Have any of you read The Gospel According to Mark? I find this gospel so fascinating, because Jesus is so human in it, so fallible. For example, when he tries to cure a blind man, he has to try twice before he succeeds (Mark 8: 23-25), and when he comes home to his own home town he is all but unable to perform any miracles there at all (Mark 6:5). And when he has healed or raised someone, he doesn't want anyone to talk about it, as if he was afraid of letting people know about his miraculous "otherness" (for example, Mark 1:43-44; Mark 5:43).
Ah, but have you read the letters of Paul, and the Biblical stories of Paul in general? Paul is the greatest of all missionaries, the greatest conveyor of the story of Jesus Christ. But have you noticed how Paul talks about Jesus? Only once does he mention even a single thing that Jesus actually said or did while he lived on the Earth. (The story Paul recounts is what Jesus said during the Last Supper.) Otherwise, Paul seems to think of Jesus exclusively as the divine presence he met on his way to Damascus - a blinding light from the heavens, a booming, commanding voice from the sky. So majestic! And so totally removed from the fallible Jesus that we meet in the Gospel of Mark!
When I read your story, Rachel, I can't help thinking of these two portraits of Jesus - the fallible, somewhat frightened man we meet in the Gospel of Mark, and the unbelievably perfect divine being that we meet in the letters of Paul. I'm sure you know what I'm driving at. While Superman is most certainly no god, Lois idolizes him as if he was all but divine. But when it comes to Clark, she is so painfully aware of all of his shortcomings:
“I guess he figured that, well, since we were partners and all, I’d be the one to tell you. Since you didn’t believe me…”
Lois was frowning. “But he’s Superman," she emphasized. “Of course I would have believed him. He doesn’t lie.”
“Listen, Clark. I guess I owe you an apology. You’re…you’re a nice guy and all, too, but…you know? You’re human. You get jealous. You’re irrational at times. It just happens, all right? I’m sorry I didn’t trust you, but you just aren’t Superman, and there’s no way you could have known these things, and there’s no way I could have known you knew these things.”
Clark couldn’t help it. “Superman’s not perfect either, Lois,” he said softly.
Lois immediately pulled back her hand, and her eyes took on a steely glint. “I don’t want to hear it, Smallville.”
I've sometimes wondered what Paul would have said if he had met the frightened and flawed Jesus from the Gospel of Mark. And I so have to wonder what Lois will say when she finds out that her all but divine Superman is really only Clark Kent. Will Clark be able to look Lois in the eye when she finds out that Clark has dragged her idol through the filth of the earth by daring to be him? After all, how can Superman be perfect if he is only Clark?
It's interesting how Clark seems relatively unable to think of himself as Superman. And in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus keeps denying for a long time that he is the Messiah.
Ah, but in this chapter, Clark does seem to be coming to terms with the fact that he is Superman:
It took only thirty seconds for Clark to be in, out, and standing before the mirror again—this time dressed in comfortable sweats and a t-shirt. He slicked his hair back purposefully, and pulled the curl down over his forehead. He stood up straight and folded his arms over his white t-shirt. He gave his reflection a stern look.
Hello, Superman.
He is on his way back to being Superman again, though of course he isn't really there yet. And as Clark, I noticed, he seemed to be stuttering worse than ever. Certainly that visit from Luthor had to have a lot to do with Clark's renewed, enhanced fears.
He blinked up at none other than Lex Luthor, his grin dropping off his face and splashing into the floor with hardly a ripple.
Like somebody already pointed out, this is a great image.
“E-excuse me,” Clark stuttered, taking a step back and bumping into his desk. He had been about to set the papers down, but as he looked into the cold eyes before him his grip tightened over them as he held them close, almost protectively.
Fear grips Clark. He begins stuttering, and he holds his stack of papers as if they might disappear into the maw of the billionaire if he didn't, feeding the monster's poisonous power in the process.
“No. I’m just waiting for Miss Lane,” Luthor said dismissively, somehow looking down his nose at Clark even while Clark stood a good three inches above him even without standing completely straight.
I love how you play with the expression "looking down on someone".
Clark hadn’t noticed it in his distraction, but Lois was right. Luthor had shadows under his eyes, and his eyes seemed almost feverish. His skin was almost stark white, as if his natural color had been leached right out of him. In fact, he looked a bit green.
Like the others, I have to wonder if Luthor has been feeding himself Kryptonite, to turn himself into a living, lethal weapon against Superman. In the comics - which you may or may not be familiar with - Luthor wore a Kryptonite ring in the 1980s. However, the ring posioned him. First he had to have his hand amputated, then his cancer spread and he died of it. (Then he was resurrected, don't ask me how.)
