Who was the first superhero?

comics reader and collector, Blogger and a wanna be writer

190w ago

There is a common believe among the comics readers that 'Superman' (First appearence- 1938) is the oldest comics superhero but in my opinion this is not true. Your question is a little complex to answer. Although i understand you want to know about the 1st superhero appearing in the comics but still there are few other Superheroes also who appeared in the Magazines and news paper strips long before appearing in comics format.
Lets talk about few...

John Carter (First appearence- 1911)-

John Carter was the lead character in the first novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, set on a fictionalized version of Mars known as Barsoom. Written between July and September 28, 1911, the novel was serialized as Under the Moons of Mars in the pulp magazine.

John Carter has appeared many times in short-lived comic strips and comic books, as well as in various Big Little Books of the 1930s and 1940s. Except in appearing as comics strips All the major publications like DC, Marvel, Dell, Gold Key,  Dark Horse etc have published comics of this character from time to time. Latest to publish John Carter comics is Dynamite publication in 2010.

Tarzan (First appearance- 1912)-

Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes(magazine publication 1912), and then in twenty-five sequels.

Tarzan of the Apes was adapted in newspaper strip form, in early 1929, with illustrations by Hal Foster. A full page Sunday strip began March 15, 1931 by Rex Maxon. Over the years, many artists have drawn the Tarzan comic strip. 
Tarzan has appeared in many comic books from numerous publishers over  the years. The character's earliest comic book appearances were in comic  strip reprints published in several titles, such as Sparkler, Tip Top Comics and Single Series. Tarzan, published through Dell Comics and later Gold Key Comics from January–February 1948 to February 1972). DC took over the series in 1972, publishing Tarzan#207-258 from April 1972 to February 1977, including work by Joe Kubert. In 1977 the series moved to Marvel Comics, which restarted the numbering rather than assuming that used by the previous publishers. Marvel issued Tarzan#1-29 (as well as three Annuals), from June 1977 to October 1979, mainly by John Buscema.  Following the conclusion of the Marvel series the character had no  regular comic book publisher for a number of years. During this period Blackthorne Comics published Tarzan in 1986, and Malibu Comics published Tarzan comics in 1992. Dark Horse Comics has published various Tarzan series from 1996 to the present. Latest was Dynamite comics which started publishing Tarzan comics under title 'Lord of The Jungle' in 2010.

Zorro (First appearance- 1919)-

Zorro is a character created in 1919 by New York–based pulp writer Johnston McCulley which first appeared in The Curse of Capistrano serialized in 5 parts in Pulp magazine All story weekly. McCully wrote more than 60 stories of Zorro with The Mask of Zorro published posthumously in 1959.

Zorro has appeared in many different comic book series over the decades. One version was rendered by Alex Toth for Dell Comics in Four Color magazine starting in 1949 and appearing through the 1950s. Zorro was given his own title in 1959, which lasted 7 more issues and then was made a regular feature of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories. Gold Key Comics began a Zorro series in 1966, but, like their contemporaneous Lone Ranger series, it featured only material reprinted from the earlier Dell  comics, and folded after 9 issues, in 1968. The character remained  dormant for the next twenty years until it was revived by Marvel Comics in 1990, for a 12-issue tie-in with the Duncan Regehr television series Zorro.
In 1993 Topps Comics published a 2-issue mini-series Dracula Versus Zorro followed by a Zorro series that ran 11 issues. 
Dynamite Entertainment relaunched the character in 2008 with writer Matt Wagner first adapting Isabel Allende's novel before writing his own stories.  The publisher also released an earlier unpublished tale called  "Matanzas" by Don McGregor and artist Mike Mayhew. Zorro also appears in the 2013 Dynamite title Masks alongside Green Hornet, Kato, The Shadow, and The Spider.
The character also appeared in European comics and is universally  beloved in Latin America, usually in licensed, translated reprints of  American comics.

Now if we only consider those superheroes who started their journey from either Comic strip or Comic book then also there are few who are ahead of Superman. Lets talk about few of them.

