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Comic Book Merged Humans

Comic Book Merged Humans Table Resized

While working on my list of superpowers, one of the more interesting superpowers I added, that was not on my previous list of 150 superpowers, was the ability to merge human beings into a single being (power 99). Writing about this superpower brought back a lot of memories. I first read Childhood’s End when I was a teenager and the book kind of scared the crap out of me because there was something deeply true about the novel. In Childhood’s End the Overlords look like demons. Our fear of demons is a premonition of a fate in which humans become a single organism. Childhood’s End is a novelistic version of the Omega Point put forth by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The recent TV series version of Childhood’s End also got me thinking about the subject of MERGED HUMANS!   This article will explore (1) how humans have been merged, (2) why humans have been merged and different (3) types of merging in comic books.

1.0) How would you create merged humans?

 1.1) Cybernetic

One way of merging human is via a combination of biological and technological means. This merging can be done for various ends. Transhumanism, or H+ for short, suggests we use emerging technologies such as genetic engineering and/or intelligence augmentation (IA) and artificial technology in tandem in order to enhance human potential. There are different flavors of transhumanism including: Abolitionism, Democratic transhumanism, Extropianism, Immortalism, Libertarian transhumanism, Postgenderism, Singularitarianism, and Technogaianism.

The flavor missing from the list is the flavor you see in any number of science fiction movies in which emerging technologies are used to enhance humans to serve the interests of the state which are generally military. Captain America is enhanced to fight Nazis as super soldier. In the future, the very same Marvel Comics super solider program is used to create Nuke (Marvel), a cyborg. I actually find the comic book version of a post human future more “realistic” than the H+ version. Enhanced humans will require deep pockets which only the state has and not the politically correct. The Kree Empire decides to use cyborg technology to create the Supreme Intelligence! The most famous cyborg collective intelligence is of course the Borg (Star Trek). The Borg have the amazing ability to assimilate both technological and biological uniqueness and then add them to the collective.

1.2) Superorganisms

A superorganism is an organism that consists of other organisms. In the case of superorganisms, humans are merged via biological means rather than cybernetic means. In one scenario, aliens may arrive and have the ability to merge humans via biological means and humans lose their identity as individual i.e. they become the fictional version of eusocial. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is the seminal movie of this type. The comic book version of an alien that takes over humans is Starro (DC) and Starro uses little star fish that attach themselves to the head of humans including even Superman to take them over an make them part of a collective intelligence.

1 Comic Book Merged Humans - Starro - Justice League of America 190

Marvel decided to make a montage of the The Stepford Wives and The Midwich Cuckoos and created the Stepford Cuckoos (Marvel) who are quintuplets with a telepathic hive mind. Marvel also created the Uni-Mind (Marvel).  The Eternals are a race that has all the powers of Superman, more or less, and can merge into a single Uni-Mind due to their Eternal physiology rather than via technological means. There is a loss of individual identity but only temporarily. The Overmind (Marvel) is an alien belonging to the Eternals of Eyung and the receptacle for entire population of several hundred million minds. The individual minds have been totally erased.   The High Evolutionary use some sort of compound to accelerate human evolution and creates the Entity (Marvel) in What If -The Avengers Lost the Evolutionary War V2 #1 but individuality is retained while powers are amalgamated.

The comic book writer, Alan Moore has the Swamp Thing accidently become a collective intelligence in Swamp Thing V2 #61 (1987). The Swamp Thing creates a plant based superorganism. Alan Moore always uses a unique POV to make an old topic interesting. The problem of unmerging the collective is seen from the POV of those merged first and the Green Lantern who wants to save the merged innocents and tries different solutions. Compare this POV driven approach to storytelling to how the Uni-Mind, Ubersaurus and Mangog are summarily unmerged.

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In Memetic (Boom), aliens use a meme of sloth with a hypnotic spiral in the background in order to create merged humans.

Brit (Image) fights a one-shot unnamed merged human supervillain in Brit V1 #1.

1.3) Technological Singularity

In the technological singularity scenario, computers create even better computers and those better computers create even better computers and on and on until computers quickly reach a level of artificial intelligence (AI) that soon totally surpasses human intelligence. This article is about merging humans not AI so let’s assume computers don’t like waste and merge humans into the machine. In “real” life, I think super computers would either ignore us or eliminate us but conquering us or more salaciously conquering our women seems to sell more books and tickets!