I do believe that Luthor really
was radiating small amounts of Kryptonite and physically affecting Clark:
Being around Luthor made him feel physically ill. His hands were shaking slightly as he walked towards the coffeemakers, and his brow was slightly damp from sweat.
Clark didn’t feel so good. He had heard a call for help as he had been getting his and Lois’s coffee, and hadn’t wasted time darting down the stairway to the streets below and blurring towards the robbery, but whether it was because of the long night, the cloudy day, or the lack of sleep, his speed had seemed considerably slower, and his arm and leg throbbed unpleasantly. He had been forced to catch the bullets of robbers to save one of the cops, and the contact of the bullet had actually hurt.
It was the Kryptonite, Clark.
The effect Lex has on Clark is certainly scary, but I felt every bit as frightened when he was trying to impose himself on Lois in his horribly suave manner:
“Tomorrow, Lois,” Lex said. “Tomorrow afternoon, I can have a limousine pick you up. Dinner in Paris, my dear.”
Lois hesitated a moment. “Lex…I don’t want to lead you on. I’m…really not ready for a serious relationship right now.”
Lex stopped cold at that. “What?”
Lois rushed to explain, feeling hot and cold at the same time. “I just don’t have the time. Things are just so crazy, and…going to Paris…I’d be lucky if I could go to Paris on my honeymoon—”
“It could all be arranged, Lois,” Lex said softly.
Horror! I'm shuddering! And how do you tell such a man "no"?
“Have you ever,” Lex began, his voice soft, “felt as if you were watching a person from afar? Felt as if you knew their soul, even if you didn't know all of the facts of their lives? I know you, Lois. I know you better than you can imagine.”
I have had you under surveillance, Lois? I know everything about you? You are mine?
Lois’s mouth was dry and she felt as if the blood had drained right from her face. Recovery. She had to recover her balance. She couldn’t let him throw her off. He couldn’t know.
“Maybe in a couple weeks, Lex. I really need to work on this series.” There. Her voice was calm and firm—perfect Lois Lane.
Good answer, but - not one that is likely to keep Lex away for a very long time.
Lex glanced at her from over the paper. “My dear, haven’t you read?” He folded the paper so the top of the fold shouted the headline boldly and handed it to her. “The Flash apparently graced our streets last night. Strange, certainly, but who are we to question such beings?”
"Who are we to question such beings" - he makes it sound as if the Flash, and by implication Superman, are very serious threats to humanity. All the more so since these heroes are probably not human in the first place - they are "such beings", remember. Good thing that the Earth has upstanding men like Lex Luthor who are ready to oppose these evil aliens then, eh?
“Well, my dear, I really must be going. You will hear from me.”
was most certainly a serious threat.
I loved how you wrote Clark's love for Lois in this chapter:
Lois, sitting beside him and holding his hand. Little mother hen Lois, bristling at the thought of anyone coming close to her pet superhero. Little jokes. Hope in the darkness. Even the smallest bit of hope had seemed so brilliantly colorful and yet so comfortingly soft in that sharp white sphere of despair and nothingness . . .
Clark brought his eyes to the present and looked at Lois as she looked up at Luthor. Angel and demon, standing in a face off. She was still so brilliant—his personal beam of sunlight on a cloudy day.
Lois. His guardian angel. If only she knew how much she meant to him.
How beautiful.
I so agree, even if it will be hard for Lois to accept the truth. Especially now, when Clark has kept lying to her for so long.
Lois, I’m sorry. Please forgive me.
Yes, please forgive him for lying to you.
She might be angry. She could very well never speak to him again, and that made him quiver.
But no. He trusted her. He trusted her more than he trusted himself. She had shown her faithfulness and loyalty a thousand times over. He would trust her, even with his own soul. And then when she called for him at night, he could come. He wouldn’t have to hide any more.
And maybe . . .
Maybe she’d just look at him, and take his hand and draw him close and murmur his name. Clark.
And he wouldn’t be alone anymore.
Clark took a shaking breath at the thought. He loved her so much.
How beautiful. How sad.
But how could she trust him? How could she forgive him? He may not have lied, but after everything that went between them . . . he hadn’t told her the whole truth.
I disagree. His half-truths were meant to mislead her. That's equivalent to lying in my book.
Lois, I’m a coward.
Lois, I need you. I need your help.
Lois, I want to be here for you. I love you.
He prayed she wouldn’t turn him away, even for a moment in anger. He didn’t know if his spirit could take it.
Lois, I’m Superman.
Lois . . .
Oh, you are making me cry, Rachel.
I so, so hope that these two will find their way to honest togetherness and to understanding, forgiving love. They are so brave, and they need each other so much.
What an intensely beautiful chapter, Rachel.
Ann
