This year marks Superman's 80th anniversary, a milestone that DC is marking throughout 2018 with the appropriate amount of fanfare for one of pop culture's most important figures. Among the biggest moments of the celebration is the release of Action Comics #1000 -- a landmark number for a landmark title in comic book history. But as the Man of Tomorrow makes use of that famous super breath blowing out his birthday candles, it's important to not forget that a certain special woman in his life shares this anniversary with him.

1938's Action Comics #1 introduced the world to Jerry Shuster and Joe Siegel's unique creation; a man from a distant planet who could lift cars, leap tall buildings and championed the oppressed. In that same issue, we also met the equally unique Lois Lane, his intrepid Daily Planet colleague whose eventual love for the Man of Steel -- and the less steely Clark Kent -- would be the only thing to rival her love of journalism. Lois Lane's 80 year-history has had its fair share of ups and downs, and like any enduring comic book character, has seen reinvention after reinvention. Her enduring legacy, however, remains intact and, for the most part, unchanged.

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When we think of Lois Lane, we think of a tenacious, outspoken career-woman dedicated to a greater calling. That characterization is owed to two major inspirations Shuster and Siegel drew on for her creation. Her fast-talking sass comes from fictional film character (and owner of the most 1930s name ever) Torchy Blane, the "Lady Bloodhound with a nose for news!" who starred in a number of black-and-white, pre-WWII serials. Back then, Torchy was one of the very few career-driven women who could rival her male equivalents without being put back in her place.

The other influence came from a real-life source -- the pioneering journalist, Nellie Bly. Bly started writing for the Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1885, a job that would see her go on to have some pretty wild adventures, from traveling the world in a record 72 days, to going undercover as a sweatshop worker and later as a mental patient on Blackwell's Island to expose institutional abuse. Her investigative work was considered groundbreaking territory for a reporter of either gender, and her writing was fueled by a burning commitment to social justice -- particularly for working women. It's this spirit that emboldens Lois to sneak her way into supervillain hideouts or report from the front line of warzones to this day.

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Giving Lois Lane a calling in life -- separate from her romantic role -- was the most important thing Shuster and Siegel did for her. Superman may have birthed the superhero genre but it's a genre that, at its core, echoes one of the oldest conceits in storytelling: The brave hero embarking on a noble quest to rescue a helpless damsel; his heroism rewarded with anything from a chaste kiss to a promise of marriage. With her only function being the flesh-and-blood equivalent of a doggy treat for a job well done, the love interest in an action-adventure tale has traditionally been a crappy one for a female character to play.

Was Lois Lane created to be Superman's damsel in distress? Absolutely. But right from the start, her passion for uncovering the truth pulled at the thread of this stereotype until it unraveled completely. Lois has always been a character who demands purpose beyond being a plot device, whether that's winning her prized Pulitzer or protecting her superpowered son.

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Lois having something to actually do proved interesting enough for her to warrant her own newspaper strip in 1943: Lois Lane, Girl Reporter, which served as the back-up strip for Superman's. (Lois used up most of her four panels fielding a barrage of sexist comments from her male Planet colleagues and delivering stinging burns to the hapless Jimmy Olsen.) In fact, Lois has enjoyed more solo titles than any other comic book love interest, from her bizarre Silver Age escapades in Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane through the '50s and '70s, to her (unfortunately named) one-shot in 1998's GirlFrenzy! to her 75th anniversary special, Superman: Lois Lane to her recent teenage exploits chronicled in Gwenda Bond's YA novels. She even got top billing in TV's Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. In and out of print, Lois has blazed a trail for every other feisty superhero girlfriend to follow.

Though we've seen Lois step into a superhero role before (as Superwoman, Red Tornado and even donning a Batman mech suit) she's at her strongest -- and most impactful -- when she's representing a less physical kind of strength: tenacity. Even when she's relegated to full damsel mode, the messes Superman usually saves her from are of her own making. Where Wonder Woman is a female fantasy figure, Lois Lane is a more achievable kind of role model; the every day guts it takes for women to elbow their way into boardrooms or be unabashedly uncompromising when they're told to be submissive. That's why we don't recognize versions of Lois that are written to be passive or overly dependent on the Man of Steel as being worthy representations. That tenacious spirit we love was built in from the ground up. Lois hasn’t changed with the times, she’s been an active part of change.

RELATED: Action Comics: The 80-Year History of the First Superhero Comic

Coming back to Mr. Lois Lane, putting Clark Kent in the same office space as his future wife wasn't just great for soap opera-style, secret identity drama, it allowed readers to really see the pair on professional equal footing and ensured that Lois' identity as something more than a winnable prize or a screaming victim was given a decent spotlight. Through the many retellings of the Superman origin, we watch Clark's affection for his partner blossom as he realizes she shares his desire to fight for truth and justice, and while she's sometimes thought of as human Kryptonite, Lois is better thought of as an anchor for Superman’s most important trait: his humanity.