r/DCcomics • u/HandsomeSwampBeast • 13h ago
Discussion [Discussion] The Clark Kent disguise isn't just not dumb; it's really good
Upon watching Superman 2025, it made me think about how dumb Clark Kent wearing hypnosis glasses is. It made me think about how his disguise was already very believable to me before, on top of how hypno-glasses would only bring upon a whole slew of new problems. What if he's banging Lois Lane and the glasses slip off halfway through? She's just going to look up and see a whole ass other dude who she's never formally met? That feels a bit unethical, to me.
Why the disguise was already good:
Assuming that Superman is honest about his alien heritage, and the fact that his name is Kal-El, and that he has an ice castle somewhere in the North Pole: then people wouldn't think that he even has a secret identity in the first place.
Put yourself in the point of view of a citizen of Metropolis. You believe that you know his real name, where he's from, and where he lives - for he has directly disclosed this information to the public. What reason do you have to distrust him? (Unless said Metropolis citizen you chose to be was Lex Luthor I guess)
Also, I think we're forgetting that Clark Kent is a journalist. His job is to sit behind a desk and type out stories. Most people in Metropolis have no idea who this guy is, other than his personal friends and co-workers. Batman has a way harder time: seeing as he's a nationally famous billionaire, yet no one ever talks about how silly his disguise is.
And yeah, Clark Kent probably gets told he looks just like Superman a lot. I get told that I look just like John Travolta. I know a guy who looks exactly like Fidel Castro, and a lady who looks exactly like Julie Newmar. I'm sure you, the reader know someone who looks like a celebrity, or perhaps you yourself do. However, if someone were to openly be genuinely convinced that I was Vincent Vega in disguise, then I and everyone else around them would view them as very mentally unsound. This applies to those who would be genuinely convinced that Clark Kent is Superman, simply because they look the same.
Clark doesn't even need the glasses to maintain anonymity. They are just a smaller extra precaution, since he's hiding in plain sight, already.
But speaking of small extra precautions: I quite like how artists Frank Quietly and Tim Sale took it a step further, and made even more subtle things, like Clark Kent's posture and clothing play a big role in fortifying his disguise.
If he purposefully makes his posture shitty and wears baggy clothing, then it conceals his musculature and just makes him look fat or corn-fed.
Also Christopher Reeve being so good at switching between virgin and Chad, in one role definitely sells the disguise.
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u/HPSpacecraft Animal Man 11h ago
I've always liked the idea that people just don't think Superman has a secret identity. Especially when it's public knowledge that he's an alien from planet Krypton named Kal-El. To the average person, Kal-El IS his secret identity, it's just not secret anymore.
Like I doubt anyone in the MCU thinks Iron Man has a secret THIRD identity. He's Iron Man, he's Tony Stark. Clark having three identities is what makes it work as a secret.
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u/OzNajarin 10h ago
Lex Luthor had a private investigator find out Superman was Clark Kent and he still fired and didnt believe him.
What kinda god decides to roleplay as a local news reporter with no physical grace or social/financial accolades?
Its like finding out Zeus does janitor work in his spare time. You dont believe it because why would he even stop being Zeus.
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 11h ago
Exactly
That’s the main reason why he doesn’t even need glasses or different hair. He just gets told he looks like Superman a lot, at that point
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u/Albireookami 9h ago
my favorite gag is that Clark and Bruce look similar from a distance. This is much harder to pull off though as Clark's body type has been very fluid depending on the comic.
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u/Showdown5618 3h ago
I've always liked the idea that people just don't think Superman has a secret identity.
Not wearing a mask helps. People would just think, "If he has a secret identity, he'll wear a mask."
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u/Clark_Kent_TheSJW Superman 10h ago
There was this one time Henry Cavill visited Times Square wearing a Superman T-Shirt, under a giant poster for Man of Steel, and nobody recognized him.
I also don’t like the idea of hypno glasses. It overly complicates things.
Simple misdirection is more charming, and works wonders for stage magicians. Invincible has a perfectly suitable explanation for this.
