How dumb does Lois Lane have to be to not realize Superman's true identity?

Question

I mean for god sakes all he does is put on glasses and wears his hair a little different. At least Spiderman and Batman have masks to hide their identity.

Answer 1

This is SUCH a great question! and I'm going to try to give it the answer it deserves.

There are several sides to it. First is that (as pointed out right after the reboot of the DC universe after Crisis on Inifinite Earths) Superman takes pains not to let himself be recognized. He moves his head and face subtly in little ways even when he is otherwise still so that his face is subconsciously blurred to other people. Literally, all they recognize is the costume! I think another person said he always flies at supersonic speed, but that is only a part of the answer. He also has to be alert to people trying to photograph him and use his x-ray vision to mess up the film or the chip in the camera.

The next part of it is the total package he fits as Clark. He stoops to make himself seem shorter, uses a higher pitch voice (which was a lot more evident on the old time radio shows!) and combs his hair differently. (Actually, its that when he flies, his hair goes blowing all over the place!)

Besides, Superman and Clark are never seen together, so how would anybody compare them? Sure, a lot of similarities could be noticed that way. That's why Superman doesn't alow photos of himself. Telephotos that are enlarged probably can't show enough fine detail to be able to be certain about his identity.

Finally, there is the matter, why does anybody think that he HAS a secret identity...? That was what kept Luthor fooled, so that even when someone presented him with PROOF that Kent was Superman, he wouldn't believe it! (Partly, it was Luthor's own egotism, that if HE had super powers, he'd NEVER hide them! He'd want the fame and weath to go along with them, and he just couldn't imagine Superman being any different from himself at heart!)

But if Superman never mentioned HAVING a secret identity to anybody, nobody would think that he had one! Oh, sure, WE think that way, but we're the READERS!

People would notice, 'Hey, Kent has a strong resemblance to Superman." There would even be some good-natured kidding around the office: "Hey, Superman, get over here and help me move this heavy filing cabinet!" "Okay, boss." But as long as he didn't DO anything super, people would never begin to think that there was a real connection.

It's the same way child molesters and serial killers manage to live in the same neighborhood with other people for years, and the police are actively hunting them down all the time, but until they are actually caught (which is a lot more likely, without super powers to rely on), nobody ever suspects. It's only AFTER they are caught that people start thinking back and saying "You know, I always THOUGHT there was something fishy about him!" or, "I always suspected him, but I thought I MUST be wrong, he's lived here for years!", etc. People fool themselves.

Okay, that's the serious side. On the non-serious side, there was an issue of Action back in the early days, where someone impersonating Clark and wearing a Superman suit walked into the Daily Planet ofices, where Lois and Lana were at the time and said, "I'll tell you why I'll never marry you, Lois, or you, Lana! Who wants a wife who's so stupid, she doesn't realize I'm Clark Kent when I put these glasses on!" Which goes to prove my point: Because it was treated as a joke from the beginning, nobody would take seriously the suggestion that Kent might actually be Superman, even though he resembled him so strongly!

Anyhow, this was a great question. Keep on asking!

Answer 2

In the newest issue of All Star Superman, they showed in a believable manner how Lex Luthor could not even know that Superman was Clark (even with his glasses off!), and Luthor is a super genius!

It comes down to his attitude, voice, posture, hair, and maybe just a utter lack of confidence act that he uses as Clark. In real life people are able to juggle secret lives and identities, polygamists are a good real world example.

(of course the fact that Lois and Superman have been married for a good number of years now pretty much invalidates the question. She does know that Clark is Superman!)

edit: I have a friend who works for a security firm, he says that facial recognition software, even the most advanced in the planet, is thrown off by glasses. He also told me that many unslolved bank robberies have been the result of glasses foiling attempts to get a good likeness from video tapes. So I guess this really does work in real life as well!

Answer 3

It isn't just the glasses though, it is the mannerisms. Clark Kent is very meek and unobtrusive. Nerdy in many senses, whereas Superman is confident, not a nerd by any stretch of the immagination. And honestly, if you were Lois would you be paying that close attention to her face if a girl with equally good body to Superman's walked up to you in a pair of spandex tights and said wanna go for a little flight around the world. I don't think so.

Answer 4

Well...I read in some article his hair was parted differently as Clark and as Superman and that since he flew in 'supersonic' speeds, people could not really see his face. Clark is potrayed as more hunched backed (didn't really pay attention). With him being dorky, I would say Lois was also too busy to notice.

Clark personifies the geeks whom the chicks don't know he is alive. But Clark is a cheeky cheeky boy in Superman Returns, he actually (as implied) had a real 'night out' with Lois. Anyway, I think that really gave away the whole crap about him having integrity and standing for all that is right BS.

But hey, he might have left Earth coz he was feeling guilty over the whole deed rather than the 'oh so righteous' soul searching crap.

Then again, don't quote me...That's just what I think.

Answer 5

She is about as dumb as the writers of the new movie who tried to convince us that Superman son has asthma and is five years old, even though superman only left 5 years earlier and Lois would have been 9 months pregnant, which would have made superman a right git to not notice that. However, I do believe somehwere in one of the later comics back in the 70's that Superman was given his glasses from Jorel in his fortress of solitude. They were made special for superman to disguise him. Magic or something. I dunno, I think the writers were trying to tackle the same issue.

Answer 6

i van give you all kinds of hypothetical, but that's all were talking about any way.
my opinion is this,that some of the best disguises are the ones that are in plain sight,and the movie makes notice of that ,part of Kent's disguise is that he is a bit of a nerd or a stumble bum and couldn't possibly be the graceful and confident hero that superman is, he may look an awful lot like him but he just couldn't possibly be him.
believe it or not that's how most spies operate right in plain view of their intended target, disguises aren't only worn on the outside they have to be worn on the inside.
a good actor will tell you that a good costume can really bring the character they are portraying too life.

Answer 7

You must have forgot that superman put a mental block on her, made her forget.

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Super hypnotism: Pre-‘’Crisis’’, Superman had the ability to hypnotize others at will. This ability was dropped in the modern comics. One late 1970s story, attempting to explain the effectiveness of Superman's disguise as Clark Kent, suggested that his super-hypnotism, aided by his Clark Kent glasses, worked continually to make others see him as a thin, mild mannered man, not an athlete in a suit, and even included photographs of himself. However, this theory presented numerous flaws, such as various stories where Batman would disguise himself as Clark Kent; it also failed to account for anyone studying Kent's build from behind, let alone how the illusion could work on a video camera or whenever Kent was performing his job as a TV news anchorman. For these reasons, this explanation for his disguise's effectiveness was dropped, in favor of the traditional "suspension of disbelief" status quo.
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Answer 8

Well I don't think Lois is dumb, he's totally diferrent. Clark Kent is very wimpy, that's the point. I wouldn't guess he was Superman either. Clark Kent and Superman are oppossites.

Answer 9

Aw, c'mon... use your imagination... it's a comic book character... go along with the storyline! First, he combs his hair differently and assumes a totally different demanor and totally different body language and posture. One (Superman) looks taller and confident and the other looks slouched and timid. The voices are altered and the intonations used, too. It's part of the story, it's a make-believe world... sheesh... go along with it and don't kill the illusion of the storyline!

Answer 10

It's the blondisity of her. Every woman has it, some more that most of course. But blondness is not just the color of ones hair. Instead it is the missing balance of common sense that the male spectrum has.... I know its a load of bull, but it sounds good. lol, Id say she would have to be pretty dumb to say the least, or just cought up in work, that she doesnt realize it