Superheroes come from a wide array of different backgrounds and origins. Most superheroes (for example,Superman andSpider-Man) usually possess non-human orsuperhuman biology, while others (such asBatman andIron Man) derive their status from advancedtechnology they create and use, but some of them may use or possess objects that have superhuman, mystical, or alien powers (such asGreen Lantern andHe-Man), or study and practicemagic to achieve their abilities (such asDoctor Fate andDoctor Strange).[2][3][4] TheDictionary.com definition of "superhero" is "a figure, especially in acomic strip orcartoon, endowed with superhuman powers and usually portrayed as fighting evil or crime,"[5] and theMerriam-Webster dictionary gives the definition as "a fictional hero having extraordinary or superhuman powers; also: an exceptionally skillful or successful person."[6] Terms such as masked crime fighters, costumed adventurers or maskedvigilantes are sometimes used to refer to characters such asthe Spirit, who may not be explicitly referred to as superheroes but nevertheless share similar traits.
Some superheroes use their powers to help fight daily crime while also combating threats against humanity fromsupervillains, who are their criminal counterparts. Often at least one of these supervillains will be the superhero'sarchenemy ornemesis. Some popular supervillains becomerecurring characters in their own right.
Thevigilantes of the AmericanOld West also became an influence to the superhero.[12] Several vigilantes during this time period hid their identities using masks.[10] In frontier communities where de jure law was not yet matured, people sometimes took the law into their own hands with makeshift masks made out ofsacks. Vigilante mobs and gangs like the San Diego Vigilantes and theBald Knobbers became infamous throughout that Old West era.[10][13][14] Such masked vigilantism later inspired fictional masked crimefighters in American story-telling, beginning with the characterDeadwood Dick in 1877.[10][12]
The wordsuperhero dates back to 1899.[15] The 1903 British playThe Scarlet Pimpernel and its spinoffs popularized the idea of a masked avenger and the superhero trope of asecret identity.[9] Over the next few decades, masked and costumedpulp fiction characters such asJimmie Dale/The Grey Seal (1914),Tarzan (1912),John Carter (1912),Zorro (1919),Buck Rogers (1928),The Shadow (1930),Lensman (1934)[16] andFlash Gordon (1934),film serial heroesJudex (1916) andRavengar (1916)[17] andcomic strip heroes such as theMandrake the Magician (1934),[18][19][20]Magic Phantom (1935),[19]Phantom (1936), began appearing, as did non-costumed characters withsuper strength, including the comic-strip charactersPatoruzú (1928) andPopeye (1929) and literary characters such asHugo Danner (Gladiator, 1930)[21] and Aarn Munro (The Mightiest Machine, 1934).[22] Another early example wasSarutobi Sasuke, a Japanese superheroninja from the Japanese folklore andchildren's novels in the 1910s;[23][24][25] by 1914, he had a number of superhuman powers and abilities.[23] France produced early examples like the superheroineL'Oiselle, ccreated in 1909 by French writer Renée Marie Gouraud d'Ablancourt under her pen name René d'Anjou. The character, whose real name is Vega de Ortega, is notable as one of literature's earliest winged heroines, utilizing artificial wings for flight[26] and thecyborgNyctalope (1911), possessing two revolutionary enhancements for the period - enhanced nocturnal vision and an electromechanical cardiac implant,[27][28]Famany, the "flying man" of a German comic story of 1937, who uses a winged apparatus to fly over New York and who becomes embroiled in the world of crime, had only one appearance.[29]
The pulp magazines of the 1930s served as a crucial breeding ground for early superhero concepts through their innovative comic features:
In August 1936,Thrilling Wonder Stories published Zarnak by ax Plaisted. In August 1937, aletter column of the magazine, the wordsuperhero was used to define the title character.[30][31] Another groundbreaking character emerged in August 1937,Olga Mesmer, "The Girl with the X-ray Eyes," featured in a single-page comic strip inSpicy Mystery Stories.[32]
One of Charles Atlas's advertisements.
