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Secret identities are an important plot point in many-a-comics, and it's usually a big deal when a superhero's secret identity risks exposure. However, many superheroes reveal their identity to friends or allies - and supervillains frequently deduce it on their own.

My question is, in the Marvel universe - who has done the best job of keeping their identity under wraps?

Since this question is a bit subjective, the determinant for "best kept secrecy" will be "number of people who know about the hero/villain" vs "number of people who know the identity of the hero/villain." Additionally, the hero/villain must also be exposed to at least a major city (i.e. no "neighborhood" superheroes).

Bonus points for giving a separate answer for heroes and villains.

Clarification: To qualify, the character must be trying to preserve their secret (i.e. no Iron Man) and the identity has to be current (e.g. no origin stories or forgotten pasts).

WannabeCoder
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  • http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Secret_Identity – burcu Mar 22 '16 at 12:58
  • There's a good example in that link: Stick. Stick's secret identity is well-hidden, but very few people even know who Stick (the hero/villain) is, meaning he may not qualify for "exposed to at least a major city", but even if he did, he probably wouldn't rank very highly on the "best kept secret" metric. – WannabeCoder Mar 22 '16 at 13:01
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    +1 (good Q) There is a saying. "If two people know it, it's not a secret anymore." Most of those characters don't have secret identities based on the same assumption. It's just a list of well-kept character identities from public eyes. – burcu Mar 22 '16 at 13:07
  • Do characters where they've been permanently transformed count? Add such they no longer have a normal identity, although they could be recognised. Characters like swamp thing. – AncientSwordRage Mar 22 '16 at 13:52
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    @AncientSwordRage No, only characters that actively have an "alter ego" or "secret identity" that they are trying to protect. Characters who have lost or left-behind identities, while interesting, do not count here. – WannabeCoder Mar 22 '16 at 14:00
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    Superman is known worldwide (population 7 billion-ish). The number of people who know his true identity is probably less than a few hundred. – Valorum Mar 22 '16 at 15:27
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    @Richard True, but we're talking Marvel heroes/villains here. – WannabeCoder Mar 22 '16 at 15:32
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    @WannabeCoder - Superman exists in the Marvel-verse; http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/DC_Marvel_Crossovers – Valorum Mar 22 '16 at 16:06
  • Can't be a neighborhood and has to be a city? So much for your friendly neighborhood Spider-man. – Jimmy M. Mar 22 '16 at 19:02
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    "What Marvel Superhero or Supervillain Has the Most Secret Identity?" We're not allowed to tell you. – T.J. Crowder Mar 22 '16 at 19:15
  • Superman is interesting since Clark Kent is the secret identity of Superman, but Clark Kent is the secret identity of Jor-El. – liftarn Mar 23 '16 at 13:01
  • If there's someone who's identity is known by zero people (including themselves) do they win? – OrangeDog Mar 23 '16 at 18:45
  • @OrangeDog No, because they are not trying to preserve their secret; it's being kept despite their knowledge or action. – WannabeCoder Mar 23 '16 at 18:46

5 Answers5

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Galactus is known throughout the universe as a gargantuan eater of worlds, but his original identity was a humble humanoid named Galan:
comic book panel of a bald man in futuristic attire
...native of a planet called Taa, in a universe that existed before Marvel's 616 universe ever came to be. Taa was destroyed as its universe collapsed into a Cosmic Egg, but Galan survived via shenanigans involving cosmic rays, and he was reborn into the new (616) universe that was created when the Cosmic Egg exploded in a Big Bang.

The Watcher Ecce was there to observe the birth of the being who would come to be known as Galactus, who briefly existed as Galan in his previous body, before the cosmic power consumed him entirely:
a Watcher observes a floating, glowing humanoid
a Watcher describes the hunger for worlds rising in the being he observes
a Watcher observes a humanoid being of green, glowing energy, and describes his reluctance to interfere

Much later, Galactus showed Thor the events of his birth, including the end of his life in the previous universe. These events are all covered in Thor #168-169, and the origin story itself was reprinted as Super-Villain Classics #1 - Galactus: The Origin (including some changes to the script, such as stating the name Galan, and changing "radiation" to "cosmic rays").

In Fantastic Four #262, Odin told Galan's story at Reed Richards' trial,to an audience including the Fantastic Four, the Watcher Uatu, Shi'ar Empress Lilandra, the Gladiator, John Byrne, and a jury composed of representatives of alien races who were affected by Galactus.