I choose to believe that the hypno glasses aren’t canon. It’s a story Guy Gardner made up because he was embarrassed about falling for such an easy trick
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 10h ago
I think it's a story that Mr. Terrific told Guy to fuck with him, knowing that he'd fall for something stupid
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u/nuclear_bone 8h ago
The hypno glasses really made me feel Gunn doesn't vibe with a lot of aspects of Superman.
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u/Clark_Kent_TheSJW Superman 8h ago
And yet, we still had Krypto, the Superman robots, stopping a genocide, comic accurate versions of all the side characters… he even saved the squirrel.
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u/nuclear_bone 7h ago
To be fair, Gunn said he couldn't really get into Superman until he realized he loved Krypto. And even then Krypto was also there to set up Supergirl.
He's a good filmmaker so he could make a solid crowd pleaser with Superman but even he would admit he doesn't find Superman interesting. But he understands Superman is important as a platform to set up DCU.
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u/torts92 6h ago
And still wearing trunks on the outside
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u/Potential-Mess6826 6h ago
To my understanding that was David Cornswet saying that Superman should have the trunks
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u/kitaeks47demons 12h ago edited 8h ago
I hate kill bill for shitting on Clark’s identity. Everyone thinks it’s a persona when both Kal and Clark are two sides of the same coin.
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 12h ago
I'm not joking, Kill Bill is my favorite movie of all time, period.
I think you can look at it like: Bill's monologue is what a narcissistic sociopath would take away from Superman lore.
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u/kitaeks47demons 12h ago
I took that away from it too but now everyone regurgitates that bullshit without thinking about where it came from or who said it.
It’s like when people say “The people you cannot publicly criticize are the ones who control you.” As if they’re not quoting a neo nazi.
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u/FacehuggerFanatic 12h ago
It’s like when people say “The people you cannot publicly criticize are the ones who control you.” As if they’re not quoting a neo nazi.
You mean little babies aren't the ones controlling us?
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u/Superman_Primeeee 12h ago
What’s funny is that while Beatty would have delivered that monologue better…Carradine is the only one who could wield a katana and not look ridiculous
Not Beatty or Costner or Hackman or Nicholson
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u/Triseult Hellblazer 10h ago
It's what Quentin Tarantino himself took away from the lore so that checks out.
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 10h ago
I mean, did he confirm that those are his own opinions? I've always wondered that
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u/RFB-CACN Batman Beyond 9h ago
While it’s true there is a human Clark who is his true self, I’d definitely say that Daily Planet Clark is 100% an act in universe. Which stage of his life Clark developed his powers changes from version to version, but in all of them Clark didn’t act meek or clumsy until he joined the Planet. He doesn’t act this way with Ma, Pa, Lana, Kara or anyone who knows his identity or knew him since Smallville, meaning it IS a persona he keeps up and drops it when he’s among trusted people.
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u/kitaeks47demons 9h ago edited 8h ago
No i agree definitely, i don’t dispute the element of dishonesty in how he acts around Lombard or even Perry. It’s an interesting dichotomy for the boy scout who has to lie to save the world. However, specifically how the film kill bill portrays it, it’s putting forth the idea that Clark Kent is a satirical parody of how Kal perceives us, which is so myopic and moronic. Even if he is feigning being meek and unassuming, he is genuinely earnest, he is genuinely goofy, he stumbles in social interactions like each and every one of us. It’s pretty endearing.
Also it can be argued that Superman is the actual persona. He has to be prim, proper and be an ideal to strive for. It must be unbelievably alienating to represent so much when you just want to leave the world a better place than you found it. It’s kind of why Kingdom Come makes sense and doesn’t butcher the dichotomy like TDK or the Byrne run of Superman. He believed he couldn’t inspire a world so grim. So he put the cape in the trash.
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 7h ago
You could argue that modern Superman depictions are that way, since there is no distinction between Clark Kent and Superman, other than that one alias has superpowers. I think that Bill’s speech is why it’s important to portray Superman as stoic, stone cold, monolithic, and overall establish that it’s not the real Clark either. Modern Superman is very flanderized, because of the pushback from the edgy era of the character from the 2010s, which I’m not saying was any better.
