A decade ago, I began working on a script for The Last Son of Krypton, the first part of a trilogy focusing on Clark Kent's upbringing in Smallville, his activities during the Great Depression, and his first year as Superman in the early-to-mid 20th century.
It's been almost three years since I last updated this script. When my previous laptop died in November 2022, I lost a chunk of the screenplay I was still working on, throwing me into a tizzy. And ADHD and depression have long been demotivators in my life, with the latter getting worse since my mother died. I fully intended to get back to work on it, but life's been hurtling barrage after barrage of hardships on me ever since and I've never been able to get back into a constructive headspace. So I've decided to make it official: progress on this screenplay's on indefinite hiatus.
For my long-suffering readers who've had to bear with constant revisions and a dearth of updates, it's not fair that they don't get to know where I intended to go with this and the rest of my Superman trilogy. Below's an outline covering where I intended to go with this screenplay. I'll do my best to summarize my ideas for the rest of the trilogy in a follow-up post.
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Luthor makes the trip to the fertilizer plant. As he touches base with Vale then visits Subject One in her cell, we learn more about Subject One. The same time Clark's stasis matrix arrived in Smallville, hers touched down in the East Coast, crashing and causing a devastating fire in a munitions factory owned by Luthor Incorporated. The matrix was found undamaged and Subject One retrieved soon after, whereupon she was taken into captivity and subjected to scientific observation/experimentation. While not a constant presence in her life, Luthor's the only person she knows who's shown her any affection, having given her gifts on the occasions he's visited her in the past. It's obvious, however, that Luthor's tenderness is purely performative, the ruse of a charismatic manipulator, that the gifts he's given her — mostly in the form of books authored by figures such as Hobbes and Poe — were curated to make her subservient to him and fearful of the outside world.
Through guilt-tripping and bribery, Luthor wheedles out of Subject One knowledge of her super-hearing. He then tells her of the stasis matrix, the disc found within it, and his desire to learn their secrets, persuading her to interact with them and pass on anything they reveal to him. Under controlled conditions, Subject One's taken to the laboratory housing her matrix and given the disc. Upon finding a niche the exact shape/size of the disc in the matrix's side, she inserts it. Upon doing so, she's thrown back, suffering a violent seizure which leaves her catatonic. Vale performs a cerebral angiography on Subject One, but the underlying cause of her condition eludes them. Luthor orders Subject One fitted with a feeding tube and placed under observation until further tests can be arranged. Unbeknownst to her keepers, Subject One's feigning her affliction. No longer periodically exposed to red kryptonite, her powers gradually return in 72 hours. Then using her x-ray vision to map the layout of the plant, she speedily neutralizes her guards, retrieves the disc, and escapes.
Using her disc as a homing device, Subject One makes the trek from Metropolis to Smallville. Along the way, she crosses paths with a gas trucker who attempts to sexually assault her. Brutally disabling him, she tears his truck apart in a fit of rage, causing a tremendous explosion. The conflagration incinerates her clothing but leaves her unscathed.
Clark pursues his relationship with Helen in secret. Though neither his schoolwork nor chores suffer, he neglects his friendship with Lana and Pete, who've started dating. The amount of time he spends with Helen also draws Jonathan's ire, who's suspicious of Helen's intentions.
Subject One arrives in Smallville. She follows the disc to the Kent farm and begins discretely spying on the Kents. It isn't long before she learns Clark's the one she's looking for.
Early one morning, just before sunrise, Kenny pays Clark a visit. Frantic, he tells Clark that he shot and killed his father and needs Clark's help disposing of the body and gun. Clark reluctantly accompanies Kenny into the woods with the corpse. As Kenny begins digging the grave, Clark changes his mind about helping him, urging Kenny to turn himself in to the police. As the two boys argue, Subject One, who's been tailing them, reveals herself. Taken by surprise, Kenny reflexively fires at the naked girl. Uninjured but angered, she grabs Kenny's gun hand, crushing both, but Clark's able to talk her down before she can do him any worse harm. Clark takes Subject One back to the farm, leaving her in the care of his parents while he goes back for Kenny. He finds Kenny back at his home where he prevents him from committing suicide, revealing his powers in the process. The sheriff arrives and takes a bewildered Kenny into custody.
