#krypton factor

[weaversweek]

This week, a profile of Gordon Burns.

From Ulster to Granada, and mostly the host of The Krypton Factor.

Every winner is a superperson. Every contender is a superperson.

Also a look at Gordon's dabble into shoot-em-up Tetris, and A Word in Your Ear - a communication game show where Bob Holness could draw a picture like this on lunchtime BBC1.

Lovely lighthouse there, Bob.

Gordon Burns was a journalist by training, he hosted UTV Live and Granada Reports and later BBC North West Tonight.

Absolute hero, and we even mention his cousin Ed Sheeran.

#gordon burns #the krypton factor #krypton factor #granada reports #north west tonight #belfast #journalist #utv #a word in your ear #relatively speaking #gamesmaster #television legend #living legend #game show #gameshow #game shows #gameshows #ukgameshows #weaver's week

[wahwealth]

https://rumble.com/v4sabdb-gordon-burns-the-krpton-factor-10-16-1989-uk-game-show-full-episode.html

The Krypton Factor, a most popular British game show.

#Krypton factor #Game show #UK Game Show

[trashpandato]

Romance

Earth customs are weird. 

Kara knows this; has known it for many years. And sure, she’s spent all those years trying to learn, trying to understand what makes humans tick so she could mimic it successfully enough to not stand out. 

“Fake it til you make it”, Alex used to say, implying that if Kara spent enough time pretending, human behaviour would eventually become second nature to her.

And fake it she did. Some Earth customs were easy enough to adopt. Like wide smiles that cover up her pain, the concept of comfort foods or all-you-can-eat buffets, or even humans’ tendency to find excuses to turn any random day into some kind of celebration - Hump Day, Tax Deadline Day, Polar Bear Plunge Day, National Frozen Yogurt Day. (She’s half-convinced that most of these are inventions by Alex to confuse her, but she celebrates National Gummy Worm Day on July 15th anyway.)

But if she’s honest, a lot of the things that humans do, their customs, their rituals, still seem a little strange to Kara. Even after years of trying to understand.

Chatting up strangers, for example. On Krypton, interactions with someone not known to a person would have required some sort of intermediary, an introduction through a trusted person. If Kara had even dared to walk up to a stranger to talk to them, she would have faced discipline not just from her family but also from the broader community. When she first landed on Earth, she relied on Eliza or Alex to make introductions and felt intensely uncomfortable when kids at school would randomly talk to her. It took her a long time to believably mimic these kinds of human interactions, and if she’s honest, she still prefers an official introduction over just chatting up people out of the blue. (It’s why she was happy to tag along with Clark for her first encounter with Lena.)

Or there’s the act of blowing out candles on a birthday cake. Extinguishing light instead of keeping it burning as a means of celebration. The first time Eliza prompted Kara to blow out her candles, Kara was horrified and it took a lot of gentle reassurances from her adoptive mother to even consider partaking in this peculiar human tradition. To this day, Kara prefers her candles away from her cake and to leave them burning for as long as safely possible.

And then there are all the gestures associated with romance. With Krypton’s system of arranged pairings based on compatibility across a number of important factors, there was no need to wine and dine anyone. She could remember her parents showing affection for each other, but there was never any ritualized approach to romantic moments. Humans, on the other hand, humans have rules about dates, about which flowers are appropriate to give to someone and when, about who pays the bill at the fancy restaurant, about slow-dancing and little gifts and how many feelings to reveal and when. 

It’s a lot to keep track of and confusing, and all the romance movies in the world cannot prepare Kara for her first official date with Lena.

She shows up with plumerias, because she knows Lena likes those and she knows, knows, that she’s supposed to bring flowers. But then Lena has tears in her eyes as soon as Kara hands them over, and she’s also wearing this dress that hugs her body in ways that make Kara’s higher brain function fizzle out. So she doesn’t protest when Lena pulls her inside with her hands fisted into the lapels of Kara’s suit jacket, follows Lena’s lead when she pushes her against the kitchen island and kisses her senseless, and finds herself naked and sweaty in Lena’s bed not long after that.

When Kara’s stomach rumbles a couple of hours later and Lena calls to have some food delivered, Lena chuckles.

“We kind of did this all backwards.”

Kara frowns. “How so?”

“Well,” Lena leans in and presses her lips close to Kara’s ear, making her shiver, “usually, the clothes come off after the fancy dinner.”

“You humans have a lot of rules about romance,” Kara huffs, and Lena laughs.

“I suppose we do. But I’m happy to break every single one of them with you, Kara Zor-El.”

#supercorp #kara x lena #supercorptober2023 #supercorptober

[moonah-rose]

Alison and Pat's friendship is extremely underrated and yet so cute. He's the first ghost who she connects with on a personal level rather than just an annoyance. He's the least problematic of all the ghosts in terms of respecting her personal space and just being overall friendly and helpful (despite sadly not having any powers). They watch the Krypton Factor together. They can have fun with trying to prank each other. He helps her master camping. She loves being able to bring a piece of his family to him at Christmas. In the finale he seems to sense her hesitation at leaving them and needs to prompt her to think of Mike and Mia first instead of them (or even herself). It's just a warm and fuzzy bond they have.

#bbc ghosts #pat butcher #alison cooper #brotp

[fazedlight]

Burn

Over. And over. And over again.

Kara stared at the screen as she watched the simulation of Argo’s destruction - the dancing lights of the wave erasing the small asteroid - as she relived the familiar sensation of becoming the last daughter of Krypton.

Kara swiped at the simulation, shifting to Earth-38. Her adopted planet, a culture that she had once found alien and strange. Her younger self could never have imagined the love she would have for this green and blue marble, for the people of the new strange city who would each become lights. Lights that had been extinguished.

For a second time, she watched as her home was wiped from stars.

The simulation showed again how Earth had been scattered into stardust, and she thought about her loved ones who had managed to survive, stuck on one of the multitude of ships in a haphazard fleet around her above Earth-1. She was desperate to get them all on the Waverider, to give Alex a hug, to beg Lena’s forgiveness, even to hear an encouraging word from Cat… if they had made it.

Paragon of Hope, she thought, ripping off her glasses to watch the simulation again. I’m not the paragon of anything.

“An entire universe wiped from existence,” came a familiar voice behind her, sending chills up her spine, “Distilled down to a computer graphic…”

Kara spun on her heel, eyes wide in disbelief. But the bald, smirking man in front of her was real - and amused. “Gotta say,” he said, “Missing that wow factor.”

“Lena killed you,” Kara growled, feeling the rush of adrenaline in her veins. She killed you and she lost me, Kara’s mind screamed. She killed you for me and now she can never forgive me.

“Only for a little while,” Lex winked back.

There were lines she didn’t cross on Earth. No death if she could help it, and certainly no cold-blooded murder. But as she marched forward - eyes burning red and still carrying the shredded pain of grief in her chest - her only thought was I lost Lena for you. The planets of both her Houses were gone, Lena despised her if she had even survived, and there was nothing left but incoherent rage. Lena killed you, Kara thought, and I will keep it that way.

“Everyone has a part to play,” came the fractured voice of the Monitor, like a cold wave washing her back from the edge. “Even Lex Luthor.” Kara halted, dimming her eyes. And though she argued back, feeling her distrust bubble over with rage of the unsaved humans and Oliver and the destruction that was yet to come, she also wrestled numbly. Both with what the Monitor had done…

And what she had been prepared to do.