In addition to fictional sources, the superhero archetype may also have been influenced by real-life strongmen such asSiegmund Breitbart,Joseph Greenstein,Eugen Sandow,[33] andCharles Atlas. Charles Atlas, in particular, gained lasting cultural visibility through his mail-order fitness program and his iconic advertisements published directly in comic books.[34]
The trends converged in some of the earliest superpowered costumed heroes, such as Japan'sŌgon Bat (1931) and Prince of Gamma (early 1930s), who first appeared inkamishibai (a kind of hybrid media combining pictures with live storytelling).[35][36]Superman (1938) andCaptain Marvel (1939) at the beginning of theGolden Age of Comic Books, whose span, though disputed, is generally agreed to have started with Superman's launch.[37] Superman has remained one of the most recognizable superheroes,[37] and his success spawned a new archetype of characters with secret identities and superhuman powers.[38][39][40] At the end of the decade, in 1939,Batman was created byBob Kane andBill Finger. This era saw the debut of one of the earliest female superheroes,Magician from Mars, created byJohn Giunta and Malcolm Kildale forCentaur Publications inAmazing-Man Comics.[41] She appeared in five issues (#7-11, Nov 1939 to Apr 1940), predating many other Golden Age superheroines. Jane 6ᴇᴍ35, later known as Q-X3,[42] was a hybrid of Earth and Martian origins born on Mars. As a baby, she was exposed to a beam ofcathode rays, which, combined with her hybrid physiology, gave her extraordinary powers, including superstrength, telekinesis, illusion creation, and even matter transformation.[43]
Other pioneering superheroines includeFantomah and theInvisible Scarlet O'Neil. Fantomah, created byFletcher Hanks, was an agelessancient Egyptian woman in the modern day who could transform into a skull-faced creature with superpowers to fight evil; she debuted inFiction House'sJungle Comic #2 (Feb. 1940), credited to the pseudonymous "Barclay Flagg".[44][45] A few months later, the Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, a non-costumed character who fought crime and wartime saboteurs using the superpower ofinvisibility created by Russell Stamm, would debut in the eponymoussyndicatednewspapercomic strip a few months later on June 3, 1940.[46]
Captain America also appeared for the first time in print in December 1940, a year prior to the attack onPearl Harbor by the Japanese government, when America was still inisolationism. Created byJoe Simon andJack Kirby, the superhero was the physical embodiment of the American spirit during World War II.
In the 1943 cartoon parody ofSuperman,Super-Rabbit,Bugs Bunny ingests "super-carrots" created byProfessor Cannafraz and acquires various super powers including the ability to fly, super strength and invulnerability. Like his counterpart, Bugs also assumes a mild mannered secret identity by donning glasses and a hat and switches into a super hero costume in a phone booth.[1]
In 1952,Osamu Tezuka'smangaTetsuwan Atom, more popularly known in the West asAstro Boy, was published. The series focused upon a robot boy built by ascientist to replace his deceased son. Being built from an incomplete robot originally intended formilitary purposes, Astro Boy possessed amazing powers such as flight throughthrusters in his feet and the incredible mechanical strength of his limbs.
In 1957 Japan,Shintoho produced the first film serial featuring the superhero characterSuper Giant, signaling a shift inJapanese popular culture towardstokusatsu masked superheroes overkaiju giant monsters. Along withAstro Boy, theSuper Giant serials had a profound effect onJapanese television. 1958 saw the debut of superheroMoonlight Mask on Japanese television. It was the first of numerous televised superhero dramas that would make up thetokusatsu superhero genre.[58] Created byKōhan Kawauchi, he followed up its success with the tokusatsu superhero showsSeven Color Mask (1959) andMessenger of Allah (1960), both starring a youngSonny Chiba, a manga adaptation, illustrated by Ippei Kuri (brother ofSpeed Racer creatorTatsuo Yoshida), was serialized inBōken Ō magazine.[59]
In 1963,Astro Boy was adapted into a highly influentialanime television series.Phantom Agents in 1964 focused onninjas working for the Japanese government and would be the foundation forSentai-type series. 1966 saw the debut of the sci-fi/horror seriesUltra Q created byEiji Tsuburaya this would eventually lead to the sequelUltraman, spawning asuccessful franchise which pioneered theKyodai Hero subgenre where the superheroes would be as big as giant monsters (kaiju) that they fought.
