Shamar Coxum
June 14, 2013
DC Comics
Rebirth of Superman (PRIME)
Superman returns to Earth to his wife Wonder Woman after a long search through the cosmos for the key to a problem bigger than anything he’s ever faced…cancer. Superman’s floating home station stays afloat, replacing the old Watch Tower that once was in space, being destroyed in a galactic war with Brainiac. Superman with his face wearing the consequences of age, having black hairs be replaced by the settled grey, sees the weak Wonder Woman lying in slumber. Her body so frail and fragile laying there bewildered by an unknown cancer. Superman coming back with nothing to help this problem begins to weep, his eyes slowly turning laser red. He looks down at his hands realizing he doesn’t have much time on this planet anymore and accepting the fact with no struggle, somewhat content in realization.
Superman thinks back on his life as Clark Kent hundreds of years ago. He could still smell the printer ink at The Daily Planet. Writing stories about himself just hours after a well fought battle. His mind drifts to the image of Lois Lane. He gets caught up in remembering her long black hair that blew in the wind, her shining blue eyes, and her feisty attitude. He gets up from the bedroom and walks down the hallway to the elevator leading to his crystal Fortress of Solitude. He walks across the crystal palace to a bright room. He puts his hand on a crystal column and a wall moves. He enters the room, turns right, and presses a button. The room turns dark and images shoot to a display area. Pictures of Superman and friends are what he sits down and looks at. A picture with the old Mayor of Metropolis is the first to pop up. Next comes shaking hands with the various Presidents that have gone by. Next comes the Justice League. Pictures with Batman, and then with his replacement (Batman Beyond). His Son Batwing. Batwing’s successor Night Watcher and now the current hero in his 40’s Dawn Soldier. Pictures of the original Flash with his son and successor Wally West. Third generation of heroes Flash Junior as a baby, and then him with the current Kid Quick better known as the full grown hero Quickster . Superman finds it bittersweet looking at old friends’ lives, and somewhat feeling a taste of jealousy for them being able to die and witness only one lifetime. The images keep turning and then suddenly he hears footsteps. He immediately presses down on a crystal and gets up as the display goes down. He walks out.
“Who goes there?” he asks jokingly, “An evil Doer, a thief, a criminal?”
The voice of a young man went through the dwelling “Maybe so, with a sword made of Kryptonite for yah.”
Superman laughs. “I’m ready to fight foe!” says Superman as he raises his fists.
An image of a small boy appears on one of the walls. The boy walks into the hallway and faces Superman. A boy about 5’5” muscular but slender, stands in the hallway with a metallic tinted red and blue skin tight suit looking at his dad with great enthusiasm. Gold bands are wrapped around the boy’s wrists and ankles used for limiting his strength so he can interact with humans.
“Kal-EL Junior”, said Superman as he hugs his son. “How was it today?”
“Which one dad, going to school or being a hero?”
Superman’s face changed immediately. “What do you mean being a hero?!”, said Superman in shock.
K.E.J getting intimidated “Well I, uhh…“
A spark of anger grew in Superman, “What did I tell you about fighting crime? You shouldn’t…”
“But dad! I…”
“But nothing! I told you you’re not ready for dealing with real criminals, especially with your bands on!”
“Why not!” snapped K.E.J. “I still have super strength over anyone here. I can still break mach 3 on foot”. K.E.J.’s bands grew red as his anger rose. “I can freeze anything within 15 feet of me”. His irises began to turn a crimson red. “And I was not even the one who wanted to do it, Super G…”
“Hey! That’s Superwoman to you Junior”, says a voice coming around the corner. “You should really respect your elders”, the person said while rubbing K.E.J.’s head.
“Shut up!” said K.E.J. while folding his arms.
“Kara! I told you he shouldn’t be doing hero work while he can’t fully control his powers”.
“Kal, why are you getting so mad. I’m with him”. “I’m the new Supes around here, what more protection does he need?” asked Kara stepping feeling uncomfortable and confused.
“It’s not just for his protection, it’s for everyone’s! His, yours, the criminals, and Diana!”
Silence entered the fortress.
“His mother?” said Kara.