------- If you want a different take on Crisis, I also wrote a supercorp version a while ago.

#am I allowed to release two ficlets in one day #I saw that gifset floating around earlier and I had to ok #supercorp #kara zor-el #supergirl #mel writes ficlets

[suzukiblu]

WIP Wednesday Game

Taken from @kedreeva.

It’s WIP Wednesday, time for a little accountability, sharing your work, and getting a kick in the pants.

Here’s how it works:

In a reblog of this post (so people can find you in the notes) or new thread (w/ rules attached) if you want to play on your own, post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to play!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can't share from (for example, an event or gift fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. I’ll be searching the reblogs to find people to send asks to!

If you’re reading this, you’re invited!

If you see someone posting a WIP Wednesday Game snippet, send them an ask! Make them write.

file names:

omegaverse nursing

feral omega murder-nanny Jason and pup Damian in the League

Krypton lives and Kara did not sign up for this

Billy adopts Conner and it actually goes pretty good!

YJ accidental baby acquisition

snippet from "YJ accidental baby acquisition":

"Thank you," Tim says, dropping the swab into the evidence bag. Kenley eyes him sourly for a last long moment, then makes a point of looking at Vic instead. Tim feels distinctly ignored. 

That's definitely not because Kenley's stopped seeing him as a potential threat, he knows, and can't help suspecting it's that they trust Kon more than they don't trust him. 

Or they think Kon's going to be easier to manipulate than the rest of them, given the clone factor, and–

"You're doing good, Kenley," Kon says, giving Kenley another gentle little squeeze. Tim remembers, again, how quickly he had that name to hand. "Want a lollipop or something after this? Gar's probably got some kicking around if Bart doesn't.” 

"Why?" Kenley asks. 

"This is basically your first doctor's appointment," Kon says reasonably. "Lollipops are traditional, right?" 

". . . hm," Kenley says, brow just barely creasing assessingly. 

"Kon, they've never eaten anything in their life and you want to start them off with candy?" Cassie asks, putting her hands on her hips and looking exasperated by the idea. 

"Yeah," Kon replies with a shrug. "Tasting stuff for the first time is really overwhelming, simpler flavors are easier to start with. Not gonna want to order them paneer right now, you know? Maybe get them some of those bottled smoothies to start, actually, on that note. I puked the first couple times I tried eating and I'm pretty sure my teenage stomach was more capable of handling solid food than a kindergarten one is gonna be. Plus sugar tastes good, and Kenley should get to taste something good for their first time." 

"Oh, uh, good idea," Cassie says, blanching slightly. Tim empathizes with the urge to backpedal on saying the wrong thing here. Deeply empathizes. He's not sure it would've even occurred to him to make sure that Kenley's first experience with taste was a positive one or that they might have trouble with solid food right off the bat, himself. 

Kon's "ours" comment is both making more and more sense and also is probably for the best, at this point. 

“What flavor do you wanna try?” Bart asks Kenley, peering curiously at them. “Wonder Girl's favorite is cherry and mine's orange and Robin's is green apple, so you might like one of those or you could try–” 

“Mango,” Kenley says, burying their face in Kon's chest and gripping his jacket again. 

. . . that's Kon's favorite, Tim knows. 

And he'd be a lot less concerned by that choice if Bart had actually mentioned that fact. Especially because mango is a much, much more specific and unusual candy flavor than something like grape or lemon.

#meme #wip wednesday #omegaverse #I have not finished all of last week's WIP Wednesday asks but will that stop me from doing this week? no it will not #also yes this is absolutely the childcare edition of WIP Wednesday #no shame no regrets #wip: yj accidental baby acquisition #little bit cheating this week but shhhhh NaNoWriMo has kicked my ass so we're compromising lol

[nitewrighter]

So like... I'm reading Superman: The Man of Steel Issue #62 and initially I was kind of shrugging the Hamilton+Krypton parallel off because at first it just seemed like, "Oh, you're just juxtaposing Jor-El's dread at the impending loss of Krypton against Superman fighting against the impending total-death-of-earth-because-our-Sun-Got-Eaten." You have Superman's loss of power without sunlight juxtaposed with Jor-El's scientific mastery being ultimately helpless in the face of this existential threat. But then midway through it pancake flips the despair of the whole thing because Superman has what Jor-El doesn't--not heat vision or super strength because he's a yellow star-irradiated mutant of his species--but rather a planet that trusts him and is willing to work with him to save themselves. And like, this isn't even played in such a way as 'ough it's Krypton's fault this happened to them' but rather it's a thesis of "Interpersonal connection is our ultimate salvation, and it is so easy to lose that. Even if you're the smartest, most powerful people in the world. Especially if you're the smartest, most powerful people in the world."

You'll remember that "Kryptonians aren't even mammals" commenter i was talking about like... a week back. Like, they pretty much were operating from this position of, "If you posit any headcanons on Krypton that it was flawed or that there were cultural factors contributing to the totality of its destruction, then you're undermining Superman's immigrant narrative because you're making him quote unquote 'One of the good ones.'" But like...this is also where the line of speculative fiction vs societal narrative gets blurred. Speculative fiction is supposed to take certain worldbuilding elements to various extremes to illustrate how those elements operate within our society--and like, the crazy thing about Krypton is, that though there's a lot of aspects of it that were meant to be portrayed as extremes in the silver, bronze, and modern comic book ages, I feel like we have more in common with this fictional planet than ever. Like, is it really less relatable when you talk about it as a cold and alienating society when we're literally dealing with that right now?

#dc #superman #krypton

[frownyalfred]

krypton discussion hell yeah!! i definitely think language preservation would be one of the key factors of keeping the kryptonian identity alive for clark and kara. as a child of immigrants there’s a grief to being removed from your homeland, even if you didn’t grow up connected to it for most of your life. the sense of not belonging where you are as you navigate the world takes a toll on your sense of self. for clark, knowing that there’s so little left of his heritage to preserve must be painful, even more so for kara who actually lived for years with a planet and people that no longer exist. idk i guess i wish we could see more of this explored in dc media. diasporas typically have an inherent tragedy to them

I agree 100% anon. There's so much to explore with a diaspora lens within Clark's character and Kryptonian lore in general. He and Kara are similar in so many ways, but often their own origins draw a stark contrast between them, because Kara knew Krypton, and Clark never did -- and those experiences both come with their own pains and joys. And they are both the future of Krypton -- because they have to be.

What happens if Kara or Clark never have children? What if Clark never learned Kryptonian? Whose responsibility is the weight of an entire culture and history? Is it fair to expect him and Kara to bear that burden?

#also the inherent jewishness of his diaspora origin story #can't forget that #dc #dc comics #superman #clark kent #kara zor el #asks #anon

[spandexinspace]

Also also I guess this is big hater weekend but I really cannot stand how people praise DCAU Brainiac. Tying him entirely to Krypton and robbing him of his own story and origin totally flattens his character and, because I and I alone care, also ruins his family's origins. Making them robots in general makes them worse because the biological factor is a load-bearing part of their characterisation and you can't just replace that with programs or whatever techno-organic mumbo jumbo writers want to come up with (of the "Brainiac is a robot but somehow his descendants are both his descendants and organic" variety).

