Oh, I hate the Larry Niven thing, too--and agree that in the SV verse it can't be true because of Jor-El/Louise--but I thought that the reason Clark had to give up his powers to get together with Lois in Superman II was for Nivenish reasons. So if Superman Returns is the unofficial sequel, I am assuming that universe operates under the same rules.

See, if I ever wanted to be reasonable about Niven's article, then I'd say that yeah, that's why he had to give up his powers in SII.

But I am apparently constitutionally incapable of being reasonable about that article, so I've always fanwanked it as Lara, at least, having enough sense to know that Kal-El would probably only be able to let himself live as a human, unconcerned with being a protector because of his abilities, if he really was one. In other words, Lara knew that he could probably only ever experience normative happiness if he didn't feel the weight of responsibility that comes with having those abilities.

What? I can fanwank with the best of 'em when I need to. ;-) Seriously, though, I just refuse to acknowledge that article. There are very, very, very few things about which I am fannishly intransigent, but that? Is one of them. I give it *less than zero* consideration and weight.