Maintaining your secret identity

[Erekose]

So exactly how fast are we saying he can be? It strikes me that in many iterations of Superman, even while on Earth as opposed to being in space, he can move so fast that he is effectively “invisible” at least to the naked eye.

To maintain a secret identity wouldn’t this just mean you’d have to live and work in a relatively low camera/security area? (As potentially high speed cameras might be able to capture a clear image of you.)

I agree that disaster relief is probably the best way to help the most people in the most straightforward way. Clark becomes a reporter to be more aware of the “action” and so maybe that would also be a reasonable profession to look into (but not in terms of a hands on role).

I also agree that the whole collecting DNA side of things sounds highly unlikely.

All of this also doesn’t take into account use of Kryptonian technology or Superman’s genius-level intelligence - but maybe these aren’t super powers? Particularly if the central concept is just someone gaining Superman-like powers overnight.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

All of this also doesn’t take into account use of Kryptonian technology or Superman’s genius-level intelligence - but maybe these aren’t super powers? Particularly if the central concept is just someone gaining Superman-like powers overnight.

It’s Morrus’s question, but I personally assumed no alien tech.

 

[Morrus]

It’s Morrus’s question, but I personally assumed no alien tech.

No tech, and it's you, so your level of intelligence, not Kal El's. I assume he's cleverer than me!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

And you can avoid the cameras with the earlier mentioned IR LEDs, so there is no movement to analyze.

That... isn't true. As far as I know, anyway.

Why, exactly, do you think that is true? Do you want to cite an article or something? Do you think security cameras and drone cameras are all IR? Because I can assure you that most non-phone cameras have an IR filter (specifically to block IR), and whilst it isn't perfect in all cases (though is pretty good in most), it + you emitting a ton of extra IR light from the LEDs is probably going to make you a lot easier to track. It might mess up the detail needed for gait recognition in some cases, but... that won't be how they get you. Especially as they may not even have enough of your gait from when you're Supes because will likely be flying 95% of the time. You could defeat a lot of phone cameras that way but that's not the main concern imo.

They'll get you because only a certain number of people came out of X place after Supes disappeared into it. And they'll probably fail to work it out dozens of times but they'll have ever-more opportunities over time. They'll be tasking ultra-top-secret ultra-high-res spy satellites to track you for god's sake, it'd be that important. Sooner or later they will work out which one you are.

If it was just the police or the FBI or something, pfffft, yeah, they might never get you. But a person/creature of that kind of power, publicly demonstrated? The best resources of the security/surveillance state would get tasked on to it, and no-one has the resources to fight that, you'd literally need a superpower that Supes doesn't have. Now, it'd be a very different story if you just never used your powers, or incredibly rarely and carefully, you could last decades, perhaps indefinitely, but Morrus' setup is that you're routinely saving people in big public spectacles like Supes does.

And if Kryptonite exists? Then I reckon your days are numbered. Some shadowy government agency is going to track you down and disable you and then bury you in a facility like that. They only have to get lucky once.

Whilst I agree, I doubt it would be truly permanent or that they'd bury you beyond the metaphorical unless you'd basically declared war on them (in which case deploying Kryptonite against you would be very hard, unless you were pretty naive - it reliably works on Supes largely because he is both somewhat naive and even when he suspects a trap, is a truly good and self-sacrificing person, so us easily manipulated into willingly putting himself in situations where it can happen), and maybe not even then! Because the sheer temptation of your power, and the overweening hubris of huge number of politicians (my evidence: the world today, and the leaders of about 30-50% of countries) means that, sooner or later (probably sooner, i.e. within a decade or three at most), someone is going to think they can make a deal with you, or that you agree with them already. That's one thing the comics have pretty consistently gotten right - no-one that powerful and potentially useful is going to stay "buried", and people are going to dig up those they think agree with them (for an amusing if slightly off example, see the comic where British white nationalists dig up King Arthur and are like "Help us cleanse Britain of non-whites!" and his reaction as a Romano-Celt is "MUST KILL THESE ANGLO-SAXON INVADER FILTH").

The smart move would thus be to kill you (Supes) if things had gotten that bad but... I'm not sure that'd actually be possible, even with Kryptonite - more expert Supes-heads can probably say.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

No tech, and it's you, so your level of intelligence, not Kal El's. I assume he's cleverer than me!

It does vary a lot though, and when Superman is smart, he's usually "just" a technical genius (and I think sometimes a linguistic genius), as in like, really good at understanding and using/building Kryptonian tech, which, being real, is simply a plot convenience (as is the linguistic element).