Galactus is surely known as the destroyer of worlds to many trillions of individuals throughout the universe. However, he is known as Galan only to Thor, Odin, at least two Watchers, the Fantastic Four, and the others present at Reed's trial, who could perhaps number in the hundreds or thousands, depending how many victims of Galactus were represented. While that is quite a number of people who now know about Galan and his dead universe, it pales in comparison to Galactus's fame, as there is surely no one else in the universe who is known as widely as Galactus.

recognizer
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  • Way to think outside the box (planet)! – WannabeCoder Mar 22 '16 at 17:24
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    Does Galactus ever bother being Galan at all? Or is he being Galactus 100% of the time? I feel like the question is asking for characters who actively preserve their secret identities. If Galactus doesn't really bother with one, I'm not really sure this answer fits. – Ellesedil Mar 22 '16 at 17:24
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    @Ellesedil That's true - that does violate the rule of "no lost/left-behind identities. He is not trying to preserve that identity as a secret. Still, this answer is interesting. – WannabeCoder Mar 22 '16 at 17:26
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    @WannabeCoder Yeah, I suppose he isn't actively HIDING his original identity, so much as letting it go unnoticed. I interpreted his selecting only Thor to reveal it to, and the fact that it was used as evidence to determine whether it was wrong for Reed to spare Galactus's life, as indicating that it was a secret that held some value. – recognizer Mar 22 '16 at 17:37
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    I think this answer demonstrates that the character with the ACTUAL most secret identity is John Byrne. – Polisurgist Mar 23 '16 at 04:49
  • If this doesn't count, then maybe Silver Surfer would be an answer for similar reasons? Trillions know (er, knew) him as the herald of Galactus, but only a small percentage of those know him as Norrin Rad. – Kevin Workman Mar 23 '16 at 17:28
  • @KevinWorkman Actually, if my answer isn't the right one (and the argument is quite persuasive), then I think Norrin Radd would be disqualified for the same reason - that he stopped being Norrin Radd a long time ago and hasn't "used" that identity since. "Famous to trillions" is such an alluring hook, though :) – recognizer Mar 23 '16 at 18:33
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    @recognizer Have you read the latest issues of Silver Surfer? He definitely uses his identity now. Maybe I'll scan some pages when I get home. – Kevin Workman Mar 23 '16 at 18:35
  • @KevinWorkman I have not! Please do, and post an answer about it! – recognizer Mar 23 '16 at 18:35
  • @recognizer Done! – Kevin Workman Mar 23 '16 at 19:31
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Robert Hunter is almost certainly known worldwide as Nitro, the supervillain responsible for the Stamford Incident, which precipitated the (superhero) Civil War.

He should have a very high ratio of people who only know him as Nitro, rather than his real identity.

AncientSwordRage
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    Ah. The clarification makes it make more sense. – FuzzyBoots Mar 22 '16 at 15:28
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    by Civil War you mean the Avengers comic book plot, not the American Civil War? – TylerH Mar 23 '16 at 13:14
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    @TylerH the plot. Look at the context: The American Civil War was not precipitated by the Stamford Incident. – Mindwin Remember Monica Mar 23 '16 at 13:36
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    @Mindwin as someone coming in as a casual lurker, Tyler's question was useful as I assumed that in some universe, The American Civil War was precipitated by the Stamford Incident. – zastrowm Mar 23 '16 at 21:25
  • @MackieChan clearer? – AncientSwordRage Mar 23 '16 at 21:45
  • @AncientSwordRage perfect, thanks! – zastrowm Mar 23 '16 at 21:48
  • @MackieChan except for a few characters, none of Earth's history was changed much, and even then the general outcome was the same. But you gave me a great idea for a question. – Mindwin Remember Monica Mar 24 '16 at 12:27
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    The Marvel Wiki indicates that Nitro's identity is public. If there's any news reporting at all that identifies Nitro as Robert Hunter from the Stamford Incident, then I'd think this removes Nitro as a viable answer to this question. Anyone with an Internet connection could find out his alternate identity, which wouldn't be very secret. – Ellesedil Mar 24 '16 at 16:55
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Arguably Thor, depending on whether or not you believe that Dr. Donald Blake is actually a real person (and an individual being), with a real history and genealogy with a mother and a father, or just a figment of Odin's imagination, created out of whole cloth as an adult to serve as a mortal prison cage for Thor's essence - the writers tend to go back and forth on that question, before deciding that it probably doesn't matter.

(JMS definitely comes down hard on the "Yes, he is a real person, or at least he is now, which is what counts" side of the equation, but the consensus amongst writers seems to be "No, Odin just made him up, he's not a real person, and he's pretty boring anyway, so who cares?", which I think is probably the case).

