Sam Lane (comics)

Sam Lane is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the father of Lucy Lane and Lois Lane and the father-in-law of Clark Kent / Superman.

Denis Arndt and Harve Presnell portrayed the character in the series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Michael Ironside in Smallville, Glenn Morshower in Supergirl, and Dylan Walsh in Superman & Lois; and Joel de la Fuente voiced him in the animated series My Adventures with Superman.

Sam Lane, along with his wife Ella was introduced in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #13 (November 1959) as a horse farmer in the town of Pittsdale. He was created by Robert Bernstein and Kurt Schaffenberger.

Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, Sam was reimagined as a hard-bitten and outspoken US Army General, with an awkward relationship with his daughters. It was explained that Lane had wanted his eldest child to be a boy, so had treated Lois as a surrogate son, when he was present at all. This version first appeared in The Adventures of Superman #424 (January 1987), the first retitled issue of the former Superman title. He became a more significant character following Lois' engagement to Clark Kent, being highly unimpressed with the mild-mannered reporter despite his obvious commitment to Lois.

When Lex Luthor becomes President of the United States, he appoints Sam Lane as Secretary of Defense. This leads to Lois, as an investigative journalist trying to prove Luthor is corrupt, opposing her father, especially during the buildup to the Imperiex War.

During the fight against Imperiex, Lane is apparently killed after detonating the nuclear engine of his tank to crack the shell of an Imperiex probe and allow Black Lightning to attack it. Lucy decides to try and honor her father's memory and give him the soldier he was denied by joining the U.S. Army. Lucy is wounded during the Amazons' attack on Washington, D.C., and is secretly rescued and brought to a secret facility. Sam Lane reveals himself to have survived and become the leader of the covert operation Project 7734. Lucy volunteers to become Superwoman and is given a mystically-powered costume that allowed her to pass as a Kryptonian. Lucy is to infiltrate Kandor and gathering intelligence on the Kryptonians and New Krypton. Lucy appears to die battling Supergirl when her suit is ruptured, but returns to life with Kryptonian powers.

Lane drafts the imprisoned Lex Luthor into a secret operation against Superman and the Kryptonians of Kandor. The U.S. government believes the aliens to be a risk for world's security and begins to create countermeasures against them. When General Zod declares war on Earth after it is revealed Lex Luthor (through one of his robot doubles) aided Brainiac in attacking New Krypton, Lane puts his plans into action. The Luthor robot tampers with Reactron's body chemistry, causing him to explode. The resulting chain reaction leads to the destruction of New Krypton and most of the remaining 100,000 Kryptonians, including Supergirl's mother Alura.

Under Lane's orders, Luthor transforms the Earth's sun from yellow to red to rob the Kryptonians of their powers. Flamebird neutralizes this countermeasure and the sun reverts to yellow and restores everyone's power. At the same time, Jimmy Olsen and his associates save Natasha Irons and transmit all of General Lane's activities to news sites all over the World Wide Web. The remaining Kryptonians, led by Ursa and Zod himself, begin attacking Earth. When confronted by Supergirl and Lois, Lane commits suicide rather than be made accountable to an international court.