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talking-head-productions · 6 years

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Fixing the DCEU (sorry, the “Worlds of DC”) With Time Travel. Part 3.

Part 1: https://talking-head-productions.tumblr.com/post/175546007365/talking-head-productions-so-if-i-ever-get-to-go

Part2 :https://talking-head-productions.tumblr.com/post/175627276065/if-i-go-back-in-time-part-2-i-realized-that-were-i

What more could I possibly have to say? Well... I realized that many of the problems with the current group of films originated with the very first one. I said I would leave that one intact, only going back and changing from BvS onward. But now it seems like it would make more sense to start from the beginning.

So, much like Wonder Woman, I don't want to change everything. The overall plot of Man of Steel was pretty good: Clark Kent, having grown up knowing he was different due to his alien heritage, finds a piece of that alien heritage on Earth and, because of what it reveals to him, decides to become Superman. Before he can reveal himself to the world, however, General Zod and the last of the survivors from Krypton arrive, demanding the humans hand over Kal-El. Whether the humans cooperate or not, Zod plans to terraform the planet and colonize it. Superman decides that he has to surrender himself to the humans' judgment in order to better gain their trust. They hand him over to Zod, but he eventually breaks free, and then makes it his mission to stop Zod, with the help of the humans of course. And he does, sending the Kryptonian ship and its crew back to the Phantom Zone for all eternity, but Zod is left on Earth and is now full of rage. Superman doesn't know how to fight, and Zod has all the same powers as him; the only way he can think of to stop Zod is to kill him. Against his own wishes, Superman snaps Zods neck, saving the day for real... but at a cost.

Again, that is a pretty good plot. It's the specifics that really bog it down.

So I've compiled a list of changes I would make to Man of Steel, in more or less chronological order:

Right away, I'm axing that entire sequence that takes place on Krypton. That's like a half hour just gone, but it's not a problem. All of the plot points from that section get reiterated later in the film anyway. Now, the more 'mystery' type elements will actually work, allowing the audience to learn things as Clark does.

That means that the film will start off with Clark on the boat. However, it's not a crabbing boat, it's a fishing trawler, in the sea west of Greenland. Now, a quick bit of googling/wikipedia hunting reveals that most of Greenland's fishing operations are in the southwest area of the country. But the northwest area is a good place to set up a fictional oil rig, and if a small-time fishing boat looking give the competition a wide berth were to move further north than usual, they'd be in the perfect spot to go to that rig should it suffer an emergency. As for why all this is important, it's because in the original film Clark left the boat to help an oil rig- but it seemed to be on Canada's west coast, putting him extremely far from Ellesmere Island, which is where the Kryptonian scout ship was located. And before you ask “wouldn't it be easier to change the ship's location”- the answer is no. Ellesmere is in the extreme middle-north of Canada, near Greenland and almost at the North Pole. It is the furthest north you can actually go in Canada, about as remote as you can get, and that makes it the perfect place for the scout ship to be found. So, Clark on a fishing boat off the west coast of Greenland, they go to help a collapsing oil rig, Clark does his heroic rescue, then washes up on the east coast of Canada not too far south of Ellesmere. Follow so far?

After washing ashore, rather than stealing clothes off some poor sod's clothesline (seriously though, who in Canada would be drying their clothes outside like that? Wouldn't they get frozen stiff?), Clark instead finds a local donation box where people have dropped off clothes for charity. I'm sure you've seen the type, they're usually big and yellow and sitting right next to a church. At least, in the US they are. Canada probably has them, too, and even if they don't, I'm sure only the Canadians will know or care (I don't mean to be rude, Canada is still awesome!). Anyway, Clark pulls some raggedy but passable clothes out of the bin like a good homeless person, and then decides to pan handle a bit because what the hell else is he gonna do? No ID, no wallet. No real choice.

Somebody drops a few bills into Clark's money hat, so he goes to the local dive to get something to eat. There, he flirts with the waitress, but nicely, and mentions to her that he's heading north, because that just feels like the right direction. One of the other customers mentions that he's been contracted to do some infrastructure out on Ellesmere, and offers Clark both a ride north and even a job, if he's actually willing to work. Clark accepts, the man leaves- and then the waitress Clark was talking to gets harassed by another customer. Clark tries to intervene, but the guy's a local, so he gets Clark thrown out. Clark is about to leave- when he notices the guy's fancy new pickup. Cue the smirk, and the scene-cut to later when the asshole comes outside to see his Chevy crumpled into a ball.

After that, the next big difference is that Lois Lane isn't the only press person on Ellesmere, and all of the press are herded into a big tent and only given an 'official' story, which Lois immediately knows is bullshit. That night, she goes outside to secretly take photos of the excavation and have a look around- when she notices Clark sneaking away and decides to follow him. The rest of that scene plays out more or less the same, except for one thing- the scout ship emits a pulse after it takes off, a pulse that travels into space...

After that, we get some similar-to-the-original scenes of Clark speaking to Jor-El's hologram and learning how to fly, while Lois tracks his path from Ellesmere all the way back to Smallville. Oh, and for those who are not aware, most modern versions of DC lore have the Daily Planet not be a simple newspaper. It has television portions and sometimes even a website. That will hold true here, with Perry White just being the old-fashioned guy who runs the print portion of the company and is under constant pressure from his superiors to actually, you know, turn a profit. He's barely making it, which is why he's hard on Lois for not doing her job.

Back to Supes, he returns home to Smallville and tells Martha that he's found out where he came from and all that. Then Lois shows up, and in an effort to get her to drop the story, Clark takes her aside and says that this isn't her story to tell. If he has to be exposed to the world, it should be on his terms. He tells her that his father died from a medical condition, something Clark could do nothing about, and on his deathbed Jonathan Kent told Clark to figure out what kind of man he wanted to be before he revealed himself. Clark hasn't quite done that yet, he's only just discovered where he came from.

Lois listens to all this and still thinks that she should publish an article about him, because she's a hardcore journalist who isn't immediately head-over-heels for a guy just because he's hot and happened to save her life. As a last ditch effort, Clark reminds her that she kind of owes him for saving her life, causing her to reluctantly agree to wait... so long as she gets an exclusive interview with him when he does.

When Zod arrives, he doesn't bother contacting the humans, believing them to be lesser creatures. Instead, he and his crew fly directly down to Kal-El, being capable of tracking him from orbit. Thus the Smallville fight happens a bit earlier. And after Superman fights them off, the human military surrounds him and he surrenders to them as a show of humility and trust. The military then beams a simple message to Zod's ship, letting the Kryptonians know they have Kal-El and are willing to hand him over. Thus, the dropship collecting him. Lois does not go with them.

Before the dropship collects him, Superman asks the military people if he can speak to Lois. They're hesitant, but he says that he could just leave, so they agree and bring her in. She gets her interview, and she does wonder out loud if she should go into space, but Supes says no. Instead, he hands her the Kryptonian key and says to take it with her to Smallville. She'll figure out what she's supposed to do once she's there.

Up on the Kryptonian ship, Zod imprisons Kal-El, uses the mind-meld thing to learn about him, and then mocks him with Earth's impending doom, before leaving with a parting shot that reveals he killed Jor-El, which is a surprise because, hey, we weren't shown it in the first thirty minutes. Zod tells his subordinates to lower the ship into Metropolis, a location of great importance in Kal-El's mind, then takes a dropship and leaves. He tells his soldiers that he's going to pay respects to an old friend.

So, no World Engine in the Indian Ocean, Superman is literally right there but he's weak because of the Kryptonian environment of the ship. Thankfully, it practically landing on Earth interferes with that and Supes is able to muster up heroic willpower and escape, then fights the ship's outer defenses to destroy the terraforming device on its underside.

At the same time, Lois gets to Smallville and shows Martha the Key. Martha shows her the tiny ship Clark arrived in, and Lois puts the key inside the right slot, and Jor-El appears. He then, offscreen, tells Lois how to defeat the Kryptonians. A couple scene cuts later she's all, 'I have to tell Clark', and runs off. Somehow she's traversing from Smallville to Metropolis in a short timespan, but hey, this is a comicbook movie, just accept it.

Zod finds Clark's ship, 'kills' Jor-El again, and takes the ship as his new flying fortress. He heads back to Metropolis to witness his triumph.

Meanwhile, Lois finds Metropolis shut down by the police and military, but Superman hears her nearby and rushes over. She tells him that if his arrival pod comes into contact with the main ship, it'll make a singularity and the Kryptonians will all be sucked inside. He leaves to go get his pod, while the military starts engaging the Kryptonians. They'll actually somewhat successful, in that they down a few fighters within the already-dead zone, which is considerably smaller, and they keep the individual invaders from killing civilians.