Classic comic book Superman, especially in the original Jerry Seigel comics, acts very stoic and detached from humanity. Even though deep down he’s a sweet soul with a human upbringing; he puts on the monolithic Superman persona to create a symbol for citizens and criminals to look up to and be weary of. When Superman is portrayed this way, then the audience understands that Clark Kent is clearly more comfortable and natural for him.
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u/IndianGeniusGuy 13h ago
I mean, you don't even need to change your posture. Glasses and hair do just work like that. My friends think I look completely different without my glasses.
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u/ForgottenClaimz 12h ago
I used to think the Clark Kent disguise was dumb, but then I seen how Christopher Reeves switches between Superman and Clark and it all made sense.
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u/5213 12h ago
I think a big problem is that a lot of actors don't put much effort into actually separating the two personalities. It's my one gripe with Hoechlin's version, as great as he is. And as much as people praise Corenswet's Clark Kent, I feel like we saw him for like 3 minutes and he barely did anything. Cavill did even less two personalities. Routh I think did a pretty good job in Returns.
Also here's a side by side of Zooey Deschanel with and without her signature bangs
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u/Gr8NonSequitur 9h ago
Routh I think did a pretty good job in Returns.
Routh did a good job playing all 3 personalities. Watch the film again and notice the difference...
Superman = a persona
Clark in Metropolis = a persona
Clark at the Farm = Who he is.
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 12h ago
That's a great picture. I bet Zoe Deschanel never gets told that she looks like Zoe Deschanel
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u/Pitiful_Option_108 Nightwing 11h ago
It is kinda of the same for most people playing super heroes. There is a reason for the secret identity and I don't think most actors let alone some people understand it even though most character will explain about 20 times why and people can see why certain characters do it when their family or friends get threatened.
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u/nuclear_bone 8h ago
Modern superhero media unfortunately have no place for secret identity.
Everyone is a superhero 24*7 and omly interacts with other superheroes.
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u/mumu-twist 11h ago
I used to be incredulous about the Clark Kent glasses hiding Superman's secret identity, but then I remember that one time Hugh Jackman went to out in public dressed as Wolverine and most people didn't register that Hugh Jackman was literally dressed up as one of his most iconic characters.
So with that in mind, I'm pretty sure Clark Kent could walk around Metropolis in a Superman outfit and most citizens of Metropolis would go "Huh, dude's dressing up as Superman" and move along with their day. A lot of big city folks just mind their own business.
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u/SeraphOfFire 11h ago
Slash went as himself for Halloween and got told "Cool Slash costume but my buddy has a better one."
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u/Zealousideal-Oven-93 11h ago
The all powerful Superman pretending to be a reporter named Clark Kent, is as believable as the US President Trump pretending to be a publicist named John Miller or something.
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u/TheFULLBOAT 11h ago
I like that when you imagine Clark and Lois banging, it's missionary
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 11h ago
It’s unlikely that they’re gonna fall off during doggy style, but maybe he’s putting in the power of a locomotive on her, so who knows?
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u/Yara__Flor 4h ago
According to Larry Nevin, they could never have sex. His sperm would shoot out of her head like a shotgun
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u/TheFULLBOAT 4h ago
Obviously Nevin never thought that he could pull out or they could have sex once (or more than once if he were a necrophiliac)
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u/Either-Skirt6031 12h ago
I love its simplicity, things like the hypno-glasses or some sort of kryptonian facial warping thing are charming but it’s a classic trope for a reason!
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u/Crixusgannicus 10h ago
Chris Reeve did a masterful job of doing the transformation live on screen, in II, I think.
Starts as Clark, turns into Superman, just by taking the glasses off, straightening up, changing his voice
"Lois ,we have to talk".
Chickens out and turns right back into Clark.
RIP CHRIS!
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 13h ago
Art by Frank Quietly and Alex Ross
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u/Roquie44 12h ago
There is a specific panel from All Star Superman, where that sketch is from, that had Clark holding a bunch of newspapers and tripping over himself and trying not to slip everything, everywhere and it’s one, if not the BEST artistic rendering of clark kent imo. So much motion and character Frank Quietly is one of my favorite.
