Wednesday 6 August 2014

Countdown to Justice: Chapter Three

As Countdown to Justice continues, we start to take a look at how others have reacted to the sudden appearance of 'Superman', starting in Gotham City...

Chapter Three: Just a Hypocrite in a Cape
     It’s been a year since the end of the world.
     A spaceship descended on Metropolis. Nearly a million people died. Millions more were injured or lost their homes. The power of the U.S. military barely cracked a dent in the ship’s hull thanks to gravitic technology we can’t understand, no matter how advanced our scientists think they are. Top-secret reports I acquired show that it was alien technology that eventually repelled the invaders; the very craft this ‘Superman’ arrived in was what saved our world, but not all of our people.
     A million people.
     Now we know we’re not alone in the universe. Now we know that our technology and our ‘civilisation’ hasn’t brought us that far at all, and I wonder (not for the first time) if policing the streets of Gotham is the best use of my time.
     Crime-rates are higher than ever, the highest in the country, and yet every night I dress in cape and cowl and chase any one of a dozen theatrical criminals through Gotham’s alleys and backstreets.
     Those reports call him ‘Kal-El’. The media call him Superman. I call him a potential threat. He can lift cars, fly at supersonic speed, and project beams of heat from his eyes. How can we be sure that one day, Kal-El won’t turn on us as his own people did? He executed a member of his own race. That doesn’t bode well for us.
     I’ve given him a year to play saviour, but he’s forgotten the truth about the Battle of Metropolis. A Wayne satellite saw him destroy a multi-storey parking lot. Great responsibility comes with the kind of power he has. People in Gotham have died under my watch, but never on a scale like this.
     A million people, Superman.
     Some might call me a hypocrite or a scare-monger, but if I catch the slighest whiff that Superman is becoming a threat to America, to the Earth, then I will take action. Everyone has a weakness, and I’ll find his.
     The Batman will come for him.


(Click for detail)

To be continued...

Follow the blog to be the first to know when a new chapter arrives! We take a break next week, and Chapter Four will be released on August 20th.

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