Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Challenge Imposter Clark challenge [Hear me out!]

I'm in a weird mood, so please hear me out.

What if in a world where Clark/Superman were presumed dead (could be Nightfall, could be something of an author's own choosing), life went on, and Lois went on to once again become a bitter, solo, reporter.

Lex, who's trying to woo Lois and destroy the Planet, decides he needs a spy inside the Planet and since Lois is spurning his advances, he decides to hire somebody to look exactly like Clark (he could have people combing through Clark's past and/or he could have obtained Trask's file on him from Bearu 31 and deemed him a nutcase while still valuing the info on Clark's life in the file for the purposes of the impersonation).

How does Lois react to this guy claiming to be Kent? Do Martha and Jonathan play into this seeing claiming to be their son? Does Lois investigate and finds all roads lead to Luthor? What if this 'Clark' is not all that he appears - even to himself?

That is all, and for those who don't like to write deathfic, please keep in mind I put in presumed dead in the first paragraph of this post.

That line somehow leads me to think that Clark just has amnesia, again, and Luthor found him, not knowing it is the real Clark. Perhaps he has be bit of embedded Kryptonite so he is vulnerable and can shave and stuff. Thereby we get imposter Clark and a happy ending.

Michael

Juliet, your "weird" Scenario is interesting.

Some disjointed thoughts that crossed my mind as I read it:

Could be a clone rather than a hired impersonator. Each idea leads in a different direction.

The hired impersonator gives a great op for a completely out of character Clark (rather than just a childish one that we might get with a clone) The impersonator could lead to all sorts of fun for Lois as she notices that Clark is "not quite himself" and tries to make sense of it. I see a great B & E opportunity for her (among other possibilities)

Umm, I don't see Lex trying to woo Lois as there's no Superman around - I never thought Lex was interested in Lois per se, but in her 'trophy' quality in his competition with Superman. But I can see him trying to bed her - in S1 he's very much the womanizer. But all that introduces an interesting complication - has Lois found out something damning about Lex???

A plot challenge here - why would Lex's people come across Trask's files in the natural process of what they're doing? But I'm sure this could be worked out.

Your idea of exploring the reactions of Lois, and M & J to Imposter Clark (Bizarro?) is interesting - a story in sections, maybe: Lois's POV. then next chapt. J's etc?

Bet others have all sorts of ideas for your story, Juliet. You should give it a shot.

c.

The big problem I see is the writing style. It is not going to be Clark's and Lois, Perry and anyone else who READS the Planet will know it isn't Clark.

So how about this

Lex had set a trap for Superman which he thinks worked. It didn't Clark got away safely after walking into the trap but he was weakened.

Next Luthor has Clark killed, and his body dumped. It is Mrs Cox who kills him and she still has her Kryptonite from the test. So while Clark isn't dead he is hurt and barely survives when his body is dumped at sea.

Now Luthor hires a Clark lookalike to mess with Kent's link with Lois. Luthor doesn't want anyone knowing Clark is dead. The impostor treats Lois badly and quits the Planet, without writing word one, AND leaves town.

After all Luthor was going after Lois's support system.

Now let's make this pre-NightFall.

The Kent's don't understand why Clark hasn't been in touch and find out from Lois about his actions.

BUT it is POST "Pheromone, My Lovely". So the fake Kent's actions don't make sense to Lois after his actions while she was under the "Pheromone".

Jonathon and Martha's call make her more convinced that something is fishy. She begins to investigate but can't locate Clark working anywhere.

His apartment is empty but the neighbors say it was a moving company not Clark that cleared everything out. Lois traces it and finds all Clark's things were simply placed in storage.

Such an obvious plot hole to fall into. Good point, Patrick.

c.

But wouldn't somebody as meticulous as Luthor have any lookalike he hired read a lot of Clark's articles and make sure the lookalike could at least ape Clark's writing style? Maybe it wouldn't have Clark's heart but Luthor would make sure that the style matched up so as to not get caught.

Juliet, I think you're right about this. The 'guess the author' fic-a-thon was interesting in this respect - I thought it would be easy and yet I missed every one. I could narrow it down, but that was it.

Perhaps it's also the themes, or attitudes that marks the author as much as style.

And Luthor would be smart enough to have this all covered.

But maybe that's where the false-Clark might get into trouble? What if he were submitting his stuff to a ghost-writer? At some point it, Lois notices that he doesn't actually write his own stuff?

c.

Maybe in the beginning Luthor supplies the look alike with alterned stories of Clark with only minor things changed, but Luthor lets him know that he's going to have to write his own stories in Clark's style to avoid getting Lois any more suspicious than she would already be by that point.

Or the imposter refuses to return to the Planet at first in order to buy him and Luthor time for the imposter to be able to pull off Clark's writing style. Maybe not Clark's heart but his style.