BW Media Spotlight

The secret identity is dying.

In superhero stories the secret identity allowed the superhero the ability to walk the streets without being mobbed by fans, enemies, and people demanding help for the lamest things. It protects loved ones from being attacked by supervillains or some average crook who wants to hold your sister hostage until you steal some diamond for him. It’s also good drama. How can the hero save the day and protect his secret identity, or if you’re a character like Spider-Man, how does needing to protect your identity interfere with your personal life?

However, I’m noticing more and more that in addition to losing the capes today’s heroes are losing the masks. Tony Stark lost his secret identity in one of the lamest ways they could, a back-up story in which Tony puts on his armor during a party to save a dog from traffic. New characters are missing them as well. If I could find a misstep with the new hotness in indie comics, the Rippaverse, it would be the lack of characters with secret identities. Alphacore are basically supercops, and that’s fine. However, Isom just appears to be a different name while I’m not sure Yaira has an alternate name. We’re probably missing her last name: Yaira Johanson or something. So far none of the announced Except heroes have masks, and we haven’t seen a supervillain yet. They’ve tried killing Superman’s alter-ego, Spider-Man’s alter-ego, and less and less Marvel heroes have them. The Villains Of Valley View maintain secret identities and they’re supposed to be villains in hiding. Usually a supervillain is only exposed when they’re arrested and put on trial because the villain doesn’t get the same rights as a hero.

So what’s the purpose of a secret identity and why are modern creators tossing them out with capes? I already did an overview of the purpose, but let’s dive into that and then get into why they’re dying.

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