Approximately Words Count 3,200
2012 G.
Disposable Copy
Phone Extension at Work-0823
"A FREE-VERSE POEM, DISABLED SUPER HEROES ... STEEL? AN ARTICLE".
by
Mark Meredith
I bet any one out there that you don't think that Steel is an amputee ...right?
I bet persons out there reading this don't believe this but Steel is a super hero.
Jonathan Henry Irons is a character that first appeared in comic books.
I know that most of the "ones" out there reading this don't remember that "amputation part" of that movie and the rest of the people out in the audience DON'T think that there was a part like that in the movie.
"The truth to tell?" there wasn't a part like that in STEEL the movie.
Yes ...I know that movie was awful and that generally people didn't go to see that movie but bear with me there's a method to my madness.
The story begins in the next paragraph.
In order to tell the long, historically rich story of Steel... a person has to go back, back to the 70's ...or should I say the 40's?
The first Steel made Mr. Heywood, I, Steel's first appearance in 1978.
Steel's first series was about the 1940's when a white man named Hank Heywood, I during World War II had Heywood's, I's, body caught in an explosion and had his body shredded on Heywood's, I's, bones.
This gave the covert government agency the CIA a chance to save Heywood's, I's, life with an experiment.
The Doctors took Heywood's, I's, shattered bones out of his body.
The government implanted hollow, light, strong ... ...steel bones with motored joints to help do most of the work with Heywood's, I's, lifting of enormous... ...giant weights with Heywood's, I's, new body.
The Army covertly plated Heywood's, I's, intact, real skull with metal and attached Heywood's, I's, muscles fastening them to Heywood's, I's, steel skeleton.
Heywood, I, now had prosthetic steel pipe-like bones; up to Heywood's, I's, neck.
Then Heywood, I, got a skin graft sealing Heywood, I, up with a fire retardant pink steel fiber weaved chain-mail skin!
The government sealed up Heywood's, I's, body with a new invulnerable skin they created that looked real and was retardant to injury from outside sources ...of destruction Heywood, I, might face in action if Heywood, I, decided to work for the government.
Heywood, I, in action fought the Germans in the World War and became Steel-the-Indestructible Man!"!
After a while, President Frank Delano Roosevelt bestowed on Heywood, I, the title Commander Steel!
As Commander Steel... Heywood, I, joined the All-Star Squadron ...that was a sequel to the first Super Friends.
Squadron was a spin off group of the World War's Super-Friends with members in the 'Squadron like the former alias of Bruce Wayne the Bat man named the Flying Fox, Hawkgirl, Dr. Fate, Hawkman (I), Johnny Thunder II, Robotman I, Plastic-Man, Atom I... the atomic hero...Green Lantern I, and Captain Marvel I.
After the World War and Commander Steel's duties with the 'Squadron was over and finished ... ...Commander Steel lived in Detroit and called it QuitsVille for the present time when it came to Commander Steel.
Commander Steel had become a businessman industrialist and had bought Heywood's, I's, self a nice, big A-bomb bunker during the post war Cold War with the Soviet Union of the 50's onwards...' ...nuclear war scare.
... During the sixty's Vietnam War ... ...Heywood, I, was proud to have Commander Steel, Hank Heywood, I's, his own self's very son Henry Heywood, II go to the Vietnam War like Commander Steel had gone off to the World War to serve Heywood's, I's, country in the World War.
Commander Steel knew that Heywood, I, could have the same treatments done on young Henry Heywood, II that were done on Heywood's, I's, self but trusted in Heywood, II to come back from the war alive and that it was best that Steel's costume stayed hung up and Steel remaining retired for now.
When Heywood, I, found out that Heywood, I's, very son Heywood, II was killed in Vietnam… it was a tragedy that was as ironic as it was devastating.
Young Heywood, II would have been safer if Heywood, I had made young Heywood, II a cyborg that fought the "Viet Cong" with Heywood, II's fists and getting shot at point blank range!
Before young Heywood, II died ...at least Heywood, II bore Commander Steel a grandson that Heywood, I, was honored to have named after Commander Steel ... ...named Henry Heywood, three.
Around 1986 the-Justice League of America Unlimited:-New Frontier was breaking up for the first time in 25 years and the last of the most famous founding members Orin Aquaman went to Detroit to form any J. League of America-: New-Frontier that Orin Aquaman could ...to keep JL-ers of A: New Frontier from falling apart forever.
