Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Hi,
Can anyone tell me WHY Clark started to ware his glasses?

Paula

I started to wear mine because of bad eyesight --maybe Clark was trying to pretend he had bad eyesight.  If everyone thought he had perfect eyesight, it might have been easier to figure out he was really Superboy.

I've noticed that people who have known me a long time can't even tell what color my eyes are through my thick, coke-bottle lenses.

It can seem incredible, but sometimes really made seem a face different.
Besides, who could suspect for a secret identity... When the superhero doesn't wear a mask?

I think the answer can be found in Superman 330 (first series) cover dated Dec 1978. In the cover story "The Master Mesmerizer of Methropolis" based on a story concept by Al Schroeder III and scripted by Martin Pasko. The story addresses the question about the value of glaases as a disguise. In on panel on page three, Superman looks at himself in the mirror with his glasses on and he thinks: Hmm - - - Now that I think about it... that's the dumbest disguise I've ever seen! What am I supposed to look like a totally different person? Uh- Uhh! Superman wearing glasses is what I look like!."  Lana Lang, later in the story, catchs Superman changing into his Clark disguise. Superman thinks his secret identity is finished. But to his surprised, Lana assumes for some reason Superman is dressing up like Clark. Lana tells a surpised Superman : "That's supposed to be Clark? Oh, come on, luv! I admit there is a superficicial resemblance--But you're too heavily bulit and you're much too handsome! No -- forgetit! You don't really look like Clark at all!" At the end of the story, Superman has the answer. As Clark Kent he asks the police sketch artist draw pictures Clark Kent and Superman using photo he has given him. The drawing of Superman is 100% accurate matching the photograph exactly. But, the sketch of Clark is different from the photo, Clark looks thinner, frailer, and not terribly handsome. Superman power of super-hypnotism is always working at low power even when Superman is aware of it. His super-hypnotism automatically projects his subconcencious desire to be seen (as Clark) as a weaker and frailer man than he really is. The glasses according to this story are the key because of "some unknown property of the Kryptonian flexiglass must intensify the low level hypnotic effect of my eyes. The story closes with this note to the readers: Did you realize that the most successful practitioner of mass hypnosis in the world is Superman?.

The Master Mesmerizer hypothesis does work for some...

For me, a far simpler and more effective explanation is that eyeglasses have often indicated physical weakness in the 19th and 20th century (maybe stemming from financial affluence?)...Clark avoided detection because he deflected people's belief...and its easy to not find a right answer when you aren't forming a question...

But that's just me, the Master Mesmerizer stuff is just more unnecessary made up mythos of the time...

(http://nightwing.supermanfan.net/covers/sm-330.gif)

 :hey:

Blech...

LOL... :wink:

40 cents for a comic too! :D

Well that story was certainly an attempt to add Superman mythos. I don't think it was unnecessary. Superman's mythos is fixed not in stone and writers through the years try to add to it.
As I was growing up, I didn't think the Clark Kent disguise was all that weak, at least compared to other DC heroes. I always thought the two DC heroes with the weakness disguises were Green Arrow, come on that little mask, and the disguise gets even weaker, when GA grows that goatee and mustache and Oliver Queen suddenly sports the same facial hair. It would have been smarter for Green Arrow to wear fake facial hair while either GA or OQ. The other hero I thought had a lame disguise was Robin, same weak mask.
Difference between Superman and most other DC heroes is that his civil identity Clark Kent is the fictional identity. If Superman's secret identity was revealed , Superman would go, but Clark Kent would be history. I think the opposite would happen to Dick Grayson/Robin or Oliver Queen/Green Arrow.

Nah, that's totally cool...

I assume we all have our own ideas about what works in Superman...

 8)

Lots of Bronze Age stuff does not work for me, but that's me...

I agree it's okay to add to the mythos, but some additions work and some (like this one, IMHO) do not.  It's instructive to examine the failures to see why they missed (which is why I deal with the story on my fan site).

I agree Ollie Queen's "secret" ID was a laugh riot.  I remember a story in the 70s where someone finally decides Ollie Queen is leading a double life as a superhero, and they've figured out who it is...Batman! :D

Then there was Mike Grell's run on the character, where the FBI showed up and asked Ollie to help on a case and the dialog went something like this:

Ollie: "Why are you coming to me?"
FBI: "Well, because you're Green Arrow!"
Ollie: (Stunned)
FBI: "What, it was supposed to be a SECRET?"

