One More Day, DC Silver Age Style!!

It turns out that Peter Parker isn't the only comic character who turns to deals with Satan for marital purposes.

Lois Lane has gone to see her former college boyfriend perform as Mephistopheles in touring production of Faust. Which leads to the following bit of idle chit-chat:

Well, we all know that idle chit-chat is the devil's best friend, as later that night:






Uh-oh.

Well, after continuing to prove his bona fides by making Superman propose and unpropose and propose yet again, "Satan" reveals to the audience that he is really...

Yes, Kal-El, every random conversational metaphor, even if obviously not meant to be taken literally must be punished firmly!! What a tough life Lois must lead, with her every utterance subject to the Kryptonian thought police:

Lois: I could kill for a burger right now.

Superman: What a rash thing to say! Lois must be taught a lesson!!

But what about those purprted souls of Scarface Malone and his gang?

Yes, because the Kandorian Emergency Squad exists at your beck and call to help you pull pranks on Lois.

Continuing the stunt, Superman/Satan offers Lois a way out:


Uh-oh...hoist on your own petard, Man Of Steel!!

It turns out that by this time, Lois has sussed out that it's really Superman ("Satan's" handwriting on that contract, you see, was identical to Superman's. And of course Lois had memorized what Superman's handwriting looks like). So she's sticking it to the guy:

Man, even the Kandorians are mocking you, bro.

Fortunately, Silver Age authors realized that married heroes were anathema, with no good stories to tell (except for imaginary ones). So Lois lets him off the hook:




Oh, man, Leo Dorfman used Satan to set up a super-marriage, and then tear it apart, all in the same 10-page story! Eat that, Quesada!!

From Lois Lane #41 (1963), as reprinted in Lois Lane #86 (1968).