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"It's my right to protect my family!" - Sam Lane, Ambush

Samuel "Sam" Lane is a General in the US Army, and the father of Lois Lane and Lucy Lane.

Physical Appearance[]

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General Sam Lane.

Sam Lane is a middle aged man. He's balding with gray hair and brown eyes.

Personality[]

Lane was a very strict father, but he was also very clever. Anytime Lois had a boyfriend, he would torture them, not because he didn't like them, but to test Lois. He wanted to see if Lois was willing to stand up to him to be with them, which she never did with anyone but Clark. This won his approval of Clark.

While it was not outright stated he knew Clark was The Blur and later Superman, he did hint that information and sometimes acts as a mentor to Superman such as after the incident where Superman attacked Luthor in a fit of rage, he lectured Superman saying men in their position cannot afford to lose control of their emotions.

Season Four[]

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General Lane meets the Kents.

When Chloe Sullivan and her father were put in protective custody, Lex Luthor recruited General Lane to help them escape the "safe house". After Lois traveled to Smallville to investigate her cousin's death, Sam arrived at the Kent Farm only to take his daughter back with him after thanking the Kents for their hospitality. Later he appeared on the farm once again to inform Lois that she failed her senior year and she would be attending Smallville High to get enough credits to graduate. Months later he and Lois decided to leave the country in order to locate his younger daughter Lucy, but the second meteor shower prevented Lois from leaving with her father. It is unclear if the General himself succeeded in finding Lucy.

Season Five[]

General Lane provided Chloe with covert surveillance equipment to help Clark Kent infiltrate the LuthorCorp building and rescue his family.

Season Six[]

General Lane continued his duties as a three-star military general. Lois told Clark and Chloe that he liked Wes Keenan. Wes was the only soldier that General Sam ever respected.

Season Nine[]

In the alternate future, Lois mentioned to Zod that her father was a General and still couldn't figure out how she had gotten an M1 Abrams tank to take her to prom.

Later, Lois was seen talking to Sam Lane on the phone regarding her wedding to Clark.

Season Ten[]

Lois mentioned that General Lane was a 'Four Star General', implying a promotion.

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General Lane returns to the Kent farm with Lucy.

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Sam interrogates Clark.

General Sam Lane and Lucy pay an unexpected visit to Lois and Clark ambushing them at the Kent Farm while they're having a moment of intimacy. During his stay, Sam tests his daughter by giving Clark some trials such as a list of meaningless chores to do, a third degree interrogation to see her reaction and his disapproval of the vigilantes movement in society. He also informs them that he's the senior military supervisor for the Vigilante Registration Act to be passed in the senate in Washington DC but he's facing opposition from Martha Kent who's against the bill being passed. But Martha isn't the only one who's against the act, Rick Flag is also against it and plans to prevent it from being passed by attempting to assassinate Sam by using his youngest daughter Lucy Lane to produce evidence of Clark's involvement with the vigilante group to get him away from Clark's protection . Rick gives Lucy a pen that has a tracking device to track Sam's location. After Sam confronts Clark on his connection to The Maiden of Might, he declares to Lois his disapproval of her relationship with Clark and orders her to leave her prepared Thanksgiving dinner to return to her apartment at the Talon.

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General Lane and Lucy look on in horror as the Talon is destroyed.

Lucy slips the pen in her father's pants pocket, At the Talon a heartbroken Lois confronts her father and declares her undying love and commitment to Clark. Sam, appearing upset at his daughter's decision, drops his pen on the table and leaves with Lucy from the apartment. Rick launches a homing missile to the General's location, the Talon. However, he left his tracking device with Lois in the apartment. The missile was launched and destroyed the apartment but Clark as the Blur rushes in and rescues her, returning her to her family.

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Sam spends Thanksgiving with his daughters and Clark at the Kent farm.

Relieved by his daughter's rescue by the Blur, Sam apologizes to Clark for his previous treatment of him and reveals his real motives to Clark that he was actually testing Lois's love for Clark, and Clark is the only one that Lois has ever stood up for, which proves she loves him. Before entering for dinner Clark asks Sam a secret request concerning Lois. Inside the Kent house, Sam, his daughters and Clark enjoy a lovely Thanksgiving dinner .

Season Eleven[]

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Lex Luthor trying to work with Sam Lane to stop Superman.