After a bit, Superman comes back and is about to hurl the pod at the ship when Zod arrives, and he shoots Superman out of the sky. He also shoots down the human planes and fires randomly into the city. Then Superman knocks the ship down, and doesn't just throw the pod into the mothership, he flies the pod straight into the ship and then comes out the other side in a spray of debris. The whole thing collapses, and Superman drops down and fields a few questions from curious people. It's also the first time he uses the name 'Superman' himself, after Lois brought it up earlier.

But oh no, Zod survived. He gets out of the wreckage and completely dominates the fight against Superman. Think 'Sam Raimi Spiderman 1', how at the end of the movie the Green Goblin was just kicking the shit out of Spidey for about five minutes straight. Superman finally manages to get an upper hand, but Zod is explicitly stronger than him, and has less control over his powers. The situation in the train station happens again, with Zod pinned but using his heat vision to threaten the humans. Superman struggles with him, even covers his eyes, but that just causes the beams to leak out in weird directions like when you put your finger over a running water spout. Zod starts thrashing at the ground and causing pseudo-earthquakes, while freeze breathe pushes out in bursts, and his whole body is vibrating with superspeed. Finally, Superman does the only thing he can think of- and quickly tosses Zod up into the air. However, Zod doesn't come back down, and the reason why is plain: Superman accidentally tossed Zod into a piece of Kryptonian wreckage, which pierced his chest and killed him. He dies hanging there with a smile on his face. Then Clark falls to his knees screaming and crying.

After a montage of the various news agencies applauding Superman while also dropping easter eggs for random DC stuff, there's an explicit time skip of a few months. Superman stops to talk with the General guy, without destroying anything. He asks him to please stop following him with the drones. They already have the Kryptonian scout ship, that should be enough for them. The general admits he's probably right and will talk to the people even higher in the government. He then formally thanks Superman for killing Zod- to which Supes flinches and we can clearly see that he isn't over the trauma of it. But that's for the next movie (see Part 1).

The ending is just the 'Clark now works at the Daily Planet' bit, so more or less the same as the original.

And there we go! There's more here than I thought there'd be, but I had to really do a lot of clean up. Spread out the action for better pacing, give Lois a role in the story that actually makes sense, remove the stupid subplots, address the extreme destruction without removing all collateral damage, make Supes a better character and not just a messianic archetype... you get the picture. I think this version of Man of Steel would flow better into future movies. Let me know if there's anything I need to change in my version, or anything that still doesn't feel right. Thanks for reading!

#dceu #worlds of dc #man of steel #superman #fix fic #zod lives (not)

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argyle-s · 6 years

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THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME CHAPTER 17/38

Rating: Mature

Read at Ao3

Start at the Beginning

Kara introduced Cat to her new assistant, Alex and Maggie work together for the first time, and Cat comes to a decision.

Thanks to @ifourmindbeso for her great work as a beta. Any remaining mistakes are entirely my own.

Chapter 17 – Introductions and Resolutions

There were just a few hours left until the launch gala started. She’d gotten confirmation earlier in the day that copies of the issue had been delivered by messenger to the White House, and dozens of Senators and Representatives’ offices, as well as to both Sam and Lucy Lane. She’d put copies in Lois’ hands personally when she’d greeted her at the airport the previous night and knew Lois had passed one on to her cousin and Diana. She’d arranged to have copies for Bruce and the rest of the Gotham contingent waiting in their hotel rooms when they checked in. Alex had taken the first few copies off the press back to the DEO with her so she, Susan, Hank, and the entire intelligence analysis team could review them.

All in all, she was enormously pleased with the issue itself. None of the articles could be called a puff piece, except maybe the sections on Kryptonian fashion which did end up using photos from the photo shoot and the collection of Earth-adapted Kryptonian recipes in the food section. The articles Cat had written, and in total she’d written four, were filled with a mixture of both praise and criticism for Kara herself, and for Superman on the rare occasion he was mentioned. There was the feature, there was an article which talked about the difficulties refugees often had in retaining their own culture, and the difficulties they faced in adapting to a new culture. There was a historical look at the hostility immigrants had faced in US history, and lastly, an interview with one of the passengers on National City Airlines Flight 237. Every article in the issue was well-written, well-researched, and related to Supergirl in some way. It was everything she’d hoped.

The problem was everything seemed to demand Kara’s attention. She’d finally been forced to hand off the autographing of the magazines to Winn, who was currently feeding copy after copy into the autopen while someone from the secretarial pool slipped the signed issues into the swag bags. The hotel was on the line every five minutes about some security issue or other until finally, she’d had to give them Alex and Maggie’s phone numbers and just let them handle it. She’d had an argument with the Commissioner of Police earlier when he’d called, wanting to replace Maggie as the NCPD liaison. She’d finally had to drop Supergirl’s name, telling the Commissioner that she’d gotten Maggie’s name from Supergirl and that Supergirl insisted that Maggie be the one to handle security. In fact, the Caterers were the only ones who weren’t giving her a headache because she’d been sure to do a sample tasting of all the dishes by Wednesday to make sure none of the recipes needed adjustment. That had gone surprisingly well, though by the time it was over she’d been incredibly homesick.

Having four DEO agents in the building had been a huge help though. Padme Panjabi was the head of the team Kara had recruited to handle Supergirl’s media presence, and so far, she couldn’t be happier with the decision. Panjabi had taken over the setup process for the forty-second floor without a moment’s hesitation. She hadn’t even flinched when she’d been introduced to Winn. Laura Nguyen, Wilma Manygoats, and Marcus Brown filled out the team, and between the four of them, they’d not only gotten the forty-second floor up and running, but they’d all dug in and been helping with various last-minute arrangements that had allowed Kara to take enough of a breath to slip out and Supergirl for long enough to catch a car that had been about to go over the side of Otto Bender Bridge, clean up a pile-up on the Interstate, rescue a small craft that was taking on water about fifty miles off the coast, and catch a bear that had gotten out of its enclosure at the National City Zoo.

Which really left only one task.

Kara led Kaldur’ahm across the bullpen, and felt every eye in the room on them as she did. Part of it was curiosity and part of it was just Kaldur’ahm himself. He was magnetic. Tall, lean, handsome in a way that put James Olsen to shame. Part of that was the way he carried himself. He was calm and quiet, but you could see that he was attentive and aware. He carried himself like the royalty he was and even Kara knew there was a time she’d have been swooning. Now, though, she was older, more aware of herself, and while she found his presence reassuring, it didn’t make her weak in the knees.

He was dressed in a suit that could have come straight from the latest Georgio Armani collection. Charcoal gray virgin wool over a red cotton shirt with a red and gray silk tie. The suit was cut loosely enough that he was able to wear his water bearers in a carefully modified shoulder hostler set up. It was enough to make Kara feel more than a little inadequate in her white oxford, salmon pencil shirt, and gray sweater. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to go change into something more impressive herself. Cat wanted her new assistant by the end of the day, so that Kara would be free to start as the head of the Supergirl Social Media Group, or S2MG as Cat had dubbed it.

She led Kaldur’ahm into Cat’s office, only to find Cat sitting on one of the couches, smiling as she read through the finished issue.

“Ms. Grant?” she said.

“Yes, Kiera?” Cat replied.

“I wanted to introduce you to your new assistant,” Kara said.

“Oh?” Cat said, as she looked up from the magazine. She gave Kaldur’ahm a quick inspection. “Another Millennial,” she said, with a heavy note of disappointment. “Well, at least he knows how to dress like an adult,” she said. “But I certainly hope he’d not expecting to earn enough to afford Armani.”

Kara smiled. “I’ve explained the salary, Ms. Grant.”

“Well, then, maybe you should get to the actual introductions,” Cat said.

Kara nodded. “Ms. Grant, this is Jackson Hyde. Jackson, this is Cat Grant.”

Kaldur’ahm stepped forward and held out his hand. “A pleasure, Ms. Grant. Kara speaks very highly of you,” he said.

“Of course she does. I’m amazing,” Cat replied as she reached out and shook his hand.

Kara noticed the slight uptick at the corners of Kaldur’ahm’s mouth and felt a small bit of relief.

“Now, I assume Kiera’s already verified your qualifications, but I do have a few questions.”

“Of course,” he said.

“I’m not sure if Kiera here has explained how I feel about Millennials and she’s no doubt coached you on the answers she gave to get her through the interview, but I don’t coddle my employees, and especially in this position, I expect absolute devotion to the job.”

