Disclaimer: All characters are copyright DC Comics.
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Chapter One – Brilliant Disguise
This was Clark's final morning living in Smallville, but, before he went, there were a few last minute details to sort out. Martha Kent looked at Clark as he tried on the outfit she'd designed.
"Thought of a name yet?" she asked, but Clark was too busy admiring himself in the mirror to notice her. She repeated the question, this time tugging on his cape to attract his attention.
"Oh, I don't know … I was thinking of .. well it was kind of Pete's idea … Superman. Although I'm having second thoughts – it seems slightly immodest."
"Well, I think it's perfect," she lied (she was after all his mother and thought Superman didn't really do him justice – she would have gone for at least Superduperman). "Oh, one last thing. You'll need a disguise."
She passed him a glasses case. Clark opened it expecting to find a mask of some type, but instead found a pair of glasses.
"Try them on," she said eagerly.
An unenthusiastic Clark tried on the glasses, just to please his mother.
"Wow, that's amazing," was her awestruck reaction. "You look completely different."
Clark smiled at Martha – she was obviously playing a joke on him. And then he saw a mild-mannered stranger looking back at him from the mirror. Clark was speechless. The transformation was unbelievable – the glasses changed his look far more than any mask ever could. They would be the perfect disguise
There was just one problem …
"But everyone in Smallville's seen me without my glasses …" he said, passing the glasses back to Martha.
"Well, durr," reasoned Martha, smacking him on the forehead with her empty palm (which hurt her infinitely more than it hurt her invulnerable son). "Clark, you're not thinking straight. It's blindingly obvious."
After a few seconds of Clark gazing at her blankly, Martha explained the blindingly obvious to him.
"Oh, I see," Clark said, nodding. "In that case, I guess I'll just take your glasses."
Months later, in Metropolis, Clark wished, for what felt like the millionth time, that he'd just hurt his mother's feelings rather than going along with her idea of a disguise (no matter how effective it was). As he saw the giant S symbol appear in the sky (the signal watch that he'd given Jimmy Olsen was still in its prototype stage), Clark rushed to an empty storage room, pulled his shirt open to reveal his costume's S symbol and, with his right hand, grabbed hold of his glasses … and put them on.
As he flew off, through an open window, into the sky, he heard the familiar shouts from down below…
"Look! Up in the sky!"
"It's a nerd!"
"It's a brain!"
"It's Superman!"