It underscores the difference I tried to ask about in the OP: the difference between what is a superhero, and what is the superhero genre.
What Is A Superhero?
- Thread starter Reynard
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MGibster
Legend
In the Hush storyline, Batman suffers a fractured skull, has bone fragments removed from his brain, and is back to crime fighting about a week later. Everyone advises him he needs to rest, but nah, he's got this.
ART!
Deluxe Unhuman
There needs to be a strong component of heroism in the character's motivation. That heroism can manifest different ways, and the character might not see themselves as heroic, but at heart they are prepared to make significant sacrifices and risks to use their abilities to do what they see as right, mete out some kind of justice, etc
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I agree.
Here's a tougher question: Is Doctor Who a superhero? He's got gadgets and regeneration and kind of a similar origin story to Superman (space alien. last of his kind but not really. etc)
By my admittedly incomplete experience as a fan:
To humans, he’s arguably superheroic. Between his tech, his intellect, and his regeneration-enhanced lifespan, he’s well outside of human capabilities.
Among fellow Gallifreyans, merely heroic. There’s little he can do that others couldn’t. But he does them when they wouldn’t.
Re: Batman
One could reasonably assert that he has certainly exhibited capabilities outside what we would expect as human limitations, mainly in his psychology.
If nothing else, he seems to be hypervigilant without suffering from any recognizable psychosis. And that has manifested itself in his professed planning to be prepared to face & defeat any and every other known super-entity on the planet, good or bad.
One could reasonably assert that he has certainly exhibited capabilities outside what we would expect as human limitations, mainly in his psychology.
If nothing else, he seems to be hypervigilant without suffering from any recognizable psychosis. And that has manifested itself in his professed planning to be prepared to face & defeat any and every other known super-entity on the planet, good or bad.
MarkB
Legend
I suppose that does highlight one thing specific to this genre that hasn't been brought up: Action and physical combat. None of the examples and counter-examples touted about in these threads that I can recall have lacked those aspects. Indeed, none of the people discussed as being superheroes are lacking in some form of physical prowess, whether innate or enhanced.
Is beating people up innate to the genre? Are there any clear examples of superheroic people who don't do so?
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Dr Who knows venusian kung fu - so he is capable of beating people up
Another similar example is Sherlock Holmes - his deductive prowess is beyond normal human capability and he fights crime. Is he a superhero?
Batman, The Question, Rosharch are all in the same vein
In Watchmen, they go to pains to show how violence is just meaningless when considering Dr. Manhattan. He starts off as a "superhero" but quickly discovers he is far above those sorts of fisticuffs.
Yes, at least not as a major shtick.
I don’t recall Braniac 5 (Legion of Super Heroes) doing much melee. Other legionnaires that don’t do much in HTH are Light Lass & Princess Projectra.
Oracle is another alter ego of Batgirl, which originated when she became wheelchair bound- she fought crime by gathering info.
In most incarnations of the character, Dove is pretty pacifistic, but can fight- mostly defensively- if forced.
The Phantom Stranger doesn’t throw down often.
As I recall, it took a long time before Kitty Pryde engaged in fisticuffs with noticeable frequency.
I know Wonder Man had a pacifist phase (after I left comics) where he’d essentially act as an invulnerable punching bag, disarming opponents while preaching nonviolence instead of fighting them. Don’t know how long that lasted.
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