Whatever Happened to Secret Identities?

While there’s little doubt Ant-Man will dominate the box office this weekend, there’s a fair deal of people who groan at the idea of another superhero movie. To an extent, their frustration is understandable because, as much as many superhero movies strive to be original, certain clichés keep popping up: The origin story, Jesus symbolism, tragic childhoods, etc. However, there is one trope that has fortunately evolved over time: The secret identity.

From Richard Donner’s original Superman, to Tim Burton’s Batman, to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, all of these breakthrough superhero movies had one thing in common: The protagonist had to keep their true identity under wraps. Occasionally, they could share their secret with a parental figure and eventually a love interest, but that’s it. At first, this made leeway for powerful drama and helped convey the hero’s isolation. After seeing the trope repeated over and over again, though, it simply got annoying.

Smallville became especially insufferable in season four with Clark Kent making the same old excuses to keep his powers hidden from his loved ones. The show got a second wind in season five, though, when Clark let Chloe Sullivan join his fight for justice. From there, Smallville progressively became more of an ensemble piece with fan favorites like Oliver Queen and Tess Mercer eventually learning the truth too. In many respects, this was the first major step towards developing the secret identity trope, at least outside of the comics.

The movie that officially seemed to transcend the notion of secret identities was Iron Man in 2008. As the film reaches its resolution, it looks like Tony Stark is going to lie to the press and drag his unmasking out for another couple sequels. Instead, Tony decides to just come out and say, “I am Iron Man.” It was such a refreshing change of pace and almost all of the subsequent Marvel movies have followed Tony’s example.

There are still technically some superheroes in movies that keep their identifies undisclosed. Yet, they’re much more open to letting a select few in on their secret. In The Dark Knight Rises, virtually every major player figures out that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Some argued that this made Bruce too sloppy and reliant on others, but it really opened the film up to some intriguing character dynamics and conversations.

As much as people love to rip on Man of Steel and The Amazing Spider-Man, both films deserve credit for not prolonging the scene where the hero reveals his identity to the love interest. It doesn’t take Lois Lane and Gwen Stacy multiple sequels to figure out Clark Kent is Superman or Peter Parker is Spider-Man. They discover the truth by act two, meaning they can actually help the title character and not just be throwaway damsels in distress.

The evolution of the secret identity trope is also being demonstrated in the DC television universe. The main characters in Arrow and The Flash both keep their identities confidential, but they aren’t fighting crime alone. They’re part of a team that provides emotional support, physical support and tech support. You just can’t have Team Arrow without Felicity Smoak or Team Flash without Caitlin Snow. The same could be said about Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix, as some of the best scenes involve Matt Murdock confiding in Rosario Dawson’s Claire. It’s a far better alternative to seeing Daredevil just brood alone on a rooftop.

What all of these superhero movies and TV shows are exemplifying is that nobody wants to see a loner superhero anymore. Sure, superheroes are still aloud to be enigmatic and internally tormented, but that’s simply not as interesting unless they have a couple allies to play off of. Otherwise, the hero never really grows and remains a one-note, closed book. The best recent superhero adaptations have changed up the status quo to develop more interesting central characters and side characters. It goes to show that certain superhero tropes may never completely go away, but they do have room to adjust and improve in a continually advancing genre.