For no particular reason, I wondered… which is the superhero who kept a secret identity the longest?
I’m talking about the publishing history of the character.
A few ground rules for this thought experiment:
A) Dates are counted from the time the story is published. If a character reveals he’s known for years, the date is counted by the story where we learn the character knows
B) If a character learns or reveals he knows and then dies in the same story, or forgets about it and never brings it up again, it doesn’t count
C) The fact that the character knows the secret identity must be acknowledged in the story itself
Let’s have look at some characters. If you can think of another worth discussing, or if I’ve missed something, feel free to add to the conversation via comments.
This is not as in-depth as usual, just a spur of the moment.
DC COMICS
SUPERMAN
When I came up with the question, my first instinct was immediately thinking “it has to be Superman” because I was thinking about Batman learning it in Superman #76 or Supergirl knows since Action Comics #252… except it goes further back than that, because Superboy exists.
And in Superboy’s first appearance in More Fun Comics #101, we have the yet unnamed Ma and Pa Kent who know. So in terms of cover dates, the identity stays a secret from June 1938 to January 1945.
That’s seven years and six months… shorter than I thought! Can anyone beat him?
BATMAN
His identity stays a secret from Detective Comics #27 up until Detective Comics #38, when Robin shows up.
That’s just from May 1939 to April 1940, so not a strong contender.
WONDER WOMAN
Doesn’t really count thanks to Hippolyta being there from the start.
FLASH (Jay Garrick)
The Flash debuts in January 1940, but I’m not sure when his eventual wife Joan learns about his identity. I’m pretty sure it’s not during a Golden Age story; if I’m correct, it happens behind the scenes and we don’t learn about it until he meets Barry Allen in the historic “The Flash Of Two Worlds” story from September 1961. If that’s true, then the original Flash easily beats Superman’s record by keeping his secret identity for 21 years and eight months!
Granted, this is assuming that:
1) Joan doesn’t learn the identity in a Golden Age story I’m not familiar with
2) the members of the Justice Society are not shown to know his identity. I’ve only read two Justice Society stories from the Golden Age, so take this with a grain of salt.
[EDIT: I don’t know crap about the Golden Age, as Joan already knew from the first Flash story. See the comments and thanks to Rick for correcting me: Jay Garrick doesn’t even qualify!]
OTHER JUSTICE SOCIETY HEROES
Green Lantern’s sidekick Doiby Dickles knew his identity, though I couldn’t find when he learned it.
Hawkman doesn’t count since there’s Hawkgirl (though she arrives later). Similarly, Green Arrow has Speedy from the start.
I have no clue about whether someone discovers the secret identies Hourman, Sandman, Doctor Fate, Atom or the Spectre in this period.
FLASH (Barry Allen)
Barry Allen doesn’t come anywhere near the twenty-one years of his predecessor. [Edit: yes he does, handily. See the comments.]
He debuts in October 1956; I’m pretty sure Kid Flash is the first one to learn his identity according to my criteria. He debuts in January 1960 but doesn’t learn that Barry Allen is the Flash until ten issues later, in May 1961. Four years and seven months is surprisingly a lot.
GREEN LANTERN
Hal Jordan debuts in October 1959. The Guardians Of The Universe are introduced in the first issue of his regular series, in August 1960. Even if we don’t count them, his sidekick Tom “Pieface” Kalmaku learns the secret identity the following issue. So not a strong contender.
OTHER DC HEROES
I can’t think of other Silver Age characters worth discussing, especially since the Justice League really screws over my research because there everyone knows everyone’s identity!
MARVEL
CAPTAIN AMERICA
The only Golden Age big name with a secret identity, as Namor doesn’t have one and the original Human Torch barely qualifies… but Cap doesn’t count either, since Bucky is there from the start.
HULK
It will take a surprisingly long time before the whole world learns the Hulk is Bruce Banner, but Rick Jones is there from the first issue so he’s also a non-starter.
ANT-MAN
The first Ant-Man story is from September 1961, even though as Hank Pym he has a previous story in January 1960 where he’s not a superhero yet. The first person to learn his secret identity is his sidekick and future wife Wasp, in March 1963. So that’s two years and six months.
THOR
We have Loki from Journey Into Mystery #85. That’s the third Thor story, meaning he barely gets to keep his identity a secret for a whole 2 months.
