Surely his Kryptonian technology has the capability to change the appearance of either his Clark Kent or Superman identity. In the last Captain America film, Natasha even had that hologram gadget that completely changed her face. It would make more sense than a muscular 6’ 3 guy being able to conceal his identity with a slouch and a pair of glasses. Can you think of any other ways for him to keep leading a civilian life without the face palm worthy glasses explanation?

I like the glasses and slouch approach. It is classic.

I don't find it that ridiculous. No one thinks Superman keeps a secret Identity...I mean why would he. That's why people don't get bothered and don't make the connection. Why would a god, try to blend among humans?

I never felt why this was an issue.

@squalleon: The glasses and slouch is definitely classic. Sometimes when I'm reading a Superman comic I feel the artist just gets lazy and doesn't really do anything with the Clark Kent disguise, it's just glasses and that's it. I read the volume 3 of the Earth-One books recently and the artist actually drew Clark Kent and Superman as having to completely different physiques. He drew Clark Kent as just ordinary kind of skinny looking guy then Superman as jacked. Just bothers me sometimes. Watching Smallville and trying to suspend the belief that the entire world doesn't recognize him was hard for me lol

Well, think about it this way, most of the world never gets to have a good look at him. And he said he vibrates when they picture him to fuzzy with the details. Even Batman didn't recognize him :P

And yeah I agree, not many play the difference well.

I don't think the vibrating thing has been cannon for a while. At least I haven't read about it. And Tony Daniel from the Superman/Wonder Woman book is the worst at drawing a difference between Clark and Superman. It doesn't look like Clark is even making an effort at a disguise.

The glasses and personality is actually genius if you think about it. I mean you wouldn't suspect that "Jim" at work/school/down the road that looks like a celebrity would actually be that celebrity would you?

I always found it a bit ridiculous and has only gotten worse in modern times with things such as facial recognition etc. I mean people has discovered the secret identify of other heroes who put more effort into concealing it.

Τhe difference is that other heroes wear masks. Superman doesn't. So people don't assume he has a secret identity. They don't wonder WHO he is, but what does he do in his FREE TIME :P

It was canon pre-52. Now it hasn't been mentioned. But either way, this was an example. The main reason that people don't believe Superman is Clark Kent, is because they don't believe Superman has a secret identity.

@squalleon: So everyone just writes off the resemblance as a coincidence? How does people like Lois and Jimmy who knows both Superman & Clark closely doesn't figure out they are one and the same?

Τhat element has always been played, Lois spend the entire Silver Age trying to find evidence that Clark is Superman. But Superman always outsmarted her. Most times he has someone else portraying as him, so he can be in the room in both identities.

Glasses, slouch, different hair style, baggy clothes, higher voice and good ol' psychology. Doesn't get any more perfect than that. Less is more :)

pretty much.

maybe all the superman haters are right. maybe superman is just a jerk and thinks very little of us humans. i bet jorel just told him all humans are idiots in one of his holograms. jorel just said humans are stupid. don't even bother putting on a mask. just put on some glasses and comb your hair different. no one will recognize you. you would think that lois lane who is supposed to be this smart investigative reporter would have figured it out. didn't she kind of like both clark and superman. i don't know who is worse...superman, green lantern, or robin. green lantern and robin just had something that covered their eyes. they didn't even wear a full mask.

@christianrapper: Most artists don't even bother with changing his hair style now. The only difference is the glasses.

Sadly, this is true. In the new 52, mostly instances in the superman title. The artists portray a muscular Clark Kent and this is very irksome. It does comes to a point where you go, why even bother. A book like all star superman, That portrays the secret ID of clark kent beautifully.

Tony Daniel in the SM/WW book is the worst at doing this. He makes no effort with the Clark identity at all. He even draws Clark dressing all hip and fashionable. The glasses aren't even thick rimmed.

No one suspects a thing....

I know DC is trying to make him "modern" but how he hide is concealing his identity is very old. I know some writers are trying their best, but a shit of them really don't know how to write about concealing his identity, so they go with the glasses and his acting skills. Can they just make him go what they did to Black Widow in Winter Soldier?

