Overused secret identities...

[kalorama]

Xavier was also once married to an Empress who ruled one of the most powerful empires in the known universe, and considering that he got just about whatever tech he wanted, I'm sure getting extra funds wasn't a problem.

He had plenty of money (and was footing the X-Men's bills) long before he met Lilandra. Besides I'm not sure how access to alien tech equates to access to Earth currency, unless he was selling the stuff on the black market.

[Paradox]

kalorama gets me stream of consciousness-ing:

How so? . . .

Hmmmm...there's the Jack Ryder/Creeper thing, but then Jack isn't exactly a model of journalistic integrity anyway.

[dupersuper]

Half the superheroes have secret identities in journalism

Clark Kent - newspaper reporter
Peter Parker - cameraman
Britt Reid - newspaper publisher
Billy Batson - radio reporter
Creeper - TV reporter

Photographer =/= cameraman

I used to be a reporter, and it's not always a realistic a secret identity for a superhero. As a reporter you have to produce copy/photos/video on a regular, reliable basis. Clark Kent could not blow his deadline on that boring city hall story just because he's saving the world from Braniac. He'd eventually get fired even if he did turn in award-winning work the days he managed to show up.

He certainly has blown deadlines, but unless the mission literally takes him longer than he has, his super speed generally keeps him covered.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Not really. In the Superman stories I've read over the years (I haven't read any in a while) there wasn't any indication of Clark writing PR pieces about Superman (that was Lois' gig). He basically just reported on what Superman actually did, same as any other reporter would. As long as everything he put in the report was factually accurate, there's no real conflict.

I thought that in Byrne's version in Man of Steel he beats Lois Lane by getting the first exclusive interview with, um, himself. A Clark Kent interview with Superman was published in Earth One and in Superman: Peace on Earth, too, just thinking of a couple more examples.

After being the first guy to "get" Superman he's going to be expected to get quotes for his Superman stories, quotes which are all made up. He'll have to leave out certain info he knows from his stories because it's dangerous or threatens his ID and present a version sanitized for the public. And there's just the general conflict of writing about yourself and not saying so.

Here's a good example of Clark's approach to journalistic ethics:

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/653298.html

And don't get me started on Lois Lane. As far as I can remember she kept writing Superman stories even after she married him. :)

Photographer =/= cameraman



He certainly has blown deadlines, but unless the mission literally takes him longer than he has, his super speed generally keeps him covered.

He's inevitably going to have adventures and fights and trips to space and getting turned into weird stuff by red k he can't pull away from, even to get to the Planet for a minute or two and write a report. And there are tons of thing he has to do at normal speed like editorial meetings, press conferences, and interviews. Superman can't really schedule his universe saving around a daily deadline. Clark Kent robots could cover for him, though, in most of these things.

[Omega Alpha]

But spy, adventurer and mercenary aren't exactly normal occupations.

They are if you have claws, healing factor and enhanced senses.

Yeah, Xavier is one of those comic book multi-specialty scientists. He's not just a teacher. He's a psychologist, geneticist (so biochemist), and he created Cerebro (another one of those computers that rudely achieves sentience). Plus, he's from really old money that dates back to the 1700s.

In his case, he uses his TP to earn knowledge in various fields.

[Michael P]

He had plenty of money (and was footing the X-Men's bills) long before he met Lilandra. Besides I'm not sure how access to alien tech equates to access to Earth currency, unless he was selling the stuff on the black market.

He didn't need Earth currency to fund, for instance, the Danger Room, because his girlfriend would give him stuff that was much better than anything on Earth for free. Dig?

[kalorama]

He didn't need Earth currency to fund, for instance, the Danger Room, because his girlfriend would give him stuff that was much better than anything on Earth for free. Dig?

Not really, since the whole issue came up with regard to Xavier paying for the X-Men's expenses, since none of them seemed to have jobs. Was his girlfriend giving him money to buy all his students food and clothes? Was she giving him money to pay the property taxes on the massive estate they lived on? Was she giving him money to replace all the planes they crashed? Once the Danger Room was set up, the primary expense involved in it was the power needed to run it. So access to Shi'ar tech was hardly the answer to all of the X-men's financial needs.

[kalorama]

I thought that in Byrne's version in Man of Steel he beats Lois Lane by getting the first exclusive interview with, um, himself. A Clark Kent interview with Superman was published in Earth One and in Superman: Peace on Earth, too, just thinking of a couple more examples.

Clark files the first story on Superman in Man of Steel but I don't think it's an interview. Lois gets the actual interview by driving her car off a bridge and then cornering him into agreeing to an interview when Superman comes to save her.

After being the first guy to "get" Superman he's going to be expected to get quotes for his Superman stories, quotes which are all made up. He'll have to leave out certain info he knows from his stories because it's dangerous or threatens his ID and present a version sanitized for the public. And there's just the general conflict of writing about yourself and not saying so.

