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"Rita, a secret identity is as precious as a baby dipped in diamonds. NEVER give it out, especially to mutants."
Ego has been altered.
Put simply, a superhero keeps his involvement in the events of the plot secret from some or all of the other characters. Usually, he does this by creating a second, separate persona for himself, which he uses while participating in the plot.
This may be done for several reasons:
While trying to protect that secret, the superhero is often placed in the worst kind of situations that threaten to expose it. For instance, there is the Bruce Wayne Held Hostage scenario. In more mundane moments, the superhero often has to quickly come up with a Secret Identity Change Trick in order to get out of sight. He may have to cut off most relationships to prevent this necessity.
People who guess at the connection almost invariably guess correctly. No matter how closely two superheroes resemble each other, no one will confuse them.
This is effectively a single-person variant of the Masquerade. Sometimes a select group of people are allowed to know the hero's secret identity. If they stay largely out of the action, outside an occasional errand or trap setup, they're simply Secret Keepers. If the relationship with the hero is deeper, at least on a professional basis, then the insider may be a Battle Butler. If one or both of a hero's parents were ever heroes themselves, they'll often be overjoyed rather than shocked at the child's heroism, and reveal it as part of their Secret Legacy.
See Secret Identity Identity for heroes where the secret identity isn't necessarily the "real" one.
One of the archetypal Secret Identities is that of the Rich Idiot With No Day Job.
Experts point to The Scarlet Pimpernel, written at the turn of the 20th century by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, as one of the earliest examples of this trope. Bob Ingersoll considers secret identities to be actually detrimental to fighting crime. Even so, it has become a staple of the Super Hero genre, to the point where it's easier to list exceptions, subversions and variations than straight examples — such as ...
DC Universe:
- J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, originally masqueraded as a human police detective named John Jones; a later Retcon made this an impersonation of a real detective Jones whose killing he had witnessed. Stories in the Modern Age have established the idea that, as an unlimited shapeshifter, J'onn has actually created dozens of secret identities (and at least one other heroic identity, the Bronze Wraith).
- Thoroughly deconstructed in the Post Crisis Captain Atom, in that Cap had a "secret non-identity": a government-written cover identity of "Cameron Scott" that exists only on paper, to hide his origins as the time-displaced product of a 1960s military experiment, and to hide that Cap was a government agent masquerading as a superhero.
- The deconstruction of the secret identity trope and its moral and ethical implications was one of the major themes of the series.
- Trident, an opponent of the New Teen Titans, was actually three separate individuals masquerading as a single villain.
- Similarly, the Crimson Fox of Justice League Europe was actually a pair of twin sisters sharing both a single heroic and civilian identity (after having faked the death of one sister).
- Oliver Queen, Green Arrow, says in The Longbow Hunters, "All those years of maintaining a secret identity, and the only reason nobody ever found out was that nobody cared!?"
- Amusingly subverted in Justice League Unlimited. "The Great Brain Robbery" featured Lex Luthor switching bodies with the Flash.
Lex: (looking in a mirror) At least I can discover the Flash's secret identity... (removes mask) ...I have no idea who this is.
- Taken for a spin in the final storyline of Justice League when, pursued by the conquering Thanagarians, the Justice League members decide the safest way to move is in their civilian identities (for the members who have them). The Flash balks at the idea, since it's, you know, his secret identity, and it's not like he doesn't trust the others, but... Impatient, Batman simply rattles off everyone's real name.
- And flat out averted with Green Lantern, who doesn't really see the need to hid his status as a galactic cop. Even his landlady knows about it (and, in one episode, attacks Flash with a broom when she mistakes him for part of his Rogues Gallery).
- The short-lived comic Aztec introduced two background characters, a married superhero couple, neither of whom knew the other's secret identity. Think about it.
Marvel Universe:
- For the bulk of his career, Tony Stark presented Iron Man to the public as an employee wearing the armor he invented, and serving as his bodyguard. This twist would actually seem to negate a great deal of the usual justifications for bothering to maintain a dual identity — the general public knows Stark designed the armor, and any enemies of Iron Man are likely to become enemies of Stark by association. It sometimes seems the primary reason for this posture is to give Tony a measure of legal cover for Iron Man's activities — and indeed, on at least one occasion, Tony has publicly "fired" Iron Man in response to a scandal arising from his actions.
- Eventually, Tony came out as Iron Man as part of a wave of secret identity refutations (Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, did the same thing around the same time).
- Spider-Man's secret identity as Peter Parker was one of the best-kept in the business for forty real-world years. He recently unmasked on TV during a press conference, as part of the Civil War continuity event. His boss/enemy J. Jonah Jameson fainted, then fired him.
- In Ultimate Marvel, on the other hand, Spidey's identity is the worst kept secret in superherodom. He's been unmasked by at least as many people as he's deliberately revealed his identity to. (A trend continued in the movies — he couldn't make it past his second film without being exposed to literally dozens of people.) The Ultimate version in particular may be a reference to the fan meme that Spiderman was one of the last big Marvel Characters to even bother with a secret identity, and his rogues gallery was full of people who knew him personally anyway.
- And then, after Marvel had said his identity would remain open for years, they promptly in-universe-retconned it with the One More Day/Brand New Day storyline. The less said about that, the better...
- The Scourge of the Underworld was an entire conspiracy collectively posing as a single vigilante killer.
- Aversion: when the Fantastic Four were created, they intentionally avoided many genre tropes to distance themselves from their Distinguished Competition (that is, DC's Justice League of America) — with the most significant of these decisions being their lack of dual identities. One popular in-story explanation implies Reed does so to not make the others, especially Ben Grimm (for whom keeping a secret identity is basically impossible), feel ashamed of their abilities.