“Ms. Grant, I assure you, I have no desire to be coddled. Kara explained quite clearly the work load associated with the job. She told me that you were demanding, driven, and had no tolerance for anyone who gave less than their absolute best. She also said you were every bit as demanding of yourself as your employees. That you were harsh, but fair, and that while your accomplishments spoke for themselves, she felt the need to point out that you were worth every bit of the respect you demanded from those around you. I assure you, Ms. Grant, hard work does not frighten me. I simply want a place where I can serve someone I respect and where I can make a difference. Kara has assured me that the desk in front of your office is that place, so here I am.”

Cat looked him over again, much more slowly this time, taking in every detail about him, before she turned to Kara.

“Relative, Kiera?”

Kara shook her head. “No,” she said, having a pretty good idea what Cat was really asking. “When you told me to find you a new assistant, I placed a couple of calls and five different people all recommended Jack, so I got in touch with him and here he is.”

“I see,” Cat said. “Well, I just hope Jacob here is as good about keeping my Latte hot as you are.”

Kara had to bite her lip to keep from laughing as Cat continued.

“And since you’re skipping out on the gala tonight to do whatever it is you Millennials do on a Friday night, I expect him to be in attendance and fully up to speed.”

“Of course, Ms. Grant. I never expected anything less.”

“Oh, and Kiera,” Cat said.

“Yes?”

“I’ll expect a tour of your new space on the forty-second floor first thing Monday morning.”

“Of course, Ms. Grant.”

<hr>

Alex stood inside the small meeting room that connected to the side of the main ballroom where the gala was going to be held, taking in the preparations. A dozen DEO agents, along with four Secret Service agents were going over every detail of the room, checking every nook and cranny, because in the event of an emergency, the President would be evacuated through this room, into the service tunnel that connected to the far wall, and down a carefully marked path to the private garage where the Presidential Limo would be waiting. It was a good plan. Well thought-out. The DEO was just adding some mission-specific hardware.

“What are those?” someone asked, making Alex jump slightly. She turned around, only to feel her mouth go dry as she found Maggie standing right there.

“Um…” She turned, following Maggie’s gaze over to one of the heavy-duty Kryptonite radiation lamps. The fact that the topic was related to her job put Alex a bit more at ease. “Those are Kryptonite Radiation Emitters,” she said. “They put out a wavelength of light that’s largely safe for humans, but is harmful to Kryptonians.”

“They’ll hurt Supergirl and Superman?” Maggie asked. Alex didn’t miss the edge in her voice and it made her smile. She didn’t know a lot about Maggie, not yet, but one thing she had picked up on was that Maggie was protective of Kara.

“No,” Alex said. “We wouldn’t have installed them if they would. Supergirl and Superman both have shields that protect them from the radiation. The other Kryptonians, the ones from Fort Rozz, don’t. Kara was the one who actually suggested these.” She glanced over, and saw Maggie nod.

“That girl’s a little scary sometimes,” Maggie said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was a soldier.”

“I know what you mean,” Alex said. “I keep thinking of her as my awkward little sister and then she starts laying out things like this.” She gestured to the Kryptonite emitters.

“I think anyone who’d been through the things she has would be bit weird. I’m just amazed that she’s such a good person, all things considered.”

“Me, too,” Alex said.

“I’m not sure why you’re surprised. The way she tells it, you’re the reason she’s not a complete basket case.”

Alex felt herself blushing a little. “She’s exaggerating,” she said. “Kara’s always been amazing. I just helped her along a little.”

“Modest, too,” Maggie said, a cute little smirk on her face. “Anyway, I just came in to let you know that we’re all set for the Motorcade. Your teams will be directly in front and behind the limo, then the Secret Service. We’re closing down the 112 and NCH in about an hour.”

Alex nodded. “Thanks. We should be done here in about thirty minutes.”

“Good,” Maggie said.

“Can I ask you something?” Alex said.

“Sure,” Maggie replied

“How’d you meet Kara? I’ve heard her version of it, but…”

“But sometimes Kara’s perspective on things is a little weird,” Maggie finished for her. “I was dating a girl, and we’d been on and off for a while. I had it really bad, but she was sleeping around. I would break it off, she’d call, and I’d run right back to her, because I was lonely and miserable. I walked into a bar where some colossal idiot had stood Kara up, and just happened to sit down next to her and you know Kara.”

“Never met a stranger,” Alex said.

“Yeah. So, she starts talking to me, and at first, I’m annoyed, but she’s just got that smile that you can’t resist, and next thing I know I’m spilling my guts. She volunteered to keep me company any time I start missing my ex. She’s kind of been my Ex-girlfriend’s Anonymous sponsor. Any time Darla calls me, I tell her I’m busy, then call Kara. Any time I’m tempted to call Darla, I call Kara instead. After a while though, I realized I had a lot more fun with Kara than I ever did with Darla.”

“If you’re about to say something that would make me obligated as Kara’s older sister to shoot you, please don’t,” Alex said.

“No,” Maggie replied. “God no. Kara made it perfectly clear right up front she wasn’t interested. She said she really wasn’t over Sara. She was only trying to date to shut up her foster mom and big sister and she didn’t really want to be anyone’s rebound relationship. Honestly, it would be a bit like dating someone’s kid sister.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “Mine.”

Maggie chuckled. “She’s a good friend. Bit of a meddler though.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “I know.”

“I should get back to it,” Maggie said.

“So should I,” Alex said.

Maggie turned, and started to walk away, but on impulse, Alex called after her. “Hey, Sawyer.”

“Yeah?” Maggie said, turning around.

“We should grab a beer sometime. I wouldn’t be a good older sister if I didn’t tell you at least some of the embarrassing stories I have about Kara.”

Maggie smiled. “Okay.”

Alex turned back to the work at hand, wondering if she’d done the right thing. Kara said they worked well together and J’onn thought it would be a good idea to foster the relationship early. Hopefully, getting to know a bit about Maggie would make things run a bit smoother.

<hr>

Cat sat in front of the mirror at her vanity. Her makeup was already in place. All she had left to do was step into the dress she’d picked out, put on her shoes and be on her way. Except she was having a hard time moving and it was all Kara’s fault.

She didn’t understand what was going on. She didn’t understand why Kara was doing half of what she was doing. Oh, she got the big picture. The girl had been clear enough in the interview. She wanted to make a place for aliens on Earth. To get them established as refugees. What the girl said made a lot of sense, and Cat had found it moving enough to thaw even her frozen, bitter little heart. The heart which normally only showed any signs of defrosting when Carter was around.

Kara had been an exception to that rule almost from the beginning. This wasn’t new ground. What confused her though, was how far out of the way Kara was going for her. She had no idea who ‘Jackson Hyde’ was, but she had no doubt that he was an alien, or at the very least, a metahuman. Either way, Kara had, upon being told to find her own replacement, gone out and found her *another* super-powered assistant. It didn’t make any sense at all.

She could understand if Kara was using her and through her, CatCo to further Kara’s objectives. That made sense. She might even accept Kara’s statement that she enjoyed working at CatCo at face value, though God only knew why, given that Cat herself was a terrible person to work for. What she didn’t understand was why the girl was so focused on her. Most people, given the assignment to find their own replacement before starting their new position would have had HR pull some resumes, found the least terrible option, and thrown them at Cat as they fled to greener pastures. Not Kara. Of course the girl would do this the same way she did everything else. She’d go above and beyond the call of duty, find exactly what she thought Cat needed and make sure everything was just so before she moved on. She’s also pick someone who she was sure would know to come to her if there was any issue.

It was almost as if the girl cared for her, which, if it had been anyone other than Kara would have been a stupid thought. But this was Kara and Kara had never quite made sense to her. Oh, she’d seen potential, but Kara had never seemed to quell under Cat’s threats. She’d seemed to enjoy them. It had driven Cat mad at first, because the more dire the threat, the broader the smile on the girl’s face. The first time she’d fired the girl and the girl had just responded with ‘of course Ms. Grant,’ then cheerfully ignored that she’d been fired and kept right on working, it had honestly left Cat flabbergasted. It had almost come to the point where firing Kara was a little like some weird kind of flirting.

She looked herself in the eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Kara Danvers was attractive. She knew that. She was nursing a little bit of a crush. She’d known that for months, because everyone who met the girl seemed to fall hopelessly in love with her. She didn’t pretend she was immune. The fact that Kara Danvers could take anything Cat could throw at her, and let it roll off like water off a duck’s back, just made her that much more intriguing. That fact that the few times Cat had crossed that invisible line that Kara seemed to consider too far, she hadn’t hesitated to put her foot down and let Cat know it was time to back off made Cat squirm with her own arousal.

