Secret Identity: A Noir Mystery About the Uncredited Heroes of Comics History

Secret Identity, the latest novel from Alex Segura, comic book writer (The Black Ghostt and Oni Press SVP of Sales and Marketing, must juggle multiple personas as both a period piece about a crucial turning point in comics history and a murder mystery. While the latter genre layer is more in service to the former, with the killing of a comics editor spurring his ghostwriting partner into investigating the darker corners of their shared world, the combination makes for a diverting read about how many chances these real-life heroes and villains get at comics immortality.
Growing up in Miami, Carmen Valdez learned English from comics, even if she didn’t see herself reflected in the pages. At 28, she’s achieved her dream of moving to New York City and working in the industry that created some of her most treasured childhood memories… even if she still doesn’t see people like her among the writers, artists, and editors who pass through Triumph Comics’ offices. In the thankless role of assistant (but really more secretary) to Triumph’s sexist editor-in-chief Jeffrey Carlyle, Carmen occupies the tricky space of “no longer a fan, but barely a professional”—achingly familiar for anyone who has taken a job out of genuine love for the art and thus been exploited for that emotional investment.
Add the fact that it’s 1975, and comics seem to be on a slow slide to obscurity. After all, who would want to keep picking up monthly escapist superhero stories when the world is ending? Even the bigwigs at Marvel and DC are worried about no one remembering their iconic characters a generation later, which means that lower-tier operations like Triumph are just limping along, having second-string or has-been talent turn out derivative superheroes until the lights get turned out. Someone like Carmen doesn’t stand a chance of writing something that will actually matter… at least, not as herself.
Carmen’s shot comes in the form of Harvey Stern, a prototypical gentle nerd down to the distinctive glasses and shy affect. A junior editor at Triumph, he has the access to pitch a new series to become the company’s new flagship superhero, as well as a mysterious pressing need to do so immediately. She has the talent but will have to settle for being uncredited, lurking in the shadows and metaphorically masked even as their (her) creation the Legendary Lynx looks to be a game-changer.
But when Harvey is murdered before he can publicly acknowledge Carmen as his collaborator, it transforms her fledgling double life into a noir mystery. Because someone didn’t want the Lynx to exist out in the world, and it’s only a matter of time before they connect the panels to her. Add in a New York City detective who can see through Carmen’s amateur alibis, and a femme fatale from her old life back in Miami, and the Lynx’s monthly “deadline” takes on a much more sinister meaning.
Not surprising for someone who regularly sees how the sausage gets made, Carmen has a tendency to observe her own actions and interactions from a remove, as if editing a comic book script—which is only exacerbated when she finds herself stalked and endangered on the already-threatening streets of ‘70s Manhattan. Segura’s writing reflects that with Carmen frequently noting how she “felt” everything from a menacing grip on her arm to the chill of being watched from afar by a stranger, instead of fully inhabiting that moment. Unfortunately, that often translates to a similar distance for the reader. It’s difficult to become entirely emotionally invested in Carmen because she has worked her entire adult life to keep anyone from doing so.