A Question about Superman

[R.Elham]

This question been bugging me for years, why does everyone around Clark does not realize he is superman? I mean a simple glasses and poof!

Is it because some kryptonite charisma or is it because this is a comic book?

Thanks!

[shingi70]

Its called suspension of disbelief. I know that it shouldn't work but it does because when i start to question somethings it gets less fun.

[Adekis]

Different reasons.

Generally, it's because he's is such a good actor that Clark Kent and Superman don't act or seem like the same person at all. Body language, posture, voice, they all work together in this important task: making sure that "Superman is really Clark Kent" is the best kept secret on Earth! The glasses help because they seem to give his face a different shape. The same thing happens in real life. If you see someone you only know with glasses without them, they look different. Maybe not different enough to make everyone think they're another person, but if they dressed different, acted different, talked different, and had different hair? Then they might be able to fool you.

Most artists (and some actors) actually have the two of them look and act exactly the same, right down to the hair, but look at the difference when it's done well:



He's just a guy who maybe looks kind of like Superman. So? Happens all the time. I used to go to school with a guy that looked kind of like David Tennant.

Not to mention that most people assume Superman has no secret identity in any decent version outside of awkward Silver Age stories.

[Mat001]

Largely it is suspension of belief. The same way we can all recognize each other if we wore masks like Batman. You can recognize Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney and Christan Bale because of their distinctive lower faces and their eyes.

In the case of Superman, it's mostly the means described above. It's also been addressed in a variety of other ways within the comics. Namely through the use of robot duplicates that look like him and shape shifters like J'onn J'onzz and Supergirl/Matrix. Plus the occasional times Bruce Wayne did it wearing makeup or Starman Will Peyton who altered his appearance. There was even the time when he was an energy being which fooled quite a number of people.

[MentalPace]

Different reasons.

Most artists (and some actors) actually have the two of them look and act exactly the same, right down to the hair, but look at the difference when it's done well:

He's just a guy who maybe looks kind of like Superman. So? Happens all the time. I used to go to school with a guy that looked kind of like David Tennant.

Not to mention that most people assume Superman has no secret identity in any decent version outside of awkward Silver Age stories.

Plus, people don't have Superman on their minds most of the time when they're talking to Clark. They're only looking at him as some nice reporter guy. They just don't think to make the connection.

This happens to me all the time when I watch movies. I'll watch something all the way through, then check out the cast list and be surprised that I didn't recognize one of the actors from another movie I've seen.

This just happened to me the other day when I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind and didn't realize until I went on IMDB that Elijah Wood was the same guy that played Frodo in Lord of the Rings. I didn't make the connection until then because I wasn't looking for it. It's not like he really looks that different either, he just has different hair and clothing.

[Mat001]

It also helps that John Byrne made a strong point that realistically, people wouldn't suspect that Superman has a dual identity since he doesn't wear a mask. So starting with the 1986 revamp, Superman was seen as Superman and Clark Kent as Clark Kent. If Superman wasn't in Metropolis, he was somewhere else in the world or even off world. Occasionally we had writers toy with certain characters like Lois, Jimmy and Perry, but over all, it was pretty much confined to just them.

[Auguste Dupin]

Besides, glasses can change a face (and, of all people, Byrne managed to make Clark look a bit different from Superman).
When I was in Highschool, I wore glasses. One day, the glasses got broken, so I had to spend the rest of the day without it. At one point, a girl of my class looks at my and basically says "I never noticed you had blue eyes". Since that day, I believed Clark can fool people with glasses.
In real, that wouldn't work, but in real life, a mask wouldn't work neither, so, well, he is a incredible actor and that's it.

[R.Elham]

Wow nice answer everyone, thanks for the input!

[clownprince01]

Bithright went into more depth about this than most stories. Clark changes his posture, dresses in bland oversized clothes, the glasses and even changes his voice. But perhaps most importantly is that Clark, in Birthright at least, does his best not to get noticed. He's so boring that people often don't bother talking to him. In the story, Perry White who is one of the only people to really get into a conversation with him and is the only one who brought out the real Clark Kent, if only briefly.

Not to mention in most origin stories, the only person in the story to have a lot of contact with both Clark and Superman is Lois, so she's actually the only person who is able to make an educated guess that they're the same person. Of course as more stories are written, this became troublesome which is why I believe that Lois and maybe even Perry should know he's Superman very early on.

[Auguste Dupin]

For Lois, well, she loves Superman and (for different reasons according to the origin you read), don't like Clark Kent much (or just hate him). So perhaps she is just in denial . She has the proves, but refuses (for personal reasons) to find out that 2+2 equals 4.
"No, no,no, that jerk who stole my scoop just can't be Superman."

[glennsim]

I've often thought that the problem with the disguise wasn't the glasses, it was the fact that he hung out with the same people in both identities.

If he'd just never let Lois or Jimmy or anybody see his face very well while being Superman, it would help a lot. But then, that's not the story they want to tell.

For the record, though, there was an old story about the disguise. Back then, Superman had a super-hypnosis power he could use to make people forget things and whatnot. It was like any of his other powers - he turned it on and off as needed.

What he discovered was that he was subconsciously using his super-hypnosis power to make people see Clark as thinner and less attractive than Superman. Lana even comments that while she used to think they were the same person, she didn't know how he changed his appearance so well.

But the kicker was that the power would not have been strong enough to work, but the Kryptonian glass in his Clark glasses amplified the effect. So basically his glasses were what was preventing people from realizing Superman was Clark.

This was never mentioned beyond the one story.

[Mat001]

For Lois, well, she loves Superman and (for different reasons according to the origin you read), don't like Clark Kent much (or just hate him). So perhaps she is just in denial . She has the proves, but refuses (for personal reasons) to find out that 2+2 equals 4.
"No, no,no, that jerk who stole my scoop just can't be Superman."

When Lois finally learned the truth, back in 1991, she said that she had suspected it but had dismissed the idea as too far fetched. Morrison took the opposite track with ASS, by having Lois still in denial given all the times that he pulled a superdickery move to fool her.

This was never mentioned beyond the one story.

I think the general reason was that it was so stupid, that it was promptly ignored.

[glennsim]

I think the general reason was that it was so stupid, that it was promptly ignored.

True, but when someone asks a question that they devoted an entire issue to answering, I think it certainly should be mentioned. From a historical perspective.

[OldSchoolfan]

For Lois, well, she loves Superman and (for different reasons according to the origin you read), don't like Clark Kent much (or just hate him). So perhaps she is just in denial . She has the proves, but refuses (for personal reasons) to find out that 2+2 equals 4.
"No, no,no, that jerk who stole my scoop just can't be Superman."

While the idea that Lois doesn't like Clark did stick around for a long time, sometime around issue 297 of Superman vol 1, Lois dates Clark. And during the Post Crisis era, Lois actually likes Clark Kent.

The only person that bothered me about not knowing Clark was Superman was Perry White. Clark was gone all the time at work.....in real life he would have gotten fired. To me, I always thought Perry figured it out, but never let on for the standard reasons. Of course, there are instances where Perry says he doesn't know...so this theory doesn't really work.

[Auguste Dupin]

Loeb said something like that in the "Hush" storyline. maybe White is maybe just really quiet about it, out of respect. Or he doesn't care because Clark has big scoop all the time.