Buck Rogers (First appearance- 1929)-

Although he not really first appeared in Comic strip. In reallity 1st appearance was in  Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories as Anthony Rogers. Philip Nowlan and the syndicate John F. Dille Company contracted to adapt the story into a comic strip. Nowlan adapted the first episode from Armageddon 2419, A.D. and  changed the hero's name from Anthony Rogers to Buck Rogers. The strip  made its first newspaper appearance on January 7, 1929. So technically Buck Rogers made his first appearance in a comic strip.

Buck appeared in 69 issues of the 1930s comic Famous Funnies, then 2 appearances in Vicks Comics, Then in 1940 Buck got his own comic entitled Buck Rogers which lasted for 6 issues. All of these were published by eastern printing. In 1933, Whitman produced 12 Buck Rogers adventure comics. In 1955, an Australian company called Atlas Productions produced 5 issues of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.Gold Key Comics published a single issue of a Buck Rogers comic in 1964. A second series was based on the 1979 television series and was published from 1979 to 1982, first by Gold Key, then by Whitman Publishing continuing the numbering from the 1964 single issue.
TSR, Inc. published a 10-issue series based on their Buck Rogers XXVC game from 1990 to 1991.
In 2009, Dynamite Entertainment began a monthly comic book version of Buck Rogers. The first issue was released in May 2009. The series ran 13 issues plus an anual.
In 2012, Hermes Press announced a new comic book series with artwork by Howard Chaykin.

Mandrake the Magician (First appearance- 1934)-

Created by legendry Lee Falk it first appeared in June 1934. The mandrake strip continued appearing from then even after the death of Falk and finally ended in July, 2013 (Mid story end) when Fred Fredericks (who was recruited by Falk) retired.

Mandrake had a prominent role in Magic Comicsand Big Little Books of the 1930s and 1940s. Dell Comics published a Mandrake the Magicianissue in their Four Color comic series with various main characters. In 1966-67, King Comics published ten issues of a Mandrake the Magician comic book. Most of the stories were remakes of past newspaper strip stories.
Italian publisher Fratelli Spada produced a considerable amount of original Mandrakecomic book stories in the 1960s and 1970s.
Mandrake also entered in Indian comics world with Indrajal Comics (First Indian comics publication) running it from 1965 till the closing of publication in 1989. Indrajal used to publish the comics in Hindi, English as well as in Bengali language also. From then another publication Diamond comics has been publishing Mandrake in regular intervals. Marvel released a Mandrakemini-series in 1995.
Mandrake has also enjoyed great success in comic books published  in Britain, Australia, Brazil, India, France, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia,  Germany, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Turkey and Sweden etc.

The Phantom (First appearance- 1936)-

My favorite comics character among so many characters. The Phantom is a rather humanly Superhero who doesn't have any super power and relies on his strength, intelligence, and fearsome reputation of being an immortal ghost to defeat his foes. It was also created by Lee Falk and first appeared as comics strip in year 1936. Since then it has been adapted in many media including Video game, Movie, TV etc.

The Phantom is one of those comic strip which are still published today after being introduced in 1936.
   Over the year The Phantom comics has been published by nearly all publications in all over the world. Through the 1940s, strips were reprinted in Ace Comics. In the 1950s, Harvey Comics published the Phantom. In 1962, Gold Key Comics took over, followed by King Comics in 1966 and Charlton Comics in 1969. This lasted until 1977, with a total number of 73 issues being published. DC Comics published a Phantom comic book from 1988 to 1990. In 1987, Marvel Comics published a four-issue miniseries based on the Defenders of the EarthTV series, written by Stan Lee. Another three-issue Marvel miniseries, The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks (Feb.-April 1995) followed. Marvel later released a four-part miniseries (May–August 1995) based on the Phantom 2040TV series.
   Moonstone Books published Phantom graphic novels beginning in 2002. In 2003, Moonstone debuted a Phantom comic-book series. In 2009, Moonstone re-launched the series as The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks, starting with issue 0, a retelling of the origin of the first Phantom. Dynamite Entertainment debuted the monthly comic book series The Last Phantom in August 2010, to strong sales. 
   Now if we move to other contries, then also you'll find that Phantom is loved so much in other contries too. 
   Egmont Publications has published original Phantom stories in a fortnightly Phantom comic book published in Sweden as Fantomen, in Norway as Fantomet, and in Finland as Mustanaamio. The first issue of Fantomen was cover-dated October 1950. Over 1600 issues have been published. The first story created originally for the Swedish Fantomen magazine was published as early as 1963, and today the total number of Fantomen stories is over 900.
   Australia is another country where Phantom enjoys immense popularity among readers. Frew publication has been publishing the series continuesly from 1948 and more than 1100 comics have been published.
    The Phantom also has a long history of publication in India and first appeared in 1940 inThe Illustrated Weekly of India. Later Indrajal comics took over the publication and published in English, Hindi, Bengali etc. and also gave another name 'Vetal'. After the closing of Indrajal in 1990 another publication Diamond Comics took over and published till year 2000 in digest format. In the same year Egmont imagination India continued publishing the comics. Phantom is also regularly published in different regional languages of India namely Tamil (Rani publication), Bengali (Anand publishers) etc.
   Except these The Phantom has been also enjoyed success in different other contries lie Italy, Brazil, England, Mexico, Israel, Spain, Poland, Russia, Denmark, Hungary,  Germany, Turkey, New Zealand, Iceland, South America, France, Thailand,  Singapore, Netherlands, Chile, Greece, Yugoslavia, Fiji and Venezuela etc.