IRON MAN
Happy Hogan figures it out in Tales of Suspense #71 from August 1965, 2 years and 8 months since the first Iron Man story.
SPIDER-MAN
Doctor Octopus unmasks him in front of his supporting cast in Amazing Spider-Man #12 from May 1964, but it doesn’t count because nobody believes him (Spider-Man is sick to the point of almost losing his powers).
So we really have to wait until issue #39 from August 1966 where Green Goblin finds out. He does forget at the end of the following story, but he keeps regaining and losing his memory for the rest of the Silver Age, so he still counts for me.
So that’s five years and six months!
DAREDEVIL
The extremely lame Duke of Lichtenbad from Daredevil #9 learns it, but he dies in the same issue and by my rules doesn’t count. The real one’s a doozy: in Daredevil #24, his supporting characters open a letter that Spider-Man has left for Daredevil… in Matt Murdock’s office.
This is what eventually leads to the shenanigans of Matt inventing the lie that he has a twin brother named Mike Murdock, AND IT WORKS. But that’s a story for another time.
Thanks to close friend and Daredevil hyperfan Carlo for pointing this one out!
That’s a January 1967 story, which since Daredevil debuts in February 1964 means a stretch of 2 years and 11 months!
OTHER MARVEL HEROES
Is there anyone else worth discussing? The Fantastic Four don’t have secret identities and the X-Men have each other; we have to get into the 70s for new heroes, but most of them either don’t have a secret identity or immediately have someone in the supporting cast that knows.
So there you have it.
If my assumptions are correct, the original Flash is the hero with the longest publishing career without anyone knowing his secret identity.
[Edit: sorry Jay Garrick, but you don’t even qualify]
Superman still has an impressive seven years and six months and not surprisingly Spider-Man is the only Marvel hero that gets anywhere close.
SUPERMAN: 7 years, 6 months
SPIDER-MAN: 5 years, 6 months
FLASH (Barry Allen): 4 years, 7 months
DAREDEVIL: 2 years, 11 months
IRON MAN: 2 years, 8 months
ANT-MAN: 2 years, 6 months
BATMAN: 11 months
GREEN LANTERN (Hal Jordan): 10 months
THOR: 2 months
This probably doesn’t qualify, but is a possible spin on the question – how many decades was it before Rogue was given a name besides Rogue? From her debut until after the X-Men movies started coming out and she was given the name Anna Marie in tribute to Anna Paquin, she was just addressed by her code name. Her last name STILL has never been revealed as far as I know. The assumption is that Mystique, Destiny and the X-Men all have known what her actual identity is, but since no one ever called her by name prior to the last 20 years or so, and still haven’t by her full name, we can’t know that for sure.
That’s an interesting viewpoint. It’s extremely rare for superheroes to go without a real name for long; Rogue being an exception is probably due to her starting out as a supervillain.
She’s got nothing on the Phantom Stranger, though! It’s been 70 years from his first story and we STILL don’t know his actual name. And we probably never will since it’s kind of the whole point of the Phantom Stranger.
“The Justice League really screws over my research because there everyone knows everyone’s identity!”
Actually they made a point of NOT knowing each other’s secret identities at first, Flash and Green Lantern found out in one of their individual series, turns out they knew each other in their civilian lives before that. I don’t have my comics at hand but it must have been in the mid to late sixties when they finally disclosed their identities to the other leaguers when they needed to use their civilian identities for a mission…
Joan knew who the Flash was from his very first story in the Flash #1.
My knowledge of the Golden Age outside of the big three is crap. I’ve edited the post to point this out.
What about the other JSA members? If anyone has a shot to beat Superman’s record, it’s one of them.
Doiby Dickles learnt that Alan Scott was the Green Lantern in All-American Comics # 35 (Dec., 1941).
As for the remaining members of the Justice Society, I did a quick spot-check, and the only JSAers whom did not have someone aware of their secret identities during the Golden Age were the Black Canary. Doctor Mid-Nite, Starman, and the Spectre. At least, not by any of their respective series’ regular cast. I cannot rule out a stray issue in which someone learnt a secret identity, was permitted to retain the knowledge, and was never seen, again.
In the Silver Age, it was established that the Black Canary’s and Starman’s civilian identities were known to others.