- Why can't people tell that Clark Kent
is obviously Superman?
Well, it's a little bit more complicated than you'd think.
(rock music)
Welcome to Comic Misconceptions, a show that takes
you into detail about the things you think you know
about comics, I'm your host, that cool cat
right down there.
And today we are doing our second episode
celebrating the Man of Steel.
I'm talking about Superman related stuff.
So let's answer that question that I asked
you guys last week, which was,
"What special purpose did Superman's glasses
"serve in Pre-Crisis continuity?"
There are actually a few right answers, and I'm
surprised that you guys got all the ones that
I knew of, but just for the sake of it, let's change
the question a little bit, take off the part about
Pre-Crisis continuity and let's just say what other
fun stuff has Superman's glasses been able to
let him do, because some of it's after Crisis
and it's just, they're all fun.
QuadraticBoy says that his glasses helped him
control his heat vision.
It's a little vague, but I know what you're talking about.
HIs glasses were made of a Kryptonian glass
that he got from the spaceship he landed on
when he was a baby.
And when he was starting to develop his heat vision,
it was really hard to control.
So he put those glasses on and because they were
material not of this Earth, the heat vision would not
pass through them, so it would block out any unwanted
firing, saving innocent people from getting hit by
Clark's heat vision, like a safety precaution.
battelinin, which I now know how to pronounce,
says something a little contradictory.
He says that his glasses are made of still that same
Kryptonian glass, but his heat vision can travel through
them without melting them like they would a normal
pair of glasses.
This is true and was the Pre-Crisis answer I was
looking for, but guys there are so many fun ones.
Let's just keep exploring it.
Now, in terms of him using the glasses to
restrict his x-ray vision, like David on YouTube and Killian
on Facebook say, I haven't found anything that explicitly
states that, but I do know what you're talking about.
You see, when Clark Kent needs to use his x-ray vision
he lifts up those glasses and does his thing.
Now, I don't think that's because he can't use it
through those glasses.
I think it's a visual representation to the reader
that, yeah, he's using that power right now.
But as we talked about last week, Superman's x-ray vision
does give off at least a little bit of heat that evolved
into his heat vision.
So maybe those glasses are there because
normal glasses would melt under his x-ray vision,
but the Kryptonian made glasses wouldn't.
But we do have examples of him using his x-ray
vision through those glasses, so I don't know.
And the last answer given to us is from bumrocky,
who says that Superman's glasses help hypnotize people.
As weird as this one sounds, it is, again, true.
Remember last week when we were talking about
all the crazy powers that Superman has had over the years?
Well one that I didn't mention was super hypnotism.
Superman's eyes give off a low level hypnotism effect
and when he wears those glasses made of the same
Kryptonian material, it amplifies that effect so
people view Clark Kent as a much more frail
individual than Superman.
Now, interestingly, once Superman used his super
hypnosis to hypnotize people to resist hypnosis.
Little confusing.
But of course this undid his whole hypnosis plan,
so when he changed back into Clark Kent, people
just saw Superman wearing glasses.
But I for one really don't think that Clark needs
crazy hypnosis glasses to disguise the fact that
he is Superman.
I mean, you read these comics, you watch these movies,
and you think, how in the world can people not tell
that they're one in the same?
Well, for starters, the audience knows a little bit more
than the average citizen of Metropolis does.
We know, of course, that Clark is Superman, obviously,
but more importantly, we know that Superman has
a secret identity.
Think about it from an average citizen's point of view.
Here he is, Superman, this all powerful alien with
seemingly limitless power, invulnerable to just about
everything, and to top it all off he's good looking.
I mean, why in the name of Krypton would he want to
disguise himself as anything less than a god?
This is a world where superheroes exist and they
wear masks to hide their secret identity.
But Superman doesn't wear a mask, so to an
average citizen, it appears that Superman doesn't
have a secret identity to hide.
The lack of mask also provides a sense of trust.
I mean, Superman's an alien, already humanity
is a little standoffish.
If he came wearing a mask, then who knows what
else he could be hiding?
I mean, Superman's goal is to be as honest and
genuine as he possibly can.
So you see, nobody's looking for Superman's secret
identity because no one thinks that he would have one.
But he does and he works with people whose job it is
to uncover as much information about Superman
as they can.
So if Superman can't wear a mask, then Clark Kent has to.
The glasses really don't provide much cover except
for dulling his eye color.
But that's just one part of his mask.
Clark Kent and Superman really are two completely
different characters.
I mean, Superman stands tall, wears form fitting
clothing, and talks with a commanding voice.
But Clark Kent, on the other hand, slouches, wears
loose clothing, and has a softer voice, higher pitched even.
Clark even took acting classes to further distance these
two characters by creating different body language
and mannerisms.
I mean, this kind of thing takes commitment on a
massive scale.
Plus Superman is always flying around and traveling
at crazy fast speeds.
I mean, if all you saw was this.
(wind whistling)
It'd be kind of hard to pick him out of a police lineup.
Assuming he wasn't still wearing the cape.
What do you guys think?
Do you think the people of Metropolis are just idiots?
Or maybe Superman has something here with this
reverse dual identity thing.
Let me know in the comments.
And now we move on to the weekly trivia challenge, away!
So next week is our 10th episode and I wanted to
do something a little bit different, little bit special.
I want to talk about probably my favorite superhero
of all time, Spider-Man.
Cliche, most likely, but I can't get enough of Peter Parker.
I do want to clarify Peter Parker.
Some of you know why.
There are just so many interesting tidbits of trivia
wrapped around this character it's hard to pick one.
But in the spirit of the whole thing, I will ask you guys
the hardest question I've ever asked on the show and
probably the hardest question I ever will ask.
And that question is.
"Peter Parker's dentist is related to what other
"significant character in the Spider-Man universe?"
This is a very hard question for two reasons.
Number one, we don't know the dentist's name.
So it's kind of hard to match last names with other
characters in the Spider-Man universe.
Number two, doing a simple Google search for this
question will yield many wrong results.
I've tried.
But if you want to impress me and give me the
right answer, leave your comments below
or on our Facebook page, or you can even
tweet at NerdSync using the hashtag cmtrivia.
You guys, I will be super impressed if you get this one.
There might even be some sort of prize involved.
I don't know, we'll work something out.
Leave that to your own imagination, I guess.
So get started on this week's trivia challenge.
What am I doing?
One more episode in the bag.
But before we go, I wanted you to know that we are
still taking your guys's answers on the Krypton
versus Alderaan poll.
Right now the arguments going are that Alderaan
was more sad because they didn't see it coming
whereas Krypton was more arrogant and they didn't
know it was coming either.
So it caught both of them by surprise.
However, Krypton did it to themselves, whereas
Alderaan was at the mercy of a bully, essentially.
So I don't know.
Tell me what you guys think.
Which planet death made you cry the hardest?
We'll probably have a poll on Facebook or you can
of course voice your opinions down in the comments below.
And if you enjoyed this episode of Comic Misconceptions,
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And I am Scott Niswander for Comic Misconceptions.
We'll see you next time when we talk about more things
you thought you knew about comics.
See you.
So next week I'll... la, hmm.
I can do the rest of it in Morse code if you wanted me to.
Special and.
Oh boy, this is gonna be a long one, huh?