Other good personas include the Ridiculously Average Guy, The Nondescript, or The Generic Guy. The family and friends of such a hero are usually at risk of having tea with the villain. One of the archetypal Secret Identities is that of the Rich Idiot With No Day Job. For the logical inverse, see Collective Identity. See Secret Identity Identity for heroes where the secret identity isn't necessarily the 'real' one. If one or both of a hero's parents were ever heroes themselves, they'll often be overjoyed rather than shocked at the child's heroism, and reveal it as part of their Secret Legacy. If the relationship with the hero is deeper, at least on a professional basis, then the insider may be a Battle Butler. If they stay largely out of the action, outside an occasional errand or trap setup, they're simply Secret Keepers. Sometimes a select group of people are allowed to know the hero's secret identity. This is effectively a single-person variant of the Masquerade. In superhero stories, these are particularly vulnerable to to the superpower The Nose Knows. No matter how closely two superheroes resemble each other, no one will confuse them. People who guess at the connection almost invariably guess correctly. And those that survive may have to be secret.

They may have to cut off most relationships to prevent this necessity. In more mundane moments, the superhero often has to quickly come up with a Secret Identity Change Trick in order to get out of sight. For instance, there is the Bruce Wayne Held Hostage scenario. While trying to protect that secret, the superhero is often placed in the worst kind of situations that threaten to expose it.

Any combination of two or more of the above.Both identities may be useful for crimefighting, if the civilian identity is someone rich, with political powers, or has a job with authorities, they may be able to do stuff in their civilian identity that the hero identity cannot.

My secret identity episodes