The was a Batman:TAS crossover with Superman:TAS and I admit to being surprised that Lois knew Bruce Wayne was Batman while having nfi that Clark was Superman.
Spoilers "Superman & Lois" Season 2
- Thread starter The Realist
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The was a Batman:TAS crossover with Superman:TAS and I admit to being surprised that Lois knew Bruce Wayne was Batman while having nfi that Clark was Superman.
In the "All-Star Superman" comic mini, he outright told her he was Superman and she kept saying "Oh, BTW why did you dress up like Clark and say you were him before?"
I've been catching up on the Ultraman franchise, and it often uses the secret identity trope very arbitrarily, without a clear explanation for why the protagonist conceals his Ultra identity from his teammates. One example that bugged me was in Ultraman Taiga, which was set in a world where aliens lived secretly among us and many of them were just trying to get by, as an allegory for racial prejudice and homophobia and such. At one point, the hero's partner had a "coming out" scene where he nervously confessed to his teammates that he was an alien and they all took it completely in stride and accepted him. But the hero didn't reciprocate by sharing his secret that he was joined with an Ultraman (three of them, actually), and the show never really offered a clear reason why he didn't tell them, except that it's the usual formula of Ultraman shows. It seemed gratuitous that he kept hiding it even when his teammate entrusted him with an equal secret.
Then there's the Power Rangers franchise, where the heroes usually hide their identities from the public even though the villains know who they are, so they're only hiding from the people who don't threaten them.
Then there's the Power Rangers franchise, where the heroes usually hide their identities from the public even though the villains know who they are, so they're only hiding from the people who don't threaten them.
I suspect there was a time when the concept of secret identity was so ingrained in the collective imaginary that every hero had to have one, whether it made sense or not. A secret identity for the sake of itself. A couple of great examples are He-Man and She-Ra (the latter even more so than the former).
And I suppose it was also a form of laziness on the part of the authors. If they didn't know what to write, there was always the usual plot of the protagonist trying to hide the secret from someone in love with his/her alter-ego. It wrote itself!
And I suppose it was also a form of laziness on the part of the authors. If they didn't know what to write, there was always the usual plot of the protagonist trying to hide the secret from someone in love with his/her alter-ego. It wrote itself!
Exactly. Sometimes a thing is done, not because it's genuinely necessary or preferable, but just because it's taken for granted. The stories that stand out are the ones that do question the cliches and conventions.
The earliest "secret identity" stories tended to give their characters good reason for their secrets. The trope is generally considered to trace back to the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel, whose title character was rescuing nobles from execution during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution. So he had good reason to conceal his identity to protect himself from capture by his ruthless enemies. Similarly, Zorro/Don Diego lived under a corrupt regime and would probably face execution if he were exposed as a rebel against the state. In later stories, it got muddier. I guess the Shadow had a secret identity because his methods were all about misdirection and concealment; in fact, in the pulps, he had multiple secret identities. But by the time superhero comics came along, secret identities had just become the default expectation, and they were better justified in some cases than others.
The use of secret identities in Japanese tokusatsu superhero shows has often been quite arbitrary. I mentioned Ultraman and the Power Rangers, but early Kamen Rider was often even worse about it. The Rider would work with a monster-fighting team in his civilian identity, then change into Rider form and fight the same monsters with the same allies, yet he told no more than one of his allies that he and the Rider were the same person. There was no reason not to tell them when they were on the same team, and when the hero fulfilled the exact same role in the organization as both civilian and Rider. It was just an arbitrary requirement that he have a secret identity because that's what superheroes do.
There is the interesting example of S.I. in the anime Tiger & Bunny
Here the heroes are (heavily) sponsored public figures. They have secret identities, but only to be able to rest from time to time away from the crowd. They do not make it a pathological secret (on the contrary, on average close friends and relatives know it). And if every now and then someone finds out, they don't make a big deal out of it. And it seems that on average the media respect this desire for privacy.
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So basically like luchadores in Latin America, I guess.
Excellent analogy!
I think the best argument for secret identities being outdated is that modern technology makes them harder to maintain. There are surveillance cameras everywhere, the government can track people's phones, facial recognition and biometrics keep getting more and more advanced so that people can be identified by their gait and movement, and any DNA evidence a superhero leaves at a crime scene could be identified. Batwoman did a plot where the only way Batwoman avoided having her identity exposed was by having an ally that erased her DNA data from the official system. And I'm sure most of us have seen the cartoon of Lois being shocked when Facebook auto-tagged a photo of Superman as Clark Kent.
^Thanks... I wasn't sure what search terms to use to find it.
For decades, Iron Man had a secret identity and readers would have told you the whole 'double life as a wealthy industrialist and his own bodyguard' setup was key to the character. It was so ingrained that when a writer would try to get rid of it, the next promptly retconned it back.
Then one day they really got rid of it and everyone realized, hey, that actually works really well.
Just because it's always been done one way doesn't mean it's the best way.
Then one day they really got rid of it and everyone realized, hey, that actually works really well.
Just because it's always been done one way doesn't mean it's the best way.
IMO, secret identities should be a case-by-case thing. For example in the 'Young Justice' animated show the identities of the underage heroes are (quite understandably) very closely guarded secrets, even from each other to the point some even have false secret identities to disguise their real ones. That makes perfect sense to me on several levels.
Also, one gets the impression that the close friends and families of most if not all the adult heroes are very much in the loop (there's even a witsec style system for the families if they get outed.)
So far that show has easily done the best job of using the trope in a "realistic" way.
Also, one gets the impression that the close friends and families of most if not all the adult heroes are very much in the loop (there's even a witsec style system for the families if they get outed.)
So far that show has easily done the best job of using the trope in a "realistic" way.
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I thought the comics had already "outed" Stark as Iron Man for a while? Then again, if the movie didn't run with it and do super well, I'm sure the comics would've found some way to give him a secret ID again.
In the comics, virtually the only important superheroes with a bona-fide classic secret identity are Batman and SpiderMan. Then there is the bizzarre case of Daredevil, whose secret identity is outed every odd year. According Wikipedia, in this moment is still a secret, because everyone thought that Daredevil was Matt's brother (don't ask).
Didn't they already do that plot back in the 70s or 80s? Matt pretended to be his own brother, dressed in Hawaiian shirts and acted like an 80s Beach Bum?
I mean heck, people saying that Batman has to have a secret identity to work are only saying that because Batman without his secret identity has never been attempted. If Tony Stark could get mileage out of having no secret ID I don't see why we can't even get 1 Elseworlds where Bruce is open about being Batman.
Hm? Why exclude Superman and all the others? And how do you define "bona-fide classic secret identity?"
Superman has reveled his secret identity to the world
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