He doesn't need to be directly tied to Krypton to be an effective Superman villain and Krypton's demise in particular shouldn't be tied to him because that cheapens the idea of the planet's destruction.

#dc comics #also why is he blue who did that #absolutely pointless change

[natequarter]

hello! do you happen to have any fic recs for ghosts (bbc)? i dont want to be mean because i think its great that people are writing for it! but a lot of the ones ive seen reduce the characters quite a bit? thanks. LOVE your ghosts and dr who fics btw theyre fantastic!! :)

oh thank you! my recommendations concerning the ghosts in general would be:

Chit-Chat by xenolinguist. a chatfic which is not my usual style but is a really fun work focusing on alison, mike, and all the ghosts

Fabrications by SwaggerStick. an incredibly funny piece which puts a new spin on series four's, er, piss lore

And So On and So Forth by V_Evergreen. this is probably the number one fic out of any ghosts fic that i would recommend. the moment between fanny and alison is one of the most perfect moments i've read in any ghosts fanfic. i cannot stress enough how much i love this work

We Are Dead And Buried (yet our ghosts might still learn) by someoneplsloverobbierotten. a long fic focusing on robin and an original character, but absolutely worth it. artemis' internal conflict is fascinating, and his personality thoroughly developed

House Share by Sheepyblue. from mike's perspective, detailing his attempts to bond with the ghosts. bar julian, none of the ghosts make an actual appearance here (for the obvious reason that mike can't see them), but it's nonetheless a very good study of mike's character, his relationship with alison, the ghosts themselves, and what it must be like to be alone even surrounded by people

Don't Let The Good Life Pass You By by Impossibly_Izzy. what if the ghosts came back to life? what if pat (and julian) were forced to reconcile his new life he's found with the ghosts with the old life he can never go back to? worst of all, what if humphrey had to shave off his beard? this fic answers all of these vital questions, and more. and it's well-written to boot!

Ghost of a Kind by LostKagamiWitchInTheIsles. another fic with an oc ghost which is pulled off very well. if i had a nickel for every time i'd read a fic with the premise, "what would happen if another ghost were added to button house (and didn't like the main gang)?" i'd only have two nickels, but both are brilliant. i love cordelia dearly, and i think you all should too

ere ever aeneas began by TheGoodDoctor. i honestly don't know where to begin with this one. it's very much one of a kind. basically, bbc ghosts, but from the perspective of... trees. [robin voice] you had to be there

Button House B&B by quiet_crisis_in_the_corner. an influencer visits button house. keith leaves a review. the ghosts help nobody at all. all in all, a pretty average and awful day at button house. the first two chapters are absolutely hilarious, and that's that

Thick Skull by thehappybones. rather than dying at button house, pat just about survives being struck by an arrow. decades later, he returns to the house after the recent death of his wife, carol, and finally confronts those damned ghosts. a quietly sweet what-if

Nothing Like a Round on 'The Krypton Factor' by neverfaraway. pat/captain, but more generally a work focusing on alison and her relationship with the ghosts. appeasement doesn't work on anyone, least of all dead people. feels as warm and friendly as an actual episode of ghosts, and as accurate to their voices too

humphrey-centric:

'Tis not hereafter by attend_the_tale. humphrey/original female character, with that relationship being the focus and his relationship with sophie the background context. i would be remiss not to mention the author's other work, Present Mirth Hath Present Laughter, along with it, since they have the same strengths: lovely characterisation of humphrey and sophie, a vibrant and realistic original character, and such a brilliant, deft depiction of elizabethan england. the prose, too, is wonderful

so uncomfortably alone (but not for long!) by hounds_of_love. captain/pat/humphrey, from humphrey's perspective. a lovely and very touching fic in which humphrey's loneliness is remedied, and also three idiots kiss, which is how i like my fanfiction

Battles of the Bones by thelastplantagenet. humphrey/sophie, set in the 1500s. concerns a timeline where humphrey and sophie actually learn to like each other, fall in love, kill the queen... you know, the usual. again works with its historical setting rather than against it, and the author has a wonderful knack for humphrey's voice in particular. i'm once again rereading this one. it's good

robin-centric:

songs for dads by whimsicaliity. better entitled, "the fic that cradled my heart, then smashed it to pieces." eerily reminiscent of gone gone, despite being written long before series four came out. i have reread this many times. i have had my heart stomped on many times. i cannot recommend this enough. robin/julian, until it isn't

Witness by TheArchaeologist. what can i say, except that this is a fantastic character study of robin? he's old, he's seen a lot and lost a lot, and he's hilarious. relatively short, but effective with its words

Made Our Cave An Everywhere by MadameReveuse. chess husbands, alternating between robin and julian's perspectives, detailing julian coming to terms with his death. i love fic which deals with julian experiencing "emotions," as those bleeding-heart libs like to think of them

It by Scriblit. emotionally devastating, but so well-done. a look at robin's relationships with all the ghosts, from humphrey to julian, but in particular his connections to mary and julian - and how robin and julian respectively deal with those relationships and the grief of losing mary. a fantastic addition to gone gone, but ouch, my heart

It's Pronounced "Rrogh" by vex_ing. this is a favourite of mine not just because it was inspired by a post i wrote, but because it's a wonderfully written character piece, and a beautiful explanation of just where robin got his name from

moon woman (his moon woman) by fivecenturiesverse. such a lovely exploration of the relationship between robin and mary, as well as robin's age and his connection to the moon. i have a soft spot for mary/robin, and the way that mary grows and changes here is also wonderful

The 62,019 Year-Old Dictionary by Robin Caveman by Turtle_ier. i am beyond obsessed with robin's perspective on life, and while i haven't read this one over in a while, it's a great portrayal of robin. the way it plays around with format also stands out to me

thomas-centric:

By the Fire by scribehotan. focuses on nigel the plague ghost, and his budding friendship with thomas thorne. a lovely, soft piece, with a very cosy setting. deals with nigel's plague-related insecurities, and gives thomas some nuance, which is more or less an instant way to my heart

What Twisted Webs We Weave by The_Purple_Opossum. a canon-divergent fic from isabelle's perspective, in which isabelle nearly dies and discovers that she is, in fact, haunted. by thomas. i think this is one of my favourite depictions of (of all characters) francis button: he puts isabelle down, but is not explicitly cruel, which lines up with what we know of him. so far, it's very well-written - and builds on the warped version of events that isabelle is familiar with, ranging from humphrey's supposed plotting to thomas's supposed duel over shelley

Feeling comes in aid of feeling by Eccentric_Hat. thomas/kitty. lots of lovely character beats, and the development of thomas and kitty's relationship is lovely. has some entertaining discussion of shakespeare - representation of disembodied heads in media is tragically lacking

Eternity With a Nuisance by charliest. focuses more on alison and thomas, but it's a wonderful exploration of both the ghosts' relationship to time and alison's relative mortality. also, anything which gives thomas depth is my shit

I Stand Unsure by midshipmanwilfrid. a brief but touching character study of thomas, focused on his troubled feelings on his own gender. the sort where you come away from it feeling as if you have woken up to a world both the same and fundamentally changed, and are not sure how to feel about it. quietly affecting

