#jor building

[antisocialsharky]

You Should Know About Conduct Disorder

Conduct disorder (CD), sometimes also referred to as dissocial disorder, is a condition, that between 2-10% of people are diagnosed with, tho the actual number of people experiencing enough symptoms to meet criteria may be higher.

It is grouped under "Disruptive, Impulse-Control and Conduct Disorders" in the DSM-5 alongside oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), intermittent explosive disorder (IED) pyromania, kleptomania, otherwise specified & unspecified "..." disorder and antisocial personality disorder (which is grouped here and under personality disorders).

All of these conditions involve some sort of problem in the self control of emotions and/or behavior and are differentiated from other emotional/behavioral regulation problems, by including a violation of the rights of others and/or bringing the individual into significant conflict with societal norms or authority figures.

Conduct disorder has the following criteria points (quoted):

A. A repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated, as manifested by the presence of at least three of the following 15 criteria in the past 12 months from any of the categories below, with at least one criterion present in the past 6 months:

■ Category: Aggression to People and Animals

1. Often bullies, threatens, or intimidates others.

2. Often initiates physical fights.

3. Has used a weapon that can cause serious physical harm to others (e.g., a bat, brick, broken bottle, knife, gun).

4. Has been physically cruel to people.

5. Has been physically cruel to animals.

6. Has stolen while confronting a victim (e.g., mugging, purse snatching, extortion, armed robbery).

7. Has forced someone into sexual activity.

■ Category: Destruction of Property

8. Has deliberately engaged in fire setting with the intention of causing serious damage.

9. Has deliberately destroyed others’ property (other than by fire setting).

■ Category: Deceitfulness or Theft

10. Has broken into someone else’s house, building, or car.

11. Often lies to obtain goods or favors or to avoid obligations (i.e., “cons” others).

12. Has stolen items of nontrivial value without confronting a victim (e.g., shoplifting, but without breaking and entering; forgery).

■ Category: Serious Violation of Rules

13. Often stays out at night despite parental prohibitions, beginning before age 13 years.

14. Has run away from home overnight at least twice while living in the parental or parental surrogate home, or once without returning for a lengthy period.

15. Is often truant from school, beginning before age 13 years.

B. The disturbance in behavior causes clinically significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning.

C. If the individual is age 18 years or older, criteria are not met for antisocial personality disorder

Specify whether:

• Childhood-onset type: Individuals show at least one symptom characteristic of conduct disorder prior to age 10 years.

• Adolescent-onset type: Individuals show no symptom characteristic of conduct disorder prior to age 10 years.

• Unspecified onset: Criteria for a diagnosis of conduct disorder are met, but there is not enough information available to determine whether the onset of the first symptom was before or after age 10 years.

Specify if: With limited prosocial emotions => To qualify for this specifier, an individual must have displayed at least two of the following characteristics persistently over at least 12 months and in multiple relationships and settings. These characteristics reflect the individual’s typical pattern of interpersonal and emotional functioning over this period and not just occasional occurrences in some situations. Thus, to assess the criteria for the specifier, multiple information sources are necessary. In addition to the individual’s self-report, it is necessary to consider reports by others who have known the individual for extended periods of time (e.g., parents, teachers, co-workers, extended family members, peers):

● Lack of remorse or guilt: Does not feel bad or guilty when he or she does something wrong (exclude remorse when expressed only when caught and/or facing punishment). The individual shows a general lack of concern about the negative consequences of his or her actions. For example, the individual is not remorseful after hurting someone or does not care about the consequences of breaking rules.

● Callous—lack of empathy: Disregards and is unconcerned about the feelings of others. The individual is described as cold and uncaring. The person appears more concerned about the effects of his or her actions on himself or herself, rather than their effects on others, even when they result in substantial harm to others.

● Unconcerned about performance: Does not show concern about poor/problematic performance at school, at work, or in other important activities. The individual does not put forth the effort necessary to perform well, even when expectations are clear, and typically blames others for his or her poor performance.

● Shallow or deficient affect: Does not express feelings or show emotions to others, except in ways that seem shallow, insincere, or superficial (e.g., actions contradict the emotion displayed; can turn emotions “on” or “off" quickly) or when emotional expressions are used for gain (e.g., emotions displayed to manipulate or intimidate)

Specify current severity:

• Mild: Few if any conduct problems in excess of those required to make the diagnosis are present, and conduct problems cause relatively minor harm to others (e.g., lying, truancy, staying out after dark without permission, other rule breaking).

• Moderate: The number of conduct problems and the effect on others are intermediate between those specified in “mild” and those in “severe” (e.g., stealing without confronting a victim, vandalism).

• Severe: Many conduct problems in excess of those required to make the diagnosis are present, or conduct problems cause considerable harm to others (e.g., forced sex, physical cruelty, use of a weapon, stealing while confronting a victim, breaking and entering).

The associated features section additionally notes: "Especially in ambiguous situations, aggressive individuals with conduct disorder frequently misperceive the intentions of others as more hostile and threatening than is the case and respond with aggression that they then feel is reasonable and justified. Personality features of trait negative emotionality and poor self-control, including poor frustration tolerance, irritability, temper outbursts, suspiciousness, insensitivity to punishment, thrill seeking, and recklessness, frequently co-occur with conduct disorder. Substance misuse is often an associated feature, particularly in adolescent females. Suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and completed suicide occur at a higher than expected rate in individuals with conduct disorder"

Other mentioned info:

• CD onset after age 16 is rare

• childhood onset CD often (but not always) has the precursor ODD (aka you qualify for ODD before you qualify for CD)

• in a majority of cases the disorder remits by adulthood

• risk factors include genetics, environmental, etc.

Now, thats a lot of information and conduct disorder, as well as the other conditions in the group, are also heavily debated within both the psychological field and online spaces, so it can be a bit hard to really understand whats going on here!

Let me try to explain the condition to you with the help of my own experience, as I was verbally diagnosed with "dissocial disorder" at the age of 15! I do have to mention though, that my diagnostic assessment already included an ASPD specific questionaire and heavily focused on those symptoms as I already met all seven of them and my psych used both "dissocial disorder" and "dissocial personality disorder" to refer to what I have! Therefore your experience with an assessment may look very different!

Its important to note, that not every person with conduct disorder goes on to develop ASPD! There is estimates that mention that 25% of girls and 40% of boys with CD go on to develop ASPD, but the numbers differ depending on who you ask! For some the disorder remits and some receive other follow up diagnoses, or may simply stick with CD.

Of the above mentioned criteria list, I met the bullying/threatening (1), lying (11) and stealing (12) criteria with a sort of frequency, but also showed a few cases of physical fights (2), property damage (9) and skipping school (14). I suppose if you count randomly slapping others cus I thought it was fun or goading them into injuring themselves, as evidence for physical cruelty (4) I also met that a little, but I am not sure whether it counts.

I suspect that I might qualify for childhood onset CD, as I already stole in kindergarden (age 3-6) and elementary school (age 6-10) and was also very known for being aggressive, resisting authority/being defiant, insulting others, lying if it suited me, putting others in bad situations for my own amusement and bullying a teacher of mine at that age.

I definitely presented with limited prosocial emotions and showed all four hallmarks: lack of remorse/guilt, callous lack of empathy, being unconcerned about performance (to the point of having to repeat a year) and shallow/deficient emotions.

In addition to that, there were a few other things, that were counted towards my CD diagnosis (or rather used as further evidence), namely: an overall aggressive response being my first instinct, trying to get people online to kill themselves, being very obsessed with violence overall and having frequent fantasies surrounding it, being very impulsive & reckless & irresponsible in my decision making, methodically breaking school rules, as well as having concrete plans to commit a school shooting and running an online blog promoting it and believing I was correct to do these things in all cases.

Despite having shown a lot of obvious externalized behavior and breaking a few actual laws, I have not had any contact with the police thus far! Some of the mildness of my behaviors, is due to the fact, that I gew up learning, that avoiding punishment and being sneaky and careful with the way I break rules, is more benefitial in the long run, as my brother, who was very much not careful, frequently got reprimanded/punished and served as a prime example for how I would not be able to thrive in peace if I was like him.

The individual presentation of conduct disorder will differ depending on a lot of factors and not everyone presents severely! A lot of cases are simply classed as "kids being kids", "teenagers being hormonal" or "a few bad influences causing it", thus leading to those individuals falling under the radar.

Whether or not a child acts out in a certain environment will heavily depend on: what types of acting out they know they can get away with, how desensitized they are to punishment, how capable they are of worming their way out of responsibility, how much they can control their own behavior & emotions, what they have observed their parents/friends doing, what bullies/relatives have done to them, what resources they have available, how much respect they have for certain people, etc.

The CD criteria mentions a few common behaviors, but technically any sort of crime and anything that is regularely done that causes harm to others, should count as possible evidence towards CD. Its difficult to give examples here, as the frequency, consequences and presentation over a variety of contexts are very important in addition to the nature of the behavior itself.

What does end up being evidence and whether or not you will meet criteria/will meet certain symptoms, very much depends on the psychologist you're working with, what culture you live in and whether or not your professional has a certain bias. The paper "Evidence based assessment of DSM-5 Disruptive, Impulse Control and Conduct disorders" by Jeffrey D. Burke et al. goes into those biases, differentiates the conditions and also delivers a list of assessments that can be used to diagnose them.

To give you another two possible presentations, I'll tell you about two other CD cases that I personally know! Prior to age 12 (afaik) child 1 has met the criteria points for: forcing someone into sexual activity (7), destroyed property (9), lied (11), stolen (12), stayed out at night (13), skipped school (15) at the very least (I am not aware of whether they meet the rest!). They also meet all four hallmarks of limited prosocial emotions and went into treatment around the age of 12/13 if I remember correctly. Their sister now also presents with evidence of CD primarily: staying out (13), lying (11), stealing (12), animal cruelty (5) and cruelty to people (4) + aggression outbursts at the very least. => Presentation heavily depends on the person!

When it comes to treatment/recovery, the DSM-5 mentions that remission in cases that have childhood onset is rarer than remission in adolescent onset cases, which makes sense, as the behavior is much more ingrained and a lot of important developmental moments & important relationships likely went wrong!

It is however not impossible to achieve remission before the child/teen hits adulthood, thus preventing that the child/teen meets criteria for diagnoses like personality disorders (and even in those remission can be achieved).

In order to achieve this, clinicians have to work a lot on how they treat & perceive children with CD & adjacent conditions and may benefit from coming up with measures of identifying behavioral & emotional problems earlier, in order to offer assistance before the pattern fully builds itself.

The category of "Disruptive, Impulse Control and Conduct Disorders" and related concepts also receive different kinds of criticism from both professionals and mental health communities:

• some professionals question why ASPD is the only diagnosis that requires you to meet evidence for CD, when not even every person with CD goes on to meet ASPD => thus they wonder why other conditions do not require it or why ASPD specifically does. theres at least one paper on it that discusses this!

• many people criticize that ODD can be applied to people who simply question bigoted/mean teachers, people with PDA profiles, etc. and that IED simply pathologizes the emotional expression of anger, as abnormal/inappropiate and could as an example be falsly applied to people who are actually having autistic meltdowns.

• some people do not support CD officially only being categorized by behavior and only including things that are basically criminal already (with little exception). theres people who believe impulsivity, the breaking of school rules, verbal aggression that isnt necessarily threats/bullying, explicit violent thoughts and such should be included in the criteria.

first posted on my instagram (same @)

(insta caption includes a note to pls not copy any of my behaviors or think that I am trying to set an example as to how you should behave. thats not the case. just yk...for the record, cus this is the internet)

[pinkiemachine]

We need the entire El chronicles! (not in a pressurey way)

Lol! Okay, so here’s all I’ve got so far of DAWN OF SUPERMAN, to recap (full versions linked below):

SEASON ONE:

—Krpyton gets destroyed by both their collapsing sun and a massive civil war.

—Jor-El and his family try to escape Zod and his followers and head to the secret Kryptonian colony.

—Zod finds them and when Jor-El ejects his loved ones into space in escape pods, Zod opens fire, killing Zor-El and Alura, and knocking Lara, Cal, Kara, and Krypto of course. Jor-El evades capture.

—Lara and Cal land on Earth and Lara dies from an injury sustained in the blast. Cal is then left in the care of the humans John and Martha Kent.

—Clark has adoptive siblings, Micheal, Sean, Rueben, and Suzie.

—Cal’s desire to find his alien family leads him to become an investigative journalist and he moves to Metropolis in his early/mid twenties where he meets Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen.

Now, the rest of the season I haven’t fleshed out as mush as I have Season 2, but that will be fixed in months to come. For the moment, here’s the basic outline: The premier two-parter follows the events stated above, along with lots of little anecdotes of Clark’s childhood. Then, once he arrives in Metropolis, things become a bit episodic. One episode, we’ll be watching Clark try to adjust to life in the big city and become Superman for the first time, then the next, we’ll be exploring Lois or Jimmy’s characters, fighting interesting villains like Livewire or Banshee, and building up Lois and Clark’s relationship. (Side note, Martha made Clark’s suit for him. When Clark was a kid, he asked her once to make him an outfit that looked just like the ones in his family holophoto, including his family crest on the front. Naturally, Clark had outgrown that old costume, but just before he moved out, Martha surprised him with a fair well gift: a new Kryptonian-style suit.)

HOWEVER… there’s another story growing beneath the surface. Ever since Clark became Superman, he’s had eyes on him. The whole world is watching this man become the most powerful, most undefeated superhero of all time, but that’s not precisely why the government’s interested in him. They’re interested because he’s wearing the same crest as the alien woman they found twenty+ years ago. Waller is immediately on the case, and she sends out a lackey to bring Superman in for questioning. (Haven’t decided who this character is yet.) When Clark realises that the men in black suits are coming after him, he immediately gets spooked and worries for his family. If they got hurt because he was being reckless and showing his powers publicly, he’d never forgive himself. So Superman’s gotta lay low for a while. Eventually, though, Waller figures out his secret identity, but Lois winds up being the one to save Clark for just a little bit longer, threatening to run this story in the papers if they don’t leave Clark—an innocent and upstanding citizen—alone. But as soon as the two of them have a moment, Lois immediately asks what’s going on and Clark reveals that he’s Superman.

