This thing of Clark Kent taking off his glasses and nobody recognizing him...

[Trey Strain]

Can anyone think of a solution to that problem? A 14-karat no-prize will go to the winner.

(While you're at it, you might also figure out why someone can't use face-recognition technology to identify Superman.)

[Jon Clark]

There is no explanation as long as people keep seeing it as a pair of glasses.

The comics over the years keep adding in other factors- posture, voice, different mannerisms in each identity etc; and every time the topic comes up the general consensus of non-fans is "it's just glasses". To me it's one of those things that you either accept or you don't. If you want to believe the disguise works then you can find a dozen in-story rationalizations. If you don't then no matter what is said, you will insist it won't work.

It's like taking a skeptic who has had a magic trick explained and getting them to admit that they could ever be fooled by it. Once you know the secret it's impossible to prove you didn't figure it out yourself.

[Slaughter]

Every time you recognize Clark Kent as Superman, a certain Martian pays a visit to your home at night.
I heard that if you are a bad guy, a very pretty lady in fishnets sometimes shows up instead, but that's little comfort while she wipes your mind. You can't even remember her after the fact.

[Toreador]

Pre-Crisis along with slouching to appear shorter than Superman and raising his voice to sound different the writers also gave Clark's glasses (made from the canopy of his rocket) the property to enhance Superman's super-hypnosis ability (even when he wasn't consciously using it) to make other people see Clark as looking frailer than Superman (the effect carried over to his tv image and photos).

In the Byrne era there were several look-a-likes of Superman which made it appear that Clark was just one of many people who looked similar to Superman.

[sunofdarkchild]

Post-crisis Superman was constantly vibrating his face at superspeed while in public, so all pictures and videos taken of him were too blurry to be useful. Byrne also had the idea that fewer people were on the lookout for signs of who could be Superman's real identity because unlike most other superheroes like Batman or Green Lantern he didn't wear a mask.

[victorsage]

As long as I live I will never understand that of all the things that are in the Superman mythos, its the glasses thing that people can't understand. A man with the powers he has oh we have a willing suspension of disbelief for that, but his disguises is wearing glasses that's the part where people start talking about "logic" and "realism" in the story.

Hell in the Golden Age there was even a story where Clark Kent goes out not wearing his glasses around for a news story with Lois, who only responds that Clark looks handsome without his glasses. Why? Because it doesn't freaking matter to the overall story being told. If you can get over a man being able to leap an 1/8th of a mile into the air, I don't understand why people can't get over the fact that Clark's disguise works for what it is in the world he lives in. People don't think Superman has a private life, they think he's Superman. The whole Lois trying to prove Clark is Superman thing is a more of a part of the Silver Age then any other time frame.

I also always preferred the idea that a lot of people simply looked like him, which has happened over multiple Ages.

[manduck37]

I always thought of it as a situation where an actor plays different roles. Some actors like Christian Bale or Gary Oldman can completely transform themselves for different roles. I always saw Superman as doing the same thing. It's not like Superman just slaps on a pair of classes and doesn't change anything else. He takes on another persona or rather another aspect of himself. There have been lots of interpretations of this over the years in comics and film. Though one of my favorites is a scene from Superman the movie. There is a scene where Superman contemplates telling Lois that he's Superman. For a brief moment, he changes from Clark to Superman and then back again when he changes his mind. It really sells that idea of taking on a different persona. It made the secret identity believable for me.

[lorddominicus85]

Post-crisis Superman was constantly vibrating his face at superspeed while in public, so all pictures and videos taken of him were too blurry to be useful. Byrne also had the idea that fewer people were on the lookout for signs of who could be Superman's real identity because unlike most other superheroes like Batman or Green Lantern he didn't wear a mask.

Exactly this. The general public probably doesn't think he has a secret identity because as far as superheroes go in that world he's incredibly exposed. He does interviews for the planet, he operates in broad day light, he doesn't wear a mask. People just think he's Superman 24/7. The only person who ever really suspected him was Lois and they addressed that in the Truth story arc where she out right says she's kind of always known but didn't WANT to believe it so she didn't.

[Jim Kelly]

I really don't care for this topic whenever it comes up. It's not something people should be getting bent out of shape about. But I really want to win that No-Prize. I never ever won a No-Prize or a Baldy and something like that would look good on my mantelpiece.

Okay here's the deal. You know those fashion magazines where models appear photoshopped and airbrushed on the cover? Well Superman looks lke that. If you saw him, he would look too perfect--clear skin, perfect features. Yet as Clark Kent he looks like a human being--he's got the odd zit, sometimes his hair is greasy, the muscles in his face aren't taught--he looks like us. If you saw one of those models in real life, without all the heavy make-up, special lighting, the air-brushing and the photoshopping--you might never recognize her.