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u/EmilianoDomenech 11h ago
Oh yeah the whole sequence with Lex Luthor. And Luthor is such an egocentric that he just buys the whole performance, even being the genius that he is. Goddammit I love All Star Superman so much.
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u/Outside-Currency-462 Nightwing 7h ago
100%. His disguise works perfectly based on 2 facts:
1) There is no mask he is hiding under. No-one is looking for Superman's secret identity, because he doesn't have one.
2) If you see someone who looks exactly like Superman, there is zero reason to come to the conclusion that he is Superman. If you saw someone who looked like Obama walking around a newspaper's office, or the streets of New York, or in a small town, you wouldn't think that was actually Obama, you'd think "huh, that guy looks a lot like Obama"
Humans do a lot of our perception based on estimation and experience filling in the gaps, and a lot of the time that's efficient (helps you read a lot faster when you don't have to process every individual word), but it means that even the most out of the ordinary thing can hide in plain sight with the right preconceptions.
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u/Superman_Primeeee 12h ago
Perception wise it’s fine. Practicality wise it’s insane when he wears his suit underneath
Remember how his secret ID was revealed in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
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u/cebolinha50 11h ago edited 8h ago
The problem is that in a world with internet and facial recognition no one noticed how both looks exactly the same.
Or how Lois Lane (and others) see both of them everyday for years and never say "Clark Kent is just Superman with glasses and a bad posture".
Pre internet, him having a secret identity that didn't interact tok much with his super persona was ok having such a basic disguise. It's hard to believe on the s c XXI, but most of his secret identity is hard to believe on the modern world.
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u/SeraphOfFire 11h ago
One Batman comic had Bruce theorize that his coworkers know he's Superman and just don't say anything since there's no reason to.
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u/Sensibiliaaah 4h ago
That could actually be a really great one-shot. Something like Marvels, from the POV of the regular folk around the office.
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u/AnimatedMajor 10h ago
So... The comics have specified that the glasses are made of Kryptonian glass that hypnotize people into seeing someone very different, even in film and photo, giving supes a vastly different appearance while dressed as Clark. Guy Gardener even mentions them to Lois in the most recent film. What I'm concerned with is what happens if Clark's glasses fall off, or if he takes them off to clean them, like he does multiple times in multiple different medias... Like does he immediately transform back into his Superman appearance? Or does the hypnosis linger for a moment, and if so... Do the people of metropolis sometimes see Clark Kent jump out of a phone booth and rocket into the sky?
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u/Crixusgannicus 10h ago
Well yeah, in the 21st century it wouldn't work, but in a more innocent time...
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u/Dorlando_Calrissian 12h ago
What if his glasses slip off? It’s not real. There’s your answer. Grant Morrison said it best.
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 12h ago
Ironically, hypno glasses would be a reason for me telling that same sentiment to the writers themselves.
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u/DepthsOfWill 11h ago
Y'know what fooled me? That teeny tiny face mask worn by Jim Carrey in Kick-Ass 2.
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u/Marakajin 10h ago
The disguise didn't start becoming a problem for people until they started treating the glasses like a mask. Which they aren't. They were never meant to be. Clark Kent originally wore glasses, because that was a fairly typical look for an unassuming journalist in the 1930s.
He doesn't even need the theatrics of the films. They work there, because it is theater, but hiding in plain sight is exactly what this disguise is supposed to be. He could go to work in a jersey and without the glasses and nobody would give him a second look.
In fairness, while telling stories this might raise some questions, mainly because he keeps interacting with the same people both in and out of uniform (in the Bronze Age he was on television, in a time when Superman's face was also plastered everywhere in Metropolis) and I think that's where ideas like the "hypno glasses" had to come in. Not a fan, personally, though.
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u/Snowbank_Lake Supergirl 8h ago
As much as I love George Reeves as Superman, he doesn’t make a very good Clark Kent. He’s freaking huge compared to everyone else. That’s someone you’d notice, glasses or not.
