Why do they wear masks?

[MILatino]

Originally posted by Panther in "Knight of Shadows" thread
In this genre of fanatasy/sci-fi/action-adventure/whatever there are two types of people who wear masks: "good guys" and "bad guys".

"Good guys" wear a mask that covers up a /normal/ face so that now and then they can face the world (sorry about the pun) without being recognized as heroes and lead a normal life (as normal a life as a heroes gets anyway). Examples: Lone Ranger, Zorro, Batman, Flash, Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, Spiderman, etc.

Now, when "bad guys" wear masks they almost never want to disguise who they are. They are destructive and selfish and wear the mask to both look more powerful and cover up a truly loathsome individual underneath; Phantom of the Opera, the Joker's girl in the first Batman movie, and, uh, this doesn't look good for my theory but I can't think of any more right now - I'm sure there are more, though.This is quite interesting.

Good guys usually wear masks to protect themselves and their families from the bad guys' revenge and from hostage manipulation. If you were a superhero, you wouldn't want a Joker kidnapping your parents every time he wanted to get to you. You know that if the big villain didn't try it, some other two-bit hood would.

Good guys also wear masks to protect themselves from overzealous good guys, too. Imagine the outcry of overly politically correct people who want to get rid of the vigilante. Imagine the law trying to prosecute you. Imagine the law harrassing your family trying to find you. Imagine your creditors dumping you, your job firing you, your landlord... well, you get the idea. :(

Bad guys in comics don't usually wear masks for hiding their identities as far as I can tell. They do it for effect: to make themselves look mysterious or scary. They usually don't have secret lives of "normal" folk because even when they're without masks, their "evil" natures still take over and are with them all day long. They're rotten all the time, usually greedy. :mad:

So what's your theory?

[Patrick Bateman]

So what's your theory?
My theory is that you just hit the nail on the head. :)

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

I think the other reason why masks don't do much to protect the identity of the average comic-book bad guy is that they always get caught by the good guys in the end, and get unmasked as they're being carted off to jail. They may serve initially to hide their identities (as the bandana does in a Western bank robbery), but it doesn't help much when Superman just tied you up with a steel girder.

I only good guy counter-example I can think of is Batman. While his mask serves to protect his identity, the mask and the outfit also serve to frighten and intimidate his enemies (and sometimes even his friends). "Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot" and all that.

I suspect these are the exceptions which prove the rule, though, especially since I had to think long and hard of these. You get some good guys where the mask is part and parcel of their powers (Dr. Fate and anybody in battle armor) or where it's required for them to be a functional individual (the Human Bomb from DC Comics, whose power is exactly what it sounds like).

-- Ed/Ace

[Anarky]

the neat thing about Batman's villains (for the most part) is that very few wear masks. Of course....some have been horribly scarred making masks obsolete.

Joker WANTS you see his face.
Two-Face doesn't hide his, he wears his duality on his sleeve.
Ventriloquist doesn't hide
Nor does the Mad Hatter, Penguin, Zsasz, Ivy...
And it makes no difference is Roman Sionis (the Black Mask) wears a mask or not because his face was scorched and molded to resemble the macabre mask of his namesake.

Then there are the likes of Scarecrow, BANE, Riddler, Firely, etc...who only wear masks to instill fear or to live up to the name.

Crane wears his for obvious reasons. Without his mask, BANE would still stand out. HE'S MASSIVE. Nygam wears his mask as an accessory really. Everyone in Gotham should know his name and face by now. Same goes to Catwoman, though Selina changes her look quite otfen so the average Gothamite might not recognize her. Firely has to wear a mask to protect himself from the flames he creates.

by the way, vigilante Anarky has a cool mask. As you can tell by my avatar, not everyone feels the same way though. :-)

[JMo]

i agree with the good guy theory because it's the smart thing to do...no one wants bad guys to come after their families...

I don't know why bad guys would wear masks...perhaps it's a sign of weakness. Except for cases like The Green Goblin, when he didn't really know that he was the green goblin...or am I just too much Spiderman movie? :eek:

[Frank White]

In the comics Green Goblin actually had an identity to hide. I mean its like Bill Gates secretly being the Hobgoblin, Norman was a CEO. Also add the Jackal to the list of villians who have a secret identity, plus I think Mysterio had another identity too.

[TimTwoFace]

Go figure how Superman gets away without wearing a mask. You'd think at least Lois would have pieced something together by now. She is an investigative reporter, after all.

-Tim
(Doesn't look any different in glasses.)

[Bleu Unicorn]

I think MILatino (and Panther) have the reasoning behind why good guys wear masks absolutely perfectly. A good guy, needs to hide his identity, for the sake of his own personal safety and that of anyone he or she cares about. Not only that, in a world that we live in today, a known hero would be hounded relentlessly if his/her secret identity was known. In the case of Flash, for instance, he'd probably be studied and poked and proded till we could understand every little nuance of him.

The bad guys on the other hand, they want their identities known. First of all, in many cases we're talking about some very unstable people here. They're not thinking quite right in the head, so the idea of hiding who they are -- and maybe getting away with their crimes -- goes right over their feeble minds. Second, most of the time we're referring to some very egotistical and arrogant baddies. They want to be remembered. They strive for it. In this case, the Joker comes to mind. His jokes/pranks would be worth so much less if no one knew who he was.

Finally, all of these baddies have a common purpose -- they all want to kill the good guy and they all want to know who the good guy really is. That said, if they hid themselves, how would they prove that they accomplished their ultimate goal -- if they ever actually did of course.

[MattL.]

Good guys wear masks to: Protect their identies and in turn people close to them.

Bad guys wear masks to: One word. *Showmanship*.


The main overall reason masks are there? The look cool. Its fun, why over analyze it?

[MILatino]

Originally posted by MattL.
The main overall reason masks are there? The look cool. Its fun, why over analyze it? Eh... somethin' to talk about. :D

[DarkLantern]

Originally posted by TimTwoFace
Go figure how Superman gets away without wearing a mask. You'd think at least Lois would have pieced something together by now. She is an investigative reporter, after all.

-Tim
(Doesn't look any different in glasses.)

The main reason is because Superman doesn't wear a mask, the general public believes that he doesn't even have another identity.

Who would wear a mask in real life, after all.

Another theory involves an invention called Dr. Sivana's patented Hynpo-SpecsTM...

DL

[G. Wen]

I believe good guys wear masks because they do not want to be recognized as a hero. They may want to lead a normal life and be treated as a normal person, and they are only a hero because they want to make an impact of some kind.