Even after almost 90 years, fans have laughed, argued, and occasionally raged over the most iconic question in superhero identity logic: How on Earth can a pair of glasses hide Superman?
However, as Action Comics #1092 by DC makes us realize, the real shock isn’t that Clark Kent chose glasses, it’s that one of his original disguises was so bizarre that the glasses were not only a brilliant idea, but the best.
Clark Kent Hid His Superman Identity By Literally Blurring His Face
The latest issue by Mark Waid and Cian Tormey transports the reader to the days of Smallville when Clark is a young Superboy who is yet to become Superman. What it uncovers is a disguise technique that makes the glasses look less like a flimsy excuse and more like a tactical stroke of genius. Before he became the confident, inspiring hero we know, young Clark was still experimenting. And as any teenager who has found new abilities, some of those experiments were bound to fail.
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Action Comics #1092 points out one of his strangest early tricks: vibrating his face with super-speed to make it impossible to recognize him. Theoretically, it is a rather brilliant idea, an inbuilt privacy filter that is always on. However, Clark himself tells us why it could never have been his permanent disguise. Superman is expected to be an icon of hope, clarity, and trust. But this technique freaked people out. Clark openly acknowledges that the method left him appearing suspiciously creepy.
Smallville was not going to believe a hero who appeared like a glitch in real life. Additionally, super-speed is not merely fast, but accurate. Being a teenager and still learning to control his powers, it was distracting, mentally exhausting, and dangerous to have a flawless vibration blur. And lastly, it was against his own philosophy. Clark did not want to live behind a mask. He desired openness, both literal and figurative. A bright costume. An open presence. And a hero that the world could see approaching. The vibrating-blur trick went against all that he wanted to represent.
Why The Glasses Weren’t Lazy Writing
After seeing Clark’s early missteps, the much-mocked glasses disguise suddenly feels less like a joke and more like a beautifully human solution. Clark didn’t want a mask, and he did not desire a character that would scare people. He did not wish to wipe off his features or disappear. He wanted to fit in, and the glasses allowed him to.
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He was not concealing himself with a mask; he was making himself easy. Clark Kent is weak, tender, shy, and even awkward. The glasses enhance that image. Additionally, human beings identify individuals based on posture, expression, hair, confidence, and social cues rather than facial structure. When Clark transforms into Superman, he alters all those. It is not the disguise of glasses, but the persona.
Glasses make him approachable, unlike the blur mask. They make him harmless and ordinary. Precisely what Clark desires to be when he is not rescuing the world. Clark Kent suddenly turns not only believable, but even effective. Despite the explanation, the new ‘Superman’ film shut down the joke by explaining the glasses and how they had the tech to mask his appearance.
