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By most definitions, characters do not require actual superhuman powers or phenomena to be deemed superheroes. Some superheroes use their powers to counter daily crime while also combating threats against humanity from supervillains, who are their criminal counterparts. Often at least one of these supervillains will be the superhero’s archenemy. The word ‘superhero’ dates to at least 1917. During the 1940s there were many superheroes: The Flash, Green Lantern and Blue Beetle debuted in this era. In 1952, Osamu Tezuka’s manga Tetsuwan Atom, more popularly known in the West as Astro Boy, was published.

The series focused upon a robot boy built by a scientist to replace his deceased son. The 1950s saw the Silver Age of Comics. In 1957 Japan, Shintoho produced the first film serial featuring the superhero character Super Giant, signaling a shift in Japanese popular culture towards tokusatsu masked superheroes over kaiju giant monsters. In 1963, Astro Boy was adapted into a highly influential anime television series. Phantom Agents in 1964 focused on ninjas working for the Japanese government and would be the foundation for Sentai-type series. In 1971, Kamen Rider launched the “Henshin Boom” on Japanese television in the early 1970s, greatly impacting the tokusatsu superhero genre in Japan. The 1970s would see more anti-heroes introduced into Superhero fiction such examples included the debut of Shotaro Ishinomori’s Skull Man in 1970, Go Nagai’s Devilman in 1972 and Gerry Conway and John Romita’s Punisher in 1974.

The dark Skull Man manga would later get a television adaptation and underwent drastic changes. The character was redesigned to resemble a grasshopper, becoming the renowned first masked hero of the Kamen Rider series. Both major publishers began introducing new superheroines with a more distinct feminist theme as part of their origin stories or character development. With more and more anime, manga and tokusatsu being translated or adapted, Western audiences were beginning to experience the Japanese styles of superhero fiction more than they were able to before. Most dictionary definitions and common usages of the term are generic and not limited to the characters of any particular company or companies. Nevertheless, variations on the term “Super Hero” are jointly claimed by DC Comics and Marvel Comics as trademarks.

Registrations of “Super Hero” marks have been maintained by DC and Marvel since the 1960s, including U. Critics in the legal community dispute whether the “Super Hero” marks meet the legal standard for trademark protection in the United States: distinctive designation of a single source of a product or service. Controversy exists over each element of that standard: whether “Super Hero” is distinctive rather than generic, whether “Super Hero” designates a source of products or services, and whether DC and Marvel jointly represent a single source. In 1966, Marvel Comics introduced the Black Panther, an African monarch who became the first non-caricatured black superhero. In addition to the creation of new minority heroes, publishers have filled the identities and roles of once-Caucasian heroes with new characters from minority backgrounds.

Certain established characters have had their ethnicity changed when adapted to another continuity or media. A notable example is Nick Fury, who is reinterpreted as African-American both in the Ultimate Marvel as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe continuities. In 1992, Marvel revealed that Northstar, a member of the Canadian mutant superhero team Alpha Flight, was homosexual, after years of implication. The Sailor Moon series is known for featuring a substantial number of openly LGBT characters since its inception, as Japan have traditionally been more open about portraying homosexuality in its children’s media compared to many countries in the West. It originated on The Dana Carvey Show and then moved to Saturday Night Live. In 2017, Pluin introduced Sign Gene, a film featuring a group of deaf superheroes with supernatural powers through the use of sign language.

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