Exactly what superpowers did The Spirit have? I've read many of his newspaper strip and comic book stories, and never seen nor heard of any super powers he had. In my book, he wasn't a super hero (which is why I like his stories, when I don't like Superman, and the others). For that matter, please tell me what superpowers Batman had.
There are a number of characters who come under the banner, 'Superheroes' who have no discernible 'Super' power.
There are six attributes some of these characters have that supposedly make them exemplary.
First Skill, Aptitude and training for one. So, Hawkeye,Green Arrow, The Phantom, Mandrake, Black Widow, Catwoman.
Second, heightened sensibility and self-belief. Most Kung Fu Characters don't have 'Super' powers, just heightened sensibility and self-belief.
Third, Genius level intelligence/Scientist.[The Sherlock Holmes factor] So Batman, Doc Savage, Iron Man - who originally was a man with a weak heart who needed a suit of armour to stay alive. And he is still just a man.
Hawkman was originally a guy with artificial wings [still is] who was a museum curator and borrowed medieval weapons like maces to fight his battles. And yes, that's ridiculous if you care to think about it.
Forth, Motivation. Hence the Punisher, who is an ordinary man, albeit with Military training. Also Daredevil and the Phantom.
Fifth, Military, Police or Detective Training.[Original Blue Beetle,the Black Hood,Captain America]
Sixth, the ability to make 'fear' an element that works to increase the perception of them as unbeatable.
So, the Phantom, Batman,The Spirit, The Shadow.
[And Yes, I know, some of these characters have been given 'powers' in subsequent narratives since their origin. Unfortunately]
One or two of them have all these attributes. Doc Savage, I think its fair to say.
And Batman. Superman is actually a 'Super Alien', but Batman, as the DC writers continually write him, is actually the real 'Super' man. So he has taken down the entire Justice League, Superman and even Darkseid on his own. With all of the above attributes but no actual superpowers.
I guess I've read way too few "Spirit" stories. I don't remember him fighting any villains with superhuman powers.
Neither do I - Eisner's work was always about people and their foibles and strengths.
Often the Spirit was barely present in the story at all.
When all is said and done, all cultures and all eras need Myths and 'Super' Heroes, are the mythological culture of the day.
I don't think that heroes that don't have impossible "powers" should be called "superheroes". I don't mind great heroes with the laudable trait of wanting to help their community and Mankind. In real life there have been LOTS of military, martial arts, and self-discipline-trained people who have been very heroic for good causes. They came about their great abilities through hard work and study. There are also mental giants, highly perceptive people, and people born with Aspergers' Syndrome and other "diseases", which have negative aspects, but also provide rare ability to concentrate on one thing to an extreme degree (Rain Man Syndrome) - a talent many comic book collectors have (having a photographic memory, which allows them to store thousands upon thousands of data points, such as everything in all the stories on all pages in all books in all the book series in their collections, and having all the catalogue numbers, titles of stories, names of authors and all artists, etc. I have no problems with that, as it exists in life, and I know hundreds of people with it, including myself, from being a record collector, comic book collector, and a sports card collector. And, as is well known, University of Edinburgh forensic physician, Dr. Joseph Bell, who inspired creation of the fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, had a memory and storage of facts, and overall knowledge of forensics that was not all that much less amazing than Holmes. I enjoy reading about real people's exploits, even fictional, but possible people. What I never liked was ridiculously predictable story endings. We know that Superman WILL win every time, - which is bad enough, but we also know that he did it with an unfair, unnatural advantage. I don't mind science fiction, when beings from one planet have a technological advantage over another. But, there should ALWAYS be at least, a POSSIBLE downside, even to the heavily-favoured side.
From the little of what I've read from that so-called "genre", I can enjoy The Spirit, I can tolerate Batman (but many of the villains are too "silly" for my taste). But, I can't bother with "Superman" or his ilk. I think that any wider group of fighters for their community, "the right way", and/or Humanity in general, should NOT be called "Superheroes". Only those with superhuman powers should be called that. Heroes like Batman, The Phantom, Mandrake The Magician, The Spirit, etc. should be considered "fictional non-super heroes". The group that includes both, would be called "fictional heroes", and that group would also include alien (non-human or non-earthly, sentient beings, who are also heroes.
Incidentally, I don't believe that Hercules, Krishna, Achilles, and Goliath were fictional. I believe their legends were based on handed down, word-of-mouth accounts of real events, that were exaggerated over the centuries. Except that Goliath probably WAS really 9 feet tall (as described in The Bible), and was a REAL giant (as exists among Humanity today), caused by a malfunction in the Human growth hormone, a disease which kills its victims early in life, and makes them a lot less mobile than a normal, athletic soldier, and who could be more likely to die instantly from a 60 or 75 MPH sling-hurled stone hitting his forehead than would a normal soldier. I can easily believe that The Philistine army would use such rare people to scare enemies, especially as battles during the early Iron Age in the Middle East were often decided by having each army's "champion" one-on-one combatant fight the opposing army's champion, to decide which army would occupy the contested area. When the normal champion saw a growth hormone giant he would usually run, rather than surely be killed. So, having a giant in one's army was an advantage. The reason the David and Goliath story resonated so well with young boys was that it was a reasonably realistic situation in which being brave, and standing up to one's fears is an admirable thing to do, and can sometimes even work. And one can look at himself in the mirror and feel proud that he overcame his fear for his own good, and/or to help others, and that he is not a coward, and did not let anyone down.
Superman got his powers handed to him without his working hard many years to acquire them. Most of his adventures didn't involve deadly risk to him. There WERE a few individual stories that did (I'm guessing that many of those involved the villains' use of Kryptonite". My guess is that I would at least tolerate those stories, and might be willing to read at least one.
My favourite comic book story author and artist is Carl Barks, because his main characters, Donald Duck, his uncle, Scrooge McDuck, and his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. were well-rounded characters, who had both good and bad traits, and stories were shown involving all the different emotions and behaviours that humans experience (love, hate, anger, joy, greed, friendliness, aloofness, sadness, stubbornness, openness, wonder, loneliness,...etc.) The great thing about Barks' stories is that the reader never knows until the end of a story whether or not the protagonist will be the hero or goat, will win, lose, or end the same, having learned his lesson, or not. Not all the endings are happy. It is more like real life, where ANYTHING can happen. Like the stories of Wil Eisner (one of my favourite Human character comic author/artists), they are about real people (despite looking like Human/animal hybrids).
