Supers with secret powers

[Balance]

Secret identities are a common trope in the superhero genre, of course, but what about secret powers? More specifically, I’m talking about publicly known supers who actively conceal the nature of their powers and/or deceive people about them. This notion occurred to me when–as so often happens–a character popped into my head and set up housekeeping. I haven’t been able to think of any supers from mainstream comics that fit the bill, so I turn to you, gentle Dopers*:

What published supers fit this concept?

What characters can you come up with that would do this? What are their real powers, and why do they hide their true nature?

To start us off, here’s the character that led to this post:

Codename: Foresight

Real name: John Spotts

Powers:

Limited prescience. Foresight can see the immediate future with great accuracy, making him a very elusive opponent in a fight; even speedsters find it almost impossible to land a solid hit on him. At longer ranges, his precognition provides him with less specific, but still useful intuitions. He actually does little “field work” or patrolling; instead, he spends most of his time working with other heroes and emergency service dispatchers, arranging for the right people to be in the right place at the right time to do the most good.

For example, Foresight might have an impulse at 4:00 PM to call a fellow hero, the Prankster, and invite him out to the pub for a few beers at 8:00 PM. The Prankster is game, and they meet at the bar, only to find that Humdrum, a sonic-themed D-list villain whose greatest weakness is laughter, has just arrived, looking for a fight. With the Prankster’s powers, Humdrum is defeated handily, and the two heroes are rewarded with a few rounds of free drinks by patrons who enjoyed the free floor show.

He’s also a genius, but not a metagenius. He doesn’t build any one-off gadgets or special formulas, but he was a child prodigy and a polymath, mastering several fields of science and contributing to significant research advances by the time he was 12. It’s speculated that his high intelligence enables him to process his ever-shifting awareness of the near future well enough to use it tactically, and his prescient intuition helps him select useful lines of inquiry.

Real powers:

Foresight can’t actually see the future at all, nor is he a genius (though he’s reasonably intelligent). His real power might better be called “replay”. He can rewind time while retaining his knowledge of events. He can do this at will, and also does it automatically whenever he experiences significant trauma. His combat ability comes from his ability to rewind and try again as many times as necessary, his quick thinking from being able to give himself extra time to think, and his “intuitions” from rewinding an entire day or more and using his knowledge of the day to prepare and allocate resources. His “range” reaches all the way back to the moment his power awakened, when he was only 6 years old.

Reasons:

He originally began to deceive people about the nature of his powers to avoid endless second-guessing and recriminations. Although he can replay a time period as often as he chooses, he can only be in one place at a time, so he’s constantly faced with difficult choices. Sometimes, he has to let one person die in order to save two or more. If people knew what he could really do, there would never be closure–even years after the fact, they’d know that if he chose, he could go back and save their loved one instead. His own conscience is bad enough without being hounded.

At least, that was his reason during his first life. Now he has another purpose. In [N] years, Foresight is going to end up being Earth’s last line of defense against an alien invasion. The aliens will have carefully scouted Earth’s super population and prepared countermeasures for all the others, but because of his deception, they underestimate him…and, because of the nature of his powers, can never learn of their mistake.

He’s still going to fail, though. Once the invasion begins, it doesn’t matter what he tries, he’s just outmatched. Eventually, he decided/will decide that the only possible way to win lies in changing the game, so he rewinds his entire life and starts over. His long-term plan is to bootstrap human science and technology far enough to fight the aliens effectively. So far, he’s lived four lifetimes, each time studying a different field of science and taking that knowledge back with him to give research in that field a 30-year boost. He’s also establishing himself as a coordinator for the super population so that he can help them avoid the aliens’ preemptive strike, manipulating politics, and making other preparations.

*Okay, so it’s also an excuse to do something with this character, so he’ll stop nagging me, and I can get on with stuff I’m supposed to write.

[Der_Trihs]

A humorous version of the hidden power scenario from the webcomic Super Stupor.

A non-humorous example: The Plutonian from Irredeemable, who doesn’t even know the nature of his own powers. He thinks he’s a Superman-style “flying brick” with enhanced physical power, but he’s actually a psionic who just uses his powers that way because he believes they work that way.

The Plutonian’s powers are not physical but psionic, enabling him to subconsciously manipulate matter on an atomic level: allowing him to heat or freeze the air, see through objects, fly, render himself virtually indestructible, possess super strength and heightened senses, and make opponents more susceptible to damage. Modeus hypothesizes that if the Plutonian is made aware of his true abilities he would be able to alter probability, see through time and reverse entropy, concluding “and that’s just if he moves from Kindergarten to grade school.”

[Horatio_Hellpop]

Daredevil concealed his blindness, radar sense and enhanced senses for most of his career. Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze) was, in his early days, assumed to be a stunt cyclist with killer special effects.

[Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank]

@Balance

To start us off, here’s the character that led to this post:

Codename: Foresight

I would absolutely read that. Do you see this as a comic series, a graphic novel or a regular novel? Maybe a series of novels?

[Balance]

@Der_Trihs

A humorous version of the hidden power scenario from the webcomic Super Stupor.

A non-humorous example: The Plutonian from Irredeemable, who doesn’t even know the nature of his own powers. He thinks he’s a Superman-style “flying brick” with enhanced physical power, but he’s actually a psionic who just uses his powers that way because he believes they work that way.

Mind’s Eye doesn’t talk about that power, true. He doesn’t hide any of his other powers, though, or even lie about how that one works–it’s just so nasty that he doesn’t use it if he can help it. I was sort of aiming for characters who use powers openly that don’t work the way observers think they do. The Plutonian is closer, but he isn’t being deceptive, either–he just doesn’t know how they work himself.

Horatio’s example is pretty good, if low-key. With observers unaware of Daredevil’s blindness, he (generally) didn’t seem to have any powers at all, and it was the result of deliberate concealment on his part.

@Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank

I would absolutely read that. Do you see this as a comic series, a graphic novel or a regular novel? Maybe a series of novels?

I don’t think it would work as a series, really–there’s not enough direct action in Foresight’s gimmick to make an episodic format work. He doesn’t get in enough fights himself–he arranges fights, while spending most of his own time in an office or lab. His rare fights could make for fun scenes, though–he always wins, and makes it look easy to onlookers, but readers would see him getting hit repeatedly until he figures out all the right moves. You could play format games with it, putting his failed moves and resultant clobberings in extra panels outside the main flow.

I could see it working better in a graphic novel format. There are lots of fun little visual things you could do to show what his life is like. One image in my head is a series of panels with him talking to someone over dinner at a restaurant: the conversation flows smoothly, but in each panel, he has a different meal in front of him, because he’s rewinding repeatedly to think things over, and indulging by ordering different stuff each time. (The last panel shows a salad.)

(And thanks. I rather like the character, which is why I felt the need to write him up.)

[Cartoonacy]

Superboy (the clone character who emerged from the Death of Superman storyline in 1993, not the original or later versions) originally thought that he had Superman’s powers, minus the vision abilities. He later learned that his creators couldn’t duplicate Kryptonian DNA, so instead they gave him “tactile telekinesis,” the ability to telekinetically control anything he was in physical contact with. Using this, he was able to simulate super-strength, flight (by levitating himself), and invulnerability to projectiles (which lost momentum the instant they touched him) but not to gas or radiation.

I haven’t followed Daredevil in a long time, but in his early days, he used his super-enhanced hearing and other senses to conceal the fact that he was blind. No one suspected that he had any superhuman powers at all.

[DocCathode]

In House Of M Spiderman’s powers were public knowledge. He did hide the fact that he was not a mutant, but an ordinary Homo Sapien bitten by a radioactive spider.

I can’t recall her name, but one of the women in the Green Lantern Corps tells the people of her planet that her powers derive from magic and not advanced technology.

[BigT]

I’m surprised Der Trihs didn’t bring up Worm, with the character of Tattletale, who completely hides that her power is super-intuition, basically. Some think she’s psychic, others think she has a demoralizing power. She may technically be a villain, but her goals are often as or more heroic than that of the heroes. Of course, I’m only halfway through the work.

I think there are other characters who people do not reveal the full extent of their powers, but I can’t remember them offhand. In that world, ignorance can be a super’s best weapon.

The main character has also convinced another character that she has super-lying abilities because she keeps saying things that his equipment says aren’t lies, but don’t line up with his expected explanations for her actions. (Essentially, she winds up changing her mind the more she learns.)

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

El Aguila was a modern-day Zorro with a gimmicked sword that shot lightning.

That’s what he led people to believe, anyway – which is why they’d figure he was a regular guy once they got the sword away from him, at which point they’d try to zap him with it, or leave it alone out of fear it’d zap 'em, or whatever.

As you’ve of course realized by now, no, he’s a superhuman with an ordinary sword.

[Grumman]

While it’s not strictly a superhero comic, Bleach has a lot in common with one. Basically every major member of Squad Eleven does this for one reason or another. Their leader, Kenpachi, had a good one: in true Shonen fashion he was on the ropes against a seemingly superior foe and had to use his secret technique…

…holding his sword with both hands.

[bldysabba]

@Balance

Secret identities are a common trope in the superhero genre, of course, but what about secret powers? More specifically, I’m talking about publicly known supers who actively conceal the nature of their powers and/or deceive people about them. This notion occurred to me when–as so often happens–a character popped into my head and set up housekeeping. I haven’t been able to think of any supers from mainstream comics that fit the bill, so I turn to you, gentle Dopers*:

What published supers fit this concept?

