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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7526
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 8:33am | IP Logged | 1
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I always figured Clark Kent was playing roles depending on where he was and what he was doing--something we all do, but usually in a less dramatic way (I hope).
In Smallville, we saw in MOS that he was an athlete and popular "big man on campus." When he fully realized his powers and knew what he wanted to do with them, he adopted a less-capable persona (Clark) that put off comparisons with the exceptionally powerful Superman.
Nowadays, married to Lois and father to a young son, he's probably most himself at home...but there's not much left of the bumbling, cowardly Clark that was his "other disguise" in the Silver Age. He can be a capable, dogged and well-respected reporter without playing the fool, as JB and others have shown.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 9:37am | IP Logged | 2
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Nowadays, married to Lois and father to a young son…•• Just shoot me now.
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7526
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 10:15am | IP Logged | 3
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I know, believe me.
It all springs from New52 and trying to have one's cake and eat it too. The publicly known Superman was a young guy whose relationship with Lois was collegial, before he went off to work with Cat Grant on a news website and dated Wonder Woman...and then died, only to be reintegrated with--
the unknown Superman/Clark who, with Lois and their son, had come from a pre-Flashpoint Earth and was living in a small farming town.
Recombined into one being, the current Superman is a bit older, married to Lois and father to Jon (who's now Superboy).
If they hadn't tried to reinvent the wheel, keeping both Supermen around, this would never have happened. And it shows how convoluted it gets when the publishers want ALL the fans to be happy. It's a mess.
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 11:16am | IP Logged | 4
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Jeez, Andrew, that sounds unwieldy. Pre-Flashpoint Earth? Re-integrated with unknown Superman/Clark and...I give up. Sounds too much like homework. I have zero idea what Flashpoint is.
Some may say that I should Google Flashpoint. Why? I never had to homework back in the day. The panel boxes told me all I needed to know. I jumped on board, even when the Hulk's surroundings changed (e.g. the time he was hanging around Florida). I don't want to do homework via Google in order to 'catch up'.
We had CRISIS in '85. It seems from the 90s onwards, and even moreso in the 2000s, DC has been fixing what DIDN'T NEED fixing.
You could pick up any classic Superman issue (post-Crisis or Pre-Crisis) and jump aboard easily. I mean, a publicly known Superman dying, reintegrating with an unknown Superman and coming from a pre-Flashpoint earth sounds like a confusing, anal, pedantic, esoteric, pretentious mess!
Edited by Robbie Parry on 05 February 2018 at 11:18am
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 11:22am | IP Logged | 5
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#FanboysGoneMadI call it Kandor Syndrome. Once upon a time Superman "adopted " the Bottled City of Kandor, and set it on a pedestal in the Fortress of Solitude. But that meant virtually every time Superman visited the Fortress, readers had to be told what Kandor was. Finally, writers had enough, and Superman was allowed to restore Kandor to full size -- on an alien world that phased in and out of our dimension every hundred years. But then it was decided that Superman "missed" Kandor, so he created an exact scale model, and put that on the vacated pedestal. So THAT had to be explained every time he visited the Fortress. And THEN Superman noticed there were people living in the model -- an alien race that happened to be that size naturally. So then THAT... Well, you get the point. There seems to be something in the air at DC that compells people to do this stuff. And with all the fanboy cross-pollination, Marvel has become infrcted, too. Spider-Totem, anyone!
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 1:21pm | IP Logged | 6
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Spider-Totem, anyone!
***
Oh, god, I have no idea what that is. And have no intention of Googling that. ;-)
I picked up random titles as a kid. The panel boxes (if that's the right terminology) told me, "Kal-El, rocketed from Krypton, etc..." And if Superman fought Bad Guy A, then a thought balloon from the Man of Steel would tell me, "Oh, it's him. An accident with antifreeze turned him into this and he's seeking revenge against those responsible for the accident..." I got everything I needed to know.
And it worked! The panel boxes introduced me to a character I was unfamiliar with, e.g. Adam Strange. Thought balloons let me know who the mysterious Man-Bat was. And on we got with the story!
Since thought balloons appear to be extinct in some comics, that's not an option. Don't see many panel boxes, either. I mean, I'd find it impenetrable. I don't know what Flashpoint is, I don't understand Superman right now (sounds like they are "cherry picking" from pre and post-Crisis).
A comic writer on Twitter talked about homework, Google, etc. I don't want to do that. What an invitation that would be: "Pick up my issue on Wednesday, but Google some web pages first. Read up - it might take 30 minutes - on the history of the latest Crisis event."
Someone even suggested to me that comics should have a page of text inside the front cover. No! That won't attract readers. Things were so simple once that the panel boxes were enough, plus a thought balloon from a character. If we need to Google things or read lots of text, that is a problem!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | 7
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The pictures are in panels, the narration is in captions, and speech and thoughts are in balloons.Generally speaking.
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Robbie Parry
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 2:32pm | IP Logged | 8
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Thanks, Mr Byrne.
Despite decades of comic reading, there are still times I say to myself, "Now what is the terminology here?" I'm sure I make mistakes at times. I particularly want to get it right if introducing "civilians" to comics.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | 9
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Well, as long as we're here, the spaces between panels are gutters, sound effects and titles are display lettering, and pages are ..... pages!
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Brian O'Neill
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 November 2013
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | 10
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JB wrote:The pictures are in panels, the narration is in captions, and speech and thoughts are in balloons. Generally speaking ********************** OK. ********************** JB wrote: Well, as long as we're here, the spaces between panels are gutters, sound effects and titles are display lettering... **************************************************** Got it so far, keep going.... ****************************** JB wrote: ...and pages are ..... pages! ******************************** Aaaaaand..you lost me! 'Pages are pages?' What the hell kind of crazy fool talk is THAT?:-D
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Eric Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 October 2013
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Posts: 2366
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | 11
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"Display lettering"--I did not know that one!
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Warren Scott
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Joined: 09 July 2016
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| Posted: 05 February 2018 at 8:10pm | IP Logged | 12
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This thread has turned into an interesting analysis of Superman/Clark Kent's personality.
Here's my thought: while Clark was certainly pretty meek in the earliest Action stories, he seemed later to be mostly mild-mannered. Now, there is a difference, albeit a subtle one, but not all writers see that.
While Christopher Reeve's portrayal of Clark was fun, it was a far cry from the way Clark was acting in the comics at that time.
But something it had in common with the comics is the idea that the real person is actually a mix of Superman and Clark. It's something we don't see except when he is alone or only with Lois in "Superman II."
(In Superman III, the "evil" Superman fights a version of himself who looks like Clark without the glasses.)
I'll admit that I've read more Superman from the 60s on than from the 30s,40s and 50s, so I could be wrong about the tenure of "meek Clark."
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