“My mother?” said both K.E.J and Kara simultaneously.
“That’s not what I meant. I…I…” Superman stutters as he walks to a glowing seat and sits down. K.E.J. sees his dad troubled and walks toward him, kneels down next to him, puts his hands on his shoulders, and looks him in the eyes.
“Dad...am I bad for mom…am I bad for you…am I bad for everyone?”
Superman said nothing. Tears grew in both Superman’s and K.E.J.’s eyes. Superman places his hands on K.E.J.’s and reassures him.
“That’s not what I meant son. You’re not bad for everyone. I spoke wrong”.
Kara saw what was going on and said, “Kal, why don’t we head upstairs, it’s late and some rest for you would probably be best”. Kara takes K.E.J.’s hand and walks him through the hallway. Superman watches them leave.
Suddenly he begins to feel an aching pain in his chest. He falls out of the chair and hits his forehead on the ground cracking the fortress floor. “Not again, not now!” he yells as he twisted and turned. He groaned and shook vigorously until he suddenly stopped and began to lay still and silent. Sweat begins to perspire down his forehead as he sleeps.
Kara and K.E.J. go up the transparent elevator open to the floating home station above. K.E.J. looks at his hands and then back up at Kara, “Am I dangerous?”
Kara responds, “Oh no Kal, it’s just that your dad has been through a lot lately and there’s been a lot on his mind with your mother and trying to help her.”
“What am I supposed to do? I feel so useless! I can’t fight crime because I’m too dangerous, I can’t help my mom because I don’t know anything about medicine and dad says I need an education so I can’t even travel with him.” K.E.J. being upset turns his shoulder and looks to the sunset.
Kara sees K.E.J. troubled and tries to speak just as an explosion hits Metropolis. They both turn to see smoke and fire arising from the city. A small gust of wind picks up from the city across the ocean to the station. Kara hears screams coming from the city talking of a meteorite hitting Metropolis. Reports in seconds of hundreds of people dead from the impact alone struck through the air ways. Screams of a rock-like creature coming out of the meteor is heard.
Kara being astounded from the sudden accident turns and looks at K.E.J. “I’m sorry Kal, I would talk more but I…”
K.E.J. cuts her short, “I know go ahead, tons of people dying is more important than anything having to do with me right now.”
Kara feeling bad for him hugged him and said, “Kal if you want you can come.”
K.E.J. reassures her, “No it’s fine, you can go, I need to take care of my mom anyway, it’s like she’s getting worse and worse every day.”
Kara smiles and rubs K.E.J’s head, “You’re a great son Kal, and both your mother and father love you.”
K.E.J. smiled and hugged Kara before he said, “Thank you”, and then he paused for a second before he said, “But I have a question.”
“What’s that?”
“Why aren’t you in Metropolis right now?”
Kara smiled and shook her head “See yah Kal”, was the last thing she said before zooming from the transparent glass of the elevator heading to the Metropolis.
As K.E.J. saw her gone in a flash, the elevator had arrived on the home floor. He walks to Diana’s bed looking at her. Her frail and old body brings tears to his eyes. Diana hears him crying.
Diana hears him crying and begins to wake up, “Oh baby, what is the matter?”
At this point tears. “I don’t want to lose you mom.”
She gives him a hug, “Oh son I’m going to be fine. I feel myself getting better every day. I’m just resting up so the bad guys have time to get prepared for Wonder Woman again.”
They both laugh and smile hugging each other.
Superman screams, “Where am I?!”
He finds himself alone in complete darkness, but feels that there is something inside of him.
“What is this? I know someone’s in here”, he said before shooting heat vision out of his eyes to evaluate the area. The beam stops about 5 feet in front of him by a being that seems to be him. He screams at the sight of what appears in front of him.
Stepping back from the being in front of him he yells, “WHO ARE YOU?”
A woman’s voice breaks through the darkness around him, “Oh why he’s you of course.”
Superman turns around trying to see, “Who are you? What is this? Show yourself coward!”
