Who was the first Superhero?

The Nyctalope, from 1911. Superpowers, secret identity, costume, he hits all the real checkmarks.

Most of your checkmarks are just bits of design, and the Phantom did not have a no kill rule. The Phantom kills a lot.

More of a urban legend. No stories written about him having adventures, just jumping at women.

hercules

Don't forget that the "body suit" is really just a naked upper body with a splatter of paint on it, because superhero artists ALWAYS go overboard in depicting muscles.

This. He is the first known in written form.

Gods in ancient Greek, Persian, Hindu civilisations

I would agree with heroic characters, like Thor. But greek lack these characters within godhood. But i agree with their semi-gods. In my eyes they fullfill many heroic,msuoerheroic characteristics.

>Thor
>heroic
>but not the Greeks
user... what?

Because nordic gods were more human. Gods like Thor walked among humans and fought for humans.
Greeks only walk among humsns to breed. Their offsprings, the demi-gods are used for protecting the normal people.

>Most of your checkmarks are just bits of design, and the Phantom did not have a no kill rule. The Phantom kills a lot.

Thats half and the biggest gimmick of what a Superhero is. I dont remember Phantom killing, post evidence.

Thor crossdressed to fool dwarves and Odin let Loki get horsefucked to save some money. Greeks basically invented the "they're as human as people" trope. What the fuck are you even on about?

>More of a urban legend. No stories written about him having adventures, just jumping at women.

There were dozens of stories inspired by the bogeyman legends of the early 1800s. They were the direct inspiration of the pulp heroes like The Shadow which directly inspired Batman.

To this day, no one knows if the real Jack existed.

The superhero is defined by three things:

A costume
Superpowers
A secret identity

Some people argue that characters like Batman should count as superheroes despite not having powers, but that's stretching the definition. The Shadow is a more pure version of Batman since he actually has powers (to cloud men's minds).

Secret identity is non-negotiable, though. So Gilgamesh an his ilk are straight out.

Mandrake the Magician. He came before the phantom

The Scarlet Pimpernel

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Zorro

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The Shadow and Zorro
Green Hornet, Lone Ranger, Domino Lady

No secret identity. Phantom has one.

>Secret identity is non-negotiable
So Fantastic Four are not Superheroes?

Superman, the term superhero was used to describe the flood of media that ripped off or piggybacked off the success of the character. Superman stories weren't wholly original themselves but derived from science fiction and fantasy of the time. So it goes without saying there are characters who retroactively could be called superheroes but weren't referred to as superheroes at the point of their conception.

OUT OF THE JUNGLE
THE HERO WHO STALKS
THE BEASTS CALL HIM BROTHER
THE GHOST WHO WALKS

>“The superheroes themselves – largely written and drawn by creators who have never stood up for their own rights against the companies that employ them, much less the rights of a Jack Kirby or Jerry Siegel or Joe Schuster – would seem to be largely employed as cowardice compensators, perhaps a bit like the handgun on the nightstand. … I would also remark that save for a smattering of non-white characters (and non-white creators) these books and these iconic characters are still very much white supremacist dreams of the master race. In fact, I think that a good argument can be made for D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) as the first American superhero movie, and the point of origin for all those capes and masks.”

kkk apparently

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Greek gods didnt walked among mortals and fought for them.
Thats why demi-gods exist. And to legitimate royality by claiming demi-gods were their ancestors!

I would say that superpowers Shouldnt be that narrow. Because you will sort characters like IronMan or Punisher out.
Superpowers can also be extraordinary skills that exceed the average citizin.