By now, Waller is getting antsy, but there’s someone else who wants to join the party. Lex Luthor. He’s been funding the research on the Kryptonian pod, and LexCorp has been reaping the rewards of learning the secrets of their advanced technology for years. He crafts a machine/suit/(need to read the comics) that can go toe-to-toe with Superman and almost beats him. Doesn’t though. Lex will remember that.

By now, Clark is sick of running and hiding. Time to take the fight to them. With help from Lois and Jimmy, he tracks down the secret base where the pod and his mother’s remains are being kept, and the final battle commences. Waller loses, Lex loses his hair, they both swear revenge, and Clark takes back what’s rightfully his. He buries what’s left of his mother on the farm, and stores the pod in the shed temporarily. It’s a triumphant yet slightly melancholy ending for our heroes, especially as Clark and his brother get a chance to really talk some things through while he’s home visiting. Then Lois gets introduced to the family, and for a moment, everything’s right with the world.

Little does Clark know, though, that there’s a probe droid on Earth, watching him, and now it’s flying back out into space to report what it’s found to its boss. Zod.

SEASON TWO

—Zod shows up, tries to manipulate Clark, but they wind up fighting instead, and Clark beats his butt off the planet. He does manage to spook General Lane, though, and now he’s dead set against Krpytonians and what they could do to the planet if they so choose.

—Anyway, now Clark knows that his father is actually alive, and there’s also a secret colony of Kryptonians out there. He decides to look for them.

—The team (plus extra members) journeys into space where they meet all sorts of new aliens, including Green Lantern, and they also cross paths with Kryptonite.

—Then they find Kara and Krypto, who lead them to the colony.

—Along the way, they also manage to track down Jor-El, and he and Clark get to have a well-deserved reunion.

—They go to the colony together, but Zod follows them. There’s a big battle, Zod gets booted to the phantom zone, his ship is destroyed, and the colony is saved.

—PSYCH, just kidding. One of the extra members of Clark’s team is military, and he has secret orders from General Lane to kill any and all new Kryptonian forces he may encounter. So, using some Kryptonite he kept hidden, he makes a bomb and blows the colony sky high.

—Clark, Kara, and Krypto are the only Kryptonians to survive.

(Clark briefly wants to set Earth on fire…)

—Then Clark discovers that, on Jor-El’s ship, his father had made many recordings and created an A.I. Version of himself for company. This is now all Clark has left of him as they fly back to Earth.

—The ship later gets parked up the Arctic, becoming Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.

—Clark’s laid low with grief, but Lois and his family are there for him now more than ever. There’s still hope for the future.

THEN comes JUSTICE LEAGUE: HEROES RISING!

At the moment, I’m still working out which stories of Superman’s will be adapted into the show, but the main idea is that every season, there will be at least one or two BIG over arching plots that center around one of the main characters and an arch foe of theirs, like OG Teen Titans. But less episodic. Or, at least… not episodic like putting a tournament episode right in the middle of the Judas Contract arc, and more so like Avatar the Last Airbender episodic, where we’re having fun, but also learning more about the world and how various aspects of it work. The first major villain(s) will have something to do Zatanna and/or Green Lantern.

Speaking of the other heroes, here’s a quick little tidbit: So, Batman’s actually the one who brings the Justice League together. It falls into one of his contingency plan models. In case of emergency, CALL EVERYONE. During his first two seasons of BATMAN: GOTHAM FILES, he’s already come across The Flash—and Wonder Woman, over the course of the first two seasons of WONDER WOMAN: HEIR TO OLYMPUS, she’s become familiar with Atlantis and their royal family. And if you remember, Clark’s already met Green Lantern (Hal Jordon). Now all that’s left is Zatanna, hence I thought a Zatanna-centric Season 1 might be a good idea. Magic is a threat the rest of the Justice League can’t easily combat on their own. But I also had a thought, like what if I combined the Zatanna villain with the GL villain—SPACE WIZARDS!!! Idk, just thinking about it. Anyway…

I sadly haven’t had a chance to write Season 3, but what I do know (for just general stuff that’s supposed to happen eventually) is that Lois and Clark do get married and have a little boy named Jonathan. Then, some time later, Clark and Kara get called away into space on urgent business, and that’s when someone new appears: Con-El, aka Conner Kent, aka Superboy. He comes crashing down to Earth in an escape pod just like Clark’s, claiming to be a member of Superman’s family. After much convincing of the Justice League, they let him stick around until Clark gets back to truly vet him. In the meantime, he slowly gains the other heroes’ trust, becomes a member of the second generation of Teen Titans (The New Teen Titans) and helps save the world. HOWEVER… turns out he’s been working for Lex Luthor this whole time! Dun dun dun! I’ll save the rest of that story for later, heheheh…

Then, of course, when Jonathan grows up, he becomes the next Superboy and joins the third generation of Teen Titans, (Ultimate Teen Titans), and has some adventures of his own. Haven’t decided what his big arc will be yet.

Would love to do a mini-series following Kara when she was lost in space. T’would be cool.

And that’s currently all I have written, story-wise, for the Kents. Personally, I don’t really see many of the other SuperFam characters to be especially relevant to the story, or interesting, so I’m probably gonna either scrap them or repurpose them, unless there’s just, like, a MASSIVE fan outcry. It’s just that the whole point is that Clark and Kara are THE LAST KRYPTONIANS. The last of their kind, that’s part of their whole story—being alone. You can only get away with new Kryptonians falling out of the sky so many times before it gets old. And Conner was lying about his origins, so I can get away with that.

Here’s some fun stuff I wrote about Krypton and Kryptonians 👇

Here’s the Fall of Krypton and the El family’s escape 👇

Here’s the next part of Clark’s Origin Story 👇

Here’s a deep dive into Lois and Clark’s relationship 👇

And here’s Season 2 in-depth 👇

[spiderwing-nightman]

"with ambitions so small they could fit into a cradle"

to me, this means that all of Jor-el's ambitions were about Clark and building a better life for his son, one free of the empire. I think that's part of the crux of it because, arguably, Clark is the biggest ambition one could have, even if at the time he could fit into a cradle, because our children are our biggest ambition, but Primus Braniac could not possibly understand that because, if the goal is to create an empire, then your children will have a hard time surviving, much less having a better future, so that ambition, to Primus, makes no sense.

[kryptonbabe]

⚠️ Spoilers and Speculation Warning ⚠️

I am here for the underdog house of El of renegade scientists. They don't seem to be anywhere near the prestigious family in the scientific community as they are in other stories. Apparently Lara is an engineer interested in space exploration and (it is implied) Jor-el is a geologist. So we would have a reason for them to a) figure out Krypton's tectonic instability before others and b) build a scaping pod / rocket to save their son. With their renegade status we would also have a reason for them to be disregarded by their peers. I was excited to see Lara playing a bigger role in this origin, it's a good time to be a mother in the Absolute universe (for now at least)

The preview looks promising, I can't wait for the full version

Preview from Absolute Superman #1 – out November 6, 2024, available for pre-order

[abelhatarefada]

Spoilers for Absolute Superman #3

Okay, so this issue kinda implies that the other kriptonians have escaped in the spacecraft Lara and Jor-el build (they didn't show us, so not sure yet). And because both Martha and Lara say the same thing ("sweet angel boy"), this makes us assume that Martha is, in fact, Lara. The Kent family is a disguise for House of El.

But why is Martha so old when Kal looks so young?

My guess is that the spacecraft needed pilots while the rest of the refugees (who were majoritarily farmers) were put in some kind of cryosleep. And since they were the only ones who build it and knew how to pilot, the job couldn't be done by anyone else. So they stayed awake, making sure they would arrive in a planet where they could live.

[sparkoflena]

An elaboration on my Kryptonians & Pain Tolerance post

(TLDR: DC doesn't care that much about any character but what we do know aligns with the need to question Kryptonian invulnerability)

- When I (and others) mention Kryptonian pain tolerance, I am not asking about the big things. I am asking about the inconvenience of pain (like how some people can still function with cramps like it's nothing or how working out is generally considered "good pain"). Pain tolerance beyond Almost Down For The Count versus Ooo That Bullet Felt Like A Tiny Pinch is generally the question there. Basically: Pain tolerance is a spectrum and I refuse to believe it being all or nothing just because the character happens to be an alien. (Obviously, this is stated as an exaggeration because it is touched upon in the comics but not far enough for a solid answer)

- Most Important Point: The joke "DC means Disregard Canon" is most often referencing the fact that there is limited consistency in DC comics.

- Superman's lack of consistency IS with his pain tolerance. He has some comics where a nuclear bomb doesn't even scratch him (...Kingdom Come?? I'm fairly certain that's the right series/run but I don't feel like looking it up right now. If somebody pulls the "that's an alternate universe" on me I am going to scream because Alternate Universe ≠ Different Powerset unless otherwise stated) and some comics where a nuclear bomb heavily weakens him (New 52)

- Furthermore via bomb: Clark has (in a show) swallowed a nuclear bomb to contain an explosion. Conner once ate the chemicals to create a nuclear explosion in his stomach and is basically a dragon spouting fire for the rest of the comic. Different characters (half human versus full alien) but still relevant because they are not explained.

- Kal-El describes what he feels as "pressure" rather than pain. Whether it's akin to getting hit with a pillow or being slapped across the face is unclear, but the point is that HE wouldn't know the difference. This is mostly the depiction that I personally imagine unless the writer tells me otherwise (which many do not bother to do)

- Most Kryptonians are described as having so much extra energy shoved into each cell that it creates the ("basically") impenetrable barrier. This also goes the other way in many comics - mostly in Kon-El's, where he uses tactile telekinesis often - because an overuse of that energy is also weakening but is easily replenished via breaks and the power of the (yellow) sun. Which means their biggest enemies aren't even necessarily their big enemies (like Lex Luthor) but each other (ie Superboy versus Superboy Prime).

- Obviously there are plenty of Kryptonian weaknesses from the various versions of Kryptonite to Red Solar Radiation to Extreme Pressure to Magic to Mind Control etc etc etc. The Phantom Zone once eliminated Jor-El's powers - while not quite used as a weakness in the comics - is still possibly relevant if ever remembered. There would obviously be no story if these characters were 100% invulnerable. My point is that it applies differently enough that it would be fascinating to study.

- Being said, even Kryptonite isn't consistent across stories either. In Silver Age comics, Clark exposes himself to Kryptonite over time to develop a (small) immunity. Whereas in All Star Superman he goes "I guess I've just discovered I'm immune now" which is yada yadaed away because he's reaching his end of days anyway. Kon-El once met a double cloned version of himself and that character had different vulnerability to Kryptonite than he did.

- Bonus is that Kryptonians are thrown against buildings all of the freaking time (...what are the insurance rates on buildings in Metropolis? National City? These are the real questions here). Which means they can be shoved by non-Kryptonite means. Most of the time, it doesn't seem to hurt. Does it feel like being shoved into a softer bed or against a firm wall? Do they get a minor headache from this? Do they go "Oh great a breather moment" ??

- And unimportant to the silliness of the original post but still relevant - Kon-El did have a time prior to his full powers kicking in where he was weaker to everything than his other Kryptonian counterparts. This is in large part due to the half-human in him (meaning it also applies to Jon-El), which would apply differently than a full Kryptonian like Clark or Kara (which is mentioned within the post). Which, honestly, is more fascinating to study. I, however, cannot science my way through characters because they are unfortunately fictional. So I must make the sciencey characters do it for me via humorous Tumblr posts haha

- Lastly: It is not a criticism of Kryptonian heroes to question their pain tolerance (especially because there is no real answer given that it changes between authors). If I wanted a superhero who hurt when getting punched, then I would go to one of the many human heroes. The fascination with Superman as a hero is that he is an alien with humanity. I expect Kryptonians to be different and they are. I am aware that there are weaknesses, especially beyond kryptonite. As there is never truly a human versus Kryptonian pain comparison given in the comics, we will never truly know the pain tolerance of Kryptonians versus their human hero allies. That is fine. Being a superhero fan is in all fun anyway

[suzukiblu]

join, scent, sorry

"Wait, so you just . . . ditched Superboy? Like right after he got out of Cadmus?" Captain Marvel sputters right in the middle of a League meeting, looking startled. "Why?"

"Batman is handling the Superboy situation," Clark says as neutrally as possible, resisting the urge to grit his teeth or rub at his temples or glower over at Bruce or just–anything, just anything. He isn't Superboy's father, though, and five minutes into this nightmare he's already more than sick of people making the assumption that he should be. He didn't volunteer for anything or consent to anything or even just make a mistake; he had his DNA stolen by people who built a weapon out of it, and just because that weapon's aging process got interrupted and it therefore currently looks like a minor, Clark is supposed to . . . supposed to what, exactly? Sell out his secret identity and his family and his whole damn life to something that only knows what some deluded mad scientists and enslaved genetic experiments thought it should know?

They're not even sure if Superboy is actually a real person. If the personality that's been presented so far is anything more than programming or puppetry or . . . or who knows what, exactly.

Clark can't take that home with him. Can't introduce that to Lois or Ma and Pa or hell, even Jor-El's AI or Krypto. He just can't trust that.

Who could?

And building a weapon that just so happens to look like a kid in a lab and conveniently getting that weapon found and broken out "early", and having that weapon be so eager to join the good guys despite its origins and education and so eager for specifically his attention, so eager to learn about specifically his powers and all the best ways to use and abuse them straight from the source, to try to make specifically him feel some kind of . . . of attachment or affection towards it . . .

Well, Clark's seen much more convoluted and improbable plans from supervillains than that, frankly. They don't know if anything they've been told about Superboy is true. They don't even know if the files Cadmus let them access are accurate or unredacted. They know nothing.

