Hi,

Great part.

Hey, Michael, another good instalment, but way too short.

Love your Maggie and Henderson. Too bad they don't use Henderson in the comics.

A thinking Superman? Will wonders never cease.

I *love* your Lois. She is instantly likable because she is so, so... Lois.

Write more, work less.

Tank (who wonders if Michael's version of Luthor is a 'larger' bald man)

Didn't you say the parts are going to get longer...?

I love your Lois, as Tank said. I particularly enjoy the way you show her through other people's eyes and the way they react to her.

It's also wonderful to see an efficient and controlled Clark. This is surely because you gave him superpowers at a younger age; he's been doing this a lot longer, so he knows what he can do! But there's also the advantage you have of the written medium, where we can see exactly what Clark is thinking and doing.

So Intergang comes into the mix! Ooh, this is going to be messy!

You've got a great storyline here, Michael, with wonderfully defined characters. Give us MORE!

Hazel

Sorry about the posting length to date . I was making short posts because of, well let's just say a stupid reason that really doesn't matter anymore as I can work around it. I just got stuck in a certain mindset and didn't think. (Of course, my wife would have to ask at this point, "And that mindset differs from the day to day one how?)

My next posts will be longer and I'll be able to get to that "bad day" Henderson referred to a bit faster.

Michael,
like the story - just caught up
playing catchup again
merry

Michael

Another great part!

Tricia

Hazel asked me after the last installment to give some kind of idea as to where I was going with this. I gave it some thought and came up with hopefully a decent, spoiler free, explanation.

I picked the Pre-Crisis Superman for a few reasons, 1) I think his power level emphasizes his humanity in that it could potentially make him so far removed from "normal" people, but it doesn't; 2)He started his career as a "Superboy" and has a great deal of experience in the role of "hero" by the time he becomes an adult, but is still emotionally as far as everything else on par with others his age creating a small disparity in how he views the world; 3) The death of the Kents leaves him essentially an orphan for the second time in his life and highlights his "uniqueness", and 4) the Clark Kent/Superman dynamic.

Pre-Crisis tended to view Superman as the real person and Clark as the act while Post-Crisis took the opposite view. This was probably most illustrated by the line in the TV Show Lois and Clark where Clark said, "Clark is who I am, Superman is what I can do."

The story I'm writing takes a somewhat different view because I disagree with both notions. You don't spend half of your life running out on situations, lying to friends, and going out to save people in a flashy costume and not "be" that person. You also don't grow up with a name, a family and career aspirations and not "be" that person either.

My take on things is that Clark's childhood was wonderful and while he had to act different in both his guises for the public's consumption he could still be himself with his parents. Now, flash forward to the future after the deaths of the Kents. He has no one. He's purposely cut himself off from close relationships for reasons I've outlined in the story and he no longer has that "safe haven" with his parents in which to be himself. He's always acting, but his morality and good upbringing thus far have kept him on an even keel.

What I'm exploring is what happens when he encounters something horrible and has no one to lean on for support. He's been out saving people for over 10 years at this point in my story, he's an old pro, but for half that time he had an environment that helped him to "recharge" emotionally and ground himself. Now he doesn't, and this isolation has been chipping away at him a little at a time whether he admits to it or not.

I got the idea from an interview I read that attributed writer Brian Azzarello as having said that Superman is "...just one bad day away from being the worst threat the world has ever seen". I disagree with that on a large scale with his becoming a global threat, but I do think he could potentially be just one bad day away from losing it in a given situation. That is, unless he get's help from someone who can provide him a lifeline to sanity.