On the secret identity question yet again: I've just seen the animated "The Batman Superman Movie," subtitled "World's Finest," which has another version of Bruce and Clark's mutual revelations.

Joker steals a statue made from a Kryptonite meteor and brings it to Metropolis, where he does a deal with Lex Luthor - he'll eliminate Superman for a billion dollars. Luthor agrees. Meanwhile Bats has seen some stone fragments from the statue and realises it's Kryptonite. He has business with Luthor as Bruce Wayne, so flies to Metropolis to do that and investigate.

Batman starts interrogating criminals in Metropolis, and Superman eventually turns up to intervene. Batman somehow uses a judo throw on him, and they start to fight. During the fight Superman uses his X-ray vision to see through Bruce's cowl - Superman gasps, and Batman says "You peeked!" and explains about the Kryptonite.

What he doesn't mention is that during the fight he planted a bug on Superman's cloak. A while later, as Clark is getting ready for bed, he finds the bug and looks out of the window to see Batman watching him through binoculars from a distant building.

Much later Bruce is forced to ditch his cloak and hood during a fight, and Lois learns his secret identity. There's also an abortive Bruce-Lois romance (Lois has no idea who Superman is) but while she likes Bruce she doesn't like Batman and it ends once she knows the truth.

It's actually a very intelligent little movie, about an hour long, and works well as part of the animated canon. I can't find any of this film's revelations on Youtube, but it wouldn't surprise me if they're there.

And here's a collection of revelations from various versions of Superman



Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game