What if the Golden Age flipped… just slightly?
A similar canon. A similar world.
Only two changes.
Clark Kent was born Clara Kent.
And Lois Lane is Louis Lane.
Not Earth-11…
This is Earth-19!
Meet SUPERWOMAN!!
It's 1948, in Metropolis!
Up in the sky! Look! It's a bird? It's a plane? No! It's Superwoman!
Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, this amazing stranger from the planet Krypton, The Woman of Steel: Superwoman!
Empowered with X-ray vision, possessing remarkable physical strength, Superwoman fights a never-ending battle for love, truth, and justice, disguised as a mild-mannered newspaper reporter, Clara Kent!
In a world plagued by the Cold War and mistrust, can Superwoman bring peace to the world while fighting for love, truth, justice, and the American way? Can she finally find a happy life with Louis Lane, the love of her life? Can she defeat Lex Luthor and the terrible ancient evil he is about to awaken?
KALA-EL/CLARA JOSEPHINE KENT/SUPERWOMAN
BORN: Krypton, a moon in a distant galaxy. Officially 28/02/1918, SMALLVILLE, KANSAS
PROFESSION: ASSISTANT REPORTER
YEAR: 1948
PLACE: METROPOLIS (METROPOLIS COUNTY, NEW YORK)
-Farmgirl, born Kansas 1918. No sisters or brothers.
-Nicest girl in the office but very unfunny.
-Disappears without reason very often.
-Lives alone in a little apartment and has a golden retriever dog called Krypto.
-Daddy issues. Her father didn't let her pursue a career as ballet dancer or swimmer (he didn't want her to take advantage of her powers) and died when she was 18.
-Former nurse during the war in the Pacific theater and in the Philippines.
-Loves children and dogs
-Tomboyish traits. Not quite elegant.
-Music-Hall fan, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart fan
-Favorite books: Scarlet Pimpernel adventures, Jane Austen, Upton Sinclair and Virginia Woolf. Yeah, somewhat eclectic.
-Amateur writer of children's stories, with characters such as DeeDog and the Komfy Dragon.
-She greatly admires her boss, Perry Weiss. A tough, incorruptible newspaperman, chief editor of the Daily Planet… But she despises the deputy chief editor, Cat Grant.
- Her relationship with senior reporter Louis Lane is a tangled affair. Clara is his loyal friend, and, in secret, deeply in love with him. But she also clashes with Mr. Lane at every turn, exasperated by his politics, his paternalism, and the fierce rivalry that crackles between them.
- Strange friendship with the young millionaire Bruce Wayne, something that is very surprising for the people in the newsroom of the Daily Planet.
-Always good scoops but never appears in the front line and too stubborn and independent to grow fast in the newspaper.
-Progressive quaker like her parents.
-Civil rights supporter.
-Dislikes General MacArthur, dislikes even more Lex Luthor.
- She reveres Eleanor Roosevelt, yet also holds Governor Dewey in high regard.
-Hates guns.
-Supports unions. Splits ticket between Metropolis Liberal Party and the two main parties. Politicians must be kind.
SUPERHEROINE LIFE
-Super-Powers: Flight, super-strength, super-speed, x-ray vision, heat vision, telescopic and microscopic sight, super-hearing, mighty lung-power, freezing breath, near-invulnerability, and tremendous stamina…
-At speeds approaching Mach 100, Superwoman can fly around the world in less than twenty minutes.
-Acts as Superwoman since October 1945.
-Early in 1946, she captured Intergang and the Atom Man. In July of the same year, she crushed General Zod's invasion! She also joined forces with Batman against the sinister League of Assassins, and later, in early 1948, she ended the deadly menace of Metallo! Yet for all her might, there are battles even Superwoman cannot truly win. She may hurl herself against hurricanes and halt earthquakes in their tracks, but she cannot defeat the refugee camps, the cruelties of colonialism, or the other grim horrors of the postwar world.
- At first, she and Batman were openly at odds, but time and battle have made them trusted allies, and perhaps even friends. Together with the Flash, they form the mighty Justice League.
-Didn't act as Superwoman during the World War II because she was afraid of her powers. After the discovery of the Holocaust and the atomic bombs she decided to step in and showed herself to the world on autumn 1945.
-Worst enemy: Lex Luthor, heir of Nikola Tesla, rocket engineer & CEO of TELCORP (Tesla-Luthor Corporation).
-Deeply in love with Louis Lane, who strongly rejects the superheroine. He doesn't know Clara Kent and Superwoman are one and the same.
