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Contest: ENTER Could someone realistically uncover the secret identity of such a superhero in a real life scenario?

Unimatrix Q

Unimatrix Q

Commodore
Commodore
His/her superpowers:

X-Ray vision and farsight.

Creation of an alternate body within a radius of 1000 square miles, which doesn't resemble the original, and the abbility to project into it. This body has approximately the same physical strenth as Spider-Man and can fly at high speed.

Could such a person ever have his or her identity uncovered if he/she lives a normal life and only creates the second body to fight crime while pretending to sleep?

If yes, how?

And would the probability change if this person lived in a village or town nobody knows or in a big city?
 
Modern day it would be tougher to hide, but when the characters were first created it would have been considerably easier.
 
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The word "realistic" doesn't belong in your thread title.

You're not positing a "secret identity."

Simply and directly stated, what you posted is this:

"If someone were really two different people, could they hide the fact that they're really only one person, despite the fact that they're not one person but two separate people?"

:guffaw:
 
Does your scenario imply the body is created anew every night?
Two things come to mind:
- another character with psychic powers may be able to read the mind and determine the true identity (EDIT: oops I see this is invalidated)
- given that it's a 30 mile radius that the character can project maybe data mining could be used to narrow down the source
 
Mr. Adventure said:
Does your scenario imply the body is created anew every night?
Two things come to mind:
- another character with psychic powers may be able to read the mind and determine the true identity (EDIT: oops I see this is invalidated)
- given that it's a 30 mile radius that the character can project maybe data mining could be used to narrow down the source
Click to expand...

The body can only be created in that zone, but it can leave it and theoretically travel around the world.
 
Better question, would be, in an age of social media and smartphones and in increasing amount of tracking, would they be able to conceal their identity? Due to collated data, they would eventually be found out, not if, but when.
 
Owain Taggart said:
Better question, would be, in an age of social media and smartphones and in increasing amount of tracking, would they be able to conceal their identity? Due to collated data, they would eventually be found out, not if, but when.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's a really fascinating question. Would be great if someone would make a comic or novel about this!
 
Unimatrix Q said:
His/her superpowers:

X-Ray vision and farsight.

Creation of an alternate body within a radius of 1000 square miles, which doesn't resemble the original, and the abbility to project into it. This body has approximately the same physical strenth as Spider-Man and can fly at high speed.

Could such a person ever have his or her identity uncovered if he/she lives a normal life and only creates the second body to fight crime while pretending to sleep?

If yes, how?

And would the probability change if this person lived in a village or town nobody knows or in a big city?
Click to expand...

Are you talking something like SHAZAM? Captain Marvel (and yes, that's his name) is really a grown up Billy, so I guess if Billy grows up, there is no difference, but let's throw that away and just assume it's completely different in appearance.

Maybe I'm not following. Are you talking a situation where you can completely alter your appearance? Or by second body, something you can control from within a 1000 mile radius? If it's the former, it would be hard to discover the identity but not impossible. In today's world, it may be hard not to slip up and make your change without a camera catching you. So you could be busted that way.

If it's the latter, that's not really a secret identity--you are piloting a drone.
 
Unimatrix Q said:
Yeah, that's a really fascinating question. Would be great if someone would make a comic or novel about this!
Click to expand...


Thanks. Yeah, it would be fascinating. I'm thinking of the PS4 Superman game and any time you drop down to street level, the phones come out and everyone's taking pictures. Well, like we're learning now via the protests, anyone at any of them can and would most likely get their picture taken, which becomes data. With that data, and all the location reporting and tracking, it would only be a matter of time before a pattern emerges, and that he's tracked to his 'other' location, ie maybe someone even sees him enter his 'sleeping' location and takes a picture. If he has a mobile device and has it turned on during his 'crimefighting', then there's even more possibility that two and two will be put together.
 
Kirk Prime said:
Are you talking something like SHAZAM? Captain Marvel (and yes, that's his name) is really a grown up Billy, so I guess if Billy grows up, there is no difference, but let's throw that away and just assume it's completely different in appearance.

Maybe I'm not following. Are you talking a situation where you can completely alter your appearance? Or by second body, something you can control from within a 1000 mile radius? If it's the former, it would be hard to discover the identity but not impossible. In today's world, it may be hard not to slip up and make your change without a camera catching you. So you could be busted that way.

If it's the latter, that's not really a secret identity--you are piloting a drone.
Click to expand...

It's the latter, but i'm seeing it more like a kind of astral projection. The mind can create a second body, enter it and leave the original one behind, which seems to sleep for onlookers.

The second body can feel pain and if it receives mortal wounds, the person awakes in his/her normal body.
 
Humans have certain habits... patterns... unconscious as they may be. The created body might appear random but, most likely, there will be something common between them. Face shape.. eye shape... something. Perhaps it's unconsciously choosing the same clothes. OOOH! Clothes! Unconsciously choosing the same wardrobe as the secret identity. Unless the super identity wears a uniform.

Voice? accent? Gestures and mannerisms? I was amazed at how quickly I could recognize my father-in-law when he plays hockey. He might be in his padding and gear but he skates the same way he walks. When you are with someone long enough, you begin to recognize them by body language.

