Comedy is SO hard!!! Give me WAFFy anytime.

And obviously this is based on the "magic kiss" that ends the movie Superman II. (But not the Donner-cut version.)

Feedback here please.

Note: Renamed from Memories. No change in the story, I just changed the title. I hope no one gets confused.

Bob

Yikes!

LOLOLOL! Loved it! Poor Lois, those super kisses really did a number on her. Maybe Clark should have listened to Zara and Ching.

Nice job!

Oh my gosh, what a riot! "Everybody knows that!"

That was *hysterical*! And it was the first memory-wipe kiss I ever came across that I actually liked. (I wouldn't be surprised if it were the last one, too.)

One slight correction you might want to make: I think you meant "identity."

I already know I'm going to have a tough time deciding what story to vote for in the Kerth comedy category next year -- this is definitely a strong contender.

Joy,
Lynn

ROFLOL!!! Poor Clark. I can see a sequel.

Nice job, a really funny fic. The erase kiss is a great idea, it is one of the best revelation story! Who would have thought that telepathy could be so dangerous! ; )

Love it, love it, love it!

I love how you found an in canon reason for the kiss to work in this universe (of course he wouldn't WANT it to work though.)

And that last line...priceless.

/bursts out in guffaws/

Great ending line!

Now, I'm a person that thinks that Perry already knows The Secret, so it's OK that he proof-read this article. Bob, the way you wrote this makes me think that you think that Perry already knows The Secret too.

I like that Clark keeps having to change identities because he messes up with his thoughts during the memory wipe kisses. "Everyone knows"

When you mentioned that his family had the strongest telepathic abilities on Krypton, I thought he was going to accidentally share his thoughts to Lois with the whole world (or just Metropolis).

This is great! Big surprise ending. Love it!

First of all, thank you all so much for the very kind words. I really was worried about how well this would work. Beverly was my only beta on this and she has a tendency to be less-than-critical when she reviews my stories. I'm very happy that so many are enjoying the story.


Morgana: But everything was going so well... The reality is that I don't think any of us would be willing to listen to this type of caution unless we had some very hard evidence that there was a danger. Well, Clark did get the evidence, he just got it a little late.


Lara: I'm very happy that it worked for you. Naturally I thought it was funny, but you never know until you read the FDK.


Lynn: High praise indeed. I... Thank you. I did and it is fixed now. Thank you.


Classicalla:
Thanks, but even though I have a few thoughts, I'm not sure they would do justice to the idea. Of course, one never knows.


Annalina19: Thank you. Clearly not Clark.


Christina:
Actually, the first place I saw the connection between the Superman II “magic kiss” and the LnC Kryptonian telepathy was in Dandello's “Plane Storm”. I would like to think I might have made the connection had I never read “Plane Storm”, but I did see in in Dandello's work first.


IolantheAlias: Well, in a word... Yes. Or at the very least, he was all but sure. Remember that this is set in Season 5+. He's seen the interaction between Lois, Clark and Superman for a long time. He's their friend, but as has been pointed out in many a story, he knows how to observe.


VirginiaR: Well, thank you. But I still find it very challenging. I am in awe of people like Mary (Queenie) that can turn out funny story after funny story. That has me thinking that there are a lot of potential stories that can pick up as soon as he returns to Earth. There are an almost endless set of possibilities. And, to be honest, many of them are very NOT funny. Again, thank you so much!


Bob

Doh!! Things'll never be the same in the Kent/El/Lane household.

The MWK was already comedy--I'm glad to see it finally used for good rather than evil.

I love it, Bob! And as your normally critical beta, I will say that I'd only give one minor comment and one typo. Sorry I missed your emails. I was sick Friday and recovering Saturday. Seriously, this is a great story, and the punch line works well. It's a great dig at the magic kiss, too.

Hi, Shallowford
Yeah. I still remember the first time I saw that in the movie. It was a moment.

I mean really, I'd been reading and watching Superman all my life and never heard of anything like that. It was bad movie-making of the worst kind.

Fortunately, Kryptonians being telepathic sets the stage for making it reasonable. But you still have to set the stage!!!


HappyGirl:
I hope you are feeling better. Thanks. As you can see above, the magic kiss is NOT my favorite part of the Superman multiverse.


Note to all: I hope that my changing the name of the story doesn't confuse people too much. After some consideration, I decided I like Memory better given the nature of this story.

Bob

Well done! I think you did just fine all on your own! I loved it!