In the classic comics, this was never an issue--because we're just seeing line drawings that leave out all the detail and are minimalist in their aesthetic. But even in those comics Joe Shuster and Curt Swan were good at making Clark and Superman look very different, even though the same. Now that we have these overly coloured and detailed comics, I think they could make that ddistinction clear if Clark was inked and coloured in a harsh realistic way, while Superman was inked and coloured in an idealistic movie-star poster way.

In some of the early stories, Superman/Clark could change his facial features. So it's possible that he was always using his facial muscles to create subtles differences between the two identities. And there are even stories where Clark takes off the glasses and operates undercover, yet not posing as Superman either--suggesting that people just failed to recognize him.

That one story from the '70s that indicated the glasses were sending out some super-hypnotic suggestion was only one story in one issue. It's never used ever again. So I'd discount that explanation--and it doesn't hold up if you think about it for five minutes.

It's unfortunate that Daniel Day Lewis never played Superman/Clark. I think with one performance he would have put this question to bed permanently. See DDL in A ROOM WITH A VIEW (1985) and MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE (1985). You would never know it's the same person without the credits. And it's not so much the glasses for one and the hair for the other--as it is just his whole demeanour and body language. And then for added contrast, see him in MY LEFT FOOT (1989) and THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992).

This is why I'd never want some prosthtetics or CGI in the movies to make Superman and Clark appear different. It's so much more interesting to see if an actor can make that difference just with his own talent. It's too bad we've never really got a top actor who could do this. Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh did it somewhat--but only by overplaying the Clark Kent role. Bud Collyer--as a voice actor--is the only one who really created two very different characters.

[Trey Strain]

Jim, I don't think anybody is "bent out of shape" about this. And how would what you're positing manage to fool facial recognition technology?

Putting a mask on Superman is out of the question, obviously. I think it just needs to be said that among his powers is the ability to alter his features to some degree. Clearly he doesn't alter them drastically when he takes off his glasses, but enough to fool people.

I think that's all you need to do.

[Ascended]

I used to work at a restuarant where celebrities and other famous people were common. I've waited on and/or run into everyone from Trump's daughter to Adam Savage from Myth Busters to Andrew Garfield, reality-tv stars, politicians, athletes, you name it.

And you know what, without the Hollywood makeup, hair and clothing experts, and professional lighting, you never recognize them. They're just another table. Even Adam Savage, who has a fairly distinct look, was out the door before anyone realized who it was.

Superman is a god like being who is seen around the globe on a daily basis. He's everywhere, all the time. He doesnt wear a mask. No one really has any reason to believe that Superman spends any amount of time as anyone other than Superman. The idea that he might be hiding a secret identity would be laughable to most people in the DCU; he doesnt wear a mask! He saved a village from a flood in Asia this morning, put out a forest fire in California this afternoon, and fought a giant robot in Africa just before the 8 o'clock news. How would he even keep a day job? And we see his face every day, how would people not recognize him? The answer is because they're not looking in the first place. And without the atmosphere that the flying, cape, and spandex create, Superman's just another white guy with black hair. It's not exactly a distinctive look.

[Trey Strain]

I used to work at a restuarant where celebrities and other famous people were common. I've waited on and/or run into everyone from Trump's daughter to Adam Savage from Myth Busters to Andrew Garfield, reality-tv stars, politicians, athletes, you name it.

And you know what, without the Hollywood makeup, hair and clothing experts, and professional lighting, you never recognize them. They're just another table. Even Adam Savage, who has a fairly distinct look, was out the door before anyone realized who it was.

Superman is a god like being who is seen around the globe on a daily basis. He's everywhere, all the time. He doesnt wear a mask. No one really has any reason to believe that Superman spends any amount of time as anyone other than Superman. The idea that he might be hiding a secret identity would be laughable to most people in the DCU; he doesnt wear a mask! He saved a village from a flood in Asia this morning, put out a forest fire in California this afternoon, and fought a giant robot in Africa just before the 8 o'clock news. How would he even keep a day job? And we see his face every day, how would people not recognize him? The answer is because they're not looking in the first place. And without the atmosphere that the flying, cape, and spandex create, Superman's just another white guy with black hair. It's not exactly a distinctive look.

And I live in Los Angeles and have seen some celebrities who weren't getting noticed by anyone else. But that's a false analogy. All it takes is for ONE PERSON to recognize Superman as Clark Kent, and it's all over. His secret identity is gone. He has to have a way of making himself unrecognizable.

[Flash Gordon]

Can anyone think of a solution to that problem? A 14-karat no-prize will go to the winner.

(While you're at it, you might also figure out why someone can't use face-recognition technology to identify Superman.)

This thing about men flying and shooting heat from their eyes... can anyone think of a solution to that problem?

[Tayswift]

I couldn't recognize zooey deschanel without bangs

a little more of imagination and this could apply to superman

[Last Son of Krypton]

I've always seen it as a symbolic thing, like when Rags Morales drew Clark as a skinny guy. Superman is the inner self of the ordinary Clark Kent. I don't feel the need of a real world explaination. For me, it's a kind of metaphor.