What characters can you come up with that would do this? What are their real powers, and why do they hide their true nature?

To start us off, here’s the character that led to this post:

Codename: Foresight

Real name: John Spotts

Powers:

Limited prescience. Foresight can see the immediate future with great accuracy, making him a very elusive opponent in a fight; even speedsters find it almost impossible to land a solid hit on him. At longer ranges, his precognition provides him with less specific, but still useful intuitions. He actually does little “field work” or patrolling; instead, he spends most of his time working with other heroes and emergency service dispatchers, arranging for the right people to be in the right place at the right time to do the most good.

For example, Foresight might have an impulse at 4:00 PM to call a fellow hero, the Prankster, and invite him out to the pub for a few beers at 8:00 PM. The Prankster is game, and they meet at the bar, only to find that Humdrum, a sonic-themed D-list villain whose greatest weakness is laughter, has just arrived, looking for a fight. With the Prankster’s powers, Humdrum is defeated handily, and the two heroes are rewarded with a few rounds of free drinks by patrons who enjoyed the free floor show.

He’s also a genius, but not a metagenius. He doesn’t build any one-off gadgets or special formulas, but he was a child prodigy and a polymath, mastering several fields of science and contributing to significant research advances by the time he was 12. It’s speculated that his high intelligence enables him to process his ever-shifting awareness of the near future well enough to use it tactically, and his prescient intuition helps him select useful lines of inquiry.

Real powers:

It’s not published(except on the web), but there’s a character in Worm, a superhero serial, who has very similar powers. I won’t say who because, well, spoilers.

Worm

[bldysabba]

@BigT

I’m surprised Der Trihs didn’t bring up Worm, with the character of Tattletale, who completely hides that her power is super-intuition, basically. Some think she’s psychic, others think she has a demoralizing power. She may technically be a villain, but her goals are often as or more heroic than that of the heroes. Of course, I’m only halfway through the work.

I think there are other characters who people do not reveal the full extent of their powers, but I can’t remember them offhand. In that world, ignorance can be a super’s best weapon.

Ah, I didn’t see that you’d already brought up Worm(Did you pick it up from the HPMOR thread?). And, like I said, while there’s one character in the Worm universe, who is very much like the character described in the OP (maybe you haven’t reached the part where his power is described yet), you are also correct that many characters there hide the true nature of their power.

[Superdude]

Through a big portion of her early days, Dazzler didn’t let it be known that her powers stemmed from her being a mutant. She was a singer, and they believed that her powers were light effects.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

In the ASTRO CITY comic, a Batman knockoff sneaks around implausibly well, and has interrogation skills that border on the hypnotic, and fights so well it’s almost like he’s inhumanly swift and strong – and if the occasional gunshot doesn’t slow him down, well, then, it must have missed as he swirled that cape around, right?

Thing is, he’s a vampire; bullets are useless, but he’d rather you didn’t know that, because then you’d use wooden stakes or garlic cloves. And he really is inhumanly swift and strong; he’s not a well-trained ninja, he’s just a guy who doesn’t show up in mirrors or on security-camera footage – and who mysteriously slips away when no one’s looking by dint of, y’know, turning into mist.

But since criminals aren’t a cowardly and superstitious lot, they chalk all of that up to skill instead of brandishing crucifixes for the win.

[Balance]

A lot of misunderstood powers are coming up, which are interesting and worth discussing as well, but not exactly what I was aiming for. I’m partial to trickster characters, and this particular trick–a super deliberately deceiving people about the nature of their powers to gain an advantage–caught my imagination recently. I’ll have to look into Worm, which sounds interesting.

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

El Aguila was a modern-day Zorro with a gimmicked sword that shot lightning.

That’s what he led people to believe, anyway – which is why they’d figure he was a regular guy once they got the sword away from him, at which point they’d try to zap him with it, or leave it alone out of fear it’d zap 'em, or whatever.

As you’ve of course realized by now, no, he’s a superhuman with an ordinary sword.

This is more what I was thinking of. I had never heard of El Aguila before, so thanks for pointing him out. I’m inclined to like him already.

@Grumman

While it’s not strictly a superhero comic, Bleach has a lot in common with one. Basically every major member of Squad Eleven does this for one reason or another. Their leader, Kenpachi, had a good one: in true Shonen fashion he was on the ropes against a seemingly superior foe and had to use his secret technique…

I think Bleach characters tend more to the “I Am Not Left-Handed”, “Power Limiter”, and “My True Power” tropes (links omitted for your safety). They often hide the extent of their power, but usually not its nature. There are a couple of examples there, though, which I hadn’t thought of–Ikkaku, who hides his bankai, and, even more on point, Aizen.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@Balance

I’m talking about publicly known supers who actively conceal the nature of their powers and/or deceive people about them. This notion occurred to me when–as so often happens–a character popped into my head and set up housekeeping. I haven’t been able to think of any supers from mainstream comics that fit the bill, so I turn to you, gentle Dopers*:

What published supers fit this concept?