The heroes that answered the call of duty were Zatanna... ... the Martian Manhunter... ...the Vixen... ...the Elongated Man..., ...Gypsy and "Vibe."
By then young Mr. Heywood came of age and Commander Steel treated Mr. Heywood to the transformation process that Commander Steel hadn't gave Heywood, II.
Mr. Heywood agreed to the chance of becoming a cybernetic organism but soon felt like Mr. Heywood had bitten off more than Mr. Heywood could chew when the reality dawned on Mr. Heywood ...that Mr. Heywood would have to endure a series of painful operations that Mr. Heywood couldn't stop once Mr. Heywood started treatments.
Mr. Heywood wanted Mr. Heywood's grandfather to believe that Mr. Heywood was brave enough to go through with the operations as Mr. Heywood promised Heywood, I that Mr. Heywood would.
The operations were psychologically traumatizing but the doctors gave Mr. Heywood an updated cybernetic rebuilding with titanium bones that had small, thin efficient hydraulics connected to that could lift great weights and increase Mr. Heywood's speed.
Commander Steel's company made Mr. Heywood's nearly invincible skin from a strong weaving of steel and plastic fibers.
Mr. Heywood's still afraid of the treatments the doctors gave Mr. Heywood but Mr. Heywood doesn't ever want Mr. Heywood's grandfather Heywood, I, to feel like Heywood, I, did something bad nor wrong to him.
Commander Steel told Orin Aquaman that JL-ers of A: New Frontier could use Steel's giant bunker as a base if they accepted Mr. Heywood ...his grandson into their numbers of heroes.
Orin Aquaman agreed and they called their headquarters "The Bunker."
Since there was no Franklin Delano Roosevelt around to coin the nickname Commander ... ...Mr. Heywood just had to go with Mr. Heywood's grandfather's original name "Steel!!" . ...
The new JL-ers of A: New Frontier was now nicknamed "the Detroit League."
The problem with this JL-ers of A: New Frontier version was that the only super hero readers knew was ...of that was popular...that were one of the original JL-ers of A: New Frontier was Aquaman.
Out of El, Superman; Wayne Bat man; Wonder Woman Diana Prince; and Arthur Curry Aquaman ... the only hero they could get was the least famous Aquaman?
Readers complained...so ...Superman, Incorporated took Arthur Curry Aquaman out of JL-ers of A: New Frontier.
The-Martian Manhunter John Jones was one of the founding members in 1961 but who cared about The Martian Manhunter Mr. Jones?
"Nobody!" that's who!
By this time in 1986 ... Mr. Kent El Superman was revamped, Wayne Bat man was revamped, Diana Prince was revamped but JL-ers of A: New Frontier was still suffering in sales.
Superman, Incorporated decided to have a six issue limited-issue series revamping JL-ers of A: New Frontier calling it the LEGENDS miniseries!
The LEGENDS miniseries was a crossover where JL-ers of A: New Frontier ...is destroyed and one of the New Gods of evil that can control people makes Metropolis turn against all super heroes and makes Metropolis believe that having super heroes is wrong.
It seemed as if they were having all of the most powerful JL-ers of A: New Frontier's enemies that JL-ers of A: New Frontier had made come around to bite them in the back ...now that JL-ers of A: New Frontier was now weaker...in order to attempt destroying JL-ers of A: New Frontier once and for all finally.
Professor Anthony Ivo had decided to murder JL-ers of A: New Frontier with Professor Ivo's deadly inventions.
JL-ers of A: New Frontier was destroyed by Professor Ivo who created an android assassin to stalk JL-ers of A: New Frontier's superhero called Vibe and strangle Vibe Mr. Ramone with a length of wire from behind and then dispatched Hank Heywood, 3...Steel Two ...fighting, defeating Mr. Heywood ...mortally combating and putting Mr. Heywood in critical condition.
Another JL-ers of A: New Frontier foe Despero who knew that in order to take over the universe he had to eradicate JL-ers of A: New Frontier had entered the alien fire of P'ytar and emerged stronger ... had found young Mr. Heywood in Mr. Heywood's hospital room connected by tubes.
JL-ers of A: New Frontier had (The Gypsy) "Cynthia" Reynolds go back to "Cindy's" home where young Ms. Reynolds could lay low so that she would be hopefully safe for a long time until it all blew over.
It seemed like the world was collapsing down around JL-ers of A: New Frontier's ears all about JL-ers of A: New Frontier.
