Martians didn’t look like humans with green skin This is what they looked like…
MM_Cv03_var.jpg
Martians didn’t look like humans with green skin This is what they looked like…
MM_Cv03_var.jpg
I tend to agree. That said, in spite of what we may prefer, Clark Kent has been interpreted in almost as many ways as Superman by different writers. Even S&S were not perfectly consistent with it in the early Action Comics
stories, but then, they were congealing a mashup of at least four different influences on the character, and making it up as they went along.
DC Pre Crisis says otherwise, the "another form" it´s something from J.M. De Matteis (Martian Manhunter mini series during JLI Time) popularized, even the idea of Mars totally dead was De Matteis´ idea.
Why would anyone think a superhero has a secret identity? Wouldn't they just assume Superman or Batman or Wonder Woman is always Superman or Batman or Wonder Woman? You don't assume a cop or a fireman or a mailman
is someone else even when they aren't in uniform. Why would anyone think a superhero is hiding as someone else when they aren't being a superhero? Wouldn't the assumption be they just went home and ate and slept? Having
a secret identity itself is really just a comic book concept. Most people in the real world don't have a secret identity. So having a secret identity in the first place is just as ridiculous as having one that is kept hidden.
For the heroes who don’t wear masks like Superman or WW, I agree that most people wouldn’t think they have Secret identities. Supes has got a Fortress on the North Pole and most people assume when he’s not around that’s where he is. But a guy like Batman who wears a mask, I think people would wonder who he is, and suspect that he’s got to be having some kind of secret life.
Certainly its most well-known expression. Though there was also Zorro, who gets used as Batman's inspiration. The Scarlet Pimpernel, etc. Though Zorro actually became a comic book, so...Having a secret identity itself is really just a comic book concept.
I agree about people thinking maskless heroes don't have secret identities. But you bringing up the Fortress does lead to another issue - everyone and his brother knowing so much about how heroes powers work, and other secrets. Like a Fortress - he might not want to mention it exists to anyone. Maybe GLs should keep the existence of a lantern ring-charger secret (several wanted to steal or sabotage in old comics as I realized on a recent skim-through of silver age GL). Maybe try not to broadcast there's a green mineral that can kill you quickly. And so forth and so on.For the heroes who don’t wear masks like Superman or WW, I agree that most people wouldn’t think they have Secret identities. Supes has got a Fortress on the North Pole and most people assume when he’s not around that’s where he is. But a guy like Batman who wears a mask, I think people would wonder who he is, and suspect that he’s got to be having some kind of secret life.
Last edited by Tzigone; 01-13-2020 at 11:24 AM.
Some undercover police officers and federal agents have even had to change their names after publicly testifying against mobsters because of mob retaliation attempts against them and their families. So secret identifies do make a lot of sense depending on the hero and their personal life.
My latest controversial personal opinion… some comic book fans can be the whiniest, self entitled, child like, fanatics ever.
All a comic book company is supposed to do is simply offer a selection of titles they hope may entertain people. THAT’S IT.
Yet SOME comic book fans act as if these companies are supposed to cater to every single one of their personal whims.
Seriously, people if you don’t like something stop complaining and JUST DON’T BUY IT.
It gets kind of annoying constantly reading stuff like “So and so ruined everything” and “So and so is boring/stupid/whatever and therefore my favourite character is SUPERIOR” and “the writer obviously likes so and so better and is burying MY favourite character” etc, etc. and all of the nonsensical arguments that springs from a lot of this stuff online.
I mean, when I was 8 I no longer enjoyed wrestling, because I didn’t like one of the wrestler’s I liked turning heel.
Did I constantly complain about it, whining to whoever would listen for years on end? Of course not. I simply stopped watching and moved on to other stuff that entertained me. That simple.
That fact that grown adults can’t do the same with something as trivial as comic books is almost kind of disturbing to me personally.
When you see the reports of Superman saving Metropolis... and Paris... and saving a tanker in the Atlantic... and stopping a volcano in the pacific... People would pretty much assume that when he's not in the news... he's doing something that people just didn't get on camera. Or expecting a Superman Returns idea of just hovering over the earth looking for Asteroids to stop and terrorists to foil...
Superman is just... too 'worldwide' The idea he does ALL those things, AND STILL has a secret identity with a day job would just blow most people's minds...
Exactly. Clark Kent takes a 5 minute bathroom break in America and Superman spends 4 minutes stopping an earthquake in Japan. Twenty minutes later, when Clark walks down an empty stairwell, Superman is in Khandaq stopping a Biyalan incursion before Black Adam can murder them all. An hour later when Clark goes to "get a cab" Superman is taking photos with school kids in Tibet and Clark Kent gets out of a cab exactly where he should be, on time.
Superman shows up when he's needed, at all hours of the day, all over the world, and he's in and out before you know it (presumably off to the next crisis that needs him, as far as people are concerned....but quite possibly back to the office). People know he's fast, but the idea of him doing all of this around a secret identity is too wild to take seriously.
Last edited by Ascended; 01-15-2020 at 08:20 PM.
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
THE SIGNAL (Duke Thomas) is DC's secret shonen protagonist so I made him a fandom wiki
also, check out "The Signal Tape" a Duke Thomas fan project.
currently following:
- DC: Red Hood: The Hill
- Marvel: TBD
- Manga (Shonen/Seinen): One Piece, My Hero, Dandadan, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kaiju No. 8, Reincarnation of The Veteran Soldier, Oblivion Rouge, ORDEAL, The Breaker: Eternal Force
"power does not corrupt, power always reveals."
This is a discussion board. Not a praise board. People are discussing, and that's entirely appropriate.
I'm not buying or reading the titles I don't like, but I am keeping up with what's happening on some of them, and am complaining when it sounds horrible (or about old changes I disliked ages ago). I keep following partially in case it sounds like it's getting good again. And partially because recreational outrage is its own kind of entertainment.
Last edited by Tzigone; 01-16-2020 at 07:53 AM.