History Main / IdentityImpersonator

* In the NOW Comics ''ComicBook/TheGreenHornet'' universe, a supervillain called Johnny Dollar captures and unmasks the Hornet and attempts to auction off his secret identity. Unfortunately for him, in this universe the Hornet is a LegacyCharacter, and the ''previous'' Hornet comes to the rescue, showing up at the auction in the guise of the current Hornet, and claiming that the guy Dollar has is just an innocent bystander. The auction attendees are not amused.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/14370303 A Different Approach]]'' by [=ShawnaCanon=], when Adrien realizes Hawk Moth had noticed his ring and is after him, he commissions a ring identical to his Miraculous, hands the real Miraculous to Nino (along with a wig), and gets into a fight with his father to get himself in the mood to be akumatized. Not only does it throw Hawkmoth off his trail, [[spoiler:his akuma powers let him turn Hawkmoth into a statue. Too bad Ladybug wouldn't listen to him before purifying the akuma and launching her WorldHealingWave]].

** Superman and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} have both done this a million times. In the 60's, they used to have a bevy of robotic lookalikes back then; it got to the point where everyone knew Superman had them, and he'd have to prove that he ''wasn't'' using a robot this time.

** [[ComicBook/IronFist Danny Rand]] took over as Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} for a while when Matt Murdock was in prison. As this happened during the Comicbook/CivilWar story arc, it led to a bit of confusion (and parody) as to which Daredevil was supposed to be in the main arc of that storyline.

** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''. In a situation similar to the Superman/Batman examples listed above, Batman appears ''as Batman''; Robin stands in for Bruce Wayne, utilizing stilts and some good old-fashioned LatexPerfection.
** Done with an illusion of Static in ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'', provided by a reformed villain to throw Virgil's sister off the scent.

* Happens a few times on ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'':
** In "Timebreaker," the titular akuma-victim's power brings Ladybug back in time a few minutes, allowing Ladybug to appear at the same time and place as Marinette. This one was just a coincidence.
** In "Gorizilla," [[BruceWayneHeldHostage Adrien is the akuma-victim's target,]] so when he manages to get away for a moment, he enlists a similarly-dressed fanboy to put on a helmet and take his place so that he could slip away to become Chat Noir. The fanboy didn't know his secret identity; he just thought he was playing a decoy so Adrien would be safe.
** In "Kwami Buster," Marinette takes advantage of a miraculous that allows her to duplicate herself and another that lets her cast illusions to make Chat Noir see "Marinette" returning the borrowed miraculous to Ladybug.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': At the end of [[Recap/SouthParkS13E2TheCoon "The Coon"]], Mysterion shows his face and gets arrested as a vigilante, but due to the [[OnlySixFaces simplistic style]] of ''South Park,'' [[TheUnreveal the audience can't tell which character it is]]. A deleted ending reveals that Kyle was the one who revealed himself and got arrested...then the ''real'' Mysterion shows up to talk to Kyle and reveal his ''actual'' identity...though the audience still can't tell which character it is. (A later episode would reveal that Mysterion is [[spoiler:Kenny]].)
%%* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAndHisAmazingFriends'', complete with superpower simulation and unwitting dupe.

* ''WesternAnimation/YogisSpaceRace'': Somehow, Captain Good[=/=]Phantom Phink never needed one to preserve the masquerade despite "Phantom Phink" never showing up at the start line when the races begin.

** It gets even weirder in the R season when it's obvious that Moonlight Knight is Endymion/Mamoru .... until the two are seen together. This confused, pretty much everyone until [[spoiler:it's revealed that Moonlight Knight is the embodiment of Mamoru's lost memories as Tuxedo Kamen, who somehow managed to get his own body whole the real Mamoru was afflicted with LaserGuidedAmnesia so he could protect Usagi until it was time for Mamoru to recover his memories. When this happened, Moonlight Knight reveals the truth and merges back into Mamoru's body and soul; when he wakes up, he remembers everything.]]

* Franchise/{{DCAU}}:

* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'': J'onn J'onnz disguised himself as the President of the United States to protect the real President from a group of would-be assassins in ''ComicBook/{{Legends|DCComics}}''. In the related ''ComicBook/TheWarlord'' side story, [=DeSaad=] and Y'smalla both masquerade as Travis Morgan.

* In ''Literature/TheBible'': Jacob, when he poses as his brother Esau to get the firstborn blessing from his father Isaac when he was near death in Genesis chapter 27. Because Isaac was blind and Jacob was wearing goatskins on his hands and the back of his neck, Isaac could hardly tell the difference between the two sons, except that the voice was different.

