History Main / TheRealRemingtonSteele

** The novel ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' briefly toyed with the notion that [[spoiler:Full Frontal, the story's CharClone, was in fact the '''real''' Char, who survived the shuttle bomb all those decades ago]].

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

* Shortly after the Watergate scandal and resignation of President UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Steve Rogers]] abandoned the identity of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and adopted the new identity of Nomad, the man without a country. After a few months, Rogers returned to fighting crime as Captain America. Years later, Jack Monroe (aka [[Characters/MarvelComicsBuckyBarnes Bucky]]), formerly the {{sidekick}} of the Captain America of the 1950s, took up the mantle of Nomad. Played with in a later storyline, when the U.S. government attempts to assert control over Captain America. Steve Rogers allows them to take the name, costume and shield away from him rather than become a government lapdog, only to don a {{Palette Swap}}ped costume and fight crime as simply "The Captain". When Rogers eventually reclaimed the Captain America identity, he swapped uniforms with the other individual the government had placed as Captain America, who was re-dubbed "The U.S. Agent".
* In ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'', Deadpool himself is convinced he's Wade Wilson (I am!), and though Agent X claimed to be him, it was because Black Swan absorbed Deadpool's powers while trying to save himself, which led to Nijo obtaining his regeneration and part of his memories when he was revived. T-Ray ''also'' claimed to be the real Wade Wilson. For a while who the real Wade is varied DependingOnTheWriter, now it's just [[RiddleForTheAges Who the Hell Knows]]. (Both 'Pool and T-Ray are kind of nuts, so you really can't take either of them at their word.)
* ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'' has Walter Dorian. In the first stories Walter Dorian is an alias used by the titular VillainProtagonist as a SecretIdentity, abandoned after Ginko arrested Diabolik and exposed his true face. Years later, reasoning that when he first arrived in Clerville Diabolik didn't have the means to create a convincing fake identity yet, the authors created a ''real'' Walter Dorian, an IdenticalStranger of Diabolik whose identity was stolen by the title character after nearly killing him in another country (Dorian was left for dead and was imprisoned as a spy by soldiers who were about to rebel).
* The Invincible Man from Marvel Comics. The first person in the costume was the Super Skrull. Not only was he in a full costume, but he was pretending to be Dr. Franklin Storm, father to Susan and Johnny Storm of the ComicBook/FantasticFour. The Skrulls kidnapped Franklin and pretended he had gone mad and given himself super powers while in prison. Reed Richards saw through the deception when he noticed Invincible Man's powers were similar to their own. The second person was Reed himself, who was kidnapped and brainwashed into becoming the Invincible Man to help kidnap the rest of the Fantastic Four. Ultimately, this was a plan created by Doctor Doom. Reed's version used technology from the Psycho-Man to play with people's emotions and create hallucinations. The third Invincible Man was Doom himself. Prior to the Secret Wars, he lost his body during the battle between Characters/SilverSurfer and Terrax and was forced to body-swap with a random pedestrian before he died, created a makeshift costume and weapons, and attacked the Latverian embassy. Doom's ultimate plan was to get to his resources, including his spare suit of armor, and recreate his body. The story arc ended with Doom getting his body back and leaving the innocent man's body once his mind was transferred by the Beyonder, whom he accidentally called to the scene (due to temporal paradoxes the Doom who fought in the Secret Wars was Doom from THAT point in time, with no knowledge of the Secret Wars).
* When Characters/{{Domino|Marvel Comics}} was first introduced, it wasn't actually the ''real'' Domino, but rather another character named Copycat impersonating her. The real Domino wouldn't show up for another year after the fact.
* ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica: An apparent sorcerer named Bloodwynd joined the Justice League in the early 1990s. Eventually this turned out to be the ComicBook/MartianManhunter, forced to ''impersonate'' the real Bloodwynd, who was trapped inside the magic gem the Manhunter had been wearing during the impersonation.
* The fifth issue of the 1966 ''ComicBook/PlasticMan'' comic had Plastic Man attempt to thwart a gang's plan to reward a fortune to the first crook that can off Plastic Man by pretending to be a brute known as the Assassin and tossing his friend Gordon K. Trueblood into the water while the latter was disguised as Plastic Man (Trueblood was in on the trick and Plas fished him out when no one was looking). When Plastic Man as the Assassin shows up to claim the prize money, his deception is ruined when the Assassin turns out to be real and desires to kill Plastic Man for impersonating him.

