Bad: Superhero whose secret identity is just staggeringly obvious, but nobody picks up on it for various implausible reasons.
Good: Superhero whose secret identity is just staggeringly obvious, and everybody “knows”, but in spite of countless people’s best efforts nobody can actually proveit.
It was easier to hide your identity before smartphones and social media became ubiquitous. Older heroes have to dodge left and right and bend over backwards to avoid being definitively found out, but younger ones grew up in this atmosphere so it comes more naturally to them. It’s not that they’re better at keeping secrets, they’re just better at cultivating their dual lives, keeping them separate, maintaining plausible deniability without rousing suspicion.
“Would you tell me if you’re the Nightshade vigilante? Because you’re always staying out late and coming home super early.”
“I told you, I got stuck with the night shift at the drive thru. You’ve come through my line like a dozen times!”
“Yeah, but you can’t possibly work every single night.”
“Have you met my boss? He’s such an asshole.”
“Seven days a week?”
“Fifty weeks a year. It’s bullshit, I only get paid part time because they only schedule me 39 and a half hours. I need to find a better job, but this’s the only job that fits my schedule, I can’t work during the day, I can’t miss class.”
“You work so much, but you never have any money.”
“Rent, car payments, loan payments, hospital bills. Get off my ass, I’m poor, you don’t have to rub it in my face.”
“I didn’t- I’m not- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just worried about you, you’re always covered in bruises.”
“I have hemophilia, I can show you my meds if you don’t believe me.”
“I’m sorry, I’ll drop it.”
“Thank you, now it’s late, and I have to go to work.” (parkours out the third story window in a spandex onesie)
Character(s): Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark, Sam Wilson, Morgan Stark
Tags:Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate .Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Online Dating, Online Friendship, Online Relationship, Online Romance, Alternate Universe - Online Dating, Enemies to Lovers, Enemies, Misunderstandings, Identity Porn, Mistaken Identity, Bucky Barnes’s Metal Arm, Tony Stark Lives, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Flirting, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, Bucky Barnes Recovering, POV Bucky Barnes, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Parent Tony Stark, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon Divergent - The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TV), Canon Divergence - Post-Episode: s01e06 One World One People (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Fanart, Inspired by Fanart, Embedded Images
Summary: After helping Sam defeat the Flag Smashers, Bucky’s sure something needs to change. After being alone for so long, he’s ready to get back out there and get some of the happiness his old pal went back in time to find. A tweaked dating profile and a few conversations with a user named Mechanic both contribute to a beautiful developing relationship. The problem is that neither Mechanic or he know they’re already acquainted, and they don’t like each other very much.
Art for the wonderful @marvelreversebigbang together with MagicaDraconia16! go read it HERE on AO3! It’s a wonderful fic with a secret identity and these two getting closer and starting to work together, all set in an awesome 616-ish setting with some MCU things! go reaaaad it <3
Education is a reoccurring theme when it comes to live action female superheroes, on tv and in film. Alongside the countless examples of superheroines who are students in their everyday identity, there are quite a few teachers too. Here’s a few examples, some you may recognise, and some you may not…
Bionic Woman
Jaime Sommers is a middle school teacher at the Ventura Air Force Base, California, but she’s secretly also a part-time government agent, with bionic limbs and hearing developed by the US government’s Office of Scientific Intelligence.
Super Ma’am
Minerva Henerala is a high school teacher in the Philippines (female teachers are referred to using the title ma’am.) But she’s also the secret identity of a whip wielding superheroine named Super Ma’am, who hunts and destroys monsters that kidnap and feed on the energy of children.
Isis
Andrea Thomas is a high school science teacher at Larkspur High School, California, who is also a superheroine inspired by the Egyptian goddess, Isis. Using an ancient magical amulet she is able to transform herself into a costumed heroine with supernatural powers; powers she uses to help her teenage students and to fight crime.
Andro Mask
Hikaru Tsuki (月ひかる) is a visitor from another planet on a mission to study the children of Earth. She assumes the guise of a Tokyo school teacher, but when trouble threatens her pupils or friends, she covertly uses a moonlight-charged ring to cast spells. Eventually her intergalactic superiors charge her with fighting monsters hiding on Earth, and give her a masked identity known as Andro Mask that allows her to use her ring magic openly.
Super Klenk
Charito is a mild mannered Filipino school teacher who accidentally inherits super powers that enable her to become the superheroine, Super Klenk. Dressed in a shiny purple and orange costume, her adventures are a mix of action and comedy. (No publicly available footage exists, so we have to make do with some publicity stills.)
Superjuffie
Josje is a Dutch primary school teacher, and also the alter ego of Superjuffie (translation: Super Miss), a superheroine who specialises in protecting animals, specifically those at the local zoo.
u know i think a very underrated Captain Marvel concept is the Justice League concluding (broadly speaking correctly) that he’s some kind of immortal demi-god entity rather than a guy in a costume
& then inferring (reasonably, but incorrectly) that he must just be Captain Marvel full time and not have a ‘civilian’ life. and they’re like aw man that’s so sad! cause like, he’s clearly just a Guy? it’s not fair for him to be on duty literally all the time, he deserves better than that.
so they’re just trying really hard to include Captain Marvel in social stuff. running into a bunch of weird stuff that they write off as him being immortal & magic. having a very confusing time
In The Mighty Thor #341, Thor actually meets Clark Kent. After asking Nick Fury to help him create a human identity to go by to blend in, Nick gives him a pair of glasses, insisting “They always worked for that other guy!” Then in the hall, Thor runs into Clark Kent, who leaves suspicious of him. It’s not related to the plot, but a fun little easter egg!
