Any point in secret identities?

[JD]

That just made my day.

 

[Anwar]

And from a narrative point of view, all the secret identity stuff wasn't more sustainable. In the Pre-Crisis stories he constantly humiliated Lois and made her doubt her sanity while she tried to figure out if Superman and Clark were the same person. Readers were no longer just pre-teens who thought the girls have cooties. All the concept was now simply offensive.

Lois in general got the short end of the stick during the Silver Age and even the Bronze. The writers for some reason portrayed her as a nutcase. Maybe it was because they needed her to "deserve" the sick games Superman played with her.

It even extended to the movies, where for some reason Superman decided her knowing who he was in Superman II was bad so he violated her mind to make her forget.

Instead of, you know, working out whatever problems he and her had.

 

[Qonundrum]

They'll have some throwaway equivalent to "psychic paper" but for these newfanguled compooper things... or they'll use something like "Superheroes that came to Earth from planet Coldsore II emit radiation frequencies that jam local electronic fields within a 30 foot range so they can't be picked up." Of course, GPS renders that moot as well and, zoiks, even I wouldn't stay awake through all of that exposition...

 

[Qonundrum]

It's still pretty important in the DC universe. They've made the importance of secret identities and the consequences of the true identity of a hero a major point in several stories in the last decade. Now, not all of these stories were good, but that is another debate.

I think for the characters it still is important. Imagine if Batman's secret identity was public knowledge, it would take a lot of the mystique of the character away, even for readers.
Superman recently revealed his identity to the public in the comics, and already there are ramifications to that step. I fully expect that development to be retconned with the end of Bendis' run at the latest.

Over at Marvel, Spider-Man's identity being a secret is also a pretty important part of the character, the comics showed the personal catastrophe this would have in the aftermath of Civil War, and it was retconned pretty quickly (and with that intention from the very start, so it was more of a semi-reset button than a retcon.

Now, with the reality of governments and big tech using technology to learn (not necessarily publicly reveal, mind you) the true identity of superheroes, this has been used as story points, as well. Amanda Waller has been shown in "Justice League Unlimited" and the "Suicide Squad" movie to know the true identity of Batman, but keeping it to herself.

But even there, there are narrative ways to work around that, mostly organized heroes with their own resources
Even in reality, facial recognition is far from foolproof, even without masks. There are simply too many people that have similar facial structure. That's something that always bugged me about the "Superman only uses glasses as a disguise" complaint. So Clark Kent and Superman look alike, so what, so must dozens of other men in Metropolis alone.

Aside from that, Justice League-distributed (or Avengers-, in case of Marvel) tech could be used to narratively counter that technology. Special masks simulating different facial structure, apps to fool trackers in other apps for their smartphones, (you want to track me via my phone? What if my phone gives you the wrong GPS signal), and that's not even the usefulness of shapeshifting heroes in the community. At the end of the "Death & Return of Superman" saga in the comics, Matrix-Supergirl pretended to be Superman to publicly find a surviving Clark Kent under the rubble left from the Doomsday battle (or she pretended to be Clark, I can't remember right now). Something like that would throw off a lot of intelligence services, whether state or private.

^^this

Gone are the days of Batman 66 where cliffhangers threatening the unmasked hero remain enthralling.

 

[Qonundrum]

That's a good point that secret identities don't scale to the facial recognition era. They'd have to get masks that cover their entire face.

Then everyone will treat them like bank robbers, the guard uses the stun gun or bullet gun and the show's over too.

 

[Skipper]

Lois in general got the short end of the stick during the Silver Age and even the Bronze. The writers for some reason portrayed her as a nutcase. Maybe it was because they needed her to "deserve" the sick games Superman played with her.

Well, she was an independent and working woman. In the fifties. It was something which was highly frowned upon.

 

[Anwar]

Well, she was an independent and working woman. In the fifties. It was something which was highly frowned upon.

Ironically she was treated better in the 30s and 40s. From the 50s onwards she was this nutbag.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well, she was an independent and working woman. In the fifties. It was something which was highly frowned upon.

Intrepid girl reporter is a bit of trope in the 30s and 40s especially.
A grown woman being taken across the knee and spanked, often by a husband or boyfriend,is one too. One that seems to have lasted well in to the 20th Century and possibly beyond. I'm sure there's some wacky psychology involved in that!

 

[Christopher]

Intrepid girl reporter is a bit of trope in the 30s and 40s especially.