But everyone else seems to think that Clark shouldn't care about that, and that it shouldn't be making him crazy to see his dead birth family's crest in blood red on the chest of a weapon who won't answer to any name but "Superboy".

.

.

.

Dubbilex is a null and doesn't ever scent anyone at all, but sometimes Rex will give him a quick little scruff of approval or Tana or Roxy will give him an affectionate pat or two, and Knockout likes to find excuses to flirt-scent him whenever they end up having a throwdown or whatever, but none of it's ever . . . it doesn't ever . . .

It's embarrassing, but Superboy doesn't–he appreciates it all, obviously, appreciates anyone thinking he's worth any kind of scenting, but it's not what he really wants. He wants something–deliberate. Purposeful.

Lasting.

He wants something heavy, and steady, and certain. Something committed.

Or Superman's attention, just for a minute or two.

He wants to belong to somebody. He's not a real person anyway; he's a thing more than anything else. And if he has to be a thing, it's not fair that he . . . that he isn't a thing that belongs to anyone.

At least, not anyone that he wants to.

Technically speaking, he's Cadmus's IP. Technically speaking, he belongs to Cadmus. There's paperwork that says he does. A lot of it. Cadmus has "custody" of him, legally speaking. He's . . .

He doesn't want that.

He hates that.

.

.

.

"It wasn't . . . it just never felt like–like the right time to tell you, that's all," Kon stutters, feeling like an idiot, and Clark looks . . .

Clark looks pained.

"You mean you never felt safe enough to tell me," he says quietly.

Kon . . . swallows.

Because–that's true, yeah. He's trusted Clark to save his literal stupid life before, but . . . but he never felt safe enough to tell him this.

That's kind of fucked up, isn't it.

"I'm sorry," Clark says, and that suddenly Kon is too bemused to do anything but stare at him. "I should've made sure you knew you could tell me things like that. I shouldn't have just assumed you would."

[jor-elsemissary]

🗡 or in this case an arrow used as a dagger by Oliver Queen

Depending on the timeline. Lionel also not be afraid but very very tired. And you KNOW that's a bad combination.

Oliver: If I stab you will you bleed son of a.bitch

Lionel: If you stab me it probably means I'm still fired.

Jor-el joke even in the face of danger. Then again....it's Lionel

Dagger - Oliver Queen

Metropolis never sleeps. It was much like my own city or any major city for that matter. There is always someone awake doing something either legal or not. The latter was more commonly encountered in the dark recesses and hellish cesspits that no sane person would dare venture. 

Only criminals lurked in these shadows. 

Criminals and myself.

The green archer sat crouched on the ledge of a low-rise building, the sleek and contemporary architecture that was the city’s signature style was a stark contrast against his green and black leathers. Kohl lined blue eyes watched the streets below, the reflection of golden light from the nearby Daily Planet’s globe was almost like a second sun in the night. A beacon of truth and hope that stood out in the dark shadow of its looming neighbor, LuthorCorp.

He raised the tiny binoculars to his eyes and looked out across the plaza he had been watching, waiting for something to happen or someone to step out of the building.

LuthorCorp. One of the leading companies on the tech market these days despite its early history being knee deep in shit. Founded on the sweat, blood and dirt of those who toiled away to bring the company it’s first fortune, its founder, no doubt, making it literal whenever someone decided not to deal with him or deal under the table with a rival. 

I know his hands are stained with blood, even if the justice system decided that his were clean of at least his parents’ own blood. Hmph. Justice. There is no such thing these days. Men like Lionel and Lex Luthor have a terrible habit of breaking the law and blaming it on some poor sap who was in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Someone else always took the fall for their misdeeds.

Someone like my parents.

He lowered the binoculars and replaced them back on his utility belt before reaching up to grab the compound bow on his back. He knocked a special arrow, one with a rubbery and flat tip, and waited as a limousine slowly pulled up to the plaza.

Lionel Luthor. His hands are the dirtiest in his family. Murdered his parents to build his fortune on. Stole the fortunes of others and made rivals and competition disappear through a series of hostile takeovers or unfortunate accidents perpetuated by his childhood friend, Morgan Edge. He might as well be a crime boss in his own right, one who stood on the legal side of the law because he had enough money and power to make Justice truly be blind to what he was doing.

All it would take was one good arrow and he would pay for the many crimes he has committed over the decades, but it would not give me the satisfaction and peace I desire. He murdered my parents, the other Lionel Luthor had confessed to it and I took the time to make sure that it was true.

I am not a man who would just react because someone said so. Even Lionel Luthor deserves a chance to prove his innocence, however little of it he has left. So I followed the trail and took the hint the other Luthor had given me and found the truth of what had happened to my parents. The paper trail was thin, but it was there. Morgan Edge had covered his tracks well and that is perhaps why Luthor always fell back to him when he wanted someone gone.

But it was there and it led to LuthorCorp and ultimately to Lionel Luthor himself. The only problem, the only answer I could not find was why? Why did he have my parents killed? What dealing or business did my father have with LuthorCorp that he wasn’t willing to yield to its founder?

He watched as the businessman stepped into the limousine and then waited for the driver to do the same before he let loose the arrow. It sailed through the sky and with a quiet clunk, latched onto the bumper of the vehicle before the shaft fell off, leaving behind the tracking device.

Oliver watched as the car drove out into traffic before turning to the handheld now in his hand. The signal was strong and he began to follow his target, parallel on the rooftops. It didn’t matter if he failed to keep the limousine in sight. He would not lose track of his prey tonight.

I could find no reason as to why Lionel would want my parents dead. There had been no business between LuthorCorp or Queen Industries, nor any possible future business down the road. Our families were also friends and on good terms with each other. Every summer they would come together along with the Teagues and Swanns to enjoy the outdoors and discuss business and astronomy.

I know I am missing something and tonight I intend to find out what that is by directly confronting the only remaining source.

The man himself.

Lionel Luthor.

The tracker led him to another rooftop, this time in front of a luxurious apartment complex. He knew this was where Luthor lived now that the manor in Smallville had been destroyed by a fire.

Ever since the other Luthor had confessed to me what he had done, I had spent weeks hunting this man and the truth behind it all. I know for a fact that it will take him six minutes and twenty-two seconds to depart from his limousine in the underground garage and then ride the elevator up to the penthouse floor at the top. Another half-minute to find his keys and unlock the main door, longer if he has been drinking.

It would be twenty-six minutes and two seconds before he would make his way from the door to his study then to his bedroom and finally retire in the living room where he will enjoy himself a glass of brandy, classical music and either a book or business papers. 

It is in the living room where I intend to ambush him. But first I need to get to the roof of the building undetected and before he reaches the penthouse. 

He reaches into his quiver and removes another arrow, this one with a much wider head that has claws in a closed position. He connects it to a rope and then knocks the grapple arrow and lets it loose, watching as it soars through the air and lands on the rooftop of the other building. It catches on a safety rail and the coil of rope becomes taut.

Oliver pulls it tighter and attaches his end to a pipe before he takes his bow and uses the motors to zip line up to the roof. 

Sneaking into a building has never been a problem for me. It's once inside that things become more difficult. Patrols and security cameras, and whatever other measures of security I would need to be cautious for. But this apartment complex wasn’t LuthorCorp and although I’m sure Luthor had spent a decent amount of money to secure his penthouse, there would always be a weak point in its security.

A weak point that was the sunroof over the private pool.

Cutting into the glass without tripping the seismic sensors would be child’s play. The things couldn’t tell the difference between a pigeon landing to preen and someone maliciously cutting into the glass. It was always a waste of money and something I have tried to tell my own security not to bother in investing. If I can bypass it, so can someone else just as clever.

The Green Arrow stood over the sunroof, looking down into the pool room and at the illuminated waters of the pool itself. It was an Olympic size pool for a man with an Olympian size ego. Kneeling down he takes out a pen-sized tool and begins cutting into the glass with a laser a sizable hole large enough for his hand and arm to reach through. The glass pane falls through but he manages to catch it before it could land in the water below and alert the guard making his round through the area.

I check my watch and see that I have one minute to get this latch unlocked before Luthor steps onto his floor from the elevator. I want to be inside observing him while he goes through his nightly rituals. It will also give me the chance to take care of his security before he realizes that he’s missing them.

The latch is easy to pick and rerouting the security wire was equally problematic. I watch as the security guard makes his way past me before raising the hatch and lowering myself into the room. 

The pulley was silent as it lowered him into the pool room and the smaller crossbow made only a quiet twang as it shot out a grapple rope to help pull him over to the edge. The sounds he made had been no louder than the fountain that spilled into the pool from the far end. He sends the rope back up to the roof and silently crouches on the deck.

The guard is unaware of my presence and I wait until he makes his report that all was well in the pool room before I strike. The blow to the back of the head was more than enough to cave in the man’s skull if I had chosen to strike at the pressure point that would have been fatal. He went down like a sack of potatoes and dragged his unconscious body to hide him behind the water fountain.

When the others realized he was missing, they won’t find him right away. But I do not plan on letting any of them realize he’s missing until it was too late for Luthor.

Carefully I make my way to the door and quietly open it to check down the hall. There was no one but if my source was correct, there would be a patrol down this hall in five minutes. By now Luthor will be in the penthouse and beginning his habitual ritual in winding down from a long day in the office. I have less than twenty-six minutes to neutralize his entire security force without alerting them or him of my presence.

I patiently wait for the patrol down the hall and when the man comes, he does not know what had struck him. He will be sleeping with his partner behind the fountain. Moving on, I follow the mental map I have of the penthouse and where each of his security was going to be.

I can hear him when I reach the common area of the penthouse. He’s talking to someone on the phone. I cannot tell who it was but it is a change in his routine that I do not like. I do not know if it will cause him to forego some of his habits or speed them up, or change them entirely.

With a frown, he risks taking a peek through a door to see where Lionel Luthor was and spots him just outside of his study with a cellphone to his ear and a briefcase in hand. He hadn’t gone inside yet, but whoever he was talking to, they had his attention.

It would be so easy to knock and loose an arrow into him right now. He would never know of the threat until it struck him in the heart. But whoever it was that he was talking to, he seemed rather happy in speaking to them. I know he isn't talking to his son. He and Lex have been at odds with each other ever since the man had fallen out of his own office years ago. Clark was the only one who seemed to know the truth of what had happened considering he had saved the man from certain death.

It really didn’t matter to me why or who had tried to kill him. It just meant that I now get the chance to avenge my parents and make this man pay for his crimes. But it concerned me that there was someone he was actually eager to have a pleasant conversation with. I decided to listen for a minute to see if I could figure out who would make this man feel anything other than malicious and ruthless cruelty.

”… glad that you were able to convince the committee members to see things your way,” Luthor gave a quiet chuckle. “No, no. Don’t undersell yourself, my dear. You are a force to reckon with on the Hill and they all are beginning to realize how much of a threat or a boon you can be.”

The Hill? Committee? There was only one person I know that Lionel would be speaking to who had anything to do with politics and my blood boiled at the idea of Luthor getting his filthy hands on her. Martha Kent did not deserve to be corrupted or touched by this man. 

This revelation changes everything. 

I had heard rumors of Senator Kent and Luthor. Rumors I did not like and I know Clark liked even less. If they were true—and by the sounds of it they were—Luthor was going to be on the phone for a lot longer than I anticipated him to be. All I could do now was continue with my plan and hope he hangs up soon.

I make my way through the rest of the penthouse in search of the last security guard. A young man who should have been giving Luthor his money’s worth by monitoring the cameras that his job description required. Instead he was enjoying a takeout of ramen and watching a football match between Germany and China. Had he done his job, he would have noticed the guards missing at the very least.

Taking him out was easy, so engrossed with the game that he hadn’t heard the door open. Once he was incapacitated and safely tied up against a cabinet, I sat down at the desk and started going through the cameras.

I found Luthor in his study still talking on the phone with the Senator. He had poured himself a drink and sat down at the desk near the fireplace. He was relaxed and I could see that he was enjoying the conversation with Clark’s mother. 

What she saw in him to even consider being acquainted with him, I did not know. I once thought maybe she had been using him for political gain or had been a puppet of his to get him back into the political circle after his acquittal. I had quickly learned she wasn’t corrupt and that she was a genuinely honest person. But that had been before she became a U.S. Senator.

Now though? Who knows what the influence of Congress has done to her? Who knows how much control Luthor really had over the woman. It angered me to think about him using her for his own gain. I decided that not only would I avenge my parents, but I would also free Martha Kent of Lionel Luthor’s influence. 

I left the security room to make my final preparations. I doubted that the man was going to leave his study any time soon which put a wrench in my plan for him. The confrontation was going to have to be in the study before the guards awoke or someone like Tess showed up.

I can hear him beyond the door, his laughter is loud as he found whatever Senator Kent had said amusing. The hard part would be getting the phone away from him, both to keep him from calling for help and to keep the Senator from hearing what I plan on doing to him. Even though I dislike the idea of them being friends, he was her friend and the Senator is loyal to her friends. She didn’t deserve to hear him suffer and die over the phone.

Entering the study silently was a lot easier than I had anticipated. The man had turned on his sound system and was playing a gentle piano sonata. It wasn’t loud enough to drown out his conversation with the Senator, but it was just enough to hide the click of the door’s lock. The last thing I had seen on the monitor was Luthor’s back to the door, so I had nothing to worry about him seeing the door open on its own.

He was oblivious to the intrusion, so enraptured by the Senator he was. It would be so easy to approach and kill him, but there would be no satisfaction in a quick death. The man didn’t deserve a painless and quick one. My parents certainly hadn’t been given that luxury when their plane went down and crashed into the mountains. It also would not give me the answers I was seeking.

He was the sole person that knew why my parents had to die and he would tell me before I killed him.