** ''Spider-Man'' introduced a new heroine called Jackpot, who is probably best known so far for maybe possibly potentially being [[Characters/MarvelComicsMaryJaneWatson Mary Jane Watson]]. [[RedHerring It wasn't]], but no sooner did we find that out than the girl was killed. This girl was intended to be the "Uncle Ben" for the original Jackpot, who came up with the identity but passed it off to someone else as she didn't want the [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility Great Responsibility]]. The "original" Jackpot (Sara Ehret) then received an epic chewing out by Spidey for her RefusalOfTheCall resulting in an innocent's death which prompted her to take the identity for real... and shortly afterwards a villain learned her true identity (by utter coincidence) and sent a thug to kill her husband in front of their daughter, forcing both to go into hiding under false identities.
* ComicBook/SquadronSupreme started as JLA supervillain {{Exp|y}}ies, but later it was retconned that they're evil duplicates of alternate universe heroes.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* Creator/AlanMoore's run of ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' famously revealed that the titular character wasn't Alec Holland, but rather a living mass of plant life that had consumed his memories and personality. After the events of ''ComicBook/BrightestDay'', the real Alec Holland was brought BackFromTheDead and became Swamp Thing for real.

* A double example from the Creator/{{Wildstorm}} universe, the android [[ComicBook/WildCATSWildStorm Spartan/Yon Kohl/John Colt]] [[RetCon turned out to be]] imprinted with the mind of the original Yon Kohl/John Colt, who had died in the sixties. Later, it was revealed that Colt was NotQuiteDead and had created the identity of Kaizen Gamorra, an [[FaceHeelTurn insane dictator]]. After he was killed again (by the same guy, in the same way, but this time he's [[DeathIsCheap definitely, totally, for real dead. Probably.]]) Then we discover that there was a real Kaizen Gamorra who's not happy that Colt imprisoned him and stole his identity.
* The character of "ComicBook/WonderGirl" originally appeared as the teenaged incarnation of Characters/{{Wonder Woman|TheCharacter}} in ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'' (just as the original Superboy was the youthful identity of Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}}). When the Comicbook/TeenTitans were created in the 1960s, Wonder Girl was added to the team... but the Titans were contemporaries of the ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, [[SeriesContinuityError and by extension of Wonder Woman]]. Thus the Titans' Wonder Girl was explained four years later to be [[Characters/WonderGirlDonnaTroy Donna Troy]], an orphan rescued by Wonder Woman and raised among the Amazons. (This explanation would be subjected to repeated [[{{Retcon}} further revisions]] due to Franchise/TheDCU's constant reboots and retoolings, with [[ContinuitySnarl/DonnaTroy the result being that Donna has an impossibly convoluted history even for a comic book character]]. For a while it was even said that she is left over from TheMultiverse as it existed before most dimensions were destroyed and the survivors merged during ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths,'' making her ''a walking TemporalParadox who has multiple conflicting histories by nature!'' However, DC's continued inability to leave well enough alone means that that is now no longer true and she's ''still'' getting new origins every few years - some of which are actually ''impossible'' due to the revised histories of related characters!)

** Jewelry Bonney infiltrates the Levely by [[TimeMaster aging herself]] to look like a very old lady and using the alias of "Connie", the Queen Dowager of the Sorbet Kingdom. [[spoiler:Come the Egghead arc, Bonney's backstory reveals that not only is Connie both real the Queen Dowager of Sorbet, but Bonney knows her personally since she was acquainted with her adoptive father, Bartholomew Kuma, back when the two still lived in the Sorbet Kingdom themselves. Connie just happens to look like an aged-up Bonney.]]