It all gets very complicated with Thor's street face, especially when there are later on multiple other "hosts" for Thor (who a certainly real people), and multiple hammers being wielded by different claimants to "The Power of THOR" (which may be something else entirely) concurrently, but taken in isolation with the Don Blake version (which Marvel Studios and the Ultimate Universe both, wisely, decided to go with), you can argue either that Thor simply doesn't have (or need) a secret identity, or that his is so well protected and mystically cloaked from view, no-one even knows he has one, or has thought to look for one.

Nick Fury, of course, knows exactly who he really is.

Without having to be told.

Because Nick Fury knows everything.

Spike EP
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This answer is inspired by recognizer's answer of Galactus.

Apparently his answer is disqualified because Galactus no longer goes by his original name anymore.

So I propose that Silver Surfer is a close second, for the reasons outlined by recognizer: trillions of people know (er, knew) Silver Surfer as the Herald of Galactus, but only a few people know him as Norrin Radd.

You might say that Silver Surfer is disqualified for the same reasons as Galactus, but in his most recent incarnation, he does indeed go by Norrin Radd.

Here is a scan from the most recent issue:

Silver Surfer has a new companion named Dawn Greenwood, and her family knows him as both Silver Surfer and Norrin Radd. Compare that to the trillions of people who only knew him as the Herald of Galactus.

Edit: Ellesedil has asked whether Norrin Radd is really another identity, or if Silver Surfer just goes by multiple names. I would argue that Norrin Radd is indeed another identity that he only shows to his close allies (specifically, the Greenwood family). Here are 3 pages from issue 4 of the new Silver Surfer:

As you can see, Silver Surfer "silvers down" to go back to his original form, and rediscovers little things like eating and sleeping. I would say that this makes Norrin Radd and Silver Surfer different identities, and in fact one of the interesting things about the current incarnation of Silver Surfer is exploring that struggle between where Norrin Radd stops and Silver Surfer starts.

Edit: The most recent issue (June 2016) causes everybody on Earth to know Silver Surfer as Norrin Radd, so my answer might no longer be correct.

Kevin Workman
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  • This answer has potential, but I do have a question. It looks like Norrin Radd and Silver Surfer are interchangeable in that panel. Does he appear to make a distinction between the Silver Surfer identity and the Norrin Radd identity, perhaps when interacting with other people he's less familiar with? Or is the name Norrin Radd simply used to ease social interactions when appropriate? – Ellesedil Mar 23 '16 at 19:49
  • @Ellesedil That's a good question. I've edited my answer to hopefully address that. – Kevin Workman Mar 24 '16 at 13:25
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    I can't not ask: What's with the hand made of soup or pudding coming out of the bowl? – ASA Mar 24 '16 at 14:13
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    @Traubenfuchs Ha! That's a little foreshadowing. In the next issue, it's revealed that the Lord of Nightmares is in town, causing nightmares to come to life. This book is super weird and great, definitely worth checking out! – Kevin Workman Mar 24 '16 at 14:24
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Spider-Man. Seriously. The only reason I say this is that it was explicitly stated in one of the comics, though I can't remember which one, that Spider-Man's secret identity was considered in-universe to be one of the better-kept secrets in the Marvel Universe, even relative to other superheroes and their secret identities. Peter Parker is shown to have revealed his identity to a lot of people (not counting events like Civil War, which got retconned by One More Day), but he's been consistently depicted as having relatively fewer people know he's Spider-Man relative to the general populace than, say, any of the Avengers or Daredevil do with their secret identity.

The specific reason for this was stated to be Spider-Man's spider sense. Peter's spider-sense makes it so that he can always subconsciously tell when it is safe to take off them mask, and when he has to keep it on because someone is watching. This means that any villain who tries to follow him and figure out his identity usually fails. Indeed, the only reason Green Goblin was able to see Spider-Man unmask himself in Amazing Spider-Man #39 is because he exposed Spider-Man to a special gas that dampened his spider-sense, allowing Green Goblin to stalk Spider-Man until he takes off his mask without Spider-Man knowing.

Also compared to most Marvel heroes he wears a full body costume that covers his entire face and muffles his voice, so it's harder to see identifying features on him than other Marvel heroes where you can see their hair, eyes, or their chin. In She-Hulk #4 he even claims to be black to troll J. Jonah Jameson and people (including JJ) don't dismiss it out of hand, which just goes to illustrate that most people can't tell anything about the man behind the spider-mask beyond the voice and general body profile because it covers everything.

Given in-universe Spider-Man's secret identity is treated by the narrative as extremely well-kept in spite of the large number of supervillains gunning for him, I would argue that Spider-Man takes the prize.

user2352714
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