In the comic book version of the technological singularity the computers mostly conquer humans or try to eliminate us but we put up a really good fight. Brainiac (DC) is the number one comic book robot that goes this route. Brainiac shrinks cities so he can study them the way a youngster studies an ant farm. The concept is totally insane but a lot of fun and allows for a slew of Kandor related stories since this is the city Brainiac “saved” from the destruction of Krypton. If there is no Kandor then there is no Superman Emergency Squad! Finally, if there is no Superman Emergency Squad then you can’t have a fight between them and Supergirl in Action 276.

2 Comic Book Merged Humans - Supergirls vs the Superman Emergency Squad - Action 276

Ultron (Marvel) used to want to eliminate humans but lately he has started to merge humans.

3 Comic Book Merged Humans - Age of Ultron - The Complete Event (2014) - Page 272

A similar plot twist happened in the Terminator franchise. In Terminator Genisys, Skynet turns John Connor, the leader of the human resistance, into a Terminator! I suppose both 1.1 and 1.3 are examples of cyborg technology from a technological point of view but I would say if you as a human are mostly computer and more importantly it was done to you by a computer than it’s still an expression of technological singularity and a very important difference in terms of novelistic conflict.

1.4) Unknown Means

In the case of the Omega Point, the role of biological and technological merging of humans is not specified and/or irrelevant. Merged humans provide theological answers so the ends not the means are more relevant. In Childhood’s End one assumes scientific means are used but as in the case of the Omega Point, the details of how this merging happens is not specified. Odin creates Mangog (Marvel) using magic but magic isn’t much of an explanation. Mostly I just don’t want to make a whole category just for Mangog!

2.0) Why would you create merged humans?

2.1) Evolutionary Imperative

Merging human is just the right thing to do! Come on humans as individuals suck! You know it! I know it! We are going to destroy ourselves in the next twenty minutes anyway so we might as well merge and go up the evolutionary ladder. Do you think microbes liked being part of a larger multicellular body? Of course not! It’s the next stage and we will be happier for going up the ladder. The Borg know assimilation is just the right thing to do! Teilhard de Chardin doesn’t suggest there is a choice but God is behind the plan so it must be the right thing to do.

2.2) Governance

Two brains are better than one and two thousand brains are probably better than two. The Kree Empire use technology to create the Supreme Intelligence which is an amalgam of the best and brightest minds of Kree history. The Supreme Intelligence is created to create a cosmic cube but refuses but is kept around anyway for governance. The Eternals merge into a Uni-Mind temporarily to make big decisions.

2.3) Military

Merged humans might have military applications. Maybe the Borg didn’t create a hive mind mostly for military purposes but they do tend to kick Starfleet around without much trouble. Even the Q (Star Trek) don’t mess with the Borg. The Overmind (Marvel) and the Ubersaur (Astro City) were created specifically for combat!

2.4) Punishment

“Hell is other People”, according to Sartre. Odin is obviously a big fan of Sartre and decided the best way to punish a people was to merge them into a single entity called Mangog. Mangog in turn almost destroys his kingdom. Odin’s merging makes no sense whatsoever but this is often the case with the Marvel version of Odin! However, the idea of a criminal feeling the pain of their victim does make some sense. In The Crow, protagonist Eric Draven makes villain Top Dollar feel 30 hours of his (Eric’s) murdered girlfriend Shelly’s pain in one moment.

3.0) Type of Merging

There are at least three possibilities when it comes to merging (3.1) Mind only, (3.2) Body mostly (lack of super intelligence) and (3.3) Mind and Body. The type of merging is sadly neglected in one of the most popular fan boy fights: What would happen if the Uni-Mind fought the Supreme Intelligence. The Uni-Mind can fly and seems to be an amalgam of the Eternals physically not just mentally (3.3). The Uni-Mind, unlike the Supreme Intelligence, is more like a thousand Supermans in one big body. Actually the Uni-Mind hasn’t really shown any super intelligence feats but has vast psionic powers and is used for governance sporadically so one assumes there is some sort of super intelligence at work.

The Supreme Intelligence is probably more intelligent because more minds make up the Supreme Intelligence than the Uni-Mind. However, physically the Supreme Intelligence physically is a collection of computers and brains and can only control three androids to fight (3.1). However, the Supreme Intelligence does have vast psionic powers. The Supreme Intelligence is one of the great manipulators of the Marvel Universe and ruthlessly created the Nega-Bomb to force the evolution of the Kree race while not letting the Kree know about its genocidal plan directed at the Kree themselves for a larger end! The Supreme Intelligence can access all the information of the Kree Empire, process that information and come up with extremely complex plans that have been successful in the past.