So these are some very prominent and known characters which appeared before Superman. Except these there are few others like The Scarecrow (Magazine- 1915), Conan The Barbarian (Pulp fiction- 1932), The Lone Ranger (Radio- 1933), The Phantom Magician (Comic Strip- 1935), The Green Hornet (Radio- 1936), Dr. Occult (Comic Book- 1935), The Clock (Comic Book- 1936) and Sheena, Queen of Jungle (Comic Book- 1937) which gave there presence befor Superman appeared in the comic universe.
I hope now you can think and decide who is the first Superhero.

Ted Miller

I have studied cinematography and seen a ton of movies.

86w ago

Superhero means a hero with super powers. Not gimmicks or training. The best fencer in the world can dispense justice in a mask all he or she wants, but that won’t make them a superhero. Nor would learning magical arts or talking to apes, traveling to Mars and slumming with the weaklings there or even dressing up like a bat in a cave. Those are all heroes, plain and simple. Normal human beings capable of extraordinary feats, but feats that anyone with enough determination (and maybe also the requirement of living in a world where magic is possible) could theoretically accomplish.

But a man who can walk up the side of a sheer building with just his naked feet to hold him, and who can lift a Camaro over his head just might be a superhero.

The answer is Superman. The same boring answer you will get from fans everywhere.

Subhodeep Ghosh

former Self Employed, I Run Few Businesses, Investor

5d ago

In DC comics universe, it was superman

This character was debuted in Action comics#1 in April, 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. You can read everything about him here Superman

In Marvel Comics universe, Jim Hammond (Human Torch) was the first character that was created in 1939 by Carl Burgos in Marvel Comics #1

Here you can read everything about him Human Torch (Android) (Earth-616)

Daniel Angelo Monaco

studied at Louisiana State University

41w ago

Ah tricky question. Generally Superman is considered the first true Comic book Superhero (Costume, powers, secret identity, moral standards) but technically he’s a distant second. That honor goes to “The Clock”

His book beat both Batman and Superman to the newsstands and contains most of the narrative elements of a Superhero.

But if you flex the definition of Superhero to include pulp magazines, books, serials, and radio dramas than The Shadow, The Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger, The Spider, Tom Swift, Tarzan, John Carter, Zorro, and Doc Savage were all first and they all include elements that inspired every comic book hero that came after them.

John Carter, Doc Savage, The Shadow, and Zorro were especially influential in this regard, with narrative elements that form the basis of all superheroes as know them today.

Going back further, Sherlock Holmes and other Victorian novels/ detective stories also inspired the genre since what else can you call Sherlock Holmes but a proto Batman. Then, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Dracula also contributed to the genre by inspiring truly monsterous beings who influenced the heroes of later narratives.

The mythological folk heroes like Aladdin, Sinbad, Thor, Heracles, Maui, Saint George, Robin Hood, and countless others influenced the fantastic adventures of their descendents.

But if you want what is considered the very, very first superhero: his name was Gilgamesh and he slew a dragon.