Reading about the very first superhero movie got me and some friends to talking about Superman. We all watched the TV shows with Dean Cain and George Reeves when we were younger, and we saw all the Christopher Reeve movies. Naturally the conversation turned to one of the greatest mysteries of comic book fandom: how is it that no one realized Clark Kent was really superman? We came up with a few ideas to help explain.
Eyewear: The first and most obvious difference between Superman and Clark Kent is that Clark wears glasses. Did you know that those lenses were made from the Kryptonian glass in baby Kal-el's rocket ship? Hey, that's an ancient comic book fact. I guess it may have changed over the years.
Glasses do make people look different, but not different enough to fool everyone. So Clark's transformation calls for other cues.
Hairstyle: When you look closely at the classic Superman he always has a little curl of hair over his forehead. But Clark Kent's hair is straight and combed sideways. This might seem like a small detail but remember that people don't normally change their hair several times a day. Superman's steel-like hair keeps its shape and so he and Clark can appear almost side-by-side looking wearing different hairstyles.
Voice: I don't think this has ever been played up in the comic books or movies but in one of the old Saturday morning Superman animated shows he spoke with a deeper, throaty voice when he was Superman and with a higher-pitched, nasal voice when we was Clark. Christopher Reeve tried to do this in the movies but it was a very subtle vocal difference. Maybe the actor wasn't capable of doing that, or maybe the director didn't think it was an important point.
Physical Stature: Clark cannot shrink in size but he can slouch. Superman is tall and proud, so Clark might seem just a tad shorter to people who have been in close proximity to both characters.
Body Tics: I can't prove it but I could almost swear that Clark Kent has some nervous habits you just don't see from Superman. Things like fiddling with his glasses, not making eye contact very easily, and such. These little differences in behavior might discourage people from looking more closely.
The "Superman Returns" movie played up on this angle when Richard White (James Marsden) and Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) were looking at Clark in the news room of the Daily Planet. They noticed the resemblance, but then Clark turned around and did a totally goofy move. He was obviously being submissive and fearful, something you just don't expect Superman to do.
Clark Doesn't Fly: I know this sounds stupid, but if you're looking for Superman don't you think he would take advantage of his powers? Clark does show up in odd places but he also travels by car, boat, ship, plane, and other vehicles with other people. In the 1970s DC Comics gave him a roving TV studio van and sent him across the country (like real-life roving reporter Charles Kuralt, who did some really entertaining "On the Road" pieces from a super-equipped television van).
So if you are a globe-trotting reporter like Lois Lane and you spend a lot of time on the airplane with Clark Kent, do you really have a strong reason to figure out he must be Superman? Just doing what people don't expect should help Superman fool a lot of people when he is Clark Kent. Even people who know him as both Superman and Clark have learned to expect different things from both characters.
Hypnosis: There are several stories where Superman used hypnosis to protect his secret identity. So it's probably safe to assume that if anyone got too close to the truth he helped them see the differences between Clark and Superman more clearly. He would really only have to watch the people who spend a lot of time with him because they would be the ones to put all the clues together with some chance of collecting proof. Everyone else would see both Clark and Superman from a distance and they could be just two more guys who sort of resemble each other.
Well, that's all we could come up with but we think that might be enough to help keep people wondering who Superman really is when he is not Superman. The audience knows his secret and that make its all that much harder for us to see him the way his friends and enemies see him: as two people living distinct lives.
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