Maintaining your secret identity

[MarkB]

There’s no reason someone with Kal-El’s powers couldn’t detect a decent vein of gold with his x-ray vision, retrieve it by diving into the earth, and selling it off. He could also (at some power levels) literally mine asteroids for precious metals.

Do it enough times, set up offshore accounts, and your debit card becomes a super power unto itself.

Gotta wonder how regular Joe Bloggs who's suddenly got superpowers knows what gold deposits look like in X-Ray vision, or where to find high-value asteroids.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Sure, but you're also adding extra vectors for people to investigate you. If someone starts selling off large quantities of gold, people (particularly government tax agencies) are going to want to know where they got it.

And do all this without detection or suspicion? Do you declare this sudden wealth to the IRS?

Your powers mean that you can sell your gold in person, anonymously, legally, at any time of day, in virtually any city in the world. You won’t get the best price for it, but you don’t need to.

I’ve essentially done so (on a much smaller scale) just staying in D/FW without the ability to fly as fast as Supes can.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Gotta wonder how regular Joe Bloggs who's suddenly got superpowers knows what gold deposits look like in X-Ray vision, or where to find high-value asteroids.

Yeah I think flying in space would be something you'd need to practice for months or years, honestly, to be able to navigate, even within the Solar system. It would be terrifying and dizzying and whilst finding Earth's Yellow Sun might be easy enough, and you wouldn't die or w/e, you might genuinely have some difficulty re-finding Earth itself if you flew off to the Asteroid belt or the like. Let alone finding an asteroid with gold in it in sufficiently concentrated amounts to show up and for you to somehow identify it (presumably through trial and error of smashing asteroids open, which seems like it might also have down-the-line consequences).

But I understand the distinction. There’s literally hundreds of Superman clones out there: Mon-El, Ultra-Boy, Supreme, Titan, Captain Marvel (aka Shazam), Captain Thunder, Gladiator, Hyperion just to name a few. Some are as powerful as Superman, some more, some less.

Yeah I was thinking like pretty close to superman but not the exact same weaknesses/method of gaining power, because presumably you're not a kryptonian, having suddenly gained the power. If you are an actual kryptonian with the same exact issues, how would you even know about them without the Fortress of Solitude and so on? Let alone anyone else. It'd be a surprise to everyone! And being a kryptonian and kryptonite existing suddenly makes the world a lot more complex and strange.

 

[Morrus]

Well:

But I understand the distinction. There’s literally hundreds of Superman clones out there: Mon-El, Ultra-Boy, Supreme, Titan, Captain Marvel (aka Shazam), Captain Thunder, Gladiator, Hyperion just to name a few. Some are as powerful as Superman, some more, some less.

And even within the character, Supes’ power level and vulnerabilities DO vary over time. So settling on a particular era or general suite of abilities might help focus things.

In most of the post-70s era, Superman was fast enough to effectively confound human senses (a la Professor Zoom’s face blurring technique), even though he never used it. But with the ubiquity with digital camera technology, a RW version of him might try some version of that.

I clarified--the Superman in the latest film. I think you replied!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Gotta wonder how regular Joe Bloggs who's suddenly got superpowers knows what gold deposits look like in X-Ray vision, or where to find high-value asteroids.

It’s going to be a learning process, no question. But high density metals*- the kind that block X-rays**- are almost all valuable to someone.

As to where to look?

If/when he learns how to distinguish between the various metals, there’s LOTS of speculation as to which asteroid belts would be best to mine.

Too far? Mine the moon.











* lead, tungsten, silver, gold, platinum, iridium, rhodium, palladium, bismuth, tin and antimony, not to mention the radioactive ones that emit x-rays



**which, to be honest, don’t actually work the same IRL as depicted in his comics. So it’s possible he’s not actually using x-rays at all

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I clarified--the Superman in the latest film. I think you replied!

I think I probably did…but as I recall, I may have mentioned I didn’t watch it!

 

[Erekose]

I wonder if there's something to be learned from the Batman/Bruce Wayne dynamic? i.e. if we assume you can become extremely wealthy in some legal way, you become a public figure, but one that no one would ever believe would be responsible for your actions as a superhero? I'm not sure this really works as you'd be inviting more close scrutiny of yourself, but perhaps worth thinking through some more?

 

[MarkB]

I wonder if there's something to be learned from the Batman/Bruce Wayne dynamic? i.e. if we assume you can become extremely wealthy in some legal way, you become a public figure, but one that no one would ever believe would be responsible for your actions as a superhero? I'm not sure this really works as you'd be inviting more close scrutiny of yourself, but perhaps worth thinking through some more?

It's a delicate balancing act. "Rich recluse" gives plenty of reason for you to be unavailable and unfindable at odd hours, but "rich recluse who became rich and reclusive about the same time that Superbatman started operating" might be too much of a clue.

And of course, you don't get the highly-trusted family butler as a default perk.

 

[MoonSong]

Money is easier than taking a shovel and going digging through random strips of land. Just take advantage that you can move very fast across the planet to engage in lucrative arbitrage. Buy collectibles and trading cards where they are cheap and resell them where they are more expensive.

For example, I'm thinking of certain retro or vintage stuff that is relatively cheap to find through Ebay, but with a tenfold shipping and customs cost that makes it prohibitive.

 

[jian]

Most traditional Superman methods of getting money are much harder or even impossible now. You can’t just walk into a jeweller’s or brokerage in most modern countries and dump a handful of diamonds or a lump of gold on the counter; it’s basically valueless without provenance. You might as well try and sell a lump of weapons-grade plutonium. Those who would take a chance and pay you for them would give you less than a cent on the dollar.

If you obtain and try to sell manufactured goods such as trading cards, they’re traceable - how did a rare card from China end up in an eBay auction in Germany without any obvious transit? You might be able to sell to unscrupulous billionaires and similar who don’t care about legality or provenance and who can and will pay for all sorts of stupid stuff, but that’s ethically very dodgy and they will probably still track you, out of curiosity if nothing else, and you got more troubles. Heck, at that point you might as well try and sell cocaine you confiscated from drug cartels.

There are simply lots of things you don’t need money for (travel, for instance) and maybe you just build safe houses with your bare hands in extremely remote and inhospitable regions. It’s illegal because you don’t own the land, but it’s less problematic and harmful than many other options.