The Man of Steel: Superman and the Poisoned Planet
Danny had kept his complaints to himself for the last few hours He’d rather be miserable than make his boss mad One thing he had learned over the past few days he did not want to get on Poison Ivy’s bad side KAPOWWWWWWWWWWWW Superman smacked Parasite with a giant telephone pole The villain was sent crashing into a concrete wall with a THUDDDD He was unconscious Finally Superman thought Fighting a villain you can’t touch is tiring Superman had been forced to take a rather long lunch break to hunt down Parasite a power-sucking super-villain Cautiously Superman picked up the unconscious Parasite by his collar and soared into the air FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH Just another day as the Man of Steel Superman thought Moments later he was dropping off the unconscious super-villain at Max Slab Penitentiary After talking with the guards and explaining the situation he leaped into the air and soared toward his day job at the Daily Planet newspaper As he touched down on the rooftop of the Daily Planet Building the hero just hoped no one would notice It wasn’t exactly Superman who would get in trouble It was his alter ego reporter Clark Kent who would have to face an angry boss if he was discovered Perry White was a pretty fair boss but one thing he didn’t care for was tardiness And Clark Kent couldn’t explain that Superman had been forced to fight the Parasite on the outskirts of the city then fly to the Slab Maximum Penitentiary to ensure that the super-villain wouldn’t escape again If Superman told anyone why he was late then that would mean everyone would
know he was Clark Kent If the world found out that Clark and Superman were the same person everyone he had ever met would become targets of Superman’s countless enemies And Superman refused to put other people at risk So Superman changed into Clark Kent’s work clothes in the shadow of the revolving globe atop the Daily Planet’s rooftop Clark Kent would get a stern lecture from his boss but there was nothing even the Man of Steel could do about it Clark opened the rooftop door He walked down the two flights of stairs to the Daily Planet Building’s newsroom floor He walked past the main elevators and began to head down the hall toward the main room and his cubicle But as he approached the end of the hall and the glass double doors that led to the newsroom he noticed an odd smell with his enhanced senses the scent of lilacs At first Clark assumed he had forgotten someone’s birthday One of his co-workers must have received a bouquet for the special occasion As Clark reached the doors he quickly moved out of view of anyone in the main newsroom Clark looked at the wall in front of him and used his X-ray vision Inside he could see four men holding cattle prods That’s not good Clark thought He scanned the rest of the room No one was hurt But even still everyone looked terrified He could see his old friend Jimmy Olsen his boss Perry White and even Lois Lane Clark exhaled a sigh of relief that Lois was safe Now it was time to get to work Clark concentrated and used his super-hearing He could hear a woman’s voice It sounded familiar to him He knew the person talking but he couldn’t quite place the voice has gone on long enough said the woman Clark searched the room and zeroed in on the speaker She was a redheaded woman wearing a green leafy uniform He recognized her instantly as Batman’s old enemy Poison Ivy I don’t know what you’re talking about said Perry White He was facing Ivy He looked scared and frustrated Do you have any idea what kind of impact you’re having on the world asked
Poison Ivy Clark noticed that she looked even angrier than usual Whenever they had met she was always plotting some deadly campaign to save Mother Nature She saw herself as the spokesperson for all plant life She viewed humans as her enemies and hated them for slowly killing the planet with their pollution and waste Poison Ivy was constantly using her plant-controlling abilities to try and destroy all human life on Earth Needless to say considering her beliefs and the state of the world today the villain had very little to smile about Ninety-five million trees are murdered by the newspaper industry every year Poison Ivy was saying in the other room Your business creates nearly 49 billion pounds of greenhouse gases and 126 billion pounds of wastewater Perry White didn’t respond He seemed genuinely surprised by the numbers Ivy was mentioning Considering that I think it’s safe to say that newspapers are an enemy of nature said Poison Ivy So you’ve made an enemy of me Perry White put his hands up in front of him Let’s talk about this he said No one needs to get hurt here It’s a little too late for that said Ivy Clark had heard enough He didn’t want to waste time by heading back to the roof to change So he quickly jogged to the opposite end of the hall He threw open the door to the supply room The small closet-like room was filled with items like paperclips and reams of paper Due to its convenient location and the fact that it had a lock on the inside of its door the room was the perfect place for Clark to change into Superman’s costume Even better it also had a small window on its far wall making Superman’s quick exits even quicker As Clark unbuttoned his shirt to reveal the famous S-shield underneath he felt the start of a headache coming on To most people the mild pain would be nothing new But not to Superman Unlike most people Superman didn’t get headaches The Man of Steel decided to ignore the pain for now Instead the hero once again used his super-hearing He concentrated and homed in on Poison Ivy’s voice fifteen minutes to make the arrangements Poison Ivy was saying By the end
of that time the Daily Planet had better have made the switch to 100 recycled paper I get what you’re saying came a voice from across the newsroom Superman knew that voice all too well It was Lois’s And I agree with you Superman looked toward the newsroom using his X-ray vision again Lois was walking over toward Poison Ivy He was ready to move now but he thought better of it Lois was right next to Ivy He didn’t want to put her in harm’s way But it’s not quite that simple said Lois These kinds of things take time And this certainly isn’t the way to go about it I don’t remember asking for your opinion said Poison Ivy I’m just saying that there’s a right way to do things and a wrong way said Lois And taking hostages in Metropolis In the Daily Planet Building of all places That’s just the wrong way And why would that be asked Poison Ivy annoyed Superman felt a sudden surge in the pain in his head again then a weakness in his legs He pushed it away and kept listening This is Superman’s city said Lois The Superman Maybe you’ve heard of him Really strong guy Leaps buildings in a single bound Can knock out a crazy eco terrorist without even breaking a sweat Ring any bells Poison Ivy grinned Why don’t you look out the window she said Lois narrowed her eyes at her Then she turned toward the row of windows lining the far wall In all the excitement she hadn’t noticed what was growing on the outside of the building Superman looked over toward the window of the supply closet It was covered in strange glowing vines They seemed to have sprouted up out of nowhere Superman walked over to the vines and opened the window Immediately he fell to his knees The green glow coming from the plants pulsed in the sunlight It seemed to be sending shockwaves of pain and weakness through Superman’s entire body It was all he could do to gather the strength to slam the window shut again
