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krinsbez · 3 years

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Super-Sizing the Superfamily: A DC Comics Storybuilding Project

So, on a forum I post on, we’ve been working on a storybuilding project. To wit, we plan to envision a selection of Superman and related comic books, if the Superman family was allowed to be even bigger than the Batman family, with multiple Superboys and Supergirls, as well as various other characters. To this end, we are be using multiple different versions of some characters, as well as occasionally decompositing existing characters.

At the bare minimum, I'd like to come up with a set of Superman Family titles (not everyone gets their own book, of course), and plot out a year of storylines, culminating in a Superman Family Crossover. Ideally we'd go beyond that as well, but given how ambitious that goal is, I'm not holding my breath.

The project has hit a bit of a wall ATM, so I figured now was as good a time as any to post what we’ve got so far on Tumblr. With his permission, I am tagging @davidmann95, the Internet’s Premier Supermanologist, to get his opinion, but anyone is free to comment or make suggestions.

We begin with... The "Core" Super-fam. Note that this is not an exhaustive list of characters appearing in this thing: -Clark (Superman) -Lois -Jon (Superboy Blue?) -Chris (Superboy Red?) -Kon (Kid Cadmus) (decomposite, based on original, Jacket version) -Conner (?) (decomposite, based on later, Geoff Johns/YJ version) -Kara Zor-El I AKA Zara (Supernova) (decomposite Modern Supergirl , based on TV Show version) -Kara Nim-El AKA Nara (Supergirl) (Variation on Silver Age Supergirl)* -Kara In-Ze AKA Iara (Blue Bombshell) (DCAU Supergirl)** -Kara Zor-El II AKA Tara (Miss Metropolis) (decomposite Modern Supergirl, based on "Cheerleader" version)*** -"Cir-El" (Tomorrow Girl) -Mae (Matrix) (I'm gonna say that for our purposes, she managed to come back after being separated from Linda) -Linda (Mighty Maid) (as per the post-Earth-Angel part of PAD's comic, with the Earth-Angel thing being backstory which we will leave vague) -Kristen (Superwoman) -Karen (Power Girl)**** -Mon-El (?) -"Uncle Carl" (decomposite Bizarro. Imperfect clone, somewhat "cured") -Bizarro #1 (decomposite, Imperfect duplicate, lives on Htrae, etc.) -Jimmy -Perry -Lucy -Kenan (New Super-Man) -John Henry (Steel) -Natasha (Steel? Starlight?) -Lana -Krypto -Streaky -Ma and Pa (I've seen good arguments for one or both of them being deceased by the modern-era...but I'm including them anyways) Possible members: -Lori Lemaris -Luma Lynai -Marvel Maid and Marvel Man -Vartox -Strange Visitor -Sally Selwyn -Lyla Ler-Rol -Thara Ak-Var -Alpha Centurion -More I'm not thinking of.

*In the Silver Age, Jor-El had two brothers, his younger brother Zor, Kara's dad, and his twin Nim-El. We are making this Kara daughter of the former rather than the latter, born on Argo City, which survived the destruction of Krypton, named for her presumed dead cousin, sent to Earth when the systems keeping the city alive began to fail. **Keeping mostly the S:TAS backstory, with the caveats that the people of Argos were Kryptonian colonists, not a separate species, and that she's a relative of Zor-El's wife Alura In-Ze, with "Kara" and "In-Ze" being common family names. ***Something her ship encountered on her journey to Earth created a duplicate that took even longer to arrive, and was the subject of the previous Superfam crossover. ****The original "Super Girl", magically created by Jimmy wishing into existence a perfect mate for Superman.

Next, The Superfam books and casts thereof (not distinguishing between main, supporting, and recurring characters) (no villains as of yet. Mostly)

-Action Comics: Anthology title, each issue spotlighting different members of the Super-Fam.

No specific cast.

-Superman: Duh.

Somehow, I don't think we've specifically cast this one.

-Lois Lane: Again, duh. Serious journalism, with occasional Wacky Hijinks.

