Clark Kent | Kal El {Superman} (bigblue) wrote, @ 2021-04-26 22:20:00 |
|
|||
+ HEROIC
Clearly, Kal has a hero complex, often trying to save lives at any and all costs. He has willingly risked his own life to save his loved ones and has offered shelter to individuals seeking refuge multiple times. But despite this he refuses to justify killing for the ‘greater good’, even though it could mean more casualties. There is an underlying confidence to his Heroism, borne from the fact that not much on Earth can actually harm him, sometimes this can lead to recklessness on his part, especially when kryptonite or other metas unexpectedly enter the equation - as they often do.
+ BENEVOLENT
“It is a remarkable dichotomy. In many ways, Clark is the most human of us all. Then… he shoots fire from the skies and it is difficult not to think of him as a God. And how fortunate we all are that it does not occur to him.” - Batman explains this trait better than anyone, despite everything Kal could do, he chooses not to because his kindness wins over everything.
- ODD
There’s no doubt that Kal is odd, he stands out as Superman and as Clark. Social cues are a little awkward for him and he is definitely a farm boy in a big city when in Metropolis. He’s old fashioned in a way and has small town charm not often seen outside of small towns. As Superman, despite his strength and abilities, he is still very much unsure how to act around people, yes he is kind and overly gentle when saving people, but his manner is often awkward.
- NAIVE
Clark is idealistic and tries to see the good in everybody, to the point that he is willing to trust almost anyone. As shown time and time again when he tries to help and rehabilitate any meta humans/villains he comes across first, rather than fight them. Unfortunately this doesn’t always go in his favour, and some people (namely Lex Luthor) play on his naivety.
- MELANCHOLY
As the last of his kind, and the sole protector of Earth, Kal often finds himself overwhelmed by responsibility and loneliness. He isolates himself in these instances, retreating to the Fortress, attempting to forget for a while that he was the only one of his kind left, alone in an alien world where he would inevitably outlive all the people he protected and cared for.
♦ Kal doesn't remember much from his time before the Kents found him. His journey to Earth was a blur of nothingness, interspersed with vague memories of the lessons his father recorded in the ship's memory. As far as he's concerned, his history began when he crash landed outside Smallville, Kansas. Being brought up by the Kents was one of the best things that happened to him, on the farm he learned the value of hard work, the strength of family and stong sense of right and wrong. Of course it wasn’t always easy for them, especially when he first began to develop his powers. Learning to tone down his speed and strength when at school -especially whilst playing sports- was one of the hardest things for young Clark. Knowing he was so much more robust than everyone around him weighed heavily on his mind and the fact that despite all his powers he hadn’t been able to save his father, Jonathan, was what sparked him to become Superman.
♦ He spent a decade building the Fortress of Solitude and studying there to become the hero he was destined to be. Learning about his home world and the abilities he had been given thanks to his alien metabolism interacting with Earth’s yellow sun. When he was ready to return to civilisation, Kal headed to Metropolis, back in his Clark Kent persona and found employment as a reporter for the Daily Planet. There he meets and befriends Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane. He falls for Lois almost immediately, but unfortunately as Clark, he doesn’t gain her attention in that way at all. Superman, however, has much better luck, and Lois is smitten by him after he rescues her from a falling helicopter. Kal allows her to interview him in his hero guise and even takes her out for a romantic flight. Lois is the first to call him Superman, and the name sticks.
♦ Metropolis was also home to one Lex Luthor; the “criminal mastermind” saw Superman as a threat to his masterplan (hijacking two missiles and blowing the San Andreas fault to destroy the west coast) and as such lured him into a trap. After obsessive research, he located a meteor from Kal’s home planet and mined the Kryptonite ore contained within it. Luring Superman to his lair with a phony threat to gas the population of Metropolis, he traps Kal with the kryptonite and throws him into his pool to drown. Eve Teschmacher, Luthor’s assistant, helps Kal escape asking him to stop the decoy missile first to save her mother, who happens to live in Hackensack. Once free Superman diverts the decoy as promised then flies into the earth to fix the break in the fault that the second missile made. Though this stops the major disaster of the west coast sliding into the sea, there are still terrible aftershocks. One causes a breach in the Hoover Dam, and while Kal is busy with this Lois is caught up in another quake, trapped in her car she is pulled into a crevasse and crushed. Overwhelmed by grief and anger, Kal travels back in time by flying faster than the speed of light, reversing it to prevent the dam breach and fixes the fault line to stop the crevasse from reaching Lois’ car. He stops the reversal at the point the earthquake began and flies back to find Lois, who is alive and well. Once certain she is okay, he disappears to capture Luthor and his henchman Otis, delivering them to prison.