Thekaiju monsterGodzilla, originally a villain, began being portrayed as a radioactive superhero in theGodzilla films,[60] starting withGhidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964).[61] By the 1970s, Godzilla came to be viewed as a superhero, with the magazineKing of the Monsters in 1977 describing Godzilla as "Superhero of the '70s."[62]
In 1971,Kamen Rider launched the "Henshin Boom" onJapanese television in the early 1970s, greatly impacting thetokusatsu superhero genre in Japan.[63] In 1972, theScience Ninja Team Gatchaman anime debuted, which built upon the superhero team idea of the live-actionPhantom Agents as well as introducing different colors for team members and special vehicles to support them, said vehicles could also combine into a larger one. Another important event was the debut ofMazinger Z by Go Nagai, creating theSuper Robot genre. Go Nagai also wrote the mangaCutey Honey in 1973; although theMagical girl genre already existed, Nagai's manga introduced Transformation sequences that would become a staple of Magical Girl media.
The 1970s would see more anti-heroes introduced into Superhero fiction such examples included the debut ofShotaro Ishinomori'sSkull Man (the basis for his laterKamen Rider) in 1970, Go Nagai'sDevilman in 1972 and Gerry Conway and John Romita'sPunisher in 1974.
The darkSkull Man manga would later get a television adaptation and underwent drastic changes. The character was redesigned to resemble a grasshopper, becoming the renowned first masked hero of theKamen Rider series. Kamen Rider is a motorcycle-riding hero in an insect-like costume, who shouts Henshin (Metamorphosis) to don his costume and gain superhuman powers.
The ideas ofsecond-wave feminism, which spread through the 1960s into the 1970s, greatly influenced the way comic book companies would depict as well as market their female characters: Wonder Woman was for a time revamped as amod-dressingmartial artist directly inspired by theEmma Peel character from theBritish television seriesThe Avengers (no relation to the superhero team of the same name),[64] but later reverted to Marston's original concept after the editors ofMs. magazine publicly disapproved of the character being depowered and without her traditional costume;[65] Supergirl was moved from being a secondary feature onAction Comics to headlineAdventure Comics in 1969; theLady Liberators appeared in an issue ofThe Avengers as a group of mind-controlled superheroines led byValkyrie (actually adisguised supervillainess) and were meant to be a caricatured parody of feminist activists;[66] and Jean Grey became the embodiment of a cosmic being known as thePhoenix Force with seemingly unlimited power in the late 1970s, a stark contrast from her depiction as the weakest member of her team a decade prior.
Both major American publishers began introducing new superheroines with a more distinct feminist theme as part of their origin stories or character development. Examples includeBig Barda,Power Girl, andthe Huntress by DC comics; and from Marvel, thesecond Black Widow,Shanna the She-Devil, andThe Cat.[67] Femalesupporting characters who were successful professionals or hold positions of authority in their own right also debuted in the pages of several popular superhero titles from the late 1950s onward:Hal Jordan's love interestCarol Ferris was introduced as the Vice-President ofFerris Aircraft and later took over the company from her father;Medusa, who was first introduced in theFantastic Four series, is a member of theInhuman Royal Family and a prominent statesperson within her people's quasi-feudal society; andCarol Danvers, a decoratedofficer in theUnited States Air Force who would become a costumed superheroine herself years later.
In 1975Shotaro Ishinomori'sHimitsu Sentai Gorenger debuted on what is now TV Asahi, it brought the concepts of multi-colored teams and supporting vehicles that debuted in Gatchaman into live-action, and began theSuper Sentai franchise (later adapted into the AmericanPower Rangers series in the 1990s). In 1978, Toei adaptedSpider-Man intoa live-action Japanese television series. In this continuity, Spider-Man had a vehicle called Marveller that could transform into a giant and powerful robot called Leopardon, this idea would be carried over to Toei'sBattle Fever J (also co-produced with Marvel) and now multi-colored teams not only had support vehicles but giant robots to fight giant monsters with.
In subsequent decades, popular characters likeDazzler,She-Hulk,Elektra,Catwoman,Witchblade,Spider-Girl,Batgirl andthe Birds of Prey became stars of long-running eponymous titles. Female characters began assuming leadership roles in many ensemble superhero teams; theUncanny X-Men series and its related spin-off titles in particular have included many female characters in pivotal roles since the 1970s.[68] Volume 4 of theX-Men comic book series featured an all-female team as part of theMarvel NOW! branding initiative in 2013.[69] Superpowered female characters likeBuffy the Vampire Slayer[70] andDarna[71][72] have a tremendous influence on popular culture in their respective countries of origin.
