DC Villains and Secret Identies

[Primal Slayer]

What are your thoughts on DC Villains and secret identities?

Should they trance around town as well known beings who dont hide who they are and stay in villain mode 100% of the time? Should they have a secret identity to blend into the public when they arent trying to end the world or kill someone?

Do secret identities suit some villains more than another?

[Tzigone]

I do think secret identities fit some better than others, particularly in their debut stories. But I also think a villain's secret identity has a short shelf life. At least, if the heroes are going to capture them. Then it's fingerprinting and possibly sticking their DNA into the system and their faces on tv and the internet and even if no one recognizes them, someone's going to quit coming into work when the villain is jailed.

The alternative is the hero never cottoning on, never catching them, them always active - that's not satisfying to me. Though I guess not too very much functionally different from them being out of prison every six weeks, comic time.

[Frontier]

I think it makes sense for certain villains/criminals to want to keep their identity a secret to avoid police pursuit/persecution and they don't want to commit crimes 24/7, but unless the hero never catches them, they're all universally liable to get arrested and have their identity publicly outed.

I think probably the best example of a villain with a secret identity is Catwoman, to the point where sometimes it's unclear if it's even public knowledge whether Selina Kyle is actually Catwoman.

[godisawesome]

I think it makes sense for certain villains/criminals to want to keep their identity a secret to avoid police pursuit/persecution and they don't want to commit crimes 24/7, but unless the hero never catches them, they're all universally liable to get arrested and have their identity publicly outed.

I think probably the best example of a villain with a secret identity is Catwoman, to the point where sometimes it's unclear if it's even public knowledge whether Selina Kyle is actually Catwoman.

I know they made an effort to maintain Catwoman’s secret ID all the way through her first Post-Crisis solo, even having her booked and arrested as a Jane Doe for an arc, but I could be wrong.

Secret IDs for villains kind of depend on what plans the writer has for a character’s functionality. Lex Luthor never needs a secret ID because even when he's free, the idea is that it’s an expression of his power that he doesn’t need to hide that. When the Flash’s rogues have secret IDs, it’s usually so they can interact with Barry or Wally without in their civilian IDs. When other villains have secret IDs it’s usually about solving a specific mystery, making it a one trick pony.

But to maintain it on a long term basis, you need a reason for them to be operating for a long enough time without going to jail to get some payoff - and of you don’t, it’s a bit wasteful. Like, I know that when Chuck Dixon introduced Lady Vic in Nightwing, he gave her an ID, but it never really got used for anything, so it didn’t really matter. For Catwoman it worked because the whole idea was that even as a villain, Bruce was reluctant to dedicate the time and resources to arresting her.

[DrNewGod]

I do think secret identities fit some better than others, particularly in their debut stories. But I also think a villain's secret identity has a short shelf life. At least, if the heroes are going to capture them...

That's pretty well where I stand. It works for some better than others, but all the major villains (I think) have been identified. It's outside DC, but some of the best examples of a villain having a secret ID were from Spider-Man's books; The Green Goblin, The Hobgoblin, and The Rose all managed to operate in disguise for quite a while, and guessing who they might be was half of the fun.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of DC's villains were created in the one-and-done era, so almost all of them have rolled through the slammer. It rather makes you wonder why some of them still bother with a mask. However, there are a few notable special cases.

For a while, The Suicide Squad's Captain Boomerang adopted the guise of his late fellow-rogue, Mirror Master, so he could gleefully rob banks under the very nose of Task Force X.

IMO, DC's always missed its biggest opportunity for this with the original Superman arch-enemy, The Ultra-Humanite. From his second appearance on, Ultra developed a surgical technique that allowed transplanting his brain into another person's body (it calls for murdering the host, of course, but eggs and omelettes you know...). That always struck me as a horrifically awesome villain gimmick. The hero can never know who the villain is this time. Might even turn out to be one of the heroes friendliest neighbors. Cooke and Byrne were the only ones that ever took full advantage of this in Golden Age and Generations, respectively, both out of continuity.

[Lightning Rider]

I would like to see a few villains actually keep a secret identity.

The alternative is the hero never cottoning on, never catching them, them always active - that's not satisfying to me. Though I guess not too very much functionally different from them being out of prison every six weeks, comic time.

That's the thing - these rivalries are almost always continuous and cyclical. I'd love to see a villain balance their double life and always keeping the hero guessing. That doesn't mean the hero can't win, meaning stopping them from causing harm, even locking them up from time to time. A villain who can constantly confuse and confound ordinary methods of identification, with something concrete to lose if their identity were discovered, would make a great adversary and interesting character. None really come to mind.