What is a superhero? OK, Wonder Woman? Sure. Spider-Man? Yeah. Batman? Definitely heroic, and there's an arguement to be made that his is super. (I saw once someone had calculated what kind of training regimine Batman would need to do the things he does in the comics, and they wound up figuring he'd need to work out something like 20 hours per day. So he either doesn't need to work out as much as Olympic-level athletes or he can manipulate time.)
In 1954, the New York Court of Appeals, in speaking of the infamous legal battle between Superman and Captain Marvel, defined superheroes as characters "of unprecedented physical prowess dedicated to acts of derring-do in the public interest." Webster's has a more broad definition: "a fictional hero having extraordinary or superhuman powers." In any case, though, we're generally looking at someone with beyond normal human abilities who acts in a socially positive manner.
Alright then, so who was the first superhero? Well, let's limit that to the first
American superhero, so we only have to work through a couple centuries and not all of human history.
My first thought is to go to American folklore. Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and the like. The first recorded accounts of Paul Bunyan, though, don't occur until 1906 and Pecos Bill wasn't invented until 1923. John Henry seems like a contender -- the latest anyone's suggested his story started has been the 1870s. Davy Crockett (1786-1836) and Jim Bowie (1796-1836) are possible, too, but their legends tend not to get too much into the superhuman category. Mark Twain's characters are all fairly solidly grounded in reality -- even the Connecticut Yankee Hank Morgan was just a normal guy caught in an extraordinary circumstance. The first
Oz book appeared in 1900.
Who else can we consider? The Yellow Kid wasn't really heroic, nor super (unless you count a constantly-changing nightshirt). John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman could be considered heroic, but not really super. Natty Bumppo doesn't really get into the super range either. What about Nikola Tesla? While his feats are lauded by some folks today, were his inventions magical enough to be considered super? Speaking of magical, what about Harry Houdini? His career as a magician started in 1891, but he didn't really do much in the way of the escapes he became famous for until 1900.
I'm drawing a blank on any other possible contenders beyond John Henry, Nikola Tesla, and Harry Houdini. Any other nominations? Can we put these guys to a vote somewhere?
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