@twophrasebark: Speaking of next gen...Isn't Lore sort of a survivor after their colony was wiped out by the Crystaline Entity. Sure, he helped cause it, but who wants to be nitpicky?
The Great Vampire - Who fled to E-Space to escape the Rassilon's mighty bowships. (nothing's specifically mentioned about their planet of origin, but it's stated that The Timelords completely eradicated them from our universe, so we can assume it's probably no longer around)
Sutekh the Destroyer - Last of the Osirians. 'nuff said.
The Fendahl - Another ancient enemy of the Time Lords. Fearing the power of a being capable of absorbing all energy. They destroyed the Fifth Planet, hoping the Fendahl had perished too, but somehow the skull survived and projected itself to Earth.
Meglos - Ol' Cactus face was the last Zolfa-Thuran, who's entire race perished in a civil war over control of the Dodecahedron. His planet didn't actually get destroyed, but it did turn into a sandy, inhospitable craphole, and he was the only survivor, so it still counts.
The Xeraphin - This one's a bit iffy. Technically, they're an entire race of ancient beings that narrowly escaped destruction during a great war by transforming themselves into a single gestalt intelligence.
Delta - Queen of the Chimeron and last survivor of her race. Except for the egg that she carries in her backpack, and later 50's greaser Billy, who proves once and for all that guys will do *anything* for hot alien poontang.
Kane - The very next episode also features the lone survivor of his race. Kane got dumped on an ice planet with a bio-mechanical dragon to toast his ass if he got too uppity. Apparently, he was just biding his time for several million years, since when he tries to set course for his home world of Proamnon to exact his revenge, he realises he has been a prisoner so long that the planet no longer exists. He then kills himself by opening a window and re-enacting a scene from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'
@Sairus Delaney: Well, we don't necessarily know that the Furyans had their planet destroyed. Could have been plain, old fashion ethnic cleansing on this account.
@capnrob: I thought Mike and the 'bots ended up back on Earth in the final episode of MST3K, watching cheesy movies in their Minneapolis bachelor pad. Ah, sweet freedom!
@capnrob: Mike helped the Holy Bomb cult detonate their atomic warhead, killing everybody on the future 'Planet of the Apes' version of Earth, except for Bobo.
He then also had the Nanites blow up the observer's planet with a #7 special (though several of the other observers escaped to reappear in a later episode) and destroyed another unnamed planet with a baking soda bomb.
Technically, you could also say he was responsible for the death of his own eyelash mites, millions of nanites, and the Hubble telescope.
One thing you didn't include is where the "secret identity" becomes the only identity, like in Watchmen's Rorschach. Yeah, he was born Walter Kovacs, but he's certainly not him anymore. Sure, Rorschach, is completely insane, but still, I think it's a valid example.
I guess Wolverine might work for this too, but not as well.
I cut professional tights-wearers some slack, saving the world and all.
But for every hour they spend developing their civilian identity, that's less people saved or skills honed.
So, are secret identities, ultimately, a selfish act?
That said, anything that keeps preturnaturally powerful beings with egos outsized enough to wear skin-clinging lycra sane is probably a good thing - unselfish even.
I'd also add the Fantastic Four (even though they cross outside of Alyssa's DC-centric focus), simply because they're the first, and perhaps only, supers who have NO secret identity. Heck, they even license themselves.
@Trai_Dep: The Phantom is another take. Same hero (well...) who adopts the same (ibid) secret identity. Yet raised as a child to replace his father when Pops inevitably falls victim.
Perhaps The Phantom's mask is there to carry on the illusion that it's the same person across the ages, and not to hide his public/private selves?
@Trai_Dep: When you talk about preternaturally powerful beings with egos outsized enough to wear skin-clinging lycra, are you talking about professional wrestlers or pro football players? I know the wrestlers all pretty much have secret identities because no one really knew that Owen Hart was also the Blue Blazes, until his unfortunate and untimely death. Although I did have the good fortune to recognize George "The Animal" Steele in a Coco's restaurant a few years ago, I never would have known that his real name was William James Myers without wikipedia.