Despero delivered the final blow to Mr. Heywood by dis-attaching the life support from Mr. Heywood and watching Mr. Heywood die right before Despero.
Despero then stalked "Gypsy" and found Gypsy's parents home where Gypsy went into hiding and attacked the Reynolds family and the JL-ers of A: New Frontier that were there in THEIR home.
Despero killed the Senior Ms. and Mr. Reynolds in the battle as The Martian Manhunter Mr. Jones, the team leader saved Gypsy airlifting Ms. Reynolds to safety just after Gypsy's parents were killed ... the Martian Manhunter Mr. Jones flying Gypsy to someplace Gypsy would not be found.
G. G. Godfrey controlled human beings so that they believed crime fighters were a menace.
Mr. Wayne, Green Lantern "Guy" Gardner, Kent Nelson Dr. Fate ... were teleported magickally by Doctor Fate.
Dinah The Black Canary, Theodore Kord the Blue Beetle, (William Batson) SHAZAM, were all drawn to Metropolis after JL-ers of A: New Frontier were destroyed and the above mentioned heroes were formed together into a more powerful JL-ers of A: New Frontier!
Booster Gold joined the next new form of JL-ers of A: New Frontier a few issues after they started over with issue one again.
After a while Booster Gold having been just a human being in a power-suit outfit felt like Booster Gold was being pushed to the back of the crowd of JL-ers of A: New Frontier. Being around so many other super heroes really opened Booster Gold's eyes as to how little fame and powers Booster Gold had compared to other heroes.
Booster Gold felt second best compared to others in the JL-ers of A: New Frontier and didn't get to handle any of the heavy jobs.
So Booster Gold formed a spin-off of JL-ers of A: New Frontier named the Conglomerate and led people such as "Gypsy;" "...Vibe's" little brother who genetically had the same powers as his big brother ...was named, "Reverb..." Ms. Eckhart "Echo"; Ms. Donahue (Vapor); Frostbite; Slipstream; Scarab and "Atom Smasher" Mr. Rothstein.
One day years later an African American construction worker was eating lunch up on a girder going through some bad times and thinking about killing Irons' self when a fellow worker friend on the story above Irons ...the friend worker had tripped on a cable and began to fall.
The man falling had a family, kids to take care of, and Irons "saw that" cable hanging from the hook from the other side of the girder, as Irons was getting up swiftly like a locomotive gaining speed.
Irons jumped across to the other girder and jumped into thin air off the construction building grabbing steel cable, wrapping Irons' wrist with the cable twice and grabbing the falling man.
There was a wooded platform built into part of that floor of the building so Irons immediately dumped the worker onto it.
The metal hook above fell off the girder above and Irons' cable suddenly went slack.
Irons began falling as the metal cable swirled into slacked circles above Irons as Irons looked through the center of the slack circles of cable at the sky above knowing that Irons was going to fall to Irons' death.
Luckily Kent was nearby and saw what happened ...coming to help.
Kent flew by holding out a hand; Irons reached an arm out, and grasped Kent's hand.
Irons hung down in thin air from Kent's arm length.
When Kent descended Irons down to the girder Irons had leaped from so readily and Kent flew off ...Irons stood on the girder dumbfounded, saying, "You saved my life!"_
Kent looked back at Irons ... ...Clark El waving back once replied, "Then make it count for something!"
One day when Doomsday was killing Kent in battle...Kent and Doomsday were fighting next to a building that being constructed… and the building collapsed inward...from top of where Irons watched the battle.
Irons wanted to see if Kent would be winning the fight or not and was worried.
Construction workers had dug up a basement and the construction collapsed in on itself, as Irons fell, was buried alive tumbling into towards where the basement was... by many metal girders.
Irons tried to think of anything to keep occupied Irons' mind...to keep it busy in the loneliness of the dark.
Irons began to hear voices of many spirits...real spirits ...speaking in Irons' head to Irons.
As Irons tried to dig Irons' way out of that basement towards sunshine...for days ...suddenly...the spirits began to bestow the powers of great strength to Irons as Irons slowly gained super strength.
The increasingly superior strength that Irons gained ...the faster Irons dug through the metal girders until Irons reached sunlight...saying, "Doomsday!
I've GOT to STOP Doomsday!"
Irons stood...rising up out of collapsed (pronunciation DE-BRR-EE) debris falling off of Irons down Irons' mighty body!
