8 Superheroes Who Had Their Identities Exposed

4. Batman

Silver St. Cloud Batman Bruce Wayne
DC Comics

Batman's secret identity might just be the superhero community's worst kept secret. Not that his allies seem to be able to figure it out or anything, or because his villains are necessarily better at it either, but because Bruce's romantic partners keep figuring it out.

Although obviously not one of said romantic partners, Bane deduced the Dark Knight's identity simply by looking at his jawline, pausing for a second, and going "hey, that kind of looks like Batman's." Surprisingly few Batman villains have put two and two together, and if they do, most prefer to keep the secret to themselves, as they'd rather their rivals weren't privy to the same information.

Petty? Yes - but it also makes sense. Why would the Riddler want the world to know Batman is Bruce Wayne - or even Bane, for that matter? It matters more to them if they're the only ones to know, with both having exacted plots against the World's Greatest Detective after they discovered his secret.

But back to Batman's love interests. All just seem to figure him out at one point or another, with Silver St. Cloud the first to do so. Others to have deduced the Caped Crusader's identity include Tim Drake, Lex Luthor and the Joker, but the threat of revealing it to the public is what makes the knowledge so valuable.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.