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A Brief Overview of Superhero Fiction [ edit ]

by Fritz Freiheit

April 26, 2011 -- (Updated November 9th, 2011 see 'discussion' tab for details, updated again in mid-June of 2012 with many more book cover images.)

In the past fifty years I would venture to say that less than fifty novels and anthologies have been published that fall within the superhero genre, excluding Marvel and DC media spinoffs. If you include Marvel and DC, I think the number is somewhere between 100 and 200. So I set out to prove or disprove this supposition. The following overview of superhero fiction is the result. In this overview, I won't be including graphic novels.

Classifying Superhero Fiction [ edit ]

In order to be classified as a 'superhero' fiction, a story must have a minimal subset of genre tropes. These include:

superpowers

costumes and masks

secret identities

hero vs. villain

genre blindness

crime fighting / vigilantism

'super' plots

superhero culture

Most of the superhero tropes I listed above are self explanatory. Genre blindness, as a trope, may need a bit of an explanation, while the idea of a 'superhero culture' needs more. Genre blindness is when the characters don't recognize that they are operating within a genre, a common example of this is found in horror genre, where, we as readers or observers know that it is generally a bad idea to go down in the basement or out in the woods by our lonesome, the characters in question blithely proceed to do so. For more information on tropes, see the Supplemental section Common Superhero Genre Tropes below.



While some of the fiction I found during the survey have several of these superhero genre elements, such as superpowers, they do not have a constellation of them. See Borderline Superhero Novels below.

Classification Elements [ edit ]

Superhero Culture (as a Trope) [ edit ]

For the trope 'superhero culture', I think the following attributes are reasonably descriptive:

The general populace knows about the existence of supers.

The general populace expects supers to intervene in bad situations.

There is a general awareness of many of the superhero genre tropes, such as Crime Fighting, Secret Identities, and Secret Lairs. There is an assumption of 'truth' about common knowledge tropes.

Culturally formalized relationship between supers and normals.

Superhero Culture Level [ edit ]

SCL Superhero Culture Level Description 0 None. Even the idea of superheroes doesn't exist. 1 Minimal; The idea of superheroes exists, but is considered entirely fictional. 2 Some people are aware of supers, but there is little public acknowledgment by the mainstream. 3 Many people acknowledgment that supers exist, a significant minority does not. 4 General acknowledgment that supers exist and there relationship between supers and normals is generally known. 5 Full scale; Everyone knows about the relationship between supers and normals.

Superhero Power Level [ edit ]

Supervillain Power Level [ edit ]

SvPL Supervillain Power Level Description Examples 0 None. Only the insane think they have superpowers. 1 Minimal; Supervillains are basically normal humans, with some possibly only believing that they have powers. 2 Minor powers; 3 Significant powers; 4 Major powers; 5 World/reality shaping powers;

Superhero Genre Level [ edit ]

SGL Superhero Genre Level Description ShPL SvPL ShPL + SvPL SCL 0 None, which means it won't even appear here. 0 0 0 0 1 This is most commonly stories that have characters with 'superpowers' or are übermenschs, but few, if any, of the other superhero tropes. 1 1 0-2 0 2 A handful of superhero tropes 1-2 1-2 1-4 1-2 3 Significant number of superhero tropes, approaching critical mass for superhero genre 2-4 2-4 3-4 4 The full spectrum of superhero tropes; superhero fiction that is science fiction. 3-5 3-5 4-5 5 Full blown, anything goes, superhero tropes; superhero fiction that is, essentially, fantasy. 4-5 4-5 5

Superhero Novels [ edit ]





See Superhero Novels (Annotated) for more information.

Superhero Anthologies [ edit ]

See Superhero Anthologies (Annotated) for more information.

Borderline Superhero Novels [ edit ]

These novels include super-powered characters, but they're not full blown superhero fiction.





See Borderline Superhero Novels (Annotated) for more information.

Roots of Superhero Fiction [ edit ]

Superhero fiction before 1960 is nearly non-existent. Here I have collected a number of references to novels, series, and characters that form, in my opinion, the roots of comic book superheroes, and thus the roots of superhero fiction. From Clark Savage Jr., aka Doc Savage, who shares the same first name as Superman and has the first Fortress of Solitude, to the Scarlet Pimpernel who is, as far as I know, the first doer of good deeds and fighter of evil (if you consider the excesses of the French Revolution to be evil) who had a secret identity, namely Sir Percival Blakeney.

See Roots of Superhero Fiction (Annotated) for more information.

The Numbers [ edit ]

Superhero novels and anthologies counted above total to 34. If you add in those from the "to be classified" (see Novels and anthologies to be classified) set that are probably superhero we arrive at a total of about 44. With the borderline (including the rest of the "to be classified" books) the number soars to a whopping 68.

To derive numbers for Marvel and DC, I looked at Wikipedia, more specifically, the List of novels based on comics at. This resulted in 112 for DC, and 126 for Marvel superhero novels and short story collections were published between 1960 and 2010 with 14 or so based on other comic books and another 20 or miscellaneous references based on the Wikipedia category Superhero novels. , we end up with a total of 320. Which is more than 50% above the high end of my guess of 200. It turns out that there have been a lot more DC and Marvel based books than I had thought there were.