Quietly he drew his bow and knocked a normal arrow. The Green Arrow was renowned for his accuracy, one of the reasons why he was often compared to Robin Hood. Besides his tendency to rob the rich and give back to those they had stolen from, he could split his own arrow as easily as breathing. 

The arrow flew across the room and Luthor cried out in surprise and in pain as the point struck his phone and pinned it to the mantle of the fireplace in front of him. He scrambled to his feet in surprise and then shock as he realized who had attacked him.

”Mister Queen!” Luthor exclaimed with hands held up in peace, the one that had held the phone bleeding from where the feathers had sliced him. “What is the meaning of this?”

The bastard had the gall to look unafraid by the fact that he was being held at arrow point by a vengeful archer. It was no surprise really that he would keep his dignity in face of danger or being murdered. The man was too proud to do anything less.

”You know why I am here,” the archer growled out and stepped further into the study. His bow followed Luthor as the man tried to move away from the desk. 

“Whatever it is you think I may have stolen or done,” Luthor began but he was cut short as the arrow was let loose and struck him in the shoulder. He screamed from the shock and pain, collapsing to a knee as his other hand gripped at the shaft buried deep into his left shoulder. “Oliver…” he gasped and looked up at the archer. “Please, don’t do this.”

”Begging is beneath you, Lionel,” Oliver tells him as he approaches. He was already knocking another arrow and aiming. “But before I am done, you will be begging for death.”

”Oliver…”

”Shut it! I want answers and I want them now,” the young man demanded. “Why did you kill my parents?!”

I should have let loose the arrow and finished him off. The look of surprise and regret that flitted across his face was more than enough confirmation that he had done it. I hadn’t expected the regret though. I had imagined him to be as sinister and conniving as his doppleganger from the other reality. I had expected him to boast about his misdeed and tell me how much of a fool I had been.

I didn’t expect him to be actually remorseful in what he had done.

”Telling you the truth won’t change your mind in killing me,” Luthor acknowledged, a wince of pain as it shot up from his shoulder broke his stoic expression. “The truth won’t be something as simple as a failed hostile takeover or a business deal gone wrong. It would be simpler if it had been just that.”

”I don’t want your lies, Lionel.” He lowered the bow and let the second arrow go. It struck the man in the thigh and he howled in pain while doubling over and onto his side. “I want the truth!”

”That’s what I am trying to tell you!” Lionel shouted angrily, his voice strained from the pain.

There. There is the fear I wanted to see in his eyes. He’s afraid now. He knows I will kill him and I know him well enough that he will try and delay it for as long as possible. 

“Talk or the next one is the other leg,” he warned even as he pulled back on the bowstring.

”Robert,” Lionel desperately gets out between pained breaths. “Robert was the target, your mother was just collateral. She wasn’t supposed to be on that flight!” He screamed again as the third arrow became embedded in his other thigh. “Stooop! Please!”

”Why did you want my father dead then!” Oliver snarled as a fourth arrow was knocked. “Answer me or this one goes through your heart!”

I had no intention of ending him right then and there. I would still aim for the area, pretend that I missed but it would get the message across that I will kill him if he doesn’t give me my answers!

”The pendant!” Lionel cried out. “I needed his pendant!”

Pendant? What pendant? My father didn’t… Wait no, he did have a pendant. A golden locket he kept on himself. I had seen it a couple times while he was getting dressed for work. What was so important about some keepsake that Lionel Luthor was willing to kill my father for? I asked him as much.

”It was a key to a lockbox in Zurich.” I could see him struggling to stay conscious. He didn’t have much time before he passed out from blood loss. “It involved the Traveler.”

The Traveler? But that was just some fable our parents talked about sometime when they came together every summer. Surely Luthor didn’t actually believe in that nonsense? Surely he hadn’t killed my parents over a fairytale?

I wanted to let loose the last arrow but to do so now would leave me with more questions than answers.

”The Traveler is just a story!” he snarled. His arm strained with holding the drawstring back. 

“The Traveler is Clark!” Lionel flinched from imaginary pain as the arrow was accidently let go and the point embedded itself into the expensive Persian rug next to his head. “I was power hungry back then! I wanted Clark to myself and I was willing to kill for it.”

I believe him. It was so atypical of the man. So desperate was he to find and obtain power and wealth, that he would believe in a story about a spaceman coming to Earth to save us all from the apocalypse. That he would be willing to murder and tear apart whole families just so he could get a taste of the power the spaceman offered. 

My parents died because this man was too greedy and didn’t know when enough was enough. I could feel the rage building inside of me. I wanted him to suffer some more before he died. I wanted to tear him limb from limb, stab him over and over again with an arrow so he would know my rage and my pain for what he had done.

I grew up without my parents. I grew up no longer knowing what their love felt like. I had a score of birthdays and Christmas without them. Every important moment in my life was missing their presence. I donned the mask and the bow in memory of them, to avenge their deaths one day and do something good with myself because I thought they would be proud of me for doing so.

They died because Lionel Luthor wanted power.

Something in me snapped. The rage finally released and I could see myself kicking the billionaire repeatedly. I refused to listen to his pleas for me to stop, his begging for mercy. All I could feel was the rage and the desire to make him feel my pain.

I screamed out my rage and he had stopped begging for my mercy. His whimpers of pain only made me ever more angrier. I wanted him to beg, I wanted him to plead for his life. I wanted to hear him scream as he died by my hand. Not this quiet refusal to give in and to take the beating I was giving him.

Something, all of a sudden, stopped me and I found myself sprawled across the room. By the time I gathered my wits enough to look up at what had struck me, my assailant was standing over me.

”Clark,” he breathed his friend’s name in wary surprise. Oliver scowled behind the mask he wore, clearly displeased at being interrupted. He cast his gaze past the superman at the prone Lionel. The man was still alive and groaning in miserable pain, but he dared not move any more than he had to. “Don’t interfere, damnit!”

”Ollie,” the farmboy spoke his name with a sadness he hadn’t been expecting. He can stand there looking righteous and just all he wants. I don’t want his pity. The bastard had to die and I wasn’t going to let this alien get in my way. “This isn’t the way to settle this.”

”He murdered my parents,” the Green Arrow snarled as he slowly started to get up. 

“Then let him be tried for it,” Clark tried to reason with his friend.

A trial would never find him guilty. The paper trail I had found was paper thin and if he can get acquitted for his own parents’ murder, then he would find a way out of mine. No. Lionel Luthor had to die now if I was to ever get justice for my parents.

“You know that won’t stick,” he argued while slowly reaching behind him for the special container he kept on his utility belt. “I won’t let him escape justice. Bad enough he’s managed to avoid it for this long.”

”Your parents wouldn't want you to do it this way.” 

What did he know what my parents wanted? Even I am not certain they would have condoned this. How could I? I was nine when my parents died. I lived my entire childhood without them. I only remember their love and the faces frozen in time through pictures of them. I did not know my father’s personality or the interests of my mother. Whatever advice they would have had for me came in the form of potential advice from my caretakers as they knew my parents.

”I don’t care,” Oliver popped open the canister he had grabbed and exposed the kryptonian to its contents. Immediately Clark doubled over and started to back away from the Green Arrow. “I want him dead. I want justice.”

”You want revenge,” Clark groaned, moving to try and keep his distance from the meteor rock that was clearly in the canister. 

“Revenge, justice,” the archer scoffed with a shrug. “It doesn’t matter in the end. My parents will be avenged one way or another and this way guarantees it.”

”Robert and Laura would not want you to become a murderer,” Lionel weakly spoke, his eyes half-lidded from the pain and exhaustion of the beating. 

“Don’t you dare claim you know what my parents would have wanted!” Oliver shouted and dropped the canister to the floor as he swiftly approached Luthor. He grabbed the man by his mane and pulled him up. Lionel cried out and tried his best to support his own body as he was manhandled into a sitting position. “You don’t know them!”

”But I do!” He took a rattling breath before continuing, “We spent years together on the belief that we would herald in the beginning of a new era for mankind with the Traveler. Robert wanted to protect the boy and he was willing to put the full weight of Queen Industries behind that belief. The very boy you are hurting right now.”

Leave it to Lionel to find a way to make me question what I am doing. Damn him for actually knowing my father. If I hadn’t read his journals to figure out why this man would want to murder him, I would not have believed him. There had been entries discussing how his company could help the Traveler find his destiny. My father was as fanatical about believing in the Traveler as Lionel Luthor had been in wanting to control him.

I let him go in disgust and took satisfaction in his quiet whimpers. I wanted to kill him but being forced into conversation with Clark and the target of my rage, had caused my temper to cool to a simmer. I gave him one more swift kick to the ribs before walking back to pick up the canister and spare Clark further pain.

”Thank you,” the farm boy said as he slowly straightened now that he wasn’t being irradiated by his homeworld. “Lionel should face trial for what happened.”

”It wouldn’t give me what I wanted,” Oliver reluctantly yielded. No, a trial would not put him behind bars. The prosecution would not take it to court without anything solid. I should have brought a recorder to get his confession out of him. Maybe then he would receive a conviction that could stick this time.

Clark looked over at the billionaire, “No, but he has the right to face his accusers in the court of law. If we are going to help those in need and bring justice for the wronged, we cannot take things into our hands. We have to trust the system and provide everything that is needed to get the convictions we seek.”

”Truth, justice and the American way?” Oliver pursed his lips at the words. His mother’s words. Words to live by. Words that Clark has taken seriously as Superman. Words that my parents would have agreed with. He turns to reach down for the bow that had been knocked out of his hands and he can see Clark tensing and Lionel grimacing in fear. Let the man tremble in fear of me. I may not get what I wanted tonight, but he’ll live to wonder when I am going to send the law after him.

”Fine, we’ll do it your way, Clark,” he sheathed the bow onto his back and stepped over to the murderer. “As for you, try and skip the country and I’ll finish off what I started. You will have your day in court, but on my terms. When that day comes, Lionel, I will have the evidence I need to put you behind bars for the rest of your miserable life.”

”Noted,” Lionel hoarsely replied and then tried to scramble away from the Green Arrow. Oliver reached down and grabbed the arrows by the shaft and pulled, taking satisfaction in the man’s screams.

”Oliver!” Clark hurried over as the last arrow was removed from his shoulder. 

“I want my arrows back.” Oliver glared, daring him to do something about it. He won’t. Clark will be more concerned in getting Lionel to a hospital than to reprimand me for torturing the man some more. I might get an ear full later, but I don’t care. I didn’t get my justice tonight and the Justice League can go fuck it self.

He walked out of the study and didn’t look back when Clark knelt down beside a passed out Luthor. He didn’t wait to see when Superman took the billionaire and flew him off toward Metropolis General. He didn’t wait for the security guards to wake up and realize that their boss was missing and injured.

I will have my justice though. If Clark won’t help me get it, then perhaps Batman will. The man is a better detective than I and I’m sure he could find the evidence I need to get a conviction.

Bruce would understand.

[sufferingcreativlytwice]

This is Olga the Owl Harpy.

She is a NPC in a DnD campaign I run.

She stands at 8 feet tall and I imagine her color palette to be like a barn owls. She has a penchant for sleeping often in high places and building nests.

She is the companion of a pair of fire giants named Tork and Jor who live on a volcanic island of black sand with lots of other harpies of different varieties.

Olga understands giant speech and a little bit of common but only speaks in chirps or screeches.

(I might post more dnd stuff, who knows)

[nikrei]

Transcribed from the glossaries of Krypton Chronicles (1981). Repeat entries are grouped together.

Before presenting the words and definitions, we'll give a few facts about Kryptonian language and names. We have done our best to translate the Kryptonese words and names into the English alphabet, but this is not always easy, as the Kryptonese alphabet consists of 118 characters, each with a precise sound. A double letter indicates a strong emphasis on the sound. Kryptonese plurals are created by adding an O to the word, as we add an S in English. Some are given below. Kryptonian men used hyphenated names, like Jor-El and Jax-Ur, the last part of the name being the family name, or surname. Women used the father's full name as a surname, except for orphans such as Lesla-Lar (see her name in the listing below). There are also 11 characters for the numerical system. Their zero is used only for the purpose of indicating a zero, while 10 has a special character of its own. Using the Roman X to stand for it, we could say that X=10, 1X=20, 2X=30, and so on. 100 is 9X, 101-X1, 110-XX, and 111 is the first three-digit number. The calendar is quite different from our own, since 18 Kryptonian years equal 25 Earth years. As the aging process was the same there, a Kryptonian was fully grown at the age of 15. Now, on to the definitions.

ALURA: 1) Wife of Zor-El and mother of Supergirl. 2) Wife of Zor-El and mother of Supergirl. See Zor-El and Argo City.

AMPAR: Commander, captain, or chief officer.

AR-GO: One of the best seamen of his time until the vessel he commanded was sunk, as recorded in this issue (2).

ARGO CITY: A city on the west coast of Lurvan (q.v.). Under a plastic dome erected by Zor-El, it miraculously survived the explosion that destroyed Krypton. Many years later, its people were destroyed by Kryptonite, except for Zor-El, [Alura], and Kara (Supergirl), who had been born there after Krypton's death. See Kara and Zor-El.

BETHGAR: A ruler; roughly equivalent to our King or Emperor.

BOKOS: An island populated by thieves, who outlawed honesty and legalized what were deemed crimes elsewhere. Bokos did not join the Kryptonian federation, but remained independent till Krypton died.

BRENN BIR: A criminal who joined with two friends, Vas Quor and Kyl-lbo, to terrorize Kandor when they acquired super-powers from contact with an old crony, Ak-Var. Ak had just been released from the Phantom Zone, and had been affected by Red Kryptonite, which always has unpredictable effects on Kryptonians. Ak-Var helped Superman defeat his former pals. For more on him, see under Van Zee.

BUR-EL: An ancestor of Superman who lived five generations after Krypton's Great Flood. His story is told in KRYPTON CHRONICLES #3.

BYTHGAR: The feminine form of Bethgar; equivalent to Queen of Empress.

