Over the years I have had a love/hate relationship with Superman. I mean come on, he’s Superman for one thing. What kid doesn’t want to be him? He can fly, he is super strong and he always gets the girl. Don’t get me wrong Batman is more badass but Supes was the man, the Man of Steel.
That being said he is a boring character. His rogue’s gallery is weak. So much so that in all of the Superman movies they have made, they’ve only used two villains (Lex and Zod). I guarantee you ask John Q. Public to name more and it will not happen. Plus he is indestructible. You can’t kill him unless you have a space rock. Yawn.
Then there’s his disguise. All he does differently is wear glasses and act clumsy. For years I debated about this major flaw in his mythos. How do his friends and co-workers not recognize him?
How do his friends and co-workers not recognize him?
I mean come ON! There isn’t much of a difference between Superman and Clark Kent. If out of the blue one of my glasses-wearing friends removed their spectacles and began fighting crime, I would recognize them in a heartbeat. Maybe I’m just an observant guy.
Recently I had an experience that could lend credence to Superman’s disguise. I work as a manager of a local movie theater. I had a awf… awesome shift of 3pm-1am to get through. Some lovely young ladies working a table in my lobby greeted me. It was the Barbizon Modeling Company trying to recruit new models. Just for talking with them, theater customers were entered in a contest to win movie tickets. I was rocking my work suit and contact lenses. I introduced myself to them and throughout the night had many conversations. Mostly talking shop, and the distance from the theater to the nearest Starbucks.
Granted, I didn’t save these girls’ lives or stop an evil robot from destroying the building. We laughed, we cried (that didn’t happen) but I would say the few hours spent with them made their time there a little bit less awful. Fast forward to the next day when I brought my just-turned 10 year old son in for his birthday party with some friends. This time I’m wearing shorts, a t-shirt and my glasses (clumsy Tanski).
The same girls didn’t know me from Adam. Or Clark for that matter. On 3 occasions they tried to get me sign up for their wares. Did I look that much different? Wasn’t I just the same lovable, fun to be around person from the night before? Hmm.. this time I was wearing something different and I had something on my face.
Finally the head of the soiree recognized me.
“I didn’t realize it was you!”
Really? I wasn’t offended, especially after she said I looked younger out of my work clothes. Immediately my geek sensibility kicked in and I thought about my Superman conundrum. It still doesn’t explain why Clark’s closest friends don’t recognize him, perhaps they are too self-involved to notice. Either way, there just might be something to this disguise of his. Maybe the next time I need to get out of that “awesome” 1am shift I can just put on my glasses and t-shirt. Worth a shot.
The best explanation for it I ever read in the comics is that people aren’t *looking* for Superman amongst themselves. They don’t realize Clark is Superman’s secret identity, because it doesn’t occur to them Superman even has one to begin with. He’s a super-powerful alien who — as far as they can tell — is almost constantly out doing good. Why would he be hanging around as just an ordinary human? His friends and co-workers might remark on Clark’s resemblance to Superman, but don’t ascribe any significance to it — just like you might have a friend who looks sort of like Tom Cruise, but you don’t assume he really *is* Tom Cruise in disguise. The glasses, the different posture (de-emphasizing his physique), oversized clothes, and changed behavior are all things which might not do the trick on their own, but in combination with each other and the fact that people aren’t looking for him it adds up to a functional disguise.