I noticed in Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier, WW addresses Superman as “Kal” and “Spaceman”. But yes, in the mainstream continuity Bats and Supes address one another as Bruce and Clark.
To me it is a nature/nurture situation for Supes, and as mentioned John Byrne dealt with it when he did the Man Of Steel refreshed-origin series. He cannot stop having the inborn attributes of a son of Krypton; but his upbringing until adulthood is that of Clark Kent, son of the Kansas heartland – and how Jonah and Martha raised him guides how he reacts to the realization of what he is, and the choice to both live like Clark Kent, and act as Superman (as opposed to God Emperor of Earth) when necessary.
Bruce chooses to become Batman and uses the resources that being Bruce Wayne provides to make Batman happen, and that’s a difference: Wayne was not born Batman, he turns himself into Batman through an effort of will , in the process simultaneously reshaping who is “Bruce Wayne”. And unlike was mentioned earlier for Superman, Bruce Wayne could not choose to vanish into thin air, as he needs to retain his corporate empire to finance his activities.
Secret identities are commonly portrayed as either a way to protect your family and loved ones, or as a way to deflect hostility from normals, or as a way to pass unnoticed while you observe events and position yourself for action a-la Edmond Dantes (which is Batman’s way).
Wonder Woman ISTM is a case of Diana of Themyscira assuming the identity of Diana Prince when she has to walk among the outside world under cover during WW2, AND the role of Wonder Woman for when kicking Nazi ass. But she is clearly the Amazon Princess first and foremost and Diana Prince was very much an act.
Marvel comics began upending the convention in the 60s with the Fantastic Four (hard to keep a secret identity when you look like a large pile of orange rocks, you must admit).
I admit that I’ve heard the old radio broadcasts, which feature a Superman who was out superheroing before he even considered adopting a human persona. In that rendition, “Clark” is a mask, and Supes is real.
Superman debuted in 1938. There weren’t really superhero “conventions” back then. Every strip was a stab in the dark.
That the Clark Kent persona was his real identity has been true ever since Jonathan and Martha Kent were made permanent parts of the mythos (mostly after the Superboy comic debuted in 1949). John Byrne had nothing to do with it.
Alfred eventually got established as the Wayne family butler who has taken care of Bruce since he was a boy. That’s why he calls him Master Bruce. The alternative for an adult would be Mr. Wayne. Master Wayne is an obscenity that no proper butler would ever utter.
The Superman ‘mythos’ certainly got much richer when writers began fleshing out the Clark Kent side of his character. I grew up with the George Reeves TV version, where he was a three-dimensional member of the cast. That Clark Kent wore classy suits, drove a convertible and… my favorite… had a mannequin head just inside his door, so when he came home he could take his hat off and plunk it on his “friend”…
Speaking of nomenclature, I love the way Lois calls Clark “Smallville”. Not sure where that started, but it’s often used when they’re competing for a story, and Lois is reminding him that she’s much more “Metropolis”.
If Clark Kent was given a piece of pizza straight from the oven piping hot, can he just eat it right away despite it being dangerously hot since he’s Superman and it shouldn’t hurt him?
There’s a comic where the Joker attacks the Daily Planet in a bid to harass Batman over something, and accidentally bursts in on a distracted Clark Kent. The comic shows him using his super fast thinking and reflexes to keep from exposing his secret, “Hmmm… a giant hammer, never seen someone get hit by one of those. Could Clark survive that? No, I better dodge.” And then he goes on to struggle as ‘strong and agile normal person’ for a while before another hero shows up.
It’s funny. I was going to mention the radio show–but come to completely the opposite conclusion. The Superman radio show is really more The Adventures of Clark Kent, Investigative Reporter. He spends most of his time as Clark, and (like the later George Reeves TV show), Clark is portrayed as smart, savvy, confident, and dogged in his pursuit of a story. Perry White explicitly calls him one of the Daily Planet’s best reporters. He only becomes Superman occasionally, to handle the odd train derailment or sinking ship that the bad guys have arranged. There are, in fact, episodes in which he never changes to Superman at all.
It’s true that the radio show had him arrive on Earth as a fully grown man (which was weird–they retconned that later), and immediately set out superheroing. But he adopted the Clark Kent identity in the second or third episode, and after that he never looked back. He was Clark Kent, crusading journalist, who changed to Superman every once in a while.
And the original comic book doesn’t bother with an explanation; he’s first shown as Superman (and the first few pages of the original comic strip are cut out). It’s clear that Superman is the main character and Kent is a disguise. He doesn’t even work for the Daily Star, but uses his powers to score a beat on a story and get the job. And he specifically says he needs to work at the paper so he could keep up with breaking news. So it’s clear that Superman uses the alias of Clark Kent to keep up on what was happening.
I don’t see it. The original comic book you’re referring to is ACTION COMICS #1, right? The first page tells us that “Clark decides he must turn his titanic strength into channels that would benefit mankind - and so was created…SUPERMAN!”
The next panel reads: “A SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION OF CLARK KENT’S AMAZING STRENGTH”; after that, yes, we see him saving the day in costume; but it’s followed by mention of how, as the narrator says, “next morning, Kent leaves for the newspaper upon which he works as a reporter…”
I don’t see any reason why Clark Kent would consider his real identity to be Superman or Kal-El. He left Krypton when he was an infant. He was raised as Clark Kent by Jonathan and Martha Kent in Kansas; that’s who he was growing up.
Not to be trite, but why does it have to be either/or? Can’t he be both Superman and Clark Kent? We’re all different people in different circumstances. I’m not the same person with my family that I am with my friends, and I’m someone else entirely at work. None of these are the “real me”; instead, I am all of them together. Why can’t Clark Kent/Superman just be a single, complex person?
In one episode of the 90s Superman animated series, Clark was investigating the story of a Death Row inmate who claimed innocence (which he found credible based on the inmate’s dead-steady heartbeat and gaze), causing the real killer to plant a bomb in his car. The explosion didn’t hurt him, of course, but it left him stuck as Superman until he could come up with some plausible explanation of how Clark survived. His take on the situation: “I am Clark. I need to be Clark. I’d go crazy if I had to be Superman all the time!”
Which reminds me about how pre-Crisis, the Kents would, to my memory, be shown to think of Clark and treat him like Superboy, an alien other, rather than as their child.
There was a similar story in the 60s comics. Clark was presumed to have died in a building explosion, so he decided to try just being Superman for a while. Spoiler alert: he didn’t enjoy it.
It didn’t help that, instead of hanging out in the Fortress of Solitude, he moved into Jimmy Olsen’s apartment like some kind of sitcom character. He even added “and Superman” to the label on Jimmy’s mailbox. Eventually, out of sheer desperation, he came up with a bullshit story about how Clark was never actually in that building that exploded.
Odin removed the enchantment on Mjolnir which enabled the Donald Blake transformation, having deemed that Thor had learned the lessons which the Blake alter ego was meant to give – I think that that was in the early '80s. After that point, Thor did, for at least a little while, have a different human alter ego – he went by the name Sigurd Jarlson, and was a construction worker. However, I think that they pretty quickly retired the Sigurd identity.
Unlike the skinny and lame Donald Blake persona, Sigurd was brawny Thor, wearing glasses and with his long hair in a ponytail. They even hung a lampshade on it being like Superman posing as Clark Kent when they first introduced the alter ego.
