"Oh well," he thought to himself, "must not have checked the pull date on that powder." The yellow powder had had no effect on Superman this time like it had on Superboy a few years ago. He'd made the powder back in Smallville. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, an incantation or two. Too many things for him to remember now. He hadn't written down the formula - "Yes Mother," he thought. She'd told him as a kid to write notes to himself as his memory was terrible. Did he listen? Of course not.
Toyman was angry. Not that his attack against Superman failed. No, it was something deeper. Superman was not Superboy. He was a man now like all the rest. That playful attitude Superboy had was gone. Superman was all business. Just like everyone he had played with eventually became. The Superman incident only reinforced Toyman's sense of isolation. Toyman still wanted to have fun with Superman, but there was a darker element to that now. For the first time he wanted to hurt Superman, to cause him pain as part of the game. Toyman was not Luthor and had no desire to bring Superman down and put him six feet under. But he would now be more aggressive in his games with Superman. Given that Toyman's "toys" actually caused Superboy twinges of pain, what could an angry Toyman come up with to "play" with Superman? That thought thrilled him.
For now - no yellow powder, no daxamite, no kryptonite and the latter he'd had only a tiny piece of. Barley enough to even weaken Superboy, but enough to allow Toyman to capture, strap and restrain Superboy in a chair with bands of daxamite. Eventually Superboy would break the bands, but it would take hours. Never one to let an opportunity go to waste, Toyman had strategically placed cameras around the chair. Capturing the scene from every angle as the stud of steel wriggled, twisted, sweated, grunted and groaned trying to break free. It would be the blockbuster film of the year if Toyman had a distributor. Alas he didn't, but he had hours of video from which to capture stills that he sold on the internet. The demand for the pics was huge even though the price was high. Not just women but men too flocked to purchase photos. It seemed everyone couldn't get enough of the struggling spandex clad young superhero.
It was great while it lasted but hello, to the world Superboy was invincible. Word spread that the photos were a scam perpetrated by a guy dressed up in a Superboy suit and someone dressed like a clown. That latter comment hurt. Toyman's outfit was no more clownish than Superboy's. Both were on the cutting edge of fashion. Though the photos were real, no one believed anymore and Toyman's cash cow dried up overnight - but not before Toyman amassed a large chunk of change. Enough to last several years and allow him to follow Superboy to Metropolis, rent an apartment and not have to get a day job. Or a night job. The latter was important as he did his best work at night. Toyman was not done with the Superboy video. One day he would prove it was really Superboy strapped to the chair and voila - he'd release 'Superboy Bound - The Toyman Cut'. "Can we say a billion dollar film," he thought to himself, "I'll be set for life."
For now he would start over and focus totally on Superman. A new set of toys ready for a Christmas holiday release?. That was exciting. "New and improved anti-Superman weapons," he thought to himself. His mind wandered - maybe he'd do a sequel to 'Superboy Bound', 'Superman Rebound'". Only this time he'd make it a dark film. That's what audiences want. For the first time ever Toyman found himself thinking of his toys as weapons. And specifically, anti-Superman weapons. That thought made him shudder …..