Minus prep, the Uni-Mind wins in a conflict with the Supreme Intelligence. The Uni-Mind is powerful enough to just fly through Kree space and blast the Supreme Intelligence to death. The Supreme Intelligence has some psionic powers but not to the same extent as the Uni-Mind. Without prep then the conflict is more or less Superman versus a computer installation!

If there is prep then the Supreme Intelligence has the vast resources of the interstellar Kree Empire and superior intelligence to use those resources. This would be Superman versus a computer installation which is guarded by an insane level of military resources and they know you are coming and of course they can come after you first! The Kree Empire did create the Inhumans as their answer to the Celestial created Eternals and if they can create a super race then surely they can create weapons to take out a super race.

The Supreme Intelligence can send out an armada that conquers worlds, Sentries, giant robots with vast destructive potential, and specialized weaponry designed to take out Eternals merged or not. The Supreme Intelligence is the brain of the Kree Empire. The Uni-Mind is more agile as a body and brain in one package but the Supreme Intelligence has a body which is the Kree Empire at its disposal with prep. Also, the Supreme Intelligence is more redundant. The Supreme Intelligence is a vast network and the pieces can be replaced with more brains and more computers. The Supreme Intelligence is more of a distributed network. The Uni-Mind is a single entity flying in the sky. A really powerful entity but one target when it’s all said and done. The Uni-Mind was been taken out by a single blast from a Celestial in the past!

Comic Book Merged Humans - Uni-Mind vs Celestials - Thor #300 - Page 25

The Overmind (Marvel) received vast psionic powers due to his merging but not the physical powers of the millions that he is the merged version of or super intelligence.

What if there is a physical merging but not a merging of minds (3.2)? You merge beings to get super strength. There are major disadvantages to having an amalgam body lacking super intelligence or psionic powers. Mangog is a savage creature of unbelievable strength and is much stronger than Thor. However, Mangog is easily taken apart by Odin. Super intelligence could have given Magog the ability to create a defense against Odin.

4 Comic Book Merged Humans - Thor #157 - Page 28

Ubersaurus (Astro City), in a manner similar to the Eternals, uses the inherent super powers of their alien physiology to create a collective being that has a collective body but the Ubersaurus doesn’t appear to be all that smart and is easily defeated by some sort of ray that a super intelligent being would have anticipated (3.2). If the Ubersaurus had psionic powers then it might have erected some sort of psionic force field to stop the ray.

5 Comic Book Merged Humans - Ubersaur - Astro City #30 (2016) - Page 19

The Swamp Thing becomes a physically impressive specimen but the merging leaves him in a state of shock.  A merged creature minus super intelligence or psionic defenses is easily unmerged with the right technology and this seems to be the main weakness of this type of merging.

I am going to argue that the Borg are an example of 3.3 but the Borg have their little version of 3.3 which makes them very interesting. Do the Borg as a hive mind have super intelligence? The Borg can store and process huge amounts of information as a hive mind that consists of countless assimilated species. The Queen of the Borg serves some sort of information processing nexus function that is not totally explained in the Star Trek universe. The Borg can adapt to all sorts of technology almost instantly and if this isn’t super intelligence certainly this ability mimics super intelligence.

However, stratagems by Starfleet do seem to work against the Borg and Borg intelligence seems to have blind spot when it comes to individuals. The Borg do not so much assimilate individuals as civilizations so individuals are ignored and an individual might be able to slip past Borg defenses and do damage to the Borg that is disproportionate to the apparent potential of the individual. A Borg, Hugh is infected with a computer virus and the Enterprise crew is pretty sure their stratagem will work if Hugh is assimilated again. The human equivalent would be blankets with Small Pox given to Native Americans and a being with super intelligence would see through such a trick easily. The Borg have assimilated humans so this particular historical example would be in their data base. The Borg are like an idiot savant in some ways. Their knowledge is deep and detailed but their thought sometimes lacks common sense. The Borg are more robotic and slow moving and slow thinking than human and agile of mind and body.

