Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related FFQ: HoL and loss of superpowers

Hi all,
I wasn't sure whether to ask these questions in here or in Challenge. Forgive me if I chose wrong.

I was thinking about how much time Clark spent in the Kryptonite cage in HoL and wondering about how quickly his powers came back. The show sort of glossed the timeframe over by taking the summer haitus, but has anyone explored in fanfic what would happen if his powers disappeared for a long time? Not permanently, but perhaps many years? I think once upon a time I remember reading a story like this, but can't remember any other details or the author. Help?

It'd be interesting to explore his life post powers. Would he throw himself into his work? Would his Clark persona change at all now that he doesn't have to protect his secret by acting clumsy or less confident? Would he become clumsy and less confident?

Also, what would his relationship to Lois be? Without Superman around, would they have gotten together sooner and would Clark ever tell her about his origins? How would Lois feel about Lex effectively 'killing' Superman because of her? Also, if Clark kept the truth from her at first, how would Lois feel when she finally found out (if the powers came back)?

BJ

Yeah that would be interesting. Clark thinking his powers would never return and not telling Lois about what he believes is past. They get involved, engaged, and on their wedding night, Lois wakes up to find herself floating in Clark's arms.

Oooooh. I'll be so interested in seeing what responses you get. I'm working a fic right now that addresses that very question and takes place during that very time period. So far I'm almost two weeks into the story and Clark's powers haven't returned yet - although there are other extenuating circumstances in the fic which I won't go in to here. <g>

I based my conclusions on the fact that in GGGoH, Clark lost his powers for at least a couple of days (wasn't really sure how much time they spent in Smallville) and that was after a very brief exposure to Kryptonite. However, when he gets shot by the K bullet in Madam X, he recovers almost instantaneously... there were some residual effects for a bit, but nothing that kept him from flying.

I've always wondered if the more he was exposed to K, the more tolerance he would build up to it. So after he was exposed in HoL for such a long period of time - maybe that's why the K bullet didn't affect him so much.

But I always felt in HoL that it would have taken much longer for his powers to come back. He was encased in a cage powered by Kryptonite and not only that but he was in that dark wine cellar where he was closed off from the regenerative powers of the sun. My vote is that it took a fairly good time span for his powers to come back - based on GGGoH.

There's my 2 cents worth (hopefully you'll all buy into the theories I've concocted for my next story - we'll see) And also it's worth mentioning that my story is still different in many ways from the one you've proposed above, so I'd love to see someone write the one you've proposed BJ.

-- DJ

P.S. - Sorry, I wasn't shamelessly trying to promote a new story - no really! I was just excited to see someone else thinking along the same lines that I was. <g>

Superman's powers were back by the end of HoL . In the last scene, Lois is about to tell Clark about her feelings for him, but he interrupts her to tell her he's not in love with her, then he rushes off. Seconds later Superman's up there, in the sky, and Lois is telling him she's not finished with him yet either.

No reason you can't write an Elsewhere fic though - "what if" Clark's powers hadn't come back so quickly.

c.

It's not an HoL adaptation, but I did explore some of that in one of my (very early) fics... Fate Worse Than Death . You'll have to decide for yourself if I did a decent job at it

/shameless plug

PJ

Really interesting questions here. You could frame this with a slammin' A-plot. What if he threw himself into his work and that had consequences making either or both targets? The angst potential is amazing. Also you have plausible grounds for him keeping the secret identity from her (since hypothetically he wouldn't know if the powers are coming back or if she'd even believe him, etc. or, hell, have him tell her and she not believe him and he be unable to prove it! The running gag would be hilarious throughout the fic until the end when Lois finds out--now _that_ would be an interesting reaction to see). I'd definitely read it, it sounds ridiculously exciting.

There was a story in the comics last year which ended with Clark losing his powers for an extended period. (It wasn't kryptonite, and I guess it's not worth risking spoiling anybody who wants to go out and read it.) Immediately after that point, the comics jump forward one year to the point where his powers come back.

Perry has been thrilled. Not too long before this happened, Clark's performance had been suffering. He'd been losing focus, running out on important stories, missing deadlines, not showing up to work... The higher-ups were talking about letting him go. (And that's despite the number of times that Lois has secretly written up the story for him and turned it in with his byline.)

Now, though... he's fully in the game. Doing what he's supposed to be doing. Showing up, getting the stories, writing them up on time, and doing a dang good job of it.

Lois has been pretty happy, too. Finally, her husband is all hers. She doesn't have to worry about him flying off all of a sudden... and she doesn't have to worry about whether or not he'll come back in one piece this time, either.

Sure, neither Lois nor Clark is really thrilled that he can't be Superman. Go out there and save the day. See disasters in the making and stop them from happening in the nick of time. But there's nothing they can do about it until his powers come back (if they come back). Nothing but make the most of it.

So, there's the comic book answer, anyway. Clark is frustrated, but he lets it go as best he can. Puts his energy into his normal life. And it makes the people who are part of his normal life much happier.

That's a good point Carol. But personally, I had always thought that a couple of weeks had passed since Lois's "almost wedding". The reason I thought that is because Mr. Stern shows up with the newly minted Daily Planet globe. That little piece of hardware would take a little while to construct and assemble. It might not have taken two weeks from the wedding... but I think it would have definitely taken several days for Mr. Stern to turn completely around on his objection to buy the Daily Planet and then commission the creation of a new masthead for the building (or repair the old one, whatever it was that he did).

So while it might not have taken all "summer" <g> for his powers to come back, it still certainly could have taken days, or even a couple of weeks (since we have no time frame to reference).

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong! If you have a time frame I'm unaware of, please let me know (not that it will influence what I'm writing in any way, but I'd still like to know).

