Let's Talk January: Mithen's Personal History of Superman and Batman!
I got an anonymous request for either Clark or Bruce's (or Dick's, but that's so tied to Bruce's) story as I see it from start to present--that is to say, what do I pick and choose from different continuities and canons to make my Superman or Batman? This is a hard and interesting question! The simple cheating answer is that I change it depending on what I need for the story--the Kents are alive if that works better for the story, and dead if that works better. But I assume what the question is asking, roughly, is what is my Platonic Ideal of the storyline of the character.
My Krypton is the Silver Age Krypton--a beautiful if somewhat stagnant planet of wonders. I want it to be sad that Krypton exploded, not something of a relief! When Jor-El realized that the planet was going to die, he shot baby Kal-El into space to an unknown destination (I prefer he not have chosen Earth specifically, just because it seems a little creepy that he would choose a planet where his son would be so much more powerful than any of the people he'd have to live with).
Kal-El landed in Kansas and was taken in and raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent. He knew he was an alien from an early age (the animated series, for example, has his parents keep than information from him, which I can't accept--one of the few times I part ways with the animated series), but his powers didn't really start to manifest fully until he was older. The only other person he shared his secret with was Lana Lang. My Platonic Superman still has the Kents in his life, because I think having a strong positive attachment to living parents sets him apart from most other superheroes.
I snag from Mark Waid's wonderful Birthright the idea that instead of going to college, Clark travels the world and does freelance journalism, which catches the eye of Perry White. Clark learns a great deal about humanity and his powers as he travels and thinks about how to put them to practical use.
Once he gets a job at the Daily Planet, he encounters some huge crisis (I've never been concrete as to what) and is forced to step forward as Superman, wearing the costume made from Kryptonian cloth that came in his rocket and modeled on the Kryptonian clothes in the rocket database (this is all still Birthright, by the way--it's a wonderful origin story for Clark). For a time he works mostly alone, establishing his Fortress of Solitude (which I like as the old Silver Age style actual fortress--the movie-style crystal lattice is pretty and fun to write, but I'm old-fashioned) and working as a reporter.
Another, even larger crisis (again, it can be the animated series White Martians or the old continuity's Starro or the new continuity's Darkseid, I don't care) forces the young superheroes of the world to band together and create the Justice League. I usually imagine that Superman and Batman had already met and worked together a few times. My Justice League is nearly always in the satellite orbiting the earth, as in the animated series.
Once he's Superman, things even out quite a bit across continuities. If there's going to be canon het, I prefer the pre-reboot version where he's married to Lois! I like having Krypto in his life (obviously I have a weak spot for Silver Age trappings on the character), and I liked Grant Morrison's idea that Krypto ended up in the Phantom Zone just before Krypton exploded and has been watching over Clark from there as he grows up.
I like a Clark that has Kara and Kon in his life--I suppose if I want him to have Kon that means he did fight Doomsday and die for a time (Kon should be the goofy 90s Kon, preferably). Supergirl is tougher, I've only seen glimpses of a Kara that I can like--Sterling Gates' version just before the reboot was pretty good, and animated series Kara wasn't bad.
For Bruce, my headcanon Bruce was always a bit odd and focused even before his parents died, their death just gave him a specific obsession. He was never going to grow up to be an actual vapid playboy, in other words. I do like the detail about him falling into the cave as a child and that's definitely there. The murder in the alley should always be something random, cruel and pointless--not part of any larger conspiracy or the result of something Thomas or Martha had done earlier, the point is that horrible things can happen that you didn't call on yourself and that don't serve any larger picture.
"Unrealistic" as it may be, I prefer a Bruce that swears that very night to fight crime for his whole life over the movieverse Bruce who struggles to find focus. My version of Bruce looks into the FBI and police and concludes they're not going to work for him, and eventually ends up traveling the world and picking up knowledge and information from just about everywhere.
A lot of my early-Batman canon comes from "Batman: Year One," in which Bruce comes back from his travels and can't figure out how to put these vigilante skills to use. He almost dies one night because he isn't able to intimidate people while dressed in regular street clothes. In despair, bleeding to death in the library, he has a vision of a bat (a real bat can be involved, doesn't matter) and re-dedicates himself to fighting crime under a masked identity.
I imagine him and Superman starting their lives as heroes at almost exactly the same time, unknown to each other. Batman might have started slightly sooner (I mean only by months) because he's more able to operate without anyone noticing.
Oh, and as for their reveal to each other, my irrevocable headcanon is that they find out while being forced to share a room on a cruise ship--as per either the classic Golden Age story, or the wonderfully insane version in the Superman/Batman Annual #1 (find it! read it!).
Then we enter the realm of the impossible for Batman, which is where DC's obsession with continuity runs aground and I wish they'd left it alone--he has at least 4 Robins, most of whom work with him for five-ten years without his getting much older than 35. No, it's not possible, but that's the way it is. If DC didn't want to break the character, they shouldn't have kept giving him interesting Robins and letting them get older. Dick Grayson is Robin longest, followed by Jason Todd and then Tim Drake after Jason dies. Steph Brown is Robin briefly. I can't decide on Damian--I like his character and I think he brings out the best in Dick while Bruce is dead, but I think he made a terrible Robin for Bruce and I don't like Bruce carrying around the trauma of even more dead Robins, so in my mind he kind of exists in a parallel headcanon (yes, I have headcanon Elseworlds, apparently).
