Lucy Lane

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Lucy Lane is a fictional character published by DC Comics. She is the younger sister of Lois Lane.

[edit] History

In the Golden Age comics, Lois was shown as having had a young niece named Susie Tompkins. Susie's main trait was telling tall tales to adults, and getting into various kinds of mischief. Susie's last appearance was in 1955. While Lois' sister (and Susie's mother) was never shown in the Golden Age comics, after the advent of DC's multiverse in the 1960s, later stories such as Action Comics #484 (from 1978) presented Lucy as having had an Earth-Two counterpart (a married woman named Lucille Tompkins), who was the mother of Susie.

Lucy Lane was first introduced in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #36 in April 1959. In the Silver Age stories, Lucy was presented as an airline stewardess who was an on-again, off-again romantic interest of Jimmy Olsen. More so than her sister, Lucy carried a worldly, cosmopolitan attitude about her. Lucy's Silver Age appearances often revolved around Jimmy's various attempts at romancing her.

Lucy was reintroduced into current comics continuity in issue #5 of John Byrne's 1986 miniseries Man of Steel. Lucy was a flight attendant, but became affected by a mysterious blindness that was cured as a side-effect of the destruction of a Bizarro clone (loosely reflecting the first Pre-Crisis Bizarro story). Lucy returned to her job as a flight attendant and had a brief relationship with Jimmy Olsen. After many encounters with super-villains such as Deathstroke and Sleez, she eventually started dating African-American Daily Planet staff member Ron Troupe. When Lucy became pregnant, her conservative father was enraged (although Lucy explained "There's not a racist bone in Daddy's body. He hates all his daughters' beaus.") Sam Lane eventually overcame his anger when Lucy and Ron were married and their child was born.

[edit] Other media

The Lane sisters, Lucy and Lois, in the series Smallville

Though a minor character in the Superman mythos, Lucy Lane has made several live action appearances in the various Superman projects. She was first seen in the 1984 movie Supergirl as a friend and schoolmate of Supergirl's alter-ego Linda Lee. Fame actress Maureen Teefy portrayed her here as a peppy teen-ager with a burgeoning relationship with Jimmy Olsen (mimicking their relationship in the comics). She also made three appearances on the television show Lois and Clark, where she was portrayed by both Elizabeth Barondes and Roxana Zal. One episode of Superman: The Animated Series showed a young Lucy (voiced by Aria Curzon) playing with Lois and Titano during their childhood, but Lucy's adult self was never shown.

In 2005, she showed up in the Smallville episode "Lucy", played by Peyton List.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Lucy drops in unexpectedly on her sister in Smallville in season four. While perplexed that Lucy (who is enrolled in school overseas) would come all the way to Kansas with little warning, Lois proudly introduces her accomplished sister to the Kents. Despite Lois and Lucy's long estrangement (Lucy lived apart from her family for many years because she was expected to get a good education), the two seem to be very loving.

In reality, Lucy fled Europe to escape a German loan shark and criminal named Marcus Becker who has been shadowing her. When Clark catches her trying to break into his mother's business for quick cash, Lucy admits everything and explains how she has dropped out of her elite school and is deep in debt. Although frustrated with Lucy's idea that stealing is the answer, Clark is compelled to help Lucy get out of this mess. What he doesn't realize is that Lucy is aware of his friendship with Lex Luthor and is exploiting it to trick both of them into paying Becker off. During a staged drop-off where Lex, Lucy and Lois intend to meet with Becker and hand him a suitcase full of money (which is hiding a transmitter), Becker arrives in a police cruiser and uniform and pulls Lex over in his car. After assaulting Lex and removing the transmitter from the suitcase, Becker "abducts" the Lane sisters in a faux-kidnapping and places them inside an empty container truck. By the time Clark realizes they have all been duped, Becker and the girls are gone and a bloodied Lex has been relieved of his money.

Becker announces to the girls that he isn't finished yet and intends to hold them for ransom, but he and Lucy seem too familiar with each other. Once trapped in the moving semi truck with her sister, Lois deduces that only Lucy could have told Becker about the transmitter and that she is in fact conspiring with and possibly dating him in order to extort more money from the Luthors. Lucy swears she did not mean for things to get so out of hand, but when pressed about whether what she really wants is to revenge herself on Lois, Lucy doesn't deny it. Lucy resented the way their father, General Sam Lane, discarded her in Europe and took Lois with him, but Lois suspects their dad never paid much attention to either of them. At the finale, Clark intercepts the truck and stops it, but Lucy sneaks away when Lex arrives with the police and speeds off in his Mercedes. She is not seen again and is assumed to be on the run.