** ''Comicbook/UltimateIronMan'' has Tony and his friend Jim Rhodes pretending to be robots, going so far as to let Tony's arm get cut off by shrapnel so that the people they were trying to trick would believe it even more. Fortunately, in the Ultimate universe (or, as later retconned, the in-universe animated series based loosely on the real Iron Man), Tony Stark has amazing healing powers.

%%* The ''WesternAnimation/IronMan'' episode [[http://warehouse.carlh.com/article_029/index.php "The Wedding Of Iron Man"]].

* Used by George/Thermoman in an episode of ''Series/MyHero'': Thermoman was scheduled to give a public appearance in Northolt and Janet's father threatened to cut off all ties with George if he didn't personally thank Thermoman for having saved Janet's life (his and Janet's first meeting). George made [[CloudCuckooLander Tyler]] wear the costume then erased his memory.

* ''LightNovel/TheStrongestSageWithTheWeakestCrest'': As Matthais's exploits become more widely known, people pretending to be Matty come out of the woodwork to try and capitalize on his fameor themselves. Fortunately, Matthias's home guild quickly works out a way to identify the fakes and spread the information around: Because of Matty's tendency to act without anything like normal sense, anyone who displays it is a fraud.

** Franchise/TheFlash had a great way to handle this. Barry Allen would blur back and forth during a talk with someone, switching from his Flash suit to his regular clothes. Because he was moving at speeds far too fast for the human eye to process, to a regular person, it looked like the Flash and Barry Allen were in the same room together.

* After the death of Franchise/TheFlash rogue Mirror Master in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', Captain Boomerang took his costume and equipment to commit crimes while his ComicBook/SuicideSquad partners believed he had reformed.

* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'': J'onn J'onnz disguised himself as the President of the United States to protect the real President from a group of would-be assassins in ''ComicBook/LegendsDC''. In the related ''ComicBook/TheWarlord'' side story, [=DeSaad=] and Y'smalla both masquerade as Travis Morgan.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'', Static's sister figures out Static's secret identity after noticing that Virgil and Static never never appear at the same time and Virgil suspiciously disappears whenever Static shows up. Virgil convinces her that he isn't Static with the help of a metahuman with illusion powers who makes an image of Static fly past while Virgil's sister is confronting him about it.

* In ''Anime/SailorMoon'', after Kaolinite discovers Usagi's secret identity, Minako uses Usagi's disguise pen to pose as Sailor Moon. In this form, she uses her own powers (being Sailor Venus), but wisely avoids [[CallingYourAttacks calling them by name]]... sort of... Hissatsu Love-Me Moon Chain compared to Venus Love-Me Chain...
** It gets even weirder in the R season when it's obvious that Moonlight Knight is Endymion/Mamoru .... until the two are seen together. This confused, pretty much everyone, including undoubtedly the viewers until [[spoiler:it's revealed that Moonlight Knight is the embodiment of Mamoru's lost memories as Tuxedo Kamen, who somehow managed to get his own body whole the real Mamoru was afflicted with LaserGuidedAmnesia so he could protect Usagi until it was time for Mamoru to recover his memories. When this happened, Moonlight Knight reveals the truth and merges back into Mamoru's body and soul; when he wakes up, he remembers everything.]]

* ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanFamily'' #215-216, a Supergirl form the future had to impersonate Kara's alter ego Linda Danvers.

* Barbara Gordon pulled this when her alter ego had to be introduced to her father in ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}: Year One''. She made Robin (then Dick Grayson) wear her costume.
* Franchise/{{Batman}} and Franchise/{{Superman}} have both done this a million times, most often in UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}.
** Superman had a bevy of robotic lookalikes back then; it got to the point where everyone knew he had them, and he'd have to prove that he ''wasn't'' using a robot this time.

** On another occasion, Superman appeared as himself, and Batman (MasterOfDisguise) appeared as Clark Kent; they even managed to get their picture taken together.
** In current continuity, where it's less believable that Batman could wear a LatexPerfection Superman-mask over his cowl, the task usually falls to the shapeshifting ComicBook/MartianManhunter, who can also duplicate Superman's powers if the real version is being Clark.

** In one Silver Age example, Clark fakes out the Daily Planet staff by using a life-sized balloon of Superman and "super-ventriloquism".

*** [[Franchise/TheFlash The various Flashes]] have used the same trick a few times.
** Post-''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', Supes rescued Clark from his presumably weeks/months of being buried under rubble from the Doomsday fight. "Clark" in this case was the shape-shifter Matrix.
*** A subtler bit of brilliance from this incident was the situation they put Clark in, making sure it was a situation where Superman was the only person likely to find him, to help explain the coincidental return of both Superman and Clark. It also explained why Clark's hair was grown out like Superman's and why he chose to keep it that way.