Renovations by Ailendolin. thomas-centric, focusing on his emotional repression and struggles with rejection, particularly in relation to his friendship with alison. a beautiful piece on alison and the other ghosts helping him for once. picking just one work for this author was incredibly tough, but this is one of my all-time favourites from both the author and ghosts fanfiction in general

one and the same by wizardmeats. thomas dreams of a happier life with isabelle. pat helps him come to terms with it. a beautiful analysis of thomas's personality, and his bond with pat is very (bitter)sweet

captain-centric:

Land to Light On by sistermichael. a captain/havers modern au, which in general is enough to make me walk away and/or zone out immediately. however! the captain, spain, and only one bed. perfection. the writing style is exquisite; the worldbuilding is skilled; the way it fleshes out havers' character is excellent. very much not something i would normally go for; good enough that i would recommend it anyway

The Blooms of May by kingofthefrogs. fantasy au, captain/pat, enemies to lovers. if you like gideon the ninth, this one's for you. if you like welsh mythology, this one's for you. i love anything with unique worldbuilding (and humphrey/sophie, which this also has), and this one is something unique. i'm hooked

oh, captain, let’s make a deal where we both say the things that we both really feel by seawall. captain/humphrey (or should i say de-cap-itation?), an extended exploration of the captain's developing feelings for humphrey and his dealing with grief. a beautiful work - generally i'm not that interested in the captain, but he's portrayed so well here (and, you know, i love caphrey) that i can't not love it

fieri sentio et excrucior by oui_oui_mon_ami. captain/oc, specifically the captain falling in love with a roman soldier who lives next door. not my usual thing, but a nice read nonetheless

passion and drive by cloudings. captain/thomas, which for some unknown reason i cannot get enough of. elaborates upon the ever-hilarious plot pitch of, "the captain fails to come out to thomas because the idiot thinks the captain's in love with him." one of those ones i keep coming back to

A Kiss, Then by SunriseBirds. also captain/thomas. one that i can say is wonderfully characterised. these two are hopeless idiots, and it's on full display in just how hopelessly idiotic they are here. ten out of ten, would recommend

drug club by Aziz. captain/thomas. the erotics of sharing drugs, a rooftop, and a houseful of ghosts who keep on interrupting your erotics. would you still love me if i was a worm?

(We've Only Got) So Many Tricks by radiocarbonblinddate. pat/captain, focusing on the immediate aftermath of pat's death and how the captain adjusts. beautiful depiction of the ghosts before they were the ghosts we know. cannot recommend this author enough. just read their stuff, and you'll see what i mean

Moving On by Pic_Akai. a very well-written fic in which the captain wakes up in the modern day remembering the events of ghosts, but nobody else except alison does. he helps arrange humphrey's wedding, finds love for himself, and doesn't strangle thomas. very sweet

overall, i would highly recommend anything by any of the authors on this list, but in particular Ailendolin, Sheepyblue, hounds_of_love, and kingofthefrogs. i hope this helps!

#asks #bbc ghosts #fic recs #this is a long goddamn post so sorry about that #but i have so much fanfic which i really love #anyway thank you for reading if you have

[radioactive-earthshine]

Thoughts on House of Brainiac pt 1 in Action Comics #1064

We got a good balance of action and whimsy, I really enjoyed seeing Lois taking time for herself to just (attempt) to do mundane things for herself with adult friends on her one day off.

I love that Kon and Kenan are regularly babysitting Otho and Osul. Also ngl it's funny that Kon doesn't even have a hero title here he's just 'clone of superman and lex luthor.

Kara is on a date?! 👀 I might have missed something but I do not recall her dating anyone so this is a fun little detail.

John and Lana as we know are now engaged and this was a fun way to remind the reader of that detail.

Clark playing with the ocean here was just a cute scene and was beautifully done.

The headband is a bit much...

Naturally because this issue starts so blissfully mundane and domestic and happy we know shit is gonna hit the fan and shit hit that fan. But not before we were given a little crumb to chew on...

They were interrupted before it could be revealed but we can assume this is an anniversary of some kind- maybe their marriage, maybe the day they met, maybe the day Clark came back to life, something else. We don't know yet so we're left in the dark until that bit is revealed eventually.

Brainiac attacks Metropolis with the Czarnian army he had from a bottle-city and in the midst of the chaos Clark reveals that he doesn't have as much experience with Brainiac as Kara does - so we are not dealing with pre-Crisis OR pre-Flashpoint crisis canon in this case. Which was to be expected. Brainiac's encounters with Krypton pre-destruction has been a poignant part of Kara and Krypton's canon for a while now and would have been unwise to erase in my opinion. Having Clark leaning on her for direction is a welcome change from when he was exceedingly familiar with Brainiac.

As expected Brainiac is going straight after Luthor of whom they have had a long history together where Brainiac does in fact view him as the smartest human. Whether or not this is accurate is not really fairly quantifiable but Brainiac thinks he is, and that's what matters.

"Those Lobos" Amazing how LEX is calling Czarnians LOBOS. The smartest man on the planet people.

👀 We're gonna have to chew on this one.

Well Lex got what he wanted, his daughter to call him Dad.

Brainiac needs Lex's head for whatever he has planned and he took Lena and Mercy captive as a sort of bargaining chip to try to get Lex to comply, because this incarnation of Lex is not totally without feelings.

Lobos. Not Czarnians. Lobos.

He better start calling all Kryptonians Kal Els or Supermans.

While it is unlikely he had a direct hand in the attack this is likely something he started or helped to put in motion. And he confirms that he has an idea of what Brainiac is up to when he WARNS Clark to not allow Brainiac to obtain his family, or anyone WITH powers.

It is also interesting that he is referring to them as his family, not his 'brood' or 'kin'. Family.

Either way, Lex knows something more than what he is immediately revealing.

Remember, they CANNOT be captured. It's imperati-

.... Damnit.

So the worst thing just happened and all of Clark's family and close friends and several metas within Metropolis were snagged immediately.

However, Jon and Jay have NOT been shown to be captured (yet). We do not see either of them in this issue so it will be interesting to see if Jon (or Jay) will have some sort of part to play in this arc.

I wonder if Jay's powers would even let him BE captured in the first place. It might be likely that Williamson couldn't factor that in so he elected to keep it out entirely.

Huh. You know. THIS detail was originally Kieth Giffen's Czarnia when he made the back history of Lobo. Czarnia was such a utopia it didn't even have a police force because everyone simply... got along. Until Lobo was born and killed everyone. Now the Czarnian canon is quite different and for some reason every single member dresses exactly like Lobo which sigh while 'cool' makes the whole people feel one-dimensional and I do not LIKE it.

Just because I wear plunging neckline tops and yoga pants doesn't mean every human does as well. Heaven forbid if some alien species bases all of humanity based on my wardrobe. You're ALL wearing black and yellow.

Anyway, this "Lobo" is named General Chacal. And because he is named we're likely going to be dealing with him more.

ngl they are all so cute in their pink fairy bottles. Anyway, they're being taken into SPACE.

The last person to get nabbed is Lex who in an apparent show of self sacrifice prevents Clark from being taken. This could all be strategy but the comic is leading us to believe he does care for his daughter. So Brainiac wins this round.

The closing pages leaves a lot of mysteries still as to WHAT Brainiac is doing.

