superheron.
/ˈsuːpəˌhɪərəʊ/, /ˈsjuːpəˌhɪərəʊ/, U.S. /ˈsupərˌ(h)ɪroʊ/ A person with extraordinary heroic attributes; (now spec.) a benevolent fictional character with superhuman powers, typically one who features in a comic strip or film. Cf. superman n. 2.
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1899 Daily Mail 29 Sept. 4/4 M. Clémenceau suddenly burst out with, ‘All the world knows that Colonel Picquart is a hero, but..if Colonel Picquart is a hero, Mathieu Dreyfus is a super-hero.’
1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 211 The super-heroes of the war.
1924 N.Y. Times 16 Dec. 28/1 It is all very well to have a super-hero in such narratives, but this man among men should occasionally show signs of being human.
1937 Thrilling Wonder Stories Aug. 120/2 The strip started off very well, but I must agree with others that it is rapidly degenerating into the juvenile antics of a musclebound superhero.
1968 Maclean's Mar. 77 Bang! Zap! Pow! With laser beams and cracking doomsday machines, the deadly-serious super-heroes.
2001 J. Wolcott Catsitters xx. 121 The contents showed Nowhere Man, a superhero who fends off an asteroid shower with rockets from his wrist-launchers.
Compounds
C1. General attributive with sense ‘of, belonging, or relating to a (now esp. fictional) superhero’, as superhero image, superhero myth, superhero power, etc.
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1916 Harper's Weekly 11 Mar. 245/2 A super-hero bill... This was a bill to give more than their regular pensions to soldiers who had been more heroic than their duty called for.
1948 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 61 364 The construction, persistence, and variability of the Tall Tale, Origin Myths, Super-Hero Stories.
1968 Press-Courier (Oxnard, Calif.) 18 Feb. (TV Week section) 4/1 The very fact that the detective has such a disability has created for the role a ‘super hero’ image.
1976 N.Y. Amsterdam News 31 Jan. b5/3 The blatant violence in those cartoons and super hero flicks will blow your mind.
1982 Del Rio (Texas) News-Herald 15 Jan. 13 c/1 Ralph..is on an airplane when his superhero powers allow him to see a dangerous military plot of the future.
1994 Onset Oct. 23/2 Two of the most successful superhero artists in the history of the medium.
2003 Boys' Life Mar. 7 (advt.) Get your free limited-edition Marvel Super Hero T-Shirt!
2005 Icon Feb. 92/2 The superhero characters, shorn of their roles but not their powers, live domesticated, suburban existences.
C2.
superhero cartoon n.
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1967 San Mateo (Calif.) Times 12 Feb. (TV Week section)12/1 Super Hero Cartoons.
2009 B. J. Wilson & K. L. Drogos in R. L. Nabi & M. B. Oliver Sage Handbk. Media Processes & Effects xxxi. 473/2 A child who watches an hour of superhero cartoons will witness an average of 28 violent incidents.
superhero comic n.
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1955 Encounter Aug. 17/1 A cursory examination would show that the super-hero comic (Superman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, etc.) is the final form.
2005 G. Westfahl Greenwood Encycl. Sci. Fiction & Fantasy II. 768 Although superhero comics have been produced internationally, superheroes are largely an American phenomenon.
superhero comic book n.
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1940 San Antonio (Texas) Light 25 Apr. 1 b/1 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has shown up in one of those Superhero comic books.
2011 J. J. Darowski in J. Dryden & M. D. White Green Lantern & Philos. 98 Watchmen introduced a brutality, some would say reality, to superhero comic books that was not common before its publication.
superhero comic strip n.
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1966 Statesville (N. Carolina) Record & Landmark 21 Apr. 11/6 ‘The Chemical Man’..combines legitimate chemistry demonstrations with a parody on the popular super-hero comic strips of the 30s.
2000 E. G. Lehman Summer's House 60 A part of me hoped my father was tailing us..and that with the timing of a Superhero comic strip his Buick might materialize beside us at any time and we'd be pulled aboard and freed.
superhero costume n.
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1966 Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune 19 Oct. 8/6 (advt.) Boys' super-hero costume in official Batman colours.
2010 M. K. Booker Encycl. Comic Bks. & Graphic Novels I. 607 The superhero costume iconically represents the superhero identity—Batman wears a bat costume, Spider-Man a spider costume and Captain America an American flag costume.
superhero film n.
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1978 Daily Intelligencer (Doylestown, Pa.) 3 July 58/2 ‘Flash Gordon’ super hero film.
2011 R. J. Gray & B. Kaklamanidou in 21st Cent. Superhero Introd. 2 This unprecedented commercial success..confirms the global popularity of superhero films.
superhero genre n.
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1974 S. Lee Origins of Marvel Comics i. 18 The touches of satire that Marvel introduced into the superhero genre grew more and more apparent.
2006 Sociol. Forum 21 401 Today, American comic books are still dominated by the superhero genre.
superhero movie n.
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1973 N.Y. Amsterdam News 29 Sept. c/1 It appears that the superhero movies so successful during the last two years are on a plunging decline.
2005 L. Partible in B. J. Oropeza Gospel according to Superheroes (2008) 236 Star Wars made it possible for sci-fi, fantasy, and superhero movies to be taken seriously.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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