Superman: How Comics Have Tried to Explain the Glasses Thing

With James Gunn‘s Superman on the horizon, the Man of Steel is once again inspiring comic fans everywhere to debate one of the oldest questions in the sequential storytelling business: How do Clark Kent’s glasses disguise the fact that he’s actually not just a mild mannered reporter but an alien superhero from the depths of the cosmos? It’s a question that James Gunn recently told Rolling Stone he would grapple with in his upcoming take on the iconic hero, and it’s something that creators of the comics have been trying to wrap their heads around since the Silver Age. 

Clark Kent’s instantly recognizable thick-rimmed black specs are said to be inspired by the actor Harold Lloyd, who was sometimes confused by viewers with Charlie Chaplin until he started wearing glasses in his movies and became popularly known as the “Glass” character. In the very first Superman story, we also kind of get an explanation for just how the glasses work, which is simply that he doesn’t only put on the glasses but also an entirely different bumbling persona that sees him whining and simpering to Lois as Clark in contrast to the action-heavy heroics of Superman. 

Contextually it’s important to understand that even into the ‘70s, Superman comics were very, very silly, and the double life of Clark Kent was often the punchline. For example, in 1975’s Superman #291, Cary Bates and Curt Swan decided to help Superman once and for all prove he wasn’t Clark Kent by having the character use a cardboard cut out of his alter-ego, which he had peeled off a billboard. It was able to convince the people at an event that Clark and the Man of Tomorrow were truly in the room at the same time thanks to the fact that the attendees were wearing 3D glasses. With that said, it’s important to understand that while Gunn will surely try to find a grounded answer, the comics have often leaned even further into the absurd than this. 

Hypnotic Glasses

Nothing leans into the absurd nature of comic book explanations like the famously controversial and definitely no longer canon reasoning from the late ‘70s. While 1978’s Superman #330 is credited to Martin Pasko and Curt Swan, the actual concept the pair pitched in this issue came from a regular contributor to the DC letters pages, Al Shroeder III.

In the issue, it’s revealed through a series of deeply convoluted thought bubbles after a battle with the Batman villain Spellbinder that Clark has always been casually and unknowingly hypnotising people thanks to his glasses which are made from Kryptonian materials from his ship. While the hypnosis definitely did not stick, the notion of the glasses being made out of Kryptonian substances would actually come up in later explanations, including one that feels likely to be adapted by Gunn. 

They Don’t Make ‘Em Like (Kryptonians) Used To

1984’s Action Comics #555 by Paul Kupperberg and Superman legend Curt Swan, posed another explanation for how the glasses worked and it connected once again to Kal-El’s home of Krypton. This time, however, it wasn’t just Kryptonian materials. Instead Superman revealed that his glasses were made of the glass from the window of the ship that had brought him to Earth.

This allows the specs to be harder than diamond and help Superman escape from a strange prison that Parasite has him trapped in. But despite the more outrageous origins and trappings of the Bronze Age, it feels like something Gunn could easily adapt in a way that feels grounded and real, as well as adding another sentimental layer to the fantastical disguise. 

Posture Makes the Man

In 1986’s The Man of Steel, John Byrne reimagined Superman in the wake of the immense success of the movies and the groundbreaking DC event Crisis on Infinite Earths. Byrne’s Clark Kent shied away from the suits and reporters’ hats of yesteryear, instead feeling more current and real in business casual. Of course the glasses were a key part of why he was able to keep his identity a secret and, while the book doesn’t try to explain how it works as explicitly as others here, its creator has. 

In a modern interview with SyFy, Byrne explained why he believes Clark’s disguise makes sense—and it all goes back to Richard Donner’s first Superman movie.

“There is an amazing scene in the first Christopher Reeve movie where Lois has gone into the bedroom to change, Clark is standing there and he realizes he’s got to tell her [that he’s Superman], and he takes off his glasses, and he stands up—and he stands up like another four inches! And then he puts his glasses back on before she comes in. Christopher Reeve convinced me that if you part your hair on the other side, and wear a pair of glasses and slouch, you can look like somebody else.”

Byrne is far from the only one who has looked to Superman and Reeve for his reasoning. In 2005 during the Blackest Night event, Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke had Barry Allen make the same argument in Green Lantern #44. In that issue, the speedster states, “Clark slouches, wears clothes two sizes too big, and raises his voice an octave,” once again playing into the holistic physicality of the Clark persona rather than just the glasses themselves.  

Nice Shades

A couple of years before that, Superman: Birthright #3 by Mark Waid, Leinil Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, and Dave McCaig, another more simplistic reason was given. In that miniseries, Ma Kent claims that Clark’s eyes are simply too unnaturally blue and give him away too easily. She puts Pa’s glasses on Clark’s face and finds that they dim the bright blue hue just enough to disguise her alien son. Although that doesn’t exactly explain how the glasses work, it does imply that they have been a part of his disguise since youth, which is often one of the biggest critiques of the disguise. 

A few years later, Johns would attempt to once again explain the glasses in 2009’s Superman: Secret Origin alongside artist Gary Frank. In a more sentimental story, the glasses are revealed to be something that were introduced during his childhood in Smallville—not to hide his identity but instead to protect his neighbors and friends by protecting them from the heat rays that occasionally blast from his eyes. How do they do that? Well, in this version of the story they’re made of Kryptonian crystals that are impervious to his rays, stopping them from reaching any unintended targets in case of an accidental blast while playing or engaging in childish hijinx. We suspect Scott Summers would approve. 

This Is Your Mask

More recently in the 2019 anthology Mysteries of Love in Space #1 – “Glasses”, Jeff Loveness, Tom Grummett, and Cam Smith posed something more romantic than scientifically stated. In the gorgeously rendered story, it’s suggested that Superman’s human disguise, Clark Kent, is to make him as weak as his human counterparts. And that process humbles him in a way that no one would ever expect, allowing him to hide behind the glasses and meek facade, since no one imagines that would be a choice anyone as powerful as Superman would willingly make. 

One of the most recent moments to address the glasses came in 2023 in the pages of Action Comics #1052 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Rafa Sandoval. When asked why he even bothers to wear the glasses, Clark claims that “many of Earth’s protectors wear masks to protect their loved ones from people who would hurt them.” Although the comic stops short of giving an explanation for their effectiveness, this quote quite clearly makes the case for their inclusion in his “human” wardrobe by equating Clark’s ho-hum eyewear to something akin to Green Arrow’s domino mask. It’s a comparison that, in the wider context of DC’s masked superhero pantheon, makes sense.

All of that is to say that these are the kinds of questions that have fueled fandoms for nearly a century, and that I have built my love of comics and career off of thinking about and answering when and where I can. But the question of the glasses is really a question of suspension of disbelief, and how far you’re willing to go to stretch it. Sometimes digging deep into the weeds of how these things really work can dampen some of the magic of the stories themselves. And when that happens I always look to one of the best comics writers of all time, Grant Morrison. 

“Kids understand that real crabs don’t sing like the ones in The Little Mermaid. But you give an adult fiction, and the adult starts asking really f***ing dumb questions like, ‘How does Superman fly?’” Morrison told Rolling Stone magazine in 2011. “‘How do those eye beams work? Who pumps the Batmobile’s tires?’ It’s a fucking made-up story, you idiot! Nobody pumps the tires!” 

So maybe the reason that the glasses work is because two friends named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster decided that it was an interesting and eye-catching way of differentiating between Clark and Superman, and that really is enough.