Hi Millefeuilles,
To me, Dean's Clark was far and away the best, but Christopher Reeve's Superman outshown all others. Of course, the two could not be combined into a single character, since their very cores were so different. (Dean's Clark was the real person in L&C, but Christopher Reeve's Clark was just a disguise.)
In the first two movies, especially the Donner cut, Clark is shown as much less then Superman but still his attitudes clearly show through in some of Superman's reactions. I think L&C's Clark is much more comfortable being himself, whereas Reeve's Clark was still overshadowed by his AI Father's ideas.
Dandello in her much of her Superman Returns
fanfic does a nice job of combining the two, and there are some others that do it nicely as well, Tandrelmairon's
Getting Eaten Alive is great fun.
Someone, likely Danello in one of her tales, has a character, talking with another character who has just met Clark Kent and is underwhelmed by him quote Paul at 2nd Corinthians 10:10 (NWT)“His letters are weighty and forceful, but his presence in person is weak and his speech contemptible.” The character continues saying it is the same with Clark, his articles are hard hitting well researched, pull no punches, and so on.
My wife has been an on-site apartment manager for decades, she has the ability to put on a smiling friendly "face" at anytime, regardless of her real mood or feelings, when dealing with residents. She has entirely different body language when dealing with residents, her bosses, and our friends.
I tend to think of Christopher Reeve's Clark and Superman as both just different "Faces" he presents. Likewise Cain's Clark and Superman showed different faces, and often a third face when dealing with Lois.
