Hi Corrina,
I'm late to the feedback party again, and a lot of my reactions have already been shared. Namely, that the awakening of hearts here is mutual, not one-sided, and that the mention of Perry smacks of an eventual return to Earth.
A couple of other thoughts:
- You said early on that you originally started this fic because Carol's Backwards wasn't quite as completely backwards as you had anticipated. I know you've moved way past that original premise, but I thought of it in this regard: not only is Lois now the Strange Visitor from Another Planet, she is also, in her own quiet way, the Hero of New Krypton. No one else may ever realize it, but if this drilling idea works it will have been Lois who saved them all, including herself, like Clark and the Nightfall asteroid.
- It's great to see Lois's investigative reporter personality begin to emerge. Her conversation with Jib showed what a consumate interviewer she is (a talent, by the way, which we don't see much of in the show). As she gets her feet under her after her tremendous culture shock, her strong personality is bound to emerge. She can't go back to her old life (or can she??? remains to be seen), but she's got to find a way to integrate her own personality into this new world. She has to adapt to this culture for her own survival, but can never be the kind of woman who was raised in this culture.
As for the Lois and Kal scenes, all I can say is that you are a tease
Like Kal, we are left wanting more. Which, of course, is precisely the way you planned it.
Ann, there are definitely resonances between the Superman mythos and the Christian narrative. The writers of the Superman movies certainly milked them for all they're worth. "For this reason I have sent them you, my only son. They can be a great people if they wish to be. They only lack the light to show them the way." The Jor-El of the movieverse fancies himself a benevolent superior being sending his son to enlighten the poor benighted earthlings and bring out their latent potential for good. And his son must always remain above the earthlings. He must never descend to their level. And the scene after Superman throws Luthor's island into space--he's falling back to earth unconscious with his arms stretched wide--is an obvious visual allusion to the crucifixion. But I would argue that Jor-El's insistance that Kal-El remain distant, always above the humans, actually distinguishes his story from the gospel. The whole point, indeed, the scandal, of the incarnation is Emmanuel, God *with* us, no longer only *above* us. In this way TNAOS is closer because Clark is truly human. Indeed, that's his deepest desire--to belong, to fit in, to be accepted as one of us. But, unlike Jesus, Clark is also a fallen being, in need of forgiveness just like the rest of us. One of the things I love about TNAOS is the portrayal of forgiveness. Lois and Clark hurt each other, but, because they love each other, they also forgive each other. In fact, one could argue that the biggest difference between the movie world and the L&C world is Clark's humanity. In the SR movie Superman seemed startled to realize that Lois was angry with him--that he had, in fact, done something wrong. 'Our' Clark knows that he screws up just like everyone else. In fact, this question of Kal-El/Clark Kent's true self if the main difference between the movieverse and the Lois & Clark world. Is he mostly the high and mighty Kryptonian Lord who walks among us in lowly guise, or is he really one of us who happens to have some extra gifts and tries to use them to help as best he can? Which is where the parallels break down, because, in a paradox that none of us can really comprehend, Jesus claimed to be both God and human. I think Clark would be delighted to settle for plain human. (End of treatise--it's safe to come out now.)