Thus far we know the following;

1.) He is LONELY and he wants to remedy that but he can't be normal about it. 2.) Lex and him have history involving his wildly important plan to not be lonely. 3.) His plan involves Kryptonians, and metas, so we can safely assume he is using their genetics in some facet. 4.) He NEEDS Lex to complete this plan. 5.) He intends to share his knowledge, what this means and with who is unknown but it could be he is intending to share it with other versions of himself due to the last page. 6.) Speaking of the last page, it is interesting because we are seeing a mosaic of different versions of Brainiac from across time and realities. It is still very much unknown what his plan is, he could be intending to make some sort of beefed up Frankenstein's monster version of a companion "Brainiac Queen" - or he might be planning on beefing himself up and a new population of Coluans or both. We simply do not know. Other mysteries; 1.) Destruction of Braal. - Why? 2.) I know Williamson mentioned he read L.E.G.I.O.N. so he is not ignorant that Brainiac DOES IN FACT ALREADY HAVE FAMILY that he's tried to kill multiple times. I hope he brings in Vril Dox II because if there EVER were an appropriate time, it is now. I'm really excited and next week we get pt2 in Superman 2023 #13. This is a big build up and it is hard to say where the fuck we're going.

#house of brainiac #tuesday spoilers #superman #vril dox #not putting this in all the tags this is mostly for me

[chaotic-super]

Back To Krypton - Chapter 27

Read Back To Krypton on AO3 here!

Alex clings to the back of Kara’s shirt tightly but not as tightly as Nia clings to the back of Alex’s.

It’s quite a funny sight, at least Lena and Kelly think so as they easily glide along on their H’Raka, Bolt. Esme is cradled between Kelly and Lena so she doesn’t fall and their Kelex is drifting alongside them, a rope around its middle keeping it moving along with them since it’s not quick enough to keep up with them otherwise.

“I never took Alex for someone that would be scared of heights.” Lena turns her head, looking back over her shoulder to talk to Kelly.

“She’s not, she’s afraid of Kara’s driving skills, or flying skills in this case.” Kelly laughs, peeking back over at her terrified wife. “I don’t know what Nia’s excuse is though, she has never seemed to mind heights before.”

Lena follows Kelly’s line of sight. “Nia gets nervous when other people are nervous so right now, Alex has gotten Nia’s anxiety flowing like crazy.”

“Maybe we should trade places, You have Alex and I’ll go with Kara and Nia.”

“We’ll probably stop in a couple of hours anyway, Kara says that she wants to take a few breaks so she can check on the H’Rakas and make sure we aren’t overexerting them since they are only used to carrying one person at a time.” Lena keeps her hands loose on the harness around Bolt’s head, her legs pressing into his sides so he knows to keep going straight.

“Copy that.” Kelly smiles, her gaze now on the treeline below them.

They are still flying low, only a few metres above the tallest trees, far up enough that they don’t have to worry about staying clear but close enough that they can still duck down into the trees in the case of an emergency, something that they are really hoping they can avoid doing altogether.

It’s coming up to midday, maybe around eleven or so from what Lena can tell based on the position of Rao, and the sight of the red rays beaming down into the trees and foliage is beautiful. There are mountains in the distance that if she was close enough to Kara, she would ask the names of, and above all, there’s a blistering heat slowly rising as they get closer to The Fire Falls.

Kara is going to have to figure out where they are so they can carefully plan their flight path around the falls so as to not accidentally cross over any tourist paths and be spotted by anyone, they need to avoid contact with other people where possible. They probably won’t be able to keep that up when they reach Kandor but they can avoid that here.

The breeze is cooling and helps fight the increasing heat as they get closer to The Fire Falls, something that they wouldn’t have if they were walking like they were originally going to do and they are so very grateful for that because none of them had really planned for how they would be battling the heat when they were planning for the mission back on Earth, it was one of the factors that they didn’t really think about.

So far they have only been flying for a little while, probably over an hour but nowhere near two and they have already made so much progress that it makes their trek up until the point of flying feel twice as painful to look back on simply because it all feels redundant.

The thrill of flying helps to pass the time, the everchanging scenery as they soar above the ground having a similar feeling to watching out of a car window but a lot breezier, maybe it’s closer to sticking your head out of a car window and trying to keep your eyes open against the wind thrashing into your face.

They pull down and land in a clearing not long after, taking a half-hour break before setting right back off, a better idea of the direction to head into and H’Rakas that have full stomachs and are well hydrated.

There’s a nice rhythm to it, flying for a little while, resting, and then flying again. It’s nowhere near as taxing as walking but the aches that Lena feels in her legs and ass are similar to those that she used to get as a child when Lillian used to force her into horse riding lessons because ‘that’s what people of our social stature do’.

Based on how she’s watching the others stretch out their legs when they get off of the H’Rakas during their breaks, everyone is feeling the effects, but with each passing flight, they seem to be adjusting to it.

Alex is much better when she’s flying with Lena despite Kara being the better flyer. Lena’s not usually one to admit defeat at something but she has to admit that Kara is better, it’s probably something to do with her knowledge and experience with flying and aerodynamics, even if it is different to the usual way she flies. She just seems to have a natural instinct for her special awareness when she’s in the air, a true understanding of how the air will react to certain movements in a way that is so graceful it reminds Lena of watching some extravagant dance by a ballerina.

They have all been taking turns flying though, except for Esme because she’s too small but she’s happily sat on Alex’s knee and held the rope to the harness for a while and it was adorable to watch the grin across her face as she did so. They’ve had to make sure they could manage it for their upcoming split because now, they’re almost past The Fire Falls completely and that means that The Scarlet Jungle is coming up and so Kelly, Nia and Esme are going to split off from them so they don’t have to be in danger too while they grab the samples for Astra.

They did add a few hours onto their trip though so they could find a good place to stop on a high up cliff so Kara could show them the marvellous view of The Fire Falls, the waterfall of lava and flames something to truly behold, especially since they were at a safe distance where they knew they wouldn’t be spotted so they could enjoy the moment together without fearing being caught.

In that spot on the cliff, they had their lunch and just sat and watched with wonder as the falls kept flowing. Nobody watched with as much reverence as Kara though, her childhood memories sitting in the forefront of her mind and bringing a tear to her eyes.

The group doesn’t stay much longer than that though, unable to justify needlessly prolonging the mission for a little more time watching a tourist hotspot from a distance.

-

Landing for the last time as a group, they get a little bit emotional at the prospect of splitting up. With how long they’ve been travelling together and spending every minute of every day together it’s probably normal for how attached they’ve become to each other, greatly appreciating the time they get to spend with each other now and sad that half of their team is going to be leaving.

Alex is the one having the worst time of it though, she’s got to say goodbye to her wife and daughter, even if it is only for a couple of days, maybe a couple extra if something slows them down, but it’s not a long separation.

“You two be safe, alright?” Alex pulls Kelly and Esme to her tightly, holding them and memorising the way they feel in her arms, burning the feeling into her brain like she’s going to forget as soon as they fly away.

“What about me? You don’t want me to be safe too?” Nia asks, petulant that she’s not getting the same level of emotional goodbyes from the three wayward foragers. “You better miss me too, I’m going to be keeping Kelly and Esme safe and apparently I’m not even worth a hug these days.”