The woman said in response “Relax, I’ll answer all of your questions in that order. My formal name is far too long and hard for you to pronounce, so I’ll say… my name is Lady Mystic. I’m a guide for people who are going to die soon to explain the process to which it happens so they aren’t frantic or surprised when it happens. This area which you are in is an area all heroes go to before they die or in your case go through a major transformation so that way there is a visual as well as an audio piece to the story I am going to explain to you.”
Light slowly surrounds the area.
“You’re telling me I’m going to die soon?” said Superman.
“Oh yes, very soon”, said a voice coming from behind him.
He turns to see a small green wrinkled woman wrapped in purple drapes from the neck down and a yellow towel-like piece of clothing is worn around her head.
The woman points behind herself. “As you can see behind me is you, but like I said transformed.”
“If I’m not going to die and this is a place where people come before they die, why am I here?”
“Because you are going to die Kal-El” she said in a stern tone.
Superman’s eyes widen from the news “How do you know my name?” said Superman surprised.
She responded plainly, “I work for the Monitors, I know everything about you, what has happened to you, what will happen to you and so on, but what I’m trying to do is focus on the immediate.”
Superman couldn’t respond for a second. “Both of them?” asked Superman being confused and not understanding the situation.
The woman sighs in impatience, “Yes, but I’ll explain that later, we’re running out of time.”
“For what?” asked Superman with his mind now racing.
“Now you’re asking the right questions” the woman said before going on to explain, “Now there is a creature here by the name of Difeet”, a circular screen is formed in the middle of Superman and the woman. “He just landed on Earth. He is a Krypton hunter made of the meteors that were in the meteor shower that destroyed your planet nearly two-hundred years ago as you know.”
A holographic image of Difeet beams up on the side of Superman and Lady Mystic. A large dark rock creature stands at 8 foot tall entirely made of black rock. It’s eyes glow yellow, light-blue crystals pierce through his body at the elbows, knuckles, knees and toes. The creature is doubled in size on a muscular scale compared to Superman.
Superman analyzing the alien said, “Yes, but you said he was made of the meteors that destroyed my planet. How is that possible?”
“The same crystals that make your fortress were of course on your planet when it collapsed and exploded. The meteors from the shower were caught in between the crystals and they rubbed together with such force that it sparked the creation of life for the meteors therefore creating a small race of meteorite aliens like him.”
“And why is he hunting Kryptonians?”
“Because the species must collect the crystals” she paused before continuing, “They know that any Kryptonians have the crystals…like you, some of them had them and some of them didn’t but none the less, they were killed in assumption that they were hiding them.”
The screen in between them showed them the other Kryptonians dying.
“I didn’t know there were anymore”, said Superman.
“Of course not have any others found you except your cousin and Zod?” Lady Mystic pauses, “Speaking of which, is how Difeet found you.”
A display of Zod and the creature comes up on the screen.
“You’re looking for Kryptonian crystals get Kal-El, he has the most of anybody”
The creature yells in his face, “WHERE!”
“Earth”, responded Zod before having his body ripped in half.
The creature sighs, “Thank You.”
Superman watches the screen concerned, “This monster kills me?”
“What do you think? And he’s about to kill another right now”, as she points her finger at the screen.
Superman doesn’t answer. The screen changed to Super Woman and Difeet fighting. The creature holds her up by the cape punching her in the face repeatedly. The crystals on Difeet’s hand go farther and farther into Kara’s face with every punch.
Superman in horror, “Let me out of here I have to save her!”
“Superman…Kal-El, we have things to discuss about Prime!”
“Whatever Prime is, it’s not more important than my cousin and if I die then so be it”.
“Superman I really don’t think you understand how big this is. This is changing tides for the future of the universe”
“Let me out! I don’t have time for this, she’s dying!”
“Superman! She is ready to die, I’ve talked with her too”.
“NOW!” he said as he’s holding her by her yellow towel.
“You can’t save her Kal-El”.
His tone became calm, “It’s time for me to go.”
The lit area turns back to the fortress and he flies out leaving Lady Mystic behind. She speaks to herself sympathizing for him. “Poor boy, couldn’t even tell him about Diana.”
