INFAMOUS II

By SuperBear

Clark Kent didn't know it but Roger McNulty was about to drastically alter his life.

An alumni of Smallville High, Roger was absent-mindedly paging through the first issue of the "Smallville" comic book when he realized the figure in the red jacket looked a lot like Clark Kent.

In fact, the figure in the red jacket was named "Clark Kent", and his friends looked a lot like Lana Lang, Pete Ross, and Chloe Sullivan.

Naturally it didn't take long for Roger to figure out that Superman was Clark Kent.

That was how Clark woke up the next morning and looked outside his Metropolis apartment to find protesters holding up signs that said things like "Clark, Why Didn't You Save Me?" and "Alien, Go Home!" Clark immediately called to his wife.

"Um, Lois?" he said. "Do we still have that Legion ring around somewhere?"

Six months earlier, Clark stood in the editor's office of DC Comics, Metropolis Division.

"So you see, Mr. Schwartz," Clark said, "it's really not a good idea to have a comic book that reveals too much about my time in Smallville. People can figure out my identity, and that compromises my ability to protect people."

With his curly brown hair and tinted spectacles, Julius Schwartz resembled the infamous Winslow Schott, also known as Toyman.

Schwartz rubbed his chin and nodded. Working on the "Smallville" comic book, he had come to think of the characters as friends. To him, they weren't "Clark Kent" and "Lex Luthor," remote inaccessible figures. They were Clark and Lex, people he knew on a first-name basis. People he knew well. .

"Sure, Clark," he said, "We can cancel the mass printing. But what do we do with the one copy we've already made?"

Clark thought of Chloe, working at the "Star City Register" under another name. She and Oliver kept their marriage a secret. It was a way to protect themselves and their son.

When the Omega mark was lifted from the masses, after Clark/Superman moved Darkseid's planet away from Earth, the people also forgot that Oliver Queen was Green Arrow.

Working with the Justice League, Green Arrow carried on a public flirtation with Black Canary, another way to keep villains from guessing Green Arrow was secretly married.

Clark picked up the one issue of "Smallville." "I know someone," he said. "It'll be in good hands. She can read it to her son." He grinned. "Superman can go on protecting the world and still have a private life, too."

As he left the office Clark felt so happy that if he was in the last panel of a comic book, he would be winking at the reader.

Of course if he was Bizarro he would be saying, "Me so happy me want to cry." But that is a story for another time.