Superman/Fridge

Comics

Fridge Brilliance

• Bizarro. He's an imperfect, backwards clone of Superman. He's also a metaphor for humanity on the whole. Think of it; Bizarro has all of Superman's powers (if reversed, in some continuities), and is strengthened by that little green gemstone that would turn Superman into a peanut-allergic kid at the Reese's factory. In the same vein, humanity has surpassed most if not all of its natural boundaries, defying the elements time and again at every turn. So given this, why isn't Bizarro the hero? Simple: despite his power, he's not mentally capable of bearing the responsibility that comes with saving and protecting the world. He's every bit as powerful as the Big Blue Boy Scout, but his twisted logic won't let him do the good and right thing despite how badly he wants to. Sounds about right.
  • Staying on the subject of Superman, Clark Kenting. When Clark takes Kara for a stroll in downtown Metropolis they come across the huge statue of Superman that once stood over his tomb (he got better). Kara sees this and says that it's no wonder he can just put on a pair of glasses and walk around; this is how the people of earth see him. They would never suspect he was the dorky kid from Kansas pounding a keyboard in the Daily Planet. --SD 81
    • The entire idea of the supposed unrealism of Clark Kenting is exaggerated in the first place, based entirely on weak jokes that are vastly overplayed and were never funny to begin with. Consider it a bit of Real Life Fridge Brilliance if you must although it's more like common sense, but think about it: if you saw a guy who was the spitting image of Arnold Schwarzeneggar behind the counter at a Starbucks, only he has that green apron around him and he's wearing glasses, would you go, "AHA!! So Arnold Schwarzenegger is really a guy who makes coffee at a Starbucks in Bristol, Tennessee! I can't BELIEVE you thought you had us fooled! What do you take us for??!!" Or would you say, "Hey, has anyone ever told you that you look like just Arnold Schwarzenegger? Nah, you probably get that all the time, I'm sorry." The only unrealistic thing is how seldom people seem to mention these fictional characters' resemblance to their alter egos, but that is to some degree justified by it being a bit of Lampshade Hanging that would get old very easily, appearing to be nothing more than an overly long Running Gag.
    • Very true. Besides, we already have a real-life example of what happens when people assume that two similar people are the same person - the Elvis sightings. For all we know, tabloids in the DC Universe regularly run stories like "Man sees Superman in a bar in Texas!" What would the average person call someone who insists that Clark Kent is really Superman? Deluded, if they felt like being polite.
    • For a real life example, consider that there are famous people who do look a bit like each other: Keira Knightly and Natalie Portman for instance (Knightly played Portman's double in The Phantom Menace specifically for this reason). "Hey, Clark Kent sorta looks like Superman... bet he gets hassled by it all the time" is probably a realistic response for most people. The other common argument is to point out that someone, especially writers, can be famous and still not be well-known faces. Stephen King can probably be safely anonymous much of the time.
    • And, of course, there are only a handful of people who would have cause to suspect Superman and Clark Kent have any kind of connection whatever beyond a physical resemblance. The old crack about Superman and Clark Kent never being in the same place at the same time takes on different meaning when you realize that 99% of the population of the Earth or even Metropolis has never and most likely will never be in the same place as Clark Kent or Superman either.
• Just got the significance of Superman's Asskicking Pose. Crossing his arms is not just the standard "I'm angry" expression - it's also his way of saying he could beat you at least five different ways without ever uncrossing his arms.
  • This Tro--* smack* OW! Um, Batgirl 1 has her own ideas about Superman's pose. Note that In the older comics, when Superman was mainly Superman and Clark was just a disguise, his standard pose was arms-akimbo. In the post-reboot comics, where Superman is Clark, he defaults to arm-crossing. Arms-Akimbo is an aggressive posture; arms-crossed is defensive. It can be thought to symbolically represent his being brought down to more human levels from his prior Demi-god status, or something. Batgirl 1 may have too much time on her hands.
  • Crossing his arms like that (especially if hovering so the bad guys have to look up at him) also makes him look like everyone's I'm-so-disappointed-in-you angry DAD!
    • I can picture Jonathan Kent doing precisely that (minus the hovering) while looking down at his little adopted son who can't gather eggs without crushing them all. I wonder if Superman even realizes he's copying his father?
    • I just had a moment of Fridge Brilliance while reading the above two posts. Perhaps Superman is intentionally copying his father? In every comic I've ever read, Superman is both extremely idealistic and looks up to his father (or specifically, foster-father). Batman, in contrast, tries to scare people into behaving better (hence the bat thing), but Superman genuinely wants people to BE better. Who made him who he is (a hero)? His foster-father. So who else would he try to emulate?
  • A Boring but Practical explanation, at least from the movie and TV perspective, is that the arms crossed pose makes your biceps appear bigger than the arms akimbo pose.
• This may seem painfully obvious to you guys, but I only now just realized that Superman's hair swirl/the highlights on it form an 'S' shape, mirroring his logo!

Films

Fridge Brilliance

• Consider the scene where Clark first shows up at the Daily Planet and Lois takes note of his strange, folksy mannerisms. The easy assumption is that Clark (or at least the surface personality constructed for the secret identity) is just that wholesome and old fashioned. But consider that he has spent the last twelve years completely isolated in the Fortress of Solitude. It's possible that it isn't just a front -- Clark Kent seems old fashioned because he's literally more than a decade behind the times.
  • While there have been complaints about Superman having no one to punch in some movies, Superman is showing countering acts of nature, perhaps to establish that he operates at a level above the "common" superhero.
• In Superman, Superman starts making the headlines everywhere in Metropolis, except the Daily Planet. Perry White, naturally, doesn't like this, so he demands that someone try and interview Superman, saying it'll be "the single most important interview since... God talked to Moses!". I remembered the story of Moses was an influence on Superman's origins! -Premonition 45

Fridge Logic

• In the restored Superman II, Lois tricks Supes into dropping the mask by firing a blank at him. Wouldn't he at least have felt a bullet tap him?
  • Might have been too shocked by Lois' outrageous act to try to notice.
  • But shouldn't he have been able to see through the gun and know it's a blank?
    • He has to consciously use X-Ray vision, it's not always on.
  • When an apologetic Superman takes Lois for a high-altitude "joyride" in Returns, she should (at least) be quite uncomfortably chilly, but he's got it covered:

Lois: I had forgotten how warm you are.

• • If Krypton's sun really did go supernova (rather than Krypton itself exploding, as in the comics) wouldn't it have disintegrated all traces of the planet, leaving no kryptonite to wind up on Earth?