Secret Identities, Easy Or Hard To Maintain?

When it comes to superheroic secret identities, what's your pleasure?

The old school, Silver Age I guess, style, where the hero is able, though not without difficulty, to keep people from learning who they are in their civilian lives? This doesn't mean no one would know, necessarily. The hero could decide to tell someone, or there could be a member of their cast that's just really on the ball. Captain Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man, Lois Lane for Superman, though she had the deck stacked against her considering all the powers, robots, and Batman assistance the writers pulled out of their butts to help Superman keep her guessing in the Silver Age*.

Or, I guess I'd call it the Ultimate-style, where it is really hard to keep a secret identity. Especially if you are, for example, some teenager from Queens who gained spider-powers then fairly quickly jumped into the deep end of fighting insane businessmen, and mad scientists, while being harassed by well-funded and well-equipped spy agencies.

Some blending of it, where some heroes keep it secret from everyone, while others don't hide it at all, plus some heroes who just aren't good at keeping it secret, or they trust someone who isn't (Karen Page might fall in that category for Daredevil), would probably be the best, if just because it offers the most avenues, but assuming we live in a horribly strict universe, where there are only two options, and you can't mix-and-match, what would you prefer?

I'm in favor of the old one myself. Yeah, it was funny to see how bad Peter was at keeping his mask on, especially when MJ handed him a list of everyone who knew who he was, and it hits home just how bad he's been about keeping the mask on, or not blurting out his name to the X-Men just because they've seen his face. I grew used to it there, because that was a generally consistent law of the universe. The X-Men were in the open, Kingpin knew Murdock was Daredevil, Dr. Strange was on late-night TV, and everybody knew who Spider-Man was. I could roll with it. But I feel it's an attempt to put too much realism into a situation that doesn't necessarily call for it.

It might be unrealistic for these heroes to manage to keep their secret identities hidden, but considering all the other things I suspend my disbelief for, it's not hard to swallow. I accept Peter Parker not only didn't die from a radioactive spider-bite, he gained awesome powers. I accept his Aunt can survive 700 heart attacks (may be an exaggeration), but needs magic help to survive a bullet. I accept the idea of stupid little blue men handing out rings that do anything if you will it hard enough. I'll buy that heroes (and villains if they're good enough at getting away) can keep people around them from figuring things out. Some of them will be better at it than others, or have more resources to help them out, be it powers or money.

Another part of it, is the problem-solving abilities most heroes tend to demonstrate. I've seen a lot of heroes apply their resources quite creatively to deal with a particular threat. Between that and their witty banter, they seem to possess excellent abilities to think on their feet, and devise solutions quickly. So while I believe I'd have some trouble explaining why I was always covered in bruises or missing whenever Hood Guy** appeared, the heroes seem more on the ball, so sure, they can come up with some quick excuse that saves their bacon. For a little while, at least.

So old-school for me, because I like the idea the heroes are smarter than I probably would be about it.

* I know Morrison and Quietly used it in All-Star Superman, though I don't think they started it, but I really like the idea that Clark Kent carries himself completely differently when he's Clark, compared to when he's Superman, so it isn't just the glasses. He really seems like a completely different person. Along those lines, how easy do you think it was to figure out Hal was Green Lantern? Setting aside how little of his face the mask covers, I can't see him behaving any differently from identity to the other.

** Though I like Spider-Man's costume, I think my love of hoods would cause me to design a costume with a hood. Or, more likely, get someone else to design it for me, because I know squat about fashion design.