Superman Movieverse Forum

These are challenges I've previously posted at the Lois and Clark boards but ought to work pretty well for any version of Superman and Lois.


Super--- for President!
Clark / Superman can't be president, because he doesn't meet the "born in the USA" criterion. But what about his children?

Let's say that someone nominates the son or daughter of Superman, and for some reason they feel obliged to go through with it - the snag, of course, is that it will be rather hard to prove place of birth without giving away secret identities, and there will be a LOT of pressure from all those who still regard the Kryptonians as alien invaders.

Might make for an interesting story, if anyone can find a compelling reason for the candidature.

Powers Linked to X Chromosome
Note - this doesn't work for Superman Returns unless you assume that the odd circumstances of Jason's conception somehow changed things

A variant on the idea that inheritence of superpowers is linked to genes - what if they're carried on the X chromosome, and the gene is dominant? Superman got the Kryptonian X from his mother, so he's got superpowers, but what about his children?

• Any sons would not have powers - they get their X chromosome from Lois.
• Any daughters would definitely have powers - they get one of their X chromosomes from Clark.

In the next generation

• Nobody descended from L&C's sons has powers.
• Any children of L&Cs daughters, both sons and daughters, have a 50% chance of inheriting the gene.

From then on, unless super-powered members of the family marry back into it the odds stay constant:

• There is a 50% chance that the son or daughter of a super-powered woman will have powers
• No chance that any son of a super-powered man will have powers.
• A certainty that any daughter of a super-powered man will have powers.

There might be ways to adjust this, e.g. by genetic engineering so that a son gets his X chromosome from his father rather than his mother, but assuming that isn't possible it would make for a very different sort of super family tree, with a lot more superwomen than supermen.

I offer this for anyone who can find a use for it.

Lois and Sarah-Jane
Odd idea - Intrepid reporters Lois Lane and Sarah-Jane Smith (from Dr. Who and the Sarah-Jane Adventures) meet at a press conference or convention or some such event and bond as journalists who have had a lot of weird stuff in their lives. Maybe they both hate the same tabloid journalist or have something else in common. Or maybe she's one of Perry's contacts in Britain and Lois and Clark need her help with something. No need for an A-plot, but it'd be interesting if you can manage one.

The Kent Dynasty - Nepotism at the Planet?
Recently there's been quite a lot of indignation about a British member of Parliament who was paying his sons and wife salaries and expenses (from public funds) as researchers etc.

One response to this was a British magazine, Private Eye, which pointed out some examples of nepotism in the British newspapers that were complaining about the MP; lots of Publisher's and Editor's sons and wives drawing high wages despite an apparent lack of talent.

So applying this to the Lois and Clark world, and thinking of the many Next Generation stories that have their child working at the Planet, you have to wonder what other papers and rival journalists would have to say about this - Ralph or his successor, for example - and how much it would take to convince them that the new Kent got the job on merit.

Might be a story in this for someone.

Dear Diary - Saved 357 people, pastrami sandwich and danish for lunch...
Clark, as Superman, must have a slightly skewed attitude to what is and is not important. What would his diary be like, if he kept one? Given the number of people he saves every day only the most noteworthy and unusual events would make the cut, and even then his life as Clark might tend to predominate. So the challenge is to pick a disaster movie / SF film / robbery movie/book etc. and write it up as Clark might note it, if he bothered to mention it at all. Remember that most situations, no matter how dangerous they are, won't endanger his life or make him work up a sweat, so it's goiung to have to be something apocalyptic or truly weird to make the cut. For example:

"On way back to office flew past plane, noticed that several hundred snakes had escaped (later learned as result of terrorist plot) and were attacking passengers. Boarded plane, used breath to chill interior and make snakes hibernate, then caught them and flew snake bite victims to hospital. Rebuked an FBI agent for excessive swearing, but decided not to make a formal complaint."

"Lois is wearing new lipstick, not sure it really suits her..."

And so on...

Evil Twin Town
An idea I originally posted to a Buffy forum that might work elsewhere.

There's an idea called Twin Towns, which began in Europe after WW2, in which two cities of roughly the same size and similar interests (e.g. industrial towns, mining towns, etc.) are "twinned" with each other. Typically they are in different countries, and the general aim is to promote peace, education, etc. For example, Cambridge (UK) is twinned with Heidelberg in Germany and Szeged, Hungary. The web page below explains the origins of the idea. Usually twin towns exchange cultural stuff (museum exhibits, sponsor orchestra visits, school trips, etc.), offer opportunities for natives of the other town to visit for educational reasons, host members of the local government while they study common problems (traffic, crime, pollution, public transport, etc.), and so forth.

This idea has spread beyond Europe, and some cities in the USA etc. are also twinned. For example Passau, in Germany, is twinned with Hackensack, New Jersey.

All of which leads me to the idea that Metropolis or Smallville might have an evil twin - or be some innocent city's evil twin. Doesn't need to be a real place; for example, the idea of Smallville being twinned with Sunnydale, California (from Buffy) might be fun... Not sure where this goes, but there ought to be some plot possibilities, if ony an exchange of reporters / officials.

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) is a web site explaining the idea.

There are lots of other web sites mentioning twin towns and giving examples.