 :lol:

There's also that old Batman story where Batwoman nearly figures out his secret ID because Bruce Wayne has a sunburn only on the jaw area of his face, where it would have stuck out of the mask.  Serves him right for working in the daytime!

Nightwing mentioned it in passing (he beat me to it), but you can catch some images and thoughts on The Master Mesmerizer of Metropolis (http://nightwing.supermanfan.net/oddities.htm) on Nightwing's Superman web pages. Worth a look.

You have to remember (way back in early Action Comics) that Lois wouldn't lower herself to even spit in Clark Kent's direction (in fact, she probably barely gave the poor fellow a daily scornful glance); and that her view of Superman was the opposite: she was bedazzled, awestruck, infatuated (as was the general public, I suppose)... For all intents and purposes, Kent and Superman were two different people. Early on, neither Lois, nor any members of the general public, had a properly intimate relationship with either Kent or Superman.

Add to that MatterEaterLad's superb observation:

With early Superman, I don't find it a stretch to believe he could fool people.



Nonsense, Coldsam. Clark Kent is not a fiction. He is as real as Superman. Our hero is just as much Kent as Superman. He is one man made up of these two equally vital identities. Take that away, and you fail to appreciate just what a remarkable and intriguing character our supposed bland boy scout really is.

Also keep in mind that Clark Kent's personality was Completely different than Superman, and he most likely also changed his voice when he was Clark. I believe that Christoper Reeve played it perfect in the 1st movie, and it reflected the old comics. This made it harder to make the contention. It wasn't like the horrid reboot version, where they are nearly the same thing.



Yes! Remember that he was raised on a farm by human parents, he grew up being Clark Kent. Sure he was also Superboy, but why didn't he leave them when he found out he had Superpowers? Why not just be Superboy all the time? It was because he was just as much Clark Kent as he was Superboy. They are both refections of his true personality. To find his real personality, just pay attention to how he acted with his parents at home when no one was looking or with any of his friends who knew his duel identity.

I can only lend my strong opinion to the observation that Clark Kent was REAL, at least to my mind...anything else would diminish the mythos that made a real Superman to my mind...

It must be noted in Fleischer's analysis that Kal desperately wants his Clark Kent ID to be loved and accepted.  He wants to win Lois as Clark not Superman.  The only way that could make any sense is if Clark is a significant if not a major part of his true identity.

I agree that Superman needs Clark Kent and he wants to be accepted and loved as Clark. But his Clark Kent persona can only continue as long
his identity as Superman is secret. But large part of Clark Kent is not real, i.e. his pretense of weakness. Clark/Superman is like the story of the King who dresses up like an "commoner" to see how ordinary people live and to get a break from both the demands of his office and the people always telling him how great he is.

Well we all have to play those games sometimes...is it really that different than holding your tongue in a meeting room filled with unimaginative dolts? 8)

Kal-El is Superman.
But, we know it, he wears a mask: the human identity is the fake one, because he is before it all the superpowered being. But Clark knows that bein' a superhero makes him different from normal people, who can be afraid of him. So, he pretends to be a man, because he really loves mankind and he is glad and honorated to be similar to us.
Despite it all, don't forget that his Clark Kent identity is a mask, and he knows it very well.
Some examples:
- Pete Ross' son discovers his secret 'cause he hasn't shaver and other common objects in his bathroom.
- Clark never talk about his life. Or, at least, we never see him do this. Do you remember the story where Lois and Lana are about to die 'cause a rare virus? Clark remembers that the same happened to the Kents, then he thinks "And this is a grief which I'll never show to anyone" (more or less).
This means that Clark doesn't consider really important whatever happens to him. He is worried for us, so he can't lose his time thinking to his problems (this makes him a real benefactor, in my opinion). Then, in my opinion, he thinks that his fake human life doesn't deserve so much care for. This isn't a real existence,so why to worry himself?

Just my 2 cents (in €...!).