The Borg can create a custom nexus similar to the Borg Queen that deals with particular problems. The Borg created a nexus called Locutus out of Captain Picard in order to take out the Federation. This custom made nexus seems to give the Borg the advantages of both a hive mind and a quicker more agile individual mind in one package. I see Locutus as being a custom made chip designed for a particular problem. The Borg as a collective are a cybernetic system that is smart enough to create a cybernetic expert system when needed and by assimilating Captain Picard avoid the knowledge acquisition problem.

Do the Borg have some sort of ability to merge their humanoid bodies? The Borg as a cube ship seem to have some sort of ability to draw on the physical reserves of all the individual Borg in the cube ship for regeneration from attacks that would destroy any Starfleet ship (3.3). Individual Borg outside of the cube ship do not have this ability.

I would say the Entity is an example of 3.3 taken to a higher level than any other being in comic book history. The Entity can destroy both Eternity and Death physically because it’s an amalgam of most of the Marvel Universe superheroes who have also been evolved. Even the merged humans, not super humans, can disintegrate a Celestial with just a thought!

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In conclusion the topic of merged humans in comic books appears to be simple but actually has a lot of components that make the topic more interesting.

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Kyle XY vs. Clark Kent of Smallville

Kyle XY and Clark Kent of Smallville have a lot in common.  They are both teenagers.  They both have superpowers.  They are both on prime time television.  Clark fights Luthor Corp.  Kyle fights Madacorp.  Both have fatherhood issues.  Kyle is a clone of a super scientist  Adam Baylin and Kyle has to hunt his father down.  Clark’s dad is Jor El and is dead due to the destruction of Krypton and Clark deals with a holograph of his dad rather than a living dad.  Both have “normal” human parents that teach them lessons in humanity.  Both have female versions with their powers that are slightly more powerful.  Kyle’s clone companion, Jessi XX, was created later and is a more advanced clone model and has super strength unlike Kyle.  Supergirl, Clark’s cousin, can fly while Clark cannot.

I would say there is a strong chance that the creators of Kyle XY saw the success of Smallville and decided to make their own teenage superhero.  Clark of Smallville is very different from   Superman of the comic books and movies.  Clark is young and much less experienced than Superman.  An episode of Smallville starring the Legion of Superheroes, from the 31st century, lets us know that Clark will become Superman but the Legion in general finds Clark less than impressive compared to the legend of Superman. Clark is still discovering new superpowers during the first three or four episodes.  Heat vision turns out to be especially problematic in one episode.  As of episode eight Clark cannot fly with any regularity.  Clark isn’t even really Superboy.   The silver age comic book Superboy would demolish the Smallville Clark.  Clark will probably skip the Superboy phase in this version of the Superman story. Clark hasn’t even put on a costume but this may happen in the upcoming ninth season.

I think one of the keys to the success of Smallville is that the creators have taken a lot of the plot line from the Marvel superhero Spiderman and interjected that plot line into the Superman mythos with great success.  The early Spiderman could be summarized as “insecure teenager becomes superhero” and this is what Clark is doing.  Superman is a DC character and Marvel is their competition.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

One of the recurring plot line weaknesses of Superman is that Superman has been too powerful for interesting battles and/or adventures.  Kryptonite was created by the Superman radio show in the thirties precisely to address this problem.  In recent years Superman has been depowered and the current Superman is far less powerful than the silver age Superman.

The fans of comic books are largely male teenagers.  Stan Lee, of Marvel comic books, figured out in the sixties that male teenagers might relate more to a hero that shared their insecurities like Spiderman.  Marvel then really exploited the teenage superhero idea with the X-Men who are mostly teenagers and reside at the Xavier School for the Talented and Gifted rather than something like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude which is more a married with children man’s fantasy than a teenage guy fantasy.

Kyle XY premiered in 2006 and has a super brain.  Kyle can detect mathematical patterns intuitively.  In superpower speak this is some type of algorithmic pattern awareness.  Kyle has photographic memory.  Kyle excels at analyzing mathematical data but has high analytical skills in general and can excel in any scientific area.  Overall, Kyle has super intelligence but due to not being raised by a family, but grown in a pod, lacked basic knowledge of human society and how people interact.  The discrepancy between his analytical/mathematical intelligence and social knowledge was and is a major theme of the show.

