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Day: March 4, 2009

Blasphemy: Clark Kent is not a Costume

Clark Kent is a persona Superman puts on to hide his real identity”

I’ve seen this in various forms over the years, mostly from “Comic Fans”  that is to say skinny legged hipsters and dudes with soul-patches with no double-chin to hide.  It’s the dissembling of Supermand versus Batman that places them as opposite ends of the Heroic Spectrum; where Superman is the Natural State of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne is the natural State of Batman.

This is so far from correct that it would take a series of GPS Units to Lead you back to almost correct.

While Superman may be naturally super-powered and simply taking advantage of his extraterrestrial birth; he isn’t “Superman” because of his powers.  Superman is Superman because he was Clark Kent first.  That’s why Clark Kent is so convincing to the people around him; that is the natual state of Superman.  He may be the premier superhuman of the DC universe, but Superman relaxes by doing crosswords with Lois Lane in bed, not tossing Meteors at passing Comets (just in case).

Batman, or “The Batman” relaxes by pulling on his cowl and beating up muggers.  An Ideal night for Bruce Wayne, going 12 hours without being called Bruce or Master Wayne once.  Batman is the Natural State of Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne is a costume “The Batman” wears when he wants to get things done.  He also moves around disguised as criminals.

Writers come and go for these two Characters; but the fundamentals have been fairly solid since the mid-eighties.  Superman is a powerful homebody named Clark Kent who loves his mommy and goes home to his wife at every opportunity.  Bruce Wayne is the farcical personality that the Batman has adopted to allow his activities to be funded and provide the means for his crusade to continue; The Batman barely tolerates Bruce Wayne and would NEVER go home if he could hack it.

I should keep comics on hand for these rants.  Oh Well.

This is not how Batman Died
This is not how Batman Died


Twitter Updates for 2009-03-04

  • OpenLDap Authentication working as required! Finally! I had some bad options set in the ldap.conf file (extraneous ones really) #
  • In order to save a few bucks, and to wait for the more convenient opening of the local gym, my membership will start April 1…no foolin; #
  • I am listening to The Zombies – Time of the Season #
  • Rebuilding and Documenting OpenLDAP setup…. going really well, but it’s time consuming #
  • Dear Tim Hortons, I appreciate the chance to play again, but why do you keep giving free stuff to the guy I am Picking Coffee up for? WHY? #
  • Running updates on my test client, about an hour to go. Shoot! #
  • Did I mention that my landlord wants 350 bucks for the toilet? I can’t argue that nothing we did caused it, but it I still hate it. #
  • It’s SO GOD DAMNED HOT IN THIS OFFICE! #
  • Gonna go take in the sights, really hot in here. Back soon. #

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