When Did the Original Avengers Learn Each Other's Secret Identities?

In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

Reader Mark C. wrote in to ask, "Basically, I've long wondered when Iron Man and Thor first learned each other's identities. I know most of the other Avengers learned about both in the early 80s starting with Cap and Tigra. But I have Avengers comics from years before then where Tony Stark and Donald Blake knew each other's secrets, but kept them from the rest. And I have no idea where or when they found out about each other. "

This made me think that, hey, I might as well show when everyone learned everyone else's identity, right?

In this context, the "original Avengers" will be done under the rules established in Kurt Busiek and George Perez's Avengers run, in which Captain America is considered a de facto "original" Avenger. And we'll eliminate the Hulk, so we're talking Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/etc., Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and the Wasp.

Obviously, Ant-Man revealed his identity to Janet Van Dyne when he recruited her to become the Wasp in Tales to Astonish #44...

Giant-Man was also the first Avenger to reveal his identity to the group. He had to contact the Avengers when the Wasp was captured during the period when Hank and Jan had left the Avengers to travel together. Since he knew that "Hank Pym" wouldn't be able to contact the Avengers directly for help (or at least not get them to just take his word that the Wasp was missing), he had to admit who he REALLY was in Avengers #28 (by Stan Lee, Don Heck and Frank Giacoia)....

As an aside, I love Cap's exasperation when Hawkeye bucks his order. "Really, guy? REALLY? NOW you're giving me guff? Seriously?"

At the end of the issue, the Avengers succeed in rescuing the Wasp and she, in turn, reveals her secret identity to the rest of the team...

By the way, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver effectively never HAD secret identities. When they contacted the Avengers to ask them if they could join the team, they used their real names. Hawkeye reveals his secret identity to the rest of the team about thirty issues from this point (Cap, Iron Man and Thor aren't there, but I think the implication is that it was a general announcement, so everyone else knew about it).

Cap's identity, by the way, appears to have not even been a secret among the Avengers, either. He's not wearing a mask when they meet him...

And he's called "Rogers" when the team roster changes...

So I'm going to believe that he just never kept his identity a secret to his fellow heroes.

Avengers #113 was a big one, as Thor and Iron Man both need to change into their secret identities to save the Vision's life...

They make the initial change okay, but then have to each change BACK to protect the Vision and it is at this point that the two of them figure out each other's secret...

They would hide each other's secret for years after this.

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In Avengers #216, the Molecule Man destroyed Thor's hammer and Iron Man's armor, so Captain America discovered their secret identities and so did, amusingly enough, Tigra, who had only recently joined the Avengers at the time...

Wasp discovered Thor's secret identity in Avengers #220...

Tony Stark then began dating Janet Van Dyne while she was separated from Hank Pym and Cap and Thor kept telling him he had to tell her that he has known her as Iron Man for years and eventually he copped to it...

After Hank's name was cleared, he retired from superheroing but moved to the West Coast to be the sort of science expert for the newly-established West Coast Avengers. Tony Stark had given up being Iron Man for a while due to his alcoholism. I guess at some point during this period, someone told Hank that Tony used to be Iron Man, because when Tony became Iron Man again and joined the West Coast Avengers (as his fill-in, Jim Rhodes, had already joined the team so Tony had to keep up appearances), Hank clearly knows who Tony is behind the armor...