Alex rolls her eyes. “Please, Kelly is going to be looking after you as much as she is Esme, you’re just another child in this group.”

“Name one example. I’m an adult so you won’t be able—”

“You’re hand on the plant when we first got here, it might be healed now but that scar is going to be with you forever.”

“Touché.”

Kara shakes her head at the behaviour of her team, a fond sadness sitting in her chest as she moves towards Nia, arms open with the intention of dragging her into a hug. “Come here, you. I’ll miss you being dramatic.”

“I’m never dramatic.” Nia protests, pulling out of the hug that Kara is forcing her into only to then be pulled into another one with Lena.

“Yes, you very much are. We love you though and you better look after yourself and keep yourself alive until we meet up with you guys in a couple of days. You know where to meet us, right?”

Nia nods. “We’ll stay a few miles out from Kandor and hunker down somewhere we think nobody will find us, if you don’t show up in five days then we’ll head into Kandor and find Astra. She’ll probably help us find you.”

“Good. Stick to that plan.” Lena says and moves over to Kelly and Esme to get more goodbye hugs.

Nia, Kelly and Esme will be taking Swoopy while Lena, Alex and Kara will be heading off to get the samples on Bolt and they will be taking Kelex with them too, they don’t want to carry dangerous plants so they can get their little friend to do it for them, no contact needed.

“Alright, we better get going now before we end up putting it off altogether,” Kelly says, taking the time to give Alex one last kiss and to give her wife chance to say a proper goodbye to Esme since she knows that she’ll spend the next several days worrying about them even though she’s the one that will be wandering around the edge of a dangerous forest.

“Good luck, guys.” Kara waves them off as the two groups climb onto their respective H’Rakas. “Look after Swoopy for me!”

“I’ll look after Swoopy, Aunt Kara!” Esme shouts back at her. It’s cute how attached Esme has gotten to the H’Rakas and Kara just hopes that one day she can look back at this time with nothing but fondness and mirth.

“Thanks, Esme!” She calls back at her niece, waving one last time before Lena has Bolt take off.

Through the whistling wind, Alex shouts out her love for them again. before they fly off over the trees, Swoopy joins them in the air not long after but flies off further to the right, slowly sending them off in different directions.

Nia, always one to want the last word, shouts something out once they’ve all levelled off. “Kryptonopolis, here we come!”

Lena chuckles a little bit. “Hey Kara, when you told Nia back at The Tower when we were still planning the mission that Kandor is also known as Kryptonopolis, was that true?”

“Not in the slightest, I just found it funny.”

“That’s what I thought.”

They focus back on their trip, checking to see where the other group is periodically. It makes it worse that they can see each other as they part and that it’s a slow process for them to stop being visible to each other because it makes it hurt so much more for them to part.

“Hey, Alex?” Kara tilts her head back onto her sister’s shoulder to get her attention.

“Yeah?” Alex rests her head against Kara’s, holding onto her by her waist so she doesn’t slip, especially since she’s got the packs weighing her down.

Kara holds onto Alex’s forearms loosely. “Are you excited to share a tent with Lena and me?”

“Not at all.”

“Me neither.” Lena jumps in. “There’s nothing like having your girlfriend’s sister in your tent to spoil the mood.”

Alex makes a disgusted little gurgle from the back of her throat as she processes for the first time that she’s going to be third wheeling and that knowing Lena, she’s going to purposely make it as uncomfortable as possible for her just because she can. “Gross.”

“Don’t bully my sister.” Kara comes to her aid. She presses her fingertips into Lena’s waist slightly to make sure she’s listening.

Lena shrugs in response, not really caring.

The longer they fly, the more nervous they get because none of them really have any clue what’s coming up and they are dreading landing as they get closer to The Scarlet Jungle, the unknown of it all is much more frightening than anything else.

It’s quite late by the time they are halfway there and stop in a nice, mildly wooded idea for the night, setting up their tent with the intent of hunkering down until morning.

“Who wants to cook dinner?” Alex asks as she perches herself on a nearby rock, pulling her feet up onto the edge of it in a clear way of signalling that she has no intention of preparing dinner.

Lena just takes the pack off of the back of Kelex and goes through the food they have to see what they can make. Usually, Kelly makes dinner, sometimes with Kara’s help, but mostly she just shoos everyone away when they try to assist because she likes to do it on her own and the time she spends doing it helps her to relax. She separated out the food before they split so each group has plenty.

“Kara and I will handle it, why don’t you go and take a nap in the tent since you’re being grumpy?”

“Fine but I don’t want to hear anything inappropriate occurring out here, I don’t want to be traumatized by you kids doing things. Keep it PG13.” Alex heaves herself up and into the tent where she sets up her air mattress as far away from Kara and Lena’s will be pressed up against each other’s so they can cuddle even though they always wake up on the same one anyway since they sleep so close together.

Kara watches Alex head into the tent after a brief exchange with Lena that she can’t hear since she’s a short way away with Bolt, securing him to a tree with tight knots, more afraid of losing him in the night than ever before now they are close to dangerous territory and by this time tomorrow, they should be firmly in the outskirts of The Scarlet Jungle and have the samples of the plants there for Astra.

From there they will be able to start heading towards Kandor again and can meet up with the others before they go ahead and find Astra. If all goes well then they can have the blueprints in hand within three or four days and be home a couple of days after that building the machine to stop Lex.

“Hey, what’s Alex doing?” Kara asks as she makes her way back over to where Lena is now building a small fire a few metres away from the tent. “Isn’t she helping with the fire? She usually loves that job.”

Lena shakes her head. “She’s a little grumpy, I think it’s because this is the first time she’s been away from Kelly and Esme in weeks. She’s gone for a nap and I volunteered us to make dinner, you don’t mind, do you?”

“Not at all.” Kara is actually really happy to have a chance to be with Lena alone, working together to make dinner will be a nice change of pace from being on separate H’Rakas and only seeing each other on breaks and at night. It’s only been a short time since they have been separated, even though they are still pretty close together, but she’s very happy that they are back on the same team. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve been right here.”

“I know, with us flying separately for the past few days, it’s just felt like you’ve been miles away and I missed you.”

Lena chuckles a little, grabbing hold of Kara’s sleeve and pulling her closer. “Come here then, needy.”

Kara’s eyebrows shoot up, “I am not needy!”

“Yeah, you kind of are but that’s ok. I love you anyway.”

Kara folds her arms but she can’t keep the small smile from spreading across her face. “As you should do, but just for the record, it’s you that cuddles me at night so I’d say that you’re the needy one.”

Lena just shakes her head, a matching smile on her face. “Ok, we’re both needy. Want to grab a pan so we can start cooking?” She keeps working on the fire, adding more kindling and wood to build it up a little bigger while Kara grabs the pan from her pack and brings it back over and waits for more direction, happy to let Lena take the lead on making dinner just as long as she can spend some time with her.

They just have a simple dinner, some grains and dried beans with a few spices they have been rationing out but can indulge in a little more now that they know their trip will be shorter than they imagined. It’s nice though, cooking together and talking about nothing in particular except for planning what they are going to do when they get back home and have dealt with Lex and his psychopathy.

