Overused secret identities...

[Paradox]

Well, to be fair, when you've got Snapper Carr running around as your example...

[Dizzy D]

BTW, Is there a superhero that's corporate sponsored where they don't immediately portray it as a really bad thing.

Usually corporate sponsored superhero = complete tool and the *real* heroes immediately question him on being in it for the money etc., but is there somebody going up and saying "Hey Coke, you give me a lot of money and I put Coke on my shirt instead of the S. You get to go around bragging that you're helping me save the world, I don't have to spend time doing a regular job when instead I could be saving said world. I don't agree with you, name gets removed from my shirt. You don't agree with me, I don't get any money."

[Paradox]

The Conglomerate from the old JL Quarterly and Superstar by Kurt Busiek.

[blakey]

BTW, Is there a superhero that's corporate sponsored where they don't immediately portray it as a really bad thing. "

Is Batman Inc. considered corporate?

[dupersuper]

The Conglomerate from the old JL Quarterly and Superstar by Kurt Busiek.

Busiek also did Power Company.

[Michael P]

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.

He even programs it to make mistakes once in a while, so it looks like a human did the work.

[marvell2100]

I think the CBR forum poster is the most overused superhero secret identity out there. I see through your flimsy disguises.

[The Black Guardian]

I think the CBR forum poster is the most overused superhero secret identity out there. I see through your flimsy disguises.

That's not flimsy. That's fishnet.

[marvell2100]

That's not flimsy. That's fishnet.

Must be the cheap stuff.

[RatFace]

I was just thinking about that when I read Mark Waid's new Hulk series. Bruce Banner designs some kind of water purifier gizmo he says will cure disease in Africa. I was wondering, is he that kind of doctor? Then Hulk started to smash things and I stopped caring.

Good book, though.

Well, Banner is a physicist, and that covers a lot more than just radiation.

Sorry, regarding the OP, I think "scientist" takes the prize.

[kalorama]

Well, Banner is a physicist, and that covers a lot more than just radiation.

But he's specifically a nuclear physicist.

[Kees_L]

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.

I don't think any secret identity or alter ego needs to be for seeming plausible or believable all that much.

I think that even in the most pulpy or Golden Age-y sense a character such as Batman or 'the Green Mask' or 'the Ray' is depicted as on a contingent of "no matter whether I'm wearing a silly costume, no matter where I stand in actual life, what matters is I'm actually facing some kind of foe or enemy and I even reckon' I can be to beat it!"

And I think that for any seemingly successful or empowered a figure, such as potentially any hero, it's important to make use of how things might look on a narrational or be it imaginative level. For which any ridiculousness or unbelievableness wouldn't need to be bad.

As how golden age characters such as Batman as seeming unbelievable both as potentially ridiculous would show:
because even if Batman would be some daft and annoying millionaire with too simplistic or priviledged an outlook on life, both as far too much free time on his hands, he might be having some kind of heart or kinship with ordinary people after all, specifically because of his strange and far-fetched nightly hobby.

An alter ego wouldn't have to be a "business executive" per say, as it could also be something political or ado with inbred money or such - but it would have to be something conventionally regarded as empowered or privileged, both as neededly to do with having limitless free time both as resources on hand, if any such would be part of the meme or image.
Leaving a hero's background or identity generic would however allow for only the more to get imagined or transferred onto.

Of course many comic heroes are instead conveyed as being very everyday people, or specifical 'minority figures' even, but such would in itself be demanding more rather non-ridiculous or non-ridiculing representing, since otherwise any specifying would become to prove harmful or demeaning by itself.

Which denotes how specifying a hero into neededly being of color or stature in some way, instead of having a hero be to be just anybody's hero, would be quite the thing of itself.