Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Comments: Veritas 33

Well, tell me what you think!

I think she is about to be a VERY famous lawyer.

As for Clark, if he isn't careful he'll have to accept Earth's surrender or something, then what will he do?

Oh wow! Yay, the lawyer friend's back

Hmm, so the government, although terrified and shooting every weapon at him, is planning to use the plane passengers as a bargaining chip?

Knowingly or unknowingly the government is on it's way to exploit Superman's ethical standing. As one Lex Luthor put it, "he is unrelentingly good"... or maybe ....

I guess this would be a very tough fight between believers and non-believers in resolving the tense political situation which is spreading all over the world.

Superb as always!!!

Delightful part.

Nitpicking alert; In Red Square the viewpoint character was thinking Why would he think that instead of what the Lawyer later on thought? Do the Russians not recognize him? Well done. So I wonder what the others have figured out?

Perhaps someone on the plane has the answer to this?

BTW Shayne,

Are you an H. Beam Piper fan?

Another great part! As always, the plot twists and turns are keeping things fascinating.

Apparently Lois is not the only Lane who makes intuitive leaps.

It is sad to see that the only thing governments want to do with Clark is shoot first and ask questions later, but in keeping with the title of your fic that's probably realistic.

It seems pretty clear that Clark is not going to get anywhere by talking to government officials, who seem mostly to be clinically paranoid. I guess the U.S. is taking it worse than most, since we're not used to having to deal with more power than we have ourselves. I have no doubt that if kryptonite existed in this world, they'd use it without hesitation, then claim afterwards that Clark wasn't really Superman and was an evil alien planning to take over the world. Maybe there are more people like Agent White in the government who, though cautious, are not completely around-the-bend paranoid and are willing to give Clark a chance.

And I hate to say it, but Americans, for the most part, are not particularly in touch with what's going on in the rest of the world. Clark will need to do more in the continental U.S. if he's going to make emotional contact with Americans.

At least the U.S. government seems to realize the need to shut down the LHC as quickly as possible.

I would be tempted to write our world off as a lost cause from Clark's perspective, but I hope he can do something to help people regain perspective. It would be nice if people were to regret seeing him go home rather than say "good riddance." Best of all would be if he could inspire ordinary people to view the world in a different way, as that's where any change in our world needs to come from. Maybe he can give a speech like he did in "Big Girls Don't Fly" about what everyone can do, not just superheroes.

I really is a sad statement about our world that we fantasize about superheroes, but if one actually showed up, this is probably how we'd react.

After all that gloom I had to post just once more to thank you for this gem:

Hey!

Perfectly portrayed! That´s what mothers do when the kids tell impossible tales!

and Are you saying that government accodomations are cheap?

Once Lucy has pegged this place as an evil universe, it's difficult to argue that it isn't evil. How do you prove a negative?

Essentially she's asking if Lois has copped out. Even worse she's basing her views on a stereotype.

Both our Lois and alt-Clark are such tragic heroes.

It's interesting to hear how the men argue each according to his country's official viewpoint without using their own brainpower to think for themselves. In their own way they are each expressing their own fears, although the United States is leading the way in cowardice. The US has turned tail and run, without even meeting with Superman to find out who the man is.

What's evil about Clark hiring a lawyer? Perhaps I don't watch enough TV, but I don't know what happens next.


Elisabeth

Had to chime in with the others. This was way too cute!

Great part.
JD

They are splitting the passengers up! I think that is disgusting.

Was it AnKS who pointed out that the government was planning to use the passengers as bargaining chips? That sure doesn't make it any less didgusting!

How shocking would it be to find that you are somehow eleven years behind everybody in the strange world where you have ended up?



Perfect!!!

Heh! Yes, it does!

This is profound. From Lucy's perspective, the world she has ended up in is evil. She and the other passengers have surely been treated badly.

It reminds me how the current American administration has sometimes talked about the need to explain itself better to the world. Well, unfortunately, actions speak louder than words, certainly when you consider yourself or your compatriots the victims of those actions.



Lois is unconditionally loyal to her world. There is no way she is going to dismiss it all as evil. But when she is defending it, it looks to Lucy as if Lois is defending and backing up this world, whose evil nature seems so obvious to Lucy. So is Lois evil herself? You can't blame Lucy for wondering.

So moving. Poor Lucy, and poor Lois.

I was about to say that this is heartbreaking, but that istn't the correct word for it. Both this Lois and alt-Clark have born their existential loneliness and struggled on, if only because life can be a duty. You don't just give up.

Elisabeth called alt-Clark and this Lois tragic heroes. That is a perfect way of putting it.

I love their conversation.



I guess not.

St. Basil's cathedral. Yes, that's what it's called.



:rolleyes:

Would everybody be this crazy if Superman turned up for real? Yes, probably.

And as usual, politicians refuse to acknowledge the real problem!

:rolleyes:

Wow. Here is Superman, floating outside the nearest window, and he has done nothing but good, and all those high-ranking politicians flee like scared rabbits.

