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word of advice : contains spoiler forSuperman : Son of Kal - El # 11 !
DC’sSupermanis one of the older superheroes in the world , and the poster kid for how comic books deal privy identity - which made him officially dropping his occult identity all the more notable . The Man of Steel fooled the entirety of the DC Universe and kept his life sentence as Clark Kent a arcanum for nearly 80 years ( in real - universe time ) until he in conclusion decided to reveal that the two were one and the same during a public press conference . Now , Superman : Son of Kal - El # 11provesSuperman ’s method of ditching his confidential personal identity altogetherworks wonder for superheroes - specially those in the Marvel Universe .
Superman was not the first hero to have a secret identity , but his celebrity surely codified the trope in superhero comic . Plenty of stories capitalized on the figure of speech : Clark and Superman would have to be in two places at once , a supervillain discovered Clark ’s secret and would threaten his sept , etc . near every DC superhero would have a secret personal identity of their own , and Marvel would follow lawsuit -exceptwith the origin of the Fantastic Four , a squad that notably never wore masks and was treated more like fame than vigilantes by the populace .
relate : Superman ’s Super - Intelligence Is lastly gain Its Official Comeback
The practice ofsuperheroes maintaining mystic identities fall out of favoraround the 2000s ; both Captain America and Iron Man discover their identifies to the world in 2002 ( and the MCU’sIron Manfilm famously terminate with the same gesture in 2008 ) . InSuperman : Son of Kal - El # 11,written by Tom Taylor with prowess by Cian Tormey , Batman has a discussion with Johnathan Kent about Superman ’s conclusion to in public reveal his own identity ( seen inSuperman # 18 ) . Batman opens with the tried - and - truthful argument that superheroes hide their identity to protect their friends and family , but Kent will listen nothing of it ; he ’s majestic to be a part of a hoagy ’s circle of friend , just like Alfred was to Batman .
The longer a superhero maintain their secret identity , the longer their friends are kept in the dark . There are more possibilities for stories when a hoagy ’s circle of friends isconstantlyin danger , not just on thevergeof being in danger . Marvel has realized this and continues to do away with mystic identities in both comics and moving picture ; most of the Avengers are known by their real names now , and in the MCU , the only superhero who activelycontinues to enshroud their face is Spider - Man .
Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’sFantastic Fourbooks prove that superheroes did not inevitably require a secret identity ; the genre worked well enough without them . pane publicly let out his own identitychanged the dynamic of the serial eternally and opened the door for extra stories to be told ( and his Word , Jonathan Kent , lost his own secret identity insecondsfor the same reason).Supermanproves that Marvel was correct to abandon secret identities ; in order for superheroes to change , so too must the genre .
Next : Superman ’s New Dinosaur Form Changes His Alien Origin For The good