- Matt Murdock's life has been subjected to significant upheaval and turmoil, stemming from his Daredevil identity. Kingpin made his life a living hell after discovering it in the classic Born Again storyline, although that disaster arguably paled in comparison to what he's currently going through ever since being outed in a major newspaper.
- Bruce Banner is The Incredible Hulk, which starts off as a secret but ends up as public knowledge in most continuities, in part because it's kind of a hard secret to keep under wraps. Ditto for his cousin Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk, albeit for somewhat different reasons. (Most of the time, She-Hulk is in control of whether she appears as Walters or She-Hulk; for a while, she appeared as She-Hulk pretty much all of the time, and eventually became locked in that form.)
- Thor's second identity for many years was protected by a Transformation Sequence. When Odin removed this power, Thor merely dressed normally to construct a new identity. While he worked in construction, the boss noticed his strength and his dexterity and concluded he had to be — Spiderman. A rare subversion of the "guess is always right." (He invited him home, and one of his children looked in Thor's dufflebag; the hammer gave it away.)
Other examples:
- Avatar The Last Airbender: Prince Zuko takes up the identity of The Blue Spirit on multiple occasions. Then Katara masquerades as the Painted Lady in one episode.
- Literary example: In Brothers in Arms by Lois Mc Master Bujold, Miles Vorkosigan tries to distance himself from his Secret Identity Admiral Naismith by claiming Naismith is his clone. Then he finds out that he really does have a clone, who tries to impersonate him and is not spotted by Miles's friends because they think the clone story is a fabrication.
- Parodied in the Monty Pythons Flying Circus sketch "Bicycle Repair Man", which is about a man in a society of people who constantly wear Superman costumes who, when bicycle-related trouble arises, becomes the overalls-and-cap wearing Bicycle Repair Man. "Is it a stockbroker?" "Is it a quantity surveyor?" "Is it a church warden?"
- Subverted in the comic book Preacher, in which a reporter investigating a serial killer called the Reaver Cleaver turns out to actually be the serial killer.
- WWE wrestler/parody superhero The Hurricane, true to form, maintained a secret identity as mild-mannered backstage interviewer Gregory Helms. His costume as an interviewer was even more outlandish than his superhero costume, with big thick horn-rimmed glasses and a plaid fedora with a press pass sticking out of it, and he fooled absolutely nobody.
- Except for the occasional character given an Idiot Ball by the writers.
- In the British kids' series Help Im A Teenage Outlaw, the main characters Tom, Moses and Deedee are secretly the highwayman Swiftnik and his two sidekicks. However, unknown to the other two, supposed peasant girl Deedee is actually an identity used by Lady Devereaux, a Rebellious Princess whom Tom/Swiftnik thinks of as his true love, despite being incapable of recognising her without her wig and dress.
- In the first few seasons of Power Rangers, all the heroes maintained "secret identities," even though all the villains knew full well who they were (and often attacked them as they went about their civilian lives). Some season finales end with the group being found out or deliberately morphing public; other incarnations of the show did away with this, often with the Rangers also functioning as a public law enforcement or rescue service.
- Transformers played with it a bit, putting what was, at the time, a new twist on it... The secret identities weren't millionaire playboys or mild-mannered reporters, but cars, jets, cameras, and other everyday vehicles and objects.
- As befits the nature of the game, Who Wants To Be A Superhero requires that the contestants guard their secret identities at all times. Letting hers slip got Monkey Woman eliminated in the first season; in the second, Hyper-Strike was reprimanded for telling his real last name to a group of children, and only survived that round of eliminations because fellow contestant Parthenon botched the Secret Test Of Character at the same time.
- Inverted in Jon Sable Freelance in that Sable is publically known as a mercenary. What he keeps secret is that writes children's books under the name "B.B. Flemm", and he has an elaborate disguise he wears when he has to make public appearances as Flemm. Furthermore, his publisher knows about Sable's real life, but is very persuasive in making him keep to his writing contract in that false identity.
- In the film version of Mystery Men, famous superhero Captain Amazing has Clark Kent glasses (which fool absolutely everyone except the protagonist), but the Mystery Men themselves don't generally bother. Everyone knows that Roy and his friends are trying to be superheroes, and the only one with a secret identity is the Blue Rajah. And that's only because he's embarrassed and doesn't want his mother to think he's weird.
- The webnovel Captain Gamer: Digital Defender plays around with secret identity candidates for the titular protagonist relentlessly. It practically drips with Lampshade Hanging, seeing as how the candidates (so far) are the local Jerkass (who may actually just hold up a Jerkass Facade?), an Intrepid Reporter, a famous actor who also has Jerkass tendencies, The Millionaire Playboy that said actor does not like, An employee of the main institute, and an aged teacher who more fits into the Mentor Archetype.
- Let's not forget that if you've read the webcomic, there's also a Rival to consider.
- Let's not even drag in any knowledge you'd gain by visiting the forums.
- Although they aren't super heroes, the talents employed by the Peacock talent agency in Penguin Revolution are obligated to maintain a secret identity, and fired if their real identity is revealed.
- Also not a superhero, the Hannah Montana show on Disney.
- Secret identities are a big deal throughout the Whateley Universe. At the Superhero School Whateley Academy, students use codenames, and for anything that might expose them (like printed campus security reports or the televised combat finals) they have to go by the codename and wear a costume. Way back when the headmistress was Ms. Might and her secret identity was blown, her husband was murdered and her kids were terrorized. She's tough on this rule.
- So many people in Suzumiya Haruhi.
They are all super-heroes, oh wait, they are just secret identities.
- In Ryuusei no Rockman / Mega Man Star Force, Subaru Hoshikawa goes out of his way to avoid revealing that he's actually Rockman / Mega Man.
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