Why aren't there more superheroes in Fantasy?

LOTLOF

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There have always been superheroes in fantasy, going all the way back to Greek myth. Hercules, Odysseus, and Perseus all fit the general definition. They just aren't called such, but a rose by any other name...
 

Laer Carroll

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As LOTLOF has said, there have always been superheroes in fantasy. A big question is: How much of comics superheroes do you want to use in your story.

  • In most comics the superheroes wear outlandish, skin-tight, and colorful costumes that practically shout Look at me. Do you want that? And why?
  • In most comics the male superheroes have body-builder physiques, the females have Playboy bunny physiques. Do you want that? And why?
  • In most comics there are supervillains for the superheroes to fight. Do you want that? And why?
  • Do you want your superhero to have a secret identity?
  • Are there other parts of the comics superhero experience you want to include in your fantasy?
 

PeteMC

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As LOTLOF has said, there have always been superheroes in fantasy. A big question is: How much of comics superheroes do you want to use in your story.
I actually loathe superheroes in general, but this is an interesting question that has made me think:
  • In most comics the superheroes wear outlandish, skin-tight, and colorful costumes that practically shout Look at me. Do you want that? And why?
No, because I think it's ridiculous and is the main reason why I loathe superheroes.
  • In most comics the male superheroes have body-builder physiques, the females have Playboy bunny physiques. Do you want that? And why?
This is a comics / cartoons / actions figures convention and is stupid in literature. *Except*, when you think about it, it's actually quite prevelant in literature. It's not as blantant, obvously, but I can think of an awful lot of instances where it's there if you really think about the character descriptions.
  • In most comics there are supervillains for the superheroes to fight. Do you want that? And why?
No, *Except*, when you think about it, there often are. Maybe not in more recent fantasy as much, but what's Sauron if not the ultimate supervillain?
  • Do you want your superhero to have a secret identity?
No, this is also stupid. Except Gandalf had one, sort of, and so does Bayaz. Hmmmm....
  • Are there other parts of the comics superhero experience you want to include in your fantasy?
No, we've already got a lot more than I thought we had!
 

Jacob_Wallace

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Comic heroes have good bodies because they're fit. Have to be fit to fight crime, and fighting crime burns a lot of calories (both in exertion and because a lot of calories go into repairing the body after you got your ass beat).

Also, I did appreciate comic hero stories more when I started thinking of them as beings in a fantasy/sci-fi universe. Especially Batman and his villains (which I prefer the cartoons and comics to the recent movies that try to be too realistic).
 

Roxxsmom

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Comic heroes have good bodies because they're fit. Have to be fit to fight crime, and fighting crime burns a lot of calories (both in exertion and because a lot of calories go into repairing the body after you got your ass beat).

Fit and strong =/= body builder or playboy bunny physique. No one is arguing that a character who leads an active life and relies on physical fitness to do what they do will probably be leaner and more fit than they would be if they led a sedentary life (or have a better bod than the average sedentary person out there), but I know a lot of very fit, athletic people who look nothing like comic book superheroes. Certainly extremely low body fat in women does not usually correlate with also having huge, gravity-defying boobs.

And if the strange body morph is an aspect of the superpowers, realistically, one could also have superpowers while displaying a much less exaggerated physique as well. Heck, skinny 96 pound weakling (or fat) guy who nonetheless can leap tall buildings and all that. Deceptively athletic man to the rescue!

Of course, superhero comics (and derivative media) are a style of art and animation that employs a certain amount of visual wish fulfillment. Guys (until recently, the target comic book superhero reader) liked to imagine themselves as impossibly muscle bound and to imagine women who are unrealistic in their proportions. And people of both genders who are strongly put off by those portrayals usually found something else to read.

Fantasy has wish fulfillment also, and pov characters (or their love interests) are often described as being attractive and fit, and often with the same rationale (they live active lives). But while it's one thing to write about a guy's muscles bulging, or about the gentle swell of a woman's breasts beneath her bodice in fantasy, describing them in ways that make your typical reader imagine something unrealistically "cartoonish" is another matter.

I think they're just different tropes is all. But unless it's meant to be satire, I wouldn't be interested in a fantasy world where characters with magic and other typical fantasy talents presented the way superheroes do in that genre.
 

AshleyEpidemic

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I've been noticing more and more superpowered stories recently. The top two that come to my mind are Red Queen and The Young Elites. I've just been noticing more of this that seem less like magic and more just powered.

Personally, I like those sort of stories. Superheros are my bag though.
 

_Sian_

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Superheros are just magic without the world building aren't they? They're the one and only, different from everyone else. Fantasy tends to have characters with magic who belong to a group of people, or a world. That's the difference in my head.
 

devilsjunkshop

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Steph Swainston's 'Fourlands' series, starting with The Year of Our War, features a bunch of basically superpowered immortals in a fantasy setting iirc.