I absolutely agree with Tank that this is the place where you discuss things like the importance of the Superman comic book world versus the Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher TV show. Is the latter the only acceptable springboard for a Lois and Clark fanfic story? If it is, to what extent should a writer try to make his or her story a spinoff of an individual episode of that show, and to what extent should a fanfic writer see the continuity canon of the show as the guide to what kind of behavior is acceptable from Lois and Clark in the story that he or she is writing?
As some of you may know, I don't think that the TV show should be the "gospel" as to what the story of Lois and Clark is all about. That's not because I think the TV show is bad in any way. Although I have confessed in another thread that I have seen less than half of all the episodes, I can so easily see that this TV show is the best thing that has ever happened to the myth about Superman. I, too, think that Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher are terrific as Clark and Lois. I I simply love the fact that Lois is as important as Clark or Superman in the ABC TV show. This elevation of the importance of Lois is, after all, exactly what I have wanted to see during 37 of the 38 years that I have been a Superman fan. And I absolutely adore the fact that Clark and Lois's love for one another is, if anything, even more important to Clark in the show than his life and heroics as Superman.
The reason why I have, nevertheless, watched so little of the show is simply this. After being a comic book fan for 38 years, I have come to the conclusion that the particulars of an individual Superman story, or Lois and Clark story, aren't important. Believe me, if I had tried to memorize the the nitty-gritty little details of the individual issues of all the various Superman comics I have read over the years, and fit them into any sort of continuity, I'd be in hospital by now. It's the bigger picture that counts. Really the only things that are important are the things that are important to you, as a fan. What's important to me isn't how Clark is going to stop an asteroid called Nightfall, or even that he is going to try to stop an asteroid called Nightfall. What's important to me is that Clark is going to risk his life in order to save the Earth, and at the same time he is rather unhappily in love with Lois, and he is struggling with the question of whether or not he ought to tell her his big secret. That's what's important to me. Similarly, if I want him to tell her, and if I want her to accept and love him as both Clark and Superman, then it's irrelevant to me whether or not the continuity of the ABC TV show actually allows the two of them to do just that at that particular moment.
My main objection to the show, and the reason why I have no particular wish to try to see the episodes that I have missed, is my strong feeling that the show is in the past. Sorry about that. But you must understand that I have been following Superman since 1968, and Superman and Lois since early 1969. These 38 years as a Superman fan have made me feel that the whole concept of Superman is an ongoing process, an ever evolving continuity. There are new stories about Superman, and even about Superman and Lois or Lois and Clark, being churned out all the time in the comic book world. And there is an upcoming movie. The Superman world has moved on, as it were, but the Lois and Clark TV show is still stuck in the time slot of 1996 to 1998, or whatever the exact years were.
I'm not saying that the new stuff coming out is better than the Lois and Clark TV show. On the contrary, I think it is most definitely inferior to it. But I am saying that you can't live in the past. To me, the single most fascinating aspect of having been a Superman fan for 38 years is the wonder of having seen Superman evolve and change during all this time. I know that all these years of Superman-watching have made me come to a conclusion as to what Superman is all about. It's about a man who pretends to be two men, and who is powerfully attracted to a woman while at the same time being afraid of her, and therefore repelled by her. The woman, in turn, is attracted to the aspect of this man that rejects her, and she is turned off by the aspect of the man that wants her. Also the man is a super-powered alien superhero who likes to spend most of the time pretending to be an absolutely ordinary human male. The man is beautifully altruistic, and he has this - to a woman - wonderful ability to be incredibly attracted to just one woman. To me, this is extremely powerful stuff. And so much of it has been far more clearly expressed in the ABC TV show than anywhere else. Therefore, the legacy of this TV show is so beautiful. Even so, the show is in the past, and I want to look forward. Getting stuck in the nitty-gritty details of the show isn't the best way to look ahead, if you ask me.
So, FoLCs, where do you find the best ongoing Superman continuity, the best explorations of unchartered Lois and Clark territories? To me, there is no doubt. They are right here, on these bords, in the stories that many of you FoLCs keep writing and posting right here. In my opinion, you are exploring a modern myth, uncovering unexpected jewels and making the whole thing ever richer and more fascinating in the process. Some of you think that the ABC TV show, down to its minor details, is what you want to write about. Even then, you bring out never-before-seen aspects of the Superman myth. But it may be that when I read your stories, I may not be able to see them for what they really are. If the nitty-gritty details of the TV show are what you are exploring, then I will always read your story in a way you had not intended. So let's agree to disagree about the Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher TV show. Just remember this: I love your stories.
Ann
