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- This video is sponsored
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over at Patreon.com/NerdSync.
In 1917, An Airman’s Outings by Contact
was the first known publication of the term superhero.
A little over two decades later,
we had the debut of who many consider
to be the first superhero, Superman.
He set the tone of what a superhero should be.
He had a colorful, eye-catching costume, a secret identity
with his Clark Kent alter ego, and most importantly,
incredible, awe-inspiring superpowers.
But then, as Batman movie producer
Michael Uslan points out, a few short months later
saw the debut appearance of the Dark Knight,
still had the costume,
still had the secret identity, but no superpowers.
Bruce Wayne wasn’t bitten by a radioactive bat
or sent to Earth from a dying planet of bat people.
He was simply a man.
And with his premiere issue,
Batman almost immediately challenged
what it meant to be a superhero.
Which is why we’re going to start off our month
of Batman videos by answering the age-old question,
what is a superhero, and is Batman one?
(upbeat rock music)
We’re doing a whole month of videos
about the Caped Crusader for October.
Bat-tober, if you will.
The Long Halloween.
Batman is one of my favorite superheroes
to make videos about,
but before we go any further this month
I think we should figure out if Batman is even a superhero.
You might be tempted to jump into a dictionary
and see if Batman lines up with all the criteria
laid out there, but that’s problematic, right?
Who gets to decide what the dictionary says, and why?
We’ll talk more about that in a bit,
but for now we're gonna be pulling heavily
from this little wonderful book right here, aptly titled,
What Is a Superhero?
which features a series of essays
by comics scholars and creators.
I even sat down one of the editors of the book,
clinical psychologist Dr. Robin Rosenberg,
to ask her directly.
What exactly is a superhero?
- [Robin] So, to me, a superhero has two components,
the super and the hero.
So for the super, it’s that they either
are born with some superpowers, discover they have them,
or they develop them.
And then the hero part is about doing good consistently.
So one heroic act by someone with superpowers
does not make a superhero.
It's that this becomes part of their mission,
and it’s, if you would want to call it,
it’s their day job in a sense.
I mean, this is kind of what they do,
they may do other things to make money,
but this is their mission.
- This definition lines up with many comics creators.
Stan Lee defines a superhero in a very similar way,
as, quote, “a person who does heroic deeds
"and has the ability to do them
"in a way that a normal person couldn’t” end quote.
Jeph Loeb says superheroes are “people with powers
"and abilities beyond those of mortal men,
"who make a choice to use them to help those who need it.”
Joe Quesada described a superhero as,
“an extraordinary person placed
"under extraordinary circumstances
"who manages to do extraordinary things
"to ultimately triumph over evil.”
These are vague enough that Batman
could easily fit into that mold.
No normal person could do what Batman does
in the way that Batman does them.
The book’s other editor Pete Coogan
explains that a superpower is simply any ability
or quality that raises a person’s performance
above that of ordinary people.
Quote, "Often these are thought
of as supernatural abilities, abilities that defy the laws
of physics in some way which is why people often claim
that Batman does not have superpowers."
But superpowers can be anything from extraordinary
or mystical abilities, advanced technology,
or even highly developed physical or mental skills.
Sure, Bruce Wayne might not have heat beam eyes
or the ability to tap into the speed force,
but his suit, gadgets, and vehicles paired
with his mental and physical training
beyond what ordinary people are capable of
are Batman’s superpowers.
- [Robin] The fact that Batman could not actually exist
in our world, I mean, his wealth could definitely exist,
but that his detecting and crime fighting skills
are clearly more than normal,
his ability to kinda take a punch and keep on ticking
is not within the realm of the average human.
You know, the fact that Batman can appear (laughs)
just as a crime fighter to Superman
says this is not a mere, normal mortal.
I know he’s supposed to be, but he’s not.
If it's not plausible in our world
then they're de facto superhero.
And Batman again, is a really great example
of how this is absolutely true.
- Cool, problem solved.
Batman is super, and therefore a superhero,
guess we can wrap up this video early.
But okay, I understand if you think that’s just a cop out.
So just for the sake of argument,
let’s go through the rest of this video
under the assumption that Batman’s superness
doesn’t actually count as superpowers.
He’s just a normal guy who fights crime dressed as a bat.
Is that a superhero?
Well, we have a bit of a problem.
Let’s take a look at Dr. Rosenberg’s definition from before,
a superhero is a person
with superpowers and a pro-social mission.
Now even if we think that Batman
doesn’t fit that definition,
many other non-superheroes probably could.
What about Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter?
They both fight evil while doing things
no ordinary human or muggle could.
Are they superheroes?
They don’t really feel like it, do they?
Think about it this way.
Marvel’s Doctor Strange movie comes out
around the same time as Fantastic Beasts
and Where to Find Them, another installment
in the Harry Potter movie franchise.
Both deal with magic and the mystical arts,
yet come November if your friend were to say,
hey, let’s go see that new superhero movie,
you’d instinctively think of Doctor Strange
over Fantastic Beasts, right?
Comics writer Kurt Busiek elaborated on this,
explaining that if you were to take Doctor Strange
out of the Marvel Universe, he’s no longer a superhero.
He’s simply a wizard or magician.
If you take Hulk out of the Marvel Universe,
he’s just a monster.
However, if you put Hulk and Doctor Strange
in a superhero context where they can join a team
of other superheroes like the Avengers or Defenders,
then of course they’re superheroes,
because they’re members of a superhero team.
