(plei just made my day lalalalalala)

As what makes the hero a superhero. Be it being a brick, or shooting energy bolts, or being really fast, or squirting sticky goo out of your wrists, or being bugfuck insane.

But being bugfuck insane (why yes, I am assuming Batman here. Don't I always?) is very specifically posited as not a superpower -- powers aren't just what makes a hero a hero, they're something supernatural or extranatural. The whole premise of the batverse is that it's the mission, not the being-from-some-weird-planet, that makes the hero.

Actually, I think the mission belongs on your list.

I was wondering how to express what I think you're saying with "the mission." Batman's I get (and I was kind of joking about insanity as a superpower, but that's a whole 'nother thesis), and Wonder Woman's is canon. But what's the mission of, say, The Flash? Does every superhero have a mission? Can they have a default setting of "stop bad guys?"

Save the world?

Save the world?

A lot.

I don't think every superhero has a mission. Or not always at the beginning of their run.

Is Constantine a superhero? Timothy Hunter? Morpheus?

Essentially, I think they have to be able to do something I can't. That something may be Earth-abnormal (Supes, Hawkwoman), mystical (Dr. Strange), scientific (Spiderman, Cyborg), or bugfuck insane with large pockets. Or really bright.

If they can't do something above and beyond, then we're in a different genre. But superpowers leave out the Batmen, Robins and Punishers of this world.

If they can't do something above and beyond, then we're in a different genre.

Where does the line fall? Is it just something that you personally can't do, or something none of us can reasonably do? Or just something none of us (taking "us" as some standard that some mythical "most people" would do) would?

If Bats is insane and angry and on a mission, and Spider Jerusalem is insane and angry and on a mission, why do we all more or less agree that the former is a superhero and the latter is just a smart snarky guy who hates the gummint; kinda like a really angry Buffista, maybe, say Victor or MM?

(Yeah, I know I was the one arguing for the mission before. Maybe it is about tights. So sue me. I'm two glasses of wine too late to be consistent.)

I don't know enough about Spider Jerusalem to say if he's a superhero or not.

I don't think you have to be a superhero to carry off a mainstream comic, though.

I don't think you have to be a superhero to carry off a mainstream comic, though.

I wouldn't call John Constantine a super-hero, for instance, but he's the protaganist of a comic (or at least he was, last I knew).

I'm not sure Sandman is a superhero, but he definitely has superpowers.

John's super, though, and does savey things. Heroic even.

What's your definition?

Sandman, NSM with the saving, though.

In a way, Batman's money gives him superpowers. What with the computers and the toys and the vehicles, he's able to be places, do things, and know things far faster than a normal human.

And yeah, I'm looking at superhero comics, not any other kind. Not the Watchmen, or V for Vendetta, or Preacher, or whatever. What do you call those comics anyway? Is that what the term "graphic novel" is for?