Another thing you have to remember is that the way people look at other people in real life, is different to how you the reader looks at drawings of characters. Usually you focus more, the lighting is more consistent, those sorts of factors. This might vary in effect, but how many people do you really stare at and observe and makes notes about facial characteristics? There are all sorts of accounts about people meeting "celebrities" but not recognizing them because they didn't have make up on, were dressed sloppier and just didn't look like they did on movies or print. Superman probably doesn't even need the glasses or the slouch, and peoples senses are filtered in various on top of that. If someone makes you laugh or feel good about yourself, you often actually start viewing them as physically more attractive. Not because reality conspired to physically modify them, but chemically, emotionally, the idea of them in your head changed.

The only real angle that has some interest is technology, devices that are designed to be more objective and use science to find similarities, draw comparisons, but you'd need a database for that and good quality images of individuals to make the comparisons.

i never really saw clark as being geeky in the first place. he seems only geeky in the christopher reeves version of him. i don't mind him being fashionable. he has to blend in. he might draw more attention with needlessly thick glasses. he is a reporter, he can afford modern glasses.

i am glad in the mos movie that they skipped all that dumb crap about lois lane not knowing that clark is superman. that is one thing they got right. saturday night live did a great sketch with the rock playing superman, and everyone PRETENDING that they didn't know clark was superman.

@azza04:

Yeah. The glasses never made much sense. Even in Superman The Movie 2, they gave Superman a kind of tactile telepathy, that allowed him to erase/change people's memories.

That's one of the reasons I've been saying for quite some time now, that DC should acknowledge that a kryptonian powers are a mix of energy and psionic manipulation.

That would include Superman or any other kryptonian, having some level of telepathy that could be used to create a kind of sensory distortion. That would make it impossible for anyone to recognize Clark has being Superman. It wouldn't make it impossible for people to find out the truth about him but they would have to find out through clues and evidence and not just because he for example dropped his glasses. Another example would be if someone saw him change into Superman.

That, or the use of has you said, of kryptonian tech. For example in the N52 many people at first criticized his bio-armor. But the bio-armor did showed shape-shifting abilities, writers could've introduced a special function of the suit, in which it could emit specific EM fields, more precisely one that disrupted the human brain ability to associate shapes/faces around the person from which the field was being emited.

I like the telepathy idea better, but that's just me.

@heavenlydarkdragon: The suspension of disbelief doesn't bother me so much when the artist puts work into the Clark identity. But they do this less and less now because Clark isn't seen as cool enough. Most people don't really care about this flaw in the character but it does irritate me sometimes, more so because it actually seems to be a solvable problem with either technology or psionic power. I'm pretty sure they explain away his PIS ability to hear across the planet as being psionic related so it's usable in concealing his identities case.

Surprised people actually have a problem with this.

@scouterv:

Surprised that you don't.

How can a character be the slightest believable, if something has simple has how he maintains his secret identity a secret, isn't even credible.

Are you gonna tell me if you just put on some glasses and whore different clothes, your parents and friends would not be able to recognize you?!

@heavenlydarkdragon: The phrase "hiding in plain sight" comes to mind. It's a proven method, so I don't see how It's not credible.

Consider thi. Why would a superpowered alien be sitting across from me at some cheap diner, slouching, and sounding like he's just barely out of puberty when he could be hanging out in a satelite with The Justice League? To think he would do so is silly. Especially since he knows I'd be asking him a million questions.

Hiding in plain sight implies exactly that. That the person is hiding. I can't simply put on some glasses, buy a new set of clothes, and go to a bar where people know me and expect them not to recognize me. Believe me I've tried. Not because I was trying to prove a comic book point, but for example three years ago I disguised myself with one of the Enzo suits from Assassin's Creed, for a cosplay convention. And I was gonna meet friends there. Has soon has I started walking towards them with my hood on, they immediately shouted my name. And take into account that not everybody had arrived already. But by my size, shape of the body, even the way I walked all hinted to them that that person walking towards them was me.

So has you see, people aren't completely clueless or stupid.

How many times have you recognized someone from afar just by the way the people dress, walk and the shape of the body? Many times I believe. Why!? Because our brains work mainly by association of patterns. Be it objects or people.

So believing that putting on glasses could fool anyone that knows us from daily basis, is hard to believe in the minimum and ridiculous at best.

If Superman had limited shape-shifting powers, like changing the size and style of the hair, changing color of hair and eyes. Or even his body mass. All would offer a better explanation than "Glasses on. Glasses off."

