A CITY OF CHANGE

By Lois Lane

It's midday. Cars have been abandoned on the freeway. Most buildings in the financial district are empty. A flow of people stream out of the city, leaving behind everything they know. Somewhere near the newly finished LexCorp building, the hero known as Superman faces off against another survivor from the planet Krypton. The city has been cut off from the rest of America. If you look across the bay, you can see the top of the Wayne Enterprises building through the fog. Gotham City and Metropolis are so close yet strangely so far apart. Even as Superman battles General Zod, the people of Gotham go on with their lives, unaware or unconcerned with what's happening a couple of miles to the south.

That was three years ago. Metropolis faced a threat unlike any other. The scars of battle have only recently been healed and thanks to Lex Luthor, the man GBS News called the man of tomorrow, Metropolis is back to being the jewel in the crown of the American East Coast that it's been for over 70 years. Time moves forward. In three short years, the world has been exposed to wonders it used to imagine existed in the realms of fantasy fiction and comic books. It began with Superman. I was on board Air Force One when he appeared and plucked it out of the sky. I witnessed his epic battle with General Zod. This newspaper had exclusive coverage of the event and exclusive comments from the Man of Steel himself. At the same time across the bay, a masked vigilante took down the Falcone Crime Syndicate. When the mysterious Green Lantern saved Coast City from the devil-faced Sinestro, it had become clear that the whole universe was taking an interest in planet Earth. My colleague Clark Kent put it best in his article, "The Age Of The Superhero" when he suggested that the future of our country could no longer be mired in the politics of the petty. It couldn't be the United States and the rest of the world. It had to be the whole world, one world of many across the cosmos.

We have been forced to evolve as a society. At the height of the Cold War, the space race led to new innovation as two superpowers sought to conquer the stars. But the stars aren't easily conquered and we have been forced to evolve and innovate to deal with the new reality of that has been presented to us. But as we look to the future, as Metropolis strives to become the city of tomorrow, we cannot allow ourselves to forget the past. Before the age of the superhero, before Superman, Metropolis was a city striving to find its identity. It was through Lex Luthor that our city's future would be secured. Luthor owns a third of the buildings in Metropolis and is heavily invested in everything else. Metropolis was to be his city. His work in reshaping the Hyper Sector, which for you suburbanites is our financial sector in the heart of New Troy Island, allowed Metropolis to compete with Wall Street. New York was the postcard for America. It was the city you thought of when you thought of the great American cities. Luthor sought to change that. His vision for a city of the future, where every man and woman had a job, where arts and culture would be redefined and where every the elite of the financial markets would come to do business was well on its way to becoming a reality.

The Metropolis of today still follows that path. LexCorp remains at the forefront of innovation and continues to drive the city to new heights. Luthor's company stood to lose a lot of money due to the Kryptonian invasion. Much of the destruction fell down upon LexCorp-owned buildings. Some wondered if LexCorp could recover from such catastrophic losses. It not only recovered, it thrived, rebuilding its own property and that of everyone else who had lost their homes or places of work. Metropolis, as a feat of engineering and architecture, as a vision of what the city of the future should look like, is the most successful city on the planet. But the soul of a city is not in steel and concrete. It's not in the new sky-train that connects the six boroughs, it's in the people.

So let's go back three years to that fateful day. Cars abandoned on the roadside. People walking the streets, heading for the city limits. How do you evacuate ten million people? You don't. You can't. What the official reports of that day won't tell you about is what happened on the ground. The decisions that were made by the people entrusted with protecting us. The mistakes. The blunders. The triumphs. Ten million people didn't get out of the city. The highest estimate puts evacuated civilians at around two million. It was probably closer to one million. Either way, you had eight to ten million people stuck in a city when the barricades went up. It was said that the barricades were meant to keep people from going back in. In truth it was meant to keep the aliens from getting out. It was a futile gesture of course. Their ability to fly had been well documented. It was all about maintaining the appearance of control. They had none of course. Mayor Berkowitz had called the Governor and the Governor had sent in the National Guard. They rolled into Glenmorgan Square and were decimated by Zod. There was no choice but to call in every conceivable branch of the armed forces. To see the US Army operating on American soil was a disheartening sight. To hear the roar of F-22s overhead, attempting to create a no-fly zone around the city was frightening. But what could they do? The might of our military was powerless against the Kryptonians.

