Wowzers!!!! I have been defending Clark up till now, but this felt like a blow to the solar plexus!! I can't breathe!!!
Oh, wow. Well, Sonia, I'm this long, long, longtime 'Lois and Superman' fan who hangs around these boards because this is by far the best place to go if you want to read stories where Lois and Superman are getting together. And considering I started waiting for that to happen back in 1969, well...
At the same time, these message boards aren't absolutely ideal for me because the LnC show painted a different picture of Lois and Superman than the one I had come to see after years of reading the comics and watching the movies. In the movies, and particularly in the comics, Lois was hardly ever as over the top as Teri Hatcher's character was in the show, particularly during the first season. And Clark was rarely so honestly in love with Lois as Dean Cain's character was in the show. It is easy, if your impression of Lois and Clark has been formed by the show, to write stories where a poor wronged Saint Clark suffers various slights and sorrows because of Bitchy Lois. Personally I so rarely respond really well to such stories, because they simply have nothing to do with the problem that drove me up the wall during all those years when I waited for Lois and Superman to get together. And the problem that prevented their togetherness in the comics and the movies was, quite simply, that Superman/Clark was not sufficiently committed to Lois to want to really be together with her. He appreciated having her close, he appreciated her admiration and infatuation, but at the end of the day he didn't want to give himself to her. So he gave her just enough encouragement to make her stay hopeful and keep her close, so that she would keep paying her tributes ot him in the hope that one day they'd pay off. But they never did.
Well, in early 1990 the people who were writing the comics at the time suddenly had enough of Clark/Superman's cruel treatment of Lois and decided that enough was enough. Clark would shape up and make a serious commitment. So in late 1990 comic book Clark and Lois got engaged, and in 1993 ABC gave us the LnC show about Bitchy Lois and Saint Clark.
So my (lifetime) experience of Lois and Clark/Superman is that Clark/Superman will treat Lois rather badly for years, but in the end there is hope for him. He may shape up. I think he will shape up. I cling to the hope that he will shape up, just like Lois clung to that hope over and over again in the comics. Every time he was being nicer, sweeter, I felt, just like Lois, that now it was happening. Now he was coming around. Now he was finally ready to love her.
Well, my hopes were brutally dashed in the movie Superman II, and after I had seen that one, I no longer had any hope left that Superman would ever love Lois. So I stayed away from everything Superman-related for ten years, until I read in my newspaper that comic book Clark and Lois had become engaged.
My point is that it is just so much easier for me to get fascinated by a Lois and Clark story where Clark is the problem than by one where Lois is the problem. Bottom line, I just don't really, really believe that Lois wouldn't have enough love for a sustainable relationship with Clark. All right: yes, I am willing to believe that she would love Superman more than she would love Clark, but I am so much more ready to blame Clark for keeping his secret from her than I'm ready to blame Lois for preferring Superman over Clark. Admittedly, I don't like her slighting Clark because of Superman, and more than that, I really, really don't want her to be so utterly fooled by a pair of glasses. But, bottom line, to me it is Clark who is the problem and it is Clark who prevents Lois and Clark from getting together. And because of that, it has been easy for me to respond enthusiastically to your story, where it really is Clark who is the problem. (Not that that is the only good thing about your story: it is very, very well-written, too!)
But well, wow: I have never seen Clark be this much of a problem as he was in this chapter. Nothing in me recognizes this Clark. I'm absolutely not saying that it was wrong of you to show us this Clark. I'm just saying that I was flabbergasted and taken aback, and like the others, I'm so impatiently waiting for you to get back to this story and somehow fix it, fix Clark, even though I don't foresee you fixing him right away. Because this is the difference between your story and the movie that made me lose hope and faith in Superman. The movie allowed Clark to invade and rape Lois's mind to cover up the fact that he had had sex with her. Not only that, but the movie applauded him for taking care of his 'Lois problem' this way.
You are certainly not applauding your Clark for his behaviour in this chapter! There is no way you are going to let him get away with it, not in the long run. And I'm so impatient to see how everything will pan out! I think I know one thing, though: as badly as Lois suffers right now because of Clark, she isn't going to be able to forget Jory or forget how much he needs her and loves her.
Ann
