What about Metallo, who looked just like Superman except with a mustache.

How can you say it like that and not tell us what happened?! I’ve been scouring the internet for all of 5 minutes trying to find a summary of Lois Lane #3 and cannot! Damn flashpoint tie-ins crowding my search results…

Hehe, I am sorry, Addison, I just can’t say it. It makes me mad/sad just thinking about it!

Although, tell you what, if, say, ten commenters ask for it, I’ll do a post on the ending later today.

Spoilers, lads, spoilers!

You must tell us the ending!

I want to know the ending. That’s #3.

I grew up on those Lois Lane comics. He’s going to teach her a lesson, isn’t he? I shudder to think, but I gots to know.

Found it. Hidden behind the link, to prevent the spoilers – the summary doesn’t indicate what about it is so cruel, though. http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Superman's_Girlfriend,_Lois_Lane_Vol_1_3

Spoilers! Rah!

Man, I have got to know what happened in that Lois Lane issue!

I want to know!

BTW, a while back I saw, on some comics blog, a scan of a letter to the editor from a Silver Age Superman book. The writer was basically complaining about the overuse of characters who just *happen* do be identical duplicates of Clark, Lois, Jimmy, or whoever, and how unbelievably implausible it was.

The editorial response was a remarkably bald-faced lie. Weisinger claimed that it was based on reality, and that EVERY person on Earth has at least one exact duplicate walking around, but most of us never meet our counterpart. It’s a scientific fact!

Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to track down that blog post or remember where it came from since.

Come on Brian. You know you want to tell us…

I would also very much enjoy some spoilers.

Brian, you will make my day if you tell the secret of Lois Lane #3.

Brian,
Would you please clue us in?

Thanks.

I want to know too.

Also curious about the ending, I checked out the link provided by Michael — and then noticed that issue 5 of Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane also featured a man who could pass as a double of Superman (in the story “Superman’s Greatest Sacrifice”).

As Michael indicated – the synopsis for issue #3 doesn’t illustrate why it was so cruel so I’d also appreciate more info on the ending.

I, too, would like to know the shocking secret of Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #3…

I suppose the sheer number of guys who look just like Superman in Metropolis could explain why the Clark Kent glasses disguise fooled everyone, though. “I’m not Superman, I just happen to look exactly like him” becomes a lot more plausible when half the city looks exactly like him as well…

I think we’ve already made it to 10, but I’ll ask, just for certitude:

What happens in Lois Lane #3?

I, too, am interested in learning the ending!!!!!

If you’re really impatient, just google “Lois Lane Mark Benton” and it becomes easier to find.

I knew about the Superman Emergency Squad, and I knew about Marvel Man of Terra, but I don’t recall ever hearing about these other Silver Age cases before!

Come to think of it — quite some time ago I posted a thread somewhere in which I asked people to help me find cases of superheroes colliding with “natural lookalikes” of themselves. I didn’t want cases where some mad scientist had labored long and hard to create a duplicate via cloning, robotics, plastic surgery, illusions, etc.

I was toying with the idea of constructing a big list about just how often this cliched plot device has been used. Maybe I ought to dust off that idea and try again.

Heck, I think I’ve seen it happen at least three times to Tarzan in the novels written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Although to be fair, in one of those cases it was rationalized by an explanation that before the novel got going, the villains had already spent a couple of years searching talent agencies all over the world for the type of man they needed to bring a scheme to fruition. What they wanted was a trained actor of low morals who had exactly the same height, build, coloring, and facial features as Tarzan — and as a result of planning and perseverance, they finally found one. It wasn’t a case of just happening to stumble across such a guy by sheer dumb luck!

All right, just to keep the ball rolling, pretty please with sugar on top tell us the ending to that Lois Lane story…

I just love the text Lois is typing in that Mark Benton story. Man, she’s got it bad, and that ain’t good.

I love that Supergirl story – it is built on the premise that as the Universe is infinite, so it must have an infinite number of planets within it, and one of those infinite number of planets must be exactly the same as Earth. I always thought that was a really nifty idea.

ps. Please can you tell us how Lois Lane #3 ended please.

so I found this synopsis
http://wiki.superman.nu/wiki/index.php/Mark_Benton
The way it is described doesn’t seem any more f’ed up than any other silver age story. Still you can’t say “don’t read this story [published 52 yrs ago] it is f’ed up” and not expect people to want to know the details.

Wasn’t there a journalist character from the 70s who looked like Superman/Clark Kent, his whole deal was that he didn’t like Superheroes or something? I want to say he made the rounds, but was semi-regular in the Spectre

All I can think of is that rubber lamp post. Sounds like a genius idea…until you remember you’re in some kinda woodsy area right next to a reservoir. They must like to keep those places well lit in Metropolis. Why is THIS all I can think of?

Ok, add me to the growing list. Another post on Lois Lane #3!

@GM I only remember him from The Spectre, but I’ll never forget the moment where a cop asks him, “Hey Clark Kent. Are you really Superman?”

I don’t get why the endings cruel…

I too would like to know the ending to that story.

What is Lois, 13? She’s using that typewriter like it was a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper.

“What is Lois, 13? She’s using that typewriter like it was a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper.”

I hate to say it, but Silver Age comics (particularly DC ones) rarely seemed to write grown women well. I think it’s one of the reasons why it doesn’t bother people that a number of them have “girl” in their nom du guerre. For example, Batgirl was probably about the same age as Batman was in the ’60s, seeing as she was head librarian at the Gotham Public Library and all. However, she just seemed really young b ecause of how she was written.

Tell us, Cronin! DO EET.

Brian, please tell us!

All those Kandorians look like Supes because he was getting his freak on with lots of Kandorian chicks in his off time. Fanfic anybody?

Not to be planetist, but Kryptonians always look alike. I mean, really, how many Supergirls have they sent to Earth?

What about Gregory Reed (the actor who played Superman who, er, looked just like Superman), Van-Zee (Superman’s Kryptonian cousin, who looked just like Superman and took over Superman’s Kandorian role of Nightwing), and one of the many versions of Zod that seemed to crop up before Geoff Johns and Richard Donner brought the real one back?

Geez, I never expected Cronin to resort to Snark Baiting to get hits on his column! THAT said, I too want to know what’s the deal with that Lois Lane story (though I have an idea already.) Can it be any more cruel than the Jimmy Olsen story where he kept slapping his fiancee (by accident!!) until she had a black eye? (Yeesh these comics were misogynistic!)

I’d love to know how Lois Lane #3 ends too now, Brian!

C’mon Brian! There are way more than 10!

It’s funny, I did the post that day (July 20th, 2011) but I didn’t take into account the fact that people would be reading this comments section over a year later and wonder why I never posted the story.

I’ll tell ya what, I’ll post it as today’s I Love Ya But You’re Strange (and I’ll be sure to put in a link to the piece in the comments here).

Here’s the link containing the ending of Lois Lane #3. http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2013/01/27/i-love-ya-but-youre-strange-lois-lane-meets-a-man-who-somehow-has-more-issues-that-silver-age-lois-lane/