** Jewelry Bonney infiltrates the Levely by [[TimeMaster aging herself]] to look like a very old lady and using the alias of "Connie", the Queen Dowager of the Sorbet Kingdom. [[spoiler:Come the Egghead arc, Bonney's backstory reveals that not only Connie is real and that she really is the Queen Dowager of Sorbet, but that Bonney knows her personally since she was acquainted with her adoptive father, Bartholomew Kuma, back when the two still lived in the Sorbet Kingdom themselves. Connie just happens to look like an aged-up Bonney.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', [[spoiler: Monica]] is an ImpersonationExclusiveCharacter who has suffered a KillAndReplace by the time we meet "her". Via ForWantOfANail in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriorsThreeHopes'', the real [[spoiler: Monica]] is rescued and becomes a playable character.

->''"As is the case with comic continuity, ComicBook/{{Magneto}} supposedly died, but then it turns out that he just faked his death by impersonating a new character, and it was all some plan to take over the world and engage in hypocritical acts before he's killed again, but then it turns out it's not really him and-the-character-he-made-up-was-actually-a-real-person-who's-still-alive-so-Magneto-was-actually-some-guy-impersonating-another-guy-impersonating-Magneto."''

* In ''Manga/Eyeshield21'', protagonist Sena Kobayakawa is forced to play football disguised as the titular player, who allegedly played football at a prep school for Notre Dame. In the arc for the Poseidons team during the Fall Tournament, he learns that there actually ''was'' a Japanese player at Notre Dame's prep school only known as "Eyeshield 21" -- and that he's one of the other athletes in the tournament. It was revealed eventually that Hayato Akaba of the Bando Spiders was Eyeshield 21... but ''not'' the player Kakei had faced, who turned out to be Yamato Takeru of the Teikoku Alexanders. In the final chapter, [[spoiler:it's revealed that eventually Sena himself becomes the real Eyeshield 21 at Notre Dame prep for a time.]]
* ''Anime/GallForce'' featured a girl named Catty, [[spoiler:who turned out to be one of a series of androids. Another Catty appears in the sequel, and in the third story, the original Catty the androids were based off of appears.]]

** The novel ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' briefly toyed with the notion that [[spoiler:Full Frontal, the story's CharClone, was in fact the '''real''' Char, who survived the shuttle bomb all those decades ago.]]

* Around the halfway point of ''Anime/StarTwinklePrettyCure'', it is revealed that [[spoiler: Bakenyan was just another one of Blue Cat's disguises, used to infiltrate the Notraiders so she could gather information on them in hopes of saving her planet. A later episode has the girls going to see an astrologist that had previously helped Yuni out, a BlindSeer named Hakkenyan, who looks like an older version of Bakenyan. A flashback later seems to confirm that Yuni based the disguise off of an image Hakkenyan showed her of himself at a younger age.]]
* In Toei's ''Anime/YuGiOhFirstAnimeSeries'', in episode 8 Count Sheldon impersonates the school nurse using a life-size puppet. In episode 11, the nurse appears for real when treating Yugi's friends.

** "Ronin" seems to be the current go-to identity at the moment for The Avengers. It was first used by Echo (though original plans meant for it to be Daredevil), and then ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} used it. And when a "Ronin" shows up in ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' (an AlternateUniverse), it turns out to be ComicBook/MoonKnight.

** Cassandra Cain might have been created simply to have someone wearing the costume of the new ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} introduced in ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand''. That new Batgirl was introduced near the beginning of the story, while Cassandra was introduced several months later. After her two-part introduction, Cassandra's next appearance was in an issue that revealed the new Batgirl's identity as existing character ComicBook/{{Huntress}}. In that issue Huntress was then forced to abandon the costume, which was promptly given to the just-introduced Cassandra.
* Shortly after the Watergate scandal and resignation of President UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, Steve Rogers abandoned the identity of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and adopted the new identity of Nomad, the man without a country. After a few months, Rogers returned to fighting crime as Captain America. Years later, Jack Monroe (aka ComicBook/{{Bucky|Barnes}}), formerly the {{sidekick}} of the Captain America of the 1950s, took up the mantle of Nomad. Played with in a later storyline, when the U.S. government attempts to assert control over Captain America. Steve Rogers allows them to take the name, costume and shield away from him rather than become a government lapdog, only to don a {{Palette Swap}}ped costume and fight crime as simply "The Captain". When Rogers eventually reclaimed the Captain America identity, he swapped uniforms with the other individual the government had placed as Captain America, who was re-dubbed "The U.S. Agent".