Except the quotes aren't "made up." He is Superman. So anything he puts into a story as Superman's words and thoughts are authentic, because it's Superman writing them.

Here's a good example of Clark's approach to journalistic ethics:

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/653298.html

Well, those scans are all pre-reboot Superman. I was thinking specifically about the post-MOS version. Really, Pre-Crisis DC stories were so rampant with all kinds of improbable silliness, I wouldn't expect a plausible depiction of any profession.

[the4thpip]

He's inevitably going to have adventures and fights and trips to space and getting turned into weird stuff by red k he can't pull away from, even to get to the Planet for a minute or two and write a report. And there are tons of thing he has to do at normal speed like editorial meetings, press conferences, and interviews. Superman can't really schedule his universe saving around a daily deadline. Clark Kent robots could cover for him, though, in most of these things.

He sometimes claimed to go undercover as an investigative journalist when he had to go on a longer space mission etc.

[Tadhg]

I thought it would be a breach of the journalist's code of ethics to report on a subject that you have a relationship with without disclosing that relationship.

[Slam_Bradley]

So Clark Kent was the progenitor of Fox News.

And so it goes.

[Kees_L]

What secret identities are overused in comics?

Off my mind, there appear to be a lot of business executives.

Overused? I'd say that for comics or either any fiction there wouldn't of itself be anything as neededly being overused.

Good writing or imaginativeness will matter greatly, if not vitally, but keeping anything from appearing overused wouldn't be what would be making any fiction or writing good.

I wonder the plausibility of being a superhero and a business exec, journalist or scientist.

Are they ideal jobs for keeping a superhero identity secret not to mention allow time to be a superhero?

Why would they need to be ideal 'though? I'd say that a lot of the known comics titles (such as much if not most superhero ones) base themselves on very stereotypical and very straightforwardly implausible notions, in a big and beautiful way.
Who doesn't love how cooty and borderline nonsensical any superheroes in their outfits and with their "identities" would be to begin with? Who would consider them plausible or realistical to begin with? I know I wouldn't.

[Loren]

I used to be a reporter, and it's not always a realistic a secret identity for a superhero. As a reporter you have to produce copy/photos/video on a regular, reliable basis. Clark Kent could not blow his deadline on that boring city hall story just because he's saving the world from Braniac. He'd eventually get fired even if he did turn in award-winning work the days he managed to show up. Jack Ryder has to be on the air regularly, he can't just disappear for days and weeks at a time. Peter Parker is more realistic because he's freelance.

Kurt Busiek took this into account in creating a Clark Kent-esque secret identity for Samaritan in "Astro City". IIRC, Samaritan works for a major news publication, but as a copy editor or a fact-checker. He then has his futuristic computer do all his work for him, while he's off being a hero. So the work gets done on the right timetable, and there's no need to fake a paper trail.

[Shawn Hopkins]

I haven't read Man of Steel in a while, so that's probably right. Still, it's easy to get a "scoop" if it's about you. I guess he doesn't interview himself as much as it seems, but he has done it. I also didn't think that most people would be thinking only about Post-Crisis continuity.

Except the quotes aren't "made up." He is Superman. So anything he puts into a story as Superman's words and thoughts are authentic, because it's Superman writing them.

True, but I meant made up in that they didn't happen. Readers expect that a quote in a newspaper story is something someone says that the reporter wrote down, not the person who wrote the article's thoughts. Every time Clark "quotes" Superman he's lying to his readers by writing about an exchange that doesn't exist as if it were true. The nice story in Peace on Earth would have been fine if it was an op-ed by Superman. As an "exclusive interview with Clark Kent" it's a problem.

One of the main problems with this is that Clark's Superman stories further his career, he gets paid for filing these stories and they presumably help him win journalism awards and raises. He would likely be at a lower rung at the planet if he didn't have "access" to Superman, it was the Superman story that first got him noticed. Lois's care would probably suffer, too, so many of her scoops come because of her status as "Superman's Girlfriend."

I thought it would be a breach of the journalist's code of ethics to report on a subject that you have a relationship with without disclosing that relationship.

Right, that's all I was trying to say. :) When I was covering a story and I realized that it was about someone I had a close relationship with I told my editor and they put someone else on it. They would have been pissed if I hadn't told them.

Here's the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics. Most superhero journalists break lots of these. Clark is in trouble from rule one, with the "deliberate distortion" of writing about Superman as if he were another person.

http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

I thought that Samaritan story was really awesome. There's another good one from Astro City 2 with a reporter who sees an amazing superhero fight, but eventually realizes he has to write only the provable facts, what's left after editing is a boring story about a shark found in a subway.

[Loren]

Highschool student is becoming increasingly popular. I want to blame Japan for that cliche.

One of the quirks from the "Hourman" series was that the robot Hourman created a secret identity for himself (because he thought it was something a hero needed), but his secret identity was a completely useless high-school-age slacker kid with wild hair.