The character has occasionally gained superhuman powers and assumes the superhero identities of Insect Queen and Superwoman.

In modern revisions of DC Comics continuity, she and Clark are shown to have remained friends since their teenage years.

For example, in Superman: Secret Origin, Lana becomes privy to Clark's unusual abilities at an early age and becomes his earliest confidant outside of his parents and the futuristic Legion of Super-Heroes.

[2] In the Silver Age stories, Lana often behaved like a younger version of Lois Lane, spending much of her time trying to prove that Superboy and Clark Kent were one and the same.

In gratitude, the alien gave her a "bio-genetic" ring which allowed Lana to gain insect (and insect-like, such as arachnids) characteristics.

Lana was thus compelled to create a chitinous golden-brown costume (woven by silkworms under her control) and adopt a villainous alter ego, the Insect Queen.

He then divulged to her that he had superpowers, displayed by flying her around the world, before explaining that he felt he had to leave Smallville to help humanity as a whole.

When Lana finally aired her grievance with him years later (The Man of Steel #6), Clark felt very badly over how he had hurt her.

A long-term conspiracy of the Oan-created androids, the Manhunters, from whose control Lana and the rest of Smallville's children born around the same time as her were eventually freed, proved to be the cause of this stalking.

Unlike the pre-Crisis Earth-One continuity, Lana did not go on to have a journalistic career or compete with Lois for Superman's affections, nor play a significant role in Clark's life in Metropolis.

Lana's "Birthright" history has been yet again re-made following the events of the Infinite Crisis, which has revived Clark's pre-Crisis Superboy alter-ego.

[volume & issue needed] The two settled into a quiet life in Smallville, where they had a son they named after their mutual friend, Clark.

They picked this name for their son after Lana asked Clark to save his life when a car accident caused him to be born eight weeks premature.

[12] In Superman #654, Perry White reported that Lana had become CEO of Lexcorp following the ousting of founder Lex Luthor.

[15] While attending a student journalism award ceremony with Jimmy Olsen and Cat Grant, Lana suddenly collapses, with blood pouring out her nose.

She apparently dies on the operating table, but black insect-like creatures later encase her body in a cocoon, which then starts to crack open.

[18] A gigantic cocoon-like structure soon engulfs the hospital, and an army of giant insects takes hostage a number of workers as well as the Science Police and the Guardian.

The Queen reveals to Supergirl that during her last encounter with Lana, she injected her with a portion of her DNA and has been slowly taking control of her body for the past year, with the ultimate goal of capturing a Kryptonian to use as a template for an army of hybrid insects.

[21] They also share mutual romantic feelings for each other during their youth, and they would have gone to the Senior Prom together if that had not been the night that Clark's parents died.

Ending up working in the Cadmus Island sub-basement under King Faraday, Lana was able to conceal her meta-human biology from everyone, except Cole Cash.

Shortly afterwards, Lana adopted Susan Lang, formerly Fifty Sue, a super-powered little girl she had met on Cadmus Island.

It is subsequently revealed that, apparently due to their presence at the death of the New 52 Clark Kent, Lana and Lois have acquired powers, each calling themselves 'Superwoman', with Lois demonstrating Superman's traditional powers while Lana manifests a form similar to the more recent 'Superman Red', able to absorb and generate multiple forms of energy.

Although Lana initially plans to operate in secret, after Lois is killed, she begins taking on a more active role as Superwoman.

In the Dawn of DC series Steelworks, Lana Lang marries John Henry Irons and is exposed to zero-point energy that causes her to regain her powers.