"Manchester's Origins are all based on, like
'I wanna pick someone who's kind of
The Opposite of Superman, but
also [just] as Powerful; so,
his having telepathic powers and
telekinetic powers, as opposed to
physical powers,
unlike Superman,
kind of represents (for me) —
'Okay, I was a guy
who was picked-on -- so,
in My Head,
I'm Looking at People, that
were picking-on Me,
and going, : —
“I WISH YOU WOULD DIE!
I WISH YOU WOULD DIE!
I WISH YOU WOULD DIE !!”
and one day, They finally DID --
This, I Think, is
a pretty relatable kind of
Dark Fantasy that
most people have, so -- Manchester IS That Guy.
Manchester's upbringing
was very Dark -- he comes from
an abusive Home where
there's just Him and His Sister.
His Sister is a bit of
a source Hope and
some Light for him;
she's put in a position where
she has to work in a Sweat Shop and she loses her arms in
an Industrial Accident and
that snaps Manchester --
that's when His Powers unleash,
that's when he starts
executing Bloody Revenge
on anybody who's near him,
who ever Hurt Him,
who ever did anything to him.
He starts to explore what
Those Powers mean and
what they allow him to Do.
I also wanted him
to Be charismatic
and funny, with just
NO regard for Sensitivity,
Political-Correctness --
In the comics, and in the film, too, there were jokes that we had to pull BACK on, because they were even pushing it TOO far...
Yeah, he was just a complete MESS, says absolutely whatever's on his mind and....
Kill Ya as soon as look at ya.. :)
After Superman and Manchester meet in 775, Superman sort of finds The Centre of The Power in His Brain and uses a little, er, X-Ray/Heat Vision Microsurgery to essentially sort of paralyse that bit that gives him His Power.
THEN, he decides to make another go at Superman --
He CAN'T get over this idea that Superman is as Wholesome and as Pure as he seems to be -- because if Superman's that Pure, that means that he's really that EVIL.
He starts throwing all of these Supervillains at Superman, and it's a ruse to get him far enough away from Lois, so that when he returns to Metropolis, she's DEAD.
But, he DID NOT kill Lois -- because, he had hoped that [Superman] would kill HIM, and, when The Illusion broke, he had killed a man under false pretences, and that REALLY was going to be his "SCREW YOU!!" To Superman -- but, er.... It didn't happen.
And so he just goes off into The World, and essentially commits suicide, as a result of that event -- when he decides it's time, he's going to end his own life, he basically turns his own power against himself, he sort of literally makes his hand like a gun and sort of telekinetically shoots himself in the head...”
-- Joe Kelly