-She hides her supersuit and cape under her normal clothes. The material is extraordinarily thin, flexible, and resistant, and very easy to wear under normal clothing. Whenever someone needs Superwoman, she just needs to find an inconspicuous place, rip her shirt, unfold her cape, and fly away at full speed.
-Widely admired,but by no means loved by all! In the Soviet Union, the papers sneer at her as "Super-Lackey," while across the world many whisper that she is no heroine at all, but an alien menace from the stars. And in the United States, the hounds of suspicion are never far behind: the U.S. Senate drags her toward ugly hearings nearly once a month… while others, moving in darker shadows, may have far more sinister purposes.
FAMILY & ORIGINS
The El family & Krypton
Krypton was first a marvelous utopia and later a decadent civilization. It was located on a moon orbiting a large gas giant in the Orion Belt, beneath a red sun. In the distant past, Kryptonians had visited Earth and other planets, spreading civilization, but their later penchant for slavery, war, resource extraction, and violence caused many of these projects to fail. As early as 10,500 BC, the Kryptonian elite nearly brought about the terraforming of Earth, melting the polar ice caps and destroying Atlantis and other civilizations, thereby contributing, among other things, to the end of the Ice Age. Nearly 99% of humanity perished during the Kryptonian attack. A great number of Kryptonians helped humanity repel the invasion, sparking a civil war on Krypton against the high castes that caused their civilization to collapse and forced it to begin anew.
Over the centuries, the Kryptonians lost the fuel necessary for interstellar travel and ended up confined to their world. Their higher castes became devoted to warfare, genetic engineering, the creation of clones whose organs were harvested to extend their lives, pleasure, and the exploitation of their planet's subsoil. The Kryptonians also established a dictatorship with a caste system based on genetic engineering and prohibited natural reproduction except among the lower castes. Despite this, millions of men and women, not only from the lower castes, but also some dissidents from the elites, devotedly preserved, in secret archives and in their hearts, the utopian past of Krypton. They struggled, even if only passively, against the technification and exploitation imposed by the great castes.
Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van were a couple of scientists critical of the system and supporters of the abolition of the caste system. He was an engineer and naturalist who belonged to the upper caste. She was a librarian and mathematician from a lower caste regarded as a domestic servant. Both were followers of the Path of Rao, the ancient Kryptonian religion, which had been outlawed. They loved each other deeply and, like millions of others, concealed their true beliefs. The couple also fought against genetic engineering, violent repression, and the permanent destruction of wildlife
After a series of terrible earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and gas outbursts, it became clear that Krypton's core was collapsing as a result of the energy drilling and magnetic forces used in its industry. The planet was doomed, but the ruling caste ignored the danger. Jor-El and Lara had a daughter, Kala-El, conceived naturally in defiance of the law. Determined to save their daughter's life, the couple managed to build a small ship capable of making a space jump to distant regions of the universe, hoping to spare her from Krypton's horrible demise. General Zod, a radical follower of the Path of Rao who regarded the Kryptonians as the race of the future and the only people chosen by Rao, stole their design and built a larger fleet of ships. But Jor-El managed to sabotage the launch and send the fleet into the Phantom Zone, a black hole near Krypton.
Lara decided to send Kala to Earth, believing that its people and culture were similar enough to the Kryptonians' to give her a chance at life. Jor-El, on the other hand, favored sending her to New Genesis, a distant planet where Kala would be exposed to less radiation and would therefore develop fewer extraordinary powers, allowing her to lead a more ordinary life, even if she would be regarded there as an inferior being. However, Lara managed to persuade him. As Kala traveled to Earth and matured under the influence of a yellow sun, she would develop incredible abilities and might have the opportunity to live a fulfilling life devoted to helping humanity, perhaps allowing the best of Kryptonian culture to survive its destruction.
Within hours of Kala's birth, she was placed inside the small ship, accompanied by the robot guide Kelex, whose memory had been imprinted with the consciousness of Jor-El and Lara, as well as nearly all the Kryptonian cultural heritage they had been able to gather. They also placed several Kryptonian artifacts inside, including a nearly indestructible ceremonial ancestral female garment, with a bright red cape and bearing the crest of the House of El on its chest. The ship was launched just hours before Krypton's destruction and traveled through space for thirty years…
Joe&Martha Kent, Kansas life
Joe and Martha Kent were a Quaker farming couple whose farm was struck by the pod carrying Kala-El the 28th of February of 1918. Although owners of substantial isolated property they were very humble, cooperative, austere, devout, and civil rights-minded people. Martha Kent was a descendant of Kansas abolitionist guerrilla fighter John Brown. They both raised Clara very lovingly and unwilling to ask too many questions about the baby's origin. Clara was a very sickly child as her body did not adapt to the Earth. She was an affectionate and obedient young girl and devoured books. The Kent family were avowed supporters of the New Deal and Joe Kent was a member of the local farmers union but they were also distrustful and strict people.