* [[ComicBook/MartianManhunter J'onn J'onnz]] disguised himself as the President of the United States to protect the real President from a group of would-be assassins in DC Comics' ''[[ComicBook/LegendsDC Legends]]''. In the related ''[[ComicBook/TheWarlord Warlord]]'' side story, [=DeSaad=] and Y'smalla both masquerade as Travis Morgan.

* There was a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] comic in which Superman and Jimmy Olsen go to Kandor and are forced to take on the identities of Nightwing and Flamebird. Later the Nightwing identity was adopted by Superman's cousin Van-zee... and then by Dick Grayson (Robin!).
* UsefulNotes/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 ''Website/TheAgonyBooth'' [[http://www.agonybooth.com/agonizer/Worlds_Finest_Comics_155_Exit_Batman_Enter_Nightman.aspx review]] of ''World's Finest'' #155.

* A plot thread in early ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' comics involved Spider-Man assuming Foggy Nelson was Daredevil (because he'd never have guessed it would have been the blind guy next to him), and Foggy consequently trying to keep up the ruse so his friend Karen Page would warm up to him romantically. Things actually managed to continue to get more complicated after that. Matt didn't want Foggy to embarrass himself, but he couldn't stop him without revealing ''he'' was really Daredevil.

Taking advantage of the fact that most superheroes wear a face-concealing mask, it is easy to slip a third party (usually a close friend or confidante) into the hero's costume, then have the actual hero appear next to the costumed person, in civilian clothing, in the sight of Tucker. Seeing the civilian and the hero standing side by side is usually enough to convince Tucker that he was mistaken, and the SecretIdentity is safe.

** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''. In a situation similar to the Superman/Batman example, Batman appears ''as Batman''; Robin stands in for Bruce Wayne, utilizing stilts and some good old-fashioned LatexPerfection.

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', C.C. occasionally dons the Zero costume to cover for Lelouch. FridgeLogic kicks in when you realize that Lelouch is a half a foot taller than C.C. and has a completely different body type. In the second season, ninja maid Sayoko uses an almost frighteningly LatexPerfection to pose as Lelouch at school while the real Lulu is in China as Zero.

** Superman will also take Batman's place from time to time. He has an easier job of it, since the cowl is so face-concealing and the two have similar builds. Amusingly, Batman has everyone in Gotham so psyched out that Superman-as-Batman can fly, or take bullets without flinching, or move at superspeed, without anybody thinking that maybe Batman is being impersonated because ''they think Batman does those things all the time''.

* In ''ComicBook/RedRobin'' Tim asks his shape shifting friend Ms. Martian to stand in for Tim Drake at a speech he knows he's going to get shot at in order to publicly take out his shooter as Red Robin and then spend about a year publicly "recovering" from his injuries. He concocted the plan to throw Vicki Vale off the sent of the Batfamily's identities while taking care of the assassin some corrupt cops hired to kill him.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': While Diana is investigating the spy Draska Nishki she attends a costume party as Diana Prince, while her friend Betty attends as a masked Wonder Woman in order to throw off their opponents suspicions.

** [[ComicBook/IronFist Danny Rand]] took over as Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} for a while when Matt Murdock was in prison. As this happened during the Comicbook/CivilWar story arc, it led to a bit of confusion (and parody) as to which Daredevil it was supposed to be in the main arc of that storyline.

** Early in ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' Oliver Queen arranges to get arrested on suspicion of being The Hood because people will wonder at the coincidence of Oliver coming BackFromTheDead shortly before the vigilante appeared, so he wants to discredit the idea early. While he's under house arrest with plenty of witnesses, his bodyguard John Diggle dons the Hood costume and beats up some bad guys. The police have to release Oliver and apologize to him. Oliver was actually taking a big risk with this, given that he had only just recruited Diggle to Team Arrow and would have had no-one else to pull this off if Diggle had RefusedTheCall (which he did at first).

*** In "Dark Waters", John Diggle, Felicity Smoak and Thea Merlyn are kidnapped by Damien Darhk, and Oliver has to surrender himself in exchange. It's pointed out that Darhk will be suspicious if the Green Arrow didn't try to rescue them, but fortunately [[TokenEvilTeammate supervillain Malcolm Merlyn]] has no problem donning the Green Arrow costume [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes to rescue his daughter.]]