♦ A few months pass and Kal settles into his roles as both Superman and mild mannered reporter, Clark Kent. Saving those in need and getting on with every day life in Metropolis. Until he finds out that Lois is on assignment in Paris, where terrorists have taken control of the Eiffel Tower and have threatened to level the city with a hydrogen bomb. Superman flies in to save the day, launching the bomb into space where it detonates. Unfortunately the shockwaves release Zod, Ursa and Non from the Phantom Zone and the three Kryptonian criminals head for the closest planet; Earth. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor escapes prison with the help of Ms Teschmacher and using his alpha wave tracking device, they go north to find Superman’s base. When they arrive Luthor activates the Fortress’ control panel and learns about the three Kryptonian villains who have escaped. He decides to collaborate with them to defeat Superman and take over the world. Clark and Lois are sent to Niagara Falls for a story and while there Lois suspects that he might be Superman. She jumps into the Niagara river, to prove her theory, but Kal remains in his Clark guise (even though he uses his heat vision to cut off a tree branch so Lois can hold onto it). This convinces Lois that he isn’t Superman, but just hours later his secret is revealed when he retrieves his glasses from an open fire barehanded without being burned. after some hesitation, he finally tells the truth and takes Lois to the Fortress. He decides to give up being Superman so he can live a normal life with Lois, despite his Father’s disapproval. A chamber containing the power of the Kryptonian red sun removes his powers, destroying the control panel in the process. He and Lois then sleep together.
♦ Zod, Ursa and Non attack a NASA-Soviet moon mission and head down to Earth where they cause the destruction of East Houston. When the military become involved, they quickly overpower them and demand their surrender. The General refuses, saying his commander is the President, Zod then decides to make the President kneel before him and heads to Washington. Clark and Lois see Zod’s demand on tv on their way back from the Fortress, and the President’s call to Superman for help. Kal realizes that life with Lois can never be, and decides to erase Lois’s memories of all events surrounding Zod’s arrival, including her knowledge that Clark Kent is Superman.
♦ When Astronomers claim to have found evidence of Krypton, Kal builds a new ship and embarks on a quest to find his home world. Once he arrives, all he finds is a desolate, partially destroyed planet, which begins to make him sick. Distraught by what he has seen and felt, he returns to Earth, crash landing back at the Kent farm -his true home. Five years had passed on his adopted planet during his voyage, his mother had almost given up hope of seeing him again, but assured him that though he was the last of his kind. He would never be alone. Deciding to reconnect with his life on Earth, Kal travels back to Metropolis and his old life as Clark Kent, Reporter at the Daily Planet. Life had moved on without him, Lois was engaged, with a son and had won her Pulitzer, for her article “Why the World doesn’t need Superman”. He attempts to change her mind by granting her an exclusive interview and allowing her insight into what it is to be Superman - hearing the Earth crying out for a savior hour after hour.
♦ Lex Luthor is also free from jail, having been released early, Superman was called as a witness for the release trial, but of course had not been able to attend, so Luthor walked free. The criminal was still obsessed with Superman, and conned a rich woman out of her fortune by marrying her, using the money to fund his second expedition to the Arctic, and the Fortress. Learning all he can about the crystals used to build the Fortress, he steals them from the console and schemes to create an island off the coast of America - once again meaning to use land as a commodity to hold the world to ransom. Lois investigates the power outage caused by Lex’s first experiment, which leads her to Lex’s yacht. She is trapped aboard with Jason (her son) , but manages to fax a sos to the Planet.
♦ Kal (as Superman) flies out to the coordinates she gave, meaning to rescue her, but the aftershocks from the Island’s creation cause havoc in Metropolis and he has to deal with the disasters there before he can get to her. He saves Lois, Richard (her fiance) and Jason from Lex’s sinking yacht and sends them off in the seaplane Richard used to fly out there. Heading to the island, he walks right into Luthor’s trap, realising too late that the island contains pieces of Kryptonite. Luthor gloats over him in his weakened state, kicking Superman to the floor and allowing his gang to almost beat him to death. While he was trying to pick himself up off the ground, Luthor delivers the final blow, and stabs him in the back with a shard of Kryptonite. Kal defiantly manages to stand, despite the incredible pain, but falls off the island’s edge and into the ocean.
♦ Lois saves his life by pulling him from the ocean and removing the shard of Kryptonite from his back. Though she asks him to fly back to the city with Jason, Richard and herself, Kal knows he has to deal with Lex and his Kryptonite island. He manages to fly the island into space and pushes it out of Earth’s orbit before succumbing to the effects of Kryptonite and his wounds. Falling to Earth, he is unresponsive and the world waits outside the hospital for any sign that Superman is alive. While he is unconscious, Lois visits and explains that Jason is his son, not Richard’s. The next evening, Kal wakes and visits Jason and Lois, letting them know he will always be there for them.
♦ After encountering other humans and aliens with heroic tendencies, Kal founds the Justice League alongside Diana (Wonder Woman) and Bruce (Batman). A few years later Clark and Lois are married, Kal sharing his secret with her again and both of them learning to parent a half-kryptonian child who manifested more of his Father's abilities as each year passed. But their happiness together was cut shorter than it should have been. The Joker decided to cause havok in Metropolis, gassing the Daily Planet building. Kal was thousands of miles away and didn’t get back in time to save his wife and friends. Despite how much he wanted to, he knew he couldn’t turn back time again, as it was too destructive to the timeline. He was a single parent to a powered teenager, (who didn’t have an Alfred to help out - unlike another Leaguer), which made for a challenging couple of years. Both he and Jason survived their rough patch and Jason went off to college, making Kal prouder than he ever thought he could be.
♦ Crisis