With the Kents, Subject One's clothed and fed. Though claiming to have amnesia, she recalls that her name's Mala. Initially reserved around Martha and Jonathan, Mala warms up to them the more time she spends with them — helping Jonathan with firewood, receiving a haircut from Martha, etc. — though only truly relaxes when alone with Clark.
After Lana catches Helen and Clark in bed together, Clark confides in her that his relationship with her aunt's purely physical and emotionally unfulfilling. He stops seeing Helen shortly thereafter.
As Thanksgiving approaches, Helen invites the Kents to join her and her sister's family at her house for Thanksgiving dinner. Mala, passed off as a distant relative, accompanies them. Upon meeting Helen, Mala takes an immediate disliking to her. After Helen pressures Clark to assist her in the kitchen, the dinner commences. Helen immediately acts passive-aggressively toward her guests, with especial attention given to Clark and Jonathan, the gibes and innuendoes growing less passive and more aggressive as time presses on. Tensions mount until finally Helen shoves a pecan pie — which Martha's allergic to — in Martha's face. Pandemonium ensues. Screaming at Clark that he's just like his father, Helen slaps him across the face, breaking her hand in the process. Mala grabs Helen by the throat, holding her aloft, choking her until the others persuade her to drop her. Falling to her knees, Helen breaks down crying.
Later that night, back at the farm, Clark and Jonathan have a private conversation in the barn. Jonathan reveals to Clark that he had an affair with Helen years ago. Sad and angry at Martha's inability to have children, he went to bed with Helen out of spite. But when Clark entered their lives, Jonathan and Martha were able to reconnect and his love for her was restored. He immediately ended things with Helen, but never told Martha of his infidelity. Clark advises his father that the time's come to tell her. Jonathan agrees and goes inside. From the barn, Clark spies Jonathan telling Martha everything. She's heartbroken.
Mala joins Clark in the barn and they have a brief conversation on human nature; her appraisal's decidedly cynical while his is cautiously optimistic. She then confides in him, revealing that she was never amnesiac. She tells him of her life imprisoned, of the years subjected to cold, clinical experiments devised by amoral scientists, that the little love she received was false, that she was never given a name, only a number. Then she tells him she does have a name: Mala-Sonn, genetic offspring of Sela-Sonn and Dax-Ur. She tells him of Krypton, doomed to explode, and the Kryptonians, genetically bound to their planet, doomed to perish with it. She tells him that she and he were of 144,000 Kryptonian supermen genetically engineered to live free of Krypton and thrive as gods on Earth. Taking Clark's hands in hers, she levitates them off the ground, revealing that she's capable of flight. She tells Clark it's time he learned who he is and accept his destiny.
Clark and Mala visit his stasis matrix, disc in hand. He asks Mala what the "S" stands for. She tells him it's had many meanings across the millennia — it's been a Raoist religious icon, a family crest for the great houses, a symbol for hope. Over and above all, it represents Krypton itself. Inserting the disc into its niche, Clark's greeted by an AI gatekeeper, the Voice of Rao. The Voice touches Clark's brow, and in an instant Clark's bequeathed with understanding of Kryptonian languages, technology, history, and his own identity; he's Kal-El, genetic offspring of Jor-El and Lara-Van. The stasis matrix then transmogrifies into a pedestal which transport Clark and Mala across the world to the Fortress of Solitude in Antarctica. Accessing the Fortress' computer, Mala brings up a display of Earth marking the whereabouts of all the stasis matrices across the globe. Mala tells Clark that they must seek out their brethren, then together reshape humanity according to proper Kryptonian ways. Clark tells her that for all he's discovered of his heritage, none of it defines him. Krypton may've bred and bore him, but Earth made him who he is. He'll always cherish the memories of Krypton given to him, but he won't be party to colonialism. He urges Mala to come back with him to Smallville to think things through. Mala hesitantly agrees.
Spring 1935. A drought's come to Smallville and the Kent farm's not fairing well. During a conversation with Clark, Mala remarks that with the Fortress' resources, they could put this drought to an end.