But when he's Clark Kent, he's not sounding, acting, or even presenting himself the same way as Superman would. And Superman and Clark Kent aren't in the same places for the most part, as far as the people know. They have no idea what restaurants Superman frequents, and any coincidence of Superman being in the same area as Clark is that Clark goes where the news is, which is where Superman is, but then Jimmy and Lois are there for the same reason, as any reporter/photographer worth their salt would try to be.

People know Clark Kent. Not many know Superman.

But honestly, questioning it does me little good, so that's why it doesn't bother me.

There is a story that is pertinent to this discussion. For his role on Collateral, Tom Cruise wanted to learn to blend in without being noticed. So he spent several days pretending to be a delivery man in some popular shopping center. He would deliver packages, talk to people and eat lunch in a crowded area. Not one person recognized him as Tom Cruise even though his 'disguise' was just a delivery man outfit and a ball cap. This is one of the most famous actors in the world for two decades and no one recognized him.

Also, it's comics. A little bit of suspension of disbelief is required when reading stories about superpowered human-looking aliens, mythological princesses fighting Greek gods and emotionally troubles billionaires donning crazy costumes to beat up criminals. Don't try too hard to analyize using a real world viewpoint.

They should have Clark have all the money he needs to get the job done in what ever venture he sets out to do. It would be ashamed to think he cannot get a diamond when ever he wanted or find a large chunk of god ore when ever he felt the need. As for tech to hide his secret this should be easy for him.

I believe questioning holds its merit and significance. Because lets face it, it's just nearly impossible for someone like Superman to play human and at least the people closest to him not recognizing him. Government agencies would have even less trouble finding his human persona, given the extensive network of facial recognizing systems.

Another thing. It seems strange that someone that leaves his fingerprints all over the places, isn't discovered right away. After all, he doesn't even bother covering up his hands. I figure even aliens most have fingerprints.

Also. When he returned from being away in space for two months after defeating Brainiac, by launching both of them into a black hole Superman created while in possession of the psionic energy Brainiac stole from the minds of every being on Earth. He had a beard. Which makes sense seeing that he was trying to get back to Earth. He let people like Lois see him with the beard, and later he went to be with Diana, has Superman, wearing a beard. He didn't even took the time to try to look different from Clark Kent. Can people be so thick that they can't put two and two together.

How many times I've met actresses, singer's, or tv shows presenters in the mall or in the street with plain clothes, and some even wearing sunglasses and stuff, and still I looked at them and I knew who they were. I didn't make a fuss over it, but it showed me that it's not easy to simply blend in.

Of course I'm a guy that likes to look people in their faces. Something I see a lot people don't do. People in general like to cling to their lives and routines without bothering to even look, really look at the people walking down the street.

About a year ago I went to NY in the good old US of A, in a business trip. Because I had some time to spent I got to check out the whole vibe, scenery, people, everything I was interested in seeing. One night I went to a club with my colleagues to just chill out, and who did I meet there... April Rose. The one from Guy Code. Now April's looks by itself can catch any man's attention. But I knew her mainly because of the show Guy Code, and some magazines. She wasn't too much flashy, nor was she trying to stand out, her hair color was even different, but the moment I laid my eyes on her, I knew it was her. It wasn't a "Is she?" moment, I knew. Period. And has I listened the voice was the same, even the laughter. And I remember thinking "Of all places...".

Know I don't see her all the time, nor did I knew that she had changed her hair color, but immediately I recognized someone that I would have been excused if I missed recognizing her.

For Clark Kent and Superman. It's even more easy, because they look the same, have the same height, hair style and size, same eye color. Even if I was to see Superman up close and then met Clark Kent my first thoughts would be "Wow. He looks exactly like Superman."

DC want to make people look stupid. Simple has that. Like in the new arc "Truth". So Superman identity was blown, it's all over the news. He even buys a Superman t-shirt. And only a kid recognizes him!... Come on! I know people have a lot stuff on their minds in a daily basis, but to not recognize him immediately, when he was drawing attention to himself by entering in a store, shirtless and looking all bruised. A still only the kid recognizes him, because at the same time the news about his identity being blown was being broadcast. I'm sorry but I find it impossible to believe in that load of BS.

It's like someone calling the other person stupid right in their face and the other person saying "What did you said?". He knows what the other person said, but by asking that question it's like he's saying "I didn't hear you." or "I can't believe you said that".

It's a generalization DC does, that I particularly don't appreciate at all.

