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Markup View
Author: Tuomas
Aug 12th 2014
at
12:08:35 AM
''Having a secret identity shouldn't really be a requierment, but it does obviously help an example if the superhero has one.'' My definition doesn't say that identity has to be ''secret'', just that the hero has a identity and costume he uses to fight crime, separate from his civilian identity and clothes. The identity of the hero could be public knowledge, but the superhero costume/identity is still the thing that separates superheroes/''costumed'' heroes from other crimefighters. Otherwise you could count characters like SherlockHolmes or SextonBlake as proto superheroes: they're [[BadassNormal badass normals]] who fight crime, after all. But few people would call them superheroes, I think. So it's the costume and alter ego (even if the real identity of the hero is known) that define superheroes, whether or not they have powers.
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