Supahman Fan

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a show on television called The Adventures of Superman. It starred a man who flew around in his longjohns saving the city of Metropolis and mild-mannerd-ly flirted incessantly with this stuffy, mischievous chick named Lois.

When I was a kid, the local PBS channel was in the habit of picking up older shows and showing them right around supper time. Thus, I picked up the habit of watching shows like Superman. (PBS also introduced me to Dark Shadows, but that's a story for another time.)

Time went on. I grew, fell in love with other television shows, and PBS stopped showing Superman. When the movies came out, I wasn't in a position to watch them. So Superman faded from my mind, to be replaced by other shows and characters , like Barnabus Collins, or the leads from Scarecrow and Mrs. King.

Then, when I was in grad school, a miracle occurred. ABC created a new Superman show:Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman . This show was a different take than the one I remembered. It was more about Clark and Lois than about Superman. The famous line is:

"Clark is who I am; Superman is what I can do."

I loved that show.

I loved that show so much, that I picked up a hobby I hadn't used since eighth grade. I wrote stories about the characters from the show. I'd like to say that I started this writing spontaneously, but that ain't so. I stumbled across a group of people on the internet who were fans and were doing something called they called "fanfic".

Well, you say tomayto, I say tomahto. I was in.

Seven years later (gods, it can't have been that long!) I'm still in. I don't write much or often, but there's always a file out there, open, waiting for the muses to inspire me to finish it. You, if you are interested (if you even exist), can find some of my work, among that of scores of others, at the Lois and Clark fanfic archive. The story I am the happiest with is A Father's Wisdom.

The stories in the archive are a mixture of many types, but most of them are true to the L&C universe - the Superman universe that made me love Superman.

I hear they're making another Superman movie. As a minor comic fan, I've seen all sorts of Superman books and series. But none of them appeal. I'll buy Superman toys, but for me, Superman is a fixed character that was created by the ABC team.

Funny, when I watch the show now, I sometimes want to cringe. By the end of the series, it had broken with canon (other survivors of Krypton?) and had dissolved to a "villan of the week" premise. There were two fantastic villans in the series - their Lex Luthor, and another recurring dude by the name of Tempus - but otherwise, the villans were mostly camp.

I've moved to love the show as it is seen through the eyes of the fans - in fanfic. And I love the Superman that fanfic shows me. Go on over there. Read some fic (I'd recommend zoomway and nan smith among other authors.) Tell 'em Betsy sent you!

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