Lois

Clark

Perry

Jimmy

Lucy

Gen. Lane

Lex's administrative staff (Mercy, Ms. Tesmacher, the Loisbot, etc.), whom she is “casually bitchy” with

As-Yet-Unselected-Police-Contact

Bibbo

-Jimmy Olsen: Third verse, same as the first.

Jimmy

The Planet staff

Iara (who he's dating; superspeed makes long =-distance relationships easy)

The New Newsboys (Famous Bobbie included)

Scorn

Ashbury

Misa

-Power Girl: Ditto.

Karen

Atlee

Hiro

Mae

-Cadmus: Again. We're basing this mostly on the bit of Kon's '90s book when he was hanging out on Cadmus, with the caveat that the Hairies moved the Wild Area (and thus the whole damn Project) to a pocket dimension with entrance termini in a number of different locations, including, but not limited to, Metropolis, Honolulu, the Un-Men reservation in Louisiana, and wherever the Justice League of China is headquartered.

Kon

Golden Guardian

The OG now-adult Newsboy Legion

The New Newsboys (Famous Bobbie included)

Dubbilex

Tana

Roxy

Serling

Tekka

Kenan and the JLC

Mickey Cannon

Sam Makoa?

Prince Tuftan and friends

-Adventure Comics: Stories about Conner, Iara, and Tara hanging around Smallville; inspired largely by Kon's late '00s title. Back-up feature is stories about Clark's Superboy years.

Conner

Iara

Tara

Lori Luthor

Lena Luthor I

Simon Valentine

Psionic Lad

Lana

Loretta "Golden Genie" York (the character formerly known as the Yellow Peri)

-Sons of Superman: Starring Jon and Chris.

Chris

Jon

Lois

Clark

Beacon

Jor-El AI

Kelex

Ma & Pa

Lucy

Kon

Conner

Kristin

-Planet Comics: About the adventures of the Daily Planet crew in general. Workplace comedy, Clark keeps the glasses on, mostly.

Perry

Lois

Clark

Jimmy

Cat

Steve Lombard

Ron Troupe

Dirk Armstrong

Angela Chen

(I'd like to feature more of the various folks who've been shown working for the Planet over the years)

-Streets of Metropolis: Comparatively gritty stories about battling street-level crime, starring Gangbuster, Black Lighting and fam, and the MPD.

Jeff

Anissa

Jennifer

Lynn

Gangbuster (let's face it, most of y'all wouldn't recognize his real name)

Maggie

Turpin

Henderson

Leocadio

-National Comics (alt. title: Supernova and the DEO): Zara's adventures trying to make it on her own in National City, whilst helping Alex and the DEO.

Zara

Tara (commuting from Smallville)

Linda

Mon-El

Alex

Director Bones (standing in for the show’s version of J’onn, though the relationship is *probably* less familial)

Cameron Chase?

Winn

Simone D'Neige (standing in for the show’s version of Cat Grant)

Lena Luthor II (standing in for the show’s version of her aunt; we’re assuming that she stayed aged up after being de-Brainiaced)

Dreamer

-Steel and the Girls of Steel (need a better title): Starring John Henry, Natasha, Cir-El, and Traci 13.

John

Henry

Natasha

“Boris”

Cir-El

Mia (i’m counting Cir-El and her alter ego as separate characters)

Traci 13

The Supermen of America (a team, including Super-Chief and “Iron” Munro, inspired by Superman’s example, that John Henry is training)

-Nightwing and Flamebird. Adventures in the Bottle City of Kandor, which is majority Kryptonian but has a sizable population of other species. Despite the title, the eponymous duo are not the protagonists, but rather an ordinary citizen who’s taken it upon themselves to unravel the mystery of their secret identity (the truth is that an assortment of people take turns at wearing those costumes)

-Superman Family. Anthology title, with each issues featuring a team-up between Clark and another member of the Superfam.