* ''Series/DeadMansGun'': Leo dresses up as a dead man whose body he found on the road in order with a letter offering him a job of room, board and $25.00 a month in "The Imposter." Leo is chagrined to find out that the man he's impersonating [[NotWhatISignedUpFor is being hired as the town marshal and he's promptly sent off into dangerous situations.]]

* WCW did this in the late-80's as the blow-off for the Midnight Rider angle. The Midnight Rider was Wrestling/DustyRhodes' masked alter ego and Dusty was slated to be in the Midnight Rider's corner for a match. That night, the Midnight Rider was portrayed by jobber The Italian Stallion (who didn't look anything like Dusty). This is a regular aspect of CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown.
* WCW did it again in the early-90's when Brian Pillman got a loser-gets-fired match against Barry Windham, but continued wrestling under a mask as the Yellow Dog (a nod to when Barry wrestled under a mask as the Dirty Yellow Dog in the Florida territory years before). The angle ended with Barry defeating the Yellow Dog on TV, and unmasking him to be jobber Rip Rogers.

** An interesting case, given that [[spoiler: Mask☆[=DeMasque=] was, in a way, a joint identity between Luke Atmey, the criminal mastermind, and Ron [=DeLite=], a person that Atmey blackmailed into playing the role of the master thief. When the crimes of Atmey were finally brought up to the court, he had Ron ready to take the blame for either. Even if Ron was found guilty for the theft, Atmey would still have an alibi, as he was supposed to be in charge of guarding the place, where the stealing took place, and his testimony was connected with it. Really, Atmey could have gotten away with both theft and murder, as there was no evidence connecting him to the latter, if not for his overblown ego, which led him to making overly long testimony and inevitably slipping up and saying info he wasn't supposed to know.]]

*** "Knight Time" has Superman filling in for Batman in Gotham City (Bruce has gone missing, and Robin can't fight the crime of Gotham alone and look for Wayne.) The culprit is [[spoiler:Brainiac, who kidnaps Bruce as the [=CEO=] of Wayne Enterprises, not realizing he's Batman]]. It helps that Bruce and Clark are of the same build, and that Superman's "precise muscle control" allows him to modulate his voice to match Batman.

* Happens repeatedly during the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well". [[spoiler:Although Mare-Do-Well is actually four different ponies, so there's no actual "impersonation" going on, but they achieve the same effect by passing around the role and appearing out of costume to throw off the scent. Also, they're all diffrent speices of pony; Applejack and Pinkie are Earth Ponies, Twilight is a Unicorn and Fluttershy is a Pegusus. Mare-do-Well shows off flight, Magic and super strenght at various points, implying she's an Alicorn, as her hat and cape cover the lack of needed horn or wings when the pony in question lacks it.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/ZorroGenerationZ,'' Bernardo also impersonates Zorro. Of course, as [[GadgeteerGenius the designer]] of this futuristic Zorro's bag of tricks, he actually doesn't make a half bad superhero himself. Of course, he had to work around the fact that, as always, [[CuteMute he can't talk]].

* This actually was used in real life by Creator/AndyKaufman when it came to his alter ego Tony Clifton. Andy always insisted that Tony was not him, and at the end of his 1979 Carnegie Hall performance they performed together on the same stage, after Tony had served as the opening act. (Andy played Tony for the opening, then had his brother play Tony at the end.) Andy later handed off the role to friend Bob Zmuda, who did concert engagements and [=TV=] appearances as Tony with most people assuming it was Andy under the costume...in part because Andy was fond of going to the concert venues and making sure he was seen during the day to further the ruse.

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* As Ran often comes close to discovering Conan's identity in ''Manga/DetectiveConan'', Conan has found a couple of ways to have "Shinichi" on the phone when Conan is in the room. The masterstroke came one time when he was in his original body and Ai disguised herself as Conan.
** Heiji has both successfully and unsuccessfully disguised himself as Shin'ichi, with the successful attempt [[spoiler:then ending in him revealing his guise anyway - Vodka, who remembers 'killing' Shin'ichi, was at the party looking at an apparently undead poisoning victim, so Heiji had to restore the status quo.]]
** The third NonSerialMovie concludes with [[spoiler:Conan trapped into revealing his identity to Ran, only for ''Kudou Shin'ichi'' to walk through the door. It's Kaitou KID, who pegged onto his identity during the course of the film. The film continuity then has Kaito use this knowledge to dress as Shin'ichi around Conan in almost every other appearance.]]

** [[ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist Danny Rand]] took over as Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} for a while when Matt Murdock was in prison. As this happened during the Comicbook/CivilWar story arc, it led to a bit of confusion (and parody) as to which Daredevil it was supposed to be in the main arc of that storyline.