Somebody who loves another's alter ego while disliking their civilian identity in Comic Books.
- Inverted in Alpha Flight; Aurora is dating teammate Sasquatch, but her alter ego, Jeanne Marie, is horrified by the relationship. (She's a split personality, obviously.)
- Batman:
- Vicki Vale was Bruce's Lois Lane (in fact she was a pretty blatant ripoff, being a nosy reporter with an alliterative name and all) throughout the '40s and '50s, but eventually the writers got tired of her and she quietly slipped away into comic-book limbo. She still turns up in The DCU from time to time as a TV reporter, but after the Tim Burton film, she didn't properly turn up again until The Batman vs. Dracula (See Rule of Cool). She's now back at the Gotham Gazette and knows Batman's secret. This results in Bruce recruiting her as an ally.
- Much like Flash Thompson and Spider-Man, Detective Crispus Allen is a platonic version of this, loathing Bruce Wayne and liking working with Batman.
- In Big Bang Comics, Superman Captain Ersatz Ultiman is really Chris Kelly, but this isn't a secret to his co-workers, because he works for the government in his capacity as Ultiman. However, he keeps another identity on the side: that of his own twin brother, Carl Kelly. "Carl" is a shiftless womanizer, despised by the Ultiman-crazed Lori Lake.
- Italian Disney Ducks Comic Universe stories involving the classic version of Paperinik (Donald's superhero identity) love to play with this:
- The standard formula is of Daisy Duck holding her boyfriend Donald somewhat in contempt while admiring Paperinik, with one story going so far to have her temporarily dump Donald for Paperinik.
- Played tragically in one story where Daisy found out about his secret identity... And when Paperinik fed her an altered memory wiping candy to protect his secret identity she forgot about Donald while believing she was Paperinik's girlfriend.
- In other stories, mainly the darker ones close to the first Paperinik stories, Daisy ends up as a collateral to Paperinik's revenges and is either scared or pissed at him and admires Donald for being the only one who can not only stand up to him but even put him in his place.
- When the authors remember that Daisy has her own superhero alter ego Paperinika it's mutual and Inverted: Donald and Daisy love each other but can't stand each other's alter ego, and the alter egos despise each other.
- In the miniseries Ultraheroes, which basically is about the founding of a Justice League Disney Comics, Paperinik and Paperinika actually starts to get along, and even falling for each other... Which causes them no small amount of angst, since they both already have a significant other - the other's secret identity. This also may pop up in 'normal' stories, as when they're forced to collaborate they find out they could actually get along very well, but between already having a significant other and past fights they end up back at square one.
- The standard formula is of Daisy Duck holding her boyfriend Donald somewhat in contempt while admiring Paperinik, with one story going so far to have her temporarily dump Donald for Paperinik.
- In Flare backup series Sparkplug, this situation is inverted; the superheroine Sparkplug is adored by a local male reporter in both her superhero identity and her civilian identity... because he can tell that they're the same person; he sees Olga and Sparkplug practically every day, a wig isn't going to fool him.
- Parodied in Marvel's comedic superhero team GLA, with the infamously short-lived Grasshopper, a superhero who wore a grasshopper-themed power armor, and was a member for about 6 seconds before he was accidentally killed by the assassin Zaran. Squirrel Girl presented his backstory in a prequel, showing that he was Roxxon security officer Doug Taggert who mooned after researcher Cindy Shelton, who only had eyes for Grasshopper.
- Thundermind of The DCU's Great Ten has this in his secret identity (him being the only member of the team to really have one). In a shameless (and hilarious) riff on the Silver Age Superman, Thundermind is also the nebbish, bespectacled schoolteacher Zou Kang. His affections for attractive coworker Ms. Wu are ignored because she only has eyes for Thundermind.
- In the Silver Age Green Lantern, one of the obstacles to Hal Jordan's relationship to Carol Ferris was that she couldn't decide whether she was interested in him or in his alter ego. Eventually she found out that they were the same person, and they moved on to problems like her alter ego. One of the biggest obstacles was HER role as his boss in civilian life and her need to separate business from personal.
- The Incredible Hulk: Happens to the Hulk, believe it or not. Betty preferred Bruce Banner, Jarella preferred Hulk and Caiera loves both.
- That Betty loved the integrated Hulk shows her consistency; she loved him for his mind rather than his body in all incarnations.
- Inverted in Jem and the Holograms (IDW). In sharp contrast to the cartoon, Rio loves Jerrica but thinks Jem is a bratty diva who shouldn't be in the band.
- In the early Journey into Mystery period of Thor comics, when his similarities to Superman were most blatant, Dr. Donald Blake, Thor, and his nurse Jane Foster had this kind of relationship, with Don in love with Jane but believing that his disability would make it impossible for her to love him, and Jane in love with Don and wishing he would make a move while also lusting after Thor, and believing Don to be a coward because he kept running away from danger (to turn into Thor when nobody could see him).
- Howard Chaykin's DC title Mighty Love: policewoman Delaney Pope and public defender Lincoln Reinhardt can't stand each other. However they both have costumed alter egos and Skylark and Iron Angel have a mutual attraction, even if they don't know who's behind the other's mask.