No specific cast

There are a few other odds and sods here and there, but that’s most of it, asides from the fact we’ve decided to costume the Supergirls thusly:

-Karen, of course, wears the Power Girl costume. -Cir-El has a distinct costume already. -Linda is rocking the DCSHG look.* -Iara has her S:TAS look.* -I wanna say Nara's wearing one of the Bronze Age-era outfits, but they might be too '70s to really work? -Mae is wearing a somewhat sexier version of the classic look (I'm imagining she's the second-most vavavoom-y of the Supergirls after Karen). -Zara I is wearing the second TV show suit with the pants. -Zara II (Tara?) is wearing the Jim Lee cheerleader outfit. Note: despite both being a miniskirt and bellyshirt, her outfit is notably skimpier than Iara's, with a shorter, lower slung skirt, and a tighter top with...what's the right way of saying there's less of it? This is her deliberately distinguishing herself from her older duplicate's more modest look. *May switch these, IDK.

#Superman #Supergirl #Superboy #Lois Lane #Jimmy Olsen #Fanfic ideas #DC Comics #DC Comics Fanfic

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justdrifting · 7 years

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Ooookay fandom, can we have a little chat about this "M'gann is now Space Mom" thing that's been going around since the final? At first it was just making me a little uncomfortable, but @hufflepirate mentioned something that got me thinking about it more, and now I am very uncomfortable with the whole concept.

Because, look, just because J'onn and M'gann are an ~official couple now, doesn't mean M'gann has to, or wants to, or is even remotely comfortable with taking on that role. Like obviously I don't know for sure, and she very well might, and next season may give us more insight into it, but to me, with what we know about her, it just...doesn't feel like something she'd be keen on at all? Especially not yet.

Space Dad/Papa Bear is a natural role for J'onn, because he's already been a parent, because that role or relationship is incredibly important to him and was an important facet of his identity (eg: "My first daughter. When she came along, I finally realised I had a mission in life. I had someone who relied on me. Having her gave me direction."). Even so, he'd been working with Alex for more than 2 and a half years, and with Kara for something like 8 months (?), and presumably looking out for them a lot longer, before he first even acknowledged that he considered them like daughters (1x11). And it really wasn't until the very end of Season 1 and through Season 2 that he started being more open and affectionate and really embracing that father-figure role, first with Alex and Kara, then Winn, and then Maggie a little too.

Which is to say, he's had a lot of time to figure out what he wants his relationships with the other characters to look like, and even though he's already been a father, it's still been a long process for him.

M'gann, on the other hand, has never been a parent (I mean, as far as we know, I suppose). More than that, she's hardly ever even had a family: "I had a mother, once. She wasn't warm, that wasn't our way, but she cared for me, I know she did. I'd forgotten that feeling until now, what it felt like to have a family." She literally hasn't had any close, familial relationships since she was a child, something like 500/600 years ago (ugh @ martian ages, I make that up completely).

J'onn had a wife, children, friends, a career... We don't know all that much about M'gann's life on Mars, but we do know she felt like an outsider in her society so it’s unlikely she had many friends. We know she was in an arranged marriage, she was a soldier, and then she was a fugitive. She is far, far more emotionally inexperienced than J'onn (and honestly, than most of the other characters on the show). Like, my heart breaks every single time at the vulnerable, open way she tells J'onn, "I wanted...to be your friend," in 2x10. And that it takes her a long time to figure out that what she feels for J'onn is romantic instead of platonic ("I feel it too. I have for awhile. I just didn't...know what it was."), whereas J'onn is far more confident in his feelings, suggests to me that she hasn't had anywhere near enough close, caring and emotional relationships of any kind. (Also, did you notice she always says "care" and not "love" (2x11). Has she ever had anyone tell her they love her? Has she ever told someone else? (On a scale of 1 to 10 how badly does she need a hug?))

So she's only just, just getting used to the idea that there are people who care about her, who want to help her, who want to be her friend, and who consider her family. To throw her into the deep end and expect her to suddenly take on an incredibly intense and demanding role? Surely, that would terrify the crap out of her? It's way too much pressure too soon. It's unlikely that she believes in herself enough yet as well. She seems so insecure in accepting that she means something to people. Already in 2x22 she seems more confident (the easy way she calls the other white martians her "friends", my heart), and that confidence will hopefully only grow. But she needs time.

