Time moved on and our two heroes continued to forge a strong bond. They had their own lives. But they remained close. They had a strong working relationship. The attraction between them would flare up occasionally because it was largely unresolved. But DC pushed the same old same old with Clark and Lois and the love triangle gets played out...AGAIN. Safe and predictable for Superman comics and writers really. Clark occasionally might show the extent of his feelings for Diana, even while he was moving on with his life.
In Adventures of Superman 435 Clark faces a foe that gets into his subconscious mind and taunts him with his hidden desires. Interestingly we see the women who have been part of romantic Clark's life. Lana Lang, Cat Grant and Lois Lane and they are all wearing Diana's costume.
Here the fantasy changes to Diana herself. Doing away with the other women.It gets to the meat of the matter. He wants Diana...he desires her but it taunts him. Possibly throwing back at him his own insecurities about Diana. She is an Amazon who didn't need him and they were too different. Oh Clark, Diana really intimidated you, huh, by probably being the first woman not to openly go gaga for you? It was safer to have Lois chase after you and you feel more manly, no doubt, having to save her all the time.
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| WW #61 |
Well, at least he admitted to himself why he cared.It's a very honest and telling panel from Wonder Woman #61 how much Clark was drawn to Diana.
"Oh Diana,you placed your trust in humanity and this is how you are rewarded. Those eyes...so hopeful...so honest...it's no wonder I nearly fell for them...A Wonder Woman who just wanted to be everyone's friend...and mine..."
This is as close to we will ever get Superman admitting to how deep his feelings were for Diana. The rest of time in comics it will be in what he does. His actions will speak louder than words.
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| WW#88 |
And Diana? How was she feeling about him? She valued and supported him during his courting of Lois.She was having her own problems though when he got engaged.
When he died at the hands of Doomsday his death hit her hard. Oddly enough she was not around when he was battling the behemoth. Don't even ask me why Wonder Woman, of all people, was not around to help.You would think if she knew her friend was in trouble as he battled for hours she would come and try to help him. This is Diana, we are talking about, blessed with the eyes of Athena and er, there were things like tv and radio in the 90ties right? Lazy as usual by DC. She came for the funeral though. How nice of them to let her show up and even feel guilty and shed a tear. When he came back from the dead his relationship with Lois was up and down...Oh, who am I fooling? It was said to be pretty crappy. Lois was written as hardly deserving of Clark and he was a masochist to put up with her bitchiness. He was inflicted with a mullet too. DC only rushed and got them back together to tie in with with campy Lois and Clark TV show, (cancelled after 4 seasons) which plunged in ratings after they got hitched. Superman comics would eventually pay a heavy price sales wise due to this creative mistake mid canon. His comics have dropped badly in sales for the past decade.
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| WW #112 |
Clark was even anxious about letting Diana know he broke up with Lois. One wonders why he felt he couldn't face her. Guilt? Or the fear of the unresolved feelings he had and that he might be tempted to act upon them? "She and I were never the item the popular press wanted to make us. But that was not entirely for my lack of trying." Clark, you sabotaged it by running off after one "date."
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| Superman #118 |
In any case, Clark was lucky he had someone like Diana.She encouraged him not to give up on Lois because she knew he loved her. She wanted him to be happy. Even after the Lois/Clark marriage things between our two heroes remained very complex and intriguing.