The main consensus is simple. They date and they get back to their lives together, the same as they were before but so much more. Once they’re settled they can think about maybe getting a place together, somewhere fresh for the pair of them to start building their lives together free of the drama of killer animals in the forest or murderous brothers, it sounds like heaven. At least they now know that they are extremely good at coexisting in the same space, there’s nothing like a prolonged hike through a dead planet to test how well you can withstand someone’s presence.

They snuggle up into the tent with the sound of Bolt outside snoring drifting through the wind and the sound of Alex inside snoring making Lena realize that she can never complain about Kara’s snoring again because Alex is so much worse.

She presses herself to Kara’s back and presses her nose into her hair, arms around her waist, and heaves out a sigh, preparing herself for the next day as she wills herself to sleep, she’s going to need it.

Read more chapters of Back To Krypton early here!

#cw supergirl #supercorp endgame #supercorp #supergirl #supercorp fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #kara x lena #kara leaned in #kara danvers #kara zor el #lena luthor #back to krypton #chaoticsuper

[the-antiapocalyptic-man]

Cor-Vex and Dru-Zod, the Brothers El, on Earth during the Golden Age

While environment factors--largely connected to the Red Sun phase shift and the stellarium depletion--prevented any kind of manned spaceflights from leaving Krypton, Zeta Beam technology was able to provisionally send out small parties to scout out other worlds. As the Zeta Shift prevented their physical form from fully stabilizing, Kryptonians on Yellow Sun Worlds couldn’t benefit from the abilities unlocked by that radiation, but some members of the Science Guild still took the opportunity to scout out other worlds, should plans for even a single-passenger rocket ever be completed and implement.

Cor and his elder brother decided to visit E-Arth. A curiously high traffic planet with all manner of extraterrestrial visitors like themselves, Cor became “Dr. Jordan Elliot” while Zod took on the identity of “Andrew Lane” and later, Superman. Encounters with Diana’s Society and the Golden Age Batman, Aloysius Fox, left Cor confident in sending his son, Kal-El, to Earth years later, but his adventure also gave him something of an aversion to Earth’s major cities, so Jor-El (having long since taken his patrilineal name) decided a rural setting might be better for little Kal.

When Jor-El returned himself as one of the Unknown Superman, he took on an identity inspired by one of his favorite Earth Films: The Wizard of Oz.

Dru’s time on Earth softened some of his imperial bloodlust when he escape the Phantom Zone, but seeing the cruelty man could inflict on other men--the same kinds of hierarchies that had negatively effect his and his mother’s life back on Krypton--left him with the need to reshape his adopted world, by whatever means necessary.

#dc #headverse #fanart #superman #jor-el #cor-vex #dru-zod #general zod #mister oz #Krypton #kryptonian

[moonah-rose]

The only way I'm able to make peace with the finale is believing that Alison gets separation anxiety worse than the Ghosts after she leaves.

Like sure she adores Mike and Mia, they have so many precious moments together and most of the time she doesn't even think about Button House. But then Mia will be asleep and Mike will be out and she'll be sitting there and it will just hit her like a ton of bricks how quiet it is. And she'll be itching wishing she had Kitty to ask her to turn a page in a romance book they could giggle over or sit and watch Krypton Factor with Pat or listen to Robin talk about chess.

Bonus, when she does call or visit the guys she's expecting them all to have gone mad missing her just as bad but they're actually like "nah it's been fine, we've had so much fun following the builders and watching everything come together!" And Alison is like; "Oh really? That's...great..."

(Of course they're lying, they've totally been missing her just as painfully but everyone is lying to make each other feel better).

#bbc ghosts #alison cooper #found family

[hazardous-arcadia]

So I had a completely different theory why Jor-El thought Clark would be able to speak Kryptonian.

After going through the evidence and context clues again, Brainiac does seem to be the chief factor in Krypton's destruction. The Kryptonians clearly put up a fight, but they weren't going to win.

This theory presumes that "Zero Day" is a meta-reference to the Black Zero ship of Zod's in Man of Steel and Zod is the man behind The General's paranoia. Zod was going to make himself Krypton's hero/savior whether anyone liked it or not and fucked off with his group of terrorists (the Sword of Rao) to find a planet to turn into New Krypton. And if that planet was already inhabited? Well, fuck 'em.

Zod never came back and Jor-El, at least, took that as a sign that Zod had found a habitable planet on which to establish a colony and sent Kal-El off literally seconds before Krypton was destroyed.

Either way, Jor-El was counting on a Kryptonian presence.

#my adventures with superman #brainiac is supposed to appear in season 1 #probably the last-minute villian #then he's a problem for season 2

[the-arcade-doctor]

The Process of Building an Atomic Bomb

How to Make an Atomic Bomb - A Post on How to Create Hiroshima and Nagasaki 2.0

With a few parts from a hardware store and some know-how, it is possible to build a weapon of mass destruction. Well, as long as you can find a few pounds of plutonium on Ebay to fuel it.

In 1905 Albert Einstein wrote a number of revolutionary physics papers including his Special Theory of Relativity. One of the formulas that came out of this, almost as an afterthought, was E=mc². That is: energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared. What Einstein was saying is that matter - everything around us we can touch and see - is actually the same thing as energy, just in a different form. The upshot of this is that it should be possible to convert energy to matter or, visa versa, convert matter to energy.

The energy we release every day when driving our car or cooking on a stove comes from chemical reactions. Two or more chemicals react through the motion of electrons and the forming and breaking of chemical bonds. One familiar form of chemical reaction is combustion. For example, the oxygen in the air reacts with the substances in a candle to release heat and light. In chemical reactions the amount of measurable matter involves never changes, if you were able to capture all the soot, smoke and carbon dioxide released by the candle you would find they weigh exactly the same amount as the original candle and oxygen that reacted with it. The material changed form and released energy but did not disappear.

Einstein's formula suggested that it was possible to get energy by what we now call a nuclear reaction. This is the conversion of matter to energy. What's more, the amount of energy available in even a small amount of matter is, according to the formula, tremendous. Matter is just sort of a condensed version of energy, but it isn't a one-to-one relationship. The conversion factor is the speed of light (already a huge number) squared (which makes it a really big number). We can picture this relationship by thinking about water and steam. You can cool steam (think of this as the energy) down and it becomes water (think of this as matter) or heat water up to make steam. It takes a lot of steam to create a few drops of water though, but only few a ounces of water to create a whole room full of steam. The same is true of energy and matter. In the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima only 600 milligrams of uranium (less than the weight of a dime) was converted to energy, but it released the same amount of power as at least 13,000 tons of the conventional chemical explosive TNT.

Converting matter to energy is no easy trick, however. The sun does it naturally by a process called fusion. The sun, a gigantic ball of mostly hydrogen gas, has intense pressures and heat created at its core by its gravity. It is under this heat and pressure that the hydrogen atoms fuse to create helium and release energy. Re-creating the intense conditions required to generate fusion on earth isn't easy, however, so atomic bombs uses another process called fission.

Fission Reactions

1)A neutron strikes a uranium atom 2)The uranium atom is split into a krypton atom and a barium atom releasing some binding energy along with more neutrons. 3)The neutrons strike other uranium atoms starting the process all over again.