When Superman appeared to challenge General Zod, those of us who remained in the city knew he was our only hope. But the military couldn't be seen to be leaving the fate the city, the country, of the entire world to an alien they didn't know and couldn't trust. I trusted him. Even if the military commanders trusted him, what would happen if he lost? Something had to be done. A missile strike was ordered. You won't read that in official documents. You won't hear the top brass at the Pentagon admit to it. But it almost happened. A tactical missile strike that would have leveled downtown Metropolis. There were at least eight million people left in the city. Over two million were on New Troy. They had nowhere to go. They could only hide in their homes and try to wait it out, hope that it would be all over soon. Many of them would have died had the missile strike gone ahead. It didn't. The Generals and Admirals and politicians were eventually convinced to give Superman a chance. But if they hadn't been, if a missile strike had gone ahead and killed countless American citizens, would it have been a price we were willing to pay?

"What were we supposed to do?" one of the people present at the meetings in the forward command base, who wishes to remain anonymous, asked me. "If Superman lost, Metropolis…the whole world was done for." So what changed their minds? Why did they wait? Did they come to believe in Superman? "It wasn't so much about Superman. He'd presented himself as an ally but even if he beat Zod, what was to stop him from turning on us?" So why wait? "The people around the table came to believe that a conventional missile strike would be ineffective. Zod had already destroyed everything we'd thrown at him." Conventional was off the table then. Were they considering the nuclear option? "Well we had to. We had the conversation. What choice did we have? Nobody wanted to nuke Metropolis. Those were Americans down there. But it was decided to wait." For Superman? "Yes. For Superman," my source replied. "If he succeeded and didn't use his power against us, it would of course be a victory. If he failed or if he was shown to be fighting against the United States…" The bomb would have been dropped? "Maybe…"

Metropolis could have been destroyed by our own weapons and not the alien threat. It's a scary thought. But an understandable one. How far should we go to protect our cities? Should a couple of million people be sacrificed to save the world? These are questions of ideals, of philosophy. In truth the world isn't black and white. Having the nuclear option on the table was practical. I bring it up not to deride the military. I come from a military family. My father is a a General in the US Army. The military showed remarkable strength and restraint on that day and they should be commended for it. I bring it up because it illustrates the world we now live in.

Aliens are a reality. The age of the Superhero is a reality. They're out there. Saving lives. Their exploits may have drawn the attention of forces beyond our comprehension, forces we are ill-prepared to deal with. Some have argued that we would be better off without the heroes, that we wouldn't have been exposed to the dangers of the universe had they not appeared. The reality is, we've been sending signals into space long before the first "cape" showed up. We were already out there, telling the cosmos that we're here. At least now we have people to come to our aid.

Eighteen months ago, the United Nations Security Council agreed on an approach to superheroes while the General Assembly signed what became known as the Superman Act. The rise of superheroes required an official response on a global level. The Superman Act allowed for superheroes to freely cross national borders in the interest of saving lives. Various rules that defined what a superhero could and couldn't do were put in place with particular emphasis being placed on crime fighting and actions within a war zone. The Superman Act was more of an exercise in philosophy than politics. No heroes, not even the man who the act was named for, were consulted. The debate went on for months. What was morally acceptable? When, if ever, could heroes violate national laws in pursuit of criminals? In truth, the Superman Act was written due to a desire to have something written down in acknowledgement of the changing world. The idea of trying to police superhero exploits is ludicrous. Many of these people are far too powerful to be held accountable by the law unless they choose to be. Even the question of what constitutes a superhero split the Security Council. Is the Gotham vigilante known as Batman a superhero? He has never been seen to exhibit superhuman abilities. In the end, it was decided that the question would be left to individual nations to answer for themselves. Superman is universally recognized as a superhero. Batman is recognized as a superhero in just thirty eight countries. The practical questions that arise when dealing with this new era are many and the answers are few. Metropolis has been at the forefront of finding ways to exist in relevancy.

