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Author's Notes on |
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Abelard, I hope you like the Steve Trevor that made it.
I should explain that. For the longest time, this story only had two scenes after I watched Man of Steel: Wonder Woman and Batman confiscating the world engine wreckage before any Earth government did, missing Superman by minutes, and Lois using Selina as a sounding board for her venting about Zod. (Dude, if you had colonized Mars, you would have won. Wait a while, call Kal-El for a visit, and kill him after he was weakened from Kryptonian environment, easy-peasy.) But two scenes do not a story make, so I put the whole thing aside to simmer.
Then Abelard wanted Steve Trevor and told me so in each story with Diana. The oldest version of his story (crashing onto Themyscira/Paradise Island) I borrowed for Bruce and Selina in Signs and Portents: Entwined Fates, so how could I bring in an Air Force pilot? And that's how you got three airplanes trying to take down the world engine. I did the best I could with the military point of view; if I butchered it horribly, let me know how to fix it.
Not that it comes up in this story at all, but my Diana is bisexual.
So then I was undecided for the longest time how to fix things that Man of Steel didn't cover because the fight scenes went on for far too long. I still didn't work in the scene I wanted in the movie: Lois showing off her gnarly scar to Perry "Did I hallucinate this?" So I consoled myself by mentioning it. And deciding who would act first: Bruce and Diana because they know the prophecy or Clark and Lois because they know of another hero who can fly took more time. Eventually, when I wanted Blake and Babs to interact with Clark, it all worked out.
Metropolis is based geographically on Chicago, which you may or may not have figured out from the description of getting to Smallville and the antipodes point where the world engine went. I never had a problem with DC Comics basing Gotham City and Metropolis on aspects of New York City. Where I thought they did get stupid about it was attempting to put both fictional cities in the same geographical location. "They're twin cities separated by a river," being the most common explanation. And you don't think Batman and Superman would tread on each other's turf MORE if that was really the case? My head canon had them separate more than that and since I really didn't deal with Superman back then, it was enough.
Then Chris Dee wrote Riddle Me-Tropolis for her Cat-Tales series and established that not only is Gotham City actually New York City on the map (with name changes as appropriate) Metropolis is Chicago (with name changes as appropriate). New head canon accepted! And if anyone wants to get snippy about Superman and docks, Great Lakes shipping is a thing. So whenever I have needed to refer to either city in relations to other locations, those are the map coordinates and landmarks described are found in those cities. Coast City is based off New Orleans.
Helena's birthday: So I wrote the first five stories in the Signs and Portents series without a hard timeline beyond making sure the conception, storming the League of Shadows' compound and state of Selina's pregnancy all matched up. When I was working on hard timelines for Part of the Night: The One Rule and TDKR: The Weapon of the Shadows, I thought that maybe making a timeline for Signs and Portents would help me figure out where to put the Man of Steel events in conjunction with The Dark Knight Rises and that would kick off a plot to string my scenes together. Helena needs a birthday (I already had the scene with her, Hal Jordan, and Selina including the references to the Storm Opals of Rann in mind but no-when to put it really), happily I plugged in her conception date plus full term pregnancy and ended up with Christmas. My reaction:
Because when I wrote Selina telling Bruce she'd have to get him a better Christmas present, I had no clue that present would be their kid. None at all!
Speaking of Christmas, it is my tradition to watch Batman the Animated Series' episode "Christmas with the Joker," mostly to sing "Jingle Bells, Batman smells" along with Mark Hamill. But really the member of the Rogue's Gallery with the big hate on for Christmas would be Poison Ivy because other than poinsettia, it is an entire holiday dedicated to cutting greenery down and bringing it inside. And it's a rare daytime sighting of Nightwing and Batgirl because, hello, most plants thrive in daylight.
Jonathan Kent's Maybe scene: I didn't follow the Superman comics, the Christopher Reeves movies killed the character off fairly quickly, so my first introduction to Jonathan Kent was on Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman played by Eddie Jones. Overall, I enjoyed Kevin Costner's portrayal and stood up for his sacrifice to the tornado so Clark wouldn't expose himself. But the "maybe" line nearly jarred me right out of the movie, but I know he was working with what he had been given. Nope, David S. Goyer as a writer dropped that stink-bomb. Not only does it not work with the core of Clark's character, but what father is going to tell their thirteen year old kid to let people die?! So look, I fixed it, and added the motivation behind Clark's nomad years. The 'Can't I keep pretending to be your son?' moment happened as portrayed in the film; Clark just elected to keep it to himself.
Lara Lor-Van's appearance: Man of Steel is a fatherhood movie. It opened on Father's Day for crying out loud, and Jor and Lara's sending Kal off is still a tearjerker scene for me. And yes, you need Jor's scientific knowledge to end Zod's threat. What I never bought was no Lara on the command key. You had nine months to record whatever the holographic AI program is, damn skippy you should do both parents! So there she is and her fears over what could happen to Kal on Earth have been answered by Clark accepting friendship.
The rest of the Justice League: I know I promised that way back when Man of Steel was still in filming stages I would put the Justice League together in this series, but the muse hasn't come up with anything to tie the rest of the group with these guys. It's not for lack of trying. I brainstormed a great Catwoman and Batman meet Aquaman and Superman story that has nothing to do with the Nolanverse. I also came up with a great way to rewrite the Dark Knight, which I won't do because wow Part of the Night took forever. So I have to conclude that I'm just not a big enough fan of the other members of the Justice League to give them a crossover.
Will the new movies help? Not with their emphasis on Frank Miller as source material. I have decided that I will give them money on Wonder Woman despite expecting them to mess it up in an unbelievable way because we are way overdue for a Wonder Woman movie. I will go see Aquaman because Jason Momoa has got me all excited for a Polynesian inspired Atlantis. And Suicide Squad probably because they have finally found a group that deserves the dark and gritty aesthetic they keep giving the movies. I don't care about any others and this whole story is a repudiation of Batman v Superman.
The first draft of Trinity was finished May 9, 2015. I added it to the Library on December 4, 2015, and posted it to FF.net and AO3 shortly thereafter.
And it took until this story to get enough songs for a fanmix soundtrack for the whole series. Download, enjoy, and let me know what you think of it.
- "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons
Justice League's Theme - "Hardest of Hearts" by Florence + the Machine
"Partners" Theme - "Gone With the Wind" by Blackmore's Night
"Entwined Fates" Theme - "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" by U2
"Forgiveness is For the Living" Theme - "Keep the Streets Empty For Me" by Fever Ray
"Meanwhile Back In Gotham City" Theme - "Dare You To Move" by Switchfoot
"Trinity" Theme - "Drive" by Incubus
Green Lantern's Theme - "Gotham Symphony" by OminousVoice
Helena's Theme
To download the zip file, click on the album cover images.
