Amazing! :) I want more. This story... you are an amazing writer

oh my gosh this is amazing why does it not have more reviews? the smut is hot the characterization is wonderful :) this was a pleasure to read :)

Beautifully written, you have a rare talent. Hope you get published someday soon.

Wow. I was fine until the end. Usually it's Clark smiling all the time and trying to make Bruce smile, rather than the other way around. I'm not sure how to feel about Clark being so serious and thinking himself a monster. I understand why, well as much as I can, being I'm not a god *smiles* but I hate Clark thinking of himself that way. Yes, he has to be careful because he truly can crush a man and that's a lot of responsibility for a man, god-like or not. It makes me ache to hold Clark and promise him that he is a good man (even if I know the futility of a promise like that). I like the stories where he trusts Bruce and gives him a piece of Kryptonite to use in the event that Superman ever goes evil.
Awesome story and it's being favorited. I'm definitely coming back to this story.

Oh my Josh! Why couldn't this story be longer! Ahhrrgg! Anyway, you mostly completed my needs for an awesome couple and for you being an author who can really keep me on the edge of my seat. Descriptions that infested me with the wanting of more knowledge of what would happen next...so it just goes to show, not only did you entertain me, but really created treasure that's worth searching for...thanks... PEACE!

Sooo beautifully written. I enjoyed it a lot!

Okay...what to say... I liked the new angle of Clark and how you ellaborated on Bruce's bad days. I also have to say I loved Clark's mom. Yes what... Yes ma'am? loved it anyway... so yeah nice ending lovely work just have to say that it was a lot darker than I expected and you completely blew my mind with Dinah and Barbara. I really did enjoy rading this work, nice job.

It's sad to think of Clark as being so depressed. T.T

This was a beautiful piece-I loved Clark's "monster."

When I finished this, I just looked at the clock and kind of laughed at myself. The only thought going through my mind was, "Fuck my education and fuck my English project. I am reading more of Mostly Harmless III's fan-fiction." Great fucking job to you. You couldn't see or hear it it, but I gave you a slow clap.

Lol, but seriously, though, I really need to work on that project or I'm going to get a mouthful from my parents when they see my progress report. Damn you and your magical fingers! (No, no. I'm just kidding. Keep your fingers out of harms way. You should be extra careful, especially with winter rolling by. I would send you a thousand gloves if I could. But I'm poor. And I don't like to leave the house. Like ever.)

Okay, please just disregard everything in this review. It's just a whole mess of digression.

... ... *speechless* Excellent, amazing AU. Well Bruce is too childish and spoiled to my taste, but the story is absolutely great as a stand alone !

Huh? I'm sorry, but I was just slightly confused by the ending... I loved this story, though! That part where Clark smiled, briefly, and Bruce wanted tomake it last forever, really got to me. It was so heartbreakingly sweet, and it made me want to cry. Thank you so much for writing! I really enjoyed reading this story! And I loved the length.

The refrence to Of Mice and Men is off. Lenny never got to have his rabbits; he killed mice. I love your writting style. Keep up the excelent work!

Um... I'm afraid i won't be able to give 'Hubris' the review it deserves, because i'm not familiar with Beowulf. At all. All i know about Beowulf is from its graphic novel (and i highly suspect that the plot had been watered down and edited beyond recognition). If memory serves me right, the story is about a man slaying a monster, thereby incurring the wrath of its mother -a much more terrifying and cunning beast- which he later brutally killed as well. In the end, he gets killed by a third beast, a dragon or something. After thinking that, i can't really see the link between Beowulf and your story. I assume Clark's dissertation had something to do with Beowulf, but other than that...

Okay, I shall just review this as an unusual 'neighbour from hell' story. The clever references to Beowulf would've totally been wasted on me because i'm too dim to pick them out :P (There's no 'hero' or 'monster' in the fic that i can see; just two lonely people rubbing each other in entirely wrong and then entirely right ways, generating sparks and triggering an explosion that took down an entire *wall* of an apartment)

Your way with words still amazes me. Your fics tend not to read like fanfiction; but more of the style of good published novels. something about the way you string the words together just reads fresh and lyrical. One such example is how you've described Matha Kent's ageing process- gray steaking her hair... like clouds at sunset... dull the shine in her eyes... body like fading light. Beautiful. Without using any highfalutin English words (well, except for 'iconoclasm', which made it necessary for me to reach out for the dictionary), you're able to express so much, and so well.

