WHY WAS CLARK WEARING GLASSES WHEN HE FIRST ARRIVED IN METROPOLIS?
WHY WAS CLARK WEARING GLASSES WHEN HE FIRST ARRIVED IN METROPOLIS?
| Go to Next Question | In the Pilot, Clark is shown wearing glasses as he gets off the bus. In
and of itself, this does not seem odd, in and of itself, until you
remember that Clark hadn't yet adopted the "Superman" persona, and
thus had no reason to use the glasses as a disguise. When Lois and
Clark first visit Smallville in "Green, Green Glow of Home" (from the
first season), none of Clark's friends comment on the glasses,
suggesting he's worn them for some time. So why wear them? This question has never been answered on the show. One possible (albeit cynical) explanation is that Dean Cain looks good in the glasses. Another is that TPTB goofed. Other ideas, expressed on the listserv (as summarized by Zoomway), include: (1) The glasses were given to Clark by his parents, either to remind him not to use his visual powers casually, accidently or in public. (2) The lenses provide a physical block to his effective visual range, and thus inhibit both x-ray and heat vision because not enough focal length/eye relief is provided. (3) The Kents felt Clark needed a disguise early on after becoming fearful when some 'scary' men came snooping around after his spaceship landed, and to make him resemble the Kents even if in a superficial way. (4) Clark's powers came gradually, and so perhaps at a young age, his vision was not perfect. In the comics (at least as re-conceived by John Byrne), Clark adopted the glasses disguise to protect his privacy, after he saved a doomed space plane in public and was mobbed afterwards. His dad gave him a pair of his old glasses to help change the look of Clark's face, and his mother sewed the Superman suit. |
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