It turns out that there is no need for Superman and Lois Lane to get a divorce. Their 15-year comic book marriage, which began with a much trumpeted nuptial issue in 1996, never happened. The Superman/Lois marriage is being retconned (short for “retroactive continuity,” an oxymoron referring to the alteration of previously established facts in a literary work). News of the Superman/Lois breakup leaked out about a month ago in remarks by DC Publisher Dan DiDio to a New York-based fan blog (see “Flashpoint to Erase Supes’ Nuptials?”).
Newsarama’s Albert Ching has confirmed with sources at DC that Superman and Lois are no longer married in the new DC Universe, which debuts in September. But that’s not the only change in store for the Man of Steel. Supes is a bachelor and Lois has a new boyfriend, an as-yet-unrevealed colleague on The Daily Planet. Not only that, you can also say good bye to Jonathan and Martha Kent, both of whom are dead in the post-Flashpoint DCU.
Even more potentially off-putting for longtime readers could be the new Superman’s increasing obsession with his alien heritage. The mature hero of the Superman series by George Perez and Jesus Merino, is described as “more Kal-El from Krypton than Clark Kent from Kansas.” The armor that Supes sports on the cover of Superman #1 is “ceremonial” armor from Krypton, hence no more red shorts. While the new post-Flashpoint Superman series have effectively side-stepped the whole Superman renouncing his American citizenship nonsense (see “Supes Citizenship Flap Spreads Like Wildfire”), the character’s increasing embrace of his alien heritage could also tend to render “the American Way” portion of his motto increasingly irrelevant.
Superman #2 Cover