Batman can never be as popular as superman because superman was big 70 years ago?
How does Superman fly
Red Bull gives him wings!!
Interesting point you raise, though, and sorry if I missed the implication. If Superman is flying on radio by 1940 he’s equal with if not beating Hawkman and Green Lantern, although the cartoons and comics don’t catch up until later. But if Sub-Mariuner was flying in 1939, he has an edge. I know he flew later, but did he fly in 1939?
Namor’s nemesis, the Human Torch, was flying in his first appearance in October 1939, IIRC, and was certainly doing so later. So that shows two two possibilities before Superman ever flew, even on radio.
I took EM to mean that Superman’s overall pop culture impact is greater than Batman’s, despite Batman’s currently greater popularity.
As I alluded to above, well before they debuted Superman in '38, Siegel and Shuster got a DOCTOR OCCULT story published where Doc flies around.
Submitted for your consideration: OGON BAT.
That link doesn’t work for me.
Before there was Batman, there was Superman.
But before either of 'em, there was The Human Bat.
Based on the Wikipedia page, it looks as if Doctor Occult flew afdter his first issue:
It’s all pre-Superman, though.
And Ogon Bat seems to beat them all.
From that link:
That doesn’t count as flying, IMO.
As for Ogon Bat, I’m unfamiliar with Kamishibai and the information on that page is minimal. From it, though, I’d say that the connection to comic strips or comic books is also minimal. What’s the claim being made?
Snarky, despite the snark I’m saying that Superman is the default image of what a superhero is, has been, and in all likelihood always will be to more people in more places than any other creation.
We can argue Batman’s importance. As a mortal who wills himself to greatness he’s another archetype, but one in a long series of them. Superman has precursors but they’re not as culturally important. Batman’s precursors include Sherlock Holmes, who is. Batman is also night to Superman’s day, an opposite in almost every way. They include between them almost every point that one can tick off, which doesn’t leave much room for other archetypes and is why the only other culturally important superhero is Wonder Woman. But nobody seriously argues that Wonder Woman is Superman’s equal in world recognition, and I don’t think you can make that argument for Batman either. That people haven’t made as good movies about Superman recently is a blip on the radar. The two recent Sherlock Holmes movies weren’t all that wonderful either but he’s a major worldwide character still.
Hercules?
Most of the standard superhero powers have also been attributed at one time or another to various saints.
I was thinking of fictional characters like in Philip Wylie’s Gladiator and Doc Savage.
Hercules doesn’t count because he was a god and by definition all stories about gods are literally true. Or that’s what I’ve learned from other threads on this board. I certainly won’t differentiate among religious beliefs.
“What was the point of Lex Luthor? A human being who dared to challenge a god, he was surely the greatest of his kind.” - Superman
“Gods are selfish beings who fly around in little red capes and don’t share their power with mankind.” - Lex Luthor
In a world where polar bears live at the south pole, anything is possible.
Hawkman didn’t use the wings for lift. He had an anti-gravity device built into that medallion on his chest. The wings just allowed him to maneuver.
See? No suspension of disbelief required.
Ok, now this is a spoiler. If you Really don’t want to know, don’t click.
I’m not kidding, guys. You could literally Ruin someone’s childhood. Its a Holiday. Look around the room because the people behind you? They’ll be able to read this. When you are sure its safe, Then click the spoiler box.
Strings.
No really, they shoved an actor into a suit, tied strings to all his limbs in many different and mostly painful spots, and then hoisted him up to the rafters. Sometimes they’d swing him in a kind of a pan or arc
across the view of the camera. I mean, think about it. Why would Dean Cain smile so much in his standing scenes?
The Sheer Joy of Uninterrupted Blood Flow to all of his exterior limbs…
“Look, up in the sky…!”
“Its a bird…!”
“Its a plane…!”
“Its NOT ARCHING It’s BACK! CUT Jesus, what did they Teach you at Princeton? How that town stays dry I’ll NEVER know…”
Belt, wasn’t it?
I seem to recall that whenever they showed Clark/Superman flying in the tv showSmallville, he was gathering energy and then pushing off, sometimes resulting in cracked pavement.
Smallville was very smart about his powers, they kept growing and growing.
First he was just fast and could jump far, eventually he managed to turn that into flying. No specific reason on how he did that was given iirc.
He could fly even in season one; what he eventually developed was conscious control. Remember how he woke up floating above the bed, like a sleepwalker from Krypton?