Superman and Lois Still Have Comics’ Greatest Wedding Ever

There have been many memorable comic book stories involving superheroes getting married, but none have managed to surpass the marriage of Superman and Lois Lane in the comic book story Superman: The Wedding Album. Released in 1996, Superman: The Wedding Album finally saw the Man of Steel tie the knot with Lois Lane, but being a superhero wedding, it of course is a major landmark story in and of itself. Superman and Lois Lane’s wedding involves all the travails and challenges of a real-life wedding, while also taking place during a particularly difficult chapter of Kal-El’s life when he has temporarily lost his Kryptonian powers.

Superman and Lois were far from the first comic book couple to get married, with Spider-Man’s comic book marriage to Mary Jane Watson preceding it by nearly a decade. However, Superman: The Wedding Album brings a unique charm, sense of humor, and even feeling of importance and scale that no other superhero wedding has quite equaled. Moreover, Superman and Lois’ comic book wedding would have major ramifications on comic book stories that both preceded and followed it, along with Superman and Lois’ entire history thereafter.

Superman Died Before He Married Lois (Which Gave The Wedding Even More Impact)

The history of Superman and Lois Lane’s is actually more complex than it seems at face value, as the story itself directly led to the creation of The Death of Superman story. Right as DC Comics was planning to write Superman and Lois’ marriage, so too was the popular ’90s Superman TV series, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. The show’s production team asked DC to hold off on the marriage storyline long enough for the Lois & Clark to get to that point, with the two able to tell the story more or less concurrently. Unfortunately, DC Comics then had to go back to the drawing board on the entire year’s outline for the Man of Steel.

Writer Jerry Ordway’s response to the conundrum was to simply throw up his hands and suggest “Let’s just kill him!” DC Comics ended up taking Ordway’s suggestion quite literally, and thus The Death of Superman story was born, along with the Man of Steel’s subsequent resurrection in Reign of the Supermen. While Superman & Lois Lane’s romance had been a DC Comics staple long before The Death of Superman (with Superman having also revealed his identity and proposed to Lois before it came to pass), the Man of Steel’s death and return ended up adding more weight to the story with Kal-El returning with a new outlook on life, including the fact that even he can be killed. In that context, a superhero finally getting married cannot help but feel like the end result of a renewed appreciation for his life and those he holds most dear.

RELATED: 7 Essential Lois Lane Comics to Read Before Superman

Superman & Lois Lane’s Wedding Is A True DC Comics Rom-Com (With A Major Superman Twist)

Despite Superman’s revival and previous proposal to Lois, Superman: The Wedding Album actually begins with Clark and Lois having broken off their romance, with Lois having spent time aboard as a journalist. Superman: The Wedding Album, in many ways, is the inverse of The Death of Superman tone-wise, with the story mining plenty of comedy from their pending wedding plans not unlike those of actual weddings (Lois going through some wildly divergent possibilities for wedding dresses that either meet the enthusiastic approval or pearl-clutching disapproval of her mother being one of the story’s comedy highlights.)

The Wedding Album is also a memorable Superman story in another way, with Clark’s powers having disappeared by the time Lois returns to Metropolis. This was due to the sun having been temporarily blocked out by a Sun Eater, and the idea of a de-powered Superman adds another human angle to the story with Clark’s renewed value of his life post-resurrection while he still attempts to act as a hero when he can, donning his suit and fighting small time Metropolis crooks even without the aid of his powers. The ’90s were an interesting time indeed for Kal-El, with Superman morphing into an electricity-based hero within a year of his marriage and fully returning to his traditional power set a year after that. With the absence of his powers and the amount of dry humor in The Wedding Album, the story really does stand the test of time as the first Superman rom-com.

The DC Superhero Community Makes Superman & Lois’ Wedding Feel Bigger

Superman’s inherent selflessness won’t let him look away when a person in need is in trouble, and it ends up getting him into a bit of trouble when he fights a gang of crooks in his suit ahead of his and Lois’ wedding. Just when Clark seems headed for the grave for a second time, a Batarang spirals into the scene, with Batman coming to the aid of the Kryptonian hero. As Superman shares his strong feelings for Lois with Batman afterwards, the Dark Knight has a surprise of his own, snapping his fingers to reveal a two-page spread of the Justice League and other members of the DC superhero community above the two. As Batman explains, their fellow heroes will watch over Metropolis while Clark and Lois are on their honeymoon, with Superman’s pending absence accounted for as him being away on a “secret mission.”

In a true act of hero-to-hero kindness, Batman also informs Superman that he had bought an apartment Lois had looked at earlier, bequeathing it to her and Clark as a wedding gift. While it’s a relatively brief component of The Wedding Album, Batman’s cameo and the glimpse of DC’s other heroes on hand to look after Metropolis adds a touch of weight and significance to the Man of Steel’s upcoming marriage. With Superman, Batman, and their fellow heroes devoted to protecting Earth, the wedding of a metahuman hero has an added touch of camaraderie in other heroes stepping up to guard the city of one of their fellows in one of the most important periods of his life.

Since Superman: The Wedding Album, it’s almost taken for granted in the comics and most adaptations for Superman and Lois Lane to either be married from the start or clearly headed in that direction. With a dash of fun and humor and a much larger sense of scale than the average wedding, Superman and Lois Lane’s comic book marriage is still a joyous read and the best wedding to ever be showcased in comics.