Profile: Lori Lemaris

Lori Lemaris
First appearance: Superman #129, May 1959

History: Lori was a mermaid from Atlantean-related kingdoms (in this case, Tritonis) whom Superman fell in love with during the Silver Age. She was created by Wayne Boring and Bill Finger.

Current status: unknown

Was subjected to the following act of discrimination: she was originally killed during Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985, and later the Infinite Crisis crossover of 2005, she appeared to have been killed there too during the Spectre's insane outbursts, like quite a few other characters who were just slaughtered because the editors considered them worthless, selectively or otherwise.

What's wrong with how this was done? Totally disrespectful to a character who'd been a notable member of Superman's recurring cast of characters, and it makes no difference whether she's minor, that doesn't automatically justify such awful attitudes. Certainly not in the 2005 example, where it was even bloodier.

Lori had the potential to work quite well as a recurring character. Instead, she's one of quite a few in a corporate-owned franchise who've been done a terrible disfavor.