@Auld_Lang_Ziety: Or your local middle & high school wrestling team. Even more heroic, when you consider how self-conscious your average adolescent male is. :D
When I've thought of writing my own comic book I've wondered about creating a hero whose secret identity, we, the audience, are unaware of.
I don't know if there are any major heroes that have gone this route. Wasn't there a batgirl that was unknown, but again not a main or title character for a book.
@Cyberphin: In ongoing comics, it doesn't really happen because even if a superhero is introduced without a secret identity being thrown in, someone is very likely to tack one on before too long if the writing isn't exclusively limited to the creator.
@omgwtflolbbqbye: Rorschach doesn't really count on the basis that even though Watchmen was released in 12 issues, it's still a single story. Every character's secret identity is still introduced within that single story. Some just took a little longer than others.
God, I really hated that scene in Kill Bill Vol.2 where Bill described Superman as the real one and Clark as the mask. Despite my love for the Kill Bill movies, I totally disagree with Tarantino on that one.
To me, Superman becomes a much more interesting character when you realize he was raised as a human and thinks of himself that way, harboring humans goals and dreams. If it wasn't for his feeling that he is part of humanity, he wouldn't work so hard to protect it (he'd probably enslave it instead).
I think Straczynski played with this concept in a more sinister light in Supreme Power, having the government orchestrate a traditional American upbringing for Mark Milton so that his loyalty would be to the country and humanity in general.
@drdoombot: I completely agree with your Kill Bill diss. It was just some Tarantino pop-culture posturing and not really a solid view of how Superman has been portrayed thru the years.
No one has ever tried hard enough to get behind Superman's psyche as to why he does what he does, and I for one would welcome a tale that does so. I mean, Batman's all screwed up because his mommy and daddy died whereas Superman had HIS WHOLE PLANET BLOW UP, yet he seems to get along quite nicely.
@Palmerlime: Imagine if Batmans parents where killed when he was just a toddler, and he had grown up without knowing. Would the emotional shock of his foster parents telling him: "by the way, your real parents were shot by some thug in an alley." Made him turn into Batman the way he did?
@TheLostVikings: Exactly. Batman saw his parents who he knew and loved die right there in front of him for no reason. Much more traumatic than finding out people that you don't remember died (and saved you), then you got raised by the nicest people on most any planet.
@Palmerlime: Superman did not have his planet blow up. Earth is fine, and that's the only planet he's really known in his younger life. The whole thing with Krypton doesn't have the same emotional investment that the Wayne murders have because he really didn't experience any personal loss. To him, it was just a more complex form of the whole "we adopted you" story that so many ordinary humans hear from their adopted parents every year.
05/16/09
05/16/09
Those were lovely books.
05/16/09
05/17/09
05/18/09
05/16/09
The Great Vampire - Who fled to E-Space to escape the Rassilon's mighty bowships. (nothing's specifically mentioned about their planet of origin, but it's stated that The Timelords completely eradicated them from our universe, so we can assume it's probably no longer around)
Sutekh the Destroyer - Last of the Osirians. 'nuff said.
The Fendahl - Another ancient enemy of the Time Lords. Fearing the power of a being capable of absorbing all energy. They destroyed the Fifth Planet, hoping the Fendahl had perished too, but somehow the skull survived and projected itself to Earth.
Meglos - Ol' Cactus face was the last Zolfa-Thuran, who's entire race perished in a civil war over control of the Dodecahedron. His planet didn't actually get destroyed, but it did turn into a sandy, inhospitable craphole, and he was the only survivor, so it still counts.
The Xeraphin - This one's a bit iffy. Technically, they're an entire race of ancient beings that narrowly escaped destruction during a great war by transforming themselves into a single gestalt intelligence.
