Dahr-Nel

In February of 1969 (SGLL No. 90, "Lois Lane's Future Husband") Lois Lane found herself experiencing a series of unusual blackouts, whereby she would end up in one place without any knowledge of how she got there. She consequently took a week of sick leave from the Daily Planet in order to relax at the Lane family's farm in Pittsdale. While at the farm, she experienced another dizzy spell... she would have fallen off a bridge if she were not rescued by the handsome "Dr. Rick Darnell," who took her to his strange lab and deemed her "a perfect specimen of young womanhood."

After the two witnessed an automobile accident and Dr. Darnell demonstrated superior knowledge and skill in medicine, Lois commented that no doctor in this world was capable of such things. She was right, for "Dr. Darnell" soon admitted that he was actually Dahr-Nel, a surgeon and survivor of Old Krypton. He showed her many of the implements in his laboratory as proof (including a plastimold) and asked Lois to marry him. After a week of deliberation, and an episode where she became very angry with Superman for pretending to marry Lois, she agreed. Dahr-Nel prepared the following inscription, before the two were to enter suspended animation:

                               HERE IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION,

                               SLEEP DAHR-NEL OF KRYPTON

                               AND HIS BRIDE, LOIS OF EARTH,

                             WHO WILL AWAKEN IN THE YEAR 2169

                           TO BEGIN A NEW AND HAPPY LIFE TOGETHER

As the gas was released and Lois fell asleep, Dahr-Nel realized that he'd made a mistake; given his increased powers on earth, the gas would not affect him the same way that it affected Lois. He quickly retrieved a piece of Green Kryptonite from Superman's Fortress of Solitude, to decrease his powers and allow himself to be sedated by the gas.

Meanwhile, Superman, sorry that he'd upset Lois, came to their mountain cavern and yelled "Lois, come back! I was a fool! A FOOL!" while remorsefully smashing the stone inscription to tiny bits. Lois, not yet fully affected by the gas, awoke and came to Superman. Alas, to their horror, Lois' new husband was already dead. Because of the dual effects of kryptonite poisoning and the sedative gas, Dahr-Nel had tragically crystallized into green kryptonite.

Lois was devastated. When she cried the rhetorical "Why?" Superman answered with a scientific answer: Dahr-Nel wasn't used to his superpowers, so instead of flying her through the time barrier, he had used kryptonite and accidentally killed himself. Superman tried to reassure Lois that she would someday be Mrs. Superman, while sealing up Dahr-Nel's final resting place.

The archives do not record whether anything Superman said on that tragic day was comforting to Lois.