‘Superman’ Director James Gunn Overcomplicates Clark Kent Lore, Adds Bronze Age Twist To Secret Identity Because “The Glasses Always Bothered Me”
In yet another odd moment of ‘comic book shame’ from a director who does appear to actually love the medium and what it has to offer, Superman director James Gunn says that rather than the DCU public actually falling for Clark Kent’s ‘glasses’ disguise due to their own personal perceptions as to ‘what a hero should look like’, their confusion over the Man of Steel’s true identity will instead be caused by a relatively obscure (and wholly unnecessary) plot device taken from DC’s Bronze Age canon.
Although a staple element of the ‘Superman/Clark Kent’ divide ever since his first appearance all the way back in Action Comics Vol. 1 #1, the idea that a mere pair of glasses is enough regularly fool the general public into ignoring the obvious similarities between the hero’s two identities has, unsurprisingly, been an oft-debated topic among not just comic book fans, but the general public.
And while a variety of Big Blue’s adventures have offered various explanations for the public’s obliviousness, like the hero constantly vibrating his face while in costume so as to blur the specifics of his face (as seen Superman Vol. 2 #2), the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths years have seen DC settle on the idea that his simple disguise works because it not only changes the way people perceive him, but he also sells the act by making changes to his posture, clothing, and overall physicality.
Yet, despite this concept being near universally accepted by the general public – especially after former Superman actor Henry Cavill proved just how effective such a disguise would be – Gunn has chosen to overcomplicate this simple piece of the hero’s lore.
Speaking to ComicBook.com in the lead-up to Superman‘s upcoming release, the DC Studios Co-CEO revealed that rather than a general difference in how he carries himself between both identities, the DCU’s Man of Steel was able to keep his identity a secret thanks to the use of bona fide ‘Hypno-Glasses‘.
“That’s canon in the comics,” explained Gunn. “It’s kind of been forgotten but that’s from the comics. I was sitting with Tom King, the comic book writer, and I was like, ‘you know the thing that I just don’t really know how to reconcile in myself is the glasses because the glasses always bothered me as a kid.’ They bothered me because I just don’t have that much suspension of disbelief to believe that.”
“You know, they’re two different people even though I think out of all the actors that have played Superman, Corenswet looks the most different as Clark Kent to Superman, even more so than Chris Reeve,” the director added. “But [King] said, ‘You know, there’s an answer for that in the comics, it’s canon that they hypnotize people.’”
It should be noted that while Gunn is correct in his understanding that the concept of Clark Kent keeping his secret identity thanks to the use of ‘Hypno-Glasses’ does originate from the original comics, he’s a bit off in its exact mechanisms.
Per 1978’s Superman Vol. 1 #330, rather than his glasses themselves having hypnotic qualities, it is revealed that they prove to be a particularly effective disguise due to the hero unconsciously exerting a low-level amount of his ‘Super Hypnosis’ at all times, thus ever-so-slightly nudging everyone’s mind away from putting two and two together.
And in putting the frosting on this entire Super-cake, that Gunn is tripping over himself to explain away the glasses debate is particularly ironic given that Superman takes heavy inspiration from the All-Star Superman comic book series, whose author Grant Morrison has infamously gone on record to state that none of this matters.
“People say kids can’t understand the difference between fact and fiction, but that’s bullsh-t,” Morrison told Rolling Stone in 2011. “Kids understand that real crabs don’t sing like the ones in The Little Mermaid. But you give an adult fiction, and the adult starts asking really f–king dumb questions like ‘How does Superman fly? How do those eyebeams work? Who pumps the Batmobile’s tires?’ It’s a f–king made-up story, you idiot! Nobody pumps the tires!”
As noted above, this is far from the first time the noted superhero director has shown an unexpected amount of shame towards his source material.
From dressing Star-Lord in a painfully generic costume rather than either his original or Annihilation-era garb in Guardians of Galaxy, to depicting the canonically psychopathic Vigilante as a relative goof-ball in Peacemaker, to this awkward scramble to answer a Superman lore question that no one was asking, it’s unclear what chip Gunn has on his shoulder, but it’s getting ever harder to not notice it.
Hopefully it won’t have too much of an effect on the end product, as will be determined when Superman hits theaters on July 11th.
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