The Evolution of the Costumed Avenger: The 4,000-Year History of the Superhero

Using a broad array of historical and literary sources, this book presents an unprecedented detailed history of the superhero and its development across the course of human history. How has the concept of the superhero developed over time? How has humanity's idealization of heroes with superhuman powers changed across millennia—and what superhero themes remain constant? Why does the idea of a superhero remain so powerful and relevant in the modern context, when our real-life technological capabilities arguably surpass the imagined superpowers of superheroes of the past? The Evolution of the Costumed Avenger: The 4,000-Year History of the Superhero is the first complete history of superheroes that thoroughly traces the development of superheroes, from their beginning in 2100 B.C.E. with the Epic of Gilgamesh to their fully entrenched status in modern pop culture and the comic book and graphic novel worlds. The book documents how the two modern superhero archetypes—the Costumed Avengers and the superhuman Supermen—can be traced back more than two centuries; turns a critical, evaluative eye upon the post-Superman history of the superhero; and shows how modern superheroes were created and influenced by sources as various as Egyptian poems, biblical heroes, medieval epics, Elizabethan urban legends, Jacobean masques, Gothic novels, dime novels, the Molly Maguires, the Ku Klux Klan, and pulp magazines. This work serves undergraduate or graduate students writing papers, professors or independent scholars, and anyone interested in learning about superheroes.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Operating Premises The Problem of, and with, Definitions Raglan, Rank, and Campbell 21st-Century Attempts at Definition A More Useful Approach Heroenkonzepte Gods and Epic Heroes, and What They Are Not The "Superhero Genre" The Two Categories of Protosuperheroes Who Gets Left Out Chapter 2 From 2100 BCE to 1500 CE Hazy Beginnings The Epic of Gilgamesh The First Protosuperhero—Not Who You Think Egyptian Mythology and Poems Samson and the Wild Men The "Heroes" of Greek Mythology Nectanebo II Aeneas The Noble and Just Latrones Alexander the Legend Beowulf, the Thor-Wolf Roland the Martyr Medieval Heroes The Cid The Matter of Arthur Medieval Outlaws Robin Hood Conclusion Chapter 3 From 1500 to 1829 Orlando Furioso the Best Seller and Its Forerunners Heroic Sorcerers and Heavenly Necromancers Merlin the Secondary Virgil the Necromancer Maugis/Malagigi and His Heirs Michael Scot John Dee Stage Magicians Faustus Gothic Ambiguities Superheroines Avant la Lettre The Early Female Knight 16th- and 17th-Century Warrior Women The Faerie Queene Descendants of Talos Long Meg of Westminster Moll Cutpurse Heroic Highwaymen Masked Conspirators The Hero-Villain The Venetian Batman Martinette de Beauvais The Scottish Superman This Man, This Monster John Melmoth Conclusion Chapter 4 Victorian Costumed Avengers Masked Untermenschen: Threat or Menace The Master Detectives A Truly Dangerous Hero The Superhuman Superhero The Dual-Identity Costumed Vigilante The Hidden Master The Man of Extraordinary Capabilities The First Series Heroes Spring-Heeled Jack The Man of Extraordinary Capabilities Redux Penny Vigilantes Dime Vigilantes Cowboy Vigilantes Lady Detectives Lady Jaguar The Man in the Black Cloak Nick Carter John Amend-All Conclusion Chapter 5 Victorian Supermen Monsters Villains The Gray Champion Artificial Beings Rosicrucians and Theosophists Dime Novel Supermen Psychic Heroes Science Fiction Supermen Conclusion Chapter 6 Costumed Avengers, 1901–1938 The Carter Effect Immigrants and Foreign Influences The Lupins The Scarlet Pimpernel The Klan Films Zorro The Pulps Westerns Nonstandard Sources Killer Vigilantes Air Aces The Fabulous Four Comic Strips Domino Lady Conclusion Chapter 7 Supermen, 1901–1938 Victorian Holdovers Physical Culture and Eugen Sandow Origin Stories Mysteries Yellow Perils Lost Races and Utopias Evolutionary Predecessors Science Fiction's Supermen Occult Detectives Artificial Supermen The Men of 40 Faces John Carter Cinematic Supermen The Night Wind Superwomen Westerns Eugenics and the Backlash Spawn of the Depression Pulp Supermen Outside the Pulps Conclusion Chapter 8 Comics' Early Years The New Medium Prologue to Superman The Last Son of Krypton Eleven Months of Silence and Echoes Four Months of Chill A Fantastic Seven Months The Boom of 1940 1941 Conclusion Chapter 9 Ages upon Ages The Golden Age: 1935–1949 The Atomic Age: 1949–1956 The Silver Age: 1956–1970 The Bronze Age: 1970–1985 The Modern Age: 1986–2001 The Metamodern Age: 2001–2015 Chapter 10 Television and Film Epilogue Appendix Notes Selected Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Jess Nevins is reference librarian at Lone Star College in Tomball, TX.

Review :
A well-researched and utterly captivating book offering the complete history of the superhero and how the concept has evolved over time. . . . [T]here are hundreds of other superheroes that Nevins explores in-depth and with remarkable insight. The thrill of reading a book like The Evolution of the Costumed Avenger is that, aside from being educational and interesting in itself, it inspires readers to seek out more superhero stories. To trace these multitudinous precursors to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman is obviously a job that only super-researcher Jess Nevins could undertake. . . . Jess Nevins has now mapped the DNA that links ancient Enkidu to our own Wolverine. He convincingly shows that the superheroes of today's page and screen got their start long before baby Kal-El was sent rocketing toward Earth as the planet Krypton exploded. A solid contribution to the literature on a phenomenon that today commands so much time, attention, and money. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.