-- DJ

I think you've got some wiggle room with that approach - it'll buy you the time you want.

Another fuzzy bit of time on the ep is the time between Stern and Perry's interview and the non-wedding. How long before the wedding did Stern make his decision?

All that matters is that internal logical be there, and we go with it.

c.

Thanks for the comments.

Woody, Ha! Not a very good way for her to find out her husband is the missing/presumed dead superhero.

Alcyone, interesting ideas. That's kind of what I was envisioning - Clark becoming almost reckless in his pursuit of the truth and bad guys. A lot more like Lois, actually. I think it'd be interesting to turn the tables and have Lois worried about Clark "dangling over the jaws of death", requiring Lois to regularly save him. As for angst, Kathy Brown once accused of being an 'angst whore', which I can't in good conscience deny.

Paul, thanks for the official DC answer to my questions. It sounds like they covered everything, but Lois already knew about him at that point. Do you think his marriage with Lois affected how Clark in the comics dealt with the loss of his powers?

BJ

For what it's worth, my story "To Protect and Serve" has a non-powered Clark at the beginning of the story.

Tank (who knows this has nothing to do with HoL, but it was an elseworlds)

Tank wrote:
I was going to mention this one (and the sequel) but Tank beat me to it. I highly recommend these stories if you have the time. They're of the more lengthy variety, but in my humble opinion they're well worth it.

That would complicate things now wouldn't it? The arguments would be delicious. I bet even though she'd be annoyed etc, she'd find it pretty attractive (this could make ridiculously good nfic as well). Until it goes Too Far (tm) of course.

Hahaha. I can't get enough of character torture (in good conscience that's what I would have to call it )-- I've been reduced to abject begging on more than one ocassion (not that I have any dignity to lose).

Anyway that's the problem I have with the comic book storyline Paul mentioned. That whole bit about just making the best of it sounds nice. Too nice.

alcyone

Well, Clark's lost his powers before. The general DC stance is that he's a hero with or without them, and that even when deprived of his physical strength, he still has a vast reserve of emotional/character strength. He gets frustrated and such when he can't do the things he's used to being able to do, but he pulls it together and does the best he can with what he's got. After all, he's Superman. It's what he does.

I remember there was one ep of Superman: TAS (the 90s cartoon) where he lost his powers because Dr. Light (the guy who blinded him in L&C) had set up a force field of sorts around the Earth that blocked out some of the light coming in from the sun, fixing it so that, for all intents and purposes, Earth had a red sun.

There's this great scene where powerless Clark tries to shave. He doesn't really know what he's doing, so he nicks himself. And practically jumps from the unaccustomed sting of pain. He blots it with a cotton ball, but he's pretty disgusted with the situation. He lets it out by throwing the cotton ball with all his might... and it lands gently in the trash, which just serves to underline the situation even more. He growls, grips the edges of the sink... and then goes back to the task at hand.

Not exactly heroic, but it's the best representation/demonstration I've seen of Clark's frustration with powerlessness.

Of course. Canon is canon. I wasn't implying there was anything wrong with that, just that it's too idealized for me. I think the idea of Supes is interesting precisely for what is not superhero-ish about it. Which is why that scene you describes sounds interesting. I could see myself liking a fic based on a scene like that precisely because its not heroic. *shrug*

You can also have a side plot dealing with other affects of the power loss. Like diet and exercise. His junk food habit might just actually matter without the powers. Maybe he starts going to Tae Kwon-Do classes with Lois to both get back into shape and to be able to defend himself.

For the record, I wasn't trying to contradict anyone. I thought you guys covered the L&C and theoretical non-canon angles well enough that I didn't have much to add.

Instead, I pointed out a different aspect: that the subject had (sort of) come up in the comics. BJ asked for a bit more detail, so I filled in. And remembered that very cool scene from the cartoon while I was writing it, so I threw that in.

No argument intended (this time ).

Paul

And this is what he does in L&C too. the Ultrawoman episode adress the power loss issue rather extensivly. But I really liked Alcyone's ideas it's quite reasonable that the loss would result in fundamental change. Clark running after Lois with "I am Superman but have lost my powers" could supply plenty of interesting L&C moments

Haven't read the comics since I was a kid so I can't comment on canon with respect to them. But I never saw L&C canon as presenting an idealised CK/S but rather one who was complex - a hero and yet with flaws. L & C humanised Clark Kent and that was a huge part of the appeal of the show for me.

But I'll be honest and admit that it was also his capacity for heroism and altruism that made the ordinary guy interesting. I'll add the obvious - it's not the superpowers that made him a hero; they only allowed his heroism to be manifested in such a huge way, on such a grand scale.

There are lots of heros in our society - I'll bet each of us has witnessed an act of heroism. What makes the hero? Is it a character trait that's innate?

The impact of physical disability on character is an interesting one to explore. And for Clark Kent, losing his powers is disability. (although if he wallows too much in his loss, he'll seem awfully whiny when you consider what many people have to face) I'm betaing a story for Jenni right now (the sequel for the Forgotten) in which she's writing about this theme with respect to a powerless Clark.

Tank explored it very movingly in Love Disabled. (come to think of it, Tank has explored powerless Clark in several fics.)

How would disabilty affect us? Would your personality or character change for the worse - would you become mean, morose, self-pitying? Would you fight, adapt, still be who you were? Would you develop new skills to replace what you'd loss. What is the character base you have to fall back on? So many questions. Will you always be trying to prove yourself?

My father was disabled and I thought he was a hero.

c. (does this post make any sense?)

IIRC - Missy's What's Love Got to Do With It was a post HOL no power fic...

Now if we could just get her to finish it...
Carol