DC’s new Superman comic is Clark Kent’s coming-out story

DC Comics promised that Superman would tell the world this December that he was Clark Kent and would drop the original secret identity into superhero comics. This week, as promised, Superman # 18 did a major press conference and a heartfelt speech.

I expected the issue written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Ivan Reis to be fun, but I did not expect her to touch me that way. Before he reveals his identity to the world, Superman first has to tell a few people which one is closest to him. Here I became very familiar with the topic, someone who came out as a bisexual in her 30s. It is difficult to share your identity with others, even if you are the man of steel.

(Ed. Note: This piece contains spoilers for Superman # 18.)

Superman has been through a lot in the last few months. It turned out that his Kryptonian father was secretly living but was a supervillain. Just as Clark had resigned himself, Jor-El was sentenced to be sent back in time to die on Krypton. Meanwhile, Lois finally told her Anti-Superman father that his beloved son-in-law and the caring father of his grandson were Superman – just so Sam Lane was killed by a supervillain before they could reconcile. In addition, Superman defeated this supervillain, whose whole business was to repair the world by revealing all their secrets.

With his run on Superman, Bendis has created a kind of perfect storm of Superman stories about the dangerous security of secrets, in a time when very few of the hero’s loves – allegedly protected by his secret identity – actually need protection. In the current continuity of DC Comics, most people close to Clark Kent / Superman already know that both are one and the same. Lois, like his wife, obviously knows it, as does his son Jon. The core members of the Justice League know. Why, he wonders, does he have to keep that secret? And would he be happier? Would the world be better if he did not do it?

Two big outliers remain on the Daily Planet: crack photographer Jimmy Olsen and editor-in-chief Perry White. Jimmy turns it into a big joke, because when Clark reaches him, Lois has already spread the news. (I assume that we’ll see her tell him on the pages of Lois Lane or Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen.)

Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Rice / DC Comics

Perry, as Clark’s boss and longtime editor, seems to understand that as well. On a page without dialogue, Clark unveils his costume and Perry just goes to him and hugs him. A few pages later we see Supergirl and most members of the Justice League cheering for Clark’s press conference. Even Batman smiles crookedly.

These pages were the ones that put a lump in my throat. Like Clark, I had supportive staff, friends and family when I came out – damn, I even had a supportive online fan base. And I was pretty confident that everything would be fine.

But even if you are confident in your identity, your job and your life situation and are confident that your loved ones will take it well, it is nerve wracking to come out. No matter how you look at it, you make yourself extremely vulnerable and do it to redefine your identity for the rest of your life.

The usual cry in looking at a modern Superman movie is that it’s hard to relate it, make it fallible or human. It is difficult to look at these three sides and to see nobody who is very, very human.

Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Rice / DC Comics

Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Rice / DC Comics

Bendis and Rice keep the focus of Superman # 18 on their loved ones and finish the matter before we get an indication of the world’s reaction, and it’s the best way they could frame something so monumental. In a genre that has the phrase “Nothing will ever be the same” about every two months, it becomes easy for readers to become tired and cagey when the announcement of each one is made. Superman # 18 puts an end to a headline and makes it human.