She needed to get this out of her system. Maybe find some young blonde company some night when Carter was at his father’s. Play the fantasy out and be done with it. Because she needed to be able to think clearly. Kara and Supergirl. Both were important, for different reasons, and she would not get in the way of that. She would not be some cliché, chasing a young woman around the office and destroying the girl’s career to satisfy an itch. Because that’s all it could ever be. An itch. An impulse.

Kara had too much potential. She was too important. And Cat would keep her hands to her God-damned self.

#supergirl #supercat #supercanary #sanvers #fanfiction #the shape of things to come #kara danvers #alex danvers #cat grant #maggie sawyer #sara lance #j'onn j'onzz #susan vasquez #lois lane #clark kent #james olsen #winn schott jr.#future shock

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Superman & Lois Episode 7: Inside the “Man of Steel” Ending That Changes the Series

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains Superman & Lois episode 7 spoilers.

Superman & Lois Episode 7

It took seven episodes, but we’ve finally learned the secrets of the mysterious stranger who up until now has only been known as “Captain Luthor.” Since the first episode of Superman & Lois aired back in February, fans (and journalists) have been buzzing about the identity of the man under the armor who has been giving Superman a hard time, and lately, spending a lot of time with Lois Lane.

And while everyone just took the armor’s AI at its word that this is a “Captain Luthor” from elsewhere in the DC multiverse, Superman & Lois episode 7, “Man of Steel,” turns all of that on its head, as it turns out that almost everything we had assumed about this character is wrong.

Fans learn the truth about the Stranger at the same time that Superman and Lois themselves do on the show, after a stunning series of reveals around the sequence of events that led to the character designing a powerful suit of armor, hopping over to our dimension, and start taking out his frustrations on Superman. It turns out that this Stranger (played by Wolé Parks) was married to Lois Lane, and the pair had a daughter, Natasha. When their world’s Superman and a group of Kryptonians went rogue and began destroying this alternate Earth, father and daughter watched helplessly as Lois was murdered by Superman during a live news broadcast.

All of this would be enough of a kicker for a big episode, but the biggest and most shocking is saved for the end. “The Stranger” isn’t a Luthor after all: he’s John Henry Irons, known to DC Comics fans as the superheroic Steel. And now he’s here on Arrowverse Earth-Prime, hammer and all. But this Steel has a vendetta against Superman.

The episode is directed by none other than David Ramsey, returning to his DC TV stomping grounds for the first time since the Arrow finale in 2020. Ramsey will direct multiple episodes of Arrowverse TV this year, but he didn’t know he was getting one of the most important episodes of the year to direct until he got the script.

“When I got the script, like everyone else, my jaw dropped,” Ramsey says. “It really is a premiere or finale or crossover-sized episode. It’s a huge reveal that I was really privileged and humbled to direct. It was really a great surprise that I was directing an episode as big as this.”

So let’s talk about that big twist…

Who is John Henry Irons?

It’s no accident that John Henry Irons claims the title of “man of steel” from Superman in this episode, as in the comics he went by the superheroic codename of Steel. That’s right, the “villain” of Superman & Lois is actually a hero in the comics, and a fairly important one, too.

John Henry Irons first appeared in The Adventures of Superman #500 in 1993. He was created by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove, and the character quickly took over as the lead character in the ongoing Superman: The Man of Steel comic book series. This was during the period where the “real” Superman was presumed dead after his battle with Doomsday, and Irons was one of four “Supermen” who rose to take his place.

Ramsey was already a fan of Steel long before he was tasked with directing this episode.

“I’ve always been a big comic geek, so I was very familiar with who Steel was and who John Henry Irons is, but I didn’t see this coming,” Ramsey says. “I had no idea that the person they had been building up to be a Luthor was going to end up being Steel. I had no clue and the audience will have no clue. When he catches the hammer at the end, or when it’s revealed in that scene that you saw when this picture comes up, everyone’s jaw is going to drop the same way mine did. It’s a huge reveal.”

In the comics, Irons was a former weapons designer who tried to escape from his former corporation and atone for his past. After starting a new life in Metropolis as a steelworker, Irons nearly died while saving one of his co-workers from a fatal fall, but he was rescued by Superman. Inspired, and feeling that he had truly been given a second chance, John took it upon himself to protect Metropolis after Superman died at the hands of Doomsday. He created a powerful suit of armor, a high tech hammer, and went to work taking weapons off the streets of Metropolis and fearlessly taking on superpowered bad guys.

Pretty different from the John Henry Irons we met on Superman & Lois, right? Well…if you look a little closer, the comics version and the TV version may have more in common than we first thought.

“The original John Henry was inspired by Superman to become a hero,” Jai Jamison, who wrote this episode, tells us. “In an interesting way, [TV’s] John Henry and his alternate world gives us another insight into our Superman as well. Through the variations and through the variables, we can further hone and distill who our heroes are. On this other Earth, his family and Lois Lane inspired him to be Steel. So it’s still kind of in this similar space, but we see it from a different perspective. It further grounds who our heroes, our Superman, our Lois Lane are. Part of the journey that John Henry has to go on now is really discovering what is different about [Earth-Prime]. Could he try to prevent what happened on the other one?”

Parks takes this interpretation of the mythos a step further, speculating that the Superman of John Henry’s world was good before something turned him evil.

“To be honest, I think Superman inspires him in both ways,” Parks says. “So then the question is, what would John Henry do [if Superman went bad]? He would step up to the plate, because ultimately, it’s about a moral compass. Obviously, when we first met John Henry in the original comics, he was the hero from the outset. His moral compass, to me, is the exact same as this one. We just see it from a different angle. We may see a different origin story, but at their core, they’re the same guy. It’s ultimately about protecting people and being selfless. I think that that’s a really big key, and I hope that that comes through.”

From Captain Luthor to Steel

Although, as it turns out, it wasn’t originally the plan for the mysterious Stranger to turn out to be John Henry Irons at all! When Parks first auditioned for the role in early 2020, the character had more in common with a traditional Lex Luthor type.

“When I first went in, you know how these shows are, they give you fake names,” Parks laughs. “I auditioned for [a character with] the most generic name. But clearly based on the sides, it was originally a Lex Luthor character. To be honest with you, from my understanding, I had some sides which overlapped with Morgan Edge’s character…Back then, it was just a version of Lex Luthor.”

Jamison says that even in the early days, the plan was never for Captain Luthor to be a typical “megalomaniacal” villain.

“We talked about there being reasons for his actions, and humanizing him,” Jamison says. “That was our mission, that was the track we were on for a while.”

But then a few months after Parks landed the role, plans changed for the character, after Superman & Lois writers’ assistant Adam Mallinger suggested that “Captain Luthor” should instead be John Henry Irons, and the idea was quickly adopted by the team and showrunner Todd Helbing.

“From there, we really dove into the fun of planting those seeds and developing who that character is,” Jamison says.

Bringing John Henry Irons to Life

“For me, as an actor, I really wanted to tap into his pain,” Parks says. “I didn’t want him to come off as malicious. The difference between John Henry and a character like Lex Luthor is that Lex is a narcissist, he’s a selfish guy, but John is selfless, we just haven’t seen it.”

To his point, we’ve already seen the Stranger soften slightly from the earliest episodes, particularly as he gets to know this world’s Lois. But in “Man of Steel,” Parks really gets to show new sides of the character, and has three incredibly powerful scenes. The first is when he watches his world’s Lois die on live TV, the next is when he says a tearful goodbye to his daughter as he sets out on his mission of vengeance, and then there’s his big brawl with Superman, where he finally creates a hammer that can stop a Kryptonian and explains why he’s here.

“All the actors gave everything,” Ramsey says. “It’s just so wonderful as an actor going and working with other actors who just get it. The death of Lois was really very, very powerful. They were shot separately, obviously, her coverage on the roof, and then Wolé and Nat’s reaction to that. Both of those moments were incredibly, incredibly powerful, just shooting it.”

Superman & Lois has a pattern of building up slowly to its big action sequences, and it places as much emphasis on interpersonal drama as it does Kryptonian throwdowns. For Ramsey, who came from the similarly action-and-drama heavy Arrow, it’s a natural progression. And having been part of some big dramatic reveals in the past, he knows just how to make them work in this episode.

“As a director, being an actor is my greatest strength,” Ramsey says. “Particularly, in a show like Superman & Lois, which is really actor friendly, you’re just sitting the camera down and letting the actors perform. To the great credit of the production team and the writers, it really is a show that allows the actors to indulge.”

In this case, that meant making sure that Parks in particular had the freedom to express all the sides of the character this episode required.

“I said, ‘It’s your episode, man. We’ll clear the set and we’ll get it right…you can’t get it wrong,’” Ramsey says. “As an actor, I love it when directors say that. I love it when I can trust a director to allow me to work. It’s not just about creating a beautiful shot or getting your shots…it’s about creating an atmosphere where the actor feels as if they can really work.”