Novels and anthologies to be classified [ edit ]

The following novels and anthologies are referenced or listed in the context of superhero fiction.

See Novels and anthologies to be classified (Annotated) for more information.

Superhero Novels (Annotated) [ edit ]

Note that this has been updated since the blog posting on April 26th, 2011. Updates have been primarily the addition of links.

Update: 2014/11/04

Superhero Anthologies (Annotated) [ edit ]

Note that this has been updated since the blog posting on April 26th, 2011. Updates have been primarily the addition of links.

Updated: 2011/04/29

Superhero Series (Annotated) [ edit ]

Note that this has been updated since the blog posting on April 26th, 2011. Updates have been primarily the addition of links.

Superhero Short Stories (Annotated) [ edit ]

Borderline Superhero Novels (Annotated) [ edit ]

These novels include super-powered characters, but they're not full blown superhero fiction.

Note that this has been updated since the blog posting on April 26th, 2011. Updates have been primarily the addition of links.

Updated: 2014/11/04

Novels and anthologies to be classified (Annotated) [ edit ]

Note that books added since original blog posting on April 26th, 2011 are marked in the Notes section as 'Added' and a date.

Updated: 2011/05/05

Roots of Superhero Fiction (Annotated) [ edit ]

Updated: 2012/06/17

Acknowledgments [ edit ]

I would like to thank the following people for their input and review of this article:

Chris Hocking

Supplemental [ edit ]

Table Column Descriptions [ edit ]

Column Label Column Description Author Author of the work Editor Anthologizer Length Length can be (in descending order of word count ranges): Novel, Novella, Novelettes, Short Story Links [A] for Amazon; [G] Google search; [I] for the Internet Speculative Fiction Database; [O] for Official website of the book; [P] for a Podcast of the book; [R] for review; [S] SuperheroNovels.com; [T] for TvTropes.org; [W] for Wikipedia. Notes Additional info that doesn't fit in the other columns. Read Yes, No, Cur, or Que. Cur indicates that I'm currently reading (or started, but haven't gotten back to it recently). Que indicates that I haven't read it yet, but I have a copy and it's on my (very long) list of things to read. SCL Superhero Culture Level (rated from 0-5) SGL Superhero Genre Level (rated from 0-5) ShPL Superhero Power Level (rated from 0-5) SvPL Supervillain Power Level (rated from 0-5) Title Title of the work; italicized for novels and anthologies, double quoted for short stories, novelettes, and novellas; this may include a leading series title and work number, such as Wild Cards 2: Aces High. Year First year of publication / copyright year.

Common Superhero Genre Tropes [ edit ]

I've attempted to collect some of the more common and/or important superhero tropes below. For more, and quite a bit of entertaining reading, I recommend checking out TvTropes.org .

Trope TvTropes Name Description Links Alternate History If the setting or Origin Event is in the past, this is almost certainly an important or even dominant trope. Brick Costumes Crime Fighting Genre Blindness Genre blindness is when the characters don't recognize that they are operating within a genre, a common example of this is found in horror genre, where, we as readers or observers know that it is generally a bad idea to go down in the basement or out in the woods by our lonesome, the characters in question blithely proceed to do so. Institutional Heroes An Institution or Company is the origin or source of the superpowered. Crime fighting may or may not be part of the Institution's mandate. This trope may also include Superhero School. Masks A facial covering that is intended to make it difficult to discern what the hero or villain's secret identity is. [T] Mutants Mutant Powers Origin Event All superpowers trace their origin directly, or indirectly, back to a single event. If this event is in the past, then the Alternate History trope is also in play. Origins Super Hero Origin Patrolling Secret Identities Secret Identity An alter ego that for a hero or villain that has not been linked back to the costumed identity. [T] Secret Lairs Superhero Culture For the trope 'superhero culture', I think the following attributes are reasonably descriptive: The general populace knows about the existence of supers.

The general populace expects supers to intervene in bad situations.

There is a general awareness of many of the superhero genre tropes, such as Crime Fighting, Secret Identities, and Secret Lairs. There is an assumption of 'truth' about common knowledge tropes.

Culturally formalized relationship between supers and normals.

Superhero Schools Superhero School Superpowers Sworn Vengeance Übermensch An unpowered human of exceptional ability. World Threatening Plots

DC Superhero Novels [ edit ]

According to List of novels based on comics at Wikipedia, between 1966 and 2010, 112 DC superhero novels and short story collections were published.

Theses lists are incomplete (and currently drawn from Wikipedia categories under DC Comics novels as of April 15th, 2011).

Batman [ edit ]

Superman [ edit ]

DC Miscellaneous [ edit ]

Marvel Superhero Novels [ edit ]

According to List of novels based on comics at Wikipedia, between 1967 and 2010, 126 Marvel superhero novels and short story collections were published.

These lists are incomplete (and currently drawn from Wikipedia categories under Marvel Comics novels as of April 15th, 2011).

Marvel Comics in prosean unofficial guide has a good reading list broken down by main character(s).

Miscellaneous novels categorized as superhero in Wikipedia [ edit ]

According to List of novels based on comics at Wikipedia, between 1984 and 2005, 14 novels and short story collections were published based on non-DC, non-Marvel superheroes.

From the Wikipedia category Superhero novels as of April 15th, 2011.

Also see [ edit ]









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