The first use of the phrase "super hero" dates back to 1917.[79] At the time, the phrase was merely used to describe a "public figure of great accomplishments."[79] In 1967, Ben Cooper, Inc., an American Halloween costume manufacturer, became the first entity to commercialize the phrase "super hero" when it registered the mark in connection with Halloween costumes.[79] In 1972,Mego Corporation, an American toy company, attempted to register the mark "World's Greatest Superheroes" in connection with its line of action figures.[80] Mego Corporation’s attempted registration led Ben Cooper, Inc. to sue Mego Corporation for trademark infringement.[80] Due to its financial struggles, Mego Corporation was unwilling to defend itself against Ben Cooper Inc.'s suit.[80] As a result, in 1977, Mego Corporation jointly assigned its interest in the trademark toDC Comics, Inc. ("DC") andMarvel Comics ("Marvel").[80] Due to the financial prowess of DC and Marvel, Ben Cooper, Inc. decided to withdraw its trademark opposition and jointly assigned its interest in the "World's Greatest Super Heroes" mark to DC and Marvel.[80] Two years later in 1979, DC and Marvel applied for the mark in connection with comic books, and were granted the mark by theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 1981.[81]
In the years leading up to the assignment of the mark, both DC and Marvel battled to register various trademarks involving the phrase "superhero."[82] However, DC and Marvel quickly discovered that they could only register marks involving the phrase "superhero" if the phrase referenced their own company or a character associated with their company.[82] As a result, DC and Marvel decided to become joint owners of the "superhero" trademark.[82]
Although joint ownership in a trademark is uncommon, the USPTO will grant joint ownership in a mark.[83] In the caseArrow Trading Co., Inc. v. Victorinox A.G. and Wegner S.A., Opposition No. 103315 (TTAB June 27, 2003), the TTAB held that when "two entities have a long-standing relationship and rely on each other for quality control, it may be found, in appropriate circumstances, that the parties, as joint owners, do represent a single source."[84]
DC and Marvel have continued to expand theircommercialization of the "superhero" mark to categories beyond comic books.[85] Now, the two publishers jointly own numerous trademarks forfigurines (see Spider-Man, Batman), movies, TV shows, magazines, merchandise, cardboard stand-up figures,playing cards,erasers,pencils,notebooks,cartoons, and many more.[85] For instance, the companies filed a trademark application as joint owners for the mark "SUPER HEROES" for a series of animatedmotion pictures in 2009 (Reg. No. 5613972).[81] Both DC and Marvel also individually owned[86][87] trademarks involving the "super hero" mark.[81] Notably, DC owns the mark "Legion of Super-Heroes" for comic magazines and Marvel owns the mark "Marvel Super Hero Island" for story books, fiction books, and children’s activity books.[81]
DC and Marvel have become known for aggressively protecting their registered marks.[88] In 2019, the companies pursued a British law student named Graham Jules who was attempting to publish aself-help book titledBusiness Zero to Superhero.[89] Much academic debate exists about whether the "super hero" mark has become generic and whether DC and Marvel have created aduopoly over the "super hero" mark.[81][90][91] Conversely, DC and Marvel hold that they are merely exercising their right and duty to protect their registered marks.[91]
77732560 SUPER HEROES for production and distribution of a series of animated motion picture[94]
78356610 SUPER HEROES for t-shirts[95] (Cancelled)
73011796 SUPER HEROES for toy figures[96] (Cancelled)
As mentioned, the two companies also own a variety of other superhero-related marks. For instance, DC owns "Legion of Super-Heroes" and "DC Super Hero Girls" and Marvel owns “Marvel Super Hero Island" and "Marvel Super Hero Adventures."[97]
DC and Marvel have garnered a reputation for zealously protecting their superhero marks. As noted above, one of these instances included a man by the name of Graham Jules, who sought to publish a book entitledBusiness Zero to Superhero.[98] In 2014, he received a cease and desist from DC and Marvel who claimed that his use of the term superhero would cause confusion and dilute their brands.[98] He was offered a few thousand dollars in settlement to change the name of his book, but he did not concede.[98] A few days prior to the scheduled hearing at the Intellectual Property Office in London, the companies backed down.[98]
A similar scenario occurred when comic book creator Ray Felix attempted to register his comic book seriesA World Without Superheroes with the USPTO.[99] Felix is one of many who argue that the term "superhero" has become generic (see discussion below).[99] Felix's mark is currently abandoned, but he has stated that he intends to fight against DC and Marvel for use of the term.[100]
In 2024, Superbabies Limited managed to obtain a default judgement and cancel the "super heroes" trademarks as genericized, except for the animation pictures mark.[101] This was unexpected as Marvel and DC had filed a motion to extend time to answer.[102]
Daredevil Battles Hitler (July 1941), the premiere issue ofDaredevil Comics; art byCharles Biro andBob Wood.
