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

[Flash Gordon]

Charlotte Finn, who generally has a lot of great Superman stuff on her tumblr and twitter accounts (she also runs, or at least used to run, the absolutely amazing Film Critic Superman twitter account, easily the best non-Morrison Superman stuff of the decade thus far) posted how she'd handle it were she in charge of the Superman line, which is how I'd probably go with it and works as well as anything:

"One thing I forgot to mention in this conversation with wizard072 is how I’d tackle the super-elephant in the room of Superman lore, the question writers try and fail to grapple with: how does a pair of glasses fool the world, especially in an age where there is a camera in everyone’s pocket?

"I struggled surely as anyone, because if this question broke the best writers in the biz, what chance do I have? But I think I finally stumbled on an answer, and it’s this: never explain it, and in fact, hang a big ol’ lantern on how we’ll never explain it.

"Have Clark fool fingerprint scanners. Have him fool voice analysis tests. Have facial recognition software visibly sort Superman and Clark Kent separately. Have people try every trick you can think of to connect the two and then have Clark Kent just stroll right through them with not a single break in his stride. Finally have one of them, exasperated, ask Clark how he does it. What’s his secret?

"And Clark gives a perfect little Superman wink, and says 'if I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret any more.'

"Let people theorize on how he does it, but make it clear: there will be no official canon answer and we will actively oppose one as surely as we oppose a canon origin for the Joker, and for the same reasons. What people think they want and what they actually want, in this case, are two different things. We want to solve the mystery, but honestly, I see a lot more value in keeping Superman’s glasses stored inside the mystery box."

I second this. Brilliant.

[Sacred Knight]

I love that idea too.

[Doctor Know]

Ask yourself this.
Where do people look for Superman? They look up in the sky. From that pov, how many people actually get a good look at Superman?

Now ask yourself this.
How many people do you think Superman has an alter ego?

No one is looking for Superman, dressed as a civilian, and walking around Metropolis in glasses. But everyone is looking up, and expecting to see the guy in the blue suit and red cape.

[Slaughter]

I do think the issue of the populace thinking Clark Kent might be Superman ins't as bad as Clark fooling an entire newspaper of investigative reporters. During the early 2000s it was pretty much all but said that Perry found out, but it was never voiced and never brought up.

[Jon Clark]

Charlotte Finn, who generally has a lot of great Superman stuff on her tumblr and twitter accounts (she also runs, or at least used to run, the absolutely amazing Film Critic Superman twitter account, easily the best non-Morrison Superman stuff of the decade thus far) posted how she'd handle it were she in charge of the Superman line, which is how I'd probably go with it and works as well as anything:

"One thing I forgot to mention in this conversation with wizard072 is how I’d tackle the super-elephant in the room of Superman lore, the question writers try and fail to grapple with: how does a pair of glasses fool the world, especially in an age where there is a camera in everyone’s pocket?

"I struggled surely as anyone, because if this question broke the best writers in the biz, what chance do I have? But I think I finally stumbled on an answer, and it’s this: never explain it, and in fact, hang a big ol’ lantern on how we’ll never explain it.

"Have Clark fool fingerprint scanners. Have him fool voice analysis tests. Have facial recognition software visibly sort Superman and Clark Kent separately. Have people try every trick you can think of to connect the two and then have Clark Kent just stroll right through them with not a single break in his stride. Finally have one of them, exasperated, ask Clark how he does it. What’s his secret?

"And Clark gives a perfect little Superman wink, and says 'if I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret any more.'

"Let people theorize on how he does it, but make it clear: there will be no official canon answer and we will actively oppose one as surely as we oppose a canon origin for the Joker, and for the same reasons. What people think they want and what they actually want, in this case, are two different things. We want to solve the mystery, but honestly, I see a lot more value in keeping Superman’s glasses stored inside the mystery box."

I like everything but the Clark/Superman response. I'd rather Superman himself not even know. He just takes it in stride that it works and no longer tries to figure out why.

[Trey Strain]

Just say he can alter his face enough. Problem solved.

[Kuwagaton]

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.

Usually not a point I see brought up by people who don't particularly enjoy the Silver Age. Not that that defines you or that it's not a sound point.

But "it's a comic!" generally works because these things don't matter and can't make sense, but there's also what some would call lazy storytelling. Like, having Superman solve a huge problem and not bothering to explain how is lazy, or having him reverse time to make something never happen is lazy. Although the fantastic elements don't make sense, they not only attempt to explain them but explore them. They come about as far as they can with pseudoscience to make a lot of things work. Meanwhile, you can't cut a story for the mere sake of completion.

I've seen this lumped under "adults think about these things too much" but it's something people notice and try wrapping their heads around at an early age. It's a very distracting part of the story, and some people straight up hate it and decide not to read because of it.

I couldn't recognize zooey deschanel without bangs

Ha, good one! Although Superman is different from Basketball Player 8 or Socialite D. Everyone has eyes on him and the only way they wouldn't make serious and constant efforts to uncover his identity is assuming he doesn't have one.

"I struggled surely as anyone, because if this question broke the best writers in the biz, what chance do I have? But I think I finally stumbled on an answer, and it’s this: [I]never explain it, and in fact, hang a big ol’ lantern on how we’ll never explain it."