Kyle can control his body and senses at superhuman levels.  Kyle is like a super yogi.  Kyle does not have a super body like Clark but due to his superior control of his nervous system can push his existing normal body to supernormal limits.  This allows Kyle exceptional pain management.  In particular, Kyle can increase his hearing but at a cost.  Kyle becomes dizzy after pushing his body to superhuman levels and can even injure himself through over use of his super hearing.

Clark’s super hearing, on the other hand, does not involve any such price.  Kyle also has photographic memory.  Kyle’s photographic memory can tie directly into muscle memory and he can learn any kinesic skill upon watching someone perform this skill.  If he watches a Bruce Lee movie then he will be able to perform any of the moves Bruce Lee demonstrated in that movie.  In comic book circles this power is also referred to as photographic reflexes.

The Taskmaster is a major Marvel comic books super villain and only has this superpower and takes on the likes of Captain America.  Kyle’s photographic reflexes are downplayed in his TV series and he has not gone the next logical step and mastered every martial art around to become some sort of super fighter.  Instead Kyle tends to try to reason his way out of tough situations.

Kyle has something beyond photographic memory and this is called holographic memory.  Kyle can search through his memories as though he was having the experience again.  Kyle has super learning.  Kyle learned how to talk in one day.  Kyle has the mental equivalent of a firewall and can resist mind control.  Kyle has limited telepathy.  Kyle has limited telekinetic abilities that have two origins.   The basis of his telekinetic abilities lie in his ability to change the polarity of his cells and attract or repel water.  Kyle can also change the gravitational field around an object.

Kyle has an interesting way of drawing and basically draws like a dot matrix printer and makes a series of points, usually with crayons, that allow him to make pictures that resemble photographs in their clarity.  This photographic drawing ability and photographic memory ability means he can make pictures of events and things he does not fully understand at the time and then figure out what is going on by looking at the picture and/or sharing the picture with others, generally his family, who can help him figure out the picture. Kyle is kind of the ultimate eye witness!

Kyle’s major weakness is his aforementioned lack of social experience and he can be easily manipulated by con artist types although his instincts about people are pretty good despite his lack of social experience and over time he is learning more and more about social interaction and norms.  Kyle has all the physical weakness of any human.  His super brain can overtax his all too human body.  Kyle does not have a belly button due to being raised in a pod rather than a womb and his CAT scans show way too much activity but all in all Kyle is human and can pass for human more easily than Clark.  Kyle can hide his superhuman nature via restraint.  Clark is an alien and must avoid a physical examination at all costs to keep his powers secret.

Clark’s superpowers are much more well known than those of Kyle XY and are basically Superman’s but on a lower power scale and minus flight.  Clark’s superpowers include invulnerability, super strength, super speed, heat ray vision, X-Ray vision, and super hearing, far beyond Kyle’s level and without the fatigue weakness.  Clark is bright but does not appear to have super intelligence unlike many versions of Superman.  Clark also cannot fly at this time.

Clark also has a strong sense of ethics that comes from being raised on a Kansas farm and generally knows what the right thing to do is and acts as a natural born leader to those around him including other superheroes, the Justice League, Green Arrow, the Legion of Superheroes, due to this strong sense of right and wrong.  This is in contrast to Kyle who is still trying to figure out the subtleties of human morality and in particular the discrepancy between what humans say is moral and what they do.

Clark’s number one weakness is kryptonite.  Green kryptonite can kill him.  Red kryptonite turns him into a hedonistic psycho not necessarily a bad guy but more of a rebel without a cause on steroids.  Green kryptonite is all over Smallville!  The meteor showers that brought Clark to Smallville also apparently brought tons and tons of green kryptonite to Smallville.  In just about all other versions of Superman, green kryptonite is super rare and bad guys go to the trouble of spending millions to synthesize the stuff because it is so rare.  No need for a bad guy in the Smallville universe to spend a dime synthesizing kryptonite since the stuff apparently is just lying all over the place.  This makes Clark relatively vulnerable compared to other versions of Superman.  Still super speed and super senses mean that Clark can move faster than a speeding bullet including kryptonite bullets and hear the clicking of the chamber before the bullet is even fired.

