Are careers just outdated?

[MichaelC]

I'm of mixed mind about it. Kingpin destroying Daredevil's civilian career was one of the best stories ever in comics. On the other hand, it often feels silly that a hero is trying to stop a villain who is killing lots of people constantly, while also trying to maintain a civilian life. Also, secret identities endanger the people around you, since villains periodically find out who you really are, and those around you are endangered both without their consent, and without the ability to even try to protect themselves.

[MajorHoy]

I thought being a superhero was a "career"?

Honestly, unless your hero is a "local" hero who tends to focus his/her efforts mostly on stopping thieves and such, it's hard to balance being a superhero with a "regular" 9-5 type of job.

[capandkirby]

Gruenwald's Captain America run actually addressed the dilemma of holding a job and being a superhero. Steve was a freelance artist for an advertising company, then, after that, a comic book artist, and he was constantly missing his deadlines because being Cap kept getting in the way. It became impossible for him to do both. There was a panel once of him falling asleep at his drafting table he was so tired.

SleepySteve.jpg
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But, recent run notwithstanding, the Avengers used to draw a salary for being Avengers. And I believe they also got medical coverage, too.

[Personamanx]

Eh, it isn't intentional but I think it makes a lot of sense for superheroes nowadays to not have much in the way of steady careers. If you're about 20-30 years old in this day, and age a job is hard to come by for most people. Especially a full time job with consistent hours. Peter Parker should spend half his time looking for temp work or applying for EI.

[Agent Z]

I think a lot of that goes back to writers not wanting to give up good ideas to the corporations when they can keep them for themselves.

What do you mean?

[XPac]

I do think more super heroes should have more fleshed out lives outside of the super hero stuff. Peter Parker and Clarke Kent having jobs and love lives outside of their super hero stuff really helped make the characters as iconic as they are.

But I do understand why heroes are moving in the direction they are. Captain America had various jobs in his life, but at a certain point it did make more sense for him to just be Captain Amercia. If he can get money from Stark or SHIELD to pay his bills, he can do more good being Captain America full time rather than having a day job.

[PCN24454]

Overall instead of going through writing gymnastics to make certain jobs sort of believable just use things that make more sense and that is what they are doing in general. Look at CW shows see how long they stick with the tropes not very long, Supergirl and Flash have compelling cast in Star labs and DEO, they don't really have to use CSI or Reporter angles that much that is not by accident. People seem to think it is easy to write these stories and stay in the basic realm of logical. Do you know that some schools send a text when your kid misses a class? In the world with a million cameras, You think it is easy to sneak out of a job? A comic in past stretch believability pretty thin back then and it is even worse in the modern era There is a reason why comics moved away from certain tropes.

Once again if 90% of heroes running around with working for the government or independently wealthy person and a smaller tiny percent with a unique different job that seems about right. It is not writers being lazy it is just that old tropes don't work. Does any one believe that a man consistenly climbing out a widow in New York today isn't going to be seen?

It’s more that they seem to be going a lazy route with it. People who aren’t superheroes find ways to get around work. One of my family members often works from home if the treck to work is too perilous such as snow.
The options are there, it’s just that writers seem to lack imagination a bit in my opinion.

[Digifiend]

Gruenwald's Captain America run actually addressed the dilemma of holding a job and being a superhero. Steve was a freelance artist for an advertising company, then, after that, a comic book artist, and he was constantly missing his deadlines because being Cap kept getting in the way. It became impossible for him to do both. There was a panel once of him falling asleep at his drafting table he was so tired.

SleepySteve.jpg
Toothpaste.jpg

But, recent run notwithstanding, the Avengers used to draw a salary for being Avengers. And I believe they also got medical coverage, too.

Still do - Waid's team was an exception:

In Tom Taylor's Superior Iron Man just before Secret Wars, Tony marketed an Extremis treatment.... which was basically a free trial, you get addicted, and you have to subscribe to keep it coming. He was inverted due to Axis at the time. Anyway, compensation claims left him in severe financial peril, and he had to close down the Maria Stark Foundation. As a result, the Hickman Avengers World team disbanded at some point after the Avengers Rage of Ultron OGN. Three new teams rose from the ashes. Deadpool funded the Unity Squad. Sunspot funded the New Avengers. And Tony, with Captain America Sam Wilson, tried to get a team together who would work for free. He ended up with Vision, Jane Foster, and three teenagers. After Civil War II, Spider-Man (who had his Parker Industries business at the time) joined the Avengers, solving the funding problem... until Secret Empire. Just after Secret Empire, Reed Richards was declared dead. By now Deadpool's money, earned from merchandise, had run out, and he'd quit the team, and so Johnny Storm, inheriting Reed's fortune, bought Avengers Mansion, and set up Avengers Inc to maintain it and the team. That organisation started funding both the main and Unity teams from that point. However, that was immediately before No Surrender. The three Avengers teams (Sunspot's had by now become the U.S.Avengers) broke up. Avengers Inc is autonomous and still funds the Avengers.