Yeah. Remember all those times he spoke of having to pay the rent. That he had to work because he was a few bucks short for paying the rent. Whenever I read that it was like someone shouted in my head "WTF!!". He's Superman for chrissake. He can smash pieces of coal into diamonds. His kryptonian tech should allow him to print some money that could pass any inspection. He should by all intended purposes be swimming in money. And still DC tried to sell us the idea that Superman had to work to earn money.

I mean even Kara from Earth-2 found it easier to be rich by simply using her powers to uncover some precious metals or minerals, and she could have anything she wanted. And Clark with all those powers needs to work so he could pay the rent.

That's like being punched in the nuts and saying thank you to the person that did it.

Another thing. What's the deal with the reporter thing. With his powers he could be in charge of his own newspaper, or his own R&D company. Making millions, and having all the free time in the world to be Superman. Instead of making excuses has to why he's late, or why he disappeared all of the sudden.

Lobdell got the right idea, when he made Clark walkout of the Daily Planet. And creating that news website with Cat Grant. He only didn't delivered it very well. Clark should be on his own business, be his own boss. He's got the powers, technology and know-how to have all the money he'll ever need.

Like now in Truth. If he'd been smarter and used his powers to amass a huge amount of money. He could have stashes all over the world, bank accounts in fake names, even a secondary fortress that he could more easily get into just in case for some reason he couldn't use his main one.

But no. We see him facing all this difficulties not because his identity was blown, but because unlike Bruce, he never takes the time to prepare for any situation.

And that my friend is simply infuriating.

I agree they need to show a hero being smart not just say he is smart. Like Spiderman or Reed Richards. Show why they are considered one of the smartest people on the planet. I do agree he could own his own news board and this makes far more sense to me. Money should never be something he has to worry over he is not Spiderman. Bad plot device all the way around.

If you could do even a fraction of what he can do , just one tiny little fraction you would not have to ever worry over money. Clark Kents only worry should be how to save as many people as possible and get them in on it and make people better people every single day.

It should never be how do I pay the rent.

Yeah. I read about it at the time.

Blown my mind away just thinking, how could people just not recognize him because of the outfit and the ball cap. At least someone should have said "Man you look a lot like that ator Tom Cruise. Did you know that?" but nobody did. I looked at that and said "Are people just to distracted in their own personal world's to recognize someone so known".

But of course after reading some psychology papers and seeing some documentaries like Braingames, it quickly falled into place the "why" people tend to not recognize what's staring them right in their faces.

Studies have shown that in average more than 70% of the population in the US alone have a serious deficit when it comes to recognizing patterns outside of their normal day lives. That people are filled with so much information about what they did, and need to do, that their brains recognizes people's but if that person is not relevant to their needs the brain automatically takes that recognition and places it "garbage section" of the brain.

There are of course exceptions to the what generally happens. But that involves certain types of personalities. Only people that tend to look strangers in the face, and have good multitasking capabilities, are usually the exception. Because we tend to have even a slight level of OCD. That allows people to compartmentalize emotions and tasks, without loosing focus on the "here and now".

Still ~40% just in the US alone should make the job of hiding one's alter ego (disguise) quite difficult. At least for such a character has Superman, that is seen in the DCU both in awe and fear.

There's nothing wrong with the glasses altering his eye shape and colour, the suit's bagginess hiding his physique, a slouched posture distinguishing how he poses in costume, raising his voice a few octaves as Clark and acting like a mild mannered reporter with a psychological profile of someone you wouldn't assume would be a hero. Who in their right minds would think such an unassuming man could be the secret identity of the most charismatic, inspirational superhero on DC's Earth? All this talk of Kryptonian technology hiding his true face, limited shapeshifting powers or unnecessarily bringing back telepathy to convince people that Clark is not Superman ruins the simple effectiveness of the disguise. You don't need to overcomplicate an essentially airtight means to hide Superman's identity.

And whilst I want Superman to be portrayed as more intelligent and thinking resourcefully, I can't say I find the idea of Clark running his own newspaper or news corporation to be an attractive one. At least not whilst he's in his late 20s to mid 30s.Clark becoming a blogger was an alienating, poorly thought out and badly executed idea that pushes Clark away from interacting with others outside of his Superman role. Nor do I want him to become as rich as Bruce Wayne, it undermines the simple human decency of Superman, he doesn't want or need to be rich to do what he does, he doesn't need to crush loads of diamonds and amass savings accounts And Clark wouldn't want to use his powers to get by easily if he ever slips up on the rent, he wants to earn money fair and square with his journalism job. That's the whole point of Superman, he could live like a wealthy king or a god among men but he chooses to just be another human being in the crowd when not helping out. A lot of people seem to be missing this, and apparently so are DC given that Truth is the current Superman crossover for the next year.

what about wearing the humpty nose from the 90's?

