Does Clark Kent Work?

The debate has raged on since the character was introduced in 1938, is Clark Kent an effective disguise for Superman?  Another question that has been broached is “Does Superman even need Clark Kent?”  Over the years different writers have had different takes on the relationship between the two personas, each with their unique spin on the personas.  Some have suggested that Superman’s portrayal of Clark Kent is his ultimate, if unintentional indictment of the human race.  Clark is portrayed as bumbling and weak, suggesting that is how Superman sees the everyman.

Others treat Clark as the true man, whereas Superman is a symbol rather than a persona.  Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman had a very good line in one episode when Clark was explaining to Lois the dichotomy between the two: “Superman is what I can do, Clark Kent is who I am.”

The Christopher Reeve portrayal, I think, came the closest to getting it right by approaching Superman as three personas.  There is, of course, Superman, then there is the closed off, bumbling, humble Clark Kent, then there was the man between, the true man, Clark as he is without his glasses and without his cape, just the man who grew up a farmer’s son in Smallville.

However, does it serve as an effective disguise?  A lot of people claim it’s just a pair of glasses, but could it be a lot more than that?  First there is the way he presents himself.  Generally Clark is portrayed as slouched, not making eye contact, quiet and reclusive.  He isn’t in the middle of water cooler conversations and doesn’t do anything terribly memorable.

“But Clark Kent is a Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist!” you say?  So is Eric Lipton.  He works for the New York Times and won the prize in 2015: “For reporting that showed how the influence of lobbyists can sway congressional leaders and state attorneys general, slanting justice toward the wealthy and connected.” http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Investigative-Reporting

Here is his picture:  http://www.c-span.org/person/?ericlipton

Would you recognize this man on the street?  Would you think “Why if that man took his glasses off and dressed in blue spandex, he’d look like a top notch superhero!”  No, you wouldn’t.  It would be unlikely that you’d pick him out of a crowd.  That, folks, is a news paper reporter.

“But Superman is a public figure!  Everyone knows what he looks like!”  Well, yes they do and no they don’t.  See, Superman is a busy…man.  He flies at super speed, tosses buildings around and crosses paths with villains on a regular basis.  That’s a lot of movement, a lot of action, and as we saw in Man of Steel, a lot of people running away from where he’s at.  When we see Superman on the screen, we see what the director wants us to see, which is a nice tight shot of Superman.

But people actually involved in the incident see

 

Very difficult to link that to this guy

“But in Dawn of Justice, there’s a huge statue of Superman!”

Here again is something addressed in the comics.  Lex Luther, arguably one of the smartest men in the DCU, built a computer to determine Superman’s alter ego.  The computer came up with Clark Kent, even did a split screen shot of the two men, with the only difference being the glasses.  Lex called bollox on the results, stating that there was no way Superman would disguise himself as such a lowly person.  It calls out a very big question, why would Superman need a secret identity?

I mean, he is, after all, Superman.  The general population of the DCU, the rank and file man-running-in-terror on the street probably never entertains the thought that Superman would ever need a secret identity.  Take a look at what Superman allows the public to know about his biography: Super powers, alien from a dead planet.  That’s it.  What about that says “I occasionally like to dress like a nerd and walk among you.”?

We now start to see a clearer picture of how Clark can support his secret identity, but why would he want to?

No police officer, solider, firefighter, doctor, EMS worker, or public servant is ever really off duty, but we, and I speak from experience, do take off the uniform from time to time.  You have to have down time, you have to reconnect with the reasons why you do what you do.  That is why Superman needs Clark.  We see it a few times in the comics, but notably in Kingdom Come where Superman closed himself off from humanity and that distance created a disconnect.  He wasn’t a hero anymore, he was a dictator, causing more harm than good.  If any of the professions I mentioned above start to do that, their work suffers and the public suffers.  We need to be connected to humanity to remind ourselves that humanity is worth saving.

It sets up an argument that Superman is actually more human than Batman.

Check in next time.  Thanks for reading.