Secret identities really ought to be impossible in the Marvel Comics Universe. Secret identities have been a core part of superhero comics for as long as the genre has existed. In part that’s because it allows comic book writers to tell two stories; one of a superhero who battles against impossible odds, and the other of an ordinary human being and their life. It is often the secret identity, and the world the hero inhabits in their private life, that makes them truly relatable.
Secret identities make superheroes vulnerable, though. Spider-Man announced his secret identity to the world in 2005’s Civil War, and it wasn’t long before his beloved Aunt May was shot by an assassin. Daredevil’s secret identity was exposed, and plunged his life into years of chaos. Even Tony Stark started off pretending Iron Man was his bodyguard, and he’s often regretted the decision to reveal the truth as his enemies target him, his friends, and his companies. When a hero’s secret identity is known, their loved ones become targets.
The problem, though, is that secret identities should be pretty easy to figure out in the modern Marvel Universe. New York is the superhero capital of the Marvel Universe; even supervillains have come to recognize this, with many heading elsewhere simply because they were tired of the fact they couldn’t walk down a street without crossing paths with an Avenger. Most of Marvel’s pre-eminent superhero teams have been based in New York for much of their history, there are countless street vigilantes like Spider-Man and Daredevil, and the Fantastic Four – Marvel’s first family – never stray too far from Yancey Street. To be fair, it’s probably a good job there are so many superheroes; disaster seems to strike New York more often than anywhere else in the world.
Secret Identities Should Be Impossible
This, fundamentally, is why secret identities shouldn’t work anymore. According to the NYPD, there are over 18,000 CCTV cameras scattered across New York’s five boroughs. It would be child’s play for the NYPD to review footage around the latest disaster, invasion, or superhero attack. They wouldn’t even need to catch a potential vigilante donning their mask – they’d just need to watch for the person who ran in the opposite direction to the crowd. Facial recognition software could then swiftly identify them, and it wouldn’t be hard to track them down and see if they made a habit of rushing down alleys the moment chaos was unleashed.
This would be even more pronounced during periods such as Civil War and Devil’s Reign, when forces such as SHIELD and the NYPD were specifically on the lookout for heroes’ identities. Indeed, when Wilson Fisk stepped up New York’s surveillance during his tenure as mayor, he captured a huge number of heroes in a matter of weeks. There are also dozens of villains – from Doctor Doom to the Machinesmith – for who it would be child’s play to obtain and review this footage. It beggars belief that every superhero secret identity hasn’t been exposed to the world already, especially since functionally none of them take measures to avoid even the most basic forms of surveillance.