Yeah, but as always, there was a conservative backlash in the '50s, which is why Lois spent that whole decade in obsessive pursuit of marriage with Superman or some alternative swain. Wonder Woman too. It's unfortunate that National Comics' two most progressive heroines both ended up being written for nearly two decades by the profoundly misogynistic Robert Kanigher.

 

[Replica Picard]

Ironically she was treated better in the 30s and 40s. From the 50s onwards she was this nutbag.

An independent professional working woman in the 30's or 40's was quaint, and rare, and not a culture onto herself. Sometime shortly after the war, and the ratcheting up of female labor that it entailed, however, the men began to realize that they couldn't force the genie of women in the workplace back into the bottle: assertive women and feminism were suddenly things that needed to be demonized in the media to keep people (mostly young girls) from getting too many "crazy" ideas. (Just to be clear, I'm very much a feminist: I'm speaking from the perspective of many in the times we're talking about.)

A grown woman being taken across the knee and spanked, often by a husband or boyfriend,is one too. One that seems to have lasted well in to the 20th Century and possibly beyond. I'm sure there's some wacky psychology involved in that!

It's not a trope, it's something that feels nice if done properly, and always good fun for people with "daddy issues", too.

Um... not that I'd know anything about any of that.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It's not a trope, it's something that feels nice if done properly, and always good fun for people with "daddy issues", too.

Um... not that I'd know anything about any of that.

I was speaking of it's use in fiction. IRL, what ever works for your and you partner.

 

[Skipper]

While I can understand a desire for privacy, the effort he put to protect his secret identity at a certain point became ridiculous. He used robots, people under hypnosis, his friend Batman disguised as Clark Kent and so on to be sure that Lois didn't discover his secret. He couldn't use all this time and energy to, you know, help other people..?

 

[Nerys Myk]

While I can understand a desire for privacy, the effort he put to protect his secret identity at a certain point became ridiculous. He used robots, people under hypnosis, his friend Batman disguised as Clark Kent and so on to be sure that Lois didn't discover his secret. He couldn't use all this time and energy to, you know, help other people..?

You're overthinking it.

 

[Guy Gardener]

A while back, forgotten now, Lex Luthor told Clark "I try really hard not to kill you, because I'm in love with your wife, and she'd never forgive me if I did kill you."

Which is a fantastic argument against secret identities, not that every Supervillain is in love with Lois Lane, or are they?

 

[Replica Picard]

Besides, it wasn't that much effort: apparently anyone could be Clark with a couple of minutes to prep. JFK did it, no sweat.

 

[Replica Picard]

Which is a fantastic argument against secret identities, not that every Supervillain is in love with Lois Lane, or are they?

They are. It makes "Bring a date" night at Legion of Doom gatherings really awkward (and usually very destructive for Metropolis).

 

[Guy Gardener]

They are. It makes "Bring a date" night at Legion of Doom gatherings really awkward (and usually very destructive for Metropolis).

Several of those criminals have experience with robotics.

I can see date night turning into Thunderdome.

"Two Lois enter, One Lois leaves!"

 

[Christopher]

He couldn't use all this time and energy to, you know, help other people..?

Not under the Comics Code, when there couldn't really be any serious crimes. One could presume that Superman had effectively cleaned up crime and thus had a lot of free time on his hands.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

If there were not secret identities for superheroes then the heroes would either get bullied by the government or shown as being very subservient to the government (or really renegades) and also without much of a different personal life, none of which are good depictions to have, let alone for every hero.

Obviously, any truly independent superhero with a life or lives to protect would not want any government to share their most precious secret. Some make the laughable (and creatively bankrupt) argument that it is somehow "wrong" for superheroes to hide their costumed life from relatives and friends, but as comic history has illustrated in shocking cases, anyone knowing the hero's identity led to tragedy (Gwen Stacy, Iris West Allen, et al.). Being a superhero is not a high school club for giggles; it is the most dangerous of "professions" and being superheroes, their adversaries are usually of a level far beyond civilians' feeble ability to "protect" themselves against an attack of that kind. The idea that a hero's friends and in some cases, one barely known individual after another has any right to this information (they do not) or serve a practical purpose for their lives is ridiculous from an in-universe perspective and certainly a creative one.

It did for some 6 months, it eventually didn't because his identity was discovered and him not doing so from the general public wouldn't have made them more safe.

Hm.

 

[fireproof78]

The answer is simple-to avoid lawsuits.