There is an ongoing debate among legal scholars and in the courts about whether the term "superhero" has becomegenericized due to its widespread use in popular culture, similar to terms like "aspirin" or "escalator" which lost their trademark protection and became generic terms for their respective products.[103] Some argue the term "SUPER HERO" trademark is at risk of becoming generic.
Courts have noted that determining whether a term has become generic is a highly factual inquiry not suitable for resolution without considering evidence like dictionary definitions, media usage, and consumer surveys.[104] Trademark owners can take steps to preventgenericide, such as using the trademark with the generic product name, educating the public, and policing unauthorized uses.[105] However, misuse by the public alone does not necessarily cause a trademark to become generic if the primary significance of the term is still to indicate a particular source.[106]
Some legal experts argue that, like the once-trademarked terms "aspirin" and "yo-yo," the term "superhero" now primarily refers to a general type of character with extraordinary abilities, rather than characters originating from specific publishers.
Even when characters enter thepublic domain, their names are not always free for use. A notable example is the characterDaredevil, originally created byJack Binder andJack Cole forLev Gleason Publications. Although his classic version is in the public domain, Marvel holds the trademark for the name “Daredevil,” associated with its owncharacter introduced in 1964. This prevents third parties from commercially using the name.[107] Under U.S. law at the time, publishers were required to renew their copyrights after 28 years.[108]
In keeping with their origins as representing the archetypicalhero stock character in 1930s American comics, superheroes are predominantly depicted asWhite Americanmiddle- or upper-class young adult males and females who are typically tall, athletic, educated, physically attractive and in perfect health. Beginning in the 1960s with thecivil rights movement in the United States, and increasingly with the rising concern overpolitical correctness in the 1980s, superhero fiction centered on cultural, ethnic, national, racial and languageminority groups (from the perspective ofUS demographics) began to be produced. This began with depiction ofblack superheroes in the 1960s, followed in the 1970s with a number of other ethnic-minority superheroes.[109] In keeping with the political mood of the time,cultural diversity andinclusivism would be an important part of superhero groups starting from the 1980s. In the 1990s, this was further augmented by the first depictions of superheroes as homosexual. In 2017,Sign Gene emerged, the first group ofdeaf superheroes with superpowers through the use ofsign language.[110]
Female super heroes—and villains—have been around since the early years of comic books dating back to the 1940s.[111] The representation of women in comic books has been questioned in the past decade following the rise of comic book characters in the film industry (Marvel/DC movies). Women are presented differently than their male counterparts, typically wearing revealing clothing that showcases their curves and cleavage and showing a lot of skin in some cases.[112][113] Heroes like Power Girl and Wonder Woman are portrayed wearing little clothing and showing cleavage.[112][113] Power Girl is portrayed as wearing a suit not unlike the swimsuits in the T.V. showBaywatch. The sexualization of women in comic books can be explained mainly by the fact that the majority of writers are male.[113] Not only are the writers mostly male, but the audience is mostly male as well.[114][113] Therefore, writers are designing characters to appeal to a mostly male audience.[114][115] The super hero characters illustrate a sociological idea called the "male gaze" which is media created from the viewpoint of a normative heterosexual male.[115][116] The female characters in comic books are used to satisfy male desire for the "ideal" woman (small waist, large breasts, toned, athletic body).[115][117][113] These characters have god-like power, but the most easily identifiable feature is their hyper sexualized bodies: they are designed to be sexually pleasing to the hypotheticalheteronormative male audience.[112][116][117][113]
Villains, such asHarley Quinn andPoison Ivy, use their sexuality to take advantage of their male victims.[113] In the film versions of these characters, their sexuality and seductive methods are highlighted. Poison Ivy uses seduction through poison to take over the minds of her victims as seen in the 1997 filmBatman and Robin. Harley Quinn in 2016'sSuicide Squad uses her sexuality to her advantage, acting in a promiscuous manner.