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u/Leather_Rebel_ 8h ago
One thing the All-Star Superman does very good is portraying the difference between Clark and Superman. The scene when he visita Luthor in prison is great to understand why people couldn't tell.
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u/Awesome-Lad-9000 2h ago
I totally agree with you. I see some people saying the internet kills it, but it’s the total opposite. After 25 years of glamming up for social media and dating apps and whatever, I think we’ve all seen how different an individual can look based on poses, temperament, hairstyles, speaking from the diaphragm vs the nostrils, etc. World is full of people complaining others look totally different even with basic make up or beards or glasses.
I loathe the hypno glasses for this reason. The whole secret id is a metaphor for how we judge people superficially and don’t see each other’s inner Supermans. The world of the 21st century actually heightens that metaphor—we’re all under constant pressure to publicize our super selves that we can hardly maintain. The divide between our tik tok, LinkedIn, and tinder selves and our real world selves is the divide between Superman and Clark Kent. Hypno glasses are just a cowardly retreat from this strong, comic-booky idea that’s only gotten better as the world’s become rife with personal brand management.
And to your point about how people look alike…I just learned like 2 hours ago that all these commercials I see with Ike Barinholtz in some cop show is actually Donny Wahlberg!
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u/Zzero00 10h ago
It's good if you're just passing by Clark randomly around the corner...but to be present in a building where everyone's constantly making articles about supes and thinking about him is a huge plot hole...
You just look at battinson..that batman shows so much of the bottom half of the face that anyone with a picture of Bruce & batz could make the connection..
That's why ig the magical glasses kinda makes sense..but then what if Clark accidentally loses them or falls off while he's around people..one second he's Clark next he looks like supes
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 10h ago edited 10h ago
That's not even remotely a plot hole. Like I said: he's hiding in plain sight. If the general public thinks that they know Superman's real name as well as what he does when he isn't flying around Metropolis, people are just going to think that Clark looks exactly like Superman. If someone who Clark Kent works with were to genuinely be convinced that he's Superman, then everyone else would collectively think that he/she is insane.
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u/Coal_Morgan The Question? 9h ago
That’s the thing people aren’t clicking on.
Superman doesn’t have a secret identity. He’s Kal El a kryptonian who lives at the North Pole in a Crystal Castle. A man who can make diamonds with his hands and grab platinum asteroids from the Asteroid Belt. He’s 6’3” speaks with a timbre to his voice and is saving people all around the world all the time.
Clark Kent looks similar but he’s shorter, looks kind of dweebish, was raised on a farm with two clearly Kansas parents and gets yelled at by his boss all the time. He’s a nice guy but his voice is kind of weak. His suit is always to big because he’s making a journalists wage in a world where journalism is dying.
Throw on top that we’ve seen them literally together(Robots, disguises, Martian Shapeshifters) and it’s patently ridiculous to call them the same person.
Kal El is a god among men and Clark Kent is a man whose parents wouldn’t let him play football because they worried their soft boy would get hurt.
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u/oomoepoo Hal Jordan 9h ago
You just look at battinson..that batman shows so much of the bottom half of the face that anyone with a picture of Bruce & batz could make the connection..
I think the Nolan movies had the right idea here with that "good luck"-scene from Lucius Fox.
Sure, you might know now that Bruce Wayne is Batman but what now? Are you going to try and blackmail one of the richest people in Gotham/the world, who also beats up criminals by night? Have fun.
Unless you just happen to be or become a super villain, I guess.
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u/nuclear_bone 8h ago
The magical glasses make things more complicated. A terrible idea in the movie.
Also Superman has pulled off many elaborate schemes to fool people so everyone feeld they have seen Clark and Superman together all the time.
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u/JimtheEsquire Superman 9h ago
He has x-ray vision and super speed. Idk how he would accidentally lose anything. Even if they were falling off his face, his reaction time would be instantaneous and he’d just fix them.
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u/Cookie_85 11h ago
You know the hypno glasses are a thing in the comics, don't you?
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u/nuclear_bone 8h ago
They appeared once in the late 70s and were ignored ever since.
