The Scarlet Pimpernel

Orczy introduced "a heroic figure who creates a lounging foppish alter ego to hide his true heroic nature" (Peter Royston), and Batman is named among the masked heroes that followed within a few decades. Bruce Wayne's useless-playboy act is Sir Percy's.

Jerry Siegel credited The Scarlet Pimpernel, with Zorro, as an inspiration for Superman, particularly the dual identity: mild-mannered Clark Kent is the Pimpernel's harmless public face.

Zorro is built on the Pimpernel's formula: a nobleman who plays the useless fop in public so that nobody suspects him of being the daring masked rescuer everyone is hunting. The Pimpernel is usually named as the first of the double-identity heroes, and Zorro as the one who brought the mask and the sign.

Stan Lee, Spider-Man's co-creator: "The Scarlet Pimpernel was the first superhero I had read about, the first character who could be called a superhero." Peter Parker's secret identity is in that tradition.