WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Action Comics #1035, on sale now from DC Comics.
Superman has always had an incredibly romantic relationship with Lois Lane, with many stories in both comic books and other mediums depicting them as a happily married couple. Even as comic books have gone on to depict occasionally gratuitous material, Lois and Clark's romance has remained a fairly wholesome affair. That changed somewhat, however, in the latest issue of Action Comics.
Featuring a heartfelt goodbye from the Man of Steel to his loved ones, the story "Warworld Rising Part Six" in Action Comics #1035, by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Daniel Sampere, Adriano Lucas, and Dave Sharpe, has Superman and Lois doing more than just flying in the Metropolis night sky. This trope has become common in mainstream comics and has been used in other more salacious ways. Here's a look at the Couple of Steel and how they intimately say goodbye to one another for what might be a while.
The issue deals with the aftermath of the book's current storyline, with Mongul goading Superman into leaving Earth and facing him head to head on Warworld. The Man of Steel and his friends and family were worried about this, but he relents, feeling that it's best to face this challenge head-on. With his son Jon Kent taking over the role of Superman in his absence and his responsibilities to the Justice League no longer an issue, Superman prepares to make one final, passionate goodbye.
Superman goes home to Lois, flying off with her in his arms and assuring her that no matter what Mongul has planned for him, he'll be fine. When asked why he's so sure of this, Clark replies that his love for Lois is stronger than anything else in the universe and that he knows he'll come back to her safe and sound. Kissing in the moonlight sky, the romantic exchange quickly becomes even more intimate when Lois' shirt suggestively falls to the ground. The next panel shows Lois back home in bed naked, clearly having experienced amorous physical bliss with her husband. While this sort of thing isn't depicted often in Superman's adventures, this isn't the first time in comics that such things have been shown.
Superman previously engaged in aerial romantics in The Dark Knight Strikes Again (by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley) in which he and Wonder Woman become intimate in the sky while covered in his cape, with the resulting aftermath of force causing a flurry of natural disasters. Lois and Clark have also been shown after having enjoyed the fundamentals in adaptations such as both versions of Superman II and the television series Smallville.
An infamous situation involving this sort of thing happened in Chuck Austen and Salvador Larroca's controversial run on Uncanny X-Men. In Uncanny X-Men #, Angel and Husk revealed their mutual feelings for one another after a fight, resulting in Angel taking her up into the skies as they passionately kissed. The scene quickly devolved from romantic to the obscene, however, when Husk's few clothes dropped to the ground from above the couple's friends and Husk's own mother, making it obvious that they were now doing far more than mere hugging and kissing.
While the early days of the New 52, an issue of Catwoman had her and Batman become intimate while the two were on a rooftop, with the issue's content becoming particularly controversial. That's not to mention all of the other, non-mainstream superhero titles that show similar things in far more graphic detail. It's surprising that DC would have anything even remotely similar in a comic book involving Superman of all characters, but the way that it's handled is tactful, and meant to showcase how much he and Lois love each other.