Gunn put them in the movie because he thought the secret identity was dumb and Tom King looked it up and suggested the hypno glasses.
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u/Awesome-Lad-9000 2h ago
They really aren’t very consistently. Vast majority of comics just ignore that idea entirely
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 11h ago
I didn’t once imply that they weren’t. I said that the movie reminded me of how dumb they are, which implies prior knowledge of them. I’d bet money that I own their first appearance in my collection
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u/Cookie_85 11h ago
There a silver age thing, of course there dumb. The inclusion here just shows Gunn knows his shit. Could you people just for one moment stop to scream when a superhero isn't depicted as the coolest fucking thing ever? You say you have collection of Superman comics. Dude read them. Comic books are silly. Superheros are silly. Superman is silly. Stop being a twat.
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 11h ago
They didn’t appear until 1977, which was long after the silver age. You’re the one who just wrote off the silver age of superhero comics, like it was just all dumb. If you look at my account, then you’d know that I actually usually don’t like superhero media that takes superheroes too seriously, is devoid of camp, or embarrassed of the source material. Hypno glasses just feel like a stupid explanation for something that already works. If anything, they themselves are an example of embarrassment toward the source material
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u/Awesome-Lad-9000 2h ago
This is another great point. Hypno glasses are the polar opposite of going with comics’ silliness. Giant example of DC being embarrassed by its good shit, like all the times they’ve tried to make Supes et al more hard core or when Geoff Johns tried to tell us Barry Allen didn’t actually like his bow ties. Reeks of an insecure kid trying to be cool.
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u/Chris-Strummer 11h ago
Idk if this has ever been explored with Superman but I would love it if his glasses were one of this super zoomed in ones that kinda gives him like big eyes or just make his eyes look completely different, that way the Clark / Superman distinction is even more obvious but of course we just suspend our disbelief
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u/jonathanquirk 11h ago
I remember seeing a test run on the general public once where a staff member in a fast food outlet would start taking somebody’s order, duck down and get replaced by a second staff member who carried on as if they were the first person, and almost nobody noticed that their server had changed into a completely different person mid-transaction.
That doesn’t mean that the general public can’t tell the difference between two different strangers; it means that most members of the public would never think to look in the first place, especially if that person is considered “lesser” in the social hierarchy. Whether it’s wealth, fame, or (cough) skin color, we rank other human beings on how important / relevant we think they are compared to us… and in the fast-faced world of hard-hitting news and big city egos, most citizens of Metropolis would never give a friendly but clueless country hick like Clark Kent a first look, let alone a second glance.
It’s not that they can’t see him, or wouldn’t see a resemblance to Superman if they did, but they never think to look at him because a cub reporter doesn’t count as “relevant” in most people’s minds.
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u/Nearby_Artist_1265 10h ago
When it’s handled well, it makes a lot of sense. Where it falls apart at times is when it fools people who are intimately familiar with Kent and Superman. It’s one of those disguises that works best when Superman is highly and intentionally deceptive, to the point where you could argue that he may as well wear a mask. I don’t mind Superman going to great lengths to keep his secret but some people (creatives and fans alike) try to sand those edges in favor making Superman objectively good and moral. JMO
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u/PrivateRedScarf 10h ago
Plus there have been times where Clark has had shapeshifters pose as him so Clark Kent and Superman can be seen publicly together at the same time. No average person is going to assume a shapeshifter is the explanation. They're just gonna assume that two famous people kinda look alike
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u/Lucky_Strike-85 ★Gold-Silver-Bronze Age FAN★ 6h ago edited 6h ago
Several creators have attempted to explain why it works so well...
Grant Morrison actually explains there's a whole lot more to it. It's actually a combination of his glasses, considerably worse posture and a lowered chin that basically alters how he looks in comparison to Superman.
Martin Pasko was appointed by Julie Schwartz to "handle" Christopher Reeve while he researched the role. Marty helped Chris Reeve prepare for the dual role. He suggested that Clark Kent slouches and suggested that Clark would be awkward.
