I think one thing everybody is touching on is that there are comic book heroes who have powers and those that don’t. The ones who have powers are called “superheroes.” The ones who don’t are just heroes or costumed heroes or crime-fighters.
Sgt. Rock, Nick Fury, Elektra, Shang-Chi, Robin, powerless '70’s Wonder Woman, James Bond, etc. would all fit into this category.
Superman, the Flash, Iron Man, Green Lantern, Daredevil and Iron Fist would not.
I believe Batman should go into the “super” category because of his super-intelligence as related to chemistry, engineering, forensics and criminology, as well as being able to build all of his Bat inventions (pre-Chris Nolan and Morgan Freeman. And he’s not a fricken ninja either.)
He’s at least as smart as Luthor, who is clearly is a supervillain. Imho, in the past 10 years, there’s been a huge anti-intellectual movement in the US where intelligence was suddenly marginalized. This was never a discussion back in the 90’s.
No, they’re all superheroes, whether they have superhuman powers or not. It’s just that people started deconstructing the word “superhero” into “super” and “hero,” which it is not, no more than as “shortstop” is “short” and “stops.”
A late '60’s World’s Finest comic had Supie remarking that the lock Batman designed was too tough for even Brainiac to crack.
Let’s see. In the '60’s Bruce wayne and Lex Luthor were portrayed as smarter tahn Supie, and even smarter than Brainiac (in the case of BW at least). BW would presumably be also smarter than Brainiac 5.
My rule of thumb for whether you’re a “super-hero” or just a “crimefighter” is this: what happens when you get cornered in a dark alley by five or six hoodlums armed with brass knuckles, clubs, and blackjacks? If you leave them lying on the ground unconcious or groaning in pain, you’re a super-hero. If you get the living crap beaten out of you, you’re just a “crimefighter” (on better days that that obviously).
Yeah, but when you start calling Batman a superhero, then you get people who will argue with you that he can fly and do other things and refuse to listen to you when you tell them “no, he can’t fly, why don’t you try reading some of his comic book titles?”
Since when do either the Atom or Ant-Man have to hide from anyone? They shrink down and THEN leave them lying on the ground unconcious or groaning in pain.
Seriously, a “superhero” is someone who wins a fight that in real life you would lose 99.99% of the time.
I was expecting this story to end “And then Brainiac cracked it.” Because Brainiac is supposed to be a lot smarter than the entire planet of Earth put together.
Which is ridiculous, but canon.
Anyway, being a superhero is not about having super powers. Even if it were, Batman has super-plot powers he gets from the writers, that allow him to beat people he shouldn’t even be able to look at without getting killed.
But, there’s an entire class of superhero that get their powers from objects or equipment, e.g. Iron Man, Green Lantern, Box, etc. Without that equipment, they would get killed easily and repeatedly. Yet, they are still superheros.
Well now I’m doubting that any of your examples are superheros, based on their absolute determination to avoid confrontation. I mean, who wants to read about Retreatman, Negotiator Girl, or Camoflage Kid?
Sounds like the question is really about whether they have **superpowers **or not. Of course they’re superheroes.
As noted up thread, Captain America does have superpowers. The super soldier serum grants him super human endurance, speed, agility, and strength. Official Marvel policy is that he’s peak human, but has no superpowers. Clearly this is bunk. Super endurance aside, peak humans (think Olympic athletes) can’t be peak in all areas. The world’s fastest sprinter can’t hang with the power lifting champ or gymnast, etc.
Batman doesn’t have superpowers, just hordes of writers making him out to be great – which he is. More recently, writers have backed off of the BatGod-best-at-every concept. He’s not the best martial artist for example. Richard Dragon, Bronze Tiger, and Lady Shiva are the acknowledged top three. He has remained the world’s greatest detective. I just wish more DC writers would bother with actual detective stories. Dini had a nice handful in the last few years.
That’s true, but the fourth Flash was deprived of his powers and got kicked to death immediately. Not really any different. (Also, I’ll bet there are people who lost their powers and acted as superheroes anyway, although I can’t think of any off of the top of my head.)
Also, how are we defining superpowers? Many members of the Legion of Super-heroes have no powers that aren’t native to their species. Is telepathy a power if everybody on Titan has telepathy? You might argue that the Legionnaires are simply more skilled at using their natural abilities, just as Karate Kid is more skilled at using the natural abilities of a human. (As is Batman.)
The most famous example was Wonder Woman’s turn as kind of spy, from Wikipedia:
“At the end of the 1960s, under the guidance of Mike Sekowsky, Wonder Woman surrenders her powers to remain in Man’s World rather than accompany her fellow Amazons to another dimension. A mod boutique owner, the powerless Diana Prince acquires a Chinese mentor named I Ching. Under I Ching’s guidance, Diana learns martial arts and weapons skills, and engages in adventures that encompassed a variety of genres, from espionage to mythology.”
Well, I think we would have to use the human standard to measure “superpowers.” When Gulliver went to Lilliput, he didn’t get super strength or giant power, he was still human.
In the 70s, there were a series of terriffic mystery-oriented Batman comics.
Dunno who wrote them, Infantino drew. Nice.
Definition of a Superhero: Any sentient entity with powers, abilities, skills or technologies far in excess of those available to ordinary mortal men, who uses these assets to fight injustice & defend Humanity.