Regarding Batman, Busiek compares the Caped Crusader
to Robin Hood, saying, quote, “Robin Hood lives
"in an otherwise realistic world
"and aside from being extremely skilled
"with a bow, isn’t superhuman,
"and there are no other superhumans in his world.
"With Batman, it’s easier to say he’s a superhero
"because there are superhumans around.
"There’s an understanding that in that milieu,
"characters who do what Batman does
"are superheroes” end quote.
- [Robin] Anyone in a Marvel or DC world
who has, again, just some of the elements
is de facto a superhero.
Black Widow, who in some incarnations has no superpowers
and doesn’t often even wear a costume (laughs).
She's sort of a really powerful human.
She lives in a superhero world,
and she is treated by superheros as a superhero,
so we assume she's a superhero.
- Which makes me wonder,
if Batman didn’t exist in a world of other superheroes
and supervillains, would he be a superhero?
Like Gotham by Gaslight,
where Batman feels more like a theatrical detective.
Or take the Dark Knight, as far as we know,
Batman is the only superhero in that world,
and because of that, he feels like less of a superhero
and more of a, just like a guy.
Maybe that’s just me.
Back on track.
To separate superheroes from heroes of other genres
like John McClane, or the aforementioned
Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker,
we tend to ascribe one additional criteria to superheroes.
They’ve got their powers, they’ve got their mission,
but Coogan says there’s still one thing missing,
their identity.
Things like costumes, secret identities and code names,
which work in tandem with a superhero’s mission and powers
to convey some sense of who they are and what they can do.
But beyond that, the costume itself can serve as the context
for a character to be considered a superhero
by placing them within the superhero community.
Even having something as simple as a chevron or symbol
emblazoned typically upon one’s chest
is something fairly unique to superheroes.
When Batman dons any one of his costumes,
be it spandex, body armor, or a mech suit,
there’s always a bat symbol, and sometimes bat nipples.
This chevron helps to instantly announce
that the Batman is a superhero.
But obviously, there are heroes
who don’t wear costumes or have code names,
even if they did at one point in their career.
Luke Cage, for example, has a whole show
where he simply walks around in different bullet-ridden
hoodies for the entire season.
Not exactly a costume as we would typically think of it.
And again, maybe you’re still not convinced
that Batman has any superpowers so he’s not a superhero.
And that’s fine, we don’t need every superhero
to fit every single criterion.
There will always be examples of superheroes
that don’t meet all the qualifications
and still count as superheroes.
Conversely, you can have characters
like Jedis or witches and wizards who might actually meet
the qualifications but don’t really feel like superheroes.
Moreover, as this book demonstrates,
the checklist of what makes up a superhero
can vary wildly from scholar to scholar,
creator to creator, and even reader to reader.
We may never reach a definition that pleases everybody.
The good news is that we don’t need one,
because we all intuitively understand
what a superhero is anyway,
even if we can’t quite articulate it.
According to comics writer and editor Danny Fingeroth,
quote, “In the world of commercial superhero creation,
"the feel of a character has as much to do
"with whether he or she is considered a superhero
"as any actual powers.”
He said, presumably comforting a crying Bruce Wayne.
It sure feels like Batman, Superman, Spider-Man,
Deadpool, and Luke Cage are all superheroes, but why?
They don’t all share the exact same traits with one another,
so how can each one fall under the umbrella of superhero?
- [Robin] I think at the moment
you can have superhero characters
who don’t have one or two elements, but they have others.
So it’s not a requirement to have all of the elements.
Mentally we implicitly put them in a superhero category.
- This sentiment echoes philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein's concept of family resemblance,
in that words don’t have rigid dictionary definitions,
where there’s one element
that everything in the group shares.
Instead each member of the group has at least
some shared overlapping characteristics with other members.
Superman and Spider-Man are paradigm examples
of a superhero, characters that everyone
would agree fit the bill.
They have costumes, super powers,
a selfless and pro-social mission, secret identities,
exist in a superhero context, et cetera.
But then you have fringe cases like Batman
who you might still argue has no powers,
or Deadpool who doesn’t always operate
under a selfless mission statement,
or Luke Cage who doesn’t typically wear a costume,
if you think that’s an important factor.
But even still, these characters share
at least some qualities with those paradigm heroes,
which allows them to fall under the term superhero.
Wittgenstein explained that this
is simply how language works.
It’s fluid, and the meaning of the word superhero
or comic or bat could change
depending on its use in culture.
As we discussed at the top of this video,
the word superhero didn’t even exist
before the 19th century, and now it’s everywhere.
In short, meaning is use.
The way our brains figure out what words mean
is by hearing how others in our community use them.
Which is why I want to turn to you, the NerdSync community.
What is a superhero?
And does Batman count?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
I want to give a huge shout-out to Dr. Robin Rosenberg
for helping with this video,
and I highly recommend checking out this book,
What Is a Superhero, for more in depth essays
and analyses by comics writers and scholars.
Every single chapter, I promise you,
is fascinating and might actually challenge
your thinking of the superhero genre.
I’ll have a link down in the description down below.
I also have a full 30-minute conversation with Dr. Rosenberg
that I will upload for you wonderful patrons
who support this show.
So, if that’s something you’re interested,
head on over to Patreon.com/NerdSync to find out more.
And if you’re in the mood for more videos,
click on the left to see the episode we did
trying to define comics as a medium.
It's kinda similar to this one.
It’s not as easy as you’d think.
Or you can click on the right to watch an entire playlist
of Batman videos as we celebrate
Bat-Tober, The Long Halloween.
Until next time, my name is Scott,
reminding you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics, see ya!