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.