A Look At Superman From The Justice League Infinite Fanfic

So, as announced earlier this week, I’m doing a Justice League fanfic entitled ‘Justice League Infinite’. As such, I’m going through all seven members of this world’s League, what makes them different from their counterparts, etc. We’ve already looked at Batman, The Flash, and Poison Ivy, so let’s go ahead and take a look at this world’s version of arguably the greatest superhero of all time: The Man of Steel, Superman.

So yeah, you’ve probably noticed one or two things different about this Superman. He’s based off of and borrows elements from a few different characters in addition to the mainstream Superman. In this universe, he’s Calvin Henry Kent, born Cal-El on Krypton. His home world was destroyed due to damage done to the planet’s core by Brainiac, who had miscalculated when he tore the capital city of Kandor free (because in every other continuity, the people of Krypton come off as very stupid for not seeing the end coming). Calvin works for the Daily Planet, as the lead columnist for the company’s online blog, though he actually lives in Smallville with his adoptive parents, and his childhood sweetheart and colleague at the Daily Planet, Loana Lane (basically, an African-American hybrid of Lois Lane and Lana Lang), who learned of his secret growing up. As Superman, he’s looked up to and admired by the people of Metropolis, though his efforts are oftentimes marginalized and hampered by President Lex Luthor. Like Calvin Ellis of Earth 23, he fights for truth, justice, and equality, and while he isn’t strictly a pacifist like Val-Zod of Earth 2, he will try to avoid a direct, physical conflict whenever possible. And of course, as anyone who bears the name Superman should be, Cal is kind, noble, and courageous. He inspires others through his actions to be better than they are, and while he’s not immune to making mistakes, he will always strive to do what he believes is right.

Let’s talk for a second about the costume. It’s pretty much the costume Earth 2 Superman of The New 52 wore, only the House of El emblem more resembles the one on Calvin Ellis’ costume. The cape also has a yellow Superman logo on the back as well, and the blue of the costume has a bit of a silver tinge to it (in reference to Steel). And, as is traditional for Superman, it’s almost always worn under his usual clothes so that he can quick-change into the Man of Tomorrow whenever necessary.

Now for his powers, which is always an interesting topic when it comes to new takes on Superman. Cal possesses a pretty good portion of the typical Superman’s physical strength, durability, stamina, and speed, but he has yet to tap into the full extent of what he can do while powered by Earth’s sun. He also has his x-ray vision, but he hasn’t figured out heat vision yet, and while he has his super breath, he can’t use it to freeze whatever it touches at the moment. Otherwise, he is perfectly capable of flight, has his other super senses, can process information at speeds impossible for an ordinary human, has mastered voice mimicry and ventriloquism, can breathe in space, is highly adept at using pressure points in combat, and is currently studying two Kryptonian martial arts: Torquasm-Rao, which allows him to enter the real-life Theta state, and Torquasm-Vo, which grants him the ability to protect himself from illusions and mind control. His weaknesses include the well-known Kryptonite, which severely weakens his body and cancels out the solar energy stored in him, and most magic-based attacks and enchanted weapons. Otherwise, the only way to beat him is to outlast his supply of yellow sun energy, something that only the most powerful of opponents can do.

And that’s about it for Superman. Next time, we take a look at Diana of Themyscira, as well as a certain character related to her in the fanfic who, while not a member of the Justice League, will nonetheless make an appearance. Ja né!

The Man of Tomorrow – My New Fanfic

So, having finished writing Tales of the Caped Crusader, I’ve decided to move onto my next fanfic, also inspired by my talks of How Would I Rebuild The DC Universe From Scratch, as well as taking place in that same sort of ‘verse that I created with TotCC. The name of the fic: The Man of Tomorrow.

Here’s the basic premise: Superman has been an active superhero for some time now. Lois Lane is aware of his secret identity, and the two are currently in a relationship while also keeping up their friendly rivalry at the Daily Planet. Lex Luthor is in jail following an incident that also cost him his presidency over the United States. As a result, Metropolis is enjoying relative peace time. I mean, there’s still stuff like burning buildings, bank robbers, jumpers, the occasional criminal, but over-all, FAR less occasions that look like a job for Superman. Also, as was the case in TotCC, he has met Batman and Wonder Woman, but there is no Justice League yet.

