Scarlet Pimpernel | Superheroes: From Comic Books to the Big Screen

The First Superheroes

Although superheroes did not begin to appear in comics, nor the term actually phrased until the early twentieth century, superheroes can be found in literature throughout history. Many of the heroes of antiquity such as Hercules, Samson, Achilles and Perseus were endowed with powers that exceeded those of mortal men.

A superhero is defined as being a “fictional hero having extraordinary or superhuman powers”. Doesn’t this definition describe the four figures above, as much as it does Superman, Batman, Captain America or Spiderman?

Indeed the conception for many of today’s superheroes can be found in these heroes of the past. The most obvious of course being Thor – the Nordic god of thunder. There is also the Amazonian Wonder Woman, and the Flash, who shares many similarities to Mercury, the fastest of the Roman gods.

Be that as it may, the first superheroes, as we think of them today appeared in the early twentieth century. The Scarlet Pimpernel was perhaps the first, appearing in a 1903 play, then crossing over into literature, and eventually film. He popularised the notion of a masked avenger defending the innocent and powerless. A nobleman by day, the scarlet Pimpernel would disguise his identity and audaciously rescue unfortunates who were destined for the guillotine.

Then in 1919, Zorro made his first appearance in “The Curse of Capistrano”, a five part serial featured in All Story Weekly, and in 1933 The Lone Ranger made his debut in a radio show broadcast by Detroit station WXYZ.

However, probably the first superhero to appear in a comic strip was Mandrake the Magician. Created in 1934 by Lee Falk, Mandrake used his extraordinary powers of hypnosis to fight crime by rendering criminals impotent with terrifying illusions. He proved to be so popular, that Falk was asked to create another comic strip for the newspaper.

He initially presented the publishers with a comic strip based on the legendary English King, Arthur, which they quickly rejected. It was this rejection that led him to create The Phantom, who made his debut in February of 1936. Falk originally imagined that the Phantom would be the alter ego of rich playboy Jimmy Wells. However, his love of myths and legends led him to set the character in the fictional African country of Bengalla, where the mantle of the Phantom has been passed down from father to son for twenty generations. Although the Phantom in Falk’s strips is actually the 21st reincarnation of the crime fighter, the outside world believes there has ever been only one, so he is also known as the ‘ghost who walks’, and ‘the man who cannot die’.

It was not until the 1940’s that the Phantom started to appear in his own comic book, and continued to do so until 1995, when DC decided to end his run. However the Phantom still appears in newspaper comic strips around the world, almost 80 years after he made his debut.