Henry Pym’s an interesting case: as Ant-Man, he was obviously a tiny crimefighter with lots of ants at his command – and, when he later became Giant-Man, it was hardly a secret that he was really big and strong.

But he hid that he was Ant-Man and Giant-Man, so it was a running gag that crooks wouldn’t realize just how the huge guy snuck up on them – or they’d confidently announce themselves while preparing to stomp in Ant-Man’s general direction, only to HOLY CRAP, GIANT-MAN IS HERE TOO? I ONLY NOW REALIZE I SHOULD RUN!

[Ethilrist]

In the Wild Cards novels, there’s an Ace (super) with five or six different powers: creating a field of darkness around him, chilling things to sub-zero temperatures, inhumanly strong, can climb walls, and a couple others. He developed three different superhero personas, each of which only ever used one or two of the powers. I don’t remember their names, but one was only known as being able to climb walls, one could chill things, one could create darkness fields… they all wore different costumes.

In the end, he developed a split personality and went seriously insane, to the extent that the main character (a private investigator) was investigating one of the other personae as a possible murder suspect. Kind of a bitch to follow the guy…

Superman was a pro at this; he was constantly using a super-power he had never used before, and then you’d never see him use it again. Some people said this was bad writing, but we all know better: Superman can do anything.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

Sargon the Sorceror would fight crime and save lives in spectacular fashion, after which he’d explain to the authorities and the press that (a) he was just a stage magician who’d performed a couple of really well-prepared tricks, and (b) you can catch my show this weekend at the local theater, it’s fun for the whole family, remember to tip your waitress, thanks to you all, and good night everybody!

Thing is, the cape-and-tuxedo superhero didn’t want folks suspecting real magic in general, or grabbing at his concert-hall ‘swami’ turban in particular; it’s a prop, right? I’m sure that big ruby in the middle is just costume jewelry, or something.

[Balance]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

But he hid that he was Ant-Man and Giant-Man, so it was a running gag that crooks wouldn’t realize just how the huge guy snuck up on them – or they’d confidently announce themselves while preparing to stomp in Ant-Man’s general direction, only to HOLY CRAP, GIANT-MAN IS HERE TOO? I ONLY NOW REALIZE I SHOULD RUN!

Heh. Not just a secret, but evidence that, in addition to being cowardly and superstitious, comic-book criminals are too thick to put two and two together with a calculator and an instruction manual. “Not only is that guy who can shrink after us, so is that other guy who can grow!”

@Ethilrist

In the end, he developed a split personality and went seriously insane, to the extent that the main character (a private investigator) was investigating one of the other personae as a possible murder suspect. Kind of a bitch to follow the guy…

That’s very Wild Cards.

Superman was a pro at this; he was constantly using a super-power he had never used before, and then you’d never see him use it again. Some people said this was bad writing, but we all know better: Superman can do anything.

I don’t think that’s so much him being deceptive as having so damn many powers that he forgets some of them.

Lightning Lad: “Hit her with your freezing breath!”
Superman: “My what?!”
Lightning Lad: “Think cold and blow.”

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

Sargon the Sorceror would fight crime and save lives in spectacular fashion, after which he’d explain to the authorities and the press that (a) he was just a stage magician who’d performed a couple of really well-prepared tricks, and (b) you can catch my show this weekend at the local theater, it’s fun for the whole family, remember to tip your waitress, thanks to you all, and good night everybody!

Thing is, the cape-and-tuxedo superhero didn’t want folks suspecting real magic in general, or grabbing at his concert-hall ‘swami’ turban in particular; it’s a prop, right? I’m sure that big ruby in the middle is just costume jewelry, or something.

Eminently sensible of him, and something that really ought to be on both the Evil Overlord list and a heroic equivalent: “If you have an artifact of power, and must carry it openly to use it, make sure that it looks like an irrelevant (but firmly attached) bit of costume frippery.”

[Bakhesh]

Spider-man is known as a cosutmed acrobat, but doesn’t he conceal the fact that he has a spider-sense?

Also, Batman often seems to be trying to give the impression he is supernatural, despite being a bloke in a costume.

I once thought of a Superhero with the power to super-bluff. Basically, it would be like being able to win any hand in poker by raising the stakes so high that the other player got cold feet. He would win a fight before it starts, by convincing his opponent about just how incredibly powerful he was and the hell he would be able to unleash if they came to blows.

I could never work out a name for him though, because Bluffman kinda gives the game away.