A fission reaction is just the opposite of fusion. Instead of atoms being put together, they are split into pieces. When a neutron (a subatomic particle) with enough energy hits an atom of radioactive material like uranium, the uranium atom will split into two smaller atoms and some of the energy that held the original atom together is released. If the right type of uranium is used, the split will also release additional neutrons capable of splitting other atoms. If this process continues with each new split releasing neutrons which in turn split other atoms it is called a chain reaction. Because of the speed involved in a nuclear reaction, billions of atoms can be split in a tiny fraction of a second. If the reaction proceeds at a sedate level the fission produces energy in a controllable manner. This is what is going on in the heart of a nuclear power plant. The energy released is used to heat water to the point of steam and the steam spins turbines connected to generators to make electricity. If the reaction proceeds at an uncontrolled level, however, a nuclear explosion can result.

This might seem to make nuclear power plants potential atomic bombs, but the uranium used in the plants is not the type that could sustain a reaction at a rate high enough to cause an explosion by itself (nuclear power plants are subject to explosions caused by steam pressure and other non-nuclear forces, however). In fact, engineering a device that does not tear itself apart before the explosion really gets underway is one of the main design problems of building a bomb.

Bomb Design

Uranium or plutonium can be used as fuel for atomic bombs. Both are highly radioactive. This means they are constantly shedding subatomic particles including neutrons. Only certain isotopes of these materials - like uranium 235 and plutonium 239 - consistently give off neutrons of such high energy that they will split atoms. When enough of the material is put together, a chain reaction starts and the mass is said to be critical. The term used for a mass of radioactive material with a growing chain reaction, splitting more and more atoms with each moment, is supercritical. While putting enough uranium 235 together in a single mass will make it supercritical (and create a surge of radiation that will kill you if you are standing near it unprotected) it is not enough to create a bomb. The material must be held in a compressed state long enough for the reaction to take place while resisting the initial energy of the explosion that will try and tear it apart. There are two well-known approaches to doing this. The first is known as the "gun" method.

The Gun Method

A conventional explosive drives the uranium "bullet" into the "spike;" bringing the mass to supercritical and causing the detonation.

The "gun" is the simplest way to build a nuclear weapon. The atomic bomb used on Hiroshima during World War II used this approach. The weapon consists of a tube (much like the barrel of a gun) with half the nuclear charge fixed at one end and the other half (the moving half) at the opposite end. A conventional explosive charge was placed behind the moving portion which can be thought of as the "bullet." When the conventional charge is detonated, the bullet races down the tube and slams into the fixed charge at the other end (referred to as the "spike"). Once the two halves of the nuclear fuel are brought together and held together long enough, the chain reaction starts, the fuel goes supercritical and the explosion takes place.

While the gun method is easy to engineer, it has some drawbacks. The biggest one is the need to make sure the two parts of nuclear fuel come together rapidly enough. As the two sections get about an inch apart, they will start exchanging neutrons that might start a chain reaction. If the two parts go supercritical before they get close enough, the force of the energy released will blow them apart before the main explosion gets underway. This type of failure is known as a "fizzle."

Another problem is that this method is less efficient, requiring between 20 and 25 kilograms (around 44 to 55 pounds) of uranium. Other approaches can use as little as 15 kilograms (about 33 pounds). Given that weapon's grade uranium and plutonium are very hard to get, this is a real disadvantage.

Also, the gun method only works if the uranium is being used as the fuel. The process of creating plutonium generally causes it to be contaminated with other materials which increase the chance of it going supercritical before the two sections are close enough together. This, in turn, increases the chances of a fizzle instead of a blast. To make the gun method work reliably with plutonium, you would have to increase the speed with which the "bullet" approached the "spike" significantly. To do this would mean making the tube impracticality long.

The Implosion Design

Conventional explosives press on the "tamper/pusher," compressing the plutonium until it reaches a supercritical mass. The initiator floods the area with neutrons to help get the chain reaction going.

For this reason, if you use plutonium to fuel a bomb you need to use the more sophisticated "implosion" method. With this approach the nuclear fuel is shaped into a sphere (called the "pit"). Conventional explosives are put around it. When these are detonated the force of the explosion squeezes the pit into a supercritical mass long enough for the explosion to take place. While the principle sounds easy, it is difficult to actually make it work. The pit cannot simply be surrounded by high explosives. The shock wave that compresses it must be precisely spherical, otherwise the pit material will escape out through a weak point. To create the necessary explosive force in a perfect sphere, shaped explosive charges (sometimes called explosive lens) are used. The "fatman" bomb the leveled Nagasaki in World War II used 32 charges arranged around the pit like the faces of a soccer ball. In order to create the spherical shock wave it isn't only necessary to get the charges in the right position with the right shape, but they must be detonated at exactly the right time. A charge that detonates late will create a hole in the shock wave through which the pit can escape.

Implosion designs also require a neutron trigger or "initiator" to flood the pit with neutrons during detonation. In "fatman" this was done with a small sphere with layers of beryllium and polonium separated by thin gold foil placed in the center of the pit. An implosion design may also include other layers between the explosives and the pit to create a more powerful explosion. These include a "pusher" (designed to increase the explosive shock wave hitting the pit), a "tamper" (to help the pit from blowing apart too quickly once the explosion starts), and a "reflector" composed of a material that will reflect neutrons back in the pit increasing the amount of fission. In some bomb designs these functions are integrated into a single layer of material.

The implosion design is generally considered to be superior in almost every way to the gun design and it is the choice for any organization with the resources to design and construct it. One of the major advantages of this approach is that it is easy to make the implosion design more efficient by increasing the effectiveness of the conventional explosives. For example, if the pit is squeezed so that the density is doubled during detonation it may yield a 10-kiloton explosion. If that same pit can be compressed to three times its original density, a 40-kiloton explosion can be generated with no additional nuclear fuel. The longer the fission material is allowed to react, the bigger the explosion.

Could You Build a Bomb?

Building a basic nuclear weapon is not easy, but not all that hard either. In 1964 the U.S. Army decided to see just how difficult it was. They hired two professors that had Ph.Ds in physics, but no experience with nuclear weapons or access to nuclear secrets. The two were given the task of designing an atomic bomb using only information available to the general public. It took them roughly two years, but in the end they designed an implosion style weapon that could have been made in a local machine shop which could have produced an explosion similar to the Hiroshima bomb.

The only thing that they found extremely difficult to do was to get the proper material to fuel the bomb: uranium 235 or plutonium 239. Only a tiny fraction of natural uranium that is mined from the ground is isotope 235 and separating it from the other isotopes is a major chore requiring huge factory complexes working years to isolate just a few pounds. In fact, most weapons programs get around this by utilizing plutonium, which is very rarely in found nature at all, but can be created by exposing more common types of uranium to radiation in a nuclear "breeder" reactor. Plutonium is extremely difficult to handle, however. It is one of the most toxic materials known to man, especially if inhaled.

It is the difficulty of getting and handling these fissionable materials that protects us from people building nuclear bombs in their basements. It is for this reason nonproliferation of nuclear material is a major concern of most governments and there is great apprehension about countries who want to build nuclear reactors capable of "breeding" plutonium fuel. Knowledge of how to build a bomb is hard to control. Fortunately, so far, the materials needed have been much easier to keep track of.

But for how long?

[ wHAT THE FUCK, I WAS JOKING. IT WAS A JOKE. ]