DANDAHU OCEAN: Krypton's largest ocean; east of Urrika and west of Lurvan.

DENDARO: Plural of DENDAR, a Kryptonian "minute" consisting of 100 THRIBO, the equivalent of Earth seconds.

DROTHO: Plural of Droth, a type of large sea-bird that fed chiefly on Silten.

DRYGUR: 1) A word meaning "leader, roughly equivalent to our "president' 2) Leader; equivalent of an Earth governor or president.

DRYGUR MOLIOM: The leader of the Science Council (See Maliam.)

EL: An ancient Kryptonese word meaning Star.

ERKOL: 1) Oldest city on Krypton. After a war with another city state, Xan, lasting 200 years. Erkol was destroyed. However, many of its people survived to wipe out Xan and rebuild. The city still existed when Krypton exploded. 2) The oldest city on Krypton, founded in ancient times on the continent of Urrika. 3) The oldest city on Krypton. Twice destroyed, it was rebuilt each time and survived until Krypton's destruction.

FANFF: Six days, making a Kryptonian "week".

FANFFO: Plural of FANFF.

FIRE FALLS: One of the natural wonders of Krypton, coking like a waterfall made of fire.

GRAHU: An artificial material, somewhat like plastic, but much stronger, used for building on Krypton.

GRAHU-HUT: A portable shelter made of grahu.

GOLD KRYPTONITE: An isotope of Kryptonite. Instead of killing Kryptonians, as Green Kryptonite can do, it removes their super-powers permanently.

HAL-VU: A leading statesman of Erkol at the time of the Kryptonian Federation.

HATUAR: The Kryptonian word for ASBESTOS, named for Hatu-El.

HIAZ: A liquid measure used in ancient Krypton. It was somewhere between one pint and one-half liter.

JOR-EL II:

KAL-EL: Superman's Kryptonian name, as well as the name of his ancestor, Erkol-El's son. Kal means Child; hence, Kal-El means Star Child.

JES-MO: Kandor's chief weapons scientist during the Last War

JOR-EL I: Superman's grandfather, a famous scientist

JOR-EL II: 1) Superman's father, son of Jor-El 3) Superman's father, son of Jor-El I. Both were famous scientists of Krypton.

JURU: A valley on the continent of Lurvan. The only part of the planet which was never explored.

KAL EL: 1&2) Superman's Kryptonian name.

KANDOR: 1) The former capital of Krypton until it was stolen, shrunken, and placed in a bottle by the space-villain Brainiac. After defeating Brainiac, Superman kept the bottle-city in his Fortress until he found a way to enlarge on another world. 2) First capital of united Krypton. It was stolen by the space-villain Brainiac, shrunk, and placed in a bottle. After defeating Brainiac, Superman took the bottle to his Fortress of Solitude till he found a way to enlarge it on the planet Rokyn. 3) Former capital of Krypton, which was stolen by Brainiac, the space-criminal, who shrunk it and placed it in a bottle. Superman rescued the city and kept it in his Fortress for years, until he found a way to enlarge it on another world.

KARA: Supergirl's Kryptonian name. Since women took their fathers' full names as last names, her complete Kryptonian name is Kara Zor-El.

KARA ZOR-EL: 1&2) Supergirl's Kryptonian name. See Zor-El.

KIL-GOR: One of Krypton's first great inventors, best known for his invention of a kind of hourglass. See the next issue for his story (3).

KRYPTONOPOLIS: The city of Superman's birth. Actually, this is a rendering of the name in Earth language, using the Greek "polis" (city). The original Kryptonian name is very difficult to pronounce. The city was founded by outcasts from Erkol, murated by radiation during the Erkol-Xan war. Although they were strange in appearance and had telekinetic powers their offspring were normal.

LESLA LAR: A native Kandorian who was Supergiri's double and became her enemy. An orphan, Lesla took a surname from the family of her best friend, Zora Vi-Lar.

LORAX: A Kryptonian "month of 73 days. There were six of these in the year of 438 days

LORAXO: Plural of Lorax, a period of 73 days, making a Kryptonian month. Six of these months made a year (Amzet in Kryptonese). There were also 73 weeks of six days each.

LURVAN: 1) The continent on which Kandor and Kryptonopolis were located. 2) The continent on which Superman was born.

MARG-ROM: Gam-El's assistant in architecture.

MITHEN: One of Krypton's two moons. It was hurled into a new solar orbit when Krypton exploded.

MOLIOM: Any member of the Science Council.

MUNDRU, MOUNT: The highest peak on Krypto, located on the continent of Twenx, west of Urrika.

NIM-EL: Jor-El lI's twin brother, a weapons scientist of Kandor. His son, Don-El, became Chiel of Police in Kandor.

NIOZ: An island off the east coast of Urrika.

OLIPHENT: A type of large animal domesticated and used as a beast of burden in ancient Urrika. Despite the similarity to our word "elephant," there was little resemblance to this Earth creature except that both are large. The Oliphent was not even a mammal, but a warm-blooded egg-laying creature. If, as some scientists now believe, dinosaurs were warm-blooded, they may have been something like the Oliphent.

PHANTOM ZONE: A twilight dimension into which convicted criminals were projected during the last year of Krypton's existence.

PRYLIGU: A large sea-monster of Krypton.

PUX-TUL: A fine glassmaker, but somewhat lacking in imagination.

RAO: 1) Originally, an ancient Kryptonian sun-god. When the people of Krypton came to worship one God, the name Rao was applied to Him. 2) Originally the name of an ancient Kryptonian sun-god, later used as the name of the One God. 3) In the mythology of ancient Krypton, the sun-god, who was deemed the chief of all gods. So great was the respect for the red sun of Krypton that any soldier of Erok's time automatically became an officer if he had red hair. When Jaf-El preached the worship of one god, he gave Him the name of Rao, though no longer identifying Him specifically with the sun. Note that in the wedding ceremony, the phrase used was "Rao, who kindled the sun," showing Him to be the sun's creator, but not the sun itself.

ROKYN: 1) Name of Kandor's new world. It comes from RO, the possessive form of Rao. plus KYN, meaning "gift." Thus Rokyn is "Rao's gift," or "The Gift of God." 2) The planet on which Kandor was enlarged. From RO-the possessive form of Rao KYN-gift. Therefore, "Gift of God".

SCIENCE COUNCIL: The ruling body on Krypton and in Kandor. Members are elected for life by a vote of the people, based on their contributions to science.

SHYLA KOR-ONN: A former Phantom Zone prisoner who fought Supergirl.

SILTEN: A type of edible algae, or seaweed.

SIN-DAR: A statesman of the city state of Strau, in Urrika, at the time of the Kryptonian Federation.

SUL-EL: One of Superman's ancestors, inventor of the telescope. His story was told in KRYPTON CHRONICLES #2.

SUPERGIRL'S PARENTS: See Zor-El and Alura

TANTH: A title of respect for a man; equivalent to Sir or Mister in English. The feminine form is TYNTH.

TANTHO: 1) The plural of TANTH. Used as we might use "gentlemen." 3) Plural of Tanth; a term of respect for a man, roughly equivalent to our Sir or Gentleman.

TANTHUO FLEZ: Trom the same root as Tanth; Tanthu (the singular) cannot be exactly translated into English, as we have no equivalent word. It indicates a non-human creature accorded great respect. Combined with Flez, meaning "able to fly," the term is used for the amazing creatures which saved the people from the flood. The best we can do in translating Tanthuo Flez into English is to call it the "Winged One".

THOUGHT-TRACKER EYE: A Kryptonian device able to home in on criminal minds by their peculiar brain waves.

THRIB: A very short period of time, equivalent to an Earth second.

TRO-EL: Val-El's brother, who had been in a good deal of trouble from boyhood. He had just been released from prison a short time before he joined his brother's voyage of discovery.

TWELLIAN: A succulent fruit native to Krypton. Its flavor is unlike that of any Earth fruit, but quite delicious.

TWENX: A smaller continent west of Urrika; site of Mount Mundru, highest peak on Krypton.

TYNTHO: Plural of Tynth, the feminine of Tanth. Tynth means, roughly, Lady, or Madame.

URRIKA: 1) The Kryptonian continent where civilization began, Erkol was located there. 2) The "old world" continent on which Kryptonian civilization began. 3) The large continent on which Kryptonian civilization began.

VAL-EL: An ancestor of Superman, and a great explorer. He used Kil-Gor's lodestone discovery to invent the compass. His story was told in KRYPTON CHRONICLES #2.

VAN-ZEE: 1) A relative and look alike of Superman, living in Kandor. A prominent scientist and a Molom, he has a double life as Nightwing, the "Batman" of Kandor. His partner, Flamebird, is Ak-Var, former Phantom Zone criminal, now reformed, working as Van's assistant, and married to Van's niece. 2) Superman's look-alike cousin; his mother was a younger sister of Superman's grandfather.

VAR-EL: 1) Superman's great-grandfather, a scientist who mysteriously vanished, so Krypton has no record of his life. 3) Father of Jor-El I and great-grandfather of Superman. Denied the right to continue with experiments deemed dangerous on Krypton, he invented a means to travel to Earth by teleportation. Here the fears of his colleagues on Krypton proved correct, and he was swept into another dimension, where he perished.

VATHLO: Island populated by a black race. They retained their independence throughout history, and did not join the planetary federation, though maintaining good relations with it.

WANAN: A former plain outside Kandor. In the years following the Federabon, it was built up and became part of the city.

WEGTHOR: 1) One of Krypton's two moons it was colonized, but was then destroyed by an experiment of the criminal scientist Jax-Ur. 2)One of Krypton's moons. It was destroyed when an experiment by the villain Jax-Ur went wrong, killing the people who had colonized Wegthor. The remains of this moon joined with space debris, to form rings around Krypton like those around Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.

WHIRL-HAILSTORM: A furious storm with the force and circular motion of a hurricane, combined with driving hail.

WOLU: 1) A Kryptonian hour of 10,000 thribo. Ten Woluo made one day (ZETYAR in Kryptonese). 2) A Kryptonian "hour", consisting of 100 DENDARO.

WOLUO: The plural of WOLU.

YAGRUM: 1) A particularly dangerous, but rare, monster once found on Krypton.

2) A dangerous monster of Krypton; extinct since the planet's destruction.

YUDA: One of the chief goddesses of ancient Krypton. She was the patron of love and also Krypton's two moons, which, when they seemed to come together in the night sky, were believed to represent marriage. Though her worship ended with the flood, she was remembered in folklore, and at one time a mechanical statue of her was used at certain festivals in Superman's home city, Kryptonopolis.

ZOR-EL: 1) Jor-El ll's younger brother. He lived in Argo City. which survived Krypton's doom, but was later wiped out by Kryptonite. Sending Kara, his daughter, to Earth, he managed to project his wife, Alura, and himself into another dimension, from which Supergirl later freed them. They then went to live in Kandor. 2) Younger brother of Superman's father, Jor-El. When ARGO CITY (q.v.) was doomed, he sent his daughter to Earth and managed to project himself and his wife, Alura, into another dimension, from which his daughter, Supergirl later freed them.

ZORA VI-LAR: A Kandorian villainess and close friend of Lesla-Lar. Calling herself Black Flame, she tried to expose Supergirl to Gold Kryptonite, which could steal her powers permanently.

[freakshowtwopointoh]

I Won't Pretend That I Won't Miss This

Jordan stared at the offer letter like it was their death warrant. Six months ago it had been everything they wanted. But everything changed in six months so why did they have to get this job now? Different parts of themself pulling in different directions, pulling so hard they might actually become two people with the intensity.

UCLA. R&D intern for a Vought subsidiary. Brink had pulled a few strings for them, wrote a killer recommendation, and they wrote a stellar essay. At the time, they were sure they would get the job. This was the first time they hated being right.

The small voice in the back of their head, the golden butterfly of hope, reminded them that they could make it work. That plenty of people managed long distance relationships, and that the internship was only 9 months long. And then they thought about watching Marie walk away from them at the fucking JFK departure lane and the ache in their chest was enough to cause them to shift involuntarily. They thought about how her voice doesn’t sound quite right through the phone. How her eyes don’t shine as bright through a camera lens. And how hard it was to fall asleep without her next to them. 

The louder, darker voice in their head reminded them that she probably wouldn’t want to wait for them anyways. It’s one thing when they live just a few buildings away from each other, but multiple time zones? She would be going to sleep around their dinner time - if they were even out of work. They would be waking up when she was already in classes. When they imagined making their way through the UCLA campus, there was that sickening lurch in their stomach as they realized she wouldn’t be in any crowd. They would be alone again.

And it would be selfish of them to even ask her to wait for them. This is college, and she’s just starting. They’d be limiting her, hurting her, by asking her to put in all that time and effort for them. But if they were truly honest, it was cowardice. They didn’t think they would be able to stomach it if she rejected them. She was truly going places. She had this ease about her, an earnestness to her that drew people to her like the sun. She was a true star - and they were never going to break out of the background.

They didn’t hear Marie come in, but they felt her stand next to them, forcibly unfurling their tightly clenched fist to hold their hand. She didn’t say anything, just stood there holding their hand until they realized tears were falling from their eyes onto the offer letter, which they hadn’t stopped staring at since they opened it. 

“So. What’s our next move?” They had to push her away. She deserves so much more than them. 

“This was fun, Moreau, but I think-”

“Are you serious?” She snapped, cutting them off. “If you think I’d rather lose you than wait nine months, you are actually an idiot.”

“I-” They went to argue with her again, but her eyes made it clear she wasn’t interested in dealing with their shit.

“If you actually want to end things now, go ahead. But I can feel your heart pounding, Jor. And nine months is nothing.”

“You could have a whole ass child during that time.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a half ass child, but I guess it’s possible.” That got a chuckle out of them, in spite of everything. “Stop trying to protect me from yourself, Jordan. You’re not as dangerous as you think you are. I’m not afraid of loving you.”

Afraid? Of loving Marie?

