Last semester I took a class called "Dark Side of Communication." We spent a section discussing a sad topic: unrequited love - when one person loves another but receives none of that love in return. Sound familiar?
What we have here in the Superman Chronicles is a love triangle between two people: Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane. In each comic Lois takes advantage of Clark in order to get to Superman. With comically ignorant bliss she cannot tell that Clark is Superman who uses clunky glasses as disguise. Somehow the Superman Chronicles makes you simultaneously feel sorry for Clark Kent, but want to be Superman. In a sense, they are two completely different characters within the same body!
The writers create an interesting power struggle between the three characters. Clark adores Lois who falls madly in love with Superman who is Clark Kent, who Lois won't talk to unless she can get to Superman, and so on, and so on. I think this causes the readers (whose target at the time were young boys) to view this singular Clark/Superman character as two completely different ones: one that you want to be like, and a nerdy one that doesn't get the girls. After all, Clark can't get the girl of his dreams but the manly and strong Superman comes in, saves the day, and wins the girl. The unrequited love only goes one way: from Clark to Lois. And it's sad. At the end of some of the comics the writers include "How to get Super Strength" (58,82) and "How to get Super Vision" (110) for its curious readers. Once again, Superman takes total precedence over his human form, Clark Kent, in the Superman Chronicles.
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