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  1. #1
    Extraordinary Member superduperman's Avatar
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    Default Would George Reeves Clark Kent have been drafted into WW2?

    Given his age on the show, he would have been draft age during that time. And we know Reeves himself served. So it's not unreasonable to assume his Clark Kent would have been drafted into the war. Do you think he would have been drafted into the war and how would he have kept his powers a secret?
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  2. #2
    Obsessed & Compelled Bored at 3:00AM's Avatar
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    I got the impression from the pilot that Clark was supposed to be 20, so he would have been too young to serve. At least that's how Reeves seemed to be playing him in those early scenes. Later on, he dropped that pretense and embraced his own age in all his dad bod glory.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bored at 3:00AM View Post
    I got the impression from the pilot that Clark was supposed to be 20, so he would have been too young to serve. At least that's how Reeves seemed to be playing him in those early scenes. Later on, he dropped that pretense and embraced his own age in all his dad bod glory.
    The USA military draft age has always been 18, even in peacetime. Men were eligible to enlist younger than that, with parental permission.

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    Doesn't Clark have the ability to control his heart, to some extent? He could have faked an irregular heartbeat and failed the physical exam. (He had to be rejected before induction, or else the cat would have been out of the bag as soon as the Army barber tried to give him the buzz cut!)

  5. #5
    Astonishing Member Adekis's Avatar
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    Clark moves into the city at age 25 if I recall correctly from Superman on Earth. If he's 25 years old in 1952, then he was only 20 when the war ended in 1945.

    I am willing to say though, Clark and Superman rarely read as 25 in season one, or the corresponding ages thereafter. George Reeves himself was 38 years old in '52, and it shows. He's got a natural maturity that makes him come across as much older than 25. I initially wanted to say that episode 1 might just be earlier than the rest of the show, but to me, Jimmy's presence kind of rules that out - there's no way he gets any older between episodes!

    So I think we just gotta chock this one up to "screw it, it's hypertime", ladies and gents.
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  6. #6
    Mighty Member Anodyne's Avatar
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    I read once that Clark tried to enlist, but in the eye exam he accidentally used his x-ray vision and read the eye chart in the next room, which got him declared 4-F for poor vision.
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  7. #7
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    I could swear I read a story back in the 1950s where Superman (not Clark Kent) was considered ineligible to be inducted into the Army, because the doctors wouldn't be able to give him the required inoculations that all recruits are given on the first day. The hypodermic needles couldn't pierce his skin.

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    Even if the Silver Age Clark Kent were too young to serve in WWII, he surely would have been old enough to be drafted during the Korean War, and of course the draft persisted throughout the 1950s and 1960s, war or not. So he must have pulled some strings, or played some tricks, not to be inducted.

  9. #9
    Savior of the Universe Flash Gordon's Avatar
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    sorry, double post

    Please delete!
    Last edited by Flash Gordon; 05-24-2020 at 08:23 PM.

  10. #10
    Savior of the Universe Flash Gordon's Avatar
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    Nah, he wouldn't be drafted because he isn't a legal citizen and likely has no real record of existing.

    His name is definitely not on any registry.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Flash Gordon View Post
    Nah, he wouldn't be drafted because he isn't a legal citizen and likely has no real record of existing.

    His name is definitely not on any registry.
    Um, actually it is.

    In the Golden Age/Silver Age, he was legally adopted from the orphanage. And Post-Crisis, he was 'passed off' as the Kent's biological son.

  12. #12
    Death becomes you Osiris-Rex's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bat39 View Post
    Um, actually it is.

    In the Golden Age/Silver Age, he was legally adopted from the orphanage. And Post-Crisis, he was 'passed off' as the Kent's biological son.
    But did anyone have a birth certificate or any other legal document that even showed that a Clark Kent existed? If there was no record then he wouldn't have been on the draft roles.

  13. #13
    The Man Who Cannot Die manwhohaseverything's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Osiris-Rex View Post
    But did anyone have a birth certificate or any other legal document that even showed that a Clark Kent existed? If there was no record then he wouldn't have been on the draft roles.
    Orphanage's do get kids who's origins are sketches or unknown . I do believe they handle things like birth certification inorder to complete the adoption process.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by manwhohaseverything View Post
    Orphanage's do get kids who's origins are sketches or unknown . I do believe they handle things like birth certification inorder to complete the adoption process.
    Yeah.

    Clark Kent had a legal identity, which is how he's able to have a job at the Daily Planet, have an apartment, bank account etc.

  15. #15
    Astonishing Member Adekis's Avatar
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    He even has a social security number, which Mark Waid famously has memorized.

    The idea that CK has no legal existence is silly, and completely without grounding in any comic, show or story that I can think of.

    Hernan Guerra probably doesn't - but he doesn't have a secret identity either. He's just always "Superman".
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