“I’m afraid of losing you, Marie!” They yelled, unsure of what she was accusing them of. Did she think they were afraid of loving her? No. They were afraid of losing her, they were afraid of hurting her, but loving her? That was as easy as breathing. But breathing wasn’t always easy, was it. Like now, the fear corrodes the love until their breath is tangled in their tongue and nothing makes sense anymore. 

“Isn’t that the same thing?” She spits back. They don’t have a response to that. They’re glaring at the letter again, as if that would help anything. Marie breaks the silence again.

“Just... love me anyways.” She said softly. “I’m scared of losing you too, baby. But don’t stop loving me just because you’re afraid of getting hurt.”

Love me anyways. Wasn’t that what true love was? Loving each other even though it might actually kill us. Facing every one of their fears would be worth it if they could be by her side, right? They finally looked at her, finally met the big brown eyes that had made them fall in love in the first place.

“I’m so fucking scared, Marie. Wh-” They were about to launch into the series of what ifs that had been plaguing them all morning when her lips met theirs and everything faded away. Their hand shook slightly as they cupped her face, trying to put as much love and courage and care into the kiss as they could. Because when she was this close to them, when their lips met, it was almost like they had never been afraid of anything in their life. When she pulled away, she met their eyes with a soft smile. “Ok. I love you, Marie. Let’s figure this out.”

So they did. They planned out when Marie would be able to fly out to UCLA. They scheduled weekly video calls. They fell asleep on the phone with Marie every night - her soft breathing becoming their own white noise as they worked into the night. They never stopped looking for her in crowds, even when they knew she wouldn’t be there. So when she surprised them at their big presentation (despite it being a couple weeks before exams) they noticed immediately and nearly cried on stage. But it was the best presentation they’d ever done. 

And when they finally landed back at JFK, ready to start their senior year with Marie by their side, the reunion was sweeter than they could have ever imagined.

[sarksarkos]

Superboy before the Silver Age

More Fun Comics #101, from 1945, is the first comic appearance of Superboy, and he didn't even make the cover. What happened to Dover and Clover? Bring them back for DC Rebirth.

In '45, original Superman creators and best friends Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created a prequel series about the adventures of Superman when he was a boy. Remember that phrase, it will be on the test. This story introduced a lot of elements to the Superman lore that weren't present in the original story. His introduction in Action Comics #1 skipped over his entire childhood and presented his home planet as a natural race of Supermen.

The Superboy run was the first series to characterize the Kryptonians as a race of isolationist intellectuals with Jor-El (or Jor-L, but that's a whole other story) as a renegade trying to convince the science council about Krypton's destruction. Similarly, it showed Ma and Pa Kent as a kindly older couple who adopted Clark and nurtured his powers, but they're not very present in this series.

At the time, it was intended that this was simply an expansion of the existing lore, what we would now call a Retcon, but the term didn't exist at the time. Later creators would decide that this actually the birth of an entirely new Superman, one who started his career as a Superboy. The Retcon was itself Retconned into the beginning of Earth-One.

I'm admittedly not a fan of the Golden Age, but I love Joe Shuster's art. There's a raw edge to it that you don't see in later Superman artists like Wayne Boring or Curt Swan. Especially with Superboy, they often draw him as a somewhat slim adult, but Shuster makes him feel like an awkward kid.

As is typical for the day, there aren't really any supervillains in these stories. Superheroes in the golden age were more about fighting back against the realistic horrors of the world instead of aliens and monsters with death rays. There isn't a lot of myth-making or "prequel moments" either. We never see Clark decide to start wearing glasses to hide his identity, he just does that between issues like an afterthought.

What we do get is a lot of golden age-style Justice. With the realistic focus means Superboy is going after the kind of assholes you would encounter in your real life and helping those who have been downtrodden by society. One of my favorite stories was in Adventure Comics #104, from 1946.

Superboy meets Joie Mayhew, a blind child who makes amazing toys, and Clark Kent helps encourage him to enter a contest and win a cash prize to help his family. Joie's toys are so good that they could revolutionize the toymaking industry, and the organizers try to steal all the toys and claim the patents.

Superboy goes absolutely nuts on these crooks, using the toys to psychologically torment them until they drive their truck off a cliff, only saving them at the last second and forcing them to give Joie the prize. With the money, Joie can get an experimental eye surgery and start a toy factory where he and other prodigy children can make incredible toys.

It's not child labor if the management are also children, right? Like that's not... that's everyone getting exploited the same way, that's all good, right?

These comics aren't about Superboy using his powers to fight crime - although there is an aspect of that - but it was primarily about using his powers to help people. Superboy would just as often help a sad kid have a birthday party or get a sick man to a doctor, or build a new playground. The above is from an issue where he becomes the Pinball Wizard to fight back against the scourge of rigged pinball machines, which was, I assume, the rock and roll, video games, and crack cocaine of their time.

Another issue has Superboy take part in his student council election so he can fight election interference from a thuggish, violent, anti-intellectual bully, something that I'm sure has no relevance to events either now or at the time.

The Superboy stories do start introducing elements of Superman's mythos. Adventure Comics #120 has Superman meeting a young Perry White at the start of his career, and helps him break the story of Superboy's existence. Then in issue #128, we meet the legend herself, the young Lois Lane.

I absolutely love how tongue-in-cheek the narrator is being. It knows it's doing a Prequel Moment and it's going to go all in. "You know what we're doing, we know what we're doing, let's just have some fun with it!" It's great to see Clark so head-over-heels for Lois and her just not giving a shit about anything but Superboy. She's so tsundere.

There is a very low-key vibe to these stories, and the way they slowly trickle in familiar characters and raised stakes does make it feel like a good prequel. With its new position as the birth of Earth-1, it also feels like reading the original Dragon Ball after becoming familiar with DBZ, seeing a familiar hero that's nevertheless raw and unformed, not quite the person he would become. Superman as a franchise has gone back and forth on Clark's career as Superboy, and I fall on the Pro-Superboy side of things, but it's something that has its pitfalls.

Superboy would be in Adventure Comics from 1946 through 1969, and we've only covered the first two years. At that time, Superman was also appearing in his own self-titled comic, as well as Action Comics and World's Finest. In 1949, he would get a fifth comic, when DC began publishing Superboy. Until next time.

[kryptonbabe]

Superman's love life archives: Lyla Lerrol's tragedy

Superman #141 (1960) by Jerry Siegel & Wayne Boring

Lyla Lerrol is one of Superman's briefest and lesser known love affairs, but one that carried a lot of meaning for Kal-el, at least while he was with her, for their love story happened in a Krypton before its doom. Lyla would only appear on this one issue for a long time, until getting mentioned post-crisis and appearing as a sort of villain. In her origin her imminent death is not exactly a surprise given what we know about Krypton, still, the story packs a punch, if not for her and Kal-el's love story, for the personal perspective we gain seeing Superman exploring and getting to know the people of his planet before its destruction.

So this is my long and unnecessary deep dive into Lyla's first issue.

After a freaky accident, Superman goes back in time to Krypton, gets stranded there due to the effects of the planet's red sun, is mistaken for an extra in a sci-fi movie, and finally meets Lyla, the famous actress on the set. All of that on the first pages, and I'm skipping lots of things. This is fast-paced!

After that, Kal-el gets to go to his biological parent's wedding and there has one of his many introspective moments in Krypton. In fact I felt most of the heartbreak and sadness of this story during these moments in which Superman is thinking about how he wishes he could tell Lara and Jor-el how much he loves them, without inevitably telling about their tragic end, how he wishes he could save this planet from its doom. After avoiding them at the wedding, he broods and decides to spend time with his parents no matter what.

Introspective Superman is a real mood, I can almost hear the most melancholic classic rock jams of Krypton playing on the background, while the night cityscape of his home planet slowly moves.

Despite admiring the artist, I don't think the stern aesthetic Wayne Boring gives his art always matched the tone of the silver age stories he drew, in this case though, it is perfect.

(I had to include Superman meeting Krypto, the superdog, parents!)

Kal actually manages to work for his dad while in Krypton, he becomes Lara and Jor-el's close friend and when they realize he has thing going on for Lyla they become obsessed with making the two a couple, and inevitably, after several attempts, they succeed. I mean her initials are L. L., he has no other choice...

The word love is used often between these two, it takes a little time for their relationship to fully blossom, but once it takes off it's all or nothing, true love forever, which is par for the course in romance comics of the time. Lyla has her own career and social life, but once she meets Kal-el these things become somewhat secondary. Her character is not unlikeable, there was room for further development, however there's a lot going on with this issue already and the focus is never fully on her as a person, but rather as a love interest.

Time passes and yes, they kiss a lot. This page is so beautiful, it stands out for how the art and writing combine to make a metaphor between the burning passion of Superman and Lyla and the cataclysmic forces of nature working to destroy Krypton at that very moment. How two powerful forces can coexist in antagonism to each other. The planet often gives signs of instability, constantly reminding Kal-el his time is running out. Later he will choose to save Krypton, building a huge ark to save its people, but Brainiac will steal the whole city the ark was built on. Which was really funny to me, I mean Clark you simply don't make plans involving Kandor unless you want to get kidnapped by Brainiac!

It's a slow process of acceptance for Superman, he broods a lot, carrying the heavy weight of his secrets, but after Kandor's fiasco he accepts to die with his parents while basking in his love for Lyla. More time passes, it is not clear how much, but it is implied that Kal-el spends months living on Krypton.

Meanwhile he discovers Jor-el watches Martha and Jon's life as a soap opera, knowing every detail about their lives, not creepy at all... Then, things escalate and Superman's uses a gun to break the statue mentioned above to reveal Jon's rival is a swindler and make Martha love Jon instead of him. Absolutely convoluted and so very entertaining.

Also Kal-el caused such an impression on his parents, that Lara has a dream about him and decides to name their future kid after him (while Jor-el basically ignores her). So Superman's Kryptonian name was inspired by himself. Which made me think just how many time paradoxes did Kal-el provoked on his little trip to Krypton. We've been blaming Barry Allen all this time for the New 52, but what if...

At this point everyone knows about Krypton's imminent destruction, but Superman and Lyla are so in love they decide to get married despite of it. Kal-el is not willing to ruin the mood with his bummer origins so he also decides to keep the secret. There's a melancholy in the air, but he accepts his destiny, and they all dance in this futuristic jazz club.

However, fate had other plans and after a freaky accident... Kal-el is thrown into space, eventually accessing the yellow light of another sun, recovering his energy and going back to Earth. While Lyla, who could not possibly imagine her lover could survive such an accident, is left in tears, doomed to die soon, without ever seeing Kal-el again.

Superman gets back to Earth reminiscing about the time he spent on Krypton, the happiness he shared with his parents and his love for Lyla. Although he seems quite relived on the last panel, he has so much going for him on Earth, a girlfriend, friends, his job and superpowers. This story is rarely mentioned and I think that's actually a healthy choice, to languish over what he lost on Krypton, his biological parents and a lover, could become a burden, a weight he could not afford to carry as a superhero. Or the other writers simply didn't care to bring back this story line.

The issue was written by Jerry Siegel himself, one of Superman's creators. I already loved him for his contrived sci-fi and the working class Superman of the golden age, but I was positively surprised by his talent for melodrama, despite the lack of depth in Lyla's character, this was an emotional story with a good amount of action, although my intention with this post was to focus on the drama. Wayne Boring's art in the textless panel of Lyla crying while looking at the sky, searching for Kal-el's body is heartbreaking, and his art overall is really good on this issue. It is an obscure entry in Superman's love life, but an interesting and entertaining one. Worth reading. Thanks for reading this!

In case you're interested, Lyla's post-crisis appearance is on the story arc Superman: Godfall (2004) by Joe Kelly, Michael Turner & Talent Caldwell.

[superslavemannn]

The Nuclear Apocalypse of Superman: Book 1 (Chap. 3)

Last week...

Superman got the most bizarre gift from his father, Jor-El. He had no idea that this ring would end up changing his life forever—and that he'd fail the test in the most unexpected and miserable way…

Let’s dive deeper into the story this week…

Chapter 3: Reflection of Shame

Metropolis, the city of dreams and ambitions, the city built by its hardworking citizens, the city blessed by its protector, was bathed in the soft, golden glow of early morning light. At 7 a.m., the streets were just beginning to stir. The gentle hum of life filled the air as birds chirped on telephone wires, and the occasional clatter of footsteps echoed on the sidewalks below. Vendors set up their carts, their voices light and cheerful, offering fresh coffee and pastries to the early risers. For a moment, it was the most peaceful time of the day in Metropolis, as the city's usual hustle and bustle had yet to awaken fully.

In a crowded but lively residential area, nestled among the labyrinth of fire escapes and brick buildings, stood a shabby old apartment complex. Its faded paint and creaky staircases spoke of decades of wear. On the third floor, one apartment in particular looked unassuming, barely noticeable. Its windows were wide open facing a dimmed abandoned valley, letting in the crisp morning breeze that danced with the faded cream curtains, making them billow like sails.

At first glance, the room within was ordinary. Modest furnishings—a small dining table, a sofa that had seen better days, and a few bookshelves packed with newspapers and magazines. Nothing special about it that almost everyone would say its occupant led an ordinary life. But then, on a chair near the window, a vibrant burst of color caught the light: a red cape draped casually over the back, its golden 'S' insignia gleaming faintly, attached to a bright blue and red Superman suit. The sight was almost comical in its juxtaposition with the otherwise mundane room.

This was Superman's home, but to most people, known as Clark Kent's apartment, hidden in the heart of Metropolis.

From the bathroom came a faint sound of running water. Clark Kent was showering, the soft patter of droplets breaking the morning stillness. The steam from the hot water curled out through the semi-opened bathroom door, mingling with fresh breeze. Inside, Clark hummed a tune to himself, his voice carrying the cheerful notes of Singin' in the Rain. He couldn't help but imagine himself as Gene Kelly, twirling through rainy streets, carefree and laughing. For a moment, he let himself pretend—pretend he wasn't Superman, but just a regular guy dancing without a care in the world.

