Since January 2013, I’ve been doing those posts on Sundays where I put up sketches of characters and describe them and such. It’s been fun. It was mostly an attempt to keep me doing something every week, while also expanding on the fictional universes I enjoy creating so much.

Since July 2015, I have also, not in the “public” view that is this website, been creating a tabletop RPG that takes place in my fictional universe(s). It’s a lot of work because, for some reason, I decided to build it from scratch, and I have pretty minimal experience with such RPGs to begin with. But I’ve greatly enjoyed doing it.

But these two projects, pretty time consuming as they are, have had an unintended result. While I have now a lot of raw material about my universes, I haven’t gained all that much new actual story content set in those universes. So now I’m gonna stop doing the Super Sunday sketches regularly (they will still pop up on occasion when I can’t think of anything else or what have you), and will try to use Sundays for actual story content, or perhaps discussion of the PDR RPG. I haven’t decided just yet.

Let’s see how this goes.

Last week I covered Ron Troupe, who has a bit of a reputation for being “the black guy” of the Daily Planet. And certainly if a named black man is going to show up in a scene at the Planet these days, it’s probably gonna be Ron. But he’s not the first nor the only. (This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list, it’s just me rambling on a topic, same as always.)

The earliest attempt to add a black man to the cast of the Daily Planet that I know of happened in the 70s with a man named Dave Stevens. He had about a dozen appearances in those days, but was forgotten. I do actually think the character should return, but I’d write him as a politician, not a reporter, and that’s something I’ll write about some other day when I’m more willing to give away actual plot ideas that I have.

More significant than another reporter is the owner of the paper. There have been many depicted owners of the Daily Planet, most either actively criminal or complete nonentities. To me, Franklin Stern is the most interesting of them. Like Ron, Stern came to be in the 90s, when the books were consciously working on their diversity. He has had less longevity than Ron, but he was played by James Earl Jones on the Lois and Clark show and that counts for something.

In the comics, Perry and Franklin were long-time friends (though that isn’t true on the show from which I’ve taken the image) but they disagreed on a lot of things, including sometimes, how the Daily Planet should be run. As I’ve said, I want the journalism to be a focus of the Superman books, and I also think it is a cliche when the Planet is bought out by a villain (Luthor, usually) just for cheap drama. I want my drama more nuanced. Stern is a good man, but he can still disagree with the main cast and provide obstacles for them. Let’s use that.

The attempts to add a black woman to the Daily Planet cast have had less long-term success and are, I think, potentially more interesting. I intend to cover that more fully some day, when I’ve got more research done.

It’s time for a night of must-see situation comedies! A single plotline wends its way through four of the sitcoms established in earlier Super Sunday posts. And they resolve around this mysterious individual:

Chris V

Only identifying himself as Chris V (and that may be V as in five), this heavily-armed muscular man has lost his memory and is trying to figure out where he came from and what his mission is. He begins his quest by wandering around aimlessly, and he keeps getting hit on the head, which resets his amnesia between shows.

My Third Mother: Hannah and Evelyn try to enjoy a Date Day because they haven’t been getting enough time together lately. Their lunch at a fancy restaurant is ruined when the strange Chris V barges in and tries to take over the restaurant. In the B-plot, the kids meet Ray from the next show.

Minds of Their Own: When Ray sees Chris V’s superior fighting skills and impressionable state of mind, he tries to recruit the super soldier into a street gang, which consists only of him so far. While Ray brings the soldier around to frighten those who bother him, CJ and JC try more earnestly to help Chris find his origins, and discover the Oddity Shop owned by a family that shares their surname.

Kane’s Oddity Shop: The two Kane families mingle while Chris V is baffled by magic tricks. When Chris V is so surprised that he bangs his head again, he flees into the night dressed as a magician.

We Can’t Just All Get Along: Armed with magic tricks and his mysterious military instincts, Chris V follows police officer Ming Doswell to her home and tries to force her to help him, while entertaining her children in a bizarre hostage situation. Eventually, Ming captures the super soldier.

Flood River Prison: Chris V is sent to Flood River Prison, where the warden tries to use him as a hitman to take out problem prisoners. Sparkleshiner eventually solves everything by just magicking Chris V back where he is supposed to be. The audience gets no closure! Suck it, audience!

And the whole thing turns out to be a marketing campaign for some terrible action movie that’s coming out that weekend.