One of my favorite Batman/Superman interactions didn’t directly involve Superman at all, but rather involved Bruce correcting someone who mocked Clark for thinking that a pair of glasses would hide his secret identity for more than the five seconds it’d take people to think about the pair. Batman corrects them, saying that Clark is actually one of the better disguise artists he’s run into; he doesn’t just wear glasses. He wears glasses, slouches, acts clumsily, stutters, musses his hair, signals in a thousand ways through body language that he’s smaller, less imposing, less noticeable than he actually is. In a separate story, Clark actually points out that people compare him to Superman all the time when he takes off his glasses--but his playacting means they don’t even consider the possibility that they’re the same person. It’s a few small physical details and a LOT of posturing.
To a more subtle degree, Superman is also a disguise. He puffs out his chest, strikes a figure, does that charging-my-heat-vision trick with his eyes, talks in deliberately heroic tones. He perfectly coifs his hair, for goodness’ sake--which should tell you it’s all a show all by itself.
This is the Superman Lex Luthor sees, which is why he assumes that nobody with that much power would ever deign to reduce themselves to the level of a mortal. In a lot of ways, this is the Superman that less discerning comic book readers see, leading them to think that the Public Clark Kent is a condescending commentary on humanity’s weakness and inferiority. Neither of these is the real Clark Kent.
The real Clark Kent, the one he so rarely gets to be, the one that only a few people get to see--Lois, the Kents, Bruce, a couple other close confidants--is somewhere in the middle. He doesn’t wear glasses, he doesn’t stutter, he doesn’t stumble--not for effect, anyways. He doesn’t slouch. He combs his hair, some of the time. He also doesn’t loom, doesn’t puff out his chest, doesn’t strike poses. He’s just...a dude. A big dude, a strong dude, but mostly just a goofy Kansas boy with a big grin who likes pranking people, who has a big heart and feels compelled to help those in trouble to his considerable capacity. The real Clark Kent rarely gets to show his face outside where people can see him, in either side of his life, so it’s easy to miss, but he’s there.
Harumi the tutor. Maria the prostitute. Neither of these are her real face, I’ll bet.
Who are you, Harumi Chono? Who are you, really?