He closed his eyes, savoring the sensation of warmth against his face, letting it roll over his broad shoulders, down his chest, and along his legs to his feet. An unalterably, beautiful physique. The mass of his arms, thighs, the staggering breadth of his shoulders, the cut, mounds and curve of his pecs, the narrow hips, and well-rounded buttocks. His fingers couldn't help brushing idly across his incredible, muscular pecs, tightening, caressing them, tracing to his tight abdominal, to his crotch.

But then, mid-thought, his fingertip touched against something unexpected at the base of his half-erected penis—something not quite skin. It was firm, almost rubbery, and definitely not supposed to be there. Clark paused, his humming abruptly cutting off as his eyes snapped open. His smile faded into a puzzled frown as his heart sunk to the bottom.

It was the penis ring—his father Jor-El's warning, his restriction—given just hours earlier in the Fortress of Solitude.

The memory flood back like a raw but forgotten wound getting touched accidentally, shame and anger surging from deep within him from his crotch to his mind. Suddenly, everything felt surreal, blurring the line between reality and illusion.

Just hours ago, he had endured a brutal lecture—emotionally scarring and physically draining—from his father. Now, back home and stripped bare, he still felt uneasy in his comfortable area, his confidence shaken.

He quickly pulled his fingers away from the cock ring, an anxious flicker of fear sparking within him at the thought of accidentally activating it. But nothing happened. The ring remained still—no shrinking, no pain. His penis hung flaccid, long but soft, while his heavy ballsack swayed low, water dripping onto the spaces between his strong toes.

''Okay, okay, all good, Kal. No need to worry. Focus. Be a hero. You can do this,'' Clark muttered to himself, his voice wavering as he tried to summon courage. He inhaled deeply, letting the warm water cascade over him, though his gaze remained fixed below.

''Be…a hero…''

He couldn't help but stare at his manhood—a true marvel even in its relaxed state. Light teal veins traced across the cavernous tissue, and his X-ray vision accidentally engaged as he studied it too intently. Beneath his skin, he saw the frenetic movement of sperm swimming in his urethra and scrotum, a sight he had never witnessed in broad daylight but only been able to take a glimpse through his body, underneath his skin. Yet still, those powerful sources of power were so close and dear to him, even though he had never touched them, felt them, held them, or even tasted them.

Maybe he never will.

The realization hit him hard: his body, god-like in power, felt alien to him. He could never truly control or embrace this part of himself, could never masturbate freely or even ejaculate—not without Jor-El's permission. The thought poured over him like icy water, a suffocating sorrow creeping in. Would he ever experience release? Could he ever truly feel human in this way?

''No,'' he growled softly, shaking his head as if to dislodge the thought. ''It's not the time for that, Kal.'' Clark turned off the water immediately. He couldn't bear even one more second staring at the harsh truth between his godly thighs. He couldn't allow himself to be immersed into such hopeless and shameful musings, although he must face it one day.

''Think about the city. Your people. They need you. They love you.'' He stepped out of the shower, forcing himself to focus on brighter thoughts. ''Think about Jonathan. You dad, he loves you. Think about…Jimmy…''

As he dried off, Clark turned on the radio sitting on his cabinet. He needed something, anything, to distract himself and take his mind off the desperate truth between his thighs.

''... Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman! ''

The radio crackled to life, and the familiar opening theme of the Superman radio drama filled the room. It was the crown jewel of Metropolis Radio: The Adventures of Superman. These were imaginative stories lovingly created by fans and brought to life by talented voice actors. Sure, real-life stories of Superman saving the day happened all the time, but you couldn’t underestimate the enthusiasm of his admirers. Kids especially loved hearing about Superman’s daring, heartwarming imaginary stories, which were far more exciting and personal than the stiff reports on the news.

''What's a better way to start the morning than with some fan fiction?'' Clark thought and chuckled, shooting red laser beams from his eyes into the mirror, using the reflected beams to neatly shave off the stubble on his face.

Clark, of course, was also a huge fan of the radio show . He tuned in regularly, though with a hint of amusement and curiosity. He wondered how ordinary people imagined his life, or, whether their version of his adventures was more exciting than the ones he actually lived.

Yet, what Clark wouldn’t readily admit was that he felt a peculiar thrill listening to those heroic tales. He was, after all, the very main character in the broadcast, the lovable figure hailed as the greatest hero, the strongest man on Earth, invincible and the ultimate champion of justice and truth.

Yes, he savored the fiery devotion, the bouquets of admiration and love that people showered upon him. Despite his public modesty—every time he saved the day, he would humbly declare, ''I’m just your friend, a helpful neighbor''—he couldn't deny the immense satisfaction he felt inside when basking in the applause and cheers. His ego was insatiable when it came to praise.

The stories might not have been entirely real, but the adoration they carried was. It fueled a part of him he rarely acknowledged: the part that reveled in being worshipped. It made him weirdly excited, not only in his heroic mind, but also in his little red briefs.

''Yesterday, we witnessed a remarkable moment as Superman's former archnemesis, Dr. Dedalus, chose to turn over a new leaf after Superman’s heartfelt appeal. Not only did Dr. Dedalus provide life-saving treatment to Superman in his time of need, but he also went on to invent a cure for cancer! Has Dr. Dedalus truly become Superman's ally, or is there a deeper, more sinister plot at play? Join us today as we continue The Adventures of Superman!''

Turning up the radio, Clark reached for Superman suit draped across a chair in the corner of his room. The vibrant red, blue, and yellow seemed to shimmer in the morning light.

As the radio played the story of Superman and Dr. Dedalus teaming up to battle underground monsters, Clark donned the suit, pulling it over his powerful frame with the practiced ease of a man who had done so countless times before. Once his little super buddy with its ''cursed'' choker was tugged comfortably right in the cradle of that smooth red briefs, Clark turned to the full-length mirror mounted on the wall.

''Hooray!! With Dr. Dedalus's help, Superman has once again saved Metropolis! The greatest hero in the hearts of the people, the embodiment of justice! It's Superman!''

Meanwhile, the real Superman, dressed in his skin-tight suits, proudly stood in front of the mirror, listening to his imaginary story and people's praise, drinking in his reflection. Clark's eyes scanned the details of his physique, lingering on every muscle, every curve, every detail that set him apart from mortal men.

''I am the hero! I'm Superman!''

A grin reappeared across Clark's face, widening as he struck a pose, puffing out his chest to emphasize the iconic ''S'' shield. He pivoted slightly, admiring the way the cape fell perfectly over his shoulders, then adjusted it minutely for maximum effect.

''But wait! Just as Dr. Dedalus and Superman were examining the remains of the monster in the lab, Dr. Dedalus sneaked up behind Superman and switched on the large green light above him! Oh no! That’s a Kryptonite beam! Superman’s greatest weakness!''

''Kryptonite!'' The word suddenly pulled Clark’s attention back to the radio drama.

Kryptonite. It was the very thing that had appeared in his dream earlier that day, the reason why he had received the cruel punishment from his Krypton father. Superman stood frozen, holding his breath, staring at his reflection in the mirror. Involuntarily, Clark's gaze shifted to his crotch. The outline of his super member on the red briefs slowly began to take shape, swelling and elongating before his eyes.

'' 'I'm h-hhh-hhorribly weakened and... pained... by the rays!... turn them off! Doctor, have y-yyy-you gone out of your mind!'  Oh no! the Man of Steel collapses on the floor! 'You're in super trouble! You fell right into my death trap!' ''

As Superman's pained groans echoed through the apartment from the radio, the intense desire Clark had felt in the shower suddenly surged back again, as if a monster had caught him off guard, seizing his throat from behind and leaving him utterly powerless.

'' 'You...Devil! Ow...ow-ww!  Ow-ww!' Superman, no!!! The greatest hero struggles in vain as Dr. Dedalus straps him to a bench, with bands of metal containing, also, Kryptonite! 'Ha ha! How simple it was to outwit you! Resistance is hopeless, you fool!... Pardon me, while I turn up the power of the rays a trifle!' Dr. Dedalus raises the power in these rays to its full strength, making Superman cry out in agony! Get up, Superman! You cannot give up like this!''

''Why my scream... No, it's not mine. But why does it sound so much like I was in the show...Oh...no...'' Clark thought to himself, breathing heavily. Superman's scream sounded almost like it was voiced by Clark himself, the real Superman.

'' 'Aaaargggh! Stop... oh...no...Please!...It's killing me....Aaaaaargggh!' ''

The scream from the radio crept over Clark, igniting an excruciating urge inside. His gaze fixed on the reflection of his now throbbing erection. He wanted to touch it, his glorious bulge, to tame that howling tiger in his red underpants.

'' 'I was... a... fool... to trust you... Ow-oww... Please... Stop it... I'm begging you!....Stop...'  Oh... How come our hero reduces to this. He is begging his enemy for mercy! Dr. Dedalus claps and cheers while watching our hero suffer a big time! 'Aha! Your skin has begun to turn green as the Kryptonite fever rages within you!'  What a twisted cruel cruel man!''

As the plot thickened, Clark's mind spiraled into a maddening, torturous haze. Catching sight of the faint outline of his ring beneath the red briefs, his rational mind screamed that there was no way he would touch that erection like he used to do. He dreaded that the penis ring would tighten its unbearable constraint once his hand landed on it.

Now, the real Superman was almost as hopeless as the hero in the show.

As the scream from the radio intensified, Clark found himself involuntarily leaning closer to the mirror, his hand hovering just above his reflection. Slowly, he reached out, fingers brushing the cool silver surface of the mirror. They traced his jawline, his lips, his mouth, and then lower—to the powerful bulge beneath the red briefs. Tears welled in his eyes, betraying the raw hunger and frustration simmering within. He wanted to touch, to feel, to be free.

'' 'At last!! After all these years of vainly trying, I'm finally going to kill you, Superman! Your glorious days are over! Now, face your inevitable doom!'  ’’

Clark's whole body quaked as the show reached its climax. Leaning closer to the mirror, his lips met the cold, hard, unyielding surface. His chest, firm and broad, pressed against the glass, the cool sensation stark against his heated skin. Without a second though, his hips moved forward with his glutes tightened, his breath quickened, and his desire only deepened. Finally, his huge bulge touched with the hard surface of his reflection and lust. A strange but overwhelming warmth began to blossom at the core of Clark's wood-stiff manhood, radiating outward like a rising tide.

''Oh, no! Superman turns completely green and his struggles are getting weaker and weaker. He is dying! Dr. Dedalus is killing Superman! ''

As the radio show painted a picture of an imaginary Superman falling into the hands of death, the thought of his own downfall, the death of Superman, sparked a powerful, almost intoxicating rush. It surged through Clark’s body like a current—electric and unstoppable—spreading from his chest to the very tips of his fingers.

''Superman's weakening breath ceases! His whole body is now turning into a glowing green, lying motionless on the bench! Has Dr. Dedalus really succeeded in killing the Man of Steel?''

Those terrifying words were like a giant invisible hand, pressing Clark against the unresponsive cold mirror, and yet he felt something burning in his every cell and every nerve.

''Why does it feel so good... hearing the story of me... dying... helplessly... at the villain’s hands? Oh no...''

Clark couldn't help but tremble, standing slowly on tiptoes, giving his crotch a further push against the mirror to increase the pressure. The warmth suddenly turned into an explosion, as if the blood were rushing in his body at the speed of light. The news of Superman's imaginary death has made Clark burning, dizzy, weak, and helpless, but he knew he could keep doing it until the end of the universe.

The cruel story in the radio continued...

''Is Superman dead? Dr. Dedalus begins to examine the hero's limp form. 'I must make sure Superman isn't just pretending to be dead, to trick me into turning off the rays! Hmmm... this super X-ray disclosed all things in his body. The organs and his blood! All turned green! He is very, very dead! DEAD!'  ''

As the final word echoed through Clark's mind and soul, the warmth in his body turned into an intense surge of flame, like a raging inferno. Clark pulled back slightly to look down, while the bulge stayed pressed against the mirror. His eyes fixed on the growing erection in his briefs—a vibrant and swelling red. It lifted, pressing hard on the mirror, stretching as it’s hardened, thick and full. He rubbed it against the mirror up and down, from left to right, while his hips instinctively pressed with such precision so that the mirror wouldn't break under his superhuman strength, seeking more friction, more connection. Harder and harder.

'' 'I just killed Superman! I've destroyed the mightiest man in the universe!'  ''

While the cold, stiff body of the imaginary Superman lay dead, the real Superman was reaching an unparalleled, earth-shattering climax, unlike anything he had ever experienced. His manhood stood fully erect now, long and solid, straining against the fabric, craving for escape. Superman trembled violently and moaned like a teenage boy masturbating for the first time.

A moment ago, Clark thought he would never feel it again. He thought the punishment, along with the ring, took away his right of self-touching for good, as well as his right of sexual climax. But now he could relive it once again, hand-free, in the illusion of his own imaginary death. Finally, he could have his only private moment without activating that damn dick ring! He wept like a reborn man.

''Superman is dead. There is no way to save him now.'' The narration voice from the radio started to tremble, then suddenly gave way to Dr. Dedalus's chilling laughter as he announced his victory to the world., '' 'People of earth! I, Dr. Dedalus, have killed Superman! This is no hoax! It's absolutely true! Now, I own his dead body. It will be my greatest trophy forever!' ''

''Oh... Why it makes me so hard... What he will do to my body... Oh great Krypton... Cut off my head... make it into a trophy...Oh great Rao...'' Clark couldn't help but think about what the imaginary villain would do to his lifeless body. Meanwhile, the pressure on the tip of his penis had almost reached its maximum. He was ready to release his natural flow.

''Now, my audience, please remain silent for a minute. We mourn the loss of the greatest hero...''

As the room suddenly fell into silence, Clark closed his eyes and pressed his whole body onto the mirror. Suddenly, the ring  began to vibrate. It was shrinking.

