I just re-read it now, Sue, because I have marginally more time tonight than I had this morning. I agree with all the others, this vignette is lovely. It's so bittersweet. You have to wonder why Clark comes to Lois at all, dressed as Superman. What is he hoping for? That he can have a relationship with her as Superman? But he doesn't
really want that, as we all know. He can't allow that to happen. Of course, there is one story in the Archive where he really did let it happen - it is a story by Zoomway and it's called Joe's Story, or something. In this story,
Superman (not Clark) enters into a very real relationship with Lois, so that he spends every night in her bed as her super lover, Kal-El. Then in the morning, he leaves before her to sneak off to work to become her colleague and partner at the Daily Planet, Clark Kent... and Lois doesn't have a clue. Wow, if that were to happen, and if Lois found out that Kal-El and Clark Kent were the same, could she ever forgive him?
Your Clark (or Superman) wouldn't deceive Lois as badly as that. He might become her lover as Clark Kent without telling her about Superman (as we saw in Faustian
), but that was just because he considers Clark Kent to be the real him. Superman is just a disguise to him. Surely he wouldn't enter into a relationship with Lois
as a disguise of himself??? No, he wouldn't, so what is he doing here, seeking out Lois's company while he himself is in the super-suit?
The answer is simple. He loves her so much and wants her so much, but he feels that he has no chance with her whatsoever as Clark Kent. The only way he he can see her look at him with love and admiration in her eyes, the only chance he has to have her touch him gently and lovingly at all, is by coming to her as Superman. Even though he knows that he can never, ever give in to her wish to become her perfect, shiny super lover who has not tarnished himself by admitting that he is just Clark Kent, he can't resist the temptation to come and see her at all as Superman. To come to her as she so obviously wants him, as her noble, glorious superhero.
The bittersweet and hopeless longing here is achingly beautiful. Oh, the kind of games we play, and the masks we put on to please our loved ones, even though those very masks are the barriers that may forever prevent us from truly connecting with the persons we love.
Ann
