Not the Glasses

I lose patience with the argument about Superman disguising himself as Clark Kent.

You know the one. "He wears glasses! How dumb is that? Like I wouldn't recognize you without your glasses."

That's not the point, you drooling moron.

Sorry. It's a touchy point.

The point, plebe, is not that the wearing of glasses is the disguise. The point is the glasses are the outward representation of how much his character changes in his secret identity.

If you've met me and we've spent any significant amount of time together, we've discussed this, probably, and I've shown you why it is exactly that the glasses work as a disguise.

It's not the glasses. It's never been the glasses.

Christopher Reeve demonstrated it the best, really.

Clark goes into Lois' apartment, picking her up before they head off to some function or something. He's decided he's going to tell her he's Superman. Clark's bumbling and fumbling and stammering... and she heads into the bathroom or bedroom or whatever... and he takes off the glasses.

He straightens up. Shoulders back. Stomach in. He grows about four inches. His chin is out. Steely glare in his eye.

He IS Superman.

That's the difference. That's where the disguise is. Not the glasses. The attitude.

No one believes bumbling, cowardly Clark could POSSIBLY be Superman, no matter how much they might look alike. Clark's shorter, dumpier. His eyes are watery, shifty and confused. He can't get a sentence out without stammering and falls to pieces when Lois cross-examines him. He's indecisive and weak. So he clearly COULDN'T be Superman.

Here's another thing. This is taken from experience, because I have a Superman tshirt - which some of you may have seen me wearing - and I've witnessed it firsthand.

Nobody looks at your face when you wear the S.

They look at the S. They TRY to look you in the face, but the S draws the eye.

Now. Imagine I was in shape. Imagine I was in tights and a cape.

Imagine I'm floating three feet above the street.

You're not going to look me in the face.

All you're going to see is the S.

It's so easy in this wonderfully apathetic society we live in to say we don't get awestruck. It's hip to be sarcastic. It's cool to not give a shit.

I don't think it would be so easy to stare Superman in the face and say... hey... his nose is sort of like Clark's... Hair's different, jaw's a little firmer, mouth is set in a determined way, eyes are steely blue... HOLY SHIT THIS GUY IS FLYING.

What is more likely? We all like to think we're cool and blasé about everything... but we're not. Not if we were faced with the reality of a guy in tights and a cape flying in front of our very eyes.

That's the difference. That's the disguise. He hides his face behind the S, behind the awe, behind the bumbling cowardly weakling.

Not the glasses.