Alex will remember this conversation
I wrote it up for somewhere else last night, thought I'd share it with the class. Here was an idea for a What If style Superman one-shot:
Sadly we came up with this long before DC One Million, but I doubt it could be done now without seeming like copying. The idea was Superman at the end of the universe, literally, everything is collapsing back in on itself, the story picking up with a glowing Superman watching over the last planet in the universe, Earth, now a museum to all it's ages past and devoid of life, humanity having loooong ago either moved on or disappeared. In fact all life in the universe is gone, except for Supes, who over the billions of years has absorbed enough solar energy that he glows like a sun. As he watches the universe is accelerating inwards towards the big crunch, with little left but the Earth and the rapidly collapsing zero-point at the center. Superman takes a few moments flying over the museum planet to remember the past, then lets go of it, letting the last planet spiral inwards into the universe blackhole. He himself, with no one left to protect, not even his memories begins to drift inward as the final collapse accelerates faster, shedding his costume as a final act of shriving and letting that too disappear into the void. He thinks back over his life, all the lives of an entire universe that he knew and protected as the collapse draws him in. For a page, maybe a couple pages, we have the glowing Superman entombed in darkness, the gravity of an entire universe pressing in on him like the famous image of Atlas holding the world. He thinks about the universe, life, all he fought for, the darkness pressing him down, crushing him, and how it's all passed, his job is done and he doesn't have to fight any more. The figure of Superman is bowed down, then onto one knee. Supes last thoughts are of peace, being reunited with loved ones, of laying down the weight of the world, of there being nothing left to give, to fight for. then it pulls back to reveal all that's left of creation a single micro-dot of darkness. And from that little microdot one last thought bubble, twisted, compressed out of shape. "in the end, darkness claims all." a couple of utterly empty panels. "no" the thought balloon/font a little firmer with each panel now, growing larger. "Let" the microdot seems to grow larger "there" cracks form "BE" a glow spreads along the cracks "LIGHT" Full page Big Bang, light and matter spreading outward, a universe born.
Sadly we came up with this long before DC One Million, but I doubt it could be done now without seeming like copying. The idea was Superman at the end of the universe, literally, everything is collapsing back in on itself, the story picking up with a glowing Superman watching over the last planet in the universe, Earth, now a museum to all it's ages past and devoid of life, humanity having loooong ago either moved on or disappeared. In fact all life in the universe is gone, except for Supes, who over the billions of years has absorbed enough solar energy that he glows like a sun. As he watches the universe is accelerating inwards towards the big crunch, with little left but the Earth and the rapidly collapsing zero-point at the center. Superman takes a few moments flying over the museum planet to remember the past, then lets go of it, letting the last planet spiral inwards into the universe blackhole. He himself, with no one left to protect, not even his memories begins to drift inward as the final collapse accelerates faster, shedding his costume as a final act of shriving and letting that too disappear into the void. He thinks back over his life, all the lives of an entire universe that he knew and protected as the collapse draws him in. For a page, maybe a couple pages, we have the glowing Superman entombed in darkness, the gravity of an entire universe pressing in on him like the famous image of Atlas holding the world. He thinks about the universe, life, all he fought for, the darkness pressing him down, crushing him, and how it's all passed, his job is done and he doesn't have to fight any more. The figure of Superman is bowed down, then onto one knee. Supes last thoughts are of peace, being reunited with loved ones, of laying down the weight of the world, of there being nothing left to give, to fight for. then it pulls back to reveal all that's left of creation a single micro-dot of darkness. And from that little microdot one last thought bubble, twisted, compressed out of shape. "in the end, darkness claims all." a couple of utterly empty panels. "no" the thought balloon/font a little firmer with each panel now, growing larger. "Let" the microdot seems to grow larger "there" cracks form "BE" a glow spreads along the cracks "LIGHT" Full page Big Bang, light and matter spreading outward, a universe born.