Do you prefer Clark as the Farmboy or Cityboy

[Cypher]

Superman for the majority of his existence has been a city boy, with little to no reference to the farm life or Kents. Martha being slightly more referenced than John in the GA.

After the Bryneboot in 1986 they pretty much reintroduced the Kents, in an attempt to make Superman more Reeve/Donner like (and arguably more DKR Superman like), which makes sense DC is trying to take the newest and popular iterations of the character at the time and put him into one for the market. The only time the Kents became regulars were only in Superboy, in which Superboys adventures were about everything except the farm. And ultimately the Kents do pass away before he leaves to Metropolis.

However this farmboy thing has been used as a negative thing recently, in the MOS movie, and as an insult in the comics.

As for my personal preference I do prefer Superman as a city guy as he largely has been. Simply because much like in his Pre-COIE stories he can explore, move about, meet new people and it creates more interests for the character. And it allows for more stories.

And also much like the ~86 stories, it restores the Fortress of Solitude to its original meaning, giving it much more importance in his life.

However certain people do like the Farm and the more sombre feeling it provides, since it makes Superman feel more "normal".



(All of this also made me realize how big of a rip-off Spiderman is of Superman in a larger extent)

[Ascended]

Where's the option for "Doesn't fit in anywhere"?

I see him as being a little bit of both, but definitely belonging to neither; Too country for the city, to urban for the rural.

I prefer him to stay in the city most of the time; he's too busy to kick back on the farm (and I prefer my Kents dead too so there's even less of a reason to go to the farm).

[Jim Kelly]

Pre-Crisis, young Clark was raised on the farm until his parents moved into town to open their general store. So I'd say Clark was a small town boy.

I'm not sure, but I'd guess that the Kents still had their farm even though they were living in town. My uncles, aunts and cousins lived in a small town on the prairies, but they still all had farms or portions of farms. I had an uncle who ran the equivalent of the small town general store, but he also had a farm outside town.

Of course, in the very early Superboy stories, it's not really clear where young Clark lives. Sometimes it seems like he's in Metropolis or a suburb of Metropolis.

[Flash Gordon]

Neither really, he's a space boy!

Anyway yeah I'd go with city. Clark Kent is an adult and he lives in Metropolis, he may have grew up on a farm but he left it fairly early on.

I've always advocated Smallville being a one stop sign town. I don't like it being the center of activity for any stories really. I think it's interesting to show that the Champion of the Oppressed grew up in the middle of nowhere. It also makes the secret identity more believable.

[DochaDocha]

I'm going to focus the question so that I can answer one or the other.

If you're asking what I want Clark Kent's sensibilities to be, probably more country. He enjoys the wide open spaces more than the cramped city atmosphere. He prefers the small town social dynamic how everyone seems to know everyone else and is on a friendly first name basis.

I can't stand, however, that some writers treat "farm boy" to mean "simpleton."

[Kid A]

Neither really, he's a space boy!

Beat me to it; I was going to say space man as a reference to NF.

I'll vote city, more so because of how much I hate the "farmboy at heart" idea.

[The World]

By virtue of being in Metropolis I think he has to become a City boy. It shows the character can change and acclimate to his new surroundings, last thing you want is a static main character. He goes from being a rural farm worker in his childhood to a reporter in the big city in his adulthood.

[K. Jones]

Yo the two definitely aren't mutually exclusive.

I grew up on a small farm. I've lived in cities. I've had no problem adjusting or readjusting. Both places have lots of impoverished, downtrodden people that Clark would want to help. Cities are full of urban decay, rural areas are full of collapsing barns or abandoned mills. Sometimes city suburbs are just glorified farmland.

There's definitely funny quirks though. I was prepared to visit Central Park for years because it's famous and present in so much media, and I felt like I'd already been there. But I wasn't prepared for getting there and realizing that it's actually pretty tiny. Like, my grandma owns more land than that, and our old farm is like a micro-fraction of what some of the big corporate farms, or even just massive family properties out Smallville way would be in size. Wide open space can mean some extremely different things.

What's another good translation quirk? Omnipresent traffic is actually less annoying than a pack of coyotes or peepers. No matter whether you're living in the sticks or in a metropolis, you will always hear church bells and caterwauling cats, and oftentimes trains, too. Both places are totally haunted by crazy history and creepy Gothic areas, so both places are way cooler than the freaking suburbs.

I want to say as a kid from Smallville, the fact that there's a restaurant or record store or shop or hole in the wall on every inch of every block with something new to see would be intoxicating, you know, compared to the General Store, the diner and the local saloon and nothing else. But then again, he's freaking Superman. The whole world is wide open to him. Now THAT'S intoxicating.

[Johnny Thunders!]

My version of Farm Boy, when he isn't walking through time on his own steam, he makes repairs to his a.i devices underneath Pa's Shed. His best friend is smarter than he is and also the Greatest Criminal Mastermind of All Time. On Main Street, visitors from the 30th Century came and humbled a young Superman. Still, Baby on Krypton, Boy in Smallvile, Man of Tomorrow in the City of Metropolis and Beyond! I voted Farm but I meant to hit City! Changed my mind mid rant.