Through the overdeveloped bodies of the heroes or the seductive mannerisms of the villains, women in comic books are used as subordinates to their male counterparts, regardless of their strength or power.[118] Wonder Woman has been subject to a long history of suppression as a result of her strength and power, including American culture's undoing of the Lynda Carter television series.[119] In 2017'sWonder Woman, she had the power of a god, but was still drawn to a much weaker, mortal male character.[116] This can be explained by the sociological concept "feminine apologetic," which reinforces a woman's femininity to account for her masculine attributes (strength, individualism, toughness, aggressiveness, bravery).[116] Women in comic books are considered to be misrepresented due to being created by men, for men.[115][117]
The Hawkeye Initiative is a website satirizing the sexualized portrayal of women in comics by recreating the same poses using male superheroes, especially Marvel'sHawkeye.[120][121][122]
Kismet and the Green Turtle: early attempts at ethnically diverse superheroes, both fought in World War II, representing underrepresented identities in the Golden Age of Comics.
In 1966, Marvel introduced theBlack Panther, an Africanmonarch who became the first non-caricatured black superhero.[123] The firstAfrican-American superhero, theFalcon, followed in 1969, and three years later,Luke Cage, a self-styled"hero-for-hire", became the firstblack superhero to star inhis own series. In 1989, theMonica Rambeauincarnation of Captain Marvel was the first female black superhero from a major publisher to get her own title in a special one-shot issue. Before them, a few characters appeared during the Golden Age of Comics, but they are not generally considered superheroes in the modern sense, such as the characters featured in the one-shotAll-Negro Comics #1 (1947),[124][125] Waku, Prince of the Bantu, introduced by Marvel’s 1950s predecessorAtlas Comics, who starred in his own feature in the anthology seriesJungle Tales.[126][127] andKismet, Man of Fate, aMuslimAlgerian hero who debuted in 1944 and is considered one of the first Muslim superheroes in comic book history.[128] In 1971,Red Wolf became the firstNative American in the superheroic tradition to headline a series.[129] In 1973,Shang-Chi became the first prominentAsian superhero to star in an American comic book.Kato, from theGreen Hornet franchise, had existed as a secondary character since the 1930s.[130]The Green Turtle, created in 1944 by Chinese-American artist Chu F. Hing, was originally conceived as a Chinese hero fighting against the Japanese invasion.[131] However, Hing was prevented by his editors from making the character explicitly Chinese, so he deliberately left the hero’s identity ambiguous.[132]
Kitty Pryde, a member of the X-Men, was an openly Jewish superhero in mainstream American comic books as early as 1978.[133]
Comic-book companies were in the early stages of cultural expansion and many of these characters played to specificstereotypes; Cage and many of his contemporaries often employed lingo similar to that ofblaxploitation films, Native Americans were often associated withshamanism andwild animals, andAsian Americans were often portrayed askung fu martial artists. Subsequent minority heroes, such as theX-Men'sStorm and theTeen Titans'Cyborg avoided such conventions; they were both part of ensemble teams, which became increasingly diverse in subsequent years. The X-Men, in particular, were revived in 1975 with a line-up of characters drawn from several nations, including theKenyan Storm,GermanNightcrawler,Soviet/RussianColossus,IrishBanshee, andJapaneseSunfire. In 1993,Milestone Comics, an African-American-owned media/publishing company entered into a publishing agreement with DC Comics that allowed them to introduce a line of comics that included characters of many ethnic minorities. Milestone's initial run lasted four years, during which it introducedStatic, a character adapted into theWB Networkanimated seriesStatic Shock.
Certain established characters have had their ethnicity changed when adapted to another continuity or media. A notable example isNick Fury, who is reinterpreted asAfrican-American both in the Ultimate Marvel as well as theMarvel Cinematic Universe continuities.