* The Invincible Man from Marvel Comics. The first person in the costume was the Super Skrull. Not only was he in a full costume, but he was pretending to be Dr. Franklin Storm, father to Susan and Johnny Storm of the ComicBook/FantasticFour. The Skrulls kidnapped Franklin and pretended he had gone mad and given himself super powers while in prison. Reed Richards saw through the deception when he noticed Invincible Man's powers were similar to their own. The second person was Reed himself, who was kidnapped and brainwashed into becoming the Invincible Man to help kidnap the rest of the Fantastic Four. Ultimately, this was a plan created by Doctor Doom. Reed's version used technology from the Psycho-Man to play with people's emotions and create hallucinations. The third Invincible Man was Doom himself. Prior to the Secret Wars, he lost his body during the battle between ComicBook/SilverSurfer and Terrax and was forced to body-swap with a random pedestrian before he died, created a makeshift costume and weapons, and attacked the Latverian embassy. Doom's ultimate plan was to get to his resources, including his spare suit of armor, and recreate his body. The story arc ended with Doom getting his body back and leaving the innocent man's body once his mind was transferred by the Beyonder, whom he accidentally called to the scene (due to temporal paradoxes the Doom who fought in the Secret Wars was Doom from THAT point in time, with no knowledge of the Secret Wars).
* When ComicBook/{{Domino|Marvel Comics}} was first introduced, it wasn't actually the ''real'' Domino, but rather another character named Copycat impersonating her. The real Domino wouldn't show up for another year after the fact.
* Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica: An apparent sorcerer named Bloodwynd joined the Justice League in the early 1990s. Eventually this turned out to be the ComicBook/MartianManhunter, forced to ''impersonate'' the real Bloodwynd, who was trapped inside the magic gem the Manhunter had been wearing during the impersonation.

** ''Spider-Man'' introduced a new heroine called Jackpot, who is probably best known so far for maybe possibly potentially being Mary Jane Watson. It wasn't, but no sooner did we find that out than the girl was killed. This girl was intended to be the "Uncle Ben" for the original Jackpot, who came up with the identity but passed it off to someone else as she didn't want the [[ComesGreatResponsibility Great Responsibility]]. The "original" Jackpot (Sara Ehret) then received an epic chewing out by Spidey for her RefusalOfTheCall resulting in an innocent's death which prompted her to take the identity for real... and shortly afterwards a villain learned her true identity (by utter coincidence) and sent a thug to kill her husband in front of their daughter, forcing both to go into hiding under false identities.

** In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, Superman and ComicBook/JimmyOlsen occasionally adventured inside the shrunken Kryptonian city of Kandor where Superman's powers didn't function, and adopted the Batman-and-Robin-inspired identities of Nightwing and Flamebird. They were later replaced by Kandorian scientist Van-Zee (Superman's IdenticalStranger) and his lab assistant Ak-Var. Then Nightwing became Dick Grayson's post-Robin identity; Flamebird has also been used by established characters ComicBook/PostCrisis (including, the first Bat-Girl Betty Kane who Post-Crisis got rebooted into Bette"e" Kane who went by Flamebird). And now all of the Kandorians have been set loose. ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 There was also a brief period]]'' when ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and ComicBook/PowerGirl assumed the identities of Flamebird and Nightwing while operating inside Kandor.

* ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'': In the original version, Baron Zemo was disguised as "Citizen V", a LegacyCharacter for an obscure patriotic hero who fought alongside LaResistance during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. After the betrayed TheCommissionerGordon character Dallas Riordan assumes the identity, and much other [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity Ensuing]], a disembodied Zemo finds himself [[GrandTheftMe in possession]] of the body of a ''real'' descendant of the original Citizen V.

* The character of "ComicBook/WonderGirl" originally appeared as the teenaged incarnation of Franchise/WonderWoman in ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'' (just as the original Superboy was the youthful identity of Franchise/{{Superman}}). When the Comicbook/TeenTitans were created in the 1960s, Wonder Girl was added to the team... but the Titans were contemporaries of the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, [[SeriesContinuityError and by extension of Wonder Woman]]. Thus the Titans' Wonder Girl was explained four years later to be Donna Troy, an orphan rescued by Wonder Woman and raised among the Amazons. (This explanation would be subjected to repeated [[{{Retcon}} further revisions]] due to Franchise/TheDCU's constant reboots and retoolings, with [[ContinuitySnarl/DonnaTroy the result being that Donna has an impossibly convoluted history even for a comic book character]]. For a while it was even said that she is left over from TheMultiverse as it existed before most dimensions were destroyed and the survivors merged during ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths,'' making her ''a walking TemporalParadox who has multiple conflicting histories by nature!'' However, DC's continued inability to leave well enough alone means that that is now no longer true and she's ''still'' getting new origins every few years - some of which are actually ''impossible'' due to the revised histories of related characters!)

** In the 1960s, ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} adopted the identity of "Erik the Red" to infiltrate a villain's confidence. In the 1970s, a new Erik the Red appeared, this time an alien agent named Davan Shakari with no connection to the original plot and no particular reason to use the identity (or for that matter, any reason to not use his real name; it's not like he had a civilian life on Earth to conceal). Cyclops actually expressed his confusion at this, pointing out that "Erik the Red" was simply his own disguise. In the '90s, another storyline saw the return of the Erik the Red identity, who was even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in the text as being someone else we knew in disguise. Later, it turned out that he was ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, who has at times gone by the alias of "Erik Lehnsherr".

*** As originally written, [[Film/IronMan3 Aldrich Killian's plan]] involved {{False Flag Operation}}s, implicating the independent terrorist organization [[Film/IronMan the Ten Rings]] in several bombings around the world, and casting out-of-work actor Trevor Slattery as their leader, a historical LegacyCharacter called the Mandarin. However, much of this material was cut from the movie, leading a viewer to safely assume that Killian's declaration that he was the real Mandarin "all along" meant he was indeed TheManBehindTheMan going back to the first Iron Man film. WordOfGod declared otherwise, leading to...

* Aoi Meinokawa is the GirlOfTheWeek in the seventh volume of ''Literature/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign''. Kyousuke seeks her help in summoning an entity capable of permanently killing his nemesis, [[EldritchAbomination the White Queen]]. It turns out that the White Queen had actually taken the place of Aoi from the beginning, and deliberately helped out Kyousuke to further her own plans. This is a somewhat unusual example, because Aoi is an ArtificialHuman originally designed to resemble the White Queen, so no disguise was necessary -- the White Queen only had to get the real one out of the way and copy her behavior. [[spoiler:But it turns out that Kyousuke had actually figured out the deception before the Queen revealed herself, and was merely playing along]]. At the end of the volume, the real Aoi is found alive, having been dismembered and dumped in a lake.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', it turns out that the Klingons were being manipulated into fighting TheFederation by a shapeshifter, and so our heroes go undercover to expose the Klingon Chancellor Gowron... only it's not Gowron, it's Gowron's right hand man, General Martok. The producers so liked J. G. Hertzler's performance of Martok that they soon had the ''real'' Martok be discovered at a Dominion POWCamp and eventually rescued, becoming a major {{Recurrer}}, eventually becoming the new leader of the Klingon Empire.

* Used in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'', with the first Lleviathan being [[spoiler:Johanna's dead father affected by a Fygg. The real one makes an appearance in the PlayableEpilogue, but only if you accept Johanna's quest after defeating the BigBad.]]

