Boldly Going

I finally picked up some of the Batman: Brave and the Bold DVDs, and while I'm waiting for the first season to arrive, I popped one of the second-season discs into the DVD player for background. I've watched the show off and on enough to know it's awesome, but "A Bat Divided" is just a special kind of great. It's not just the interesting new twist on Firestorm--which I hope carries over somewhat into the New 52 where the status quo seems similar--nor is it the huge number of cameos--Killer Moth! The Eraser! The Ten-Eyed Man!--it's Dr. Double X, who is just a sensational character rediscovery.

Characters like Dr. Double X are the reason why I wish I knew more about the zanier eras of Batman, since the zany tide of the Silver Age crazied all boats. I just wish I'd known about him when I was doing Walking with Superman. I can already imagine the plot...

Walking with Superman: Finale

That's it.

I'm probably just as surprised as you are that I managed to get through the whole series. Sure, there were three or four times when I forgot to finish the post before midnight, and Blogger's issues with scheduling posts meant that, more often than not, they didn't go up at 12:00--though that's an arbitrary time I set later in the run anyway. But aside from the occasional snafu, I got everything written and reasonably on-time. Even over my wedding and honeymoon.

Three hundred and sixty-five Superman story pitches. And there were even ideas I didn't get to use, like Superman visiting Vanity City to get involved with the selection/training of the new Aztek, or facing corrupt politics in Chicago, or teaming up with Klarion in Salem. I'm particularly kicking myself over that last one, frankly.

I also never dipped into my back-pocket pitches, because there's still a part of me that would love to write Superman for reals down the line, and I wouldn't want to give away everything. So that's 365 story ideas on top of the arcs I've been planning and plotting and refining for years.

I'll admit, some plans fell through. Obviously there was the first contest, and I was hoping to do a "guest week" somewhere in there, but never got the time to put it together. After the three-page script I did for Day 100, I wanted to do longer scripts for 200 and 300, with a full issue for #365, but that turned out to be insane, at least with my current schedule.

I'm not quite done with the "Walking with Superman" tag. I'll have a wrap-up version of the by the numbers post, and a little post about my process through this whole thing. I find it interesting, anyway. Eventually, I'll have the list of links and titles up as well. It'll all be trickling out over the next week or two.

I want to thank all the people who commented, who entered the contest, who read along and offered kind words throughout this process. I know it's just fanfic, but it's nice to know that people were reading and enjoying it at least as much as I was enjoying putting it all together. I want to give specific shout-outs to Steve Younis of the Superman Homepage and Rebel Rikki and Davin Loh of Nerdy Nothings for promoting the project and giving me my first podcasting experience.

As to the future: at the request of my wife, I'm done with the self-imposed daily blogging obligation. I'm not done blogging, but I suspect things will be a little lighter here for a little while. After that? Well, it's been an awfully long time since I did a Superman Sunday post...

Walking with Superman: Day 365

Superman's year-long journey has come to an end on the outskirts of Metropolis, DE. They say you can't go home again--and in this case, they're right! Metropolis is closed off to its hometown hero, with a force-field designed specifically to keep Kryptonians out. Superman may have taken a year-long sabbatical, but Lex Luthor was hard at work back home, and once Superman breaks through the shield, he'll find that every inch of the Big Apricot has been turned into an anti-Superman deathtrap! If that weren't enough, Luthor has scoured the globe to form a new Superman Revenge Squad, a veritable vanguard of vengeful villains who would stop at nothing to slay Superman! The Man of Tomorrow calls out to his allies from across the United States, and together they'll fight to save Metropolis from this army of supervillains! But for all the heroes and villains, eventually it'll come down to Superman and Lex Luthor...and only one will walk away!

Walking with Superman: Day 364

"The story of Clark Kent is by now well-known, though my access to his psychological records give me perhaps greater insight than the newspaper stories might allow. Mr. Kent has spent the better part of the last year bouncing around the country from facility to facility, but I have high hopes that San Haven Asylum will be the end of his journey. The relative remoteness (Dunseith, ND, is the closest town, still some miles away) is why I requested his transfer to this facility. Isolating Kent from the subjects of his delusions and his enablers may be the change he needs to finally cure this disorder.

