Page "Clark Kent" Paragraph 34

* Clark Kent is real, Superman the mask: With John Byrne's more assertive revamp of Clark Kent as well as Superman's greater grounding in Earth culture and humanity ( as opposed to the everpresent Kryptonian heritage of the Pre-Crisis version ), Superman is considered the " mask " and Clark the person.

This is made explicit by Clark himself in Superman ( vol.

2 ) # 53, when following his revelation to Lois of his role as Superman ( Action Comics # 662 ), he states: " I'm Clark, the man you love.

Superman is the creation – you named me, Lois.

" In pre-Crisis continuity, Kal-El was already a toddler before leaving Krypton, and retained memories of that childhood that later resurfaced, while, in Post-Crisis continuity, he was sent to Earth pre-natally in a " birthing matrix " ( more recently retconned as an infant ) and raised entirely by the Kents.

As a result of their rearing, Kal-El grows up to think of himself as Clark Kent, completely unaware of his alien heritage until he was well into adulthood ( the fact that the Kents found him sometime just after the Cold War meant that the Kents assumed the rocket they found him in was from an Earth-based space program-possibly that of Communist Russia-and that Clark had superhuman abilities because he was either a metahuman or some kind of genetic experiment ).

Although the morals instilled in him by the Kents have motivated Kal-El to use his abilities to help others, he developed the Superman persona to protect his Clark Kent identity.