SUPERMAN is missing an essential character – and you might not have noticed

Note: The following contains spoilers for Superman.

Midway through director James Gunn’s new Superman movie, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) heads to the Hall of Justice to ask the Justice Gang – Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), and Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) – for help in rescuing a captured Superman (David Corenswet). In the ensuing conversation, Guy points out that maybe they don’t know Superman as well as they thought; after all, in his secret identity he supposedly wears glasses that hypnotize everyone around him into not recognizing him. Lois points out, in a roundabout way, that if she didn’t know who Superman is Guy would be revealing more than he should, to which Guy replies, “So you know he’s Clark Kent?” The audience laughs and groans at Guy’s stupidity.

Superman is Clark Kent. His secret identity, and the nature of the disguise he wears in his Clark Kent persona, is a central conceit of the character. Yet going solely by the new movie, you’d be forgiven for forgetting Superman even has a secret identity. The bespectacled, sloppy-haired Clark Kent is in one scene early in the film, putting in an appearance at the Daily Planet offices where he’s repeatedly praised for his latest interview with Superman. Corenswet would, of course, go on to appear throughout the rest of the movie, but those all-important glasses are never seen again. And that’s, frankly, a shame.

One of the most impressive aspects of Christopher Reeve’s performance in Richard Donner’s classic 1978 Superman: The Movie is how distinctly he plays Superman versus how he plays Clark Kent. The scene in Lois’s apartment after the flying sequence, when Clark ‘transforms’ into Superman by removing his glasses, standing a few inches taller, and deepening his voice, is an incredible piece of physical acting. If Corenswet has a unique take on the Clark Kent persona, though, there’s no opportunity to see it in the new film, since the main characters he interacts with throughout the movie – Lois Lane and the members of the Justice Gang – already know his identity. 

Beyond that, Clark’s relationships with the rest of the Daily Planet staff are basically non-existent. Does anyone notice when Superman is locked up in an extra-dimensional prison and Clark doesn’t show up to work for days? Or that he’s missing when the Planet is evacuated amidst the destruction of Metropolis during the film’s final sequence? If they do, it doesn’t seem to matter. Steve Lombard (Beck Bennett) is more concerned with saving his baseball mitt than even remembering Clark Kent exists (though, to be fair, that’s pretty classic Steve Lombard). There came a point towards the end of the film when Perry White (Wendell Pierce) stepped out of the T-Ship after the day had been saved. The camera lingered on him as he took the cigar out of his mouth and looked around, and I half-expected him to spout a classic “Where the hell is Kent?!” at that moment. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) does more to acknowledge that Clark Kent exists than any of the other Planet staffers do, and that’s only because he threatens to kill Kent to torture Superman.

David Corenswet himself took this photo to prove that they’ve all met Clark Kent at least once.

Minimizing – basically ignoring – the Clark Kent persona removes one of the central elements of the character that has made him so compelling for 87 years. For one thing, the reader, or in this case the audience, knowing Clark is Superman while those around him don’t has long been a source of drama. How’s Clark going to slip off when danger strikes? Will people notice that he’s acting suspicious? And are there people who know his secret but just aren’t saying anything? There’s a great scene in, of all movies, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, that plays with that last question wonderfully. Superman is poisoned by the Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow) and becomes gravely ill, presumed dead by the public; meanwhile, Clark hasn’t shown up for work in a few days. Lois (Margot Kidder) stops by his apartment to check on him, and the two have a conversation that dances right up to the line of whether Lois knows he’s Superman or not. It ends with Lois turning Superman’s cape, which had been delivered to the Daily Planet, over to Clark, ‘in case he sees him.’ It a rich, poignant scene, and easily the best part of the movie, and it wouldn’t have been possible if the Clark Kent persona wasn’t such an important part of that series.

The external drama aside, there’s also the internal tension that ‘Clark Kent’ creates for Superman. No matter how he acts when he’s in disguise as Clark, whether it’s just quiet and fumbling or full-on milksop, Superman is hiding an aspect of his true self from the world, and from those he cares about. It’s one of the most relatable elements of the character, the feeling of not being able to be who you truly are for one reason or another, or that there’s more to you than what people see or can know. It’s also an important challenge that Superman faces, and he faces it every day.

It’s hard not to see the minimization of ‘Clark Kent’ in Superman as a result of a trend in superhero movies over the past 25 years. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning as it does with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) proudly proclaiming “I am Iron Man,” has largely eschewed the dual identity aspect of its heroes, save for in the case of one character: Spider-Man. Peter Parker (Tom Holland)’s secret identity is a complication in both Homecoming and Far From Home, and it’s the crux of the plot in No Way Home. Spidey aside, though, the MCU – the driving force for superhero cinematic storytelling since 2008 – hasn’t had much use for secret identities. The lack of ‘Clark Kent’ in Superman, then, could be something of a Marvel-ization of the character, or an adaptation to what audiences are used to when it comes to modern superhero movies.

Superman has so many strengths and so many other enjoyable things going on plot-wise that you’d be forgiven for not immediately noticing that Clark Kent, Reporter is basically an afterthought. The movie still fundamentally understands what makes Superman tick better than any big-screen Superman has in the past thirty years, even as it downplays a key piece of the character’s mythology. Clark Kent’s glasses – and the image of him removing them to become Superman – are iconic pieces of pop culture. Hopefully there will be room in future Superman films to explore that aspect of the character more.

Superman is in theaters now.