JoJo wrote:
Now that is the basis I go into every story with. Then I get to see our authors play with it. What’s if? That’s the question we all ask. What if this detail was changed? What if this person hadn’t had this as an influence in their life? How would it have changed their personality? What if they took this path in life instead of another?
In the sixties, DC comics (and Marvel did it too) would run "What If" stories which explored alternate timelines for their main characters. What if Clark had revealed his dual identity to Lana as a young man? What if he married Lois and she died? What if he had chosen to marry Lori Lemaris (the mermaid from Atlantis) and moved under the ocean? What if Jimmy were exposed to radiation and became a huge, mutant human-turtle amalgam?
(Don't laugh. They actually wrote this story. Jimmy was "Turtle Boy." So now you know the truth, grasshopper.) What if Betty Brandt were bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker? And in the late eighties, DC published a mini-series about how Clark might have turned out if his capsule had landed in the Soviet Union.
A lot of these were presented as highly detailed dreams of one sort or another. The vast majority of these stories did not end well, reinforcing the accepted mythos of the Superman universe. I suspect that at least some of them were rejected plotlines that were used because the writers couldn't come up with anything "real" for that month's issue. But, as JoJo points out, the "what if" is perfectly legitimate territory for curious writers. As I've already stated, my preference is for Clark and Lois to be together (and the show was, indeed, named "Lois and Clark," not "Clark and whoever was available to guest star this week, plus Lois if we can figure out how to squeeze her in"). But that doesn't mean that we can't bring in others who might come to mean a great deal to our heroic couple.
In fact, Ann, you have given me a marvelous idea for a story. Thank you.
If you're a Lois and Clark shipper, more power to you! Just remember that your ship isn't the only one on the high seas.