"Even with his case files, the genesis of Mr. Kent's psychosis is unclear. He is certainly a paranoid schizophrenic, but the narrative that underscores his delusions developed in his childhood, well before any likely onset of schizophrenia. Then again, if one listens to Mr. Kent, he is a very unlikely individual.

"The core of his personal narrative is a grandiose delusion, specifically that he possesses special powers and abilities beyond those of mere mortals, that he is an exalted character called "Super-Man." This originated in Kent's childhood, first with stories about feats of strength or speed that his parents dismissed as normal pretend play. Some of Kent's previous therapists would put the onset of hallucinations in the same period; Kent's parents recall that he claimed to be able to hear voices and sounds with "super-hearing" and see through solid objects with "X-Ray Vision." It was not long afterward that he began telling stories about imaginary friends (again, initially dismissed as normal play by his parents), children from the "future" who also had special abilities and thought of young Kent as a great hero.

"Sometime in late adolescence or early adulthood, Kent's grandiose delusion grew more detailed, and other symptoms began to develop. Not only was he a veritable god among men and a predestined hero, but he was the sole survivor of an advanced alien race, secretly adopted by his "foster" parents, to protect him from the government and from alien "man-hunters" who would have exploited or dissected him. This seems to be the earliest of Kent's persecutory delusions. The details here are clearly less developed than other aspects of the narrative: sometimes he came to Earth as an infant, other times as an embryo in a technological womb; sometimes his alien parents chose Earth intentionally, other times his survival was a lucky shot in the dark. The inconsistencies suggest that this is a later part of the delusion, one that he has not thoroughly considered.

"It is at this time that Mr. Kent began to incorporate real-world figures into his delusion, claiming at various points that he knew and befriended billionaire Lex Luthor. This relationship eventually soured in some way (another inconsistency in Kent's stories), leading Luthor to become Kent's--or rather, "Super-Man's"--"arch-enemy." This remains Kent's strongest and most prominent persecutory delusion, but he would incorporate other figures into the narrative in various ways, usually by suggesting that they lead double-lives. For instance, he claims that wealthy philanthropists Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen (along with scores of others, from police officers to test pilots) are actually costumed vigilantes.

"Kent moved to Metropolis sometime after graduating high school; though his delusions were well-developed by this point, his paranoid tendency toward secrecy prevented them from impacting his social skills too severely. The move away from home, however, seems to have been the breaking point. Kent's delusions consumed more and more of his life, driving him into solitude--with one exception. In Metropolis, Kent became aware of Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane, who became the subject of his primary erotomanic delusion. Kent stalked Lane, going so far as to put her in dangerous situations so that he could "rescue" her. This is what led to his infamy, as Lane published the entire debacle in her column.

"And that, of course, was what finally led to Kent's institutionalization. But his unique needs, his refusal to take medication, and his penchant for violent outbursts and escape attempts led to his frequent transfers.

But San Haven will be his last stop; I will see to that much. If I can't break Clark Kent of his dangerous delusions, then I will make sure that he remains locked up here for the rest of his life."

--From the notes of Hugo Strange, MD.

Walking with Superman: Day 363

Superman's in Plano, IL, but he'd never know that just by looking. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make Plano look exactly like Smallville, even to Superman's super-senses! What could possibly be gained by making a rural Illinois town into a replica of a rural Kansas town? And why are the actual, genuine-article Martha Kent, Lana Lang, and Pete Ross tied up in the fake Smallville High? Superman fears that he's up against an enemy he thought long dead, against the archnemesis of Clark Kent! Be careful Superman, because you might not survive--the return of Conduit!

Walking with Superman: Day 362

When Superman visited the site of the world's largest time capsule in Seward, Nebraska, he expected to admire the monuments and the kitschy accomplishment--he wasn't even going to peek with his X-Ray vision! So the last thing he anticipated was waking up in 2025, trapped inside the time capsule as it's finally opened! How did the Man of Steel end up inside a monument to the Polyester Age--and how has the world changed in the decade-plus since he disappeared? Finally, and most importantly, is there any way for him to get back, or will Superman's long walk have lasted fourteen years longer than it was supposed to?