Many new openly gay, lesbian and bisexual characters have since emerged in superhero fiction, such asGen13's Rainmaker,Apollo andMidnighter ofThe Authority, andWiccan andHulkling of theYoung Avengers. Notabletransgender orgender bending characters are fewer in number by comparison: the alter ego of superheroineZsazsa Zaturnnah, a seminal character in Philippine popular culture,[140] is an effeminate gay man who transforms into a female superhuman after ingesting a magical stone.Desire fromNeil Gaiman'sThe Sandman series, Cloud fromDefenders, andXavin from theRunaways are all characters who could (and often) change their gender at will.Alysia Yeoh, a supporting character created by writerGail Simone for theBatgirl ongoing series published by DC Comics, received substantial media attention in 2011 for being the first major transgender character written in a contemporary context in a mainstream American comic book.[141]
TheSailor Moon series is known for featuring a substantial number of openlyLGBT characters since its inception, asJapan have traditionally been more open about portraying homosexuality in its children's media compared to many countries in the West.[142][143] Certain characters who are presented as homosexual or transgender in one continuity may not be presented as such in others, particularly with dubbed versions made for international release.[144]
In 2017, Pluin introducedSign Gene, a film featuring a group ofdeaf superheroes whose powers derive from their use ofsign language. The film was produced by and with deaf people and deals withDeaf culture, history and language.[110][145][146]
^Bell, Karl. "8 The Decline and Demise of Spring-heeled Jack". The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures, Boydell and Brewer: Boydell and Brewer, 2012, pp. 200-222.https://doi.org/10.1515/9781782040392-010Archived September 26, 2024, at theWayback Machine
^abGavaler, Chris.On the Origin of Superheroes: From the Big Bang to Action Comics No. 1. University Of Iowa Press; 1 edition (November 1, 2015). p. 132.ISBN978-1609383817
^abTorrance, Richard (2005)."Literacy and Literature in Osaka, 1890–1940".The Journal of Japanese Studies (31). Society for Japanese Studies: 56.Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. RetrievedApril 15, 2022.Sarutobi Sasuke precipitated a "ninja boom" among the young throughout the country. Sarutobi is an adolescent superhero who, in addition to his ability to chant incantations, appear and disappear at will, and leap to the top of the highest tree, can hear whispered conversations hundreds of yards away, is superhumanly strong, can ride on clouds, is able to conjure water, fire and wind as well as transform himself into other people and animals.
^Burke, Liam (2008).Superhero Movies. Harpenden, UK: Oldcastle Books.ISBN978-1842432754.Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. RetrievedNovember 21, 2020.If Superman can be credited with the creation of the superhero archetype, then Batman should be recognised for its refinement.
^Markstein, Don."The Black Widow".Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived fromthe original on May 25, 2024. RetrievedJuly 26, 2013.Fantomah was the first female character in comics to use extraordinary powers in combatting evil. TheWoman in Red was the first to wear a flashy costume and maintain a dual identity while doing so. On the other hand,Black Widow was the first to do both.
^Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture, p. 262ISBN0-7656-0560-0
^超人画報―国産架空ヒーロー四十年の歩み (Chōjin Gahō Kokusan Kakū Hīrō Yon Jū-nen no Ayumi). Japan: 株式会社竹書房 (Takeshobo Co.Ltd.). November 30, 1995. p. 45.ISBN4-88475-874-9.
^Takeshobo, ed. (November 30, 1995). "BonusColumn「変身ブーム到来!!」" [Bonus Column 'The Henshin Boom Arrives!'].超人画報 国産架空ヒーロー四十年の歩み [The Super Heroes Chronicles: The History of Japanese Fantastic Televisions, Movies and Videos, 1957–1995] (in Japanese).Takeshobo. p. 85.ISBN4-88475-874-9. C0076.
^"We were all in love with Diana Rigg and that show she was on." Mike Sekowsky, quoted in Les Daniels,Wonder Woman: The Complete History (Chronicle, 2004), p. 129.
^Sailor Moon (superhero). The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic Book Icons. January 1, 2004.ISBN9781578591541.Archived from the original on February 6, 2024. RetrievedJuly 19, 2014.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^abChute, Rebecca. 2016. "The" Pornographic Polemic": The Objectification and Inferiority of Female Comic Book Characters."UNBC Award for Academic Writing International Student Academic Writing Award William & Mary Wanka History:1.
^Rubin, Alexandra. 2015. "The Female Superhero: Fighting Villains and Stereotypes."A Publication of the Critical Writing Program the University of Pennsylvania 3808 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-6221:18.
