Why the fuck do superheroes keep their secret identity secret

Superman has his parents and wife
Batman has Alfred and his sideckicks.


To some degree, all who have a secret id share it with people they trust. Who are you referring to?

>>85585186
>someone spills the beans somehow
>hero's family is dead from vengeful enemies
Its not a hard concept, but its dumb when everyone but the character's mom knows

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>>85585186
Pretty much this>>85585275

I'm having a hard time coming up with a character who hasn't confided in anybody. I'm sure there's an obvious example I'm overlooking, but nothing's coming to mind.

>>85585186
Relationships don't last forever. They fall apart. And when they do, your secrets will be spread. That's why you can only trust your family, if anyone.

>>85585301
>REEFERS!
kek

>>85585301
>Actual crying Lady Liberty

Kelly really is always right.

I would imagine alot of people wouldn't hold up well to torture. Sure you trust Bobby but after somebody breaks Bobby Boy's kneecaps I feel he'll talk

>>85585186
Most of them do share with the ones they can trust. The ones who don't have loved-ones who wouldn't approve, so it's more for a personal selfish reason.
>>85585958
uhh no dude. that's not an okay attitude.
>>85587329
I can't imagine a situation where you torture a superhero's loved-ones for information. That would involve you knowing who they are, which means the beans are thoroughly spilled already. Unless you're talking about the reverse situation, which really DOES grind my gears: the Superman thing. Where he publically makes friends AS THE SUPERHERO with more people than he does as a regular guy. That's fucking insane. The fact that they're largely the same people notwithstanding. The only people who'd be targeted if they knew about clark kent is the kents, and in some continuities theyre dead already so that's irrelevant. no, most of clark's secret identity is selfish. it's so he can have some downtime and be a regular guy. which is weird because of all heroes he seems to be the one on the most nonstop vigil

Think about it like this: hero tells his spouse, who he loves and trusts more than anything else, that he's actually Wonder Lad, protector of Standard City. Said spouse understands the need for confidentiality, so she promises she won't say anything.

Then she starts watching the news whenever Wonder Lad is being covered. She sees him fight and get hurt when he fights his various nemeses, and she is the one who gets to hear his stories when he comes home. She remains supportive, but inside it hurts her so much to know that at some point one or more of the Insidious Eight are going to succeed in killing Wonder Lad, and there is nothing she can do to stop it because at this point Wonder Lad is such a staple to the city that if he just up and retired the whole populace would erupt in chaos.

So she gets depressed. Caught between a rock and a hard place, she tries to distance herself from the idea that Wonder Lad is really her husband, which inevitably strains their relationship. She does love and support him, though, so she can't keep it up forever. Eventually, something snaps in her, and she spills the beans to someone in the hope that it will lift the gargantuan weight off her chest. Of course, it's not just anyone, but someone she truly trusts, like her closest friend or her mother or something.

This creates the second leak, as the new confidant is either less trustworthy and will openly blab to whoever is within earshot, or will go through a smaller (but still emotionally impacting) version of what the wife went through, and creates another leak.

One small leak eventually grows and grows until half the city knows who Wonder Lad is, and if the leak ever reaches the media, it's game over for Wonder Lad, and now that whole "target your loved ones" thing comes into play as the Insidious Eight capture Wonder Lad's wife and torture her just to lure him into a deadly trap, which he cannot avoid doing because he cares about his wife too much.

>>85589079
This is all if we assume that Wonder Lad lives in a world where superhero comics do not exist. Kind of like the old meme that zombie movie characters have never seen a zombie movie; a savvy superhero's wife or husband should know a hell of a lot better than to tell a third party, depression or not.

>bad guy that can read minds

oops