How come no one checks Superman's/Clark's fingerprints?

[Vakanai]

The explanation that no one assumes Superman has an alternate identity would be a good reason as to why no one would think to check his fingerprints.

That literally no one assumes he has is a tall order even for comic books. I can suspend disbelief for flight and heat vision easier than for basic human nature. Someone has got to assume.

[kingaliencracker]

That literally no one assumes he has is a tall order even for comic books. I can suspend disbelief for flight and heat vision easier than for basic human nature. Someone has got to assume.

Why? He doesn't wear a mask. Why would people think he's someone else if he doesn't hide his face?

[Vakanai]

Why? He doesn't wear a mask. Why would people think he's someone else if he doesn't hide his face?

Why wouldn't they? He's got to eat and sleep somewhere, he'd have to have been raised somewhere, he'd have to have a family, some place to wash his cape. Heck I think he's bought meals as Superman before and he doesn't take money for saving people so you got to assume he has a job to have money. Maybe you can explain this all away if you think about it, but not everyone is going to think and assume those explanations. Some significant portion are going to assume he has a life outside of being Superman, and that means he's got to be living as someone else during those times.

[kingaliencracker]

Why wouldn't they? He's got to eat and sleep somewhere, he'd have to have been raised somewhere, he'd have to have a family, some place to wash his cape. Heck I think he's bought meals as Superman before and he doesn't take money for saving people so you got to assume he has a job to have money. Maybe you can explain this all away if you think about it, but not everyone is going to think and assume those explanations. Some significant portion are going to assume he has a life outside of being Superman, and that means he's got to be living as someone else during those times.

You think this way because you're a comic book fan and know of secret identities. You don't assume Joe Biden or Donald Trump put on glasses, change their hair a little, slump down, and pretend to be someone else, do you? So why in the fictional world of comic books would someone assume Superman does that?

[manwhohaseverything]

Why wouldn't they? He's got to eat and sleep somewhere, he'd have to have been raised somewhere, he'd have to have a family, some place to wash his cape. Heck I think he's bought meals as Superman before and he doesn't take money for saving people so you got to assume he has a job to have money. Maybe you can explain this all away if you think about it, but not everyone is going to think and assume those explanations. Some significant portion are going to assume he has a life outside of being Superman, and that means he's got to be living as someone else during those times.

Well,he does go around eating in different places.People might assume he lives at the fortress

[godisawesome]

People would likely assume he has secrets, at minimum… but public awareness of his alien nature and or the Fortress could potentially lead people to assume more extraterrestrial secrets than human ones.

[bat39]

The explanation that no one assumes Superman has an alternate identity would be a good reason as to why no one would think to check his fingerprints.

Even if they assume he doesn't have a 'secret identity', you'd think that the authorities would want to gather as much information as possible about this mysterious flying man. Especially in the versions where Superman starts out as a vigilante that the government is, at bare minimum, suspicious of.

Consider Morrison's New 52 run. Superman had been operating as a vigilante for 6 months. There was a military taskforce dedicated to hunting him down. You think those guys didn't try looking for fingerprints or any other biological evidence they could get on Superman? To run him against existing databases? Or just to be able to better track his activities?

Okay, forget the government. There's Luthor. Particularly corporate mogul Luthor who's obsessed with Superman. In MOS (the Byrne story, not the Snyder film), Luthor makes it a point to get a clear photo of Superman (Clark used to vibrate his face as Superman in public back then), and later sends a drone to collect his genetic information to create the clone that would become Bizarro. He's also gathered a wealth of data on Superman (which, in Superman v2 # 2, was used by his computers to conclude that Clark Kent was Superman...an outcome Luthor refused to accept!) You think he wouldn't have bothered trying to get Superman's fingerprints too?

I do think the best explanation is that Superman doesn't leave prints...consciously or unconsciously he's able to ensure he doesn't do so. Or maybe he does but he's just careful enough to erase those prints (maybe with some low-level heat vision). Who knows...perhaps he does wear gloves, albeit they are flesh-colored gloves, or maybe synthetic skin of some sort.

That said, I'm surprised that writers have never really tried to explain this, when you consider how much effort is put into explaining the glasses thing.

(Clark not being able to provide a blood test is also something that's much harder to buy now than it would have been decades ago).

[manwhohaseverything]

Even if they assume he doesn't have a 'secret identity', you'd think that the authorities would want to gather as much information as possible about this mysterious flying man. Especially in the versions where Superman starts out as a vigilante that the government is, at bare minimum, suspicious of.

Consider Morrison's New 52 run. Superman had been operating as a vigilante for 6 months. There was a military taskforce dedicated to hunting him down. You think those guys didn't try looking for fingerprints or any other biological evidence they could get on Superman? To run him against existing databases? Or just to be able to better track his activities?

Okay, forget the government. There's Luthor. Particularly corporate mogul Luthor who's obsessed with Superman. In MOS (the Byrne story, not the Snyder film), Luthor makes it a point to get a clear photo of Superman (Clark used to vibrate his face as Superman in public back then), and later sends a drone to collect his genetic information to create the clone that would become Bizarro. He's also gathered a wealth of data on Superman (which, in Superman v2 # 2, was used by his computers to conclude that Clark Kent was Superman...an outcome Luthor refused to accept!) You think he wouldn't have bothered trying to get Superman's fingerprints too?