Ah the age old debate of who is the real person, Clark, Superman, or Kal-El? They are sort of like the 3 legs of a platform (think barstool) supporting the whole weight of his life. While he might be able to adopt an other identity to replace any of the 3 legs the stool would only be repaired it would never be the same again.

Or to put it an other way, look at your own life, you were born, grew in to childhood went to school or learned a skill and became known as a writer, a doctor, a computer person, a lawyer or what not.

 Even though someone might call you Dr. So and So you still somebody’s kid, the best buddy in school as well as the brilliant doctor you mom is so proud of, they are all a part of you.  If you lost your certifications or memories of any of that you would still exist but you’d be different then you are right now, maybe not more or less but different.

Yeah, there is no evidence that the "Kryptonian" Kal is not "human" in any noticeable way, moral sense, wanting to establish a career, sex drive...it would be silly to think that being raised as Clark Kent didn't mean he wasn't Clark Kent...

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/Superman330clarkthinking.jpg)

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Superman330clarkandlana.jpg)

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Superman330sketches.jpg)

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/Superman330clarkkent.jpg)

You have to wonder how Superman will disguise himself if science advances to the point of people no longer needing to wear glasses (or the need to wear them for long).

My Prediction: Clark will wear a visor. And what will his reasons for wearing the visor be? Easy, he'll claim that his eyes are very sensitive to all forms of light. Kind of like the real reason the Eradicator wore his visor during the "Death/Return" storyline.

Interesting point, NotSuper. Superman's been around for 60 years, and the first sixty years are always the hardest, so we ought to see Superman around for a good long time. Might be interesting to dust this post off years from now and see if you were right.

Though I don't know about the idea of glasses becoming obsolete. First off, laser surgeries are pretty spooky: hey, I read science fiction, I know what laser beams can do, and I'm not letting some quack zap me in the eyeballs. Nossir! And I'm sure a lot of people with visual defects feel the same way.

Plus, as a glasses wearer myself, I would continue to wear glasses simply because glasses make me look intelligent and distinguished, which is the sort of image I want to project to people that don't know me. Glasses are a style statement as much as they are a means of correcting visual problems.

Hasn't it come out that there is a problem with night vision among recipients of laser eye surgery?

Regardless, I wonder why one of Clark's friends never asks him why he doesn't get his friend Superman to perform laser eye surgery using his heat vision?  Sometimes it seems like Clark is the only person in Metropolis who wears glasses.  8)

Superman's explained in the past that he doesn't like to do personal favors of that sort for friends.  If one of his friends were in danger or seriously ill, Superman would help, of course.  

For instance, if Jimmy broke his leg, Superman wouldn't use his super-science to heal it.  He'd let Jimmy's leg mend on its own.  

So, I don't think that Clark would ever have to answer such a question beyond what I've pointed out.  ;)

Laser eye surgery involves all kinds of risk.  Even when it works, you have to meet some criteria to be a patient.  For one thing, you have to have had a stable prescription for some time...if your vision alters from doctor visit to doctor visit, you can't get the procedure done.  This is because once it's done, (1) you can't ever do it again and (2) you can never again wear contact lenses.  So you better be pretty sure your eyes have settled down for good before you go in (unless you want to go back to glasses!).

This gives Clark a great excuse...he can always claim he's not a candidate.  Or if we're talking about "timid Clark" he can just say the idea scares him.  Heck, it scares ME!

That said, yes we will probably one day have a procedure that's safe and everyone can use.  But even now, in an age of surgeries and contacts, some people wear glasses for fashion reasons alone, and Clark could just be one of those guys.

Besides, how much of a disguise is a pair of glasses anyway?  The more people overthink this element, the dumber it's revealed to be.  Jerry and Joe got away with it because they were dealing with crude drawings at the dawn of comics.  In today's world of "realistic" storytelling and art, it already doesn't work, let alone 50 years from now.

Re: the panels that Krypss posted, the flaw in that explanation is that Clark must surely have been photographed at some point. Maybe anyone who'd seen him in person would be hypnotized into seeing the fake Clark, but someone who'd never seen Clark in person would look at the pictures and see Clark as he really looks, i.e. like Superman in glasses.

Gary writes:



Actually, I came up with FIVE reasons why this explanation doesn't work, and that was without really trying:

http://nightwing.supermanfan.net/oddities/mesmerizer7.htm