In his day-to-day life, and in his interactions with villains he doesn't typically display "3D Chess"-type levels of intellect (I'm sure he's literally played 3D chess at some point of course! But he's done everything in some iteration!). He might occasionally deploy a feint or trick that relies on the hubris or other negative personality characteristics of a villain, but like, so does basically any hero smarter than the Hulk. He's not a hero for whom being smart is something he relies on or leverages, unlike Justice League Batman for example (who relies on that above all else). His plans typically boil down to "I'll confront the villain and try and reason with him, then beat him up if necessary" with no further steps. Albeit part of that seems to be a sense that tricks and traps are unfitting in his role as the good guy, which is cool/refreshing, honestly, contrasting well with the edgy attitudes of a lot of "heroes". I guess even if he is a great deal smarter than the average poster here, his strong commitment to being upstanding and honest and plain-dealing and a particular kind of role model limits his ability to leverage it to the degree that even a much less intelligent person than him without that moral commitment might be able to leverage their cunning more.

So exactly how fast are we saying he can be? It strikes me that in many iterations of Superman, even while on Earth as opposed to being in space, he can move so fast that he is effectively “invisible” at least to the naked eye.

I would say in most he cannot move that fast though (or not without creating shockwaves etc.). I think flying at virtually any speed and reacting super-fast are absolutely characteristic Supes powers that fit the setup outlined, but Flash-style smooth consequence-free superspeed like you're describing, certainly for anything other than costume changes, seems like it's outside the remit to me.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

In the most general sense the government can't really "stop" this Superman, but they sure could make any 'normal life' he wants to have very bad.

But do they want to?

It's absolutely in the interests of any agency that regards itself as protecting a specific nation-state (like MI5/6 or the CIA and other US intelligence agencies) to get someone of that power "on-side" with them. I don't see any situation where they don't bend over backwards to basically do anything they can to have a "super-patriot" working for/with them. And if this Supes is already basically doing what they want, and has told them to piss off, that means leaving Supes alone. So they'll probably not only do that (whilst observing from a respectful distance), but also work hard to protecting Supes from being interfered with/uncovered by others (for as long as that is in their mutual interest).

 

[Cergorach]

They'll be tasking ultra-top-secret ultra-high-res spy satellites to track you for god's sake, it'd be that important.

You would be able to kick those privacy ending devices out of orbit and into the sun...

Superman moves at Mach 9+, do you expect the high resolution systems to be able to track that? Superman has been known to fly faster then light...

 

[Morrus]

You would be able to kick those privacy ending devices out of orbit and into the sun...

Superman moves at Mach 9+, do you expect the high resolution systems to be able to track that? Superman has been known to fly faster then light...

You can't whizz around 24/7 at Mach 9 for the next 40 years. What sort of life is that?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You would be able to kick those privacy ending devices out of orbit and into the sun...

Superman moves at Mach 9+, do you expect the high resolution systems to be able to track that? Superman has been known to fly faster then light...

If Superman is constantly doing mach 9 in atmosphere cities with windows will no longer exist, people will have heart attacks, pets will die and so on. That's just horrible! The US did testing of overflights by supersonic planes on a daily basis in like, the 1960s I think (I forget which city), the results were so compelling that no-one has allowed routine supersonic flights over any areas people live in since.

Also, if you fly around destroying all the satellites you think are spy satellites (as pointed out by @Morrus, you don't actually know which are which unless you're high-up in intelligence), not only are you going to miss some, you're going to cause havoc.

If you want to spend a few months or years "disarming the world", I could see that move (i.e. you start by going around disabling all the nuclear missiles you can find - and I do think you'd get pretty good at it, so you'd probably find most, and you could catch and destroy any that got fired), follow up by collecting all the warheads and throwing them into the sun, go around and smash all the tanks and attack aircraft (fighters, bombers), and threaten anyone sending armies, but then you're creating a very dramatic situation which basically makes you a kind of ruler of the Earth (and also isn't necessarily just, because it sort of means current political boundaries likely solidify, and those may not be just boundaries, c.f. various comics and anime which explore these ideas or touch on them), and certainly will not be compatible with having a secret identity in any meaningful sense.

 

[Morrus]

so you'd probably find most, and you could catch and destroy any that got fired),

As the documentary Superman: The Movie clearly shows, you can only catch one. As long as people fire only one nuke at a time, in an orderly fashion, you should be able to keep up with them, but as soon as two are in the air, you're choosing one.