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Old 10-08-2018, 03:53 PM   #4
Leo656
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I believe the 1940s film serials also had him grow up in an orphanage, but it's been a while since I've seen them.

One thing I've noticed with the writers, is that if to them, Superman is "the real guy" and Clark is just a disguise, they kill his parents. If the writer's approach is, "Clark is the real guy and Superman is just his working gimmick", they keep his parents alive. A lot of it centers on whether the writer sees him as more human or more alien.

I've never understood the "Clark is the mask" approach. He was raised as "Clark Kent", lived and acted and thought as "Clark Kent" for an entire two decades before he was "Superman"; why would he be "Superman" in his head once he finds out he's an alien? He'd still be the exact same person he always was, except now he knows why he's bulletproof.

Byrne/Jurgens did it best. His alien heritage was once dismissed by another character as "An accident of birth", reinforcing the idea that Clark sees himself as "human, but gifted," even though he's aware that's not literally the truth. And when he discovered his Kryptonian origins, he mostly dismissed it and went on with his life, realizing quite logically that where he was physically born had very little to do with the person he had become, whereas it was Smallville and the Kents who had shaped him into a "Superman".

I think I'm gonna re-read Byrne's "Man of Steel" one of these days.
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