X Men Identitiies

Did you ever wonder that if the discrimination and racial hatred of mutants was a big problem then the X Men at least would have made an effort to disguise themselves especially since a few incarnations present them as teens? Sure the Brotherhood probably wouldn't give a flying crap but for them masks would be essential? With the exception of Wolverine and I know at some point and in universes they did so maybe I'm missing something in the timeline?

They did have Secret Id's, sort of. Basically, up until Cassandra Nova (Xavier's Sister,) outed them, no-one knew that the human-looking X-men were mutants, or that any of them were even X-Men. Not the general public, at least. With their enemies though, some of them might have known, only if there was either a previous connection, or if the heroes outright told the villains their real names. In the end, while the X-Men never really bothered for S.ID's, and while it may be a decent though in theory, in practice, there was just never really a need for them, because the X-Men never found it necessary. (Rather, the entire X-Men had one giant 'SID' as a normal boarding school, until, again, Cassandra outed the X-Men out. Now, the secret's out thanks to her, so there's no need for S.ID's at all.)

edited 26th Dec '13 7:04:02 PM by kkhohoho

I always found the secret identities worked against the X-Men concept. Mutants have long been accepted as a metaphor for oppressed minorities. Having the X-Men use secret identities was saying that minorities should try to hide whenever possible, rather than standing out and proud of who they are.

And, as far I can tell, secret identities where never a major part of them either. They hardly ever had a "dual life" with her regular identity, if only because they mostly hang out with other mutants who already know who they are, anyway. So, in a sense it seemed to me they were actually putting a disguise when "going out as humans", not the other way around.

Marvel has a really shaky relationship with the concept of secret identities as a whole, and seems to be steadily moving towards outgrowing them entirely.

As someone mentioned, they were officially "outed" during Morrison's run and made an attempt at being more open with the public.

The masks and costumes they currently wear are a bit of The Artifact but actually serve a purpose. Joss Whedon's run had Cyclops figuring that the X-Men would find acceptance if they acted like a traditional superhero team in the vein of the Avengers or Fantastic Four, so the costumes are more about fostering a heroic image than any practical identity concerns.

I don't know if I can even talk about X Men Evolution here but since it's from the same franchise the original concept art Rogue and Shadowcat did have masks but when it actually aired they didn't. I think the X Men are iconic without them and the reason is more real world than In-Universe.

IIRC, while the X-Men did have secret identities, they also had a strange habit of always calling each other by their real names instead of their code names during their superheroing adventures, in the hearing range of non-X-Men (including villains and civilians), which should've negated the purpose of having secret identities in the first place.

edited 27th Dec '13 7:56:32 AM by MarqFJA

Which further illiterates the point that SID's never really mattered much to the X-Men to begin with.

edited 27th Dec '13 8:08:10 AM by kkhohoho