Superhero

A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character with abilities beyond those of ordinary humans, often wearing a costume to hide their identity. They typically act as heroes, using their powers to improve the world, protect the public, or fight crime. This type of character defines the superhero fiction genre, which has been prominent since the 1930s in American comic books and later expanded into Hollywood films, television, video games, and Japanese media such as kamishibai, tokusatsu, manga, anime, and video games. Superheroes have diverse origins: some, like Superman and Spider-Man, have non-human or superhuman biology; others, like Batman and Iron Man, rely on advanced technology they create; some, like Green Lantern and He-Man, use objects with superhuman, mystical, or alien powers; and others, like Doctor Fate and Doctor Strange, study and practice magic. Dictionary.com defines a superhero as "a figure, especially in a comic strip or cartoon, endowed with superhuman powers and usually portrayed as fighting evil or crime," while Merriam-Webster offers "a fictional hero having extraordinary or superhuman powers; also: an exceptionally skillful or successful person." Terms like masked crime fighters, costumed adventurers, or masked vigilantes sometimes describe characters such as the Spirit, who share similar traits without being explicitly called superheroes.

Some superheroes fight daily crime while also confronting threats from supervillains, their criminal counterparts. Often, a supervillain becomes the superhero's archenemy or nemesis, and popular supervillains may become recurring characters in their own right.

The archetype's antecedents include mythological figures like Hanuman, Gilgamesh, Odysseus, and demigods such as Heracles and Perseus, whose extraordinary abilities inspired the superpowers central to modern superheroes. The distinct clothing of English folklore characters like Robin Hood and Spring-Heeled Jack also served as inspiration, with the latter's dark costume—complete with a domino mask and cape—influencing masked rogues in penny dreadfuls and dime novels. Vigilantes of the American Old West, who sometimes hid their identities with masks in frontier communities lacking mature law, also contributed; groups like the San Diego Vigilantes and the Bald Knobbers became infamous, and this masked vigilantism inspired fictional crimefighters beginning with Deadwood Dick in 1877.

The word "superhero" dates to 1899. The 1903 British play *The Scarlet Pimpernel* and its spinoffs popularized the masked avenger and the secret identity trope. Over subsequent decades, masked and costumed pulp fiction characters appeared, including L'Oiselle (1909), Jimmie Dale/The Grey Seal (1914), Tarzan (1912), John Carter (1912), Zorro (1919), Buck Rogers (1928), The Shadow (1930), Night Hawk (1930), Lensman (1934), and Flash Gordon (1934); film serial heroes Judex (1916) and Ravengar (1916); comic strip heroes like Mandrake the Magician (1934), Magic Phantom (1935), and the Phantom (1936); and non-costumed characters with super strength, such as Patoruzú (1928), Popeye (1929), Hugo Danner (*Gladiator*, 1930), and Aarn Munro (*The Mightiest Machine*, 1934). Another early example was Sarutobi Sasuke, a Japanese superhero ninja from folklore and children's novels in the 1910s, who by 1914 had several superhuman powers. France produced early examples like the superheroine L'Oiselle (1909), created by Renée Marie Gouraud d'Ablancourt under the pen name René d'Anjou, and the cyborg Nyctalope (1911), with enhanced nocturnal vision and an electromechanical cardiac implant. L'Oiselle, whose real name is Vega de Ortega, is one of literature's earliest winged heroines, using artificial wings for flight. Famany, the "flying man" of a 1937 German comic story, used a winged apparatus to fly over New York and became involved in crime, but appeared only once.

Pulp magazines of the 1930s were a crucial breeding ground for early superhero concepts. In August 1936, *Thrilling Wonder Stories* published Zarnak by Max Plaisted. In August 1937, a letter column in the same magazine used the word "superhero" to define the title character. Another groundbreaking character, Olga Mesmer, "The Girl with the X-ray Eyes," appeared in a single-page comic strip in *Spicy Mystery Stories* in August 1937. The superhero archetype may also have been influenced by real-life strongmen such as Siegmund Breitbart, Joseph Greenstein, Eugen Sandow, and Charles Atlas, whose mail-order fitness program and advertisements appeared directly in comic books. These trends converged in some of the earliest superpowered costumed heroes, such as Japan's Ōgon Bat (1931) and Prince of Gamma (early 1930s).