I do think the best explanation is that Superman doesn't leave prints...consciously or unconsciously he's able to ensure he doesn't do so. Or maybe he does but he's just careful enough to erase those prints (maybe with some low-level heat vision). Who knows...perhaps he does wear gloves, albeit they are flesh-colored gloves, or maybe synthetic skin of some sort.

That said, I'm surprised that writers have never really tried to explain this, when you consider how much effort is put into explaining the glasses thing.

(Clark not being able to provide a blood test is also something that's much harder to buy now than it would have been decades ago).

That's the fun part of vigilante superman..The sneaking around and running away from police robin hood business.In thise stories there is a conscious effort from clark to clean up after himself.I do believe people would try to collect any kinda data on superman.I believe clark would thwart most of the things.But,he can't run for ever.I don't think he would want to either.He would get caught. I believe sometimes it's going to be willingly.Go all gol d roger on em " you want my treasure..you can have it"..

[Vakanai]

You think this way because you're a comic book fan and know of secret identities. You don't assume Joe Biden or Donald Trump put on glasses, change their hair a little, slump down, and pretend to be someone else, do you? So why in the fictional world of comic books would someone assume Superman does that?

Because Biden and Trump aren't superpowered folks who fly around with no public clue given where their families are or where they eat or how they make money or where they sleep? Don't tell me "you only think this because" - literally no one in our world that is famous has as many mysteries behind their public lives as Superman would have to normal observers.

Well,he does go around eating in different places.People might assume he lives at the fortress

He eats rarely in different places as Superman though, infrequently enough people would have to wonder where does he eat most of the time when we don't see him.
And the Fortress is usually not a place people know about it, and once it is known about and people know where it is so many eyes in the sky will be trained on it that people would realize that's not where he takes off his superboots for a night of supersleep.

[Lightning Rider]

I'd actually guess he has no fingerprints at all. One of those Kryptonian physiological quirks.

He keeps a fake set to use as Clark when necessary.

The explanation that no one assumes Superman has an alternate identity would be a good reason as to why no one would think to check his fingerprints.

Yep. The guy's always patrolling the world - there's no reason to assume he lives a double life and has adopted a human role.

I’d be interested in seeing someone take the concept that there’s some physiological change between “Clark-mode” and “Superman-mode” and run with it, even if I’d predict that others might see that as being a bit try-hard.

Like… imagine if a live action actor used *subtle* changes in conditioning and cosmetic between the roles to embrace the idea that Superman, when “burning solar calories,” seems both mildly more alien and mildly visually different:

- The conditioning for Clark being more running and swimming, while Superman’s conditioning afterward being a bit more anaerobic and weightlifting.
- The actor stayed out of the sun when filming Clark, and gets a mild tan when playing Superman.
- The actor wears glowing contacts/has CGI enhancement on his eyes to make them every and a little alien as Superman.
- Maybe the ADR allows the actor to use a lower voice at a lower volume they then blow up for the Superman voice (since most dudes can do a lower voice but at a quieter level) in a way that’s leaning towards noticeably raised by the computer to the audience.
- The script has a character note that his body heat is significantly warmer than a human’s as Superman, and that when he’s active, that impacts stuff like body oils - which maybe means that what fingerprints he leaves evaporate quickly because the oils aren’t human and the temperature is higher (yes, I know this is likely nonsense, but it’s a handwaving excuse.)

The MAWS version seems to be embracing the idea that Clark’s powers are controlled and guided through mental powers rather than simple physics logical realities, so I’ go ahead and just embrace that with the idea that using his powers creates moderate visual changes.

I really like this idea and have thought along similar lines myself. A couple of subtle changes could really sell the concept to a more skeptical modern audience.

[DrNewGod]

I headcanon this the same way I do glasses working for a disguise: Superman has such absolute muscular control, he can subtlety alter his fingerprints with less effort than you or I would use to delay or initiate a blink.

In the first few issues of Action Comics, Superman regularly altered his face to impersonate others. A toned down version of that would explain a lot in a simple manner.

It would also provide some drama grist. Superman narrowly wins or escapes a fight with Parasite or Metallo, and in his exhaustion, lost his concentration. Forensics has been all over the site, and there were ATM and traffic cameras about. Now he's stressing about when or whether the other shoe might drop until he can figure out how to surreptitiously wipe the data.

[Jim Kelly]

I had this idea a long, long time ago, but when I posted it here someone told me it was the idea for Icon from the Dakotaverse. I've since read the Icon story and it is similar to what I had in mind. When Kal-El arrives on Earth as a baby, his natural power to assimilate to his environment causes him to unconsciously adapt to the first people he comes in contact with--Jonathan and Martha. Taking on their characteristics, he resembles them and has normal human features. However, when he expresses his super-powers he reverts back to his Kryptonian form. James Gunn can use this idea if he wants.

[DochaDocha]

The MCU has largely done away with secret IDs for the general public. Secret IDs is Superman's wheelhouse, so I'd love to see MAWS or other projects focus on episodes showing the zany, funny antics Superman has to pull to maintain his. A lot of the ideas in this thread would make for great episode fodder.

[marhawkman]

the finger print thing... he seems in some stories to just... not. IE normal stuff, Superman doesn't leave fingerprints.

[williamtheday]

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane no. 1 1958. "Lois Lane, Super Chef", Superman eats a salt shaker he left his fingerprints on (as Clark Kent) so Lois couldn't compare them...ah, the Silver Age!