User:Greg Sloane

Greg Sloane's User Page
Just a brief history of me:
 * I'm a step-boomer
 * I'm married
 * My main hobby interest is comic book characters, specifically Superman

Superman and His Supporting Cast
As mentioned in my uber brief bio, Superman has always been my hero. I can't say I'm really happy with DC Comics wanting him to be "darker" especially considering Batman has always filled that niche ever since Frank Miller gave the caped crusader the "Dark Knight" treatment. Superman, on the other hand, has always represented light. However, over the three-quarters of a century that Superman has existed, his supporting cast of Lois Lane, Perry White and Jimmy Olsen have remained his steadfast companions, supporters and in the case of Lois Lane, his main love interest.

I'm not sure if I'm permitted to be critical of Wikipedia entries that I feel are dishonest, or have a hidden agenda, but I have edited away one segment of the Lois Lane entry at least 5 times. Why? Because of an attribution that is and always has been absolutely false -- the assertion that Lois Lane, as a character or creation, was influenced by Nellie Bly. In fact, the author's exact wording was "Lois is also based on real life journalist Nellie Bly." The author cited the book "Examining Lois Lane: The Scoop on Superman's Sweetheart". It is a collection of essays by women commenting on Lois Lane and is edited by Nadine Farghaly. In other words, it's a book of opinions and the opinion of just one contributor is what the Nellie Bly citation is based on.

The Wiki author cited Page 45 of Ms Farhaly's book. On that page is part of Vibiana Cvetkovic's essay. After going off on a long tangent about Nellie Bly, she stated that one comic book from 67 years ago, the only comic book that even mentions Nellie Bly in Lois Lane's 76 year history, was "proof" that Bly influenced the creation of Lois Lane. Her exact wording was, "The DC franchise acknowledged Bly as a role model for the character of Lois. In Superman no. 49 (1947) the story “Lois Lane Globe-Trotter” specifically references Nelly [sic] Bly as Lois attempts to emulate Bly’s adventures and beat her record..." This quote is false on many levels. For one, DC Comics, unlike Superman, for example, is not a franchise, it's a publishing company and that is the only function DC Comics had regarding the "Lois Lane Globe-Trotter" story. They published it, period. Also, there is nothing in that issue that should have given Cvetkovic the notion that Nellie Bly influenced the creation of Lois Lane in any way, especially since it was Perry White, not Lois Lane, who brought up Nellie Bly in the plot line. I suspect something a lot more "fannish" was behind Cvetkovic's unsupported declaration.

Beginning in its third season, SMALLVILLE, a CW (nee WB) television series that followed the teen adventures of pre-Superman Clark Kent, a group of fans of Chloe Sullivan , a character created for the series, decided they wanted her to become the real Lois Lane. The theory that Chloe was the real Lois Lane became known by the portmanteau of "Chlois." . The so-called "Pro-Chlois" evidence was fabricated. For example, the first point listed was "Every year since Clark and Chloe have known each other they've shared a single kiss." Not only was that not true of Clark and Chloe's history, but even if it were, it wasn't true of Clark and Lois Lane's history in any version. The last point? Yes, the nonsense about Nellie Bly, "Nellie Bly was the first female investigative reporter & was likely used as a template for Lois Lane. Nellie is Chloe's childhood idol." Ironically the person who made up this specious list at least put in the qualifier "likely" rather than Ms Cvetkovic's contention that DC Comics "acknowledged" Bly as a role model based on one comic book from 1947, whose story content, as mentioned, in no way claimed or hinted that Bly was a hero or role model to Lois Lane. Why did Chloe Sullivan fans want this to be true in the first place? Simple, they wanted Clark Kent to have a romance with her, but they wanted the romance to be guaranteed a future and the only way to do that was to make sure she was Clark Kent's destined love interest Lois Lane.