What about super-hypnotism? Superman used that all the time in the 60's. Maybe he super-hypnotized her into forgetting.

Mouserocks:
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it.


mrsMxyzptlk:
Really??!! I don't remember that at all. I remember lots of super-ventriloquism for when he had to talk to people at a distance, but I don't remember that.

However, in the context of Superman II, I still don't like it. All they would have had to do was toss in a Fortress of Solitude scene where he was told about mental powers. Then when the MWK happened, we - the viewers - would have had some chance at understanding what happened. The reason I called it bad movie-making, was not the idea, it was the complete lack of context.

Anyway, I need to do some research on super-hypnosis. Maybe I can use it some time in the future. (With context of course. )

Thanks for the note.

Bob

It would probably take me a while to dig and find some issues where Superman uses super-hypnotism. I'll see what I can find.
Along with using it to mess with people, he would use super-hypnotism as part of his disguise. I've got a comic from the late 50's or early 60's where it showed that every morning before Clark left for work, he would do his hypnotism thing in the mirror on himself so that all day he would subtly hypnotize everyone he met into not noticing that he looked exactly like Superman. I'm pretty sure he used it a few times to mess with Lois's memories.

However, even given this obscure precedent for Superman having mental powers and being able to mess with people's minds, I agree that the whole Superman II mind-wipe kiss is pretty messed up. Even creepier, though, is Superman IV: A Quest for Peace. In that one, Clark walks off of Lois's balcony, completely freaking her out and blowing his secret identity. Then, after he takes her flying, he mind-wipes her AGAIN. The casual way he does it seems to imply that it's not an isolated incident. Exactly how much time has Lois lost due to Clark messing with her like that? How many times has he taken her away for some romantic weekend or whatever and then made her forget it? The implications are horrible.

I like the way you made the mind-wipe part of Clark's telepathy. It hadn't occurred to me before I read this story that his telepathy might be used that way.

Bob, never think you can't write comedy.

This was funny. that Clark quickly fixed the problem, at least most of it.

After getting to the end, it made a bit more sense what Lois had said to Clark earlier. She does not realize they even have to keep the secret, so mentioning Miami in the newsroom is no big deal.

I think that line should open with "they".

Considering it was the only way he had to communicate with his wife, I don't really blame him. I am more shocked he went at all.

I have to say the memory wipe kiss is the msot distubing power Superman ever had. It has huge potential as a date rape drug.

I am glad that here he only intentionally uses it to try to counter-act what he did before.

On another note, I am as to how Lois rememberes losing her memories, but does not remember that Clark has a secret. I guess the easiest way to explain it is that probably if she thought about it, she would realize that they worked to keep the secret, she probably remembers the incidents with Samantha's photos, but the impression of who Clark really is is so deeply implanted in her psyche that she subconciously thinks everyone knows.

Superman 4 was a horribly done movie, but I have to agree Clark reusing the mind-wipe kiss was beyond bad. At least in Lois and Clark when Lois lost her memory that Clark was Superman, it was not Clark erasing that memory.

Ooooh! Teeping!

Yeah, that could be distracting. Although, I wonder who would be the more playful one during a press conference about the mayor’s daughter’s best friend’s poodle learning a new trick or a staff meeting.



Oh my. That *is* long distance. Hope he’s got a good service provider, otherwise the charges will be a killer.

Spoil sports.

Oh my.

Uh-oh.





Can you imagine what happens when they go to the bedroom and Clark thinks his wife is as good in bed she could make money with it?

Oops? Not so loud, Lois.





Someone was a bit too unspecific in his indoctrination, huh?

Michael

mrsMxyzptlk: I found some examples. It is a good hook to use to explain why no one recognizes Clark <=> Superman. I just don't remember it. Superman IV is really one continuous train wreck. I guess that the most amazing thing is how bad it could have been. Have you ever watched the deleted scenes from that movie? As bad as the movie was, it would have been even worse if they had left in some of the really bad stuff that they filmed.


Queen:
Thank you. Telepathy should come with a warning label.


John: Well, it looks mostly fixed. Now they get to try to figure out what Lois thinks she knows vs. what she used to know. Exactly! Fortunately she didn't invite any of the rest of the newsroom to come to Miami with them for lunch. Fixed now. Thank you. I didn't see this trip as a particularly big deal. This time it was strictly a month-long business trip. There was no talk of marrying someone else and no threat of not coming back. I may have to re-watch Superman IV just to remind myself how bad it really is.


Michael: Thank you, Michael.


Bob