- In The Sentry, Robert Reynolds' wife Lindy Lee (yes to what you're thinking) loves him as the Sentry but not as the mentally-ill milquetoast he is normally. She compares how she feels about Reynolds and the Sentry to how Bob feels about her normally and her in lingerie at one point. What a loving, supportive wife.
- Spider-Man: Inverted Trope. A major hurdle for most of Peter Parker's girlfriends wasn't them liking Peter but if they were able to look past the general sentiment and public opinion against his alter ego and see him for the hero he was.
- Both Betty Brant and Gwen Stacy liked Peter but hated and distrusted Spider-Man, with the latter blaming him for the death of her father. Mary Jane Watson, Peter's long-term love interest was the first one to admit outright that Spider-Man was cool, and she would flirt with both Peter and Spider-Man during their early interactions. In addition, a later Revision has it that she always knew, but didn't say anything. In the original context, the fact that MJ liked Spider-Man at his most distrusted and went against public opinion and general sentiment to express that view, meant that she actually did like the real Peter Parker, contrary to the general trope. In a more traditional version, such as the Alternate Continuity title Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane explores this from Mary Jane's perspective, albeit with the classical idea that Spider-Man is more charismatic and Peter isn't before she settles for "Plain 'ol Peter".
- Black Cat Felicia Hardy prefers Spider-Man over his bland alter-ego, knowing Peter's double life and still liking Spider-Man over "plain ol' Peter". Black Cat proves compatible as Spider-Man's sidekick and partner but not in his civilian life, which needless to say confuses Peter to no end.
- When Spider-Man unmasks himself as Peter Parker as a show of trust to Black Cat in The Spectacular Spider-Man, she is horrified and turned off, saying she's only in love with Spider-Man and completely uninterested in the mundane civilian behind the mask.
- In Ultimate Spider-Man which redraws and realigns the characters, Felicia Hardy's attraction for Spider-Man over Peter makes a little more sense since Felicia is an adult woman here while Peter is a teenager; she vomited when she learned the truth. The more traditional Black Cat dynamic is given to Ultimate Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat, who is also a superhero with powers who crushes on Spider-Man but doesn't fit well into his civilian identity. Mary Jane Watson is friends with Peter since childhood and crushed on Peter before and after he got bitten by a spider, and Peter reveals his identity to her early, making her his confidant and soulmate.
- In just about every continuity, Jerk Jock Eugene "Flash" Thompson is a huge fan of Spider-Man and thinks he's the coolest guy on the planet, albeit as Peter notes, not usually for the right reasons. However, he thinks that Peter Parker is a loser, and tends to mercilessly bully him. Generally, he grows out of it and he ends up friends with Peter in his older years (though whether he finds out Peter is Spider-Man tends to depend on the writer). In some continuities, Aunt May loves her nephew Peter dearly, but can't stand Spider-Man (reasons vary from her thinking he's a dangerous vigilante to her having arachnophobia).
- After the Cosmic Retcon of One More Day attempts were made to claim that Mary Jane Watson, of all people, only ever loved Peter because she knew he was Spider-Man all along. To say that this would be contradictory to her previous characterisation or ignorant of the original context, would be an understatement. When Nick Spencer took over the franchise from Dan Slott, one of the first things he did was affirm that MJ always loved Peter Parker for who he is, recognizing that Peter and Spider-Man weren't separate individuals but essentially the same person, and that while his double life had driven her away in the past, the fact that Peter was at heart a hero is one of the things that kept her coming back to him.
- Shazam!:
- In Jeff Smith's Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, Helen Fidelity, a Lois Lane expy, flirts shamelessly with adult Captain Marvel, but finds the 10-year-old Billy Batson rather annoying. Billy has an obvious Precocious Crush on her, but Marvel (who's a separate personality in this version) seems entirely indifferent.
- The sequel series, Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam carries on this basic dynamic, but Ret Cons Billy and Captain Marvel into one personality, making it more of a Two-Person Love Triangle.
- Several variations of this occur with She-Hulk - originally in The Savage She-Hulk, she was dating two guys... one as Jennifer Walters and one as She-Hulk, although that was mutual. Later the trope was inverted when she was married to John Jameson, who repeatedly expressed a dislike of Jennifer's powered She-Hulk form - much to her chagrin.
- Superlópez: Inverted. Luisa Lanas loves Juan López but hates Superlópez with a passion.
- Superman:
- Lois Lane in her earliest incarnations — although she and Clark Kent became Happily Married in the mid-1990s and he revealed the truth to her once he was sure she loved Clark instead of Superman.
- Post-Crisis Lois was initially very skeptical of the Man Of Steel and far more interested in Clark since he was the only person able to routinely scoop her.
- Pre-Crisis Lana Lang was usually smitten with Superboy, but only thought of Clark as a friend. This stretched into their adulthoods, though she eventually (during the Bronze Age) lost interest in Superman, and even started dating Clark by the late Bronze Age.