It has been said that every hero needs a villain. If that's true, then it surely follows that every superhero needs a supervillain. It is hardly surprising that the criminal class has begun to adapt to the superhero era. They've had to. When you're dealing with people who can move mountains, create any object they can think of and in some cases, have even been given the power of gods we used to call myths, you're going to need more than armor-piercing bullets if you plan on robbing banks. Why any prospective criminal would commit a crime in Metropolis or across the bay in Gotham is baffling. But the criminals have found ways to fight back. Advanced weaponry, diversion tactics and even attempts to counter act specific abilities of the superheroes are just some of the things criminals have done. Of course not every super-powered person becomes a hero. The term "metahuman" has been used to describe those with superpowers and for every hero that emerges, a villain isn't far behind. While there are those who are concerned with the ultimate goal of superheroes, supervillains are a threat here and now and in a city like Metropolis, we cannot allow ourselves to rely on a man who can't be everywhere at once. He's Superman. Not God.

When the biggest criminals in Metropolis found themselves under threat, they did the unthinkable - they united. This newspaper has run numerous stories on the organized crime syndicate known as Intergang. Every gang in Metropolis, uniting to become an army of criminals to stand against our greatest heroes. Controlled by the notorious Bruno Mannheim, Intergang has achieved some success in unlawful activities. It has been suggested that Superman could destroy the organization if he chose to. But that isn't Superman's job. His role in this city, in the world, is to save people and to inspire us to save ourselves. Just as the criminals have adapted, we have had to do the same.

The Special Crimes Unit, headed by Lieutenant Margaret Sawyer, is the envy of every police force in the country. The SCU is something of an experiment. Can a police force be effective in this new world? The SCU is attempting to answer that question. Working with technology initially developed for the military, the SCU is on the front line, standing toe-to-toe with supervillains. Stryker's Island Penitentiary has been transformed to house the most powerful criminals in the world. The experiment has thus far proved to be a huge success. Appearances by Superman at active crimes have dropped significantly in the months since the SCU was formed. The message is clear. He doesn't go where he isn't needed.

But for all our advances, a question hangs over our heads - what's the cost? When buildings are decimated, cars are tossed around like paper and the only option is to respond with expensive technology, it all adds up. Insurance premiums in Metropolis have risen significantly in the past three years. Interestingly enough, so have house prices. The city's budget has ballooned, accountants and politicians alike are weighing up damage costs against lives saved. Just how much is a life worth these days? One thousand? Two? We need to wake up. We need to realize that our city, our society faces a future much larger than we could have ever predicted. The world has changed and Metropolis is at the heart of it. The City Council are expected to vote on measures to expand the city's emergency relief fund in less than ten days. It isn't expected to be passed. Opponents of the measures insist that it is unfair to place the burden of paying for damages caused by unregistered vigilantes on the citizens of Metropolis. Proponents argue that these so-called vigilante's are performing a public service in keeping the city safe. They ask for no recognition or reward. In fact many argue that Superman has almost single-handedly tripled the influx of tourists into the city.

Ultimately, the vote may be irrelevant. A proposal by some of the largest companies in Metropolis, led by LexCorp, would see a discretionary fund established by the private sector in Metropolis, to be used with oversight by the city. In essence, the Metropolis elite would pay to keep the city standing. It is a move that has surprised many but with rumors continuing to swirl of a possible run for office by Lex Luthor, this apparent act of civic pride, political ploy or not, may make even the most hardened of skeptics feel a little better about the heroes flying over our heads - as long as they don't have to pay for it.

The renovation of the area known as Suicide Slums is scheduled to be complete by years end. Whether the project meets its goals and provides safe and affordable housing for the poor of Metropolis who spent years in a cycle of crime remains to be seen. But Metropolis has always been on the forefront of change. Metropolis is a city right on the edge of the future. Metropolis is where the genius of Lex Luthor prospered. Metropolis is where the world's greatest hero first chose to appear. They call it the city of tomorrow. Sounds about right.

- From The Daily Planet, March 22nd 2015