Update thread 30: #include: Something Witty Here.

[Bob Schroeck]

Timote wrote:

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Bob Schroeck wrote:

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I wonder if she'll confirm/deny some of my speculation as to the Teraverse versions of Superman and Wonder Woman...

*reading thru the tropes page*  gets to the (first?) Superman comparison.  You do know Riley is a Buffy-verse character? right?

Of course.  But check out these passages:

Riley was wearing a dark blue suit that was maybe a size or two too big for him so he looked sort of overweight and lumpy.  He had his hair slicked down and combed weird so he looked especially dorky, and he was wearing black-rimmed glasses that were the wrong size and shape for his face, so he looked like a doof.  Well, he looked as much like a doof as you could make Riley Finn ever look.

This is Riley as Christopher Reeves as Clark Kent.  The blue suit in particular is very Silver Age Clark.

Riley Finn listened in on the colonel’s car radio broadcast.  “Something’s up.  Colonel Park is claiming his brakes have failed, but he’s driving our way instead of taking the car off the road.  We suit up now.”
He pulled off the glasses and suit coat and clip-on tie.  He grabbed his shirt at the third button with both hands, and he pulled open the shirt and padded vest to reveal the distinct pattern of an urban camo t-shirt.

And that is the archetypal "begin change into Superman" move.
Plus Riley is the adopted son of midwestern farmers; his parents are named Jon and Marti.  He's a genetically-engineered super, and by the end of the story has a healing factor so high that he's almost invulnerable.  Tell me all these don't add up into a wink-and-a-nod toward Superman.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.