- Before Clark and Lois got married, there was also the character of Cat Grant, who was in love with Clark Kent and had no particularly personal feelings for Superman (whom she liked and admired in the way most Metropolitans like and admire him).
- In All-Star Superman, Lois never moved past this. To the point where she didn't even believe him when he changed into Superman right in front of her and repeatedly insisted that Clark and Superman were one and the same.
- The Clark-Lois-Superman love triangle was later brought back to continuity in Superman: Secret Origin.
- The New 52 reboot gave Lois a new boyfriend for a while, until she (and the rest of the world) finds out Superman's secret in Superman: Truth. Shortly afterwards, the situation reverted to Clark and Lois married in DC Rebirth.
- Sometimes Lex Luthor does the inverse, respecting Clark Kent a fair bit more than Superman. In some stories they were even friends as kids.
- In All-Star Superman, Clark Kent was interviewing Lex Luthor in death row, and Luthor surprisingly took the time from badmouthing Superman to praise Clark, complimenting him on alot of his qualities and how Lois would choose him if it not were Superman. Heck, he even finds his clumsy awkwardness somewhat endearing, namely because it makes Clark so human compared to the alien Superman.
- During the Silver Age, a trio of Jimmy Olsen stories (all written by Jerry Siegel) was published depicting Jimmy assuming the identity of "Magi the Magician" and courting a woman named "Sandra Rogers", who was actually his girlfriend Lucy Lane in disguise. While this trope is played straight with Sandra/Lucy, Magi/Jimmy (who was far more invested in his relationship with Lucy than Lucy herself) constantly felt guilt for romancing who he thinks is another woman. A more in-depth look at this can be found here
. - In Action Comics #361, a boy wanted to date Linda Danvers/Kara Zor-El because he suspected that she was Supergirl. When Linda/Kara managed to make him believe she was a normal, powerless girl, he stopped being interested.
- During her time working as a photographer in San Francisco, Linda Danvers had a crush on her boss Geoffrey "Geoff" Anderson. Geoff was not interested in Linda but he liked Supergirl. He even kissed her at the end of Demon Spawn. However, Linda quit her job and moved away shortly after, and they never saw each other again.
- In imaginary story Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #57 Linda and Jimmy marry. However Linda was exposed to Red Kryptonite shortly before the whirlwind romance. She is depowered when the wedding happens, and doesn't remember anything about her secret. When Linda regains her memories and her powers she decides she needs to tell Jimmy she is Supergirl but in a tactful way. Her "great" plan was revealing Supergirl's existence to him. Then, as Supergirl, she will make him fall in love with her. Then when he is in love with both Linda and Supergirl, she'll reveal she is one and the same. Surprisingly, her nutty idea worked.
- The K-Metal from Krypton: Unbuilt Trope in this 1940 story. Lois finally finds out about Superman's secret, and she is understandably pissed off at Clark deceiving her for as long as they have been coworkers. She agrees to work with him for the good of humanity, though, and Clark hopes she will eventually calm down.
- In Lewis Trondheim and Fabrice Parme's Venezia, the deuteragonists' civilian identities, an opera singer and a painter, can't stand each other; but their spy selves, the Black Scorpion and the Eagle, are quite friendly and exchange witty banter as they work for their respective countries against Venice.
- Adrian Chase, the Vigilante's, relationship with Marcia King; she wanted him to renounce the identity of the Vigilante.
- Wonder Woman's Steve Trevor is a classic example; for decades he ignored bespectacled coworker Diana Prince in favor of her Amazonian alter ego. He learned her identity on both Earth-Two and Earth-One before marrying her, and in the original Golden Age comics it's hinted he's playing dumb since he does things frequently that help her keep her Diana Prince ID secret. After the book's Crisis reboot, this dynamic was disposed of; Diana no longer had a secret identity and her relationship with Steve was non-romantic.
- In Volume 1 Helen Alexandros fell in love with Dr. Psycho's projection Captain Wonder, and Psycho fell in love with Helen's Silver Swan form. After her powers were removed, Helen searched for Captain Wonder but found Dr. Psycho instead who repulsed her, continuing her search despite the fact Captain Wonder did not exist. Psycho was likewise repulsed by Helen, and continued looking for Silver Swan, the one woman he did not despise due to her Charm Person powers.
- In Volume 3, Wondy has her Diana Prince identity again, and Tom Tressler (the Badass Normal formerly known as Nemesis) is in love with someone's alter ego.
- The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): Steve loves Diana, and doesn't really think too much on Wonder Woman beyond being thankful for her aid and awed by her abilities. Learning the two are the same in the end only increases his awe of Diana.
- This is repeatedly inverted with the comic book character Daredevil. Almost all of his female love interests have been looking to date Matt Murdock, not his alter ego. This applies even when the interested party is also a superhero.
- Matt Murdock dated Mary Walker. The trouble was that while Mary is an innocent woman, she has two evil personalities, Typhoid Mary and Bloody Mary, who clashed with Daredevil frequently. Since Daredevil is blind and the three personalities have different speech patterns and biometrics, it took a while for him to figure out they were the same person.
