Author's Note: This is my first attempt at writing any fan fiction at all. Bear with me.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Superman franchise or any related characters. DC beat me to it.


My own people dislike me. They call me foolish, undignified.

Inadequate.

So, I tried to make them laugh. I tried to make them smile.

I reinvented myself as a joke, exaggerating my true self into a farcical mask. For, if they laughed, even if they were mocking me and everything that I stood for, they would be acknowledging me and, to some degree, accepting me.

They did not laugh. They did not smile.

They called me moron, buffoon, and idiot. They told me that I was hopeless, useless, and pointless.

All that I wanted was acceptance, maybe love, but they would not allow me those most basic of comforts.

So I left and sought out a world of lesser beings. Here, I thought, I could find what I needed; here, I thought, they would like me. I came to them, a little man in a bowler hat, and I clowned. I capered.

They did not laugh. They did not smile.

They called me nuisance, pest, and plague. They told me that I was irritating, vexing, and annoying.

They learned the secret by which I could be banished back to the Fifth Dimension and tricked me into being the agent of my own exile.

I returned as soon as I could and sought out one of their champions. He, I felt, having been similarly separated from his people, would be able to connect with me. I found him and endeavored to befriend him.

He did not laugh. He did not smile.

He, too, called me buffoon and pest. He, too, told me that I was pointless and annoying.

He, too, drove me away.

Still, I return to Earth, seeking understanding and acceptance. Someday, I feel, they might come to like me, maybe even to love me.

Someday, I might be happy.

Today is not someday. Today, it is as it has always been:

I am Mxyzptlk...and I am alone.


While I know it isn't necessarily the official version of Mister Mxyzptlk, I couldn't resist giving him a tormented history of exclusion. It also provides a rather chilling motivation if read alongside Alan Moore's two-part "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" storyline.

Live long and prosper.

Dracheheim