History Main / SecondSuperIdentity

* In a non-superhero example, Miss Level the witch from ''Discworld/AHatFullOfSky'' used to perform in circuses as Topsy & Tipsy, a mind-reading act. This was made much easier because Miss Level is one person with two bodies.

* A Story Arc in ''{{Daredevil}}'' had an erzatz Daredevil running around Hell's Kitchen (the real Daredevil is in prison at the time), which turned out to be [[ImmortalIronFist Iron Fist.]]

** {{Spider-Man}} and DareDevil have been known to dress as each other to protect their secret identities. In one issue, Peter did it because he didn't have a spare costume available and wanted to borrow one of Matt's. Peter may have a special suit just for him, or DareDevil's eye pieces are removable so he can see.

* In ''Manga/DragonBall Z'', Gohan becomes a crime fighting superhero. At first, he just turns into a super saiyan and is referred to as "The Gold Fighter." Later, Bulma builds him a sentai outfight and he adopts the moniker, "The Great Saiyaman."

* In ''FiftyTwo'', everyone thought that Supernova was {{Superman}} in disguise. [[spoiler:Actually, it was BoosterGold from the future all along.]]

* Back in the early '90s, the Superman comic books had a super-antihero named Gangbuster. After a year, he turned out to be [[spoilers: Superman, with a trauma-induced separate personality]].

** The original, Silver Age supernova ''was'' Superman in disguise.

* There's a SilverAge comic in which Superman and Jimmy Olsen go to Kandor and are forced to take on the identities of Nightwing and Flamebird.

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[[quoteright:115:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/th_59.jpg]][[caption-width-right:115: Prodigy. AKA Spiderman. And also Dusk. And Hornet... and Richochet.]]

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* In ''DragonBallZ'', Gohan becomes a crime fighting superhero. At first, he just turns into a super saiyan and is referred to as "The Gold Fighter." Later, Bulma builds him a sentai outfight and he adopts the moniker, "The Great Saiyaman."

* SpiderMan did this as an entire group of heroes. When SpiderMan was accused of murder during the "Identity Crisis" storyline, he temporarily adopted four other costumed identities to allow him to continue fighting crime without appearing as Spider-Man: Hornet, Prodigy, Ricochet and Dusk. Eventually these personae were adopted by other heroes, creating The Slingers.

* In one episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries TheNewBatmanAdventures]]'', Batman faces a new vigilante in town who calls himself "The Judge", who is going after the city's criminal element and has a more violent manner of dealing with them. Batman tries to stop him as he targets Two Face, [[spoiler:only to discover at the end that The Judge is really a new multiple personality of Harvey Dent.]]

* In ''{{Dexter}}'', the Bay Harbor Butcher, who is famed for murdering serial killers, is actually Dexter. In the second season, the Bay Harbor Butcher even becomes inspiration for a super-hero character: The Dark Defender.

* TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks has quite a few one-off stories where superheroes become other superheroes under certain circumstances. For example, ''World's Finest'' #155 had [[spoiler:Batman]] become [[spoiler:Nightman]] after [[spoiler:Superman tricks him into being hypnotized]]. Note that the spoilers are deliberate, as the story revolves around the mystery of the hero's identity. Here's a link to the ''AgonyBooth'' [[http://www.agonybooth.com/agonizer/Worlds_Finest_Comics_155_Exit_Batman_Enter_Nightman.aspx review]] of ''World's Finest'' #155.

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* In one episode of ''TheNewBatmanAdventures'', Batman faces a new vigilante in town who calls himself "The Judge", who is going after the city's criminal element and has a more violent manner of dealing with them. Batman tries to stop him as he targets Two Face, [[spoiler:only to discover at the end that The Judge is really a new multiple personality of Harvey Dent.]]

* SpiderMan did this as an entire group of heroes. When SpiderMan was accused of murder during the "Identity Crisis" storyline, he temporarily adopted four other costumed identities to allow him to continue fighting crime without appearing as Spider-Man: Hornet, Progidy, Ricochet and Dusk. Eventually these personae were adopted by other heroes, creating The Slingers.

* Early in PeterDavid's run on ''TheIncredibleHulk'' the Hulk is caught in the middle of a gamma bomb explosion and presumed dead, but he ends up hiding out in Las Vegas as a mob enforcer calling himself Joe Fixit. This ends up being the gray Hulk's all-but-official name.

* There's a SilverAge comic in whic Superman and Jimmy Olsen go to Kandor and are forced to take on the identities of Nightwing and Flamebird.

aka Recursive Secret Identity