Sam Lane met Lex Luthor in Luthor's office, where Luthor proposed that the U.S. Military should take action against Superman. Lex then revealed to him that the Russians had built Korlyov as an orbital weapon. Sam told Lex that the U.S. Military would intervene when they had just cause.

Later Lex claims that Superman's appearance at the Korolyov and Guardian incidents, as well as his apparent attack of LexCorp Plaza, Superman had given Sam Lane a reason to intervene.General Lane ordered three military helicopters show up to head to LexCorp Plaza, where they see Superman accusing Lex of activating the Guardian Platform mid-flight.The military plane demands that Superman step away from Lex. The military tell him he is under arrest, but Superman refuses as the ready their guns.

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Lois and General Lane discuss Superman.

Outside of the Daily Planet, Lois angrily demands she be patched through to her father. When he answers she argues and ridicules his decision, but General Lane claims to just be following orders. She calls Clark and he ask her if Sam knows his secret, saying he implied it before, but Lois claims if he did he probably would not have fired at him. As they surround Superman they begin firing, as Lois seeks cover under her convertible. The bullets deflect off of him and hit the tail rotor of one of the helicopters, which begins to fall. Superman saves Lois before the helicopter crashes onto of her car, and explodes. The pilot of Sans helicopter ask if he should tell base Superman has taken a hostage, but he refuses, stating Superman just saved Lois.

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Superman speaks with General Lane.

Superman then meets with General Lane at Liberty park where they have a discussion about his recent heroics but also the fear members of Washington DC have against him as he has no real accountability to the government only to his moral code. Superman suggest to General Lane that he'd be up to going to Washington DC to meet with the President.

A couple of months later, General Lane sent his soldiers on a rescue mission to Africa, where Lois has gone on an assignment to investigate mysterious reports surrounding the vigilante known as Angel of the Plateau. His men encountered John Corben, who was sent by African warlords to kill the vigilante. While the soldiers were communicating with General Lane via a radio frequency, informing him that they found his daughter, Corben saw the military aircraft, where the soldiers were in and magnetised its bladers, with his new powers, making it fall from the sky. After Corben was defeated a Departement called D.E.O. communicated with General Lane and they took John into custody.

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General Lane discusses with Bones the events of the previous day.

The D.E.O. has arrives at the cathedral, where Superman fought with some supernatural beings, quarantined while they are investigating the insides of the building. General Sam Lane and Mr. Bones discuss the events of what has happened. Sam Lane want assurance that the events shouldn't happen again or else the President will rethink the D.E.O.'s independence. Mr.Bones argues that the D.E.O. are moving in directions the Government can't and won't with General Lane said shades of Waller are poking through his makeup. Bones wonder how Superman wound up in all of this. General Lane replies wherever his daughter goes, trouble and the Man of Steel are sure to follow, but not necessarily in that order. Bones ask what happened to keeping a passive eye on him, with Lane saying that the recon was being generated by an Outside Vendor who has experienced some "technical difficulties" . But he hears Superman had it all under control before Team 7 arrived and started shooting up the place while Bones was wondering where the team's leader is. Then Sam Lane says he has a pretty good guess.

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Superman argues about Diana's arrest with General Lane.

While Diana fights with the soldiers of D.E.O. comes out of his apartment and tries to reason with Bones and General Lane but Lane orders to fire at them again. Later General Lane explains to Superman that the attack Bones ordered against Diana has been approved by the U.S. president himself. Superman defends Diana by saying she hasn't done anything wrong and she is only looking for her mother. Bones then responds by saying to Diana that he can take her to her mother and Diana accepts the offer. Lane prevents Superman from interfering, telling him to choose his battles and find another way to handle the situation.

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General Lane talks with Lois and Steve about Diana's arrest and super-powered beings.

In a parking lot, Lois argues with Steve Trevor and her father, General Lane, about Diana's arrest by D.E.O. Lois says they had no right to take her into custody but General replies that Diana is neither a citizen of the United States nor of anywhere else and they were only trying to prevent the things of getting out of control. Steve says that he actually does not know what has happened to Diana during all these years and Lois then says that she is a "Wonder Woman". The General ditches the conversation by saying that the world is changing too fast and that these super-powered beings have no one to represent them.

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General Lane, Lois and Steve try to communicate with everyone else.