Walking with Superman: Day 361

Hill City, South Dakota, has strong ties to the past. Not only is it the oldest remaining city in the area, but human history in the region goes back over nine thousand years, and high-profile fossil discoveries nearby speak to even more ancient times--and that long history is suddenly becoming a lot more tangible! The first sign of trouble came a few days ago, when the bandits in a wild west reenactment show injured tourists by firing live rounds from their six-shooters instead of blanks! Today, as Superman comes into town, he finds that the effect is spreading. Those actor bandits have become a real gang of rustlers, terrorizing the citizenry, and even some of the buildings and technology have transformed into a more 19th-century state. What could be causing this Rushmore State rewind--and will the Man of Steel be able to fix it before it affects him as well?

Walking with Superman: Day 360

While passing through Little Axe, OK, Superman meets Katie Idlewild, a unique young girl with a unique problem--someone has stolen her time machine! The middle schooler built the incredible device (her father helped with some of the power tools) in her basement, but generally left it in the front yard, since she was the only one able to enter and operate it--or so she thought. Now the teenage genius needs Superman's help to find the device before it's used for some nefarious scheme, and the Man of Steel's long walk will take a sudden detour throughout time and space!

Walking with Superman: Day 359

The final installment of a popular fantasy film series is in theaters today, and the Museum in Shelburne, VT, is helping fans celebrate in style. Timothy Hunter and the Ruby of Life: Part 2 closes out the saga of the teenage wizard, and visitors to the museum's special Tim Hunter exhibit are leaving with toy wands and glass jewels for their wizarding costumes. There's just one small problem: when the excited moviegoers leave the theater, they find that their fake artifacts actually work! Now, hundreds of area kids and teenagers are armed with a host of magic spells and powerful relics, and Superman's left to handle the chaos! But any fan of the Timothy Hunter films can tell you about the power of teamwork, so the Man of Steel has called a pair of sorcerers to help. Enter Princess Amethyst and Sargon the Sorcerer, who will hopefully be able to unravel these strange circumstances!

Walking with Superman: Day 358

When electronic traffic signs around Danville, VT, began broadcasting complaints about the traffic and warnings of zombie invasion, authorities chalk it up to harmless-but-annoying vandals. When random text messages with similarly irreverent and strange content go out to random area residents, the police blamed it on pranksters. But when every electronic device in the area, from car GPS units to 911 dispatch computers, starts displaying nonsense messages instead of information, residents rightly begin worrying! Superman puts his skills to the task of tracking down the heinous hackers, but the truth will shock even him!

Walking with Superman: Day 357

A tragic death during a routine National Guard parachuting exercise was the first indication that something was wrong at Montana's Fort Harrison. By the time Superman arrives, there's no chance that such an accident could happen again, because none of the planes can get off the ground. In fact, nothing can get off the ground! The local gravitational pull has become unbearable, and it'll soon become unbearable for the rest of the planet if Superman can't find a way to stop it! But while the Man of Steel evacuates the soldiers and staff, gravity bends sunlight, dilates time, and strains Superman's mighty muscles more and more. If Superman doesn't hurry, then this will soon become his most crushing defeat!

Walking with Superman: Day 356

As the exiled Menehune and the reawakened god-child Keiki Makua'ole make their way southward through the Pacific Ocean, Superman races ahead to ready Hawai'i for their assault! Speeding into the heart of Kilauea, Superman warns Pele of the vengeful visitors, and the fiery goddess calls out to her defenders. The Menehune's timeless nemesis, the owl-god Paupueo, awakens from his diurnal slumber! Kekona and the other still-loyal Menehune stand ready to defend the isles from their disgraced bretheren! The displaced Nawao giants return to Hawai'i's shores to fight the forces that drove them away! But while a divine war brews, Superman races around the archipelago to ensure that it won't be destroyed in the crossfire!

Walking with Superman: Day 355

The Menehune are an ancient race of builders, descended from the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele--so what are they doing in Alaska's Aleutian Islands? Superman last encountered a member of the diminutive construction crew during his Hawaiian honeymoon, so he's as surprised as anyone to find a tribe of them working their way through a lava vent into the Akutan volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the region. The Man of Steel drops down to learn what's brought them so far from home, but he doesn't receive the most welcoming response. Turns out these Menehune have been exiled from their homeland, and so they seek Keiki Makua'ole, the lost scion of Pele, who has been imprisoned in Akutan since time immemorial! With the power of Keiki Makua'ole, they will have their revenge on the goddess who spurned them--and Superman may be powerless to stop them!

