io9 
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San Francisco, 2:27 AM
Sun Nov 8
11 posts in the last 24 hours
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He replied (and graciously permitted me to post his response here):
"...while a normal pair of glasses might not be a very good disguise, a very large and high prescription pair of glasses can! take bubbles from "the trailer park boys"
if you saw him on the street without his glasses would you recognize him? of course the actor who plays Bubbles gets terrible headaches and can hardly see through the crazy glasses. so how can superman? the answer is that by changing the density of the fluid in his eyes, he can change how his eyes focus; compensating for the bad glasses by using "adaptive optics". So he could wear, and see through terrible glasses.
in addition, he could make his hair heavier, which would dramatically change how it lay on his head. Also, he could make his skin sag, reshaping his face, and reducing the impression of his mighty granite jaw."
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No, really. That was the official, canonical explanation for some time: that Superman automatically and subconsciously hypnotizes everyone he comes into contact with, to prevent them from discovering the truth.
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I loved Ben Edlund's take on the Secret Identity of Caped Wonder/\Clark Oppenheimer from The Tick. Anyone gotta image of that scene when Tick breaks Clark's hypno glasses? So funny.
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Wow. I typed that with a straight face.
09/30/09
"Our conjecture of a single uni
ed power could be tested in a few simple ways.
We could, for instance, determine whether Superman could accelerate if He were
surrounded by a nearly perfect vacuum."
There's lots of comics of superman flying around in space. :/ I know space isn't a perfect vaccuum, but there's certainly not enough mass to explain his flying as described in that section.
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How does Superman, as in the above diagram, not kill people by plucking them out of the air in that way?
Surely, upon reaching terminal velocity, a person's vertical movement being instantly stopped would result in exactly the same injuries as if they'd hit the ground.
I seem to remember 2000AD dealing with this in the series Chopper. Despite a skysurfer catching a falling child (apparently saving him), he was later seen apologising to the distraught mother as he could stop the child hitting the deck, but not prevent him suffering critical injuries.
09/30/09
Edit: I guess what I'm saying is he slows down their momentum before contact, but not abruptly. How? Wizards did it.
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Besides, everyone on Planet Bismoll could do that...so it was a pretty common ability.
Doesn't that make you look forward eagerly to Paul Levitz' return to LSH? :)
10/01/09
Manipulating mater means, like, everything.
09/30/09
This is most superbly illustrated by artist Frank Quitely in All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison. The "haze" is accentuated by clothing that is alternately too loose and too tight for Kal-El's body and also by a general dishevelment. However, if you look closely at the the illustrations, Clark Kent's face appears doughy and cornfed while Superman's appears chiseled and stern.
There can be no other logical explanation aside from the diffraction phenomenon I previously cited.
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This is a serious question.
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What would happen when Jimmy Olsen (Oh, clumsy Jimmy! How your farcical sidekickery amuses us.) tripped when changing the water cooler bottle dousing Perry White? The whole floor would bust out laughing and Lois would notice the change in Clark's physiognomy. She'd be all, "OMG, you're Superman!! You've totally been looking through my clothing this whole time, you big perv!"
Auk word!
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1. Clark is a good method actor.
Since his arrival in Metropolis, Clark had always portrayed "Clark" as a bumbling idiot loser while in public, 24/7. So everyone's first and only impressions of the guy already put him on the far opposite spectrum of what they perceive Superman to be.
Birthright expanded on this by having Clark actually study method acting during his gap years between Smallville and Metropolis. I think they actually name the same school of acting that Christopher Reeve's adopted in the Superman movies to differential the two personas so effectively on film; This means wearing baggier clothing to hide his frame, coke bottle glasses that hide his striking gaze, changing his posture, body language, the whole 9.
Also, keep in mind, that when Clark is out as Superman, that in itself requires a bit of performance too.
2. Clark cheats with his powers
As someone else noted above, writers regularly throw in little extra tricks that Clark periodically use to help hide his identity. I think the facial muscle thing might have been actually shown in one of the issues. But I remember a Nightwing comic that explains when Superman poses for photos, he vibrates himself (not like that perv) to make the images slightly blurry.
3. Nobody assumes that Superman has a 'secret identity'; or "why does God need a job/ apartment/ wife?"
This one is my favorite rational and I think it makes the most sense. Most people see Superman as a demi-god. He can bench press Mt. Everest, fly to the sun and back without breaking a sweat, and punch out meteors.
Why the heck would anyone suspect someone as powerful and omnipresent as him would keep a 9-5 job and a normal human wife that meets him at his apartment every night? Or that he would spend weekends in a Kansas cornfield helping his human mom and dad pick up cow shit and putting up fences?
As far as some people are concerned, he's like Wonder Woman, a 'full-time' hero. When he's not fighting aliens invaders, he's making appearances at the White House and making speeches at the UN. And for a period of time people assumed he was married to Wonder Woman since she seems like the only woman on the planet whose in the same league as him (no pun intended).
This is also why Lex Luthor never obsesses about finding out Superman's 'real life'. As far as Luthor's concerned, it's laughable to think that an alien as unfairly powerful and arrogant as Superman would degrade himself by sinking to the lifestyle of those mere-mortal ants he looks down on.
09/30/09
This all reminds me of Alan Moore's explanation of Miracleman's powers. (or is He Marvelman again?) There was less math and more handwaving, but it was closer to science fiction than mere wish-fulfillment.
09/30/09
First and foremost, no one actually assumed that Superman HAD another identity. That's a big factor. If you see a guy flying around in bright blue and red saving the world and acting essentially like a god, you wouldn't normally expect him to pretend to be a lowly human. In fact, when Lex Luthor was confronted with discovery that Clark Kent was Superman (in issue #2 of the Superman renumbering), he flatly denies it as a possibility.
Secondly, he was very careful about not getting photographed close up while dressed as Superman. His super-senses could tip him off to anyone that managed to get a photo of him and he could destroy the evidence pretty easily, perhaps by using X-ray vision. During his super deeds, the speed of his movement would suffice to keeping video or photos of him suitably undefined. Only people he would repeatably come in close contact with as Superman AND Clark Kent did he have to worry about (like Lois of course).
09/30/09
eg, for everything you accelerate, something else has to decelerator by the same amount.
This could make some kick-arse comic book scenes. Because you always have a reaction, not merely something being moved or stopped.
eg. A hero could stop a car with his hands, but at the same time would send the same mass of rock hurling into the air.
Or he could chuck a big stone in the air, and has he is catching it, put the same energy into a small pebble....thus accelerating it like a bullet.
(as a small mass gaining the same energy as a large mass falling would go preportionately much faster).
09/30/09
I like this new physics-y sounding theory, though like all superhero lore, it doesn't hold up to too much adult scrutiny.
On the other hand, as a long time Super fan (or geek) I must point out my annoyance with the modern misconception that Superman is solar powered. I don't believe this was the original conception. SOME of his powers come from our yellow sun's rays- it "tans" his skin to invulnerability, and gives him super senses by supercharging his brain. His strength and flight are a result of Earth's gravity being much lesser than (or different from) Krypton's.
This makes as much sense as anything, and is preferable to him being a dorky solar powered guy like Bird Man.
10/01/09
Solar power -is- a good explanation imho. You need some energy source.