Michael Iantorno PhD Candidate, Game Designer, and Writer

April Write-Up: Beating Superman

Well, it looks like we’re going to try and make this thing a monthly event after all! I really enjoyed how the Ultimate Fantasy Party Write-Up turned out, and I’m hoping we’ll be able to recruit a few more additional writers for this month’s topic. We’re going to flip genres around a bit on this one and revisit a classic question: how does one defeat Superman?

Now, that question is a little too broad for my liking, so we’re going to turn it into something a little more fun to write about. Let’s say that Superman has gone rogue again (for the hundredth million time). He’s either being controlled by Lex Luthor, has been brainwashed by Darkseid, or has been turned evil by some other equally sinister method. Point is, he’s wreaking havoc across the globe and someone needs to stop him.

The Justice League doesn’t want to launch a full strike against Superman because of his near god-like powers, and the overwhelming likelihood of collateral damage. Instead, they decide that they will assemble a small group of heroes to quickly and quietly take out Big Blue. The only question is: who is brave enough, smart enough and strong enough to face the Kryptonian juggernaut?

Your task for this month? Tell us what group of heroes you think would be best suited to take down the Man of Steel. Email your thoughts to us – and if your writing prowess proves to be adequate – we’ll post it in on the bliggidy blog. The specific rules are listed below:

  1. Your group must be 3 members or less, and must consist of heroes who at one given point in their career were members of the Justice League.
  2. Assume that no one in the Justice League currently has access to Kryptonite of any colour or type. That would make things too damn easy.
  3. I am instituting a Batman Ban. The Batman vs Superman dynamic has been done to death, so we’re going to omit it completely.
  4. Please describe how each individual hero will contribute to the fight, and the overall battle strategy.
  5. You are not allowed to re-use strategies that have already occured in the comic books, cartoons or movies.
  6. No killing Superman, or sentencing him to a fate worse than death. You must defeat him non-lethally.

Need some examples in regards to formatting? Please look to the past Write-Up posts for inspiration, although don’t feel like you have to mimic the layout exactly. There are no length requirements, but try to be descriptive and thoughtful with your prose.

The deadline for submissions is Sunday, April 8th. If I receive submissions from more than 5 people then I will up a meager retro-gaming prize to whomever has the most creative, well constructed Write-Up. You can email your party setup to me directly, or post a link to your work in the comments below.

1 Comment

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  • The Flash (Wally West edition) and two people to keep his ADHD in check. They can be any two people, as long as they aren’t attractive, armed with quippy one-liners Flash will feel compelled to reply to, or a monkey he may laugh at.

    The battle strategy involves Flash calling upon his ultra godmoding powers — probably involving siphoning the raw power of the Speed Force call a wormhole into being and flood the arena with the light of a run sun or something equally inane. Failing that, he will run around in circles until the Speed Force calls into being Jerry Siegel himself, who redacts Superman’s brainwashing by spilling whiteout on the previous comic cel.

    I WISH this didn’t sound like a legitimate strategy. Have I mentioned DC Comics is only slightly less mad than Marvel?

By Michael
Michael Iantorno PhD Candidate, Game Designer, and Writer