Action Comics #974 (spoilers)

[machinegungeek]

I understand that Superboy Prime, pre-FP Henshaw, or some version of Superman Red/Blue are the common theories, but I don't understand how they are at all consistent with Clark's disappearing trick. Something's off there. I think that fully rules out Prime for me. It also hints at Clark's existence being somewhat flimsy/transient. Maybe he only exists in the minds of people Supes has a connection too (Lois, Superman, Lex, Daily Planet workers....) and only exists when observed? IDK the disappearing act messes with so much. I'm leaning towards a) Mxy in some form. Could have broken out of Oz's prison and then travelled back in time (5th dimensional, remember) to where we met him. b) Some form of Matrix. c) Some weird energy/reality warp figment of Superman. Really I don't have any great ideas, but the doorman not seeing him seems to fully rule Prime out.

[bat39]

After the last issue, I'd been convinced that Fake!Clark was some kind of construct...but after this issue, I am leaning towards the idea of him legitimately being either some version of Superman/Clark, or some other closely related existing character from the mythos.

I'm surprised no one has proposed Bizarro as an option. To my knowledge, Bizarro hasn't really appeared since the reboot. Maybe someone abducted Bizarro from the pre-Flashpoint timeline and modified him physically and mentally to become Clark (it wouldn't be too 'difficult' in a relative sense - since Bizarro's DNA is a manmade replication of Superman's. Perhaps 'fixing' Bizarro's DNA led to him becoming 'human'). I can't but help think back to Bizarro's very first Post-COIE appearance back in MOS # 5 - he was shown to be obsessed with Lois when he was acting as Superman. Maybe something similar is at play.

Of course, the idea of a powerless Clark Kent who doesn't know that he's Superman also reminds me of that classic story about the marriage of Earth 2 Superman and Lois. In that story, the Wizard (the Golden Age JSA villain) casts a spell to 'destroy' Superman and succeeds, but the result is that Clark Kent emerges, with no memories of the Superman persona (he still has his powers, but he doesn't use them because he doesn't know about them). Makes me wonder if something similar happened either to New 52 Superman or some other Superman. But given that this Clark has villanous intentions, I am leaning more towards the Bizarro theory.