One day, down-town Metropolis is attacked by Plasmus, and after a fight between the two, Superman quickly learns that someone is gunning for him, someone that’s created a liquidized version of Kryptonite and gave some to Plasmus. Problem: The #1 suspect is behind bars, and can’t be responsible…or can he? Worse yet, a young man named Victor Stone gets horribly burnt during the fight with Plasmus, with most of his body melting. So now the hunt is on to find the one responsible before anyone else gets hurt.

As with TotCC, this story takes a lot of plot elements from other established stories and continuities, and not just for Superman. For example, Victor will play a huge role, though parts of his back-story are actually inspired by the character Steel. Plasmus has elements to his character that are borrowed from the Teen Titans animated series. Lois knowing that Clark and Superman are the same person is inspired by Man of Steel and Superman: Unbound. Superman’s costume is based off of concept art for Injustice: Gods Among Us, as shown below (minus the face, although honestly, I gotta wonder why they didn’t use that look for Regime Superman). Also, Kara is mentioned on occasion in the story, currently in the process that will see her transform from Supergirl into Power Girl. And trust me, lots of other characters from Superman and the DC Universe will pop up in this story.

Anyway, that’s all I wanna tell for now. Thoughts? Opinions? Lemme know in the comments, and click the image below to read the fic. Ja né!

Related articles

• Villains of Steel (dietelcomics.com)
• Review: “Superman: Earth One” (comicsauthority.com)
• Tim Daly Interview (scifitalk.com)
• All Star Lois Lane: Superman, icons, personhood and love (womenwriteaboutcomics.com)
• Lois Lane Tries to Interview Batman in Animated Short (geektyrant.com)
• Evolution of the Superman Part 6: The Man of Tomorrow, Today (Graphic Novelties) (popmatters.com)
• The Man of Tomorrow (haidangit.wordpress.com)
• Review: Action Comics #23.3 – Lex Luthor (hopeburnsbright.wordpress.com)
• Ben Affleck’s Batman Will Be “Tired and Weary” (slashfilm.com)
• ‘Lois And Clark’ 20th Anniversary: Celebrating ‘The New Adventures Of Superman’ At 20 (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)

Jyger’s Rant – Superman: Unbound (WARNING – SPOILERS)

So it’s been a long time since I reviewed something, and recently I found a certain movie on the Movie Network and got my Mom to record it for me. And now that I’ve watched it a couple of times (once alone, and once with N. Harmonik), I feel confident that I can give a fair review of Superman: Unbound. If you have not seen the movie, I’m sorry, but there will be spoilers here. If you don’t want to know what happens, turn back now.

After saving Lois Lane for the trillionth time (although this time with an unexpected assist from the badass Supergirl), Superman returns to the Daily Planet as Clark Kent and, after a small issue with Steve Lombard, gets chewed out by Lois because they’ve apparently been dating for some time, but in secret. However, this is interrupted as Superman has to leave to battle a robot that actually manages to hurt him. Superman ultimately beats it down, though, and takes it back to the Fortress of Solitude, where Supergirl recognizes it: Many of them attacked the Krypton capital city of Kandor just a short time before Krypton’s destruction. Under the rule of their master, Brainiac, they killed many Kryptonians before the city was miniaturized and taken aboard Brainiac’s ship.

With this knowledge, and knowing Brainiac could someday come to Earth, Superman decides to track the foe down, eventually finding him in the middle of an attack on another planet. While he starts to kick ass, a Solar Aggressor missile to the planet’s sun causes a shockwave that destroys the planet and knocks Superman unconscious. Though Superman regains consciousness and starts to fight his way through robots, along the way discovering that Brainiac has shrunken down cities from worlds all over the galaxy and then bottled them, Brainiac ultimately levels him and learns of his and Kara’s presence on Earth, setting course for there as he shrinks Superman down into the bottled city of Kandor. Despite his power fading due to a red sun placed over Kandor, Superman meets with Kara’s parents and formulates a plan to escape, disconnecting Brainiac from his ship before heading back to Earth with Kandor in hand.

I like to pretend that Lois is actually sending this to Scott Lobdell and whoever else was in charge of making the changes to her character in the New 52.