I don't know. This looks more and more like proof to me that these people are not on the side of the angels.

And everyone has quoted this already, so why shouldn't I?

That's so sweet and funny!

Yep, Clark sure needs legal representation in this universe! And so do all the passengers from his universe, for that matter.

Another brilliant part, Shayne!

Ann

Yahoo! Yay! Another chapter to feed my addiction!

Wait a minute. Is Clark a reporter for the Daily Planet? If he is, isn't it kind of a stretch to say that he's famous? I mean, I certainly don't know the reporters of my local newspaper. They're just bylines. Heck, I hardly know if anyone on my local paper has won awards.

I can understand Lucy knowing about Bruce Wayne - he's a playboy billionaire. He'd be in the media for sure. But Clark Kent, a mild-mannered reporter, is famous?

Whoa! The government is escalating here!

I can just see Lois pursing her lips at this. Of course, in real life, like just about every actress, Teri Hatcher has probably had a facelift (meow! I'm being catty).

You know, Shayne, the really scary thing about this fic is the mirror you put up to our own world, our own society. What happened to America's ideals? How did we lose them? When did we decide to piss on the Constitution?

I can just imagine. So many photographs are taken there, it's a world-wide recognized icon. It's like the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, Mount Fuji, or Big Ben. So with a very few words, you've painted a very vivid picture in my mind (once again!)

Glad to see that the grunt on the spot is keeping his head. Nikolai has a thankless task and is doing a good job with it.

Clark's languages are getting better! (Remember, his Burmese was heavily accented.) Is this because he's using that Kryptonian part of his brain that controls language fluency? Or did he just travel in Russia before?

No, Lucy, Lois denied it, but I think you are in the evil mirror universe. We just don't notice it because we're stuck in it, and the evilness has crept up on us bit by bit. (Like boiling the frog in the pot of water slowly - it doesn't realize the temperature is increasing, so it doesn't jump out and save itself).

In the "truth is stranger than fiction" department...Exhibit A. (tee hee hee)


Now I'm really wondering what the French ambassador was going to say. "Everyone knows Superman is a comic book character?" "Everyone knows that Superman is a good guy?"


You know, I can just see this happening. Poor Clark! All he wants to do is talk. And he's met by panic. I guess all those ambassadors aren't buying into what the Suit means.


So Clark is telepathic now? Or is he hearing their racing hearts? Or their racing breaths?

But kudos to the Secret Service for facing up to what they have to think might be a super-powered assassin. Watching Clark shrugging off the tank fire was probably pretty alarming.

I'm sure there'll be a whole lot of talk in the Secret Service barracks (or wherever they hang out), because Clark has shown the Superman powers, he's wearing the Superman suit. I'm sure the Secret Service people are as knowledgeable about pop culture as any other Americans. Who doesn't know Superman? Don't you think they'd argue over their beer about whether they should believe in the Suit or not? After all, Superman has been persistently portrayed as a good guy.

But, in their defense, Shayne, you've written very clearly about the way they think and the necessity of their paranoid worldview.

(guffaw) Even Superman needs a good lawyer! (Another sad comment on today's society).

I'm so looking forward to Clark's conversation with Susan. Jared had better leave, though, so there is lawyer-client confidentiality.

Given the circumstances, it's wise for Clark to hire a go-between - it lets things de-escalate.

And another thing - lawyers like to be paid. Will Lois be taking care of this? Will Clark get some money, somehow, in our world? (I just can't see him doing endorsements, and we know he won't steal. Heck, he was queasy about picking winning lottery tickets.) But maybe Susan will be doing this pro bono? I mean, how many lawyers can say that Superman is their client?

Just some questions now:

Clark and Lois really haven't had time to talk either - they've just been on the run, or doing stuff, ever since Clark revealed his powers to Lois. So I hope the good Clark-Lois talk will come soon. She needs to end up in his world, and I can't see her doing that without her talking to him at length sometime.

And I'm getting a little worried here. The presence of a superhero implies the need for a supervillain to make the story go. Since Clark is fictional in our world,(but now he's real!) isn't there some sort of "story engine", or "mass consciousness", or "completing the underlying archetype", that Superman will follow the plot and fight a supervillain? Superman fights bad guys and protects the Earth - that's what he does.

So, if Clark doesn't get back to his own universe soon, will his presence in our universe be enough to attract a supervillain? That's rather frightening - we don't want anyone like Darkseid or Mongul in our world.

One last thing. This story inspired me to pull out my DVD of "Superman: Doomsday", which is a not-too-bad movie. What's interesting are the bonus features on the disc, specifically the interviews with the comics writers and creators about how they worked up the Doomsday-kills-Superman plotline. They have interviews with people like Mike Carlin, Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, etc - big names in the comics biz. And they talked about setting up this plotline just to sell comics, and how they had to make it good, because the Superman character is so well-known and important. They're basically playing God with Clark Kent.

