SV Recs Week 2: This Isn't Your Grandfather's Superman: Canon Fodder

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

Smallville has always diverged from comic book canon--the very premise of the show--"What if Clark Kent and Lex Luthor were friends?"-- runs counter to any print version of Superman.* While TPTB obviously enjoy poaching from nearly 70 years of Supercanon, they're clearly not bound to it and, accordingly, fanfic also runs hot and cold with the "rules" laid down by the comics. For those who enjoy complaining, it can be said of much SV fic, especially that written after S1, that it could be about any two non-Super guys, provided one of them has no hair and the other is unusually pretty. Spoilsports. Just shut up and enjoy the gay porn!

But when Clark's very Superness is the crux of a story, and when other well-known "facts" about Superman are woven in, it gives a story grounding that I feel the TV show often lacks. I'm not a big comic geek at this point--in fact, Batman was my print boyfriend, and even that was 20 years ago--but I love seeing the basic details of Supercanon used in fanfic, especially when they're the focus of a story.

So here they are: are some of my favorite stories that play with Supercanon. And just so you know that I'm aware of my bias...Yes, these stories cover some similar territory. So? There are lots of Supercanon stories that are gritty and sad, but I don't love those even when I admire them immensely.

Demarcation - Livia

That Old Schizophrenic Jealousy - Lenore

The Rules of Blue - Thamiris

*ETA: I'm wrong! Please see what taraljc says regarding this in the comment to this post below. However, I don't think I'm wrong in stating that my ignorance on the matter is probably more common than not among viewers of the TV show. More proof that we are shallow and merely here for the pretty ;)

Comments

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

What if Clark Kent and Lex Luthor were friends?"-- runs counter to any print version of Superman.

Actually, that's not true--prior to the 1986 post-Crisis John Byrne reboot, comics canon had Lex and Clark contemporaries and friends--and occasional rivals--in Smallville prior to the accident which destroyed one of Lex's experiment and caused him to lose his hair. But there's 20+ years of comcis canon based on that backstory. All Smallville did was recombined elements of different eras of the Superman comics to create a new, updated backstory story.

[ratcreature]

And it seems it is another retcon in progress to make them have met in SV, it's not just Waid's Birthright series (which reads a lot like SV future fic, not just because of the CLex backstory, but also because Clark's parents are younger, not more like grandparents), but another one of Waid's stories were Clark and Lex meet in Smallville High appeared recently in the Superman/Batman SF&O, and the SF&O are generally part of mainstream continuity. So it might not have been rippled outwards fully, but I think how Smallville goes is going to have quite some impact on the comic Superman rather than SV being determined by current comics.