The Metropolitan Man

Dear Lois, I’ve been a longtime reader of your articles, and I have to say that I’m quite the fan. I’ve been happy to note from the few photographs I’ve seen of you that we seem to share a similar taste in fashion, and I just wanted to share a tip with you. There’s a […]

“And he’s just gone forever?” asked Jimmy. His girlfriend Eleanor sat beside him, opposite Lois and Clark. It was somewhat emphatically not a double date. Lois was trying her best to shift her position on Clark in a way that he would actually believe. Eventually she would pretend to see the light, or give him […]

“He what?” asked Lex. He gripped the phone closer to his ear, though that wouldn’t help with the poor connection. It was moments like this that made him want to revolutionize the entire telecommunications industry. An investment of a million dollars would surely be enough to get clear audio between Metropolis and Hub City. Of […]

William Calhoun sat in the jail cell, staring blankly at the wall. Ten years ago, or even five, he might have been trying to plot his escape. Now he was simply old, fat, and broke. What was left of his money was going to pay for the lawyers for this current case, but even if […]

Lex needed to know what was in the storm cellar. It was a matter of practical necessity, but there was an emotional component as well. He’d spent nearly a year of his life in pursuit of what lay there, slowly working his way backwards from Superman to Clark Kent and Clark Kent to Smallville. He […]

Jimmy Olsen sat at the bar, gulping back his fourth beer. It was possible to forget, for brief moments. Lois Lane had come over to him, shaking slightly, and said that they needed to take a trip out into the country. He’d grabbed his camera and plenty of film, then raced downstairs where he’d had […]

From Preethi v New York 293 U.S. 367 (1934): The State of New York has provided such significant encouragement, both overt and covert, that the actions of Superman must be judged to be that of the State. […] It is this Court’s considered opinion that there would not be much use to Constitutional protections if […]

Superman has a day job. It was just a joke, the kind of thing that the brain coughs up when it’s trying to match a pattern. Kant said that humor was expectation strained until it suddenly dissolved into nothingness. Lex had been making maps and doing complex math for weeks on end, and if that […]

Lois Lane had been walking down 15th Avenue looking for a place to eat breakfast when she’d heard the bang from the next block over. She’d started running towards it seconds after she’d heard it, while everyone else on the street was looking around like they’d missed something. If they’d read the paper, they’d know […]

Harry Kramer loved explosives. He loved the danger of working with them and the thrill of watching them go off. A properly made bomb was an amazing piece of engineering, a compact device of wires, springs, and explosives all set up in a very precisely and ordered way. When the bomb went off, all that […]

Lex Luthor wasn’t the only one gathering information. As the days passed, people began to make their observations, and a few things began to become known. Superman would show up at misdemeanors in downtown Metropolis, felonies in the greater metropolitan area, and large disasters in the continental United States. Those who had done the math […]

Lois Lane was undeniably at the top of her game. There had been grumbling from some of the other reporters that it had been dumb luck, but obviously Superman had chosen her for a reason, and obviously that reason had been her reporting. That’s what she kept telling herself, anyway. Lois worked twice as hard […]

Author’s Note: This story is rated M for adult language and themes, including discussion of sexual violence. Lex Luthor had been lounging in the Skylight Club when he’d first heard of Superman. “He’s a fellow that flies through the sky!” declared one of the patrons, whose name Lex couldn’t recall, a good sign that the […]