Delta - Queen of the Chimeron and last survivor of her race. Except for the egg that she carries in her backpack, and later 50's greaser Billy, who proves once and for all that guys will do *anything* for hot alien poontang.
Kane - The very next episode also features the lone survivor of his race. Kane got dumped on an ice planet with a bio-mechanical dragon to toast his ass if he got too uppity. Apparently, he was just biding his time for several million years, since when he tries to set course for his home world of Proamnon to exact his revenge, he realises he has been a prisoner so long that the planet no longer exists. He then kills himself by opening a window and re-enacting a scene from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'
05/16/09
05/16/09
05/16/09
"That's my Princess!"
05/16/09
The Phantoms in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Though they got their dead asses rekilled at the end)
05/18/09
05/16/09
05/16/09
05/16/09
That tragic distinction goes to Nyssa, who watched her planet Traken be destroyed by the bizarrely universe-spanning threat in Logopolis.
of course it was universe spanning. it was the held off Heat Death of the Universe ;)
05/16/09
05/16/09
Oh man, do we have some things to say to you...
05/16/09
05/16/09
05/18/09
05/16/09
05/16/09
05/16/09
He then also had the Nanites blow up the observer's planet with a #7 special (though several of the other observers escaped to reappear in a later episode) and destroyed another unnamed planet with a baking soda bomb.
Technically, you could also say he was responsible for the death of his own eyelash mites, millions of nanites, and the Hubble telescope.
04/05/09
I guess Wolverine might work for this too, but not as well.
04/05/09
04/05/09
04/05/09
But for every hour they spend developing their civilian identity, that's less people saved or skills honed.
So, are secret identities, ultimately, a selfish act?
That said, anything that keeps preturnaturally powerful beings with egos outsized enough to wear skin-clinging lycra sane is probably a good thing - unselfish even.
I'd also add the Fantastic Four (even though they cross outside of Alyssa's DC-centric focus), simply because they're the first, and perhaps only, supers who have NO secret identity. Heck, they even license themselves.
04/05/09
Perhaps The Phantom's mask is there to carry on the illusion that it's the same person across the ages, and not to hide his public/private selves?
04/05/09
04/05/09
04/05/09
I don't know if there are any major heroes that have gone this route. Wasn't there a batgirl that was unknown, but again not a main or title character for a book.
04/06/09
In ongoing comics, it doesn't really happen because even if a superhero is introduced without a secret identity being thrown in, someone is very likely to tack one on before too long if the writing isn't exclusively limited to the creator.
@omgwtflolbbqbye:
Rorschach doesn't really count on the basis that even though Watchmen was released in 12 issues, it's still a single story. Every character's secret identity is still introduced within that single story. Some just took a little longer than others.
04/05/09
To me, Superman becomes a much more interesting character when you realize he was raised as a human and thinks of himself that way, harboring humans goals and dreams. If it wasn't for his feeling that he is part of humanity, he wouldn't work so hard to protect it (he'd probably enslave it instead).
I think Straczynski played with this concept in a more sinister light in Supreme Power, having the government orchestrate a traditional American upbringing for Mark Milton so that his loyalty would be to the country and humanity in general.
04/05/09
No one has ever tried hard enough to get behind Superman's psyche as to why he does what he does, and I for one would welcome a tale that does so. I mean, Batman's all screwed up because his mommy and daddy died whereas Superman had HIS WHOLE PLANET BLOW UP, yet he seems to get along quite nicely.
04/05/09
04/05/09
I don't think so.
04/05/09
04/06/09
Superman did not have his planet blow up. Earth is fine, and that's the only planet he's really known in his younger life. The whole thing with Krypton doesn't have the same emotional investment that the Wayne murders have because he really didn't experience any personal loss. To him, it was just a more complex form of the whole "we adopted you" story that so many ordinary humans hear from their adopted parents every year.