Superhero fiction

Superhero fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction centered on costumed crime-fighters called superheroes, who typically have superhuman abilities and face off against similarly empowered supervillains. The genre sits between hard fantasy and soft science fiction on the spectrum of scientific realism, often blending into science fantasy. While most commonly linked to comic books, it has spread to other media through both adaptations and original works. The superhero is usually the main character, though some works, like *Marvels*, relegate them to supporting roles. A superhero is a stock character with extraordinary or superhuman powers who protects the public. Since the debut of Superman in 1938, superhero stories—from short episodes to long-running sagas—have dominated American comics and crossed into other media. The term "superhero" dates back to at least 1917, and a female superhero is sometimes called a superheroine. In the U.S., "SUPER HEROES" was a trademark jointly owned by DC Comics and Marvel Comics until 2024. Characters do not always need superhuman powers to be considered superheroes; terms like "costumed crime fighter" or "masked vigilante" apply to figures such as Batman and Green Arrow. During the Golden Age of Comic Books, such non-powered characters were called "mystery men" to distinguish them from those with superpowers. Superheroes typically use their abilities to fight everyday crime and larger threats to humanity posed by supervillains. Long-running heroes like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Captain America, and Iron Man have rogues' galleries of enemies, often including an archenemy. They may also combat aliens, magical beings, natural disasters, political ideologies like Nazism or communism, and godlike or demonic creatures. Some superhero fiction explores discrimination against superheroes through "Registration Acts" that require government registration of superpowered individuals or laws regulating vigilante activity. In the alternate universe of *Watchmen*, a backlash leads to the Keene Act, which bans costumed adventuring except for government-employed heroes. Marvel Comics used a similar device in the mid-2000s with a Superhero Registration Act that required registration and made superpowered individuals available for emergency drafting. The backlash against metahumans in the *JLA: The Nail* series has been compared to the real-world moral campaign against comic book superheroes in the mid-1950s. In an essay, Ethan Faust argued that *The Incredibles* uses its depiction of superheroes to examine societal attitudes toward disability, first through ableism in offering unwanted help and later as characters forced to hide their differences due to discrimination. A supervillain or supervillainess is a villain variant common in comics, action movies, and science fiction, often serving as a foil to the hero. Supervillains typically have powers and abilities that match the hero’s, presenting a serious challenge. Even without superhuman powers, they often possess genius intellects for complex schemes or fantastic devices, and they frequently have considerable resources. Many share traits with real-world dictators, mobsters, mad scientists, trophy hunters, warlords, corrupt businesspeople, serial killers, and terrorists, often aiming for world domination. Superheroes and supervillains often mirror each other in powers or origins; the key difference is that heroes use their abilities to help others, while villains use theirs for selfish, destructive, or ruthless purposes. Both superheroes and supervillains often use alter egos. While a character’s real name may be public, alter egos usually hide a secret identity from enemies and the public. For superheroes, this duality is closely guarded to protect loved ones from harm and to avoid being called upon for minor problems. This creates drama as heroes must find ways to change without revealing their identity, or bear the cost of keeping the secret. This trope also allows fantasy characters to appear in realistic stories without the fantasy element being obvious.