As Clara entered puberty, her development accelerated rapidly, and her superpowers started to manifest. She quickly showed remarkable talent in swimming and ballet. Despite her curiosity about her origins, Joe imposed strict restrictions, including prohibiting her from pursuing a profesional career in these fields to avoid exploiting her supernatural abilities. Additionally, he strictly forbade Clara from using her superpowers to help others, fearful of humanity's reaction and wary of savior messiahs in the era of interwar dictators. Clara initially rebelled against her father, but ultimately acquiesced, intimidated by her own powers and empathetic to her parents' concerns. During this period, Clara struggled to blend in but found solace in her two closest friends, Pete Ross, whom she harbored secret feelings for, and Lana Lang. Unlike Pete, Lana was privy to Clara's superpowers from their early childhood together.
In 1936, the passing of Joe Kent from a heart attack deeply affected Clara, leaving her to forego college and take up work as a teacher and nurse's aide in Smallville. Her engagement to her childhood love, Pete Ross, ended abruptly in 1939 after she disclosed her powers to him, causing Pete to react with fear, though he eventually vowed to keep her secret. Amidst these challenging times, Kelex, the Kryptonian robot, was activated and unveiled Clara's true heritage, casting her into a state of turmoil.
From 1940 to 1941, Clara spent her time in Canada and Alaska on a quest to locate the Fortress of Solitude, a mysterious destination indicated by Kelex. However, with the onset of World War II, she chose to serve as a nurse in the Pacific theater, committing to use her superpowers solely for the aid of injured soldiers, worried that any further use might bring more pain and destruction. In the waning months of 1944, the hospital ship USS Shuster, carrying Clara, was struck by a Japanese torpedo. Clara dove into the ocean, using her superhuman strength to keep the vessel afloat long enough to run it aground. The ship's unexpected buoyancy and seeming levitation baffled everyone, and the event was shrouded in secrecy. Granted leave to return home, Clara made her way back to Alaska where, with Kelex's guidance, she finally discovered the Fortress of Solitude. It was there that she gained a deeper understanding of her heritage and began to train her superpowers.
Learning about the atrocities of the Holocaust and the devastation caused by atomic bombs, Clara was moved to adopt the mantle of Superwoman, using her powers to aid humanity while donning the traditional Kryptonian costume of her ancestors. Her mother, Martha, stood by her choice. She moved to Metropolis and, in September 1945, started working as an assistant reporter hired by Major Louis Lane, freshly back from Europe. On October 1, 1945, Superwoman made her debut, stunning the world and marking a pivotal change in History. She presented herself at the newly established United Nations, sharing her backstory and her commitment to humanitarian aid while steering clear of political disputes, save for safeguarding civilians.
Thus began Clara Kent's dual existence as a journalist; and, whenever needed, as Superwoman. By July 1946, she had thwarted an invasion led by General Zod and other Kryptonian survivors. However, her challenges were far from over, facing foes such as the Intergang; a conglomerate of Metropolis and Gotham's organized crime; Atom Man, a former Nazi operative wielding fearsome technology, and Lex Luthor, who was nurturing a growing animosity and suspicion towards the superheroine, along with his creation, Metallo.
DAILY PLANET CHARACTERS
Perry Weiss. A major shareholder and editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet, he was born in Odessa in 1886. A Jewish immigrant of humble origins, he became a skilled journalist and co-founded the Daily Planet with a group of independent reporters and a couple of anti-corruption politicians. Initially, the Daily Planet was a tool of the liberal wing of the Metropolis Republican Party in its effort to unseat the city bosses of the time, but it eventually evolved into a fiercely independent newspaper. Still a staunch liberal, he supported Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936 and was an ally of Mayor LaGuardia. He won the Pulitzer Prize in the 1920s for defending due process for Sacco and Vanzetti. A friend of Louis Lane's father, Perry Weiss is very demanding with his employees but is also very fond of Clara. He admires and defends Superwoman despite Louis Lane's distrust. He is also the best friend of Cat Grant.