What about smell? Body smell? Aroma? Could a dog tell the created body is the same as the original body by sense of smell?
 
I was thinking about speech patterns and mannerisms as well. Knowledge might be another factor--also data mining--the astral body might visit the same locations as the host or order the same foods. If you are writing this and want the character to be identified the first thing would be friends--clues could very easily lead them to figure out the identity. Also, like in Spawn, if the astral projection is tracking down something that is important to the host then somebody could trace it if they were looking. Or the host could be traced to the astral projection based on tracing web searches, library visits, etc.
 
Kirk Prime said:
is really a grown up Billy, so I guess if Billy grows up, there is no difference
Click to expand...
But as an adult, Billy wouldn't neceassarily look just like Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel is big and buff, while the same height Billy might have a more average physical build, perhaps even a little pot belly.

Chrisopher Reeves did this thing with his body in his Superman movie, as Kent he slumped, relaxed his body, he was a couple of inches shorter, as Superman he stood up straight, squared his shoulders. Reeves play it as two different characters, with different body language, Kent and Superman moved differently.
 
Tenacity said:
Chrisopher Reeves did this thing with his body in his Superman movie, as Kent he slumped, relaxed his body, he was a couple of inches shorter, as Superman he stood up straight, squared his shoulders. Reeves play it as two different characters, with different body language, Kent and Superman moved differently.
Click to expand...

Which was a perfect portrayal of how Clark was supposed to be back in the Pre-Crisis years.
 
Unimatrix Q said:
It's the latter, but i'm seeing it more like a kind of astral projection. The mind can create a second body, enter it and leave the original one behind, which seems to sleep for onlookers.

The second body can feel pain and if it receives mortal wounds, the person awakes in his/her normal body.
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like you are operating a drone. Interesting that your hero can feel pain. Presumably, this is not an invention then, it's a biological ability. It's an interesting idea for a hero though. It brings other questions--if the hero is killed, what happens to the hero body? Does it disappear? Can the hero create a third body/another drone? If so, can he create multiple bodies at the same time?

I think in the case of the drone, it would all depend on how the body is created. Does it split off from the original person? Or can this hero make the body appear anywhere he wants? If there is trouble say 500 miles away, can the body instantly appear at the trouble site?

If so, then the hero can operate from a safe bunker, where it would be very difficult to know. What happens to the body when trouble is over? Same thing as death. Does it merge with the hero? Does it disappear?

The character would have to be fleshed out a bit to really decide how difficult it would be.

Shawnster said:
Humans have certain habits... patterns... unconscious as they may be. The created body might appear random but, most likely, there will be something common between them. Face shape.. eye shape... something. Perhaps it's unconsciously choosing the same clothes. OOOH! Clothes! Unconsciously choosing the same wardrobe as the secret identity. Unless the super identity wears a uniform.

Voice? accent? Gestures and mannerisms? I was amazed at how quickly I could recognize my father-in-law when he plays hockey. He might be in his padding and gear but he skates the same way he walks. When you are with someone long enough, you begin to recognize them by body language.

What about smell? Body smell? Aroma? Could a dog tell the created body is the same as the original body by sense of smell?
Click to expand...

That may be provable, but in theory, someone would have to suspect that there even IS a secret identity. It's safe to say that if the originator looks completely different, (maybe even a different race), why would anyone suspect the originator?

Think about it from the view of the average citizen. Superman comes on the scene. Why would anyone even suspect he is living as Clark Kent, or any human? Heroes with masks? Sure. But heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman don't hide their faces.

Now factor in a better disguise than a pair of glasses.
 
Kirk Prime said:
Sounds to me like you are operating a drone. Interesting that your hero can feel pain. Presumably, this is not an invention then, it's a biological ability. It's an interesting idea for a hero though. It brings other questions--if the hero is killed, what happens to the hero body? Does it disappear? Can the hero create a third body/another drone? If so, can he create multiple bodies at the same time?
Click to expand...

If the astral body gets killed, it vanishes and the mind gets thrown back in the original one.

The only way to defeat the hero would be to incapacitate or kill the original body, which has no superpowers beside farsight and x-ray vision.

The hero could always create another body if one of them gets destroyed.

By the way, the creation of the body works by visualization. The hero can mentally create an image of the body in the zone i mentioned, which then materializes.

The zone is always around the location of the original body, depending where it is. So he/she could theoretically travel to another place to make it more difficult or easier? for others to track the hero down.
 
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If you have a secret location like the Batcave or the Fortress of Solitude, then you have a place where you can protect the original body. Maybe we are getting off topic, but this is an interesting character.

So does this projected body look the same every time? Can the hero change this projected body's appearance? Can this astral body be a white guy one time, and a black guy another? Change genders?

That's certainly a way to throw off the scent.

Think The Doctor regeneration.

If this person can create a body upon the death of the astral body, can he create multiple bodies at the same time?

If he is watching on a monitor, can he project his body there? If so, his range can be anywhere there is a camera.
 
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