Bruce's story from there is roughly the same as in pre-reboot comics: he has his back broken by Bane, Gotham is destroyed and rebuilt after an earthquake, etc. And that's about where I end up on those two! It's a really interesting exercise, piecing together the bits and pieces that I stole from everywhere else magpie-like… :)
My Krypton is the Silver Age Krypton--a beautiful if somewhat stagnant planet of wonders. I want it to be sad that Krypton exploded, not something of a relief! When Jor-El realized that the planet was going to die, he shot baby Kal-El into space to an unknown destination (I prefer he not have chosen Earth specifically, just because it seems a little creepy that he would choose a planet where his son would be so much more powerful than any of the people he'd have to live with).
Kal-El landed in Kansas and was taken in and raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent. He knew he was an alien from an early age (the animated series, for example, has his parents keep than information from him, which I can't accept--one of the few times I part ways with the animated series), but his powers didn't really start to manifest fully until he was older. The only other person he shared his secret with was Lana Lang. My Platonic Superman still has the Kents in his life, because I think having a strong positive attachment to living parents sets him apart from most other superheroes.
I snag from Mark Waid's wonderful Birthright the idea that instead of going to college, Clark travels the world and does freelance journalism, which catches the eye of Perry White. Clark learns a great deal about humanity and his powers as he travels and thinks about how to put them to practical use.
Once he gets a job at the Daily Planet, he encounters some huge crisis (I've never been concrete as to what) and is forced to step forward as Superman, wearing the costume made from Kryptonian cloth that came in his rocket and modeled on the Kryptonian clothes in the rocket database (this is all still Birthright, by the way--it's a wonderful origin story for Clark). For a time he works mostly alone, establishing his Fortress of Solitude (which I like as the old Silver Age style actual fortress--the movie-style crystal lattice is pretty and fun to write, but I'm old-fashioned) and working as a reporter.
Another, even larger crisis (again, it can be the animated series White Martians or the old continuity's Starro or the new continuity's Darkseid, I don't care) forces the young superheroes of the world to band together and create the Justice League. I usually imagine that Superman and Batman had already met and worked together a few times. My Justice League is nearly always in the satellite orbiting the earth, as in the animated series.
Once he's Superman, things even out quite a bit across continuities. If there's going to be canon het, I prefer the pre-reboot version where he's married to Lois! I like having Krypto in his life (obviously I have a weak spot for Silver Age trappings on the character), and I liked Grant Morrison's idea that Krypto ended up in the Phantom Zone just before Krypton exploded and has been watching over Clark from there as he grows up.
I like a Clark that has Kara and Kon in his life--I suppose if I want him to have Kon that means he did fight Doomsday and die for a time (Kon should be the goofy 90s Kon, preferably). Supergirl is tougher, I've only seen glimpses of a Kara that I can like--Sterling Gates' version just before the reboot was pretty good, and animated series Kara wasn't bad.
For Bruce, my headcanon Bruce was always a bit odd and focused even before his parents died, their death just gave him a specific obsession. He was never going to grow up to be an actual vapid playboy, in other words. I do like the detail about him falling into the cave as a child and that's definitely there. The murder in the alley should always be something random, cruel and pointless--not part of any larger conspiracy or the result of something Thomas or Martha had done earlier, the point is that horrible things can happen that you didn't call on yourself and that don't serve any larger picture.
"Unrealistic" as it may be, I prefer a Bruce that swears that very night to fight crime for his whole life over the movieverse Bruce who struggles to find focus. My version of Bruce looks into the FBI and police and concludes they're not going to work for him, and eventually ends up traveling the world and picking up knowledge and information from just about everywhere.
A lot of my early-Batman canon comes from "Batman: Year One," in which Bruce comes back from his travels and can't figure out how to put these vigilante skills to use. He almost dies one night because he isn't able to intimidate people while dressed in regular street clothes. In despair, bleeding to death in the library, he has a vision of a bat (a real bat can be involved, doesn't matter) and re-dedicates himself to fighting crime under a masked identity.
I imagine him and Superman starting their lives as heroes at almost exactly the same time, unknown to each other. Batman might have started slightly sooner (I mean only by months) because he's more able to operate without anyone noticing.
Oh, and as for their reveal to each other, my irrevocable headcanon is that they find out while being forced to share a room on a cruise ship--as per either the classic Golden Age story, or the wonderfully insane version in the Superman/Batman Annual #1 (find it! read it!).
Then we enter the realm of the impossible for Batman, which is where DC's obsession with continuity runs aground and I wish they'd left it alone--he has at least 4 Robins, most of whom work with him for five-ten years without his getting much older than 35. No, it's not possible, but that's the way it is. If DC didn't want to break the character, they shouldn't have kept giving him interesting Robins and letting them get older. Dick Grayson is Robin longest, followed by Jason Todd and then Tim Drake after Jason dies. Steph Brown is Robin briefly. I can't decide on Damian--I like his character and I think he brings out the best in Dick while Bruce is dead, but I think he made a terrible Robin for Bruce and I don't like Bruce carrying around the trauma of even more dead Robins, so in my mind he kind of exists in a parallel headcanon (yes, I have headcanon Elseworlds, apparently).
Bruce's story from there is roughly the same as in pre-reboot comics: he has his back broken by Bane, Gotham is destroyed and rebuilt after an earthquake, etc. And that's about where I end up on those two! It's a really interesting exercise, piecing together the bits and pieces that I stole from everywhere else magpie-like… :)