SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Superman #18 by Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Alex Sinclair and Dave Sharpe, on sale now.

The truth is out – Superman's secret identity as Clark Kent has been revealed to the world.

Again.

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In Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis and Joe Prado's Superman #18 -- appropriately entitled "Truth" -- the Man of Steel has come to a realization. Understanding he is a living symbol of truth, he now also understands that truth can't be compromised by keeping secrets from those who look up to him. Therefore, after first revealing who he is to his closest friends and confidantes, he delivers that same revelation publicly. The entire world -- and galaxy -- now knows Superman and Clark Kent are one and the same.

Superman's reasoning is certainly plausible, and stands to serve as lasting cause to permanently change one of the character's longest-standing aspects. However, it isn't the first time the Man of Steel's identity has been revealed -- in fact, it happened not long ago, and since that reveal has already been largely forgotten, it clearly didn't have the same staying power as the current one potentially does.

The Forgotten Truth

To commemorate the Free Comic Book Day event in 2015, DC released Divergence #1, a free comic containing a trio of stories setting up some of the publisher's upcoming storylines. One of the comic's entries dealt with the array of troubles faced by Superman after his identity had been revealed to the world -- against his will, by none other than Lois Lane.

It sounded intriguing, but there was a problem: the comic containing the actual reveal hadn't been published yet. Gene Luen Yang and John Romita Jr.'s Superman #41, in fact, didn't hit the shelves for another several weeks. The issue was the beginning of a new storyline -- also called "Truth" -- where Superman's identity had initially been discovered by a villain threatening to blackmail him.

lois lane hordr

That villain was known as HORDR_ROOT -- later revealed to be the son of Vandal Savage. The HORDR crime organization had learned Superman's identity and threatened to blackmail him into helping the organization exert its influence on the world. In a move to thwart HORDR_ROOT's efforts and remove their leverage against Superman, Lois implemented a scorched Earth solution by pre-emptively revealing the Man of Steel's identity to the world herself. The gambit worked -- Superman was able to eventually defeat HORDR, but with his identity exposed, he faced a whole new set of problems. Lois' unilateral decision to essentially ruin his life was but one of them.

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Things Only Got Worse

The subsequent days for Superman were dark -- his friends and colleagues were being threatened, he couldn't resume his previous life, and he even had to resort to joining a kind of underground super-fight club. The Man of Steel was no longer a shining beacon soaring the skies -- he was instead hiding in seedy Metropolis diners and staying in the shadows. The symbol of truth had been all but destroyed by the unveiling of a very dangerous one.

It was never really the same for the New 52 Superman after that. The final major Superman arc of that era dealt not only with his identity reveal but with the revelation that he was dying. A combination of exposure to Apokolips' fire pits, overuse of his newly-discovered solar flare power and subsequent exposure to Kryptonite eventually did the Man of Steel in. Fortunately, the pre-New 52 Superman had arrived in the wake of the Convergence event to take over after his counterpart's death.

Superman New 52 Superflare

Superman's death allowed DC to step back from the identity reveal, at least somewhat. Superman was dead, but now there was another Superman and another Clark Kent. If the other Superman's demise didn't convince the public that he wasn't Clark, at least there was some degree of uncertainty now.

The genie wasn't fully put back in the bottle until Peter J. Tomasi and Dan Jurgens' "Superman: Reborn" arc, published after DC's Rebirth initiative had begun. Through the magic of Mr. Mxyzptlk, the histories of both the New 52 and pre-New 52 Superman were converged into a single continuity serving as the launch point for the Man of Steel's Rebirth history. The move conveniently retconned the whole Superman/Clark reveal. The traditional status quo had returned -- Superman and Clark Kent were again two different people, as far as the world at large knew.

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Thankfully, It All Went Away

As convoluted as the solution might have been, it was nonetheless welcomed. The whole 2015 reveal was problematic from the beginning. After DC had killed the character in the infamous "Death of Superman" event, changed his costume in the so-called "Electric Superman" storyline, and later gave him a wife and child, the Last Great Superman Story remaining to be told was the one that revealed his identity to all. And when DC finally decided to tell it, it was badly botched by the publisher.

The reveal stood to be a potentially newsworthy and attention-grabbing event. Instead, DC spoiled its own revelation with its ill-scheduled and poorly sequenced rollout. And once the comic even caught up with its own storyline, it remained fraught with problems. With longtime, super-intelligent arch-foes like Brainiac and Lex Luthor, it was the unknown and now-forgotten HORDR_ROOT, of all villains, who discovered Superman's identity, when it instead should have been one of his greatest enemies. It just felt wrong.

And in that storyline, one of those greatest enemies turned out to be Lois. Yes, she had been a longtime thorn in Clark's side, always seemingly scheming to out him, but similarly always being outsmarted by him. Yet, in one of his rare moments of vulnerability, she chooses to capitalize on that momentary weakness and out him on her own. Trusted with his greatest secret, she didn't consult with him. She didn't consider the long-term consequences. She didn't consider what her rash actions would do to him, to those around him, and to the world. Instead, she acted on her own, and the results were disastrous.

In the end, it required two years, the character's death and a tortuous storyline to set things right again. And that's fine -- whatever the fix, if it paves the way for better stories going forward, then it was the right thing to do. And one of those better stories is the one Bendis is telling now -- the story that reconciles a character who represents truth and justice with one who has historically hidden who he truly is. The previous attempt to out Superman was convoluted, gimmicky, and poorly conceived. Bendis' story, though, is in full keeping with the character's nature.

Whether the reveal sticks or not remains to be seen. But while it does, it's at least one that's been character-driven and organically developed, not manufactured in order to prop up a publishing initiative that was increasingly unpopular in its waning days.

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