Officer Wayne, cont.

[jeriendhal]

Some things never change...

* * *

Wayne had spent the past three years dealing with drug addicts, rapists, petty con artists, angry young men and drunken young women,and all of their victims. Flying androids with orange skin and laser eyes were bit out of his league.

Then again, so were flying aliens with in blue tights and a spit curl that stayed glued on their forehead even after turning half of Dockside into a disaster zone.

He watched as Superman finished crushing the last of the android into a tight steel ball, dropping it to the ground. “That's evidence,” he said.

“I know,” the alien said. “But I'd appreciate it if you permitted me to take it to Star Labs for analysis. We need to find out who built it. If someone is mass producing Amazo units, we have a serious problem.”

“You can take that up with Captain Gordon,” he said.

“I will.” Superman held out his hand, saying, “I'd also like to thank you. Saving Miss Lane freed me up to concentrate on taking out Amazo. It would have been a lot harder to do both.”

He glanced around the rubble of Dockside. There was a crumpled crane lying on its side that Superman had used for a battering ram, and a freighter now sitting low in the water as it sank slowly into the harbor, a massive hole in its side where the android had been thrown. “I was doing my job,” Wayne replied. He kept his black gloved hand down, ignoring Superman's offer to shake. “And there were a lot of people that needed saving tonight.”

The alien's easy smile turned down into a frown. “Is there a problem, officer?”

“Yes. You.”

“I'm sorry?”

“That thing was hunting you,” Wayne said. “It had no other reason to be here. There are at least three cranes wrecked and a ship in the harbor that has be repaired and re-floated. That's going to take months to fix. You came down here like an avenging angel, and tomorrow you'll be gone. But everyone here will have to live with the consequences, while you go off to do whatever.”

“I didn't ask for Amazo to kidnap Lois and make me come after him.”

“If you hadn't been around it wouldn't have had a reason to do that.”

Superman nodded. “I can't deny that. And I can't deny that tomorrow I'll be gone. But you should know I can't stay. The threats I have to deal with are often on a planetary scale. It... divides my attention.”

“I can't afford that luxury. And I suppose arresting you for property damage would be pointless.”

“I'd rather you didn't try.”

“I figured.” Wayne pointed skyward. “Get out of my town. And take your troubles with you.”

Comments

[seawasp]

And so begins a beautiful friendship.

I have to presume that in the DC-verse there is some mechanism to deal with Super-Damage.

In my own superhero novel (currently being shopped around) I address the issue directly.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. I know in the Marvel-verse NYC has been declared a "Permanent Disaster Area" for emergency funding purposes, and they have a company that specializes in cleanup after super battles called Damage Control.

[seawasp]

Supes WOULD do his best to clean up, especially under those conditions; I've seen him do it. He might or might not be able to FIX everything, but he would make sure that all the heavy moving, etc., was already done.

Superman being who he is, he won't even blame Wayne for his attitude. It's justified in many ways. On the other hand, what does Bruce think Superman should have done? Never used his powers at all, even to protect the world? Once he started doing the right thing, there'd be people doing the wrong thing and trying to stop him.

It's not an easy question.

[shadur.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's always the problem, isn't it? Amazo would've come after Superman no matter where he turned out to be. And as far as property damage goes, Supes always has been one of the more conscientious about putting things back where he found them.


... Is it wrong that I'm suddenly wondering how Officer Wayne would deal with, say, Ambassador Princess Diana of Themyscira visiting Gotham during a goodwill tour?

[seawasp]

No, I think that's in fact an inevitable incident. In such a story one of the points will be to establish intersections between the parallels and see how it works out.

[seawasp]

I wasn't just referring to Amazo, but to the basic conundrum of Superman's (and other heroes') existence. If Superman never became Superman -- stayed Clark Kent and never did anything, even against super-powered threats that could destroy the world -- I think most people would be hard-pressed to say that was the right choice.

But once he DID become Superman, then there will be bad guys coming after him, and SOMEONE will be threatened by that. Who might not have been if there was no Superman. OTOH, if there was no Superman, there are several circumstances in which there might have been no planet.

[shadur.livejournal.com]

See also: Lex' regular ranting on how he could have saved the world if not for that "alien freak"...

... And Superman pointing out at least once that I know of that if Lex really wanted to save the world he could've done it six times over already.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

... Is it wrong that I'm suddenly wondering how Officer Wayne would deal with, say, Ambassador Princess Diana of Themyscira

Scribbles notes...

[shadur.livejournal.com]

If it helps any, I'm a big fan of Greg Rucka's run of WW about a decade back, collected in a set of trades starting with Down To Earth and ending with Mission's End...

[seawasp]

One assumes there must be intersections with most of his key connections -- Dick Grayson, Green Lantern, etc.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Not an easy question at all. For the moment, Bruce's only answer is, "Could you please not have super fights in my town at least?"

[seawasp]

To which Superman's reply is "I would love to have no super fights at all, but my opponents often don't allow me the luxury of choice of locale. I'll do what I can to avoid Gotham, but..."

Which is basically what any superhero would say, probably.

[seawasp]

Do you want me to contact the people I know with comic ties and see if this has any shot at real publication in some form?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Bwuhuh... Um, sure!

Note: Given I've no ties to the industry myself, and I've got no plot for the darned thing, except for some strung together incidents, I won't keep my hopes up, but it's worth a shot.

[seawasp]

Do you think you could put together a plot? I can imagine several plots, some obvious, some not-so-obvious.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I'll see what I can come up with. Give me a day or two.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

GOOD! This is cool stuff.