The show’s writers and Parks had to walk a fine line in the early episodes between making “the Stranger” feel like a real threat to Superman, without turning the man they knew to be Irons into a villain. But sharp-eyed viewers will note that the seeds have always been there.

“Even though he’s kind of been portrayed as the villain, or at least Superman’s antagonist, we’ve never seen him harm a person,” Parks says. “He used non lethal force… So we’ve never actually seen him be as bad or as callous as a villain would be. I think what the writers did was very smart, and I also wanted to make sure I tried to portray that with the character.”

But of course, with all that drama, we do get a battle between Superman and John Henry, complete with that iconic hammer. It’s a moment that feels completely earned in the context of the episode, and also stands on its own as a great example of what DC TV shows are capable of doing these days, even when they’re not working at the scale of one of their crossovers like Crisis on Infinite Earths.

“For me, what became the most important, was the vendetta that John Henry Irons has toward Superman,” Ramsey says. “I let that story kind of frame the fight, as opposed to making it as big as maybe something you might see in Arrow, which really isn’t the tone of this show. It really is about more of the emotional content. It ended up being only two or three hits, as opposed to my original plan, which was more like a battle royal with 15 hits. I really did allow the story to tell more of the action elements of the show, as opposed to this big visual spectacle.”

There’s just enough spectacle to make fans of these characters excited, though, particularly when John Henry wields that hammer for the first time.

What’s Next for John Henry Irons?

Despite the multiverse-shaking revelations of this episode, it seems there are even more to come. For example, we still don’t know what made Superman and other Kryptonians turn against John Henry’s Earth and carve a path of destruction. And just like the rest of the DC TV shows, there’s lots of worldbuilding going on in the background that we’ve only just glimpsed.

“There was a lot of thought put into what happened on John Henry’s Earth,” Jamison teases. “What the maneuvers were, what it looked like. How it was different, how it was similar, all of it. A lot of thought. We will see more of that, going forward.”

One thing that hasn’t been decided on yet is what “number” designation this alternate Earth has. But there’s still plenty of more important things to explore, including whether or not John Henry’s daughter Nat (who has a superheroic destiny of her own in the comics) survived the Kryptonian onslaught. It seems that answers are coming soon. “We are not done with the world he came from,” Parks promises.

“There will be some revelations as he tries to explain or they try to get information out of him about what his mission is and they try to understand who he is,” Jamison says.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

If these revelations are as powerful as the ones in “Man of Steel,” they’re likely to make this version of John Henry an even more sympathetic character, and one that much closer to his heroic comic book counterpart. Whatever comes next, it seems that Steel’s hammer is in very good hands.

What did you think of this week’s Superman & Lois revelations? Let us know in the comments!

The post Superman & Lois Episode 7: Inside the “Man of Steel” Ending That Changes the Series appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3bU5055

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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june2734 · 7 years

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The True Core of The Man Of Steel (Or “What Superman Means to Me”)

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If you ask most people who their favorite superhero is you’ll rarely hear anyone say Superman, and why would you. There’s no depth to him, there’s nothing left to explore or deconstruct about the character outside of why he doesn’t have the biggest god complex in history. Most see him as being a bland, overpowered, uninteresting boy scout who always saves the day. He’s not even my favorite superhero but I do feel that he is a figure that represents and stands for something very important but who most misunderstand, especially in the over-saturated climate of super hero films that we have today. No offense to Zack Snyder but I don’t think he understands what makes the character work either which is why I find his portrayal of the character in is film to be so frustrating. In my favorite Superman stories(All Star Superman, Earth One, Secret Identity, etc) there had always been a great emphasis on certain values that Superman held. They weren’t about how powerful, godlike, misunderstood and burdened he was, they were about Superman being humble and kind to others. Showing how he genuinely cared about the people around him because he knew that everyone need a helping hand from time to time when life got rough. Allow me to show some examples.

All Star Superman consists of a series of stories that chronicle Superman’s last days after an accident on a rescue mission causes him to develop a condition that makes him more powerful than ever but is also slowly killing him. There is one moment in the comic where Sups is explaining his condition to Lois and he hears someone desperately pleading on their phone with someone on the other end not to take their own life. Without hesitation he explains to Louis that he has to go and races of to save this person, when he gets there he sees a teenage girl standing on the edge of a building crying as she drops the phone she was using to talk to her therapist off the edge before preparing to jump. Rather than easily grabbing her and taking her down by force, he appears behind her and explains that her therapist really was being held up by traffic and hasn’t given up on her, he tells her that she’s stronger than she thinks and embraces her with a hug.

Another example of this can been seen in an issue of Superman Grounded. Sups comes across a large group of people(police, fire department, ambulance, etc) are all looking up at a woman about to jump from a skyscraper. An officer asks Sups if he can go up there and grab her but Sups says that he’ll talk to her instead, the woman tells Sups not to touch her and Sups promises not to take her down by force. She lets out all of her frustrations on him about her life, her anxieties and her fears at him and at the end she asks him if she can just sit there for a while and rest, Sups agrees. A time lapses happens where we see, in panels, things go from day to night and Superman simply floating there in front of her, not leaving her and not judging her. Eventually she comments on all the people looking up at her and Sups tells her about a friend he lost to suicide a long time ago, he tells her that if she believes that she has no more good days left in her life that he will respect her wishes and let her jump but if she feels that there is at the very least one more happy day in her future than she should take his hand. She stares at his hand for a moments and then jumps into Superman’s arms, with Sups telling her that things will be alright as she cries.

THAT is who Superman is, someone who represents hope, love, and the best of what we can be. Someone who CARES about people who are lonely, scared and in pain. That’s the kind of Superman that I want everyone to see, the one who truly and deeply believes that everyone matters, the one who wants to do everything he can to make their lives a little easier and a litter safer. But with the current climate of superhero movies we have today I’m afraid that a scene like this will never be brought to life on the big screen. Big budget companies seem to see super hero films as a genre in and of themselves that primarily center around action packed blockbuster stories rather than as creations that could be used to explore and deconstruct more mature and complex ideas such as with Logan which was by all accounts a deconstruction of superhero films themselves. Now you might be asking yourself “If that’s all you had to say then why did you put it in the description of a link to some random composition from the original Superman film?”( You’re probably not asking that but I couldn’t think of a way to transition to this last paragraph smoothly).

The theme song for of the original Richard Donner Superman film from 1978, composed by the legendary John Williams, is considered by many to be the defining theme for the character. Superman at his best, a hero to the world. Hans Zimmer composed a new theme for Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel in 2013 that, in musical form, chronicled the Supermans rise from humble beginnings to godlike hero. But despite my love for these themes, neither of them encapsulate the core of who Superman is to me. The theme that I feel fully expresses the humble, kind, loving, friendly, good natureded person that he is, what I feel is at the heart of both Superman and his alter ego Clark Kent, is this composition by John Williams known as Theme of Love from the Richard Donner’s original film. In my opinion if this theme doesn’t fit with a certain portrayal or adaptation of Superman than you’re not doing things wrong. This theme has fit with every incarnation of Superman that I’ve seen aside from one, the recent Zack Snyder incarnation, the one that most people who don’t care all that much about Superman or what he represents will see and that’s something that I honestly find very disheartening. In this age of super hero films showing grandiose displays of heroism, I think it’s important to remember that showing small acts of kindness and humility can be just as important and Superman is the perfect paragon to convey this message.

#superman #dc #john williams #man of steel

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winterironspringfling · 7 years

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Spring Fling 2017: Complete Gift List

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who supported the WinterIron Spring Fling this year. No matter if you created a gift, helped out as a beta or pinch hitter, shared our posts, or cheered us on, you all helped make this exchange a tremendously fun and exciting experience.

And now, without further ado, the thing you’ve all been waiting for: the complete gift list.

Enjoy!

Of Dates and Journalistic Investigations by JustAnAvidReader for hiirokumo

Prompts: Modern AU no powers. Bucky works as a cashier at the supermarket Tony frequents. Bucky will switch with other cashiers. Tony notices bucky’s laboured breathing. “were you running?” And: 5. Superman!bucky and lois lane!tony Tony is a investigative journalist and Bucky is cashier at the supermaket Tony frequents (or is he?) The superman au you never asked for, but got anyway! WinterIron Srping Fling 2017

Dearly Beloved by EchoSiriusRumme for Niki

His first undercover mission after being benched, and it was with the man he had been trying to avoid. Not only that, but they were supposed be newlyweds (where does SHIELD get these ideas?) Complicated didn’t even begin to cover Bucky’s situation.

