Back in the 1990s I was obsessed with “Lois and Clark,” to the point where (before I wrote any novels of my own) I wrote fan fiction (for that, and for some other favorite shows back in the day). During that era, I discovered this book in the library, and devoured it. When I found “Lois and Clark” briefly free on Tubi, I began to re-watch, and while a lot of it was silly and eye-rolling, I found that I still loved it (until about halfway through season 3, which might have been where I stopped before). The show jogged my memory of this book too… and it was surprisingly hard to find! It doesn’t even exist in Kindle or audio which are my usual modes of digital consumption, so my husband found a hardback for me on ebay.
As I read it again, I guess I could see why it was hard to find (haha). It’s a complete mess, and more so as the story goes on, ignoring most of the usual rules of storytelling. There is an “ordinary world” at first (Superman is in Metropolis, engaged to Lois who at this point knows of his secret identity), and there are rather too many flashbacks to tell us how he got there. We also get a very important detail in this segment, that while it seems to the outside observer that Superman is completely invulnerable except for kryptonite, that’s not actually true — he’s just far, far stronger than humans, and whenever he does manage to get at all depleted, he simply recharges whenever he’s exposed to sunlight. I’d forgotten that in this story, the Justice League also plays a big role, as does Supergirl, too. Lex Luthor, we gather, has already at some point in the past faked his own death, and come back in the guise of his own son… and he’s now hooked up with Supergirl. But all right, we can suspend disbelief on that one.
Then Doomsday, a sadistic and horrifically ugly alien shows up, bent on destruction for its own sake. Superman fights him, and after many pages of epic battles with collateral damage, Superman at last succeeds in killing him, but he dies himself shortly thereafter. There are many chapters after that of the outpouring of grief (even including Lana Lang, Clark’s girlfriend from high school who apparently wasn’t ever actually his girlfriend in this version, she was just his best friend who was in love with him). There’s a funeral, and Lex Luthor pays for an elaborate tomb. But meanwhile, one faction works to raise Superman from the dead, by cloning him. Clark’s father suffers a heart attack in the midst of all the stress, though, and he goes over to the “other side,” where he encounters Clark, and convinces him to return to the land of the living.
So far the arc of the story is more or less what one would expect. But then, before the real Superman actually returns, we get three imposters: one insufferable teenage clone (Superboy), one who looks exactly like Superman except his suit is black and he wears a visor over his eyes, and he is completely unmerciful, and one cyborg, whose human parts look like Superman, but he’s mostly machine. Then there’s the Man of Steel, a member of the Justice League who builds himself an indestructible suit, and one sweet little guy who adores Superman and just goes around doing good things in his name. Most of these sow confusion, and destroy Superman’s good name and legacy in the process, even as a bunch of cultists preach that he will rise again (lots of Messianic overtones, as there always is with Superman).
Meanwhile, we go back and forth to the Fortress of Solitude in Antarctica, where visored Superman and also (we think?) the real Superman end up… and then, because we had to end the story somehow, an enormous space ship enters earth carrying an old enemy of Superman who vaporizes an entire city in California, and is on the way to do the same to Metropolis, when all the (good, fake) Supermen and the real Superman at last have to come together to stop him.
Oh, and at the end, Doomsday isn’t dead either. Of course he isn’t.
The whole thing was a ridiculous romp, and yet I read the whole thing, rolling my eyes but enjoying it somehow nonetheless.
My rating: *** (for entertainment)
Language: none
Violence: comic book style only
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
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