The Future of Comic Book Movies

[Nowhere Man]

Originally Posted by Kalyx triaD I love Superman. I think people miss the damn point of his character and bring up 'safe' criticisms like John Byrne didn't address them 20-fuckin-years ago.

I was never a fan of a lot of Byrne's revisions (especially turning Lex Luthor into a half-assed Kingpin), but I did appreciate that he actually went out of his way to answer all of the tired old questions everyone brings up about Superman, like why nobody notices that he's Clark without his glasses, etc.

[Reavant]

Originally Posted by Nowhere Man I was never a fan of a lot of Byrne's revisions (especially turning Lex Luthor into a half-assed Kingpin), but I did appreciate that he actually went out of his way to answer all of the tired old questions everyone brings up about Superman, like why nobody notices that he's Clark without his glasses, etc.

what was the explanation for people not noticing the difference between clark and superman?

[Nowhere Man]

Originally Posted by Reavant what was the explanation for people not noticing the difference between clark and superman?

There have been a few different explanations, ranging from Superman vibrating his face while acting in costume so that photos of him always come out blurred, to him using subliminal hypnosis in the late Silver Age when he was a tv news anchor to discourage viewers from making the connection. However, the best explanation the comics have presented is that the glasses aren't the disguise at all, but just the way Clark acts compares to the way the world perceives Superman.

Superman is idolized by virtually everyone in the DC world, even by most of the other superheroes; there isn't a single person on the planet that doesn't know his face. Clark Kent is a nobody, not a complete schmuck but hardly a celebrity- even the people who read his articles probably don't know what he looks like. In All-Star Superman, Lex Luthor mentions that 60% of men in Metropolis subconsciously groom themselves to look more like Superman, so Clark would be just another guy who is following a trend.

As for the folks who know Clark personally (Jimmy Olsen,etc), there's the fact that Clark is always portrayed as something of a clutz, to the point where they'd feel a little ridiculous accusing the poor goof of being the world's greatest superhero. If they went around saying that the guy who punched out an intergalactic warlord last week is the same guy who couldn't get the coffee stain out of his tie this morning, they'd look like they were out of their minds.

On top of that, there's really no basis for people to suspect that he has a secret identity. Batman and Flash wear masks, so people want to find out who they really are, but everyone already knows who Superman really is. Couple that with the fact that many heroes (particularly Wonder Woman and Aquaman) don't even bother with having a secret identity at all, and it wouldn't be hard for most folks to assume that Superman is just always Superman.

Lois Lane originally had it figured out early on, and spent most of the Silver Age trying to find conclusive proof, but Supes was always able to keep one step ahead with robots that looked like Clark or Batman standing in for him or whatever. And Lex Luthor is smart enough to figure it out, but there's also the fact that he's horrendously insane.

So that's pretty much the best explanation for how Superman is able to get away with being Clark Kent. Nobody finds out because nobody is really looking.