction. He tampered with her story, causing her to lose credibility as a reporter and also costing her her job at the Daily Planet. He ruined her finances, and even had her arrested! Fortunately, Luthor's involvement in the destruction of Metropolis, and his subsequent loss of credibility, helped Lois regain her job and the trust of her friends.

When Lori Lemaris, an ex-girlfriend of Clark's, arrived in town seeking Superman's help with an emergency, Lois began to have doubts about her relationship with the Man of Steel. In spite of what she had said before about being able to share her husband with the world, she started to think that would not be possible.

The final straw came when Lois was poisoned by the Joker. In trying to find a cure, Superman confronted the Clown Prince of Crime in his cell at Arkham Asylum in Gotham City. The Joker told Superman that the only way to cure Lois would involve the Joker dying at Superman's own hand. Faced with this terrible decision, Superman felt he had to let Lois die, rather than take a life as he once had in the Pocket Universe. However, Lois was never in any real danger. The poison worked its way through her body, and she regained consciousness shortly thereafter.

When she learned the truth of what had happened--that Superman was willing to let her die rather than commit murder himself--her worst feelings about her relationship with the Man of Steel seemed confirmed. Much to Clark's dismay, she broke off their engagement and took a job as the Daily Planet's foreign correspondent. For months, she travelled all over the world, using her time away from Clark (and Superman) to sort through her feelings. While she was in Bhutran covering a story, she came to the realization that she truly loved Clark and could indeed share his life as Superman, and returned to Metropolis. Reunited at last, the happy couple tied the knot in Metropolis, surrounded by friends and family.

Their honeymoon was interrupted by a Bhutranian drug lord whose operations Lois had helped to confound. The drug lord attempted to assassinate Lois, and kidnapped Clark. It fell to Lois to rescue her husband, still powerless following the Sun Eater's attack, from certain doom. The two returned to Metropolis, more commited than ever to each other.

Some time after they arrived back home, however, that same drug lord attacked again, this time kidnapping Lois. Her father, Sam Lane, recruited Clark to join him on a mission to rescue his daughter. The two of them tracked Lois to a small island. They helped Lois break free, and returned to Metropolis.

When Lex Luthor bought out and shut down the Daily Planet, Clark Kent and most of the rest of the staff found themselves without work. Lois, however, was offered a job at the new LexCom--a job she took with some trepidation. Working for Lex Luthor was not like anything she expected--it wasn't even like real journalism, she discovered! But she agreed with Clark that it was good to have someone "on the inside," keeping as close an eye as possible on Luthor. When Luthor sold the Daily Planet back to Perry White, he struck a secret deal with Lois--that she would, at his request, kill one of her stories for the paper. That story turned out to be the truth about President Lex's involvement with the Imperiex War; although by letting her husband write the story instead, the truth was able to be told.

Shortly after the Y2K crisis had passed, Lois was kidnapped by the Parasite, who had picked up the ability to absorb personality and change his shape following his battle with Strange Visitor. Realizing the truth, Parasite secreted Lois away so that he could take her place, biding his time until he could attack and kill Superman, disguised as his wife. After Superman defeated the Parasite, he enlisted Batman to help him track down Lois.

When Superman was poisoned by La Encantadora, Lois set herself to investigating what had happened to her husband. Her research led her to Africa, to the League of Assassins headed by the villainous Ra's al Ghul. Lois was captured by the League but managed to escape their clutches. Here, unfortunately, the trail ran cold.

Lois' father, Major Samuel Lane, was picked by President Lex Luthor to serve as Secretary of Defense. During the Imperiex War, Sam Lane sacrificed himself to stop an Imperiex probe on a direct path to the White House. Major Lane was given a burial with full military honors.