As I said above, I don't mind the suspension of disbelief that no-one at the Daily Planet recognizes Clark is Superman IF the artist actually puts effort into drawing all the distinguishing features you mention Clark uses, but they don't. More and more like the scan I posted above, Clark is in public in jeans and a shirt with just a small pair of glasses that supposedly conceal his likeness to Superman. I suspect they don't want to draw or present Clark in his mild mannered persona because it's not seen as cool.

And I don't like the idea of Clark being a CEO or rich either. But I quite like the idea of using a technology similar to what Natasha used in Winter Solider to change his face as Superman slightly. I'm not talking about a drastic change, still in the tall dark and handsome mold but just enough difference that if you put a picture of Clark and Superman next to each other you could clearly see a difference. This way, Clark wouldn't have to play dress up or hide his face or act meek or overly timid. I think it opens up the theme of Clark being who he really is again and Superman just being the guy he becomes to help out. It also solves the Clark Kent isn't cool enough problem that I think DC has.

@azza04: I suppose the artistic complaint is kind of fair enough but Clark has said his glasses change his eye colour in the New 52 and the hair did use to change in Grant Morrison's Action Comics run. Clark and Superman looked distinctive there, even if Tony Daniels doesn't draw them differently. But one artist doesn't represent how all the artists draw Superman, even recently some have drawn Clark and Superman in distinguished ways

What's the point of the glasses and other complementary stuff then? Clark may as well create a new face altogether if he's going to be using face changing technology in your scenario. It undermines the fact that all he's ever needed for most of his history is a pair of glasses and a change in personality. This is very Majestic like behaviour and whilst I can respect Majestic for technically being more efficient, it's not what I want Superman to copy. There's nothing wrong with him being overly meek or timid either, it draws attention away from the idea that Clark and Superman are the same person. Doesn't mean I want Clark to act like a coward but I don't want him talking like Superman does in a big speech then come in as Superman and act just as moral and inspirational. That really does give the game away, there has to be the right balance. The problem with the dual identity though is that the character can both be Clark and Superman at the same time, they represent different facets of his character. Your proposal would run the risk of alienating one and whilst I see Clark as the real person, you can't make Superman the disguise either IMO.

@lvenger: I don't know, it seems DC is throwing away so much of the Superman mythology. I think they see the Clark Kent disguise as dated now. With the Truth arc starting I was just trying to think up ways they could keep Clark Kent around instead of him being Kal-El/Superman all the time.

@azza04: That's a fear I have in spades currently, for some reason, DC don't want Superman to be able to live a normal life or connect with humanity. Which he's been doing in almost every incarnation for decades now. Removing the Clark Kent identity is a blatant bad idea, and if this Truth status quo is more permanent, I am going to be even moreso livid with DC Comics than I am currently with their poor excuse of a Superman crossover. I don't want this to continue, yet DC seem to be doing everything they can to throw me off as a Superman reader.

@lvenger: I highly doubt this is a permanent change. Just like most big sensational stories mainstream comics tell, It'll introduce some big controversial thing then everything will go back (relatively) to normal in the next arc. This is probably a case like Spider-Man revealing his identity then using stupid shannanigans to undo it.

I agree that DC has been distancing Clark from humanity throughout the new52, intentionally or not, I don't know. Killing off the Kents, quitting the planet, barely spending any time with normal people, getting rid of the Clark/Lois romance, hooking up with Wonder Woman, etc. all seemed like DC doesn't understand that Superman needs Clark Kent to make sense as a character. He needs those human connections.

Although one could chalk it up to general incompitance on DC's part. It may very well be a case of DC wanting to 'update' Superman, doing a piss-poor job of it, then just focusing on superhero BS rather than character building.

clark kent is kal el. i can live without all the daily planet crap anyway.

There was a Silver Age story in which Superman was to be featured on a stamp of a foreign country (which unlike the U.S. can put living people on stamps). The whole story was how he got them to use a different photo than they planned. The country's name had a double-o (think something like the old city name Rangoon). In the first photo, the two o's fell over Superman's eyes. Bingo! There's Clark Kent!

Needless to say, he got them to change the photo and his secret was safe.