Superman Elseworlds: 'In the Name of...'

Chapter 11: Odyssey (part 6)

(Extracted and Transcribed from Kamran's video notes)

Look, I grew up watching things like the old black and white Tarzan movies, so this whole playing with chimpanzees and having lions as buddies was always a wishful fantasy and hopeful dream for me (and, yes, there were those racist taunts from some people...and I never could understand why a white guy who was brought up in the jungle was a 'heroic' character but a dark skinned one to have lived there (other than Mowgli, for the most part) was 'backward' and 'animal-like') – but that doesn't mean I expected to be practically face-to-face with a leopard!

Sorry, that was quite the rant, wasn't it?

You might think it funny, or even curious – 'how could Kam be scared when he's got a real-life guardian angel with him?' It doesn't work like that. Fear doesn't work like that. Seeing a leopard a few feet away from you and no fence between you doesn't work like that!

...

Sorry. Sorry. I'm still a bit worked up...

The fact that I'm...really ticked off right now with George's nightly question rounds really didn't help when I spotted those yellow eyes watching me from the undergrowth...

I thought I was seeing things...and I still don't get why none of the chinkara or the dholes hanging with us didn't freak.

Like I said before, I'm really not cut out for this outdoor stuff. There's a reason why God put me on the earth in the 21st century rather than any time before then!

Look:

Leopards and chinkaras and dholes! Oh my!

I've lost count of the number of times Ishy's stopped a dhole or a leopard from attacking one of the chinkaras. Or me. Or George.

Somehow, this trip has turned into something like the old Dr Dolittle cartoon. I keep expecting Chee-Chee to turn up...and I wish there was a Too-Too around...

...I feel so out of place at times...I miss home.

I suppose one of these dholes could be a bit like Jip, but I'm not about to try and find out.

...maybe I do know why they didn't freak...and knowing just makes me feel even worse for freaking.

I think I'm going through some kind of crisis...I'm not supposed to be here...

***

(Extracts from the coded journals of Ishy ibn Yusuf)

I've been selfish throughout this trip. Selfish and venting.

I often think back to the verses from Surah Baqara, when the angels asked Allah (swt) 'Why put on (Earth) one who will cause corruption on it and shed blood when we glorify You with praise and proclaim your Purity?'. I think back on those words and I wonder about their awareness of the nature of men. I wonder how they must have felt, knowing that mankind would commit these kinds of atrocities.

I think about those words and the question they put forward, but then, eventually, after all the raging and impotency, I focus on His reply to them: 'I know what you do not know' and then I focus my attentions on the good – on the helpers and protectors and nourishers. I remember that the angels have prayed that those who believe be brought out of the darkness and into the light.

But it doesn't change the fact that I've been selfish, and venting. It doesn't change the fact that I'm hurting Bhai, even though that's the last thing I want to do.

The thing that's been getting to me is that everyone agrees that the world isn't ready for me. It's been eating away at me. There's so much I could do...the ideas I have...