When Clark Kent puts on his glasses, nobody seems to know he’s Superman. It’s one of the silliest conceits in not just all of comic book lore, but perhaps, all of popular fiction, ever. And, while several actors have done incredible work in convincing audiences of this change, both in audio form and on camera, the comic books from which Supe derives also tried out one very bonkers explanation, 47 years ago, in December 1978, with issue #330 of the main Superman title. And now, in the new DCU Superman reboot movie, that exact plotline seems to be the basis for the current Clark Kent canon.
Without spoiling the movie, Superman director James Gunn has revealed that in the new film, Clark’s disguise is aided by the use of “Hypno Glasses,” which use Kryptonian technology to project a false image of a weaker, less recognizable Clark into the minds of humans everywhere. “It’s kind of been forgotten, but that’s from the comics,” Gunn said in an interview with ComicBook.com.
The story, from Superman #330, was titled “The Master Mesmerizer of Metropolis!” and was written by Martin Pasko in 1978 during what is generally thought of as “the Bronze Age” of comics. In it, we learn that the glasses that Clark wears are actually made of “Kryptonian plexiglass,” which amplifies a kind of “super hypnosis” that is “always working at low power.” Presumably, this Kryptonian plexiglass was leftover from the wreckage of the spaceship that brought little baby Kal-El to Earth.
In the issue, Clark asks a court reporter to draw a picture of Superman and a picture of Clark, but the picture drawn of Clark makes him look “frailer and not terribly handsome,” which is the result of Clark/Superman’s desire to make himself appear that way. “When people look at Clark, what they see is the image of Clark I try to project,” Superman narrates in the issue.
In his 2013 book Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, pop culture expert Glen Weldon referred to this telepathic effect as an “ambient Jedi mind trick.” This analysis seems correct, though Doctor Who fans could find a close comparison to the perception filter of the TARDIS and other objects in the Whoniverse.
Technically, DC later claimed that this story occurred in the continuity of Earth-32, a parallel Earth separate from what was then the primary canon of Earth One. By 1985, DC would collapse several of its multiverse strands in the infamous Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline, which is why, as Gunn has pointed out, the Hypno Glasses have been largely forgotten.
But, the aspect of this bit of Super-lore that has truly been forgotten is the actual origin of the concept. Although writer Martin Pasko gets the majority of the credit for the story, the truth is, this exact concept was suggested beforehand by a super-fan of Superman, Al Schroeder III. As a frequent contributor to the letters pages, Schroeder was one of the early types of comic book fans, who we would know think of as common: Someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of the worlds he loved, but also, with tons of questions about continuity, and possible solutions to perceived plot holes.
DC gave Schroeder credit as the “inspiration” for this story, which you can still see listed in various sources today. So, this means that what Gunn did for the new Superman wasn’t just to bring back an obscure bit of comic book lore from 1978. Instead, this plot point in the new film also honors a fan’s head canon, which happened to make it into the real pages of Superman.
So, if anything about the 2025 Superman feels wonky or strange or corny, you may want to consider that a huge inspiration for this film comes from classic comic books, and, in the case of the Hypno Glasses, the young fans who read those comics, generations ago.