Cat Grant. Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Planet, A Pulitzer Prize winner, a closeted lesbian, and an admirer of Ayn Rand, she was born in 1901 into an old Knickerbocker family of high standing. Along with Louis, she is one of the least liberal figures at the newspaper. To protect herself, she married a much older friend of her father, who helped her maintain a double life. For twenty years, she lived with a painter named Margaret Ivy. Widely regarded as the finest writer at the Daily Planet, she has published four novels in addition to her journalistic work. Elegant and highly regarded in intellectual circles, she is also tremendously authoritarian. Cat often treats Clara harshly, largely because Clara challenges her authority and because the two hold opposing political beliefs. Yet as Clara matures as a journalist, and as Cat Grant begins to suspect that she may be Superwoman, Cat quietly becomes her protector and advocate, advancing her career without Clara ever realizing it. Cat is also Perry Weiss's closest friend.
Jimmy Olsen and Lucy Weiss, Clara's best friends. Jimmy is a junior urban photographer. He comes from a town in Massachusetts. He is 7 years younger than Clara. He is a party animal, friendly, generous, and somewhat naive. Yet he is a skilled photographer who has been able to capture the worst of the night and day of Metropolis. Miraculously he always gets the best pictures of Superwoman (Clara helps him a little). Very democratic and complains about working for a newspaper that is too conservative for his taste. Adores Clara whom he treats as his big sister. It doesn't even cross his mind that she is Superwoman. Jimmy thinks that Louis is a snob and a bigot.
Lucy is a senior political photographer and the only woman on photo reporting on the Daily Planet who works outside the fashion department. She is the eldest daughter of Perry Weiss. She is an intrepid photojournalist who gets overseas passes and has been to several military conflicts. A loyal friend of Clara, and a very serious and professional woman. She is suspicious of Clara's double identity but would never say anything. She is the same age as Clara and a lover of jazz and the more alternative circuits of Metropolis.
NAME: LOUIS LANE
BORN: 08/02/1912, METROPOLIS (NEW YORK)
PROFESSION: SENIOR REPORTER
YEAR: 1948
PLACE: METROPOLIS (NYC)
-Rich family, born in 1912, the eldest of 5 children.
-Caustic, cynical, ironic though capable of kindness.
-Commanding.
-Lives on Park Avenue with his 6-year-old daughter and his rich unfaithful wife, fashion columnist Pat Lane (neé Kelly). Trapped in a very unhappy marriage.
-Served as a major in the U.S. Army during the war. He also worked with the OSS.
-Elegant, sportsman, plays violin.
- Secretly gives music lessons at an orphanage.
- Despite his background, he is not especially snobbish or WASPish, and retains certain traits of the newly rich.
-Graduate of Arkham University.
- A lover of classical music and literature.
-Heavy drinker.
- Does not enjoy journalism and is considering leaving it for politics or a career teaching literature.
- he son of a Jewish father (the surname Lane being an Anglicized form of Lantzman) and an Irish Catholic mother. Raised Catholic and religious, though never especially orthodox.
- His father is a self-made tycoon who began as a Democrat in Tammany Hall before switching to the Republicans, eventually becoming a close ally of Mayor LaGuardia. Louis is uncomfortable with his father's public career.
-Served in the European Theater during World War II.
-A conservative Republican, he opposes his father's liberal Republican views. Louis staunchly supports General MacArthur, whom he believes should be the next President.
-He once had a high opinion of Lex Luthor, seeing him as an innovator and a fighter for freedom, but that changed when Luthor kidnapped him to set a trap for Superwoman.
-Perry Weiss's favorite reporter.
-Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1941 for his reporting on the first defeat of Intergang.
-The first person to interview Superwoman.
-Very kind and paternalistic toward Clara, he helps advance her career despite Cat Grant's apparent opposition. He is secretly in love with her. Although he rejects Superwoman and suspects that she and Clara are the same person, he deceives himself and suppresses those suspicions.
-Tired of New Deal politics; staunchly anti-communist.
-"A brilliant and kind man" to most of the Daily Planet staff; "a terrible asshole" to many others, such as Jimmy Olsen.
-Strongly opposed to Superwoman and other heroes.
-At times, Clara truly hates him.
-Famous line: "Neither Reds nor capes."
-He is caught in a bizarre love triangle involving Clara Kent and Superwoman. Although he publicly rejects the superheroine, he also desires her, and he and Superwoman have shared moments of passion, which fill Louis with guilt because he is married and because of his religion. At the same time, he is in love with Clara Kent even as he rejects the figure of Superwoman. He deceives himself about their shared identity. There is something of James Stewart in Vertigo about him, and it both destabilizes and infuriates Clara.
