He's got the brains. He's smart enough to be able to come up with a believable story as to why he looks so much like an alien from another planet. He most certainly can manage to give both "jobs" different mannerisms. Cops are "on duty". So are marines. When off duty, they go back to their "real' selves. They both want to improve life on Earth and they both do it in whatever way they can. There's no end of tech and characters that can substitute for one or the other - heck, with his new Kryptonian armor, you can add AI and have it produce a hologram of him and cover for superman when they both need to be present. (A little throwback to the old superman robots).

With all that, why can't they let Clark be a well-rounded character? Someone kids would want to be as much as others want to be superman?

theres defnitely potential for him to be written that way,though i dont kno why writers don't explore it... but i wouldnt want to see supes have an A.I fortress robots are enough and super speed and the kryptonian bio armor takes care of the quick change.

@eschrammbo: Have you read Action Comics?

He's been portrayed as such many times before in both the comics AND his animated series.

@sinestro_gl: DCNU, haven't they restored him to his "pretend to be a shy klutz. Stay in the background." guy? The Kents gave him acting books to reinforce his performance. Or was that one of the history restarts post-crisis?

Watch Superman the Animated Series. We get a confident Clark Kent.

@eschrammbo: Nah, he's been a reporter with plenty of confidence.

In the early issues of Superman, he was written to be a loner kinda guy (not too dissimilar to Batman - which I hated).

In Action Comics, he was the reporter that was known as standing up for the little guy with his stories about the hardships of the locals.

In the current Superman title, he recently quit the Daily Planet out of his principals and journalistic integrity, because he was disgusted with the quality of stories going on at the Planet.

Agreed.

@eschrammbo: Pre New52 he was a Pulitzer winning journalist

They just did recently in the early New 52 Action Comics

If some writer wanted to, it would be possible to do a tense thriller/mystery type story with just Clark being a reporter and no Superman. However, most people just want Superman punching things rather than some more subtle non-action stories.