Law enforcement agencies us advanced facial recognition software routinely to identify criminals. A few good videos of Batman in action would be enough material to blow his identity very quickly since his entire lower face is exposed. He's not Superman so he doesn't move fast enough to blur his image on camera.
Several things to take into account:
1) In a more realistic world, Batman would cover his entire face. The reason Bruce doesn't cover his whole face in the DC universe is the same reason as to why Robin doesn't do it - it is enough of a disguise in that particular universe.
2) Batman is barely ever seen in public and whenever he is seen, the most people see is his shadows or silhouette before he disappears into the night. Superman constantly makes public appearances in broad daylight on the other hand.
3) What you are talking about is
not the same thing Loki882 is talking about. There are mountains of difference between using advanced tech to deduct Batman's identity and "his secret identity is clearly obvious and can be deduced in 2 seconds".
Perhaps I spent too much of my youth reading Superman comics in which the character uses super-ventriloquism and/or super-hypnotism in order to, yet again, put one over on ace reporter Lois Lane.
That was back in the Silver Age. Today's explanation for why people buy the Clark Kent disguise is that nobody would believe a godlike being such as Superman is actually human at heart and would want to live among "inferior beings". Is that idea executed in the best way possible? Maybe not. They probably do need an update of some sort on how Clark physically disguises himself (maybe a fake wig and fake facial hair on top of just the glasses (whatever)), but the idea of people not expecting Superman to live among them as a human still works IMO, and is a lot more of a believable idea than the pseudo-hypnotism of the 1960's.
But given the various technologies commonly available to law enforcement agencies, the media and the general public, the idea that someone could keep their identity secret from someone who had the means and the motivation to find it is nonsensical.
Here is the problem though: Where exactly do you start looking? Most of the superheroes with secret identities are random nobodies on the street. How do you trace, for example, Spider-Man back to Peter Parker?
Sure that we have the tech, but the only way to find your average superhero's secret identity is to completely go against the law & Constitution and to violate everyone's privacy by having everybody
personally monitored 24/7. Sure that government has been doing just that for the past few years, but they have yet to take it to that huge degree. And assuming that the Marvel universe has at least a decent democracy, they're probably not doing any of that at all.
At the very least it is important to update the old secret identity trope. The Avengers addressed this to a certain degree by having SHIELD responsible for keeping prying eyes away from Banner, and perhaps the Man of Steel sequel will use government intervention as a way to explain why no one who can profit from the information notices that the burly reporter and the flying alien share a remarkable number of facial similarities. For DD, I like the idea that his identity is an open secret of sorts, but higher ups in law enforcement welcome his help and don't expend much energy trying to catch Matt Murdock putting on his devil horns.
You're right that they do need to update the secret identity thing. And in my opinion, they already have. As others have said, the secret identity is no longer the default status given to every superhero. We now give secret identities based on whether or not there is a good reason to give a character a secret identity and most of the characters that still have SI's today have them for a good reason IMO.
Also, I'm not fond of Daredevil not having a secret identity. Street-level superheroes are the ones that need an SI the most. Matt Murdock's career as a lawyer would not survive a day if people found out he is a vigilante that beats the crap out of thugs at night. In
Born Again, Kingpin found out Daredevil is Matt Murdock and Matt got all his bank accounts frozen.
I actually agree with this. However, I do think the secret identity *as default* has outlived its usefulness, as has the idea of "secret identity as absolutely sacrosanct." Characters should have secret identities only if there is actually a good reason, and it should only be as strong as it actually needs to be. Note that Daredevil's secret ID has, of late, become somewhat of an open secret. . . which actually still kind of works for the guy.
Well said.