Clark let out an agonizing howl, and tiny cracks started to appear on the mirror..

''I don't care anymore! I will die from the radiation on my dick ring. It will kill me, emasculating me on site. But I DON'T CARE! Let me have it, father! Let me have IT!!!''

The surge of precum building up to the tip of his urethra.

But as quickly as he came to the verge of collapsing, the sharp ringing of the phone cut through the quiet, snapping Clark out of his sexual spiral. He jumped back from the mirror and glanced at the desk where the phone sat, but before he could answer, his old answering machine clicked on with a beep.

A voice crackled through the speaker—Jimmy Olsen, his colleague and ever-enthusiastic partner in journalism. But today, Jimmy sounded anything but upbeat.

''Clark! Clark, are you out for work!'' Jimmy's voice was rushed, almost frantic.

''Listen, you've got to get down here right now. Something big is happening, and it's bad—real bad. The East-West arms control talks... they've broken down. Completely collapsed! The President is about to make an emergency address to the nation. It's all over the news, man. The Planet's newsroom is in overdrive. Perry wants everyone on deck! And Clark, the streets are saying something big is gonna happen in our office. Something catastrophic. Just get down here, okay? Hurry!''

Clark jumped towards the desk, almost ludicrously, scrambling for the phone, and said ''Hello,'' hoping to get a hint from Jimmy about details, but he had hung up. He was talking to a dial tone.

Clark's jaw tightened as he stared at the desk, his mind racing.

''Something catastrophic…'' he whispered; his voice barely audible. The words jolted him like a sudden burst of clarity, snapping his thoughts back to reality. The lust and vulnerability that had consumed him moments earlier slowly evaporated, leaving behind a sharp focus. His vision, blurred moments ago from tears and sweat, cleared. His hearing sharpened, catching the sound of streets beyond his walls. Energy flooded back into his body; the sluggishness of indulgence replaced by the vitality of purpose.

In that moment, a warm voice from the radio filled the room once again, ''Well, let's not feel too badly! After all, this was only an imaginary story!... Folks, the chances are a million to one! It will never happen! Just a quick reminder to our audience: all Kryptonite on earth had been collected and destroyed by our government over a year ago! So right now, Superman is probably safe and sound, listening to our show, entertained by our little story! Again, the hero will not leave us! And by the way, just last night, Superman saved three Russian astronauts from a deadly collision between the space station and orbital debris,'' the announcer cheerfully continued, ''The Man of Steel not only repaired the station but also escorted the injured astronaut safely back to Earth. Truly, a hero for all humanity!''

The words washed over Clark, a quiet reminder of the reality, right here, right now.

Yes, there was no way that somebody could defeat him, let alone kill him! The only Kryptonite on earth probably was just that tiny bit in the penis ring of his. He is Superman—the symbol of hope, protector of a fragile world. He is the hero that will always stand against evil. There was no time for indulgence, no room for hesitation. The instinct of a big boy scout surged within him, obliterating the remnants of his earlier misstep.

Without wasting another second, he carefully tugged his Superman suit beneath his reporter's attire: a crisp white shirt, a modest tie, old-fashioned suit trousers, and his signature thick-rimmed glasses. He glanced at the mirror one last time, not as Superman but as Clark Kent—mild-mannered journalist, no trace of the crazy turmoil he'd felt earlier. To his surprise, his body had calmed entirely, his khaki-colored trousers loose and unremarkable, no evidence of his earlier arousal, no trace of that once throbbing bulge.

There was no time to linger. Grabbing his satchel and suit jacket, wearing his hat, he bolted out the door, bounding down the apartment stairs two steps at a time and into the bustling streets of Metropolis.

After Clark left, the apartment returned to its peaceful, serene state. Sunlight streamed in through the wide-open window, casting a glow on the tiny cracks left on the mirror.

Clark never noticed, but those cracks were like an omen. The repression of his hyper sexuality over the past thirty years was beginning to take on an unexpected but extremely dangerous form. From his narcissistic admiration of his own body, to his obsession with the allure of strong male bodies, and then to a secret yearning for pain, torment, and humiliation. And today, after enduring his father's cruel punishment, something inside him had surfaced. It was something darker and more twisted: fantasies of his own death, at the hands of his enemies.

But Clark was too cocky, too full of himself, to realize what the series of events that had unfolded that morning truly meant for him. He was still reveling in the thought of being the strongest hero in the world, completely unaware that this new thing, lurking in the back of his mind, a dangerous fetish, would lead him down a path of irreversible destruction.

Now, the awkward and naive young reporter from the Planet Daily was making his way through the bustling crowd, heading straight for the subway station.

There was no room for distraction. He had one thing in his mind:

The world needed Superman.

What could possibly be waiting for Clark at the Daily Planet? Something catastrophic? Another test from his father—one he’s doomed to fail again?

Stay tuned for Chapter 4: Love in Flight, arriving this time next week…

[dg-outlaw]

Supermom... I mean, Absolute Superman #3 Review

Okay, now that we're all done staring, respectfully.

*waits while you make your fanfic and/or cosplay notes, and finish questioning or confirming your sexuality*

Anyway. This was actually a really good issue... story-wise, and I like how we've spent a lot of time on Krypton, despite knowing that it's a doomed planet.

*mild spoilers below the cut*

I don't recall where, but I recently saw a popular comic book influencer (I'd name them if I remembered which one) talking about how Krypton's downfall tends to change or be tweaked based on real world issues faced here on planet Earth, and it's not hard to see the parallels here to our modern age.

I know, I know. "Comics shouldn't be political! They're supposed to be fun picture books with splashy colors, beautiful people, and with whimsical stories that don't mean anything."

😒

Whether it's climate change and climate change denial, the usage and reliance on A.I. and it's pros and cons, classism and the self-preservation of the ruling class, suppression of voices of scientific fact and reason in favor of maintaining the status-quo, capitalism, or to just give the ruling class time to build their arcs while their ill-informed followers suffer with the rest of us, it's all here. And sadly, I wish this comic weren't looking like an omen for the United States and possibly the world's future.

Often at the heart of the fall of Krypton story is Jor-El and sometimes Lara Lor-Van, as the voice(s) of reason and warning, desperately trying to save the planet. What we often don't get is Clark/Kal-El's perspective as he's often shipped off as as baby before it all goes kaboom, with Ma and Pa Kent taking on the role of his parents and helping shape who he becomes. Instead, what I've enjoyed about this run is that he is there with his parents, living life, watching his parents be who they are, and becoming who he is as a result of being their son. He's not just some random baby who later learns of who he is and who his parents were from some random videos Jor-El uploaded to the cloud. He's getting to experience this tragedy in real time, and we get glimpses of a "What if...?" Kryptonian childhood (similar to Kara/Supergirl who lived and experienced Krypton), and it's interesting to see how that shapes this Absolute universe's version of Superman.

Yeah, this Absolute universe does not pull punches, except for maybe in Bruce's case with Batman, but Gotham seems way worse. And while this run hasn't quite bridged the gap between "Then" and "Now", we're getting close, and this issue did help me understand more of Kal's "Now" personality here on Earth a little bit better.

Not to mention, Momma Supes is a bad ass in this issue, but something tells me you've probably already figured that out.

[jerzwriter]

Thank you to the lovely @rosesnink for this ask from this list. She asked me to write a fic for both of our OH MC's, Jordyn & Casey. I hope you like what I came up with!

Book: Open Heart Pairing: Casey x Jordyn (F!MC x F!MC) Rating: Teen Category: One-off/One-shot/"There's only one bed" Words: 1,100 Summary: Jordyn & Casey arrive in Cleveland for a one-week symposium at the Cleveland Clinic. The women are upset that they're staying at a distant Air B&B, while attendings were put up in a posh hotel by the hospital. But Casey's determined to make the best of it, and when they woke the next morning, they realized it might not be such a bad thing.

A/N: I hope you enjoy this @rosesnink - everyone be kind - I only get to do a quick edit - I hope it's good. :)

“This is ridiculous!” Jordyn complained as they arrived at a nondescript apartment building in a Cleveland suburb. “Why are the attendings set up at the Hotel Intercontinental, right down the block from the Cleveland Clinic, while we’re stuck at an Airbnb in Beachwood?”

Casey was just as frustrated as Jordyn, but after watching her friend seethe for the entire 20-minute drive, she knew she had to help calm her down.

“I get it,” she said soothingly. “But on the bright side, this place does have a pool in the complex.”

Jordyn turned to Casey with pursed lips. “Do you seriously think the Intercontinental doesn’t have a pool?”

“I’m trying here,” Casey sighed. “At least as the only interns here since we’re the only interns here, we can avoid those creepy doctors from Kenmore that were leering at us!”

Jordyn tried to appear unmoved, but a smirk slipped through. “You make a good point.”

“I know,” Casey teased. “I usually do! So, let’s focus on the positives and check this place out!”

Jordyn slipped the key into the door, and they entered the studio apartment that would be home for the next week. It didn’t take long to see it all.

“Uhm, I believe realtors would call this place ‘cozy,’” Casey noted.

“‘Cozy’ is how they described that closet they tried to rent to me in Boston,” Jordyn countered.

“Exactly! But at least this place is clean and even cute; look at the little sunflowers embroidered on the curtains!”

“Yeah,” Jordyn smirked. “They match the bedspread... on the one bed in this room.”

Casey’s eyes widened as she bit her bottom lip. “Well, would you look at that?”

Now, Jordyn was the one smiling as she nudged Casey’s shoulder. “Lucky for you, I don’t snore!”

~~~~~

About forty minutes later, Jordyn emerged from the shower, towel-drying her long, blonde hair. Casey, who had showered first, was sitting cross-legged on the bed—the only place they had to sit — her hair pulled into a messy bun and a slice of pizza in her hand.

“You’re eating in bed?” Jordyn teased. “Great, you, me, and pizza crust crumbs sharing a bed tonight.”

Casey rolled her eyes. “Sorry, Jor. I considered eating in the west wing, but the servants hadn’t had a chance to clean it yet.”

Jordyn belly-flopped onto the mattress and grabbed a slice of pizza from the box. When she bit in, the look on her face indicated approval. “It’s not Boston pizza, but it’s not bad.”

“I did check reviews before ordering,” Casey smiled.

“I knew you would!” she smiled. “I have to admit, there are worse things I could be stuck in bed with than you and pizza crumbs.”

“Agreed,” Casey giggled, “but I still say we get rid of the crumbs before going to sleep.”

After the lights were turned off, the two friends slipped under the covers, trading jokes the entire time.

“Try not to grab my butt during the night,” Jordyn instructed.

“As long as you don’t end up spooning me,” Casey replied. “If you spoon me, I call full butt-grabbing privileges.”

After a few more barbs and a lot more giggles, the exhausted doctors fell asleep.

In the morning, Casey was the first to wake. Opening her eyes, she found Jordyn’s hand lying delicately on her hip. She didn’t make anything of it; the bed was awfully small, and she was confident she probably did something similar during the night... or was that just a dream? Regardless, she had to admit, it felt nice, so she made no effort to move it.

When Jordyn began stirring, Casey shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep. After blinking to adjust her eyes to the morning light, Casey’s “sleeping” face was the first thing she saw, and she smiled. She looked almost angelic, and Jordyn was so enthralled that she didn’t notice the location of her hand. Startled when the realization hit her, she quickly pulled it back but returned it less than a second later.

Afraid her blushing cheeks would give her away, Casey quickly “awoke” with a smile. Her voice was still groggy; but she couldn’t wait to bust her friend’s chops... or was it flirting?

“Sure,” she smirked. “Tell me not to grab your butt, and look what I wake up to.”

Jordyn did not back down. “So, should I love it?”

Casey’s eyes shot open, and their blue eyes met.

“It’s fine,” she demurred, brushing loose strands of hair away from Jordyn’s face. “You know, you are really pretty.”

“You only say that because we look so much alike,” Jordyn laughed.

“Nah,” Casey insisted. “You’re much prettier than me.”

Jordyn played with the fabric of Casey’s nightshirt, feeling the warmth of her skin through the thin, soft cotton.

“Did you sleep well?” Casey continued.

“More or less, except you are like a furnace! I felt like I needed to take my clothes off.”

“Well,” Casey said with a big stretch. “I wouldn’t have stopped you.”

Her legs flipped over the side of the bed, and she slipped into her slippers. Jordyn watched her as she shuffled the short distance to the bathroom.

“Are you flirting with me, Dr. MacTavish?”

Casey turned with a wink. “I don’t know, but we have to share that bed for a whole week... I suppose we’ll soon find out.”

Shocked by her own words, Casey rushed into the bathroom and shut the door. Where did this newfound bravado come from? She had tried to tell Jordyn how she felt dozens of times before but couldn’t garner the nerve to make the slightest move. Now, she just hoped it wasn’t a mistake. But it was all right; she could have played it off as a joke if she had.

But as Jordyn fell back against her pillows, she wasn’t laughing. She hadn’t admitted her crush on Casey to anyone, barely even herself, but if there was a chance she felt the same way... Suddenly, she was happy that they weren’t at the Intercontinental with everyone else. Breakfast alone sounded like the perfect way to get to the bottom of this.

When Casey emerged from the bathroom, Jordyn grabbed her hand. “Hey, can I treat you to breakfast?”

“I don’t know,” Casey said, her heart racing. “If you do, would you consider it our first date?”

The smiles on each other’s faces quickly put the two women at ease.

“Hmmm,” Jordyn hummed. “I suppose it could be... if they have freshly squeezed orange juice. Because I’d only take you to a classy establishment for our first date.”

“All right,” Casey winked, shocking Jordyn when she reached over and placed a kiss on her cheek. “Then let’s hope it does.”

Now it was Jordyn’s turn to rush into the bathroom and close the door behind her as her breath quickened. This was really happening! She took out her phone and began a search... there was no way she was taking any chances...

@choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

Tagging others separately