What Is a Superhero?
What is a superhero?
It’s a seemingly simple and easy question, right? Like “What is a woman?” or “What is a chair?”, we all have an idea of what a superhero is. We all have a roughly shared image that pops into our minds if the word is mentioned. We recognize a superhero when we see one.
A mask. A cape. A colorful pair of tights (possibly with the underwear on the outside), with some sort of emblem on the chest. Astonishing powers beyond those of mortal men, and the drive to use those powers to do good and help others.
Maybe not all of those things are in all superheroes, but we have a number of concepts that trigger the “superhero” label when invoked. If I asked you to think of a superhero, you might think of Superman:
Or you might think of Batman:
Or you might think of my very own Blue Eagle.
If I asked ten artists to each draw a picture of a generic superhero, I would get back ten very similar pieces of art. In fact, even a child knows what a superhero is. How many little boys have run through the house with a towel tied around their neck, pretending they can fly?
It seems pretty simple, right? We all know exactly what a superhero is, what a superhero isn’t, and how to define a superhero. There should be no issue whatsoever in explaining what makes a superhero.
So where’s the confusion?
An Arbitrary Line
One of the big gotchas that transphobes use in the national conversation on trans rights is to ask “What is a woman?”. It’s supposed to be a gotcha because everybody knows what a woman is and can easily identify a woman on sight. There’s no confusion.
The problem is that what makes a woman (or man) is arbitrary. People have trouble defining the term “woman” because there is no definition that’s perfect. There is no definition that includes all women and excludes all non-women.
Except my definition. “A social identity generally associated with the female sex”. Feel free to use.
I bring that up because my question of “What is a superhero?” is kind of the same.
Like I said before, there’s generally not much of a problem with identifying superheroes. But defining a superhero is a bit more tricky.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines a superhero as “a character in a movie or story who has special strength and uses it to do good things and help other people” and “a character in stories or movies who has special powers, such as the ability to fly, that are used for fighting evil or helping people”.
Dictionary.com defines a superhero as “a morally righteous hero in a fictional work who possesses extraordinary abilities or supernatural powers and uses them to fight evil, as in comic books and movies”.
And even the late, great Stan Lee himself defined superheroes as “a person who does heroic deeds and has the ability to do them in a way that a normal person couldn’t”.
But those definitions all seemed….imperfect to me. There were so many characters that I would not consider superheroes that would fall under those definitions.
A character in a story that has special powers and uses them to fight evil and help people? Would that make Luke Skywalker a superhero? Harry Potter? Avatar Aang or Korra?
And do they have to be morally righteous? What about anti-heroes? Is Wolverine not a superhero?
I went to the writing website Royal Road, where I first started publishing the Blue Eagle universe years ago, to ask this very question. The results were about the same.
Everybody had a definition, but nobody had a solid one. Nobody had one that comprehensively defined a superhero in a way that encompassed everything that made a superhero. A character with special abilities that fights evil? What about all the characters like Batman that fight evil? Why do we consider a character in tights and a cape to be a superhero, but not the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
One person even said that, according to their definition, Edward Cullen of Twilight could be considered a superhero (ironic, given that Robert Pattinson would eventually play Batman and say that Batman is not a superhero).
And therein lies the issue.
As it stands, there doesn’t seem to be an agreed upon definition of superhero. No definition that includes everyone we consider to be a superhero and excludes everyone we don’t.
We consider Superman a superhero even though he doesn’t wear a mask and Spider-Man a superhero even though he doesn’t wear a cape.
Okay, fine, but Batman has both but literally doesn’t have superpowers. We consider him a superhero.
But if we consider Batman a superhero, why don’t we consider Zorro a superhero? Created in 1919, Zorro is a lot like Batman. Both don dark clothing to hide their true identities and use exceptional fighting skills to defend the common people of their respective territories as masked vigilantes. They both wear a cape, a mask that covers the top half of their face, and even have a cool ride, with Zorro having a steed named Tornado.
Why is Batman a superhero when he’s far closer to Zorro than Superman? I’m probably missing a few similarities between them.
No bat ears, no superhero.
And there are so many strange distinctions we make.
Why is Green Arrow considered a superhero, but Robin Hood isn’t? Both are master archers with a very similar look who stand for the poor and downtrodden against the wealthy and powerful elite.
Why is the Avengers member Thor a superhero and not the mythological Thor? Aren’t they the same character? Why Thor and not Kratos from God of War?
Would a military supersoldier with chemical-induced enhanced strength and durability be considered a superhero? Because that description fits both Captain America and Master Chief from Halo.
Is John Constantine a superhero? What about the Power Rangers? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Are we assigning superhero status to Black Widow or James Bond? And what about all those demon slayer animes where a teenager with superpowers and a secret identity fights evil?
You see what I’m saying? The line is so arbitrary. There are characters that we do or don’t consider superheroes simply because we do/don’t.
What Is A Superhero?
Just like the question “What is a woman?”, I think this question is a futile one. Or, at least, trying to come up with a definition is futile.
There is no really good one.
Like I said, there’s no definition of “superhero” that includes everyone we consider to be superheroes and excludes everyone we don’t.
In the end, what determines a superhero is presentation.
Yup, I know. It’s not a very satisfying answer, but it’s a very truthful one.
Presentation is what makes Mr. Fantastic a superhero and not Monkey D. Luffy. And, on the villainous side, it’s what makes the Joker a supervillain and not Fire Lord Ozai. Even when both are voiced by Mark Hamill. That’s such a strange example, too, because Fire Lord Ozai has powers and the Joker doesn’t. Allegedly. I don’t know what the heck the Joker is.
It’s the combination of tropes, aesthetics, and the direct invocation of the setting itself that makes a character a superhero and makes a world a “superhero world”.
And so it’s with that in mind that I’ll attempt to create the best possible definition of the word “superhero”.
What is a superhero?
“An invoked identity generally associated with an assumed mantle, an attention-grabbing outfit containing elements similar to a mask, cape, and/or tights, specific and extraordinary abilities beyond reach of ordinary individuals, and an effort to combat evil and harm.”
I think that works….mostly.
Still not a perfect definition. “Generally associated with” does a lot of heavy lifting, I know.
But I think it works. It helps differentiate Captain America from Master Chief, teen superheroes from demon slayer anime protagonists, allows characters without powers to assume the label where appropriate, and gives enough flexibility between different superheroes to allow them all to comfortably fit.
Though, at the end of the day, maybe it’s the child “dressing up as a superhero” by putting on a mask and cape and yelling “Stop, evildoer!” that really has it right.
We don’t need a hard, ironclad, perfect definition to tell us what a superhero is.
What is a superhero? We know when we see it.
For exciting superhero fiction written by me, be sure to check out the BLUE EAGLE Universe!