Markup View

Author: SharleeD

Aug 15th 2014 at 10:01:54 AM

Effed-up or not, if this trope is to be meaningful at all, it legitimately ''needs'' to include BadassNormal and CharlesAtlasSuperpower characters.  Genuinely-impossible powers weren't codified as part of the "superhero" archetype until the Golden Age's Superman, so expecting Superman's precursors to share similar beyond-human powers just isn't reasonable: if we limit it to supers-in-the-modern-sense only, it'll be about four examples long.

In the interest of making this trope useful, and in avoiding {{Natter}} and YourMileageMayVary, let's just say that ''for purposes of this trope'', non-powered heroes in the Batman style are acceptable.  That lets Zorro and other classic superhero-precursors back in, allowing this trope to encompass ''all'' the characters that inspired and codified distinctive elements of the Superhero genre, not just the "powers" aspect of that genre.  Powers aren't the only quality that makes a superhero, after all; if they were, both Gandalf and the Terminator would be superheroes.