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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133325
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| Posted: 03 February 2018 at 10:39am | IP Logged | 1
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Once again casting Clark as the disguise, instead of that being Superman.==================================== JB, Did you get flack from DC or any professionals going that route? The idea that Clark was not clumbsy or mild mannered, but was performing these great feats and helping out while remaining anomynous was perfect. •• One of the persistent fan misconceptions is that I did ANYTHING during my run on the Superman titles that was not fully vetted by the Powers That Were at DC. If they had any objections to anything I wanted to do, I didn't do it!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133325
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| Posted: 03 February 2018 at 10:41am | IP Logged | 2
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It wouldn't surprise me if some of the most detail-obsessed fans out there work in highly technical scientific or engineering fields, or even for outfits like FBI or CIA, where that mindset can be very useful.•• Some, yes. But sadly, a lot more are those who have little else in their lives. They live THRU these imaginary adventures.
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Shane Matlock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 August 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 1760
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| Posted: 03 February 2018 at 3:25pm | IP Logged | 3
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Comic book writer and former Chris Claremont assistant Tom King actually joined the CIA after 9/11 and became an counter-terrorism officer.
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Stephen Churay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 8369
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| Posted: 03 February 2018 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | 4
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A buddy of mine is not a fan of Job's
reboot. He has a podcast and we've decided
to have an episode where we debate Man Of
Steel. He was a bronze age fan and not
happy about losing HIS Superman.
Me, I got over 70 issues of JB Superman
greatness.
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Adam Schulman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 22 July 2017
Posts: 1717
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| Posted: 03 February 2018 at 5:24pm | IP Logged | 5
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Once again casting Clark as the disguise, instead of that being Superman.
***
They're both disguises. There's a real Clark Kent, of course. But the guy at the Planet (or the Star)? As far back as ACTION COMICS #1 he's an act. I've read enough 40s Superman comics -- at the Planet, Clark is both a wise-ass and a coward. He's practically Bob Hope.
"Superman" is just a job title. "Kal-El" is like a Hebrew name.
We only see the real Clark Kent in thought balloons or when he's talking to friends, especially when those friends know about his double life.
I mean if there are no personality differences between Clark and Superman then everyone who's met the both of them must be a total idiot. A pair of glasses really isn't enough. What Christopher Reeve did in 1978? That was enough. "You will believe a man can act."
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Sergio Saavedra
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 August 2007
Location: Spain
Posts: 454
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| Posted: 04 February 2018 at 6:10am | IP Logged | 6
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Starting from Action Comics #1, Clark was clearly the disguise in comic books (that might not be the case in the 50s TV series, I haven't seen it).It was JB who changed that, and that was probably his main contribution: now Clark was the real person. He wasn't acting, he just hid certain part of his life. And that was really refreshing IMO.
Edited by Sergio Saavedra on 04 February 2018 at 3:31pm
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Lars Sandmark
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 05 October 2007
Location: Canada
Posts: 3144
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| Posted: 04 February 2018 at 7:13am | IP Logged | 7
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John Byrne simply had the identity make sense in a more real-world way. Clark spent his entire life being Clark, and then decided to create a public persona named Superman. He's more Clark than Superman on the inside.
The key to it all is what JB has said all along (through Luthor)... no one should suspect this super-powered being to spend any amount of time trying to be normal or average.
Clark Kent could go to the office Christmas party dressed as Superman and no one should connect the dots. No one would assume that the dude you work with is actually this powerful alien celebrity, even if they look similar.
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Wallace Sellars
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 17699
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| Posted: 04 February 2018 at 11:33am | IP Logged | 8
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I'm firmly in the "Superman is the disguise" camp. One of the reasons I so
enjoy George Reeves' Superman is that Clark wasn't a coward or particularly
meek.
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Jason Czeskleba
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
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| Posted: 04 February 2018 at 1:18pm | IP Logged | 9
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Sergio Saavedra wrote:
| It was JB who changed that, and that was probably his main contribution: now Clark was the real person. He wasn't acting, he just hided certain part of his life. |
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And that change sprang logically from another change JB made, which was the notion that Clark did not develop power until adulthood approached. In the original conception, Superman had powers from the moment he arrived on earth, and (presumably) concealed them. So the Clark Kent he presented to the world was not his true self, from the beginning. Whereas JB's Clark Kent grew up as a normal human.
Wallace Sellars wrote:
| I'm firmly in the "Superman is the disguise" camp. One of the reasons I so enjoy George Reeves' Superman is that Clark wasn't a coward or particularly meek. |
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I know the Reeves series is liked by many, but in regard to Clark's personality it's an example of Hollywood being unfaithful to the source material, in a manner similar to Raimi's organic web-shooters.
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Wallace Sellars
Byrne Robotics Member
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| Posted: 04 February 2018 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | 10
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I know the Reeves series is liked by many, but in regard to Clark's personality
it's an example of Hollywood being unfaithful to the source material, in a
manner similar to Raimi's organic web-shooters.
—
A more apt comparison would be the way other media showed Superman
flying instead of jumping, and the change was later seen in comic books.
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Brian O'Neill
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 November 2013
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Posts: 1964
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| Posted: 04 February 2018 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | 11
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I think 'George Reeves' Clark was written and played more along the lines of the Hollywood trope of the 'tenacious crusading reporter', with some of that dialed down so that Clark didn't come off as overbearing, and therefore not enough of a contrast from Superman(and not at the obnoxious jerk' level of later 'TV reporters' like Kolchak).
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Jason Czeskleba
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| Posted: 04 February 2018 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | 12
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Wallace Sellars wrote:
| A more apt comparison would be the way other media showed Superman flying instead of jumping, and the change was later seen in comic books. |
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Well, the Fleischer films depicted Superman as flying in 1941, and the comics followed suit two years later. By contrast, the Reeves series first depicted Clark Kent as not being cowardly in 1951, but it wasn't until 35 years later that John Byrne altered the comics to match. So in one case, we have a relatively minor change in the nature of the character's powers made in other media and shortly thereafter adopted by the comics. In the other case, we have a significantly off-model portrayal of a character in other media, which is ignored by the comics during the entire TV series' run but then is incorporated into the comics several decades later by a fan of the TV series. I don't see those things as being very analogous.
My understanding is that George Reeves' Clark was written the way he was because Reeves knew he'd be spending most of his onscreen time as Clark, and he did not want to be portraying a timid coward the majority of the time.
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