I dunno if the secret identity gets enough crap for DC to try something like this. Do that many people really bitch about it? This is going to be pretty polarizing and hard to pull off, would they really do this just because a small handful of people don't get the secret identity? And honestly, I dont give DC enough credit to believe they'd do something this complex. They don't really do "long term" anymore. They just react to whatever knee-jerk idiocy comes out of fans' mouths. Planning moves three steps ahead seems beyond them.
Right?
That feels like a positive thing to me. Like DC is actually invested in telling this story and letting things play out. The big stories that always stick and become staples of the mythology, the stuff that transcends continuity, often get this kind of treatment.
I dont know if that's what is happening here. Depends on how well Bendis executes the story, and whether he can convince fans it's a viable "next step" in Clark's life.
But.....in a lot of "future stories" Clark *does* leave the secret ID behind. And Bendis has been trying to build the mythos towards that "next step" life. I think, if they actually do this thing well, we might all be surprised, and this could end up being a staple, like marrying Lois and dying have become.
Toyman's not a bad guess. That talk way back in Bendis' first issues about "how great I could be if only I was great" could take on a new light. But I'm not sure why this reveal would make him change his ways? He didn't seem mentally stable enough for this to work....but it would indeed be a fun twist and a fun new role for Toyman. And it wouldn't even be the first time *a* Toyman served as Clark's tech guy.Looking forward to seeing who the villain is that changes their ways. So far I'm guessing it's out off Toyman, Livewire, and Red Cloud. Livewire or Red Cloud would be kind of easy, imo, so I'd actually be really down for it to be Toyman. It'd be kind of wild if he kind of become the new Prof Hamilton/reverse Lex.
My guess is Red Cloud. She knows Clark Kent, and has seen first hand the kind of crap he puts up with just so he can be Superman and still have a life. She's seen a god get yelled at by his boss. That might be what makes her realize that she's wasting her potential chasing selfish gains as a villain. And since she recently got powered up by Lex, this gives us the chance to see her reject his gift as a manifestation of her changing her ways.