It's also just like, not ever something she's given any indication of being interested in... She wants friends. She wants a family. Never, ever has she suggested that she wants to be a mother. Like, fuck, she needs a mom just as much as any of the other characters do.

Which is not in any way to say that parent-child relationships can't also be friendships, can't be incredibly strong and mutually supportive. But it's undeniable that the nature of a parent-child relationship is different than a regular friendship, and that for the most part the parent takes on the carer/support role. Which, yes, we know she's nurturing and caring and good at looking after people - with both Kara and Alex in 2x11 for example. But I really feel like M'gann needs support and she needs friends/family in a very different way than J'onn does.

The parent-child relationship is something that has been missing from J'onn's life, so it heals something within him [But also, can we please not make him be a father figure to every single character? Can we please let him just have a friend? James had a good dad, can't they just be mates? I digress..] But the relationships that have been missing the most from M'gann's life, the ones she most needs, are friendships, are equal relationships, are people who will support her and look after her and tell her they’re proud of her and with whom she can be as emotionally vulnerable with as they are with her.

I just… Can't she just be? Can't we let her choose for herself where she fits in the Superfam? Can't we let her develop her own relationships with the other characters, outside of J'onn's?

I don’t know, it just feels like a huge disservice to her character, and it feels like fandom just wanting her to fill a role without really giving any thought to her as a character and whether it’s one that actually fits. And we should also maybe think about why we’re so eager for the only black woman on the show to take on a maternal and emotionally supportive role towards the other mostly white characters, despite not giving any indication that that's what she wants. And then...maybe not do that.

Like I get where this trend is coming from, and I love that people are including M'gann more, and I get that it works to slot her into the superfamily in this position. But like, we're clearly all already capable of exploring non-traditional family dynamics, because obviously that's what the superfam is, so it really shouldn't be that much of a stretch to include M'gann as part of the family, as J’onn’s partner, while not necessarily ‘co-parenting’ with him. And I guess if people really do think that that’s what she’d want, then I feel like you owe it to her to give her the narrative importance to explain that choice and what it means for her, instead of just taking it as given. Because unlike with J’onn, there’s (currently) no canon backstory to ‘Space Mom’, except that she’s dating ‘Space Dad’. And that is really not a good enough reason.

Okay so I feel like this is not explained well at all, but as an example have a read of this fic by @aeveee. It seamlessly balances M'gann's relationship with J'onn, J'onn's relationship with his kids, and M'gann's friendship with Maggie and Kara, without minimising any of them, and it's a really lovely exploration of how these women might relate to and support each other (which the show has squandered). When M'gann is relegated to a purely maternal figure, that depth has the potential to get lost, and that’s a huge shame.

(And just to be clear, I'm not talking about like, tagging M'gann and J'onn as like 'my parents' or whatever, because that's a personal thing and a general fandom phenomenon I think. I'm more thinking in relation to the fic/headcanons/meta etc that I've seen, and making her in-universe 'Space Mom', rather than just an individual fan calling her mom.)

Tldr: J'onn has had a lot of time to process and get comfortable with being a father figure to the other characters, there was a very clear historical reason he chose to be, and most importantly he had agency in choosing it. Let's not take M'gann's away from her. Just because she's J'onn's partner doesn't mean she's also the Spacefam's mom. That very well may be a role she chooses to fill in the future, but it's highly unlikely she's ready for it yet, and regardless we should let her choose it for herself (which requires actually give her the space/focus in fan works to do so).

#supergirl #m'gann m'orzz #j'onn j'onzz #m'gann x j'onn #supergirl meta #or is it ~discourse? lol #supergirl thoughts #[ive been sitting on this for awhile because im scared everyones gonna hate me- please dont hate me]#and oh god this is so long i am so sorry i could talk about m'gann for days clearly #my writing #superfam

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