Superman: Secret Identity 
 

Writer: Kurt Busiek

Artist, Colorist and cover artist: Stuart Immonen

Letterer: Todd Klein 
 

Reviewed for Raging Bullets: BulletPoints by Omri Spirman 
 
 

**Warning: This review contains heavy spoilers.** 
 

Secret Identity:  The story of a young Mr. Kent, whose parents thought it would be good idea to name Clark.  
 
 

      Though not specifically stated, Secret Identity belongs to DC’s Elseworlds universe.  As it was originally conceived, this 4 issue miniseries was to be the story of a certain Clark Kent, a human with superpowers in a world where superheroes are comic book characters and do not exist.  It was intended to be an ongoing monthly series about the being known as Superboy- Prime, way before the idea of Infinite Crisis even crept into Geoff Johns’ mind, but the Crisis on Infinite Earths made him unusable, sending this story into the ‘imaginary tales’ category.  This incredible story is considered by many to be one of the finest Superman stories out there, even though it is most definitely not about Superman himself, but a certain “other” Clark Kent. 
 

      Each of the four chapters of this story begins with a quote from the story itself that captures the feel of the chapter, followed by a one page panel of an old superman comic that is actually part of the story, setting the tone for what is to follow.  To enhance the experience, apart from the reader’s omnipresent perspective, we are constantly offered Clark’s point of view through excerpts of his journal written on an old typewriter.  This lets the reader get fully immersed into Clark’s experiences and dilemmas, and enables us to get the full impact of the emotional tale this is. 
 

      The story begins introducing us to a teenager Clark Kent, whose whole life has been miserable for the mere fact of owning that famous name.  We see him getting superman- related gifts which are immediately stored in the closet and getting bullied by the jocks at school.  All this until, one fateful camping night, he wakes up in his sleeping bag, hovering several feet above ground.  After experimenting with his powers in a scene very reminiscent of the Spiderman movie where Peter Parker dodges a bully’s punch, Clark soon runs into his first emergency.  Without thinking twice, he rushes in to save people from a flood while attempting to not be seen at it, too smart a move for such a rookie at the business if you ask me.  The news of a flying man travel fast, and reporters begin to flock to the little town.  Deciding that he needs to do this discreetly to avoid problems later, he personally approaches a reporter and promises her an ongoing exclusive as long as she does not reveal his identity and helps him find the meaning behind his newly- acquired powers.  As time passes, he breaks his ties with the reporter and becomes more confident with his powers, and come Halloween night, he decides it is time to reveal himself to the world.  Wearing an old Superman costume he got a couple of years earlier, he goes to the town fair, only to be faced with an exploding gas main below the town center.  As he flies around saving people, he hears his best friend trapped beneath a beam, and zooms by to help her.  Cameras flash wildly as he lifts the beam above her, and he quickly understands that it is time to take a dive, letting the beam fall on top of him.  Reporters disillusioned, the news die out, but at school, the jock thanks him for helping his girlfriend.  Clark meditates, deciding not to go public, and the issue closes with a group of federal agents reporting to their superiors that Clark Kent is not the one they are looking for, foreshadowing a conflict to come later in the series. 
 

      In chapter 2, we catch up to Clark in his 20’s, working as a writer at The New Yorker, though he refuses to be called a reporter for obvious reasons of comparison to a certain ‘other’ Clark Kent.  Always ready to make fun of his name, the guys at work set him up on a blind date with Lois, who is offended by the joke and leaves angry. Clark follows her, and tells her he knows what she is going through: “I’m not just a Clark. I’m a Clark Kent. I’ve been set up with eighteen Loises, Seven Lanas and a Cat Grant.” As neither of them has any other plans, they end up going for dinner, in what is the beginning of their relationship.  As he struggles with the thought of telling her his secret, he flies into an ambush set up by the US army, is captured, and taken to a lab for experimentation.  Half dazed, he manages to escape the lab, making sure to destroy it on his way out.  Now that he knows he is being monitored, he begins being feeling guilty for what he is, but Lois, without knowing what he’s going through, manages to pull him out of the slump his is in.  When he finally gets back on his feet, he takes her to a rooftop, reveals his secret, and tells her everything.  She is supportive, and the issue ends with them flying off to Maine for breakfast. 
 

      Issue 3 jumps forward another 10 years, where the couple is already married and Clark is a prize winning author.  They are building a house on the Maine beach, where Clark is secretly digging a tunnel so that he can reach Boston Bay without the Feds knowing where he comes from.  He has established routines as Superman, and is very confident in both his abilities and his evasive tactics to avoid the government.  Then, one day his whole world is rocked – he is about to be a father to twins.  Suddenly his priorities shift, and he concludes that the only way to make it safe for his children is to get the government off his back.  Knowingly walking straight into an ambush, he disables the resistance and offers the agent a deal to help them in exchange for letting him go.  After the agent refuses, he decides to make a statement by pulling several pranks on the army, just to show them what he could do if he ever truly turned against them.  Though these in no way compromise national security, they are just funny little gags that show what he is capable of.  Some of these are switching the Pacific and Atlantic fleet’s nuclear missiles, hacking a broadcast satellite to delay the president’s speech with old Superman cartoons and switching the portfolios on a security briefing with issues of Action Comics.  Finally meeting an agent who has changed his mind, they strike a deal and Clark begins taking small missions for them, climaxing in a South American coup that had to be attended at the very moment that Lois was giving birth. 
 

      Chapter 4 begins on a Christmas night, with both daughters back home from college.  Clark is still going on missions, but he has grown older.  Both his speed and strength are not what they used to be.  His agent does not call him as often anymore, and Clark begins to see clues that there are other super- powered individuals working with the army besides him.  Just to be sure, Clark and Lois tested the girls when they were young, but eventually stopped as they felt they were treating them as lab rats.  One day, as Clark was on his way to clear a tornado by flying in the opposite direction – the Flash style – the tornado dissipates a second before he gets to it.  As he hovers there, baffled, he hears a familiar sound of laughter.  “Two of them.”  After talking to Lois back home, they decide not to pursue it and let the girls come forward themselves.  Visits and phone calls come and go, and the subject gets avoided, until one day, just as Clark fails to save a derailed train, both girls dressed in matching Supergirl costumes pick up the train and help him set it down.  Soon, he learns their powers developed in their teens, and that the government never tried to capture them – instead they got an invitation to ‘negotiate’.  They begin flying around together, and sometimes he even lets them go to mission in his stead.  Soon, his agent calls him for a last meeting, announcing that he is retiring and that they are retiring Clark as a helper.  Then, he reveals that he knew his real identity for a while now, but that the secret will go with him.  As they part ways, Clark is finally free to look for a future with Lois.  As the years go by, he even lets the girls completely take over his role.  By issue’s end, a white- haired Clark joins them only once a year and lives happily with Lois and his book writing, in a world that now has public government sponsorship of superheroes, one of whom one of the daughters is dating.  He knows the world is changing – but then, the world has to change.  Still able to fly, “I find myself watching a lot of sunsets lately… They’re majestic, stately, lovely and inevitable.  And then, a little ways to the east… it all starts over again.”