James Gunn Reveals His Clark Kent Has Hypno Glasses to Protect His Superman Identify
It’s one of the great mysteries — or rather, points of contention — among comics fans: how do people not realize that Clark Kent is Superman? After all, the only real “disguise” that Clark Kent uses in his everyday life is a pair of glasses and if we’re being honest, glasses don’t change a person’s appearance so much that you wouldn’t recognize them without them. With James Gunn’s Superman flying into theaters in just a couple of weeks, questions about how people don’t easily figure out that David Corenswet’s Clark Kent and Superman are the same guy, but it turns out the filmmaker had a solution for that: hypno glasses.
Speaking with ComicBook, Gunn revealed that the idea of simple glasses protecting Superman’s identity is something that he struggled with himself until he was reminded by comics writer Tom King that Clark Kent’s glasses have powers — and it is comic book canon.
“That’s canon in the comics,” Gunn said of the hypno glasses protecting Clark Kent’s identity. “It’s kind of been forgotten but that’s from the comics. I was sitting with Tom King, the comic book writer, and I was like, ‘you know the thing that I just don’t really know how to reconcile in myself is the glasses because the glasses always bothered me as a kid.’ They bothered me because I just don’t have that much suspension of disbelief to believe that.”
Gunn also noted that while Corenswet’s Clark Kent does actually look different from his Superman, the canonical glasses that hypnotize people to protect Superman’s identity is true to the character.
“You know, they’re two different people even though I think out of all the actors that have played Superman, Corenswet looks the most different as Clark Kent to Superman, even more so than Chris Reeve. But he said, ‘you know, there’s an answer for that in the comics, it’s canon that they hypnotize people.’”
And Gunn isn’t wrong — or rather, King isn’t. Superman (Vol.1) #330 from 1978 established that Superman uses “Super-Hypnosis”, combined with his glasses, to trick people into seeing Clark Kent as a distinctively different person than Superman. It’s a little goofy, but it’s a concept that has been used a few times since.
Of course, the hypno glasses isn’t the only deep cut from comics that Gunn is bringing to Superman A recent international teaser trailer for the film also revealed that fans will also get to see Superman utilize one of his oldest, but most underused powers: freeze breath. The trailer showed Superman using the power to blow a dog to safety while he battled a kaiju attacking Metropolis.
Superman stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. The cast includes Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, María Gabriela de Faría as Angela Spica/the Engineer, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, Alan Tudyk as Superman Robot #4, Neva Howell as Ma Kent, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Pa Kent, Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord, and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr. The DC Studios movie flies into theaters July 11.