Domesticity (is not all that bad) by Briz for Zola9612

If 16 years old him could see him now, he would be seething with anger for his life choices.

‘Til The Sea Itself Floweth In Your Veins by catZY for MegaraNoelle

Tony is hiding out at his private beach house after dropping the bombshell that he isn’t making any more weapons. While walking along the water, the finds an unconscious and injured man with a fish tail.

Bucky is a merman who was nabbed by some crazy scientists. He has finally escaped, though unfortunately losing his arm in the process, and is so close to the sea he can taste it. But he isn’t strong enough to swim home and gets washed back onto shore, which is where Tony finds him.

Steve is Bucky’s childhood friend who has been searching frantically for him ever since he’s been snatched. Will he ever get Bucky back?

Firestarter by Amonae for Shi_Toyu

“So it’s the fires, again? And we’re sure it’s not a rogue dragon?”

“No, we’re not sure,” Steven says, sounding exasperated. “Since no one’s seen it, well, a beast that large wouldn’t exactly go unnoticed.”

“We have any guesses?”

“The usual; a wyvern, an overzealous clutch of fire lizards—Peter has his money on fire toads.”

James wrinkles his nose. “Those don’t exist, Stevie.”

Making Friends In High Places by Sophelia for Arboreal

Howard Stark died childless, leaving behind a multi-billion dollar company and an extremely elaborate will doling out portions of his estate to bizarre causes. Luckily for the Avengers, this included giving them a place to stay in the top of Stark Tower.

Tony, like most Stark Industries employees, did his best to ignore the superheroes living above him. That was, until he met a metal-armed super soldier who for some reason keep wandering down from the upper floors.

Put A Label On It by LeilaEracktor for ChaoticDemon

Tony and Bucky bond over Avengers Academy

Prompts: Avengers Academy is a mobile game in the MCU. The Avengers play it.; Soulmates

See Me Through by dreamingdarkly for tringic

The prompt from my giftee: One of them is invisible and the other is the only one who can see them.

Bucky Barnes has spent his entire life hiding, first as a sniper and then as The Asset. Over the years, he discovers Tony; the one person he doesn’t have to hide from.

Love Goes Through A Man’s Stomach by fynndin for SailorChibi

Bachelorette parties are basically expected to go a little above and beyond the normal. That Carol would deem it necessary to reveal her super powers to the Avengers on hers, that the stripper she hired as a cheesy joke would get into a gunfight with a HYDRA agent or that Captain America would turn up still was beyond Jennifer Walter’s imaginations for even the worst of worst case scenarios when she had agreed to be the maid of honor and organize the party. In hindsight, mixing up a good alcohol-free punch seemed like a rather manageable task.

Worlds change, but people don’t by JenJo for mitochondrials

Chapter 1: Tony and Bucky have a date at a cafe. They are also witches.

Chapter 2: Tony & Bucky’s pining is so legendary even the Time Fog gets involved.

In Which There is Much Attempted Wooing by hiirokumo for EchoSiriusRumme

And so our two main protags are not so secretly harbouring feelings for each other, which is obvious to everyone else but themselves. Wil they end up happily ever after? Only time will tell.

Winds and Waters by ChaoticDemon for eustassya

“It’s alright, you know,” he says, “I’m not going to be mad.”

Seeing things (for the first time) by tringic for justanotherpipedream

Tony learned at a young age that it was better not to be different (Unless you were better than everyone else, then it was okay), and he’d always been grateful that he’d learned that before he learned that not everyone could see the red strings.

A Lone Wolf by Niki for Amonae

“Before was pack and Steve and family, safety and warmth and purpose. Now is loneliness and pain and hunger and cold, and soon is when he’ll reach the source of that incredible scent reminding him of home.”

The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Lunatical for Kellen

When the light disappeared, he opened his eyes again to find the witch gone, together with her monsters… and a little girl with bright red hair standing where Natasha was just a second before, Widow’s catsuit pooled around her, barely hanging on one of her shoulders.

“Ahhh, shit,” came Clint’s voice over the comms “that looks bad.”

This time, even Steve’s “language” sounded weak.

Stealing the First Kiss by MassiveSpaceWren for JustAnAvidReader

AvAc first kiss.

Burn and Boil (Through the Skies) by justanotherpipedream for MassiveSpaceWren

Tony was used to running. From Alliance soldiers, raiders, you name it, Tony’s outrun them all. He’s a man on a mission, and can’t afford to fail. Not even for the devilishly handsome Bucky Barnes, smuggler, rogue and all-around space pirate.

A Firefly/Marvel story of space, explosions and falling in love.

Up Close and Impersonal by Hanh for Fluffypanda

“This rickety cot was not made for two people, big guy. …Bucky? You there?”

The Monsters in Our Pasts by Zola9612 for Lunatical

When Stark Tower is damaged in an attack, the team is forced to move into Tony’s childhood home. It is there that Tony’s many secrets start to unravel.

Cat Parenting (and Other Meet-Cutes) by singingwithoutwords for DreamcatchersDaughter

Of all the ways Bucky could have finally gotten a chance to speak to his crush, why did it have to be his cat getting Tony’s cat pregnant?

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know by Shi_Toyu for InsaneJuliann

“Friends Natasha and Steve decide to set up their friends Tony and Bucky on a date, since both have had bad luck with dating for a while. Unfortunately, these planned blind dates keep going wrong, so that one or both end up not being able to make it. Meanwhile, Tony and Bucky keep running into each other without realizing they’re the “friend” that Steve/Natasha are trying to set them up with, and grow closer, falling for each other.”

Ass Out of U and Me by DreamcatchersDaughter for Sophelia

Bucky finds he likes being wrong a lot more than he thought he would.

Different by black_wings for catZY

“Tony pictured his husband, and he couldn’t be more thankful for destiny. Because despite fate working in strange, mysterious and often painful ways, fate had brought him the one thing he’d always craved for: the love of his life.”

Or, Tony never became Iron Man and instead he starts helping Make-A-Wish Foundation fulfill wishes to meet heroes.

Misremembered by Arboreal for sushicorps

When Loki smirked at Rogers in the middle of a battle and told him he would give Rogers what he wanted most in the world, the mind of his old friend back, Tony had a very bad feeling.

Just One Look At You by Stark-N-Barnes for black_wings

Tony’s life changes on his first day at MIT when he meets Bucky Barnes. He’s never met anyone quite like him.

Running Towards Something by InsaneJuliann for LeilaEracktor

Prompt: After months of tiptoeing around each other Tony and Bucky confess their feelings and get together. So when Tony goes missing the next day Bucky doesn’t know what to think. Has Tony been abducted or is he having second thoughts?

The one that got away (and stayed with them) by Kellen for singingwithoutwords

When the Avengers’ space ship comes across a stopped Ten Rings frigate looking like they were having trouble, they first hesitate to do something about it. But there is someone in there, someone the Ten Rings are holding captive and the Avengers can’t let that be without doing something about it now, can they? A rescue mission it is.

The thing is… it didn’t go as predicted and when the prisoner revealed to be more dangerous than expected, they don’t know if the person they’re saving is about to kick their ass along with the Ten Rings’ or if they can expect some cooperation. Well, until Bucky meets them.

Deceptively Simple by mitochondrials for fynndin

Bucky figured finally opening up about his kinks would have been relatively easy. He should have known nothing’s easy with Tony, except when it is.

there and back again (to find you) by SailorChibi for celtic7irish

Hydra has a plan to go back in time and kill Steve before he becomes Captain America. Tony foils them, and in the process finds his soulmate.

Silent Confessions, Grand Gestures by MegaraNoelle for Karinna_Universe

Who knew that it would take a small Hydra faction to bring Tony and Bucky together? Now Steve is stuck babysitting his best friends, and dealing with them being in love, and not being shy about it at all.

Heart and Mind by Estelle for JenJo

Bucky is a new student at the university, coming back to studying after the army, and still adjusting. Tony is finishing his fourth PhD there, and when they meet, let’s just say it doesn’t go over too well. It takes them a while to find out they have a lot in common.

Soft Touches by ZeeK for Hanh

Bucky loves when Tony touches him.

Words Fail by Karinna_Universe for syriala

This work was for the Winteriron Spring fling! Prompt: Arc reactor failing

Wild Rose by celtic7irish for ZeeK

Modern AU - Bucky is on a much needed road trip and his car ends up breaking down while passing through a small town. He knows a bit about engines but definitely not enough to fix whatever is wrong. The only repair shop in town turns out to belong to a secluded engineer.

ab ipso ferro by Fluffypanda for Stark-N-Barnes

King Anthony Stark holds a ball to find a bondmate. Someone unexpected walks into his life.

