3. Clark Kent
Is it a bird? No. It's an alien called Kal El of Krypton. It's Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman. Superman is another prodigious pupil of the superhero adoption and concealment agency. His planet and parents destroyed, Kal El is the last of his race brought up in Kansas, and living as a journalist. The aspects that make him 'super' on Earth are merely normal on Krypton. Therefore, he is put in the position of knowing he is different but endeavouring to conceal it. In the stability of the Kent Farm, CK grows up as surprisingly balanced individual. He has total control of his 'powers' once he learns how to use them and even has a nice alliterative girlfriend in Lois Lane. He becomes a symbol of morality and justice. No murder necessary. The weight of emphasis on his secret life was not really placed on it being a psychological minefield. The classic scene of Clark emerging from a phonebooth, exchanging a suit and tie with a suit and cape in one foul swoosh iss a synecdoche for how his character operated. He was ordinary, like everyone else in the world he was just trying to fit in. Only, this is not his world, which enables him to do use his different abilities for good and to lock up baddies, at the rip of a shirt. Life as Superman, the physically impenetrable figure on Earth contrasts his vulnerability as 'person'. Emotions are not bulletproof and x-ray vision can only reveal superficial aspects of humanity. The alter-ego urge to protect his secret stems from his desire simply to be normal. However, in a normal life containing adoptive parents, friends and a girlfriend - they are his greatest weakness. (Yes, there is Kryptonite but that isn't as poetic). Superman, conceived in 1930s is a product of The Great Depression and provided an alternative world where hope and righteousness were focused in the individual. Perhaps the need for a concealed normality is a product of the American Dream, where a hero lives in everyone, who can accomplish anything, no matter how ordinary they seem. Superman is the 'cleanest' example of alter-egoism in this article because of the idealistic tendencies. Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Lex Luther everything feels symbolic and showy. He is a force for moral goodness, which is laudable, but inevitably lacks anymoral complexity. Returning to the question of nurture in developing these character-types, Kent's upbringing is the most stable and in the illustrated in the healthiest tone. His trauma occurs just after his birth; therefore he is not immediately affected by his parents deaths in the way Dexter, Don Draper, Bruce Wayne and to a lesser extent Peter Parker are.