Unfortunately, even disconnected from it, the ship is an extension of Brainiac himself, and is still able to send enough small orders to it to reconnect himself and set course for Earth. Superman and Supergirl aid the military in defending Metropolis, but it is ultimately bottled and the two heroes are captured and tortured. However, Superman is able to summon all his strength and break himself and Supergirl free, leading to one last brawl between himself and Brainiac down on Earth as he exploits Brainiac’s biggest flaw: He doesn’t really understand the worlds he attacks outside of the controlled cities he keeps bottled up. His mind can’t handle the strain of the constant cars honking, birds chirping, planes taking off, bugs buzzing all around, mud soaking his body, and all the sounds, sights, and sensations that make up life on Earth. Superman pummels his weakened foe until finally the strain of it all burns Brainiac down to slag. And so the movie ends with Superman returning Metropolis to normal, releasing Kandor on a planet with a red sun, and deciding not only to be open about his relationship with Lois, but even proposing marriage…all the while, the remains of Brainiac turn out to still be active in the Fortress of Solitude.

So let’s talk about some of the things I liked. First off, Supergirl is a BADASS. Sure, when Brainiac and his forces actually show up, she wants to run for it, but I tend to chalk it up to post-traumatic stress. Remember, in this movie, she had only recently awoken from stasis, so the attack on Kandor was only a few weeks ago for her. And speaking of badass women, I LOVE Lois Lane in this movie. They nailed her personality completely right. Naturally, Superman is awesome too, and we get to see him fighting smart and using an opponent’s weaknesses against them, which is always more fun than just seeing him plough through his foes…not that I don’t enjoy that at times as well.

Now for some stuff I didn’t like. The first thing to note: Some of the designs are kind of odd to me. While I love Lois’ personality, I’m not sure what the motivation was for her appearance. Likewise, some of the colours don’t seem quite right to me. For example, it always bugs me to see Superman and Supergirl in the same room and not have the same colour-scheme, particularly that the blue on Superman has an olive tinge, and Supergirl’s blue has a violet tinge. And finally, while I haven’t read Superman: Brainiac, I do know a lot of what happens in it, and there’s one thing I know for a fact they changed: By this point in the comics, Lois and Clark had been married for YEARS. Not sure why they changed that, but since the ending seems to allude to a sequel, it’s possible that they want to do a movie about them getting married later, so I’ll try not to complain.

One change I wanna bring up that I actually approve of: Superman releasing Kandor on a planet with a red sun, which I can assume we can refer to as New Krypton. In the comics, he released it in the Arctic, not that far from the Fortress of Solitude…I should note that before I looked up the full details of the New Krypton stories in the comics, I told N. Harmonik that the idea of a whole city full of Supermen showing up out of no where would be a nightmare in the making. AND IT WAS, for the exact reasons I said it would be: Not every last Kryptonian can be expected to have the same value system that Superman demonstrates. Also, with certain governments being untrustful and paranoid, it would only take one small incident with the Kryptonians to cause war to break out. And again, IT DID.

Anyway, my overall thoughts? I like this movie a lot. I apologise for having not read the comic it’s based off of, and who knows, I may yet someday. If yer a fan of Superman, I think you’ll really like this…Speaking of which, one of these days, I need to get back to writing up my review of Justice League: Hereafter. But yeah, leave your own thoughts on the movie below, and I’ll see y’all later. Ja né!

Related articles

• Stana Katic Discusses Her Role As Lois Lane In SUPERMAN: UNBOUND (comicbookmovie.com)
• ‘Superman: Unbound’ (variety.com)
• Superman: Unbound (2013) Blu-ray review (metalgrinch.wordpress.com)
• SUPERMAN UNBOUND Interview Clips Featuring Molly Quinn (Supergirl) (comicbookmovie.com)
• Gear up for Man of Steel with Superman Unbound! (horrorhavenreviews.wordpress.com)
• REVIEW: Superman Unbound (comicmix.com)
• Exclusive: ‘Superman Unbound’ Star Matt Bomer On Playing The Man Of Steel (geek-news.mtv.com)
• Exclusive: ‘Superman Unbound’ Gets Fiery In The Latest Clip (geek-news.mtv.com)
• All-New DC Universe Animated Original Movie ‘Superman: Unbound’ Out June 26th (analogaddiction.org)