With Irons' new-gained power of super strength Irons ran swiftly in the direction the battle was heading...running throughout the streets following the collapsed buildings now with firefighters digging victims out of the wreckage.
Irons thought that if firefighters were still digging people out of the wreckage then perhaps the battle might still be going on!
Irons thought the word, "Please." to himself desperately.
Irons thought because of Irons' engineering degree that Kent was Earth's greatest hero...as long the sun still shines ... ...Kent is still fighting ... ...Kent gets El's power from the sun...Kent probably doesn't even need to stop to sleep nor eat!
Kent has to still be fighting.
Kent has to still be fighting.
Kent has to be still battling Doomsday right now!
Irons can help fight Doomsday!
Irons almost ran past the spot where the path of the broken buildings ended.
Irons almost didn't notice the golden building spire of the futuristic-looking, shining Daily Planet Building that was the first building Irons had seen that was still standing.
Irons looked at The Daily Planet ... ...pausing.
Irons saw something at the bottom...a golden plaque.
Irons stepped towards the plaque ... ...reading it. It read, "
IN MEMORIAM OF SUPERMAN WHO DIED
ON THIS … SPOT DEFENDING METROPOLIS.
" Irons felt lost ... ...not knowing what to do ...nor what to do with Irons newly found great power.
Then Irons thought of what Kent told Irons. Irons heard Irons say in a memory, "You saved my life!"
Then Irons heard in Irons' memory Kent say, "Then MAKE IT STAND for something!"
A sound of a car exploding in the morning another day awoken Irons to find Irons were in bed in "the apartment".
Irons heard a memory of Kent in Iron's head ...saying, "… Stand for something!"
The moment seemed to be stuck in time forever but only lasted a second as Irons shot up out of Iron's bed and yanked on quickly and smoothly some jeans to help whoever had crashed into a building or crashed cars "or what (?)."
Irons ran into the street to soon see what would soon become something far worse to Irons personally.
Irons soon realized that Irons was looking at a gang member holding a huge "science fiction-like" rifle looking at a burning Cadillac.
Irons looked at the aluminum stock and plastic patterns on the light...high tech shotgun and recognized the giant machinegun like high tech device.
The sight of it enraged Iron's blood itself ...it felt like to Irons ...now Irons knew what it felt like to feel Iron's blood "boil".
The "audience" is asking, " … but why does Irons recognize the gun when it is the first time Irons has seen that type of science-fiction-like 'machine gun'?" read on and you'll see.
Irons surged forward like a locomotive suddenly quickly in a moment that seemed lost forever in time.
Irons simply ran right up to the gangster and grabbed the barrel of the thick rifle before the "kid" could get the barrel up quick enough to get a good body-shot in like he wanted to ...seconds feeling like minutes to Irons.
Irons from there ...merely yanked the machine gun forward before the kid could get the kid's trigger finger tightened again.
In a rush of rage Irons smashed the butt of the shotgun swinging down against the street ...cracking the rifle up enough that the shotgun was useless to anybody who wanted to operate the shotgun.
Irons turned away Ironse's back slightly to the gang member to swing the gun up and over Iron's head.
Irons swung the machine gun downward to bring the gun smashing down on the blacktop ...the gangster like an animal or an adolescent that had just lost the first prototype toy that he knew was going to be the next new thing... ...the gang member jumped on Ironse's back.
The kid scrambled on Ironse's back as if the kid was going to climb over Ironse's back and make a nosedive into the pavement trying to get the gun that was inoperable.
The adolescent scratched at Iron's ears and neck...punching at Ironse's head.
The kid got in a few good ones...smashing Ironse's face with some pretty tight right hooks...but Irons has been punched before ...no big deal.
The kid said, "HEY, man, let-go my Toastmaster!" …. .
… Another day: it is morning before noon: on a building's front stone steps leading to the door of what in the big city as is known of as a brownstone apartment-building.
Sitting on the front steps Irons is sitting and telling the kids in the neighborhood about the folktale of Iron John. … .
Continued...
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D.
Fifty-Six Cottage Three
W
Extension-0823
Afterwords?
by
Mark Walt Meredith
That is the end of that act of the story so far. Do you think that's the end of the life of this main character? Not necessarily ...if you don't want it to be ... then write me a note about how you want to see the next chapter in the story of this main character's life! What happens next? Who knows what happens? Tell me what you want to be happening in the story, next, OK? OK! Perhaps I'll write the next chapter very soon from now!
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