C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T P R O P O S A L
Clark Joseph Kent / Kal-El ♦ Farmer, former journalist ♦ Smallville, Kansas, USA
C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T:
"You’re much stronger than you think you are"
Born to a doomed world, Kal-El was sent away by parents he never knew, to a world that was strange and often unjust. By either the hand of some benevolent fate or an extraordinary stroke of luck, he was found by a loving couple, and in the summer of 1978, Jonathan and Martha Kent announced to the people of Smallville the birth of their new son Clark.
Over forty years have passed since his ship landed on Earth. For twenty of those years, he’s acted as a protector of the Earth, wearing the mantle of the Last Son of Krypton and using the name “Superman,” a title given to him by his at-the-time rival and eventual wife Lois Lane. Across his heroic career, Superman has been a lot of things: a vigilante, a social activist, a champion of the downtrodden, a force of nature, a one-man global superpower, a figure of endless controversy, a target of derision and mockery, a source of inspiration, a leader of fellow heroes, even a martyr to his adopted world.
The things that Clark is proudest of, however, are being a husband and a father.
Clark Kent has seen the world change time and time again…sometimes at his own hand. But his world changed once again recently, when his mother passed, leaving him the family farm. As his family gets used to their new life, Clark has to figure out how to manage his responsibilities to the world, be there for his son during difficult times (not to mention his cousin Kara, who is struggling in college), deal with the fact that he’s getting old, and accept that the challenges he faces aren’t getting any easier.
All in a day’s work, right?
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ):
My goal with Superman isn’t to reinvent the wheel, but simply to make the best wheel I can. While he’s getting on up there in years, this isn’t a “sad old man feels bad about getting old” sort of deal. This is an experienced Clark, a happily married family man with a full supporting cast and rogues’ gallery up and running, taking full advantage of the utter craziness of Superman’s canon to really showcase the best elements of who he is and what he’s all about. While I do want him to have some driving plots, I also want to spend a good amount of time crossing over and interacting with other players, so he’ll have a very active role in the Justice League.
Ongoing plots:
The Super Slayer:
All over the world, dessicated corpses have been turning up near major landmarks, wearing red capes and the familiar S shield. When analyzed, these bodies appear to have Kryptonian DNA. They aren’t just dead men….they’re dead Supermen. Men of Steel from other worlds, being hunted down, murdered, and left for this world’s Superman to find. Who is behind these killings, why are they doing it, and can the Man of Tomorrow put an end to it? Or will he just be the next on the killer’s list?
Sympathy for the Devil:
In a decision that sent shockwaves through the world at large, the billionaire genius, former President of the United States, and notorious super-villain Lex Luthor was recently released from prison. In the years since his ignominious defeat at the hands of Superman, and the exposé by Lois Lane that outed him as a master criminal, Luthor has never repented, has refused any attempts at rehabilitation, has even published several manifestos from his prison cell. Until Superman’s death at the hands of the monster Doomsday, and his resurrection a year later, after which Lex claimed to have had an epiphany and changed his ways. Swearing to put his immense genius towards the good of humanity, Luthor once again has control of his corporate empire, and vows to make amends with his former nemesis. Can Superman really trust someone who has been so vile in the past? Can he forgive all the times Lex has tried to undermine and destroy him? Or is the self-proclaimed “Da Vinci of Crime” up to another one of his diabolical plots?
Bizarr-O-Geddon:
Ten years ago, the crazed Fifth Dimensional imp Mxyzptlk caused a tear in the fabric of reality, and the resulting warp created the Bizarro World, a cube planet where everything is a grotesque parody of Earth. After a harrowing battle with the Bizarro Superman, Clark was able to send the psychotic backwards world to an empty pocket of deep space, where the deranged duplicates could never harm anyone. Or so he had thought. Bizarros have been cropping up again, warping everything they touch, causing outbreaks across the world. And worst of all, deep space telescopes have detected a large, cube-shaped object entering the solar system at an alarming speed, apparently on a collision course with Earth.
C H A R A C T E R N O T E S:
PRIMARY SUPPORTING CASTLois-Lane Kent: Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, Clark’s wife and Jon’s mother
Jonathan Kent: Clark and Lois’s ten-year-old son, has just recently begun to display Kryptonian abilities
Kara Zor-El/Kara Danvers: Kal-El’s cousin from Krypton, 21, college student and five-year veteran as Supergirl
Jimmy Olsen: Lois’s photographer of choice, and on-and-off boyfriend of Kara Danvers
Krypto: The Kent Family’s dog, given super-powers after an encounter with Mr. Mxyzptlk
Lana Lang: Clark’s childhood sweetheart, now a teacher at Jon’s school in Smallville
ROGUE’S GALLERYLex Luthor: Billionaire genius CEO, claims to have reformed after serving prison term
Brainiac: Malevolent Kryptonian AI, wishes to upgrade all organic life
General Zod: Usurper and dictator on Krypton, wants to conquer Earth and use humanity as breeding stock to repopulate his species
Mr. Mxyzptlk: Devious trickster entity from the Fifth Dimension. Seems to torment Superman for his own amusement
Toyman: Anarchic technophile. Obsessed with hijacking new technology and weapons to play with.
Metallo: Kryptonite-armed cyborg, originally created by the US military as an anti-Superman weapon before going rogue
Parasite: Life-draining aberration, absorbs the energy of anything he touches
Bizarro: Chaotic duplicate of Superman, created as part of one of Mr. Mxyztplk’s twisted games, ruler of the psychotic Bizarro World
Master Bruce,
PrinceAlexus,
Pilatus,
Half Pint,
Chronic,
MST3K 4ever,
Infinite Cosmos,
QJT,
Sep,
Fading Memory