Walking with Superman: Day 354

Pocantico Correctional Center, located just north of Middletown, DE, used to be one of the most overworked prison facilities in the nation. This was mostly due to the proximity of Metropolis--just sixty miles southward--and in particular, the early crimes of one Lex Luthor. But the construction of Stryker's Island Penitentiary in Metropolis Bay, with its state-of-the-art supercriminal and metahuman detention technologies, has eased Pocantico's workload considerably. Although, as the high mental health insurance premiums for a host of former guards, wardens, and other staff members can attest, the greatest criminal mind of our age still has an impact on the prison--especially today, when an unsuspecting inmate stumbles upon one of the hidden devices that Luthor left behind! When Superman arrives to avert the inevitable mayhem, he triggers a chain reaction of failsafes, booby traps, and doomsday devices, all designed to give Superman the death penalty!

Walking with Superman: Day 353

Superman, Batgirl, and Robin have been captured by the sinister forces of Lady Shiva and the League of Assassins, and where the League goes, the Demon's Head is never far behind! The trio has been taken to the League's compound near Thermopolis, Wyoming. Rā's al Ghūl has commandeered a hot spring, which the League's pludered chemicals will transform into a new Lazarus Pit. But as long as he has access to his grandson and a healthy young Kryptonian, the ageless eco-terrorist has a plan to extend his lifespan--and his power--even more. As Rā's conducts his foul experiment, it falls to Batgirl to escape her bonds and save the day--but can Stephanie succeed where Superman failed?

Walking with Superman: Day 352

A series of thefts at major chemical companies have led Superman to hold a stakeout at the Sunderland Chemical Company's headquarters in Wilmington, DE. The Man of Steel isn't the only one following felonies in the First State tonight--Batgirl and Robin are on the case as well! But while the Bat and Boy Wonder are bickering, a team of ninja burglars works their way toward the building's secret vault! Can Superman rally the discordant duo before the thieves complete their caper--and will this titanic trio triumph over the martial arts mastery of Lady Shiva?

Walking with Superman: Day 351

The police in Lincoln, NE, are at their wit's end. There's been a gruesome death in a locked motel room, and they are completely at a loss to explain it--so they've brought Superman in to hopefully succeed where a team of expert crime scene investigators have failed. The Man of Steel is shocked and sickened by the sight of the room's walls and floor, covered in blood and shreds of fabric like someone exploded right in the center of it! Was it a murder, a terrible accident, or something far stranger? It's up to Superman to find out--before it happens again!

Walking with Superman: Day 350

Superman attends a science fiction convention in Mobile, AL, where he's been asked to join a panel discussion about aliens living on Earth. After the presentation, he mingles with some of the other convention guests, including an author and science enthusiast who once wrote some candidly humorous, if somewhat embarrassing, speculation about Superman's intimate life and the relative improbability of a natural Kryptonian-human hybrid. But just as the Man of Steel draws the writer into a conversation, the convention hall roof splits open, and a race of asymmetrical aliens have come for Superman's new companion! Now, Superman must rescue the abducted author--and he's going to need the help of the Omega Men to do it!

Walking with Superman: Day 349

Superman finds himself in the Seven Banners: New Orleans Amusement Park, which has been closed and abandoned since sustaining heavy damage in Hurricane Katrina. But as the Man of Steel walks the desolate avenues between moldy, vandalized buildings, his keen super-senses reveal that he's not alone! Creeping along the shadows, foraging in the debris, are strange figures with matted fur and faded, tattered clothing. The mascots--anthropomorphic animals and fantastic fictional people--continue to eke out a strange living in the dank solitude of the dead park. But are these sad creatures people left behind, still wearing the costumes they inhabited when the waters rose, or are they something far more bizarre?

Walking with Superman: Day 348

It's Independence Day, and Superman's celebrating with a quiet tour of George Washington's home Mount Vernon, near Alexandria, VA. But all along the tour, the Man of Steel can't help but notice that certain things seem off, and little flickering changes keep happening around the edges of his vision--up until the whole estate vanishes around him! It doesn't take long for Superman to realize that someone is tampering with history, and he soon discovers that a group of Congressional Representatives are plucking the Founding Fathers from the timeline to use for their own political gain--regardless of the consequences to the timestream! Can the Man of Tomorrow set right these changes to our collective yesterdays, or will the only fireworks tonight be the death-throes of time itself?