[Jim Kelly]

During the days of Superboy (the Adventures of Superman when he was a Boy), Clark was the small town boy, but Superboy was the big universe kid. Clark may have lived on a farm and then in a small town, but as Superboy he remembered life in the big city of Kryptonopolis. Not only did beings from other planets and time periods come to Smallville to visit Superboy, but Superboy was always flying off to farflung parts of the cosmos and through all time.

Lana Lang, who travelled around the world with her father--and even to other planets with the Legion of Super-Heroes--must have looked at Clark as a hopeless hick. While she probably would have fancied herself as the perfect consort for Superboy, given her well-rounded breeding.

[daBronzeBomma]

I think the words "farmboy" AND "cityboy" are BOTH insults.

Not because of "Farm" or "City", but because of the word "boy" attached to them. That's where the simpleton imagery comes from. Same deal with "Countryboy". "Country" is just fine. Add the word "boy" to it, and you're downgrading the person's intellect from that of a grown man to an immature boy.

If the options are Clark Kent as "Farmer" or Clark Kent as "Urbanite", then it becomes a lot easier to pick, for me:

Farmer, all the way.

I'm different from most Superman fans in that I'd love Smallville to stay incorporated in the current Superman stories. Granted, the only way to do that is to keep one or preferably both of the Kents alive and well. Another secondary thing I'd love to see is take Smallville out of a real-world location like Kansas and make it like Springfield of the Simpsons: it can be anywhere, same as Metropolis, technically (although DC keeps trying to do the whole "Metropolis is kinda NYC by day and Gotham is kinda NYC by night" ... while still having NYC alongside both cities in the DCU). I'd love for Smallville to be commutable distance from Metropolis (i.e. 45 minutes from the Kent farm to the Daily Planet by highway at 70 mph).

I'd love it if adult Clark Kent was a more likeable superhuman version of Dwight Schrute from the American version of THE OFFICE tv show: Lived on a local farm, commuted into the city everyday and had a thing with one of his co-workers. At 4 am, help outs on the farm, then a few hours on daily morning patrol as Superman around the world; arrives at the Daily Planet by 9:00 AM, does his thing as Clark/local Superman till 5:00 PM, evening daily patrols around the world as Superman for a few of hours; back in time for dinner at 9:00 PM; heads over to his Fortress of Solitude for some personal time; sunbathes/recharges (aka sleeps/dreams) for an hour; wakes up refreshed, heads over to Smallville and repeat. Obviously this routine would vary depending on the days emergencies or experiences.

I've personally never connected with "Metropolis Clark", since that's easily the most fake / least sincere of all his identities. Can't even tell you what his Metropolis apartment has, since it seemingly plays next to no role in any of his tales: compared to his Smallville home and his Fortress and even the frickin' Hall of Justice, his Metropolis apartment may as well not exist.

[Thor2014]

Beat me to it; I was going to say space man as a reference to NF.

I'll vote city, more so because of how much I hate the "farmboy at heart" idea.

They go there way too much, imo. Especially post-Byrne.

[DochaDocha]

I think the words "farmboy" AND "cityboy" are BOTH insults.

I don't think "cityboy" is commonly used to assail someone's intelligence, though, whereas "farmboy" in regards to Clark Kent is often used to say he's stupid(er than Batman).

[Cypher]

Yeah definitely not used as an insult. Bronzebro is out control.

I grew up in some suburbs for the majority life. However I knew the city was my calling. And as soon as I got in the city, I never thought about suburbs much. Reading older stories I notice Clark enjoys himself either traveling through space, other galaxies, or populated areas. And this is where the character has been most of his life, suits him best, and where the most situations happens. Usually where people are. This is almost entirely how the character was portrayed, and of course having his down time in The Fortress.

My thinking was more in line of the reboot and how it restored some of the classic situations pre-crisis. Originally I dreaded it, but I realize it creates and restores a lot of elements. And practically brought the character to his roots (once we scratch out him not having a costume), its just a shame that they were trying to write him as a loner, anti-social, and angst ridden (Pre-Crisis had all these elements and was far from that). And that theres still possibilities of stories and situation that havent gotten taken advantage of to create something exciting and new to restore the character.

I also think having him as a city guy separates him from the rest and hides his identity much better. The way he dresses, without much ties to his past. A bit mysterious too, which I liked and how he's mostly been. If everyone knows this guy has his prominent "Smallville" past and he has quite a unique identity it shouldn't be hard to single him out on that, not just the people he works with but the people from his past might put dots together. But of course that doesn't matter much because its comic books, and his disguise as whole is absurd anyway, its just a matter of preference and a characterization I like.

[Powerboy]

My introduction to Superman was the Silver Age stuff where Jonathan and Martha Kent had, if I recall, previously owned a farm. But, once they found Kal-El, they sold the farm and used some of the money to buy the general store in Smallville. So my image of Clark Kent growing up is neither farm boy nor big city but a small town kid. Of course, he was a genius. He built Superboy robots, etc.

I think the real question is: do we prefer Clark as an intelligent, scientifically knowledgeable individual who knows his way around though he pretends not to as Clark OR do we prefer a naive kid of average intelligence? Being a small town kid or a farm kid does not make you a moron or scientifically uneducated. Okay, it can contribute. But Clark could be presented as a farm boy who enjoys that life and yet is also highly intelligent and knows his stuff.

While I kind of like the small town version, I'm okay with the farm boy stuff as long as it's not really just a vehicle to present him as a hick.