Later, General Lane along with Lois and Steve are inside his car and while he is driving, they are trying to communicate with someone else but Lois says that the phones are out and neither Steve or the General can communicate with D.E.O., the General's Unit or the President's office. Suddenly they see undead people having been unleashed all over the city with horrified citizens running away from them. General Lane tries to avoid the undeads and comments on the communication problem by saying that an E.M.P. wasn't what caused all of this because the power is still on.

Inside General Lane's car, a harpy attacks the vehicle and grabs Steve Trevor abducting him and leaving the General and Lois horrified.

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General Lane accompanies Hippolyta to her plane.

At Andrews A.F.B., General Lane accompanies Queen Hippolyta to the plane, that will transport her back to Paradise Island. Hippolyta asks agent Chase, who will be the pilot of the plane, to assure her that no one will follow them and Cameron tells her that they will not be followed or tracked because the plane is actually invisible so they will barely even seen. Then General Lane assures her that she is in good hands because Chase is a very good pilot. He then introduces the new director of D.E.O., Steve Trevor.

Appearances[]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 #
Season 4 - X X - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2
Season 10 - - - - - - X - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1
Total 3

In the Comics[]

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General Sam Lane as he appears in the comics.

In the comics, like in Smallville, General Sam Lane is a career army officer, who married Ella Lane, and had two daughters, Lois and Lucy. Unlike Smallville however, Lois has never had as close of a relationship with Sam as she has with in the show. Sam has always been openly disappointed in the fact he had two daughters rather than sons, causing Lois wanting, not to make him proud, but instead to aggravate him as much as possible and never allowing herself to be bullied by him in any manner. In fact, according to Lois a majority of their relationship has always involved them arguing with one another.

As years passed, Lois and Sam would attempt to reconnect, but that proved near impossible due in large part to the fact that Sam openly hated her boyfriend and later husband Clark, as well Lois' "pet project" Superman. Often he and Lois would argue over both Clark and Superman, with Lois' mother Ella having to mediate.

When Lex Luthor became president of the United States, Sam became Secretary of Defense. During a galaxtic war, Sam was supposedly killed by a probe in the Imperiex War. His family mourned the passing of Sam, and both Lex and Superman attended his funeral to send him off. Several years after the war, Lucy joined the military in a post-mortem attempt to appease his desire of a son to follow in his footsteps, and even apparently divorced her own husband (however it is also possible that her marriage to Ron, and Troupe and the birth of their son Samuel, was retconned out of history following the events of Infinite Crisis).

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Sam's grandson Jonathan Samuel Kent!

When the Bottled City of Kandor was returned to full size, and eventually became the planet of New Krypton, General Sam Lane revealed himself to have faked his own death, and was planning to fight a war against what he personally believed to be an alien menace. He drafting Lex Luthor in an operation against Superman and the Kryptonians of Kandor. As he plotted against the Kryptonians, his plans became more blood thirsty and even genocidal. He transformed his own daughter Lucy, into the insane villain Superwoman, and eventually was largely responsible for the complete and utter destruction of the entire planet of New Krypton.When Lois and Supergirl confronted him and Superwoman about their actions, Sam Lane took his life right before his daughters and Supergirl.

In the current continuity of the mythology Sam Lane is has moved on from his vendetta against Superman, seeing him in a new light as a protector of Earth and a guardian angel to his daughter Lois and his grandson "Jonathan Samuel Kent".

Notes.[]

  • At the end of Ambush, Clark asks Sam a question concerning Lois. This question is not revealed, but it is assumed this is where Clark asks for Sam's blessing in marrying Lois.
  • Sam was not shown interacting with Chloe. They did interact briefly in Mortal, although happened offscreen.
  • Smallville's version of Sam Lane is shown to be less biased and harsh in his opinion of both Clark Kent and Superman, unlike in the comics.

Trivia[]

  • Samuel Lane's first appearance was in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #13 (November 1959).
  • Michael Ironside was also the voice of Darkseid in Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.
  • Michael Ironside again portrayed the father of Peyton List's character in The Flash, also based on DC Comics characters. In that series, they played Lewis and Lisa Snart, respectively.
  • Michael Ironside portrayed the great-grandfather of Justin Hartley's character Kevin in This Is Us. In that series, it is Kevin who finds out about his uncle Nicky, who used the alias of "Clark Kent" in the past. As a child, Nicky mentions being a "Lois Lane" to his protective brother Jack.

Other faces of Sam Lane[]

External links[]

References[]

  1. Four-star insignia is seen in his cap in episode Ambush.
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