** MAYOR spoilers for Season 2. Read under your own risk: [[spoiler:The Akstar that joins the team at the beginning of the season is actually Rain from a BadFuture where the entire team were killed by [[BigBad Emperor Vlad]]. As the SoleSurvivor, he concocted a plan with the aid of the vision of Dark Fina and convinced the real Akstar to let him take his place in the past. Rain then acted as a rather [[{{Troll}} trollish]] SinkOrSwimMentor to Lasswell in order to harden his heart as Rain thought that Lasswell's hesitation to strike both him and Vlad during the FinalBattle was the beginning of the end. The real Akstar joins Fina's group eventually in Season 3 and he's not so different from the way Rain acted as him, just swap the [[TheNicknamer insulting nicknames]] for some reluctance at being a mentor and taking pupils.]]
** MAJOR spoilers for Season 3. Read under your own risk: [[spoiler: The Hollow Keepers that Fina and co fought for much of the season are revealed to be the actual Hollow Breakers, having been manipulated by the True Hollow Keepers into doing the grunt work. This sends all the protagonist into a collective HeroicBSOD, specially Fina and Chorale.]]

* ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheCuriousVillage'': [[spoiler:Don Paolo disguises himself as the well-known [[InspectorLestrade Inspector Chelmey]].]] The real [[spoiler:Chelmey]] turns up in the second game.

* ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'': [[spoiler: As Arakawa's biological son, Ichiban would have become Masato Arakawa if Sawashiro didn't put his baby (who would become the Masato that would become Ryo Aoki) in the coin locker right next to the one Ichiban was in.]]

** In "Flaming Moe's", one of Bart's crank calls to Moe's involves asking for a "Hugh Jass". The difference is that this time, Moe actually finds a guy named [[UnfortunateNames Hugh Jass]] in his tavern, which Bart does not anticipate. The guy turns out to be nice enough to let him off the hook however.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', Dr. Venture's family "abduct" him, and while he's bound and blindfolded they adopt some false personae as his kidnappers. One of these is simply a talking toy bear named Ted (a parody of [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTeddyRuxpin Teddy Ruxpin]]). In a later episode it's seen that Hank and Dermott have kept the Ted fiction going. Dr. Venture has now befriended Ted (although he's never seen him), and they take advantage of his long phone "conversations" to sneak out of the house. When Dr. Venture finds that he can't get Ted on the phone any more (because they just couldn't keep it up), he concludes that Ted is in trouble and goes looking for him. He takes Sgt. Hatred, who was in on the original abduction but doesn't piece together that this is the same Ted. When Hatred finally figures it out, he's about to confess to Dr. Venture that Ted doesn't exist, when the real Ted suddenly appears. It's actually the toy's voice actor, coincidentally just escaped from a mental institution where he had been since he cracked and became LostInCharacter. Unlike the classic form of this trope, Ted never reappears.

* According to Greg Sestero in the biography ''Literature/TheDisasterArtist'', Tommy Wiseau named Sestero's character in ''Film/TheRoom2003'', Mark, after the lead actor of ''Film/TheTalentedMrRipley'' but insisted that the actor's name was "[[Creator/MattDamon Mark Damon]]". What both Wiseau and Sestero didn't know was that there is an actual actor named Mark Damon and yes, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Damon he even has his own page]] on [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]].

* An unusual version of this happens in ''Manga/OnePiece'' as it involved someone's appearance rather than a name, which was wrong by mistake: When Sanji got a wanted poster, they didn't have a picture so they used a sketch. This sketch [[FacialCompositeFailure barely looked like Sanji]], but looked almost ''exactly'' like another guy named Duval. This lead to numerous bounty hunters coming after Duval until he started wearing a mask, then [[MisplacedRetribution he came after Sanji for revenge]].