Clark has fought Braniac, a super computer from his home planet Krypton.  Braniac has super intelligence on a level that dwarfs Kyle.  Clark’s number one enemy is Luthor, who in the Smallville version does not have super intelligence, unlike the Silver Age comic book version.  The Smallville Luthor does have extreme cunning and access to the most advanced research labs in the world via Luthor Corp.  Luthor does have access to the finest minds on Earth and knows how to manipulate people including scientists who may be smarter academically than Luthor but not as cunning as Luthor.  A team of the finest minds with the best research capabilities on Earth might have a combined IQ that is greater and more dangerous than Kyle’s IQ.  The contests between Luthor and Clark can be seen as contests between brain versus brawn to a great extent and Clark has always come out ahead.

Besides Luthor, Clark has gone up against a army of superpowered foes that are far more powerful than anything Kyle has gone up against so Clark has the experience edge.  Green kryptonite can give humans superpowers and apparently every other teenager in Smallville has been exposed to green kryptonite and the green stuff also seems to make humans into psychos but this is debatable.  So in a boring head on contest Clark would probably beat Kyle but the purpose of these posts is to entertain not bore!

The scenario, Luthor manipulates Kyle into thinking Clark is the vanguard of an alien invasion.  This would be no problem for Luthor whatsoever since he has manipulated people far less naïve than Kyle.  This event happens after season six when Luthor knows all of Clark’s secrets including his weakness to kryptonite and Kyle comes up with about a hundred fantastic weapon delivery systems to “stun” Clark with kryptonite despite Clark’s super speed and super senses.  Luthor has lied to Kyle and told him that Kryptonite stuns rather than kills Kryptonians since Luthor realizes Kyle would never agree to kill anyone even an alien invader.

Kyle belatedly does an internet search about Luthor and realizes he has been had and that Luthor is a very, very bad person based on his business practices that are a matter of public record.  Kyle then hacks into the files of Luthor Corp and realizes that Luthor is not just bad but evil!  Kyle warns Clark of Luthor’s impending attack and together they attack Luthor Corp.  Clark explains to Kyle that the best defense is a strong offense.  Kyle attacks the computers of Luthor Corp.  Clark attacks the muscle guarding the computers at Luthor Corp so Kyle can get to them.  Clark is constantly breaking into Luthor Corp secret centers so this should be familiar territory for him.  Even Madacorp has been firebombed by Kyle’s mentor.  As stated, Clark has broken into Luthor Corp secret centers before even with Justice League members but never with someone like Kyle!

Kyle uses a terminal at the secret Luthor Corp lair to erase all data and I mean all data from all Luthor Corp’s computers including all financial data and Luthor is left with a company minus money and research data and Luthor Corp is all about data.  Kyle doesn’t stop there and decides to leave Luthor Corp about a billion bucks in the red and exposes every crime, fraud and misplaced paper clip that Luthor corp was ever involved in to the Feds and the Daily Planet by emailing the pertinent records so Luthor ends up being chased by debt collectors and the law.  Who knows which is worse?

Luthor Corp is destroyed but is Luthor?  Luthor is cunning but not much without the resources of Luthor Corp or at least in the short range.  Years later, Luthor is bankrupt and has served time in jail for fraud.   Luthor even had to use all of his hidden cash in the Caymans, not on the Luthor Corp books, on lawyers and assasins to kill those who could have expose more serious crimes.   His company, his money, his good name and his friends are all gone!  Luthor is pan handling for booze on the streets of some third world hell hole where he is not recognized when he sees a picture of Kyle and Clark on the front page of the Daily Planet that some expat has thrown on the ground.  It is of course raining!  Rain drops and mud cover the newspaper but Luthor can still read the front page.

Apparently Clark and Kyle have started some sort of think tank charity to solve the problems of the world.  Kyle comes up with the science while Clark does hero for hire jobs to pay for the research and implementation.  Luthor raises his fists to the sky, throws the bottle of cheap local whisky he was drinking to the ground, breaking the bottle, and vows, “I will never be poor again”.  “That which does not kill you only makes you stronger”, thinks Luthor.  Of course the guy who originally wrote that died in an insane asylum.  I like to say, “There are many things that will not kill you but can maim you for life in such a way that death would seem like a good thing”.

Luthor creates a new criminal organization that has a corporate structure but is more mafia than corporation and far deadlier and secretive than Luthor Corp ever was and the first thing on the agenda of this corporation is the destruction of Clark and Kyle. Luthor even manages to hire a lot of the more nefarious elements of Madacorp to work for his new organization.  Thus a new series begins that combines the fan bases of both Kyle XY and Smallville and makes untold millions while I suffer the slings and arrows of middle class existence.

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