Popular heroic figures such as Zorro, Batman or Spider-Man perform their deeds in public only masked, but in civilian clothes they conceal any semblance of heroism. With this secret, such masked heroes enable the manifold thematization of ideas of identity in their stories - after all, the mask has always had the function of questioning identity categories and categorizations. In the tensions of the masquerade between being and appearances, these figures of serial storytelling try again and again to find or maintain a balance between individuality and conformity. What constitutes masked heroes and how such figures oscillate between questions of the 'true' self and multiple selves is shown in this book in a broad chronological arc spanning the entire 20th to the early 21st century, in which the genesis of the masked hero as a figure type is also traced. World-famous figures such as Superman, lesser-known ones such as Daredevil, the Thunderbolts and The Shadow, as well as a multitude of almost forgotten heroes from the US pulp novels and early superhero comics are the focus here.