So there’s this universe. Multiverse, actually, given all the parallel alternate histories (52 of them), some of which interact every so often. There are tons of planets all over all the galaxies with sentient life, thousands if not millions of species. It’s got light with magical properties, and some people made rings out of them. Notably, a group called the Guardians made green ones and created a kind of universal police force. There are dangerous forces of magic, including a perpetual cosmic battle between Order and Chaos. There are evil stars, there are creatures which go around bottling cities and destroying planets, galactic warlords, gods, New Gods and Apokoliptians, fairies, anthropomorphic personifications of the whole nine yards.

And then there’s Earth. Earth is very much as it ever was, or used to be. There are some differences, of course: there are technological advances we can’t even dream of yet. (Beam weapons, teleportation technology, freaking giant space stations with artificial gravity and giant laser weapons, power suits capable of flight, computer tech just out of reasonable range, that kind of thing.) And, in a world-creators’ attempt to avoid directly addressing world problems, there are the occasional made-up countries or organizations. They’re placeholders for what’s going on in the real world—Bialya, Pokolistan, Qurac, and the rest.

Overall, though, it’s still Earth in all her blue, green, and white glory.

And on this planet like a marble is a bright, shining city. It’s full of sky-scrapers, towers of glass and steel, lights all around. It has its dark sides, of course: what’s called Suicide Slum, the more run down portion of town, where the most unlucky live; Hob’s Bay, with all the hold-overs from the classic age of the mafia and mob, a time now gone by to some degree… but not completely. It’s a city of booming businesses and research. S.T.A.R Labs, on the cutting edge of scientific development, has a major installation there. Even in this city of growth and progression, however, people were forgetting their optimism and sinking into cynicism, even if they’d never have the same grit and bleakness of nearby Gotham. And over all this, two buildings stand out. One is a recently built tower, sporting a large L, denoting its owner and the emblem of capitalistic growth. The other shows the signs of its decades, the glinting bronze globe proclaiming the institution which above all else drove for, as its editor used to have hanging in his office, ‘Truth, Justice, and the American Way.’  Metropolis, the City of Tomorrow : home of Lex Luthor and the Daily Planet, where people are slowly forgetting to look <em>up</em>.

Or at least, that’s how it used to be, nearly fifteen years ago.

Lois Lane was right along with the rest of the city, falling into cynicism and doubting in anything good. And then, one day, when Lois was in just the first of a long string of accidents with flying vehicles, falling, and near death experiences, the city and, indeed, the whole world changed. A flying man (in tights and cape, however dubious the fashion choice) appeared over the skies of Metropolis. With him came a renewed sense of hope, a change in the criminal activities of the city, and a new era for Earth.

Metropolis, the City of Tomorrow: home of Superman, where everyone knows to look up—and maybe you’ll see a blur of color, speeding to save the day.

Superman’s debut didn’t just kick off a new age of costumed superheroes. It also opened Earth’s eyes to the vastness of the universe, and those with superpowers began stepping forward. Whether metahumans, magicians, the occasional intergalactic supercop, aliens defending a world they chose to make their own, or pure humans whose determination and brains and toys made them far above average, they all made it into a new age.

With them, however, came the supervillains as well. As the home of arguably the most powerful being on Earth (if not more), Metropolis gets hit by quite a few of the major baddies. It is those villains, insidious plots, and danger which make up the bulk of Lois Lane’s life, for any number of reasons. On the one hand, her world is a little smaller and more relaxed than that of the many superheroes she comes into contact with. She isn’t out there saving planets in other galaxies, punching gods in the face, stopping evil sentient suns, or anything like that. For the most part, her world sticks to Metropolis, with a few exceptions. Even so, it’s plenty to keep her busy.

On the one hand, there’s the everyday crime, bureaucratic corruption—the usual kind of thing. Uncovering that, writing about it, trying to bring it down with a spotlight is where she got her start, and she still does it when she can. And then she covers a bunch of the Superman news, frequently when Clark can’t (cough). Somehow, a bunch of her investigations end in her being caught by some supervillain, running or about to die—and Superman turns up to save the day.

And then sometimes those investigations of corruption are unusual and dovetail with something much, much larger than she is. Frequently when that happens, it puts her at odds with one of two major entities: Intergang or Lex Luthor. The former is more a problem of Clark’s—her co-worker’s, that is—but she tangles with them too, sometimes.

As for Lex, well. She used to be involved with him, and while he makes her skin crawl, he still has some feelings for her. Her love for Clark has even protected him from Luthor once. He still looms fairly large in her world. Only Lex has ever manipulated her into compromising her integrity and ethics. And Lex can scare her as very few can: he’s far smarter than most of Superman’s enemies, and has a personal grudge that somehow runs more deeply and viciously than that of most of the villains running around. And sometimes, he has all the power on his side.

Easily the most dramatic demonstration of this came when Lex Luthor bought the Daily Planet and fired basically everyone who worked there. After some time of this—and Lois being kept cooped up, unable to go out into the field—she made a devil’s bargain with him. He sold the paper back to Perry for the grand sum of one dollar, and she gave him the right to kill one story, any subject. He was subsequently elected president, and during his presidency came the Imperiex war. It killed Sam Lane (apparently, spoiler: he lived, and is about to screw over everything and everyone). However, a few chance comments led Lois to the conclusion that Lex must have known then when, where, and how of her father’s death. She spent weeks on the investigation, and when she got too close, he used his get-out-of-exposé-free card.

Unfortunately for Lex, Lois’ husband is also a reporter, and made no such deal. Together, they began working to take down the Luthor presidency—and Superman and Batman later finished it. And, really, that’s the kind of good work day Lois likes to see. (Except for the near-death aspects of it.)

Even though publicly Lois is married—incredibly happily—to Clark Kent, basically the entire city (and rogues gallery, and the country, possibly the planet or whole damned universe) knows that Superman had and probably still does harbor feelings for her. As a result, she is sometimes used for leverage against him. One of the worst times was when Manchester Black, having cracked Clark’s identity, tortured her a little and made Clark think she was dead. For all of that, usually she isn’t a helpless damsel in distress by some definitions of the word: most of her adventures come from her own investigations rather than being The Hero’s Gal. On the other side of the coin, it’s just as well known that Lois had and probably still does harbor feelings for Superman. It’s just as easy for people to use him—or Clark—against her as vice versa.

It doesn’t help that Lois’ little sister Lucy has told her that loving Superman more than General Sam Lane was what killed their father.

As far as current events in Lois’ life go, Metropolis nearly got bottled and stolen by Brainiac, which would have ended in the nuking of the Earth. Metropolis and Earth survived, and now there’s even a colony of Kandorians up north, near the Fortress. But in the aftermath Jonathan Kent had a fatal heart attack, and Lois is doing her best to remain Clark’s support.

Worse, though, Jimmy has told her there’s some secret project aimed at taking down Kryptonians—or rather, <em>one specific</em> Kryptonian. On the one hand, someone gunning for her husband is so old hat, she shouldn’t be so freaked out. But Superman is busy trying to get a bunch of Kandorians settled, leaving Lois and Jimmy to follow the younger photographer’s lead in good old-fashioned journalism. It’s already nearly killed him a couple times—and this time, it’s not just some villain. It’s a black bag military unit, complete with green-K and magic weapons.

More terrifying for her, they don’t know who’s behind it.