Regarding why the costume works, Marty also created the "magic glasses" concept that was used sporadically from the late 70s until about 1981. The idea that wearing those glasses blinds people to the idea that they look similar.
Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin came up with the idea that they are actually 2 different people and that Clark is a character, an act, that Superman puts on and that he is so good in his role as CK, that he fools everyone. It's Superman as Super-actor... with mannerisms and a personality that are all Clark's own... This can be seen in the PRIVATE LIFE OF CLARK KENT backup stories... Cary Bates in particular said that Clark pushing up is glasses at you and walking a certain way and using a different voice would all suggest to those who know him that he could never be Superman.
Further evidence that it just works:
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u/FlyingCupcake68 Legion Of Super-Heroes 5h ago
I’ve always wondered how nobody notices just how stacked Clark is even with bad posture.
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 4h ago
If you grow up on a farm, then you’re looking like a hoss, no matter how soft and mild mannerly you may be. He’s corn-fed
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u/devo_savitro 4h ago
Loose fitting clothes can hide it but what, does he never wear a t shirt or something?
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u/Pinolillo006 2h ago
I like it when Clark is his honest self. I don't think the fake, clumsy, and shy Clark Kent should be a thing. It was a cool idea, and it really worked for Christopher Reeve's version, but I feel it hasn't aged well because, to me, it feels like he's lying to the people around him, and they never really get to know the real him.
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u/corvid1692 9m ago
While I prefer Clark Kent who puts on the Superman costume, Christopher Reeves was the greatest of all time at Superman putting on the Clarke Kent costume. 1978 is phenomenal.
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u/kenshima15 12h ago
Its dumb to me. Especially in 2026. This shit would never work. But i can suspend my disbelief
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 9h ago
Do you have a rebuttal for why I think that it would work in a real world setting?
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u/kenshima15 9h ago edited 9h ago
bro, this is 2026.
We have 4K cameras everywhere, Ring cameras, Flock cameras tracking vehicles and movement, security footage, social media, AI facial recognition, image matching, and millions of pictures and videos of Superman from every possible angle.
And then you have fucking Lex Luthor.
You’re telling me Lex, with basically unlimited money, technology, surveillance access, and an obsession with Superman, isn’t going to abuse every facial-recognition system he can get his hands on? He doesn’t even need to magically guess Clark Kent. Just feed Superman’s face into enough databases and eventually “Clark Kent, Daily Planet” is going to pop up looking suspicious as hell.
Then it’s over. People compare the faces, remove the glasses with AI, match the jaw, eyes, ears, height, voice, body type, and start looking at Clark’s movements. Why does Superman constantly show up around the Daily Planet? Why does Clark keep disappearing around Superman incidents? Why is Superman constantly saving Lois?
And the “people tell me I look like John Travolta” comparison doesn’t work. You LOOK like John Travolta. Clark and Superman are literally the same fucking person. Same face. Same body. Same voice.
Christopher Reeve proved the disguise can fool a human being in person. I buy that completely. What I do NOT buy is Clark keeping this shit secret for years in a modern surveillance state with AI and someone like Lex actively trying to expose him.
At that point, the only way Clark doesn’t get caught is some kind of sci-fi bullshit. Kryptonian tech messing with cameras, facial recognition not working on him, hypnosis glasses, whatever. But just “he slouches and wears glasses”? Nah, bro. He’s cooked.
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u/Awesome-Lad-9000 1h ago edited 1h ago
Glasses gave us genuinely one of the best Lex stories ever in Superman (1986) #2. It’s exactly why the glasses are great.
Spoiler TL;DR Lex figures out Superman is Clark Kent with a super computer as you say, but rejects the information because in his narcissism he cannot believe Superman would ever pretend to be meek Clark Kent.
That’s what the glasses do, narratively. Gives us a super metaphor for how we judge people superficially and what we project onto them. Hypno glasses and other over explanations of the secret ID just don’t allow for that.
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u/nigevellie 12h ago
Last picture has nothing to do with the post. One is Christopher and the other is George.
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u/HandsomeSwampBeast 12h ago
It's a picture of Clark Kents. I thought it was pretty. I wanted to share.
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