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"...who, disguised as Clark Kent..."
Don't look at me. I didn't make it up. Siegel and Shuster did. Superman's the real guy, Clark's the disguise, and that's one of the masterstrokes that made Superman unique and brilliant for so long. One crucial key to Superman is that when he's wearing the suit, when he's flying around, he's not playing a role. He's not "playing" at being a superhero. This is who he is and who the Kents raised him to be - an angelic, unselfish champion who uses his gifts for the betterment of mankind. Wearing the suit simply means that he can act openly without fear of alienating others.
"Metropolis Clark," on the other hand, is a fabrication that serves a critical purpose - no matter how old, how mature Superman gets, he'll never lose that basic human need to be accepted by his peers. Moreover, one of the fundaments of the world's leading religions all throughout history is that despite our individuality, there exists on some level a connection between all the things in the universe, and one cannot exist meaningfully while denying that connection. Superman's a smart and worldly man. He knows this.
Clark allows Superman to immerse himself in humanity and thus never lose sight of his calling. The Clark disguise includes, at Ma Kent's insistence, glasses that help take attention away from Superman's most distinctive facial characteristic: blue eyes that would put Paul Newman's to shame, that are almost otherworldly in the compassion and warmth they radiate.
The drawback of being Clark, of course, is that it's during those times Kal-El has to be most careful. Above all, he wants to go unnoticed, to be one of those unremarkable, almost faceless guys in the office who no one thinks ill of but who you can never remember for sure whether or not he was at the office Christmas party. He has to be on-guard 24/7 against making any sort of physical slip-up. He can't play pickup basketball. He can't volunteer to help you move next weekend. Most of all, he can never, ever be confrontational, and that's the behavior that so easily gets misunderstood by the insensitive. Clark's not really a wimp; he's just mild-mannered, slightly aloof, and very tightly wrapped. When he screws up, people can die. Clark brings Kal-El so close to being human, so tantalizingly close... but never are we more "human" that when we make mistakes, and mistakes are the things CLark can least afford.
 There's also another sad irony to Clark, and it's one the reaches right to the heart of every adolescent out there: in order to have any sort of genuine relationship with people, Superman has to be someone he's not.
As much as I love Christopher Reeve's Clark, he was a cartoon and is too over-the-top for the purposes of this series. Clark doesn't have to be an overblown drama queen, but neither can he be so super-successful he has the world in his pocket. We must not forget why he was created in the first place - to be a touchstone. To be the half of Superman which readers can actually relate to because we all (especially comic fans) want to believe that eve though we may be put upon and bullied by the world from time to time, we know that those who pick on us or look down at us don't - that if they could see behind our glasses, they'd see Superman.
Clark's the sob sister of the Daily Planet, if not of all Metropolis. Despite his attempts to keep a low profile, compassion radiates from him, and people pick up on that almost unconsciously. Friends and total strangers alike constantly confess their plights and problems to poor Clark. They don't want advice. They just want someone to listen, and no one listens better than him. This aspect of his character naturally opens up the occasional avenue to the smaller human-interest sotry, which can be investigated by Clark the reporter.
Clark, like Superman, despite his farm background, has learned to be a vegetarian. Clark recycles, lives modestly, and in everyday ways lives a very environmentally friendly life.
Secret Files & Origins 2005
By Christine Boylan
Full Name: Kal-El/Clark Joseph Kent
 Occupation: Newspaper Reporter
Base of Operations: Metropolis
Martial Status: Married
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 225 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
First Appearance: (Historical) ACTION COMICS #1 (June, 1938); (Current) THE MAN OF STEEL #1 (June, 1986), SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT #1 (September, 2003)
Rocketed to Earth from the doomed planet Krypton, the infant Kal-El landed on Earth near the town of Smallville, Kansas, where he was raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent, the couple who had found his crashed rocketship They invested their adoptive son with a strong sense of compassion that would someday benefit the entire world.
As Clark matured, Earth's gravity (lighter than that of Krypton) and the rays of its yellow sun granted him powers far beyond those of normal men, powers he explored during an around-the-world journey in search of clues to his origins. Afterwards, he fashioned a costume based on what he had learned of his Kryptonian heritage and adopted the name given him by reporter Lois Lane, fighting for truth and justice as "Superman."
Hiding his Superman identity underneath, an unassuming demeanor, Clark -- who had developed a flair for journalism -- landed a job at Metropolis' Daily Planet. There, he and Lois Lane began as rivals but became partners. Clark's love for Lois, the only woman who could keep up with him in either identity, would later prompt him to reveal his secret identity to her, and the two eventually married.
Superman's abilities include flight, invulnerability, heat vision, and superhuman levels of strength, speed, hearing and eyesight. His only known weaknesses are Kryptonite (radioactive shards of the remnants of Krypton) and magic, which affects him as it does most mortals.
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