I'm sure most have seen the Star wars movie
"The Phantom Menace" ? We've seen the Machiavellian steps Palpatine takes to become emperor.
I just read
Empire by Orson Scott Card in which he does the same thing in our modern day USA.
The ending was of course given away well before the end. I'm certain Card intended the reader to see it and to dread it. The novel is a morality play for our times and while I've fond of Card's writing I found it a bit heavy handed. But he does a really good job of showing how it could happen in the USA.
Towards the end of the book I kept picturing Lex Luthor from L&C in the role of the new American emperor. It is so like the Lex in the series but on a higher more skilled level.
I got to thinking what if in that world there was a Clark Kent? Maybe one who lived the life of our standard Clark but Lois was missing when he arrived in Metropolis. He doesn't become Superman but with the events in Empire occurring what would he do? What is he has met Lois but just hasn't become Superman yet? What could the team of Lane & Kent do to stop it?