In moments it takes Superman to arrive in Metropolis, flying through the buildings. Knowing of his death seemed to make things go in slow motion, color seemed dim, and sound was sharper than ever. As he came to the crash site, he saw the buildings within a mile radius were decimated and others knocked over. Ambulances and police surrounded the area. A low ring of cries and screams broke through his ears. He didn’t hear anything the same, he felt disconnected from the world. The question in his head was repeating itself, “Am I going to die?”.
Superman feels the vibration of Difeet’s punches through the air. He finds Difeet holding Kara. He lands in the broken ground and looks forward at Difeet. He sees her being held by her cape the same way he saw it on the screen. “Am I really going to lose? Am I going to die? To him? He looks like any other alien creature I’ve fought.”
Difeet raises his hand for another punch “Don’t you touch her!”
“What are you going to do Superman?” said the alien before going in to punch the woman.
Before Difeet’s hand reaches Kara’s face Superman puts both of his hands to the creature’s fist. The creature punched through Superman’s hands making him and Kara’s body collide. Difeet watches as Superman’s body goes flying. Kara’s body flies in the air and flips over so her back is aimed at the ground. As she flips over, Difeet grabs her legs and lifts his knee aiming for the middle of her back. Superman soaring through the air catches his bearing quickly just before seeing Difeet’s knee enter Kara’s back.
A moment of silence occurs before Superman whispers in despair, “Kara.”
Difeet turns her body over holds her by her head.
Kara smiles at Superman and says, “It’s okay Kal.”
As she says that Difeet presses his thumb down on her head breaking her neck. Superman screams at the sight of his cousin die. The pain in Superman’s chest occurs again making him shoot down to the ground. A small crater is created around his body. He looks up and coughs as he forces himself up. Tears enter his eyes as he stands back up.
“Dad!” says a voice coming from behind Difeet.
“No!” yells Superman watching K.E.J. running in.
Difeet turns as the boy runs from behind him and swings his arm around clotheslining K.E.J. making him fly back. As he flies back, his feet drag through the street cracking through the road before the boy slammed into a building.
Superman yells, “Why don’t you pick on somebody your own size.”
The creature laughs, “Nobody is my own size, but you do need to give me those crystals Kryptonian.”
“I was willing to reason with you before but you’ve already gone too far.”
“Then it’s time for you to die”, said the creature in a cold voice.
“Let’s go then”, said Superman.
“That’s all I’m here for.”
Superman flies towards Difeet cocking his right arm back. As he swings Difeet catches his hand and throws an uppercut right into the pit of Superman’s stomach and then swinging him into K.E.J. running back. Their bodies hit each other making them both go flying.
Superman gets up and checks if K.E.J. is okay before he said, “Son, you don’t need to be here, this isn’t your fight. I need you to take care of your mother.”
“But dad!” shouted K.E.J.
“She is more important than this fight. I’ll be back in a moment”, said Superman as he holds his stomach.
K.E.J. sees the blood coming through his father’s finger. “Dad, be safe” said K.E.J. before hugging him.
K.E.J. runs off as Superman turns to the creature standing still as if a statue in the street.
“Let’s go, old man” said the creature.
Superman sets his right leg up to move forward. By this time his feet were set. Difeet’s fist had already made contact with his face. Superman felt the hard cold diamonds cut through his face. Superman hasn’t felt this kind of pain in a long time. It was refreshing to him. Superman shot a ray of heat vision in the monsters face. The alien looks into Superman’s eyes through the beams.
“Your cousin already gave me this, what do you have to offer?” asked the alien before clasping his hands together and knocking Superman’s face into the building rubble.
Superman begins to realize this monster might actually kill him.
This battle extends from hours to days. Superman realizes what damage this fight is doing to the Earth and that it can possibly destroy it if they continue to keep the fight here. To protect Earth he makes a request.
“Let’s take this somewhere else; you want Kryptonians not humans so let’s leave them out of it”.
Difeet laughs “Where ever you bring me Kal-El you will still die. The arena makes no difference to me”.
