Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic The Prankster's Revenge by Tank Wilson - October Fanfic Club Discussion **Spoilers**

Discuss The Prankster's Revenge by Tank Wilson here.

I have always wondered what this story was about, so in between everything else, I'll give it a try ...

Wow, can we say edge of my seat action! From the first scene to the last this story was "I couldn't put it down" good! I was cringing throughout reading this because Tank is known to not always have happy endings (thankfully, I haven't stumbled across any of those yet. Phew.) And this story had plenty of places for things to go wrong and someone to die (except strangely enough, not Jimmy. You'd think Tank would have made it possible that he could get accidentally shot or something. ) There was even mention of a BABY! Okay, it was Clark as a baby, but still.... in a TANK story?

I started this at lunch today and HAD to put it down to pick up my kids from school, but that's the only reason I stopped reading. My heart is still racing from all that non-stop action. Brilliant story. TONS of angst. A tiny reveal. My heart still aches for what Tank put the characters through, but at least they were all still alive at the end. Phew. I'm glad I read it.

I kept wanting to shout at Lois "Go check out Lex Tower!" but then it turned out that Superman wasn't being held there. Lenny had gotten the blueprints for Luthor's kryptonite cage and it wasn't the same cage as I originally though. I liked the extra bolt of electric shock in the bars. Nice touch.

I liked that none of the audience for the first assignment laughed at Lois getting tarred and feathered. It was a great detail. It showed that even though a circus arrived to view it, people realized that this wasn't fun and games. What the Prankster did to Lois wasn't funny. Although, it did ironically mess with her hair.

Good for Lois to make it an hour and half in the ring with a professional boxer. I'm impressed. Reading Clark's reaction to every blow against her, knowing he felt it more than if he'd been hit.

I'm glad Lois found a cover story to keep Clark's absence from the third assignment plausible. I like Lois enjoy stories where she discovers the truth for herself more than if he tells her.

Another thing I noticed was that Lois was still dating Dan AND Clark at the beginning of the story, but while she was worried and scared by Clark's absence, she didn't even have one stray thought about why Dan hadn't shown up. If that doesn't tell Lois where her heart truly lays, nothing will.

I read this thing a couple of months ago when it was first submitted as the Long Story but did not win. Like Virginia I had difficulty putting it down and read it in two stretches due to RL.

At the end of reading it, I did not like it. The only thing I could think of was Tank having Lois face a Firing Squad again. I mean I have only read around 10 of Tank's stories and two of them have her facing a Firing Squad (Lois Get Fired - Tank and Wendy) and that just did not sit well with me. I also could not get around (past) Metropolis allowing a public Tar and Feathering of a prominent citizen, followed by allowing a 102 lb female to get in a public boxing exhibition with a professional boxer (illegal in almost all states), and finally a public Firing Squad killing an innocent person! This pushes creative license well past reason. I mean what next a public beheading via a long knife or guillotine? As Virginia said, I was most impressed with the reaction of the audience as it did not give Griffin as much of the jollies he was hoping for so that was a counter to my aversion to the repetitive Firing Squad plot line. The final inconsistency was that Griffin was a Prankster not a killer in general meaning the first two challenges fit but the final (firing squad) did not fit his pattern plus if he actually killed Lois what would he do for fun then? Kyle Griffin would have wanted to keep this up just about as long as possible and with his ego he would have thought he could keep it up as long as he wanted.

On the good side I love a strong Lois and boy this one had that in spades. Constantly working on how to get Superman out of his predicament, taking the beating and continuing to come back always thinking one step ahead of Griffin. The way she finally put the Superman/Clark puzzle together, knowing that unless he was captive himself he would be there for her and helping her work through the 'challenges'. I also figured she had some backup to the bulky bulletproof vest she obviously wore to have Lenny find but really had no idea what. Lenny being Lenny never got the idea that she expected the first vest to be found otherwise she would not have had a bulls-eye painted on the shirt underneath the first vest... One of the things I loved about the story was how everyone rallied around Lois during the 'challenges' and how she brought Henderson into the loop to help find Clark/Superman. Lois the loner was not found here much at all. It helped me in the liking the story because I normally prefer stories where Lois and Clark are working through the crisis together and I guess even here they were just not physically together.

I guess in the end the positives DID outweigh the issues I had with the story. The writing was great and as Virginia said action was non-stop. I actually did read it again before putting this up and found it just as exciting as the first time which I guess is the best testament to a story and the way it was put together.

Mike