[Vegeta]

A lot of people want careers in particular fields though. If you went to school to study fashion design or something I don't see why you wouldn't want to continue to pursue that dream just because you fell into some radioactive slime and can now grow 30 feet tall or whatever.

I understand that it can make pursuing the original goal difficult, but if the hero so easily gives up when facing one such challenge, why don't they immediately give up when a nemesis makes their life somehow inconvenient? If anything, a hero without a semblance of a personal life outside superheroics is pretty unrealistic, imo.

[Ascended]

I'd like a focus on secret identities again. At least for the characters where it makes sense. I'm totally okay if Tony Stark never pretends Iron Man is a body guard ever again, yknow?

I feel like over the last 15-20 years, in a post-9/11 America, we've started to see superheroes (subconsciously, really) more along the lines of soldiers fighting a war against villains, and less as the first responders we once related them to. And that's probably building on the paramilitary precedent of 90's era Image. So if we think of superheroes as being like soldiers, then being a soldier is their job and there's no reason for (many of them) to have a 9-5, and not much more reason for them to have a secret identity in the first place. But I do feel like the industry is missing something without this focus on the "normal" side of life.

I figure secret identities and a civilian career aren't out dated so much as just not currently fashionable, and the trend will revert at some point.

[PCN24454]

I'd like a focus on secret identities again. At least for the characters where it makes sense. I'm totally okay if Tony Stark never pretends Iron Man is a body guard ever again, yknow?

I feel like over the last 15-20 years, in a post-9/11 America, we've started to see superheroes (subconsciously, really) more along the lines of soldiers fighting a war against villains, and less as the first responders we once related them to. And that's probably building on the paramilitary precedent of 90's era Image. So if we think of superheroes as being like soldiers, then being a soldier is their job and there's no reason for (many of them) to have a 9-5, and not much more reason for them to have a secret identity in the first place. But I do feel like the industry is missing something without this focus on the "normal" side of life.

I figure secret identities and a civilian career aren't out dated so much as just not currently fashionable, and the trend will revert at some point.

In some cases it makes sense like Captain America or Black Widow, but like Ascended said, not everyone should be soldiers.

The whole bodyguard thing was always a stupid trope as it defeats the purpose of a secret identity in the first place: separating the civilian from the hero.

[MichaelC]

Yeah, the bodyguard thing was always bizarre, because people knew that Stark invented the armor, and gave Iron Man his orders. Which can and did make Stark a frequent target for supervillains, since they viewed him as much more important than some easily replaceable pilot.

It's the equivalent of Professor X and Wolverine being one person, but only keeping the Wolverine identity secret. Uh, why?

[davew128]

But, recent run notwithstanding, the Avengers used to draw a salary for being Avengers. And I believe they also got medical coverage, too.

$1,000/week back in 1983 when Spider-Man was first approached for membership, turned it down, and then came knocking on the door when he found out about the money.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Yeah, the bodyguard thing was always bizarre, because people knew that Stark invented the armor, and gave Iron Man his orders. Which can and did make Stark a frequent target for supervillains, since they viewed him as much more important than some easily replaceable pilot.

It's the equivalent of Professor X and Wolverine being one person, but only keeping the Wolverine identity secret. Uh, why?

Same reason the X-men had secret IDs for so long. Because that's just how things were done.

[Lee Stone]

And that's something else with the X-Men.
You'd have scenes of them out of costume, doing normal things like shopping or swimming... and one of the ongoing dilemmas was 'I don't fit in' with society.

If they stay in their costume 24/7 and never interract with regular folks in a social scenario, the dilemma becomes a non-issue, and removes part of the personal conflict that had been important to the book.

And the X-Men technically didn't need identities, because they were all students, and students of Prof X at that. Who would they need to hide their identities from?
Yet, Claremont still felt that identities were important to storytelling.
Maybe he thought that having the characters interact on a personal level with each other in their civvies helped readers relate to them.