Superman was the first?

[Mego Milk]

I see a lot of cool Mego Customs in this video.

[Makernaut]

My opinion about what set his appearance apart was that it was a perfect recipe for the particular medium. What with his fantastic powers and brightly colored costume for the younger demographic that read comicbooks. Superman might not have been new for the pulps or radio dramas who had already seen masked heroes, but he was new for comic books. That's just one component of many I'm sure.

Yes, Comic Book Superhero is the key. His debut (in his recognizable form...not the early version they did for sci-fi magazines) was in a comic book, not a strip. There might have been some in comics before him but those were all bundled together collections of previously printed comic-STRIPS pulled together into a comic book.

Additionally, Superman had impact enough to set off an absolute explosion of other characters that made Costumed Superheroes the best selling genre of comic book for the last 80 years (well....there was a lull from the end of WW2 to the Silver Age, of course, but then right back to the forefront).

[Makernaut]

I thought I better add that in regards to my post above this one, I fully realize I'm not telling any of you anything you don't already know and know better and deeper than I. I'm just trying to hash out what we can rightly attribute to Superman as far as "firsts" go because Superman can't be easily dismissed on the grounds that "there were others before him". Of course there were, but yet we all know when you get down to it, there was nothing truly like Superman before he came along, but there were certainly a slew of other characters trying to be like him after his debut. You can't really say that about any character before him as far as immediate and manifold imitators springing up in a characters wake.

[Brazoo]

My opinion about what set his appearance apart was that it was a perfect recipe for the particular medium. What with his fantastic powers and brightly colored costume for the younger demographic that read comicbooks. Superman might not have been new for the pulps or radio dramas who had already seen masked heroes, but he was new for comic books. That's just one component of many I'm sure.

Totally.

Really the notion of "first" is usually kinda silly, because I think there are very few creative innovations (if any) that happen without a lot of influence - but in the sense that Superman was really THE character that made everything click, that spawned what pop culture thinks of as THE classic American Comic Book Superhero - I think it's probably fair to refer to him as "first" in that way.

[thunderbolt]

Not a mention at all of Doc Savage. Superman's human first name and the Fortress of Solitude swiped from the original Super-Human Man of Bronze.

[Falstaff13]

This leads into an interesting discussion of what defines a super hero (or a mystery man, etc.). I had a book, (The Super-Hero Photo-Book by Dave Rogers, when i was young that defined a superhero as a) having an unusual power/ability or b) wearing a distinctive costume (and c) a combination of both). As a result, the book included the Doctor from Doctor Who because he could regenerate and the Lone Ranger for wearing a mask. That's definitely a sloppy definition, and I remember the Encyclopedia of Adventure Heroes and Encyclopedia of Super Heroes, both by Jeff Rovin, distinguishing types of heroes (Odysseus was in the former, for example, as was the Scarlet Pimpernel, often credited with Zorro for influencing early superheroes). As I recall, both Rogers and Rovin counted the Phantom in with superheroic others, based on the costume.

I've actually wanted to collect the names of the various masked cowboys who were put out, with many created to capitalize on either Zorro or the Lone Ranger's possibility. I don't think such a list already exists.

[jimbutsu]

I think the other thing about Superman that made him relatively different to the other comic/pulp/what have you heroes of the time is that he was an alien who is also our hero. I don't think there's much from that period where the being from another planet is the uncontested good guy.

[phil]

Not a mention at all of Doc Savage. Superman's human first name and the Fortress of Solitude swiped from the original Super-Human Man of Bronze.

I was going to mention Doc Savage.

[thunderbolt]

I was going to mention Doc Savage.

Surprised he was left out of that video.

[PNGwynne]

It's the Scarlet Pimpernel, Tarzan, Zorro, the Shadow, and Doc Savage that lead to the Phantom, Superman, and Batman IMO.

Possibly Fantomas influenced the development of the super-villain, but I'm not sure how accessible British and French pulp characters would be to comics creators of the '30s. Judex is prescient of the Shadow of course, but is that just parallel development/coincidence?

***

My personal criteria for a super-hero is 1)thematic costume coupled with 2)advanced expertise and/or 3)superhuman or paranormal abilities.

To me, a "mystery-man" is primarily in civilian clothing, usually masked, and often a vigilante--but no "powers."

In this vein, the pulp Shadow is a mystery-man. But the radio Shadow, with his mental powers, is closer to a super-hero.

It's not a perfect system, it's just how I compartmentalize these characters.

[thunderbolt]

^^^ Right just kind of glaring omission by the video creator on Savage. He had elements of Supes, Batman and Captain America all rolled into one.

[TrekStar]

Is Superman the first Alien come to earth superhero?

[thunderbolt]

Is Superman the first Alien come to earth superhero?

Lensman was an Earthman given alien tech, that count? The pulps started in 34.