It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Recently, I was plumbing the darkest depths of my hard drive and came upon a story pitch I wrote at DC’s invitation a million years ago.1
I can’t remember exactly how I ended up talking to DC (I think Brad Meltzer told them about me…?), but they asked me to come up with single-issue pitches for a couple different titles. At the time, there was a series called Superman Confidential. Well, you say Man of Steel and I say, “Sign me up!”
The assignment was to develop a single-issue story that could drop in at any point. So, no earth-shaking changes to continuity or anything like that. My pitch made it through the assistant editor, then the editor, then died on Dan DiDio’s desk because, in Dan’s words, “This isn’t a Superman story.”
Well… You decide:
Superman Confidential:
“For the Man Who Has Nothing”The Man of Steel can’t defeat death…but can he defeat hopelessness?
We open on a splash: It’s Saturday night and Brian is at a party, surrounded by his family and friends. He’s the happiest man in the world. In this moment, Brian has everything.
And then we flash back: On Monday, Superman stops a bridge from collapsing in downtown Metropolis. And there’s Brian, one of the city’s homeless, watching the whole thing. Superman takes Brian to a shelter…and puts the incident out of his mind.
On Tuesday, Superman fights the Parasite at Centennial Park. And yes, Brian’s there, trying to sleep on one of the benches, wrapped in newspapers. Superman tries to talk to him, but Brian’s delusional. Worried about his mental state, Superman dutifully drops him off at a clinic before leaving on another mercy mission.
But on Wednesday… There’s Brian again. In the way again. Not in a hospital room somewhere. Not in a shelter.
Now Superman’s got an interest in this guy.
Intercut with this ongoing story, we revisit Brian in his paradise, with his friends and family. He has everything.
Visiting the shelter and the clinic and talking to Brian (who fades in and out of lucidity), Superman learns something horrible from the clinic doctor: “He has end-stage brain cancer, Superman.”
“Yes,” Superman says. “I see it now.”
Brian will die within the week.
“I wish there was something someone could do for the poor guy,” says the doctor.
“Guess what?” Superman replies.
He takes Brian to the Fortress of Solitude, where we witness a big splash of two incongruous worlds in collision: Brian sits there, a disheveled, dying homeless man surrounded by alien architecture and technology beyond human understanding… And he asks for a cookie.
Superman tries to ease Brian’s pain and descent into delusion with the many amazing and wondrous distractions the Fortress has to offer. But in the end, he realizes that all he can do is make Brian comfortable. And maybe, just maybe, ease his pain.
And so, he offers Brian the Black Mercy, the semi-sentient plant/fungus that bonds with its host and plays out for it a simulation of the host’s perfect “happy ending.” The story comes full circle as Brian lies in a fugue state for his last days. Inside, his mind is clear once more as he lives in a world where at last he has everything, everything he could have ever wanted.
When the inevitable comes, Superman returns to Metropolis with Brian’s body. “I’m sorry,” says Brian’s doctor. “I know you wanted to save him.”
And Superman can only smile — a triumphant smile. “What are you talking about?” he asks. “I did save him.”
What do you get for the man who has nothing? You give him everything.
I also found some loose notes I had jotted down with more details, such as this exchange between Superman and Brian:
SUPES
Are you OK? can I get you anything?
BRIAN
A cookie.
SUPES
OK, sure. A cookie. What kind?
BRIAN
I like the ones with chocolate. But not too much chocolate.
SUPES
…Right.
I also planned to have Krypto show up to meet Brian because every story needs a gooddog, right?
My general thought was that you wouldn’t really know that Brian had been plugged into the Black Mercy until the very end. Superman would mention possibly using the Black Mercy, then say something like “Great Krypton! My x-ray vision shows that your cancer is completely gone! I’ve never seen anything like it before!”
Of course, that’s part of the fantasy — he’s already plugged in at that point.
Speaking of that Black Mercy — where did Superman get it? Didn’t it go into a black hole with Mongul in the original Moore/Gibbons story?
Here’s a bit of dialogue I’d written to cover it:
SUPERMAN
This is something called a Black Mercy. It was…given to me a while back by someone who… Well, anyway. I had to give it back, but I kept a cutting and it’s grown since then.
Anyway, there you go — another Story I Never Told!