Superman turns away, sighs in relief, and zooms off into the sky. Difeet follows. They travel to the near planet Jupiter. With the wounds from Difeet and the sharp pain in Superman’s chest again, Superman feels a shortness of breath and begins to come crashing to Jupiter’s surface. Difeet sees this and flies straight at Superman’s back making him shoot down and crash to the surface. A crater instantaneously appears on the surface. Superman wills himself to turn over to try and challenge Difeet’s might as he levitates above him seeming to punch harder and faster every blow…only to be unsuccessful. Through the hundreds of punches Difeet throws at Superman, one snaps through Superman’s right arm and to his face. Superman screams in pain sending vicious vibrations through the air. Difeet clutches his hands to his ears. Superman sees this as an opening and heat vision blasts from his eyes to the creature’s chest. A split second of the blast is endured before Difeet clasps the rays to Superman’s face with his palm. A spontaneous explosion erupts between Superman’s eyes and the creature’s hand. Superman’s body goes further into the ground, while Difeet stands over him unphased.
Suddenly Superman hears on Earth K.E.J., “Mom? Mom? Can you hear me?”
Superman slowly turns his head slightly and hears more closely to her heart. It flat lines. Superman has finally come to the conclusion that it is finally his turn to die. Clark Kent, Kal-El, and the greatest superhero of all time Superman, like his colleagues through the many generations of heroes that have come to the world must leave the planet and head to the other side of resting. Superman in a nano second, with all the might left in his body flies to the creature and clutches his waist before flying at light speed to the sun.
In this moment words are muttered from Superman’s mouth as he feels his spirit leaving his body, “You came to Earth after traveling the cosmos looking to kill the last pure Kryptonian, and well you’ve done it, I hope all that traveling was worth it.”
The creature responds, “More than you know.” As Difeet says this he grabs Superman by his waist. They approach the Sun as it is less than 50 miles away from them and just before hitting the surface Difeet throws Superman to the surface. Something strange happens as Superman touches the Sun’s outer shell. His body being damaged so badly by his fight with Difeet and blood having tiny crystals of the creature in his skin, an effect never endured by Superman happens now. Superman’s skin begins to simmer and boil underneath his costume. He feels nothing but the searing pain of the Sun turning his body to liquid but is too weak to move away. Slowly his body fades and melts into the Sun’s surface until there is no more. Difeet watches as the body disintegrates and closes his eyes in bittersweet triumph. “The deed is done.”
Difeet flew away and went back to Earth to enter his ship. As he lands on Earth he sees a boy about 5’5” muscular but slender standing in the street with a metallic tinted red and blue skin tight suit looking up at the creature. The gold bands that had once been wrapped around the boys wrists and ankles are now gone. His eyes glowed red and his fist were clenched. As Difeet is about to enter his ship he analyzes the boy in curiosity for a moment before heading into his ship.
Difeet thought to himself, “I saw this boy before, he wore the sign of hope and has strength but his blood is not of pure Kryptonian blood. He should be irrelevant.” He continues to enter his ship. As the top closes to the alien’s pod, a heat blast shoots through the cockpit of the meteor-ship and makes a hole right through Difeet’s shoulder. Difeet brings his hand to his shoulder in pain. He takes his hand away and sees his yellow blood in the palm of his hand. This injury is shocking to him. He looks up at the street only to see the boy standing in the street about a hundred feet away from him, Difeet blinks and in that millisecond; K.E.J. appears right in front of the ship. K.E.J. punches through the ship grabbing the alien by his neck and lifting him out breaking the shell of the ship.
The alien seeing the boy floating while holding him tries to process what is going on. “What exactly are you boy?”
“I’m the next of kin to the man you just murdered, but since he’s gone you can just call me Superman.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
Meanwhile, back on the surface of the Sun, Just before Superman’s cells were about to be completely incinerated, mitosis had occurred with Superman’s cells and the remnants of Difeet’s skin in his blood being heated by the Sun, another being was created. This being though having a similar cellular structure had lost its memory losing all thought of Earth and Krypton and having a son. This being is much stronger than the old Superman having far more dense skin and bones. Having being connected to the Sun on a cellular level he can give off amazing amounts of heat from his body and being able to absorb it for more strength. He could be called Superman but the name would not quite fit. The proper name for him would be Superman PRIME.
© 2013 Shamar Coxum