Heroes and VillainsRanking comic book characters by their powers, strength, physical traits, affiliations, and other features, like how just goshdarn super they are.
Updated September 11, 2023 1.6K votes 324 voters 67.8K views
Over 300 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of 15 Movie Superheroes Who Don't Bother Maintaining A Secret Identity
Voting Rules
Vote up the superheroes who don't have time to bother with a secret identity.
One of the main tenets of being a superhero is having a secret identity. Spider-Man is Peter Parker, Batman is Bruce Wayne, and Superman is Clark Kent, but there is an astounding number of superheroes who don't have secret identities. Some of these heroes were caught without costumes, but many of these do-gooders just don't see the point in pretending to be something they're not.
Heroes like Thor and Aquaman are straight-up royalty, so why would they pretend to be anything else but the long-haired himbos they are? On the other hand, there are heroes like Wolverine and Deadpool who have specific personality traits that just won't let them hide who they are from the world - for better or for worse.
When it comes down to it, none of these superheroes have the time or interest in holding down a secret identity, and you have to respect that.
From the moment Thor crash-landed on Earth, he made no bones about his life as the Norse God of Thunder. Thanks to his upbringing in Asgard, Thor doesn't even know that he needs to hide his identity from the normies on his adoptive planet, he just runs around acting like the big, blond himbo he is.
Even if he weren't the mega-aloof sweetheart muscleman we know and love, there's no reason for Thor to pretend he's Dr. Donald Blake or Jake Olson; he's a Nordic murder machine running around with a huge hammer and electric powers. If you were Thor, wouldn't you want everyone to know?
Why would Tony Stark pretend that he's anyone but Iron Man? Who else would have the temerity to be a metallic, laser-shooting, All-American hero other than Stark? Seriously, who in the MCU has the kind of cash required to create a small Gundam suit and a voice dripping with sarcasm? It's not Darren Cross, and Reed Richards doesn't exist as of this writing, so the public has no other option than to assume Iron Man is Tony Stark.
And you know what? That's exactly what Stark wants. The man lives for the free publicity he receives from whomping villains under the guise of Iron Man. Not only does the whole superhero thing make him look really cool, but he gets amazing PR as the one billionaire CEO who actually fights for what's right instead of making his minimum-wage employees clock out to use the bathroom.
Aquaman - or Arthur Curry, if you prefer - isn't running around the planet letting everyone know he's half-man half-Atlantean, but he's not exactly hiding it, either. When Bruce Wayne wants to bring Curry into the Justice League, he does so because he sees footage of Curry taking down an underwater NSA drone while breathing underwater and looking great doing it.
Curry doesn't really care if people call him by his superhero designation because he'd rather just stick to himself. When it comes down to it, who cares what people call you when you can disappear into the depths of the ocean?
Setting aside Wolverine's on-again-off-again memory loss that leaves him questioning his existence, he's most comfortable in the guise of Logan, but if you want to call him Wolverine, that's fine. It's not like there's another stocky Canadian out there with metal claws sticking out of his hands or anything.
The thing that makes a secret identity all the more useless for Logan is his love of snikt-ing out those claws at the drop of a hat before a bar fight. It doesn't matter if he's in full view of civilians or in the depths of the Hellfire Club, you'd better believe those claws are coming out if someone steps to Wolverine, bub. So, yeah, there's no point in keeping up the facade of "James Howlett" when the guy behind the claws has such a short fuse and can't be bothered to even pretend he's someone else for five minutes.
The identity of Steve Rogers is tied up so explicitly with the concept of Captain America that there's no point in separating them. Essentially, Captain America is a title, a job, a mantle that can only go to one person (Captains America just wouldn't be as impressive), which is why everyone knows that Steve Rogers is Captain America. Oh, and he has a literal exhibit at the Smithsonian that walks visitors through the life of Steve Rogers up until he was frozen in a big block of ice.
At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if the Smithsonian blew up a big ol' picture of Rogers's mug on the side of their building or if they shielded his identity from the world, Rogers wants people to know he's Captain America because he believes that anyone who wants to be Captain America can be Captain America regardless of race/religion/creed/gender/sexuality as long as they believe in truth and freedom.
Aside from Peter Quill, the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy don't need to worry - and likely don't care - about secret identities. Rocket, Groot, Gamora, and Drax (as well as all of the side Guardians) are either from planets without superheroes, or they just don't understand the concept of a secret identity - but let's focus on Rocket.
As the only main Guardian to join up with the Avengers, Rocket is the one member of the supergroup from Endgame who would actually need to hide his identity on Earth. It's just that as a walking, talking raccoon, that's not really possible. Rocket was ripped apart and rebuilt in a lab, so it's not like he's from a planet of wisecracking raccoons; there's nothing like him in the universe, which means there's zero point in him trying to live his life as a raccoon or whatever he would try to do. He's just got to be himself.