The Fortress of Solitude and Kelex
Jor-El and Lara could not send their daughter Kala to Earth alone and without any information about her origin or how to live with the marvelous abilities she would develop as she grew up. That's why they not only sent with her a ceremonial female costume as a reminder of her lineage, but also sent Kelex, the El Family's domestic robot. Kelex is a robot assistant with a great memory capable of performing all kinds of explanatory and analytical tasks, as well as treasuring, developing and producing information. It is also a tool for interstellar communication, albeit limited. Jor-El and Lara imprinted their consciousness in Kelex, as well as all the information about the history and culture of Krypton, including scientific explanations about the adaptation of Kala's body to Earth. Kelex has the ability to compress himself into a metallic ball, and so he was from the impact on Smallville in 1918 until 1939 when he unfolded and revealed to Kala as her assistant and guide. Kelex has the ability to listen to all types of sound transmissions, including radio, and an advanced language program that allowed him to quickly learn English and other human languages, enabling him to communicate easily with Kala, now Clara Kent.
However, Kelex was activated too late. By then, Clara was already a grown woman with most of her powers fully manifested but not yet controlled. To assist her properly, train her in using her superpowers, and fully manifest her parents' consciousness, Kelex needed additional technology. The robot detected signals from several Kryptonian ships abandoned on Earth for thousands of years, remnants of a failed invasion in 10,500 B.C. The most accessible was located in a glacier in northern Alaska. Despite Clara's initial mistrust, Kelex convinced her to search for the ship. They abandoned the quest in 1941 but resumed it in 1944. After months of effort, they finally discovered the ship. Clara used it extensively to learn about her origins and train her superpowers. Since then, Kelex has resided in this ship, now known as the Fortress of Solitude, which Clara uses as her base and refuge. There, Clara studies Krypton's past and technology with Kelex, listens to holograms of her parents, stores special mementos she can't keep in Smallville or Metropolis, repairs her super suit when damaged, and hides the people she cares about during threats, like she did with her mother during the attack by Zod and Faora in 1946.
CURRENT, PAST… AND FUTURE ENEMIES
Lex Luthor. Rocket engineer, CEO of TELCORP and Heir of Nikola Tesla. A Brilliant scientist who defines himself as a "radical humanist"…but in the early 30s supported closely fascism to stop "imperialism" and "usury" and later changed his mind and move closer to the USSR to fight "predatory western capitalism". Publicly, he is a tycoon and scientist loyal to the United States and works closely with the government. The world's greatest philanthropist. Loving father and husband. Hates Superwoman to death and believes she spells the end of humanity. Paranoid and ruthless but convinced that he does everything for the greater good.
General Zod & Faora. Political dissidents like the El family on Krypton, on the other hand they believed that Krypton's only salvation lay in emigrating and invading, terraforming, and exterminating other planets. They almost succeeded in a coup d'état but after their failure; Zod and his henchmen tried to flee by space jumping their ships, Jor-El managed to sabotage the launch and send them to the Phantom Zone. Over the years they managed to escape and arrived on Earth in 1946, shortly after Clara showed herself to the world as Superwoman. They tried to exterminate all humanity, but Superwoman and the armies of Earth managed to defeat them. Their invasion caused 5,000 human casualties but could have caused complete extermination. The experience was traumatic for Clara because she had to send Zod and Faora back to the Phantom Zone where they would surely die. Zod, Faora and their henchmen had not yet developed the full powers granted by a yellow sun like Earth's and so several of them were killed by human bombs and missiles. The remains of some Kryptonians were stored by Russians and Americans. Superwoman managed to expel all Kryptonian technology and weaponry into space so that humans would not use it for warfare.
Doomsday. A truly near-indestructible abomination. Perhaps from Krypton's past? Perhaps created by mistake by human scientists?
The Toyman. Winslow Schott, once a thriving entrepreneur and toy inventor of the 1920s, saw his empire crumble during the Great Depression due to bank actions and multiple betrayals. Following a series of horrendous criminal acts, he was incarcerated in 1933. However, he has recently broken out of prison, now utterly deranged and intent on using his inventive genius to exact revenge on the entire city…
Brainiac "The Eternal Traveller". An android resulting from the abhorrent merger of a famous astronaut and an artificial intelligence which was used by the first civilization of Krypton to collect information from other worlds. It is more than 100,000 years old. With the passage of time, he saw himself as a perfect creature, became evil and phobic to any form of life that he considered imperfect or inferior. He caused the destruction of many cultures. He wanders through space visiting planets and analyzing life forms. He probably has no enthusiasm for humans, much less for a descendant of the House of El.