I personally like a humorous Superman and always figured that if I had the chance to write him, I'd do a separate story or new continuity story long form. Somewhere halfway through like 40 issues, I'd have a scene like:


randomly and played completely straight. I would never re-visit the topic and do everything I can to see that the rest of DC follows suit.

[Jim Kelly]

These aren't the Droids you're looking for.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I always wondered why no one recognized Bruce Wayne as Batman. He adopted Dick Grayson the Boy Wonder Acrobat at the same time Batman found a sidekick, Robin the Boy Wonder Superhero. Plus in some origins, Grayson wears his circus uniform as his Robin outfit. Maybe there was a boy wonder glut back then. You got a sidekick for buying War Bonds.

[lorddominicus85]

Let's see, they didn't have that technology for the first 60 some odd years of his existence, nor did they have the internet for something to go viral so really the issue of people not recognizing him for the first 60 or so years of his existence comes down to the hand full of people he worked closely with at the Daily Planet not realizing they were the same person. Why? There are a million reasons why. Perry knew and didn't say. Lois willfully ignored it. Jimmy is a moron. Clark vibrates his face as Superman, pictures are blurry. Or no one was looking for Superman hiding out in a newspaper writer's room. Honestly if you're going to ask the question as if you want to hear the opinion then hear the opinion.

Modern day why doesn't anyone recognize the two? Again, million reasons. The main one being no one is looking for Superman at the Daily Planet. He's a public figure, you wouldn't think to look for him hiding in broad day light. The same way you can pass a celebrity on the street in a hat and sun glasses and never know it's them, you weren't looking for them on the streets of your town.

[llozymandias]

The disguise is more than just wearing glasses. Pre-coie (at least) he did things like; compress his spine, so that "Clark" seemed to be several inches shorter than Superman; compress his muscles to make Clark thinner than Superman; & give his different identities different voices. Faces are not anywhere as unique as fingerprints. The only thing that facial recognition technology would do is prove that Clark & Superman look alike.

[DrNewGod]

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.

This is the answer that I like, and honestly, I can't believe no writer ever thought to build this into the canon. I'm not suggesting that Superman be the Plastic Man or the Martian Manhunter, but it wouldn't take a whole lot to alter his appearance significantly with sufficient control over his facial muscles. Of course, it might be that it makes drawing a bit more of a chore for pencilers, or more difficult to make Clark and Superman more difficult to present to the reader as one person, but I wouldn't think it was a crippling problem.

Once upon a time, I thought it would be neat to establish that Clark's glasses were of Amazonian design and had psionic properties that interfered with the ability of observers to accurately resolve the appearance of the wearer. The idea would be that the glasses were a gift from Wonder Woman, who wore a similar pair in her disguise as Lt. Diana Prince (that'll give you some idea of how long ago this was). However, I like the facial muscular control answer a whole lot better.

[Agent Z]

Let's see, they didn't have that technology for the first 60 some odd years of his existence, nor did they have the internet for something to go viral so really the issue of people not recognizing him for the first 60 or so years of his existence comes down to the hand full of people he worked closely with at the Daily Planet not realizing they were the same person. Why? There are a million reasons why. Perry knew and didn't say. Lois willfully ignored it. Jimmy is a moron. Clark vibrates his face as Superman, pictures are blurry. Or no one was looking for Superman hiding out in a newspaper writer's room. Honestly if you're going to ask the question as if you want to hear the opinion then hear the opinion.

Modern day why doesn't anyone recognize the two? Again, million reasons. The main one being no one is looking for Superman at the Daily Planet. He's a public figure, you wouldn't think to look for him hiding in broad day light. The same way you can pass a celebrity on the street in a hat and sun glasses and never know it's them, you weren't looking for them on the streets of your town.

None of these reasons are actually given in the book.

[DrNewGod]

...the issue of people not recognizing him for the first 60 or so years of his existence comes down to the hand full of people he worked closely with at the Daily Planet not realizing they were the same person. Why? There are a million reasons why. ... Lois willfully ignored it. ...

I always wanted a Clark reveal to Lois that went something like:
Clark: Lois, I'm Superman!
Lois: Well, duh! I know that.
Clark: um ... you do?
Lois: I'm a Pulitzer-winning investigative report, you twit! Of course I know, and I have known for years!
Clark: Why ... why didn't you say something? Wait! You couldn't have known, not with the contemptuous way you treat me as Clark!
Lois: That, you jack***, is because you were condescending enough to take me for a chump. Nobody gets away with that, buster! Not even you!
[Lois storms out, and SuperClark has to spend a couple of years trying to win her back in earnest.]

[Ascended]

I always wanted a Clark reveal to Lois that went something like:
Clark: Lois, I'm Superman!
Lois: Well, duh! I know that.
Clark: um ... you do?
Lois: I'm a Pulitzer-winning investigative report, you twit! Of course I know, and I have known for years!
Clark: Why ... why didn't you say something? Wait! You couldn't have known, not with the contemptuous way you treat me as Clark!
Lois: That, you jack***, is because you were condescending enough to take me for a chump. Nobody gets away with that, buster! Not even you!
[Lois storms out, and SuperClark has to spend a couple of years trying to win her back in earnest.]

That's what Im hoping to see happen now, actually. Let's see both of them have to rebuild that bridge by doing something they have rarely done to each other: be completely honest.

And before the usual crowd starts in at me about how they were honest with each other when they were married, no they weren't. They both kept secrets from each other, they just knew more about each other.