Coffee Date by Potrix for Estelle

It’s just a silly crush, anyway, and Tony will get over it eventually. He’ll stop tripping over his tongue whenever Cute Delivery Guy flashes him one of his rare smiles, he’ll stop with the awful nervous jokes, he’ll stop having the urge to offer to replace the Hammer Tech prosthesis with a superior Stark Tech model, he’ll stop wondering how Cute Delivery Guy’s seemingly permanent five o’clock shadow might feel against his own cheeks, he’ll stop staring at Cute Delivery Guy’s ass when he leaves, and he’ll throw out his pathetic cup stash. Eventually.

It’s not as if Cute Delivery Guy’s two minute stops in his workshop are the highlights of Tony’s days, or anything embarrassing like that.

Mirror, Mirror by Shi_Toyu for dreamingdarkly

Tony doesn’t know how long he’s been stuck in this mirror since Obie’s betrayal, but he’s glad that the guy who found it is willing to help him get out.

#winterironspringfling #winteriron #tony x bucky #tony stark #bucky barnes #gift list #thank you

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superman86to99 · 7 years

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Adventures of Superman #500 (June 1993)

OVERSIZED ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Featuring the return of Superman! And Superman! And Superman, and also, Superman! But first: The Badass Adventures of Pa Kent in Hell. The last time we saw ol’ Pa, he’d just had a heart attack and seen a ghostly vision of his dead son (that’s Superman, for those joining us), who grabbed his hand and pulled Pa towards him. Now Ghost Superman is like, “Whelp, nice seeing you dad, gotta go.”

Superman is taken “into the light” by a couple of demons disguised as robed Kryptonian ladies. However, Pa refuses to give up on his son and follows them, only to find himself in a battlefield covered with corpses -- those of his Korean War buddies. Pa is (understandably) confused and thinks he’s back in the war, carrying out a mission to rescue some captured “airman”. Private Pa then comes across a farm littered with more dead people, including one that reminds him of his brother Harry... mainly because that’s exactly who it is.

In case you hadn’t noticed, something fishy is going on here. A demonic-looking enemy soldier tries to kick Pa out of wherever the hell this is (get it? hell?), but Pa just punches him into oblivion and soldiers on. Sometimes you just gotta punch some Nazis, folks.

Next up, Pa runs into Lady Blaze, the satanic mistress/recurring Superman baddie. Blaze generously offers to help Pa find his son in exchange for one million do-- I mean, his soul. Pa apparently thinks “eh, I don’t love him that much” and prefers to jump into the void beneath him.

At this point, Pa is saved from pinballing from sad memory to sad memory for all eternity by Kismet, the nice cosmic entity Superman met a while back (“our favourite naked outer space lady in a cape”, as Don Sparrow puts it). With Kismet’s guidance, Pa finally finds Superman, but he’s in the middle of some sort of weird funeral procession carried out by more demons disguised as Kryptonians (and Superman’s old furry friend, the Cleric).

Superman has completely fallen for the show these guys put on, and is prepared to let them take him to the “Kryptonian afterlife”, but Pa eventually breaks the spell with his hollering. More punching ensues!

Superman gets rid of the demons, but he still thinks that Pa should go back to the land of living without him. He’s been gone for too long, and it’s not his place to deny death. Superman’s Kryptonian father Jor-El suddenly shows up to reinforce this notion, telling Superman to join him and his biological mother, Lara, in the afterlife. It is the natural way of things.

Naturally, Pa Kent ain’t having any of that.

Pa practically carries Superman through the portal in front of them. Cut to: Pa waking up in a hospital bed in Smallville, whispering “Clark is back” to a freaked out Ma Kent and Lois Lane.

Suddenly, Superman sightings are reported all over Metropolis -- it’s like he’s in four places at once! Lois refuses to give herself any false hopes, but just to make double-sure her fiancee is still dead, she decides to take a peek inside his tomb. Inspector Henderson opens the casket for her, and it’s... empty?!

TO BE CONTINUED! But first...

Epilogue 1: Two rival gangs are fighting over turf when one pulls out some futuristic super-weapons that literally blow the other guys to pieces. As the cops roll in, out of the rubble emerges a hulking figure saying “DOOMSDAY! GOTTA STOP DOOMSDAY!” Holy shit, it’s Superman! He’s back! Also, black!

Epilogue 2: As an evildoer tries to carjack an innocent citizen, a caped figure flies to the rescue... and blasts the absolute crap out of the would-be thief with some energy blasts, throwing him off the roof of a building. The familiar figure explains that he’s “risen from the dead” and been changed by “the fire and darkness” -- OK, that has to be Superman. There’s no other explanation.

Epilogue 3: There’s an emergency at Project Cadmus, the genetic experimentation facility that recently held Superman’s corpse: some type of secret cloning experiment has broken out before it/he was ready. We see this brash young clone being led to the outside world by the Newsboy Legion, and upon hearing the way they refer to him, he exclaims: “DON’T EVER CALL ME SUPERBOY!” Because he’s actually Superman! Oh my God!

Epilogue 4: A tourist family stops in front of the Daily Planet and reflects solemnly on the plaque marking the spot where Superman died... until a man in blue tights lands from the sky, rips out the plaque, and burns it with his heat vision. We then see that he’s got robot parts all over his body; you know, as if he’d been brought back to life after being pummelled to death by a monster. Whelp, that’s it. That’s Superman, right there.

Character-Watch:

First appearance of these four mysterious Supermen: Black Superman, Blind Superman, Brat Superman, and Beep-Bop-I’m-a-Robot Superman. Or is it?!

Creator-Watch:

This is a suitably epic finale for Jerry Ordway’s original Superman run, which started way back in 1987. Ordway went from artist to co-plotter to writer/artist to just writer, along the way pioneering the house style that all Superman series will use throughout the ‘90s. This is often called the “Byrne” and/or “Jurgens” era, but I’d argue that Ordway was the single most influential creator involved in this period, and although what comes directly after his departure is cool as hell, we’ll definitely miss the heart, humor and realism he brought to even the most obscure background characters.

Speaking of which, this wouldn’t be an Ordway comic without a shit-ton of subplots, so here we go...

Plotline-Watch:

One detail I never caught as a kid: one of the “Superman sightings” at the end of the issue is clearly a drunken Bibbo in a Superman shirt.

The Final Misadventure of Jose Degaldo: He’s been beaten, burned, broken (literally), had buildings dropped on him, and dumped by both Lois Lane and Cat Grant, but Jose “Gangbuster” Delgado has finally had enough -- he’s ditching Metropolis. A regular crime-punching adventure goes wrong when Jose accidentally beats up an undercover cop posing as a drug dealer. Upon learning there’s a warrant for his ass and getting shot by another cop, Jose decides to call it quits and leave town (using the bus ticket Inspector Henderson recently gave him). He’s actually going to Fawcett City along with his creator -- he’ll show up again in Jerry Ordway’s Power of Shazam, but that’s it for Jose in these pages! Goodbye, Suicide Slum’s rose.

Incidentally, Cat Grant is feeling rather down since she split with Jose, and her boss Vinnie Edge uses the opportunity to invite her to dinner. She agrees, even though A) her relationship with Vinnie’s son did not end well, and B) he’s a disgusting perv who just grabbed her butt. Don Sparrow says: “The interplay between Cat Grant and Vinnie Edge hasn’t aged well -- though in some ways it seems timelier than ever.”

The “favor” Vinnie mentions above is not what you might think: he wants Cat to talk to Jimmy Olsen, who has neglected his duties as star of the hit Turtle Boy TV series ever since a certain pal of Jimmy’s was violently killed. Jimmy isn’t in the mood for light-hearted TMNT copyright infringement, though, so the series is currently on reruns.

Those Turtle Boy reruns are watched by the cellmate of Oswald Loomis -- aka Superman’s least intimidating rogue, The Prankster. Loomis, once a children’s entertainer himself, doesn’t appreciate ‘90s television and tries to electrocute said cellmate (who, in my memory, was Vinnie’s son Morgan Edge, making this scene slightly less random).

Pa Kent smashing the ghostly Jor-El with a shovel that materializes out of nowhere is, of course, a shout out to John Byrne’s classic Man of Steel #6, when he does the same thing. I want a full series about Pa dispatching Kryptonian ghosts the same way. His maligned brother Harry was also mentioned in a Byrne comic, World of Smallville #1.

As usual, I’m forgetting or lazily leaving out plenty of important details, so check out Don Sparrow’s section after the jump for way more!

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

Even more than Superman #75, it’s this issue (and the storyline that follows) that most define this, my most beloved era of Superman comics for me. Perhaps it’s because I was actually opposed to Superman’s death, rather than excited about it, whereas with this issue, I was only completely excited, and totally curious about how they’d bring Superman back.

