SuperHero

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Babble

From Wikipedia:

A superhero (sometimes rendered super-hero or super hero) is a fictional character "of unprecedented physical prowess dedicated to act of derring-do in the public interest". Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes—ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas—have dominated American comic books and crossed over into other media. The word itself dates to at least 1917. A female superhero is sometimes called a superheroine (also rendered super-heroine or super heroine).

By most definitions, characters need actual superhuman powers to be deemed superheroes, although terms such as costumed crimefighters are sometimes used to refer to those without such powers who share other common traits with superheroes.

The two-word version of the term is a trademark co-owned by DC Comics and Marvel Comics.

Superhero philosophy

From Wikipedia:

The "philosophy" informing the ethos of vigilante superheroes (especially as seen in the Punisher and Batman characters) was essentially formulated centuries ago by Aristotle: {A person} possessing superior virtue and self-mastery necessarily transcend the external human bureaucratic-administrative framework:

"There are men," wrote Aristotle," so godlike, so exceptional, that they naturally, by right of their extraordinary gifts, transcend all moral judgment or constitutional control: 'There is no law which embraces men of that caliber: they are themselves law.'"
Politics, Book Three, XIII[1](Hughes-Hallett, Lucy. Heroes. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004)

Note that not all superheroes are vigilantes. During the Silver Age of Comic Books, for example, Batman was a deputized officer of the Gotham City police force. Other superheroes have worked, either openly or covertly, with or for government or international organizations. In 1986, John Byrne's Superman was officially deputized by the Metropolis mayor to allow him to arrest criminals legally.