So, given the situation, I'm just wondering how the guys at DC Comics and Warner Bros. are feeling about the real Superman flying around. Are they going to make noises about copyright infringement, or are they going to be down on their knees thanking God for the sales boost? And, will Clark get to meet them? (Or did you fill that niche with Jim, the guy from the Superman Museum? I sure hope you get back to him.)

And, if the comics writers/artists meet the real Superman, will they then be blithely able to put the fictional Superman in such terrible peril on a weekly basis? I mean, you can think of bad stuff (bad stuff = drama, bad stuff = a story) happening to a fictional character much more easily than you can consider bad stuff happening to someone that you actually know and like. So, if they actually meet Clark, do you think the comics writers will lose their mojo?

And, if they meet the real Clark Kent/Superman, do you think they'll apologize for everything they've put him through? Because, right now, it's looking like our fiction is Clark's reality. Given what our fiction has done to Clark, we do owe him an apology.

I think IolantheAlias has been the feedbacker par excellence of this story. Nevertheless, wouldn't you know I would find something to disagree with? (This gremlin here - :rolleyes: - rolls its eyes at me.)

Okay, IolantheAlias said:

Well, let me say that to me, the absence of a supervillain has been one of many delights about this story. Let's face it: this is a story about Superman in the real world, and in the real world, the really bad problems are not usually caused by supervillains. All right, I guess Hitler was one such supervillain, and when he was defeated, the surrender of Nazi Germany followed close behind. But usually the really big problems are much bigger than one big bad individual. Not many people talk about Usama bin Laden these days, but the Iraq war goes on and various extremist Muslim groups show there muscles in many countries.

I hope, therefore, that there won't be a supervillain in this story. That would cheapen and belittle the problem here, I think. Facing a supervillain is one thing, but facing the political and military elite of all the dominant countries in the world is something else entirely.

But while I and IolantheAlias may look differently at the supervillain question, I had to laugh and applaud at this comment of hers(?):

Copyright infringement!!! You know, I can imagine Warner Bros. hiring their own lawyer and suing Clark for copyright infringement!!! I guess the lawyer representing Warner Bros. might just possibly turn out to be one of the biggest villains of this story!

Ann

Oh, ha-ha! I just couldn't resist. Can't help thinking that the plot of this book may have something to do with your story, Shayne! (And I hope you can get to this page even if you are not a NYT subscriber.)

Ann

Thank you, Iolan, for pointing out the only two nitpicks I had with this segment (which I forgot to mention when I left feedback). I didn't think that Clark Kent would be famous either. Also, I wondered how Superman would be listening to their thoughts, unless of course they were thinking out loud.


Elisabeth

IolantheAlias wrote:
Please cut this out. You've obviously not studied American history very closely. The majority of the "rights" we enjoy today and "ideals" we try to live by are not directly from the Constitution but from the interpretation of the Constitution and subsequent court decisions since it was written.

The "right of privacy" is derived from court decisions and does not appear in the Constitution. The many restrictions on the ability of law enforcement organizations to gather evidence against an accused party are also derived from court decisions. The power to tax specific items or activities, in large part, has derived from practice and not from the Constitution.

The office of President was originally considered to be more administrative than active, but that's not how history has unfolded. For example, the US Supreme Court ruled against President Andrew Jackson on an issue early in his administration. He dismissed the ruling, saying, "He (the court) has ruled, let him (the Chief Justice) enforce it (the ruling)." Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus for a time in certain areas of the Union during the Civil War, and there was absolutely no precedent in either statute or case law for the Emancipation Proclamation. Thomas Jefferson greatly exceeded both his explicit authority and his implied authority when he approved the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and it very nearly derailed his re-election chances.

Where do we draw the line between what's good for the individual and what's good for the nation as a whole? If you read the preamble to the Constitution, you'll see that individual rights are present but subject to the health of the nation as a whole. If an airplane which shouldn't exist - couldn't possibly exist - suddenly appeared carrying people who could not possibly be who they claimed to be, what would you do?

You'd probably do pretty much what the authorities in Shayne's story have done. These people aren't being tortured, they're being investigated, and it's hard to learn the truth when the media and others all over the world are screaming at you in either anger or terror.

I do not take the position that the state is more important than the individual. That way leads to tyranny. I do, however, take the position that the individual is not always more important than the state, because that way leads to anarchy. There must be a balance between the two, and our elected leaders are elected (in part) in order to protect us from threats to our way of life and our well-being. This plane and its passengers are an unknown and potentially dangerous element, and until the leaders are assured that the danger is either manageable or non-existent, it is both good and right that these new people (who, I must point out, should not exist according to any viable scientific theory) are isolated for the protection of the people who elected those leaders.

In summary, I maintain that the way things are now is neither the way things have always been nor is it the way things will always be. I'm not completely happy with the way our society is today, but all I can do is all I can do. And one of the things I don't do is curse the darkness when I can light a candle.