One weekend, Clark goes into town to hang out with Lana and Pete at the general store. It's a blustery day, but it gets worse as a twister forms. Tearing through the Kent farm, it doesn't hit the house, though it obliterates the crops and sweeps Mala up into it. The twister then moves toward town. Clark wants to stay and help, but Lana and Pete pull him with them for cover. Meanwhile, Mala emerges unscathed from the whirlwind and gets to work swooping folks out of danger. In the aftermath, Clark laments on how he could've done more if only he had her power of flight. Mala responds by saying he possesses all the same powers she has; its only his insecurities holding him back.
The story of the "guardian angel" who saved people from the twister appears in the Smallville town newspaper, accompanied by an unclear photo of Mala in flight. Luthor catches wind of the story and comes to the conclusion that Mala's hiding somewhere in Smallville. Luthor then gets the idea to reach out to all the linguists he consulted eighteen years ago to decipher the Kryptonian script on Mala's key to learn if any of them have connections to Smallville. His search leads him to Frederick Walden, a grammatologist who refused to work with Luthor. Walden passed away years ago, but his landlady held onto all his correspondence, which she allows Luthor to keep. Reading through the letters, Luthor learns Walden briefly corresponded with Jonathan in regards to the same Kryptonian script.
Luthor sends his men to the Kent farm. Equipped with red kryptonite, they nullify Clark and Mala's powers and take them and Jonathan and Martha into custody. Back at the fertilizer plant, the prisoners are brought before Luthor. Luthor gives Mala an ultimatum: she'll give up all her secrets or he'll have the Kents shot and Clark dissected. Reunited with her stasis matrix, Mala inserts her key, transporting her, Vale, and several technicians and armed guards to the Fortress of Solitude. At gunpoint, Mala leads her captors to the nucleus of the Fortress. Activating the computer, she neutralizes the red kryptonite radiation in her system. Her abilities restored, she massacres Vale and the others. Outfitting herself in a suit of body armour, Mala transports back to the fertilizer plant. Shielded from the red kryptonite of Luthor's guards' weapons, she tears through them, rescuing the Kents. She then corners Luthor, taunting him as she powers up her suit's wrist-mounted blaster. Telling Luthor to burn, she fires a particle beam into him, right through his spine, setting him ablaze.
Mala and the Kents return to Smallville. Having ditched the body armour, Mala talks with Clark in the barn. She informs him matter-of-factly that she has every intention of using the Fortress' resources to track down the other Kryptonians and subjugate humanity, that he'd better help her or stay out of her way. They get into a brutal fight. Bringing the barn down on top of them, their battle takes them clear across the ravaged Kent property, all the way outside town limits. There, Clark barely manages to defeat Mala, punching her unconscious.
When Mala regains consciousness, she finds herself back in the Fortress, contained within a force field. Clark's there to tell her that he's used the time to familiarize himself with the Fortress computer; he's created a computer virus which'll shut the Fortress down for good. Mala pleads for him not to do this, but despite her cries and his own reluctance, Clark follows through. As the systems running the Fortress crash, the force field imprisoning Mala winks out. Clark's resigned to resume their fight if that's what Mala wants. Though fuming, she remarks there's no point to that now. Using the last of the Fortress' power, Clark and Mala transport back to Smallville. She informs him that the time's come for them to go their separate ways. She has the general locations of the other stasis matrices memorized, and she'll seek out the other Kryptonians in due time. She'll convince as many as she can to join her, and even without the Fortress to aid them they'll conquer Earth; in that time to come, Clark'll be made to pay in full for what he's done.
Weeks pass. Their farm heading toward failure, Jonathan and Martha consider their options: taking out a loan they're uncertain they'll be able to pay back or cutting their losses and selling their property. Clark and his schoolmates graduate. Clark writes to Kenny, who's in prison. Back in Metropolis, Luthor's revealed to still be alive but in a coma, kept breathing in an iron lung.
This chapter draws to a close with Clark and Lana walking together through the countryside on a moonlit summer night. Clark finally opens up to Lana, confessing his love for her and his desire to begin a romantic relationship. Lana reveals her own feelings for him and her desire to reciprocate. Clark then admits that he's been keeping secrets from her, that they can't be together until he's told her everything. Scooping Lana up in his arms, Clark leaps into the sky, taking them one-eighth of a mile across the countryside. Lana's flabbergasted.
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