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| Side by side, yeah, I can understand not getting it |
It’s a question that plagues more
than one person’s mind when watching something Superman related. And the
comics have come up with a number of different explanations as to why most
people can’t figure out that Superman has a day job at the Daily Planet. The
list is rather long, almost as long as the list of his superpowers, so I’ll
just focus in on three of them, one silly, one understandable, and one I don’t
think most people think about. Keep in mind that I’m getting this list off of the Wikipedia
page, so please don’t bite my head off if I say something wrong.
First, the silly. This is a rather
old idea, dating back to the 1970’s. The idea was that the glasses that Superman
wore while at his day job were made of special Kryptonian materials. These materials
somehow amplified a “super-hypnosis” power Sups had that created the illusion
that Clark Kent is a frail little man. This idea was dropped rather quickly and
you can probably understand why. All the explanations out there, and Superman
is pulling a trick that Mysterio could pull off (Spider-man villain, not
professional wrestler). That’s just lazy writing. Especially when I talk about
the understandable one.
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| It's a good thing he never considered contacts. |
The understandable one is that
Superman just does several subtle, visual and vocal techniques to create the
illusion that, despite a strong resemblance, that Superman and Clark Kent are
just too different to be the same guy. Fellow superhero and friend Barry Allen
(The Flash) once said that “Clark slouches, wears clothes two sizes too big and
raises his voice an octave.” Rather simple little changes separately but
combined the make Clark seem like an overweight, shorter man. Granted, the
difference of Clark’s perceived height and his actual height (I don’t know actual
numbers but lets say 5” 11’ as Clark and 6”2’ as Superman) are minor but hey,
the other stuff just adds to the illusion. Much simpler than superpower +
special glasses = disguise. Keep It Simple Stupid, as the saying goes.
The last one I’ll touch on is one that
I don’t think most people would think of, but when you hear it, it starts to
make a lot of sense. The idea is, that, people don’t think Superman HAS a secret identity. Think about it, Superman
is a big, powerful superhero that flies, takes bullets like most people take a
Nerf ball, shoots lasers from his eyes, moves so fast that he blurs, creates a
tornado force winds if he breathes too hard, and is just all around bigger then
you’d ever hope to be. And he doesn’t wear a mask, just flies around with that
pretty boy grin on his face. If you didn’t know
he was Clark Kent, would you ever imagine that Superman has a day job? I
don’t think I would, and in any dimension I feel like I would know a thing or
two about superheroes. And when you have friends like Batman willing to throw
on a spare costume to help create the illusion that you’re “Always on Duty,” as
Inspector Gadget would say, I think most people wouldn’t think he takes off the
cape ever. Granted, certain gifted adversaries have and will continue to see
through this, but not everyone is as smart as Lex Luthor or Brainiac. It’s kind
of their shtick to be really, really smart, out of the box thinkers.
There you have it, three different explanations
as to how Superman can fly around saving the day, and also eat out a nice restaurant
every now and then without being heckled by fans. It’s so hard to be popular…I
assume. Next time, I’m finally getting to Batman: Assault on Arkham.
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| A salute to one of the best guys to wear the cape on the big screen. |
http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/File:Clark_kent_%26_superman.gif
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