Now when i think about it, it's also the same with Gaiman. There's just something about the way he writes; that he's able to bring across his ideas succinctly and in a fresh way. Nothing he writes sound cliched at all. He can even rewrite fairy tales in such a way that you'll never look at them the same way again (imagine the prince of 'Snow White' being a necrophiliac; which would explain his attraction to stone-cold, corpse-like princesses).

Argh, i'm getting sidetracked again. seems like all my recent reviews are becoming like that.

So, back to the fic...

I'm unsure of how to interpret the final scene. Was it Clark and Bruce's real first encounter? Or were the two pretending to meet for the first time, with Bruce working hard to make a good 'first' impression? It's just that there are hints in the passages to suggest either scenario (e.g. 'Just a dream world he'd made' and 'Clark knew it for an act...')

Also, for most of the fic, i find Bruce to be, well, an ass. But worse than being an ass, he actually came across as quite pathetic. I don't know, it's just that Bruce Wayne being so undignified doesn't sit well with me. It's quite painful to see a man of such fierce will and level-headed intelligence (well, in canon-verse anyway) behaving like a petty, spoilt brat and getting upbraided by a stern, disapproving parent.

Ah, but if i am to identify the Bruce in the final scene to be the real deal, then it's all right :)

One part of the fic which i find to be quite romantic is Clark's tendency to stroke Bruce's face in the photos of a magazine almost reverently, similar to what the people did to the face of the Virgin Mary on the Prayer book. (We'll just put aside the fact that Clark uh... used Bruce's photos in other ways as well)

Thank you for the fic. And i hope to read more Batman fics from you soon.

I just finished reading Beowulf Friday, no lie. (I have also shared a copy of this with my very cool English teacher - young, laid-back enough - after awkwardly warning her of 'graphic content.')

I'm obsessed with this in part because it follows the themes that so fascinated me in the work. I'm working on an essay now - just because I'm a geek, not for an assignment - comparing the Minotaur, Frankenstein's monster, and Grendel. Particularly that they were all abandoned or at least neglected by the world, that it is impossible to call them evil - because morality is not inherent. How can they be held accountable for not answering to the laws of a world that never taught them differently? All isolated to some extent, and made as they were because their parents/creators did not accept their responsibility and prepare such creatures to live among man.

And you've answered that. That is, here we have our "Grendel" (even if he is self-perceived) raised as he should have been. Still too powerful to be entirely safe, still victim of his own power, but given some guideline, some trace of affection to teach him humanity. Because Beowulf and Grendel have more in common than any of the mortal men shunted to the periphery of the story by their conflict. John Gardner saw them as brothers, kin, and I agree. Here, you've put them in a position to come together (ineptly as they did).

I LOVED: all your allusions. Subtle and varied, like candy for the reader. AND the Beowulf references themselves, aside from the overall theme - the way you described Clark in his dream, "His skin was diamond hard, his fangs as sharp as swords." Again, it reminds me so so much of John Gardner, which is fantastic. And that you utilized, like Neil Gaiman (he wrote the screenplay for the recent Beowulf movie), Grendel's acute hearing as a source of pain - just one line from the original which can mean so much. It was just perfect, and it took me a second to grasp - but I giggled like a giddy idiot when I did.

I love all this and so much more, but bless you if you've read this far because I know I'm rambling. The timing in this was just perfect for me, and I can't thank you enough for the enjoyment it has offered. (Also, and here I'll stop myself, but I'm an art history geek so the bits about the illuminated manuscripts and Mary were just fantastic. Anyway. Shutting up now.)

You must have worked in a library (I do too)! Excellent story, clever use of Beowulf, and some of your details are amazing.

Thanks!