Still more nerdy background: as we’ve mentioned in previous blogposts, I live in the same city as Super-teamster Tom Grummett, so the fact that he drew this comic was big, big deal in my hometown. Our local comic store (which sat below Tom Grummett’s art studio upstairs) had Tom in on the day it was released to sign copies, so it was a major event. Though I was only a lad of 13 at the time, both that day, and in the years since, I bought enough copies of Adventures of Superman #500 to insulate my house with them (and so did the rest of the world, making the resale value not quite what Superman #75 was). How big of a deal was Superman’s return in my hometown? Well, we made the evening news…

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The direct market edition cover features a stunner of a painting by the great Jerry Ordway, of a ghostly Superman reaching out to Pa Kent from beyond the void. It was billed as being a removable translucent screen, but I don’t know anyone who was successfully able to remove the vellum without ruining their cover, but the softening of the add-on is very effective. The newsstand edition (remember when comics could be purchased on newsstands?) has a decidedly story-driven cover, which must have perplexed the many non-regular Superman readers who came out in droves for this big issue. It features Superman and Pa Kent floating over a background of enemies (including the demonic Blaze, which, to the uninitiated, must have been pretty spooky) with Pa Kent inexplicably in a Challengers of the Unknown looking jumpsuit. Confusion aside, it’s still a great cover, and a nice hint at all the zip-a-tone goodness we’ll find inside.

Throughout the issue, the real world and the afterlife are given very distinct visual styles, with the ‘real’ world being inked and coloured normally, and the spirit world with lots of zip-a-tone shadows and gleaming bright colours. It’s such an effective way to delineate the storylines, and man, I love how the extra shading looks on the afterlife pages. It’ll be hard to single out only a few pages, because, honestly, this is one of the best drawn comics of the era.

In the first few pages, I was struck that, despite seeing Superman in full uniform at the end of Superman #77, the Superman Jonathan Kent sees on the ‘other’ side is Clark Kent, which is a telling note about how he sees his identity. The image of Pa stripping away his Clark garb is a great one, with the mist and swirling clouds establishing we are indeed, not in Kansas anymore.

The direct market edition also has some differences within the book, in addition to the difference in cover—it has a number of full page splashes inserted into the storyline, which are missing from the newsstand edition, and each one is a stunner. The first one is Gangbuster descending a fire escape on page 6, having ignored the warnings he got from Inspector Henderson in the Superman specials that preceded this issue.

The most interesting thing about these splashes, aside from how just about every one of them would have made for some killer poster art, is how seamlessly Jerry Ordway matches the scripts. Many of the splashes contain dialogue, but if those sentences are removed (as they are in the newsstand edition) the story still makes sense, which must have been a real challenge. [Max: Oddly enough, the one flaw I’ve found in my giant Death and Return of Superman omnibus so far is that some of the dialogue from these pages is duplicated, presumably from combining pages from both editions.]

Page 9 features another great Gangbuster image, and the fight choreography in the pages that follow has a real sense of place and pace.

As we return to Pa Kent’s near death experience, the visuals go a good job of selling the story’s dreamlike conceit—“reality” is pretty flexible where he is, so as Jonathan spends time there, his thoughts get muddled in with memory, and he can lose his purpose. It really feels like a dream in that way. Also, having heard about Jonathan’s brother previously, I thought he’d look a lot worse. There’s a strange cutaway to the Prankster in these pages, and while it’s a funny little scene, it has no bearing on the story, and Prankster doesn’t pop up again in these pages for a very long time---if memory serves, until the ill-fitting reboot of his look some 80 issues later. [Max: We saw him during the Dominus storyline, but I’m not sure if that counts.]

I also love how Grummett seems to draw Prankster as looking like UK comedian Terry Thomas, which is a great fit. It’s always tricky to translate such goofy-looking characters into real people, and here, perhaps for the first time, Prankster looks like a human being and not a doughier Alfred E Neuman. (Do prisoners really get their own portable TVs? Surely this scene demonstrates the danger of such a luxury!)

The scenes of Pa Kent falling into a pit and being pulled out by Blaze are chilling, but, like the rest of the issue, doesn’t it just make you fall in love with tough, no nonsense Jonathan Kent? It’s a mini-Godwatch when he pulls a Luke Skywalker and choose oblivion over joining forces with Blaze. (Extra points for Jonathan asking the question on the minds of a lot of Superman readers—is Blaze the devil or what?)

Next up is an appearance by what would seem to be Blaze’s opposite number, Kismet, our favourite naked outer space lady in a cape. Both sides of the two-page splash are pretty stunning here.

The ersatz Kryptonian funeral is pretty interesting too. Here, Grummett walks a fine line, having the Kryptonian stuff accurate enough that we know what it’s supposed to be, but just off enough that we know something strange is going on.

Once Clark figures out that the wraiths mean him harm (has there ever been a nice wraith?) it’s so, so great to see him back in action after all these months without him. Major kudos to the colourist, here especially, but throughout the book, for the unique colours which look great here on Superman’s uniform. Plus, I always like the times when Superman loses his cape.

The visual effect of the portal back to reality is just amazing, and from their perspective, probably pretty accurate. Next to the blinding light of the afterlife, earthly life would probably seem pretty dark. That last image from the direct edition, of Superman flying through the void with Pa Kent is just such a stunner. And from a story standpoint, this is just so definitive of the Super-team. That a story about bringing back Superman is told in the most personal, meaningful way, with a chubby, balding old farmer as more or less the lead character. It’s a total rejection of the grit teeth and substance-less Image comics trend of the era in its’ wholesomeness. And I love this is how they chose to bring him back. My very favourite detail, that I came back to again and again was that the heartbeat that returns to Pa Kent’s monitor goes across his panel, into the panel of Superman’s tomb. So subtle, and so, so awesome.

The four page previews kicking off the Reign storyline are almost an issue unto themselves, but I love how all the eye-witness accounts from page 45 are later seen within issues, and give clues to very different Supermen.

If you’ll allow me just a little more nerdiness, DC sent comic shops some previews of this issue to create excitement, and these pages included scans of the end section with the new Supermen. The only catch was, on these previews the figures were totally whited out, so you couldn’t see what he looked like. So having read those short previews, I thought they were all referring to ONE new Superman, who I assumed had been changed by his experience with Doomsday. It wasn’t until I got the issue home that I realized they were launching four different storylines.

The art on these is pretty interesting. This is really the point where Jon Bogdanove shifts into a really loose, less constrained style, which honestly works quite well for the larger than life character of John Henry Irons. And that first look at him—you can definitely see why they thought that Shaquille O’Neal would work for this character.

Next is a spooky look at the Last Son of Krypton, who I 100% believed was the real Superman, mainly because of his appearance. The panel of Superman lowering to finish off the thug is a great, eerie look, and I dig the Gandalf the White style dialogue here, too.

I love everything about the “Metropolis Kid” section, because it’s all built-in, and even gives us hints of this character’s “tactile telekinesis” with the grating not being damaged from his blow. Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but man, it’s a great costume too.

Lastly, the Man of Tomorrow segment, which is such great, great storytelling, as, until the very last second, you don’t realize anything is amiss, in spite of the facial expressions of the tourists. [Max: This guy freaked me out even before I saw his full face, and I just realized why: the panel of him turning to face the family reminds me the end of this traumatizing BTAS episode.]

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

It’s interesting to me that this issue establishes that Jonathan Kent fought in the Korean conflict, and not, as was established in the World of Smallville mini-series, World War II. It’s amazing that enough time had passed by this point, that they had to move the timeline up. I suppose if Pa Kent were still in modern stories, he’d have been a Vietnam veteran by now. I’ll admit being surprised watching Smallville that Jonathan Kent had never been in any war—I thought for sure they’d have made him a Gulf War veteran or something.

Even completely in shock and grief and confusion, Lois Lane really rocks those stretchpants.

GODWATCH: This is the big one, where, as hinted to in past issues, the belief system that the Kents raised Clark within is made explicit. First on page 22, in a moment of despair, Lois admits she wishes her faith were stronger, and Martha relates that their beliefs included Heaven, and that Clark himself, to her knowledge, subscribed to those beliefs. Finally, when Pa stabilizes, Ma Kent thanks the Lord, on page 42. [Max: I also find Pa’s theory that Clark only ended up in this limbo because he’d been raised as a mortal pretty interesting.]

“Sure—have some of my hootch, why don’tcha?” A very funny exchange. [Max: I forgot to mention High Pocket’s essential contribution to this issue, when he fishes Jose out of the river, gives him booze, and tries to recruit him for some larceny! Shame on me.]

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