DC DARK: Superman

by Dan Bivens

Now that we've seen a Batman in a much Darker Reality than we all knew, what would the Man of Steel become in a far darker Metropolis without the love of Lois Lane to mediate his mental ideal of Justice?

1. Chapter 1

DC DARK: SUPERMAN

by: Dan Bivens

Chapter 1

For the first few years, after arriving in Metropolis as a mild-mannered man destined to assume not only a role as a peerless reporter for The Daily Planet, but a true superhero savior of that megalithic monument to ultra urbanity.

Superman.

He was the supreme rescuer for far more than tens of millions of Metropolitans. His singular super-powers, which included, of course, super-speed and personal flight, took him around the world.

So it would've remained had that monstrous moment, so tragic and terrible, not taken place...

Even though the Man of Steel could streak at a speed, in space where there would be no air resistance, of near-light velocities, while flying through Earth's atmosphere at multi-Mach speeds approaching twenty times the speed-of-sound, such would still prove too slow.

Especially when it came to saving...her.

Lois Lane, always the loose cannon when it came to throwing unquestioned caution to the always whimsical wind in order to report on the most impossible situations taking place in the immensity of Metropolis, would, once again, lay her illustrious life on the line.

Lex Luthor had, yet again, gained the upper hand over humanity as a whole when his limitless billions, via LexCorp-controlled banks and businesses, brought a "warsuit" into true existence. Something supposedly designed to afford fantastic protection to the populace of not only Metropolis, but the whole of the planet.

It was a lie and Lois could provide proof.

"It's time, Professor," proudly proclaimed Lex to one of several ex-S.T.A.R. scientists essentially stolen via the promise of many millions of tax-free fees paid in order to work solely, and secretly, for the bald billionaire. "The warsuit you promised me last year has, at long last, come to material fruition."

"Yes, Mr. Luthor," Professor Emil Hamilton told his hairless employer with a pride bordering on absolute insanity solely his own. "I call it 'Ruin'. I was discouraged from working on it at S.T.A.R. Labs. But I always knew that it could be constructed and, then..."

"Professor!" snappishly said Lex in order to force the scientist back to the supremely important project, before riding the temporary gantry elevator up two whole stories, so Lex Luthor could become much more than a mere man.

And his first order of business after activating said warsuit was...

Brrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaattttttttaaaaaaaaaaaaa-brrrtttt!

"Noo--!"

The bullet-riddled Professor lay at the metallic feet of the massive man-controlled contraption that, secretly, Emil Hamilton had always planned to put to use under his own physio-mental manipulative power.

Lex Luthor, clearly, had other ideas.

Unfortunately for Lois Lane, having bluffed and bribed her way past LexCorp Security, she had not made her way to seeming safety before found out by Lex in his towering warsuit.

Now, in this Darker Reality, Lex no longer harbored even a hint of lingering love for the lady reporter who pined so for Superman. Thus it was easier by far for him to do to her what he had just done to Professor Emil Hamilton.

Brrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaattttttttaaaaaaaaaaaaa-brrrtttt! Brrrttt!

"You chose your singular Destiny of Death when you chose Superman over me, Ms. Lane," lauded Lex from the veritable invulnerability surrounding his seated position within the head of the mass of metal. "You shall soon be joined by millions more...until the entirety of humanity names me their Supreme Master. Even that super-simpleton shall bow down...once exposed to the stockpile of Green Kryptonite within one of dozens of built-in antipersonnel weaponry of my one-of-a-kind warsuit. Yes."

Lumbering like the mechanical monster it was, the warsuit stepped past the blood-soaked, bullet-torn, lifeless Lois Lane lying on the floor of this special engineering section of LexCorp in the very heart of Metropolis. Murdered much more emotionally than had happened with the Professor.

And all while Superman had left his ville suprême in order to rescue hundreds of thousands from a freak flash flood in an impossibly poor third-world locality whose name was unknown to the so-called civilized sovereignties of planet Earth.

Needless to say, the unsurpassed sadness and unbridled rage brought to the forefront of the Man of Steel's soul was far greater than he would've endured had Lois Lane lived as she still did in a far brighter Reality.

"Luthorrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

That super-shout shattered windows for many miles around as a torrent of tears surrendered to a desire for Instant Justice for the love of his dual life.

END OF CHAPTER 1