Superwoman is the name of several fictional characters in DC Comics. Most of them are, like Supergirl, women with powers similar to those of Superman, such as flight, invulnerability, and enhanced strength. In 1942, DC Comics trademarked the name and an ashcan copy (publication produced solely for legal purposes) was created with the title of Superwoman to prevent competitors from using it. The cover was a reproduction of More Fun Comics #73 with the interior being a reprint of the third issue of Action Comics. The first true appearance of Superwoman was in Action Comics #60 (May 1943).
Fictional character biography
Lois Lane
The first appearance of "Superwoman" in a DC comic was in a May 1943 story in Action Comics #60 by Jerry Siegel and George Roussos, where Lois Lane dreams that she has gained superpowers from a blood transfusion from Superman and launches a career as Superwoman. Superman #45 (March–April 1947) revisits the theme in a story titled "Lois Lane, Superwoman!" in which a pair of fraudulent magicians cast a "spell" on Lane, making her believe she has superpowers. Circumstances force Superman to play along with the ruse temporarily by using super-speed to invisibly intervene in Lane's adventures to support the illusion. She briefly sports a costume modeled on Superman's before the spell is broken. A story from Action Comics has Lois actually gaining superpowers from one of Lex Luthor's inventions and launching a short-lived career as "Superwoman". Later stories sporadically feature tales in which Lois gains superpowers and functioned as a "Superwoman" of sorts, but all of these are, like the 1951 tale, temporary. In other pre-Crisis imaginary stories—set outside the main DC continuity within an alternate history or hypothetical future—Lois Lane gains superpowers. In one of these, Sam Lane is a scientist and astrophysicist. He discovers that the Sun will go nova and obliterate the Solar System. Sam and his wife Ella place their infant daughter Lois in a starship and send her to Krypton within a "power beam" that enables faster-than-light travel and modifies Lois's molecular biology. This gives Lois superpowers after she reaches her adopted world, where she is named Kandi Khan. Like Superman in mainstream DC continuity, Kandi/Lois establishes a superhero career, and like Lois and Superman in the mainstream continuity, Supermaid and Kal-El fall for one another. Like Superman in the mainstream DC continuity, Supermaid is vulnerable to fragments of her perished homeworld (Earthite). Another imaginary story has Clark Kent and Lois exchange places so that she is from Krypton and Kent is an ordinary human, inquisitive about whether or not Lois Lane was Krypton Girl's secret identity. In 2016, Lois again became Superwoman in the DC Rebirth initiative and appeared as Superwoman in the comic book series Superwoman. The series marks the first ongoing comic book series featuring the Superwoman character. In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Lois and Lana gained superpowers due to the solar energy explosion caused by the death of the New 52 Superman. This results in both Lois and Lana becoming Superwoman with Lois possessing all of Superman's powers, while Lana has the ability to absorb and release solar energy. Lois returned as Superwoman in DC Comics in the DC All In initiative in 2024. During the "Absolute Power" storyline, Amanda Waller's Amazo robots steal the powers of many metahumans, and some have their powers swapped after regaining their powers. General Zod is among those affected, and Lois gains his powers in Superwoman Special #1.
Luma Lynai
A woman from the distant planet of Staryl, Luma Lynai wins the heart of Superman. Just as Superman derives his powers from a yellow star, Luma derived her gifts of super-strength and flight from an orange star. Their romance does not last, as Luma becomes deathly ill under the rays of a yellow star, and Superman cannot leave Earth undefended. She physically resembles an adult Kara Zor-El, with a similar costume, except instead of being blue-and-red with a pentagonal S shield, Luma's costume is white-and-green with a circular S emblem.
Superwoman (Crime Syndicate)
Superwoman is the alias of an alternate-universe counterpart of Wonder Woman from Earth-3. She is a supervillain and member of the Crime Syndicate of America. Unlike her heroic counterpart, this Superwoman is known for her ruthless and manipulative nature, often using her powers for personal gain, domination, and oppression.
Gender-swapped Superman
In Superman #349 ("The Turnabout Trap!"), Superman returns from an interstellar mission to find that everyone on Earth is of the opposite sex. Among them are Wonder Warrior (counterpart of Wonder Woman), Superlad (counterpart of Supergirl), and Superwoman (counterpart of Superman). Believing he has crossed into a parallel universe, Superman flies back to space to find a dimensional portal but is blocked by an invisible barrier. He notices the parallelism fails when he sees Superwoman and Clara Kent (Superwoman's presumed secret identity) are two separate people. When he confronts Superwoman, Superman discovers that he is regarded as a super-villain in this gender-reversed world, which leads to a battle with Superwoman, Superlad, and Wonder Warrior. They manage to trap Superman with Wonder Warrior on guard, but he manages to escape and takes Wonder Warrior's magic lasso with him. Superman figures out that his foe Mr. Mxyzptlk is behind this gender-reversed world. Superman discovers as well that he was never in a parallel universe, but rather on Earth, which Mxyzptlk had altered with his magic. Superman uses Wonder Warrior's magic lasso to make Mxyzptlk say his name backwards and thus returning him to his native dimension, the effects of Mxyzptlk's magic vanish, returning Earth to normal.
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