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** During the "Identity Crisis" storyline, Spider-Man adopted ''four'' separate disguises (Dusk, Hornet, Prodigy, and Ricochet) to operate while framed for murder. This was actually quite a clever move on Spidey's part; he realized that if he went off the radar and a new costumed hero immediately showed up with similar abilities and body build, people would be suspicious. But if ''four'' such people showed up, it didn't matter if his enemies suspected one of them was a disguised Spider-Man because who could possibly suspect ''all of them''? And it gave him plenty of margin for error, since if one identity was blown he still had others to fall back on. To further the trickery, two of the fake identities (Dusk and Ricochet) were ''supervillains''. After the storyline's resolution, a [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] hero who had nothing to do with Spidey obtained the abandoned costumes and gave them to four new characters, who he trained to form the short-lived ''ComicBook/{{Slingers}}''.

* ''Series/FamilyMatters'': The "Stefan" character started out as a chemically-induced, temporary transformation of [[ExtravertedNerd Urkel]]. Eventually, Steve was cloned, and the clone decided to permanently become Stefan. This one was a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot, as Jaleel White had become so fed up with the Urkel character that he wanted a chance to play someone more normal, and this was his chance to do so. Reportedly one of White's favorite roles to play was the BruceLeeClone, who was neither Steve or Stefan and in many ways was more ridiculous than both of them could ever be.

* According to Greg Sestero in the biography ''Literature/TheDisasterArtist'', Tommy Wiseau named Sestero's character in ''Film/TheRoom'', Mark, after the lead actor of ''Film/TheTalentedMrRipley'' but insisted that the actor's name was "[[Creator/MattDamon Mark Damon]]". What both Wiseau and Sestero didn't know was that there is an actual actor named Mark Damon and yes, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Damon he even has his own page]] on [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]].

* In the ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'', Ash disguised himself as "Ashley". In ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', Ash meets a waitress who looks a lot like his old disguise, except older, and even has the same name. [[spoiler:And given what the plot has hinted so far, they might be half-siblings.]]

* In the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime Ash disguised himself as "Ashley". in ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', Ash meets a waitress who looks a lot like his old disguise, except older, and even has the same name. [[spoiler:And given what the plot has hinted so far, they might be half-siblings.]]

--->'''Jackson:''' There's somebody who wants to meet you.\\

Named for the TV series ''Series/RemingtonSteele'', whose premise had P.I. Laura Holt concoct a fictitious male employer to head her detective agency and thus appease chauvinist expectations of potential customers — only for an anonymous rogue to hijack the identity (and thus the agency) himself.

* Aoi Meinokawa is the GirlOfTheWeek in the seventh volume of ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign''. Kyousuke seeks her help in summoning an entity capable of permanently killing his nemesis, [[EldritchAbomination the White Queen]]. It turns out that the White Queen had actually taken the place of Aoi from the beginning, and deliberately helped out Kyousuke to further her own plans. This is a somewhat unusual example, because Aoi is an ArtificialHuman originally designed to resemble the White Queen, so no disguise was necessary -- the White Queen only had to get the real one out of the way and copy her behavior. [[spoiler:But it turns out that Kyousuke had actually figured out the deception before the Queen revealed herself, and was merely playing along]]. At the end of the volume, the real Aoi is found alive, having been dismembered and dumped in a lake.

** When trapped in a LotusEaterMachine in ''InfinityWelcomesCarefulDrivers'', Lister sires two sons called Jim and Bexley with Kochanski's IdenticalGranddaughter. In ''Backwards'' he actually has the boys with Kochanski on Backwards Earth. Given that it's Backwards Earth, the boys are called "Mij" and "Yelxeb".

* The ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode, "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIKryten Kryten]]", Rimmer tries to impress a ship full of women by pretending to be a space adventurer and asking Lister to call him "Ace". Season [=IV=]'s "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIVDimensionJump Dimension Jump]]" introduces his AlternateUniverse counterpart, a space adventurer called Ace Rimmer.

* The ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode, "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIKryten Kryten]]", Rimmer tries to impress a ship full of women by pretending to be a space adventurer and asking Lister to call him "Ace". Season [=IV=]'s "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIVDimensionJump Dimension Jump]]" introduces his AlternateUniverse counterpart, a space adventurer called Ace Rimmer.