Well, I think you can breathe again, Beverly. It's not at all scary.
Yeah, but you haven't seen the rest. Well, the rest I've already written anyway. Okay, okay, I serious doubt I could write that scary to begin. I think *I* was the one scared out of her wits and still am somewhat. More on that in a moment.
We're clearly in the realm of the cartoons here, which would normally be something of a turn-off for me, but I'm going to keep watching this one out of curiosity to see where it leads. In other words, you've hooked me in.
Yes, there's definitely a cartoon influence going on because that's primarily where I'm drawing a reference for Clark & Bruce's friendship since I don't read the comics. It is still set squarely in a L&C universe that also contains Bruce and Diana, thohgh. Personally, even if I did read the comics, I'd probably still prefer the way Batman and Superman's friendship is protrayed in the recent cartoon versions about Superman, Batman & the Justice League. They just hit so many of all the right emotional levels in those cartoons about their relationship that I've always thought that's the way it should've been done if L&C could've had Batman visit. Eventually, if this works out, I may have to add something about that crossover aspect to the author's notes, even though I don't consider it a crossover.
You asked about characterisation. Well, I suspect I'm enormously biased because of the cartoon aspect, but Clark doesn't quite feel like our Clark. Perhaps it's his character as reflected in Bruce's interaction with him that does it - for example, that last line about not letting Clark kill Tempus before he's had a chance to outline his plan. I know it was said with a touch of black humour, but even so, I can't imagine saying that to our Clark because Clark would (almost) never kill anyone. Like I said, though, my opinion is probably coloured by the presence of other cartoon characters and the unusual setting - ie, Lois dead and the eleven-year-old daughter.
I'm not sure it's actually intended to be black humor although I will admit to a touch of that coming through. It's difficult to explain, though, before the next chapter is ready to post. Suffice it to say that Clark has lost a lot more than just Lois and Bruce knows it, so I'm not sure he is any more our Clark at this point than the alt-Clark on the series was. Bruce literally meant what he said. This is part of what freaked me out as all this was coming through my fingers. I couldn't believe what I doing to poor Clark.
Oh, and Diana is Wonder Woman, who IS dating Bruce Wayne in the more recent Justice League cartoons. I was undecided whether to make her identiry clearer before posting Chapter 1, so sorry about that. I also had this sneaking suspicion that in the most recent Justice League cartoons she doesn't even have a last name so I was sort of stuck on what it should be.
