I strongly recommend Pete Coogan's Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre; it could not be closer to the intellectual (if not temperamental) spirit of the Howling Curmudgeons.
Here's his definition of superhero:
superhero: A heroic character with a selfless, pro-social mission; with superpowers--extraordinary abilities, advanced technology, or highly developed physical, mental, or mystical skills; who has a superhero identity embodied in a codename and iconic costume, which typically express his biography, character, powers, or origin (transformation from ordinary person to superhero); and who is generically* distinct, i.e.can be distinguished from characters of related genres (fantasy, science fiction, detective, etc.) by a preponderance of generic conventions. Often superheroes have dual identities, the ordinary one of which is usually a closely guarded secret.
*Pete uses generic as the adjective form of genre, which is probably accurate, but which conflicts pretty badly with the common definition of generic to mean "undistinguished, typical".
Pete distinguishes between super hero, i.e., hero who is super, and superhero, example of the superhero genre.
This book would not have been possible twenty years ago, because we simply had not assembled the comprehensive histories of popular fiction, such as Jess's Fantastic Victoriana; the authority of the work derives in large part from its convincing and comprehensive mastery of the often-obscure history.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I'm going to disagree fairly violently with his Iron Age. At one point, he calls out Giant Size X-Men #1 as an Iron Age precursor, which just leaves me baffled: if the Bronze Age does not include the New X-Men and the New Teen Titans, just what the heck does it include? And if the Iron Age includes the X-Men and the New Teen Titans, then books like Hawkworld and X-Force and Stormwatch are orphans.
Posted by Greg at March 27, 2007 9:53 AM
Okay, okay, I ordered it already. And I'm looking forward to it. Not that it's supposed to get to me before May, but oh well.
Fantastic Victoriana?
To the library!
Matthew E--
The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana is an encyclopedia of characters and concepts from 19th century popular literature. The publisher's page on it is here, while a sample entry is here.
I like Pete's work. (Disclosure: he's a pal). I think it's as comprehensive as we're likely to get for quite some time. It's got all the advantages of being written by an outsider to the comics industry while none of the disadvantages. I think that anyone who is going to describe the history of the superhero concept needs to read this book before beginning their own work.
Do I agree with everything in it? No, of course not. But that's what happens with reference books. Nobody agrees with everything I wrote in Victoriana either. But Pete's work is definitely worth buying and reading.
I have to note that Fantastic Victoriana is an absolutely terrific book.