Re: How to understand the SuperHero Genre
I love your post, and I can hear its drumbeat and poetry. However, I do disagree with this part of it. Supers, even masked Super Heroes, are a world wide phenomena. Darna has been published in the Philippines steadily since 1949. Sure, you can point to her roots in Captain Marvel, but she is a true Filipina heroine. Ultraman has been flying since 1966, and he was not the first modern Japanese Superhero. Chinese Wuxia Supers have been exhibiting every sort of Superpower since at least the Tang dynasty, when fantasy started mixing with action adventure. I'm not down playing in any way the importance of the American Superhero story, which added its own elements to the mix. Just pointing out that the roots run deep and the branches spread wide, and that you can find stories of masked heroes fighting evil bandits and corrupt officials almost everywhere, in almost every period.
Even masked hereos with Superpowers, though they were rare in Western literature until the American Superhero.