“Gemma Fade”
The problem, of course, with writing Gemma Fade’s story is that it would take a whole new universe, because it’s too big an idea to waste on fan fiction, which is what it would be if I left it in the Marvel universe. And that would defeat the whole geeky meta fanboy point of it (although I donno, there’s not much prose superhero fiction, it might be worth trying).
And it /would/ be a big idea. It would take a minimum, I think, of three viewpoint characters: Gemma herself, a Resistance fighter, and a modern comics reader caught up in the destruction of her fandom’s universe. And possibly a fourth character from the comics who wasn’t yet disappeared, like Gemma is. This would be a book-length story, at the least. So I am not writing it.
But if I were, Gemma’s story would start here:
“The landscape is barren. Windswept sands, jutting stone with edges softened by time, and a hard white sun above it all. I push my hands into the sand until they are buried wrist-deep, and from there gain the purchase necessary to drive myself to my feet. I stagger a few more steps, as buffeted by the wind as the land around me is. I have no destination, no goal; all I can think are a scattering of words so remote they hold no meaning to me.
This is Krypton to Kal-El, I think. This is the red sun to a man raised beneath the yellow. This is power, stripped away.
I have no idea who I am or what I mean, but these incessant thoughts tell me that something is lost. That once, I would have understood the words echoing in my mind; that now, there’s something to be regained, a battle to be fought and won. And this is all I know about myself, now:
It’s reason enough to keep going.”
(I very badly want a Gemma Fade icon now.)
(x-posted from the essential kit)