Who was the first SuperHero?

I felt a relief walking out of Avengers Endgame last year. An epic saga of Marvel’s Heroes had come to an end after 22 movies. I thought I could finally move on to more wholesome stories, but I found I had been conditioned to keep looking for someone to play that hero’s act. In fact, it took me a while to accept the lack of a central character acting beyond her abilities as falling under the story umbrella. In every story I read, every movie I watched or even moments in Rick and Morty, I wanted the space for that character filled with — either Ironman in Endgame to Mort in.. well, Mort. It wasn’t so much that the characters had superhuman abilities or were perfect because in most cases they didn’t and weren’t. So, what was my constant search for? The thought bothered me, until my sister raised the perfectly-worded question in an ensuing disagreement with her boyfriend — “who was the first Superhero?” This question changed everything. I could finally explore the nuances and stop tonguing the little scratch on the roof of your mouth — to steal a theft-worthy line from Fight Club.

Now, as all modern instincts have been conditioned — I started by just Googling the question. Back came the response — Superman from Action Comics #1. Straightforward, simple, and I could have answered the question and be done with it. But I wasn’t satisfied, and embarked down the path of analysis paralysis by Googling the question — “who was the First Superhero?” in multiple, slightly different ways.

Analysis Paralysis

The operative word (mercifully) to be analyzed was Superhero. Let’s start by taking the word on face value — “Superhero”

Our beloved Wikipedia, that has led us to and out of so many jam recipes, responded: “A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that possess abilities beyond those of ordinary people, who typically uses their powers to help the world become a better place, or is dedicated to protecting the public, and stopping evil.”

I felt some credibility was missing from the source material. After all, anyone could write anything on Wikipedia. So, I looked up Britannica, and it gave me a few new dimensions to look at:

“Superhero, a fictional hero — widely popularized in comic books and comic strips, television and film, and popular culture and video games — whose extraordinary or “superhuman” powers are often displayed in a fight against crime and assorted villains, who in turn often display superhuman abilities.”

Satisfied with the new discoveries, I put it all together to get the following attributes:

1. Superheroes possess abilities beyond the ordinary — So, a really fit man will not make the cut. Goodbye Flash Gordon, Black Widow, Green Arrow, Jimmi Dale, Dick Tracy. Here however, I will keep Batman’s first appearance (Detective Comics #27, 1939) in the running because of an inherent bias, and Ironman is almost transhuman, so he can be considered on a technicality.
2. Superheroes use their powers to help the world become a better place — Alright, sounds fair. If loosely interpreted, then most good people in even non — superhero comics fall into this. Allow me some rope to use the word “world” as some characters are inter-galactic as displayed on screen in the not-so-distant past.
3. Superheroes are widely popularized in comic books, comic strips, television, film, popular culture and video games — This made things tricky, since “popular culture” is a bit ambiguous, as are “comic strips”. Pop culture has evolved through the ages so it would be unfair to not include prose, art and theatre in the popular culture box, as those were often created for the masses. Similar is the ambiguity with comic books. For instance, would the scrolls of frolicking animals in 12th and 13th century Japan (Choju-giga) be considered a comic strip? Or do we have to wait till the 17th century Kobyoshi — which introduced dialogue and running series across editions? These texts defy the current notion of comic art being roughly 100–120 years.

Unsatisfied with the ambiguity from this last point of the holistic definitions, I tried a different approach. I treated “Superhero” as a portmanteau of Super and Hero, and my mind was blown with what I found. I considered the following definitions:

For Super

As an Adjective:

1. very good or pleasant; excellent
2. (of a manufactured product) very good; superfine

As an adverb:

1. especially; particularly

Disclaimer: I discarded the noun form of Super as in Superintendent as 5 minutes of thinking of Hero Superintendents made my head hurt

For Hero

All Nouns:

1. A person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.
2. The chief male character in a book, play, or film, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize
3. (in mythology and folklore) A person of superhuman qualities and often semi-divine origin, in particular one whose exploits were the subject of ancient Greek myths.
4. The best or most important thing in a set or group.
5. Another term for submarine sandwich

The combination of these definitions was most joyful, and led me down a rabbit hole studded with gloss and candy. I looked for everything from “the first very good/ pleasant chief character in a book or play” to the “first special/ particular submarine sandwich”. This gave me up to 15 possibilities for the first Superhero, which was way more satisfying than simply calling out Superman and being done with it.

Combining all my research and getting the ceremonial and procedural discussions out of the way, I will now dive into the Superheroes I have found; along with a short story about them, detailing my intrigue. To kick it off, I present to you, the first legitimate Superhero……

Gilgamesh

Photo Credit: Harvard Wiki

Gilgamesh (Gilly) was a Sumerian King ruling from Uruk, which today lies somewhere in Iraq. Actual accounts of his rein aren’t well known, though he is said to have ruled circa 2800–2500 BC. He was said to be the son of King Lungbund and the Goddess Ninsun (which would make him a Hero just by birth-right according to at least one definition, but we’ll get to those in a bit). Our boy Gilly would go on to live in a number of stories and poems and was even revered as a God for centuries after his death. That said, my guess is, that his immortalised status required epiphany-driven behaviour change.

Old boy Gilly seems to have gone through what storytellers call “the character arc”. There are many versions through the ages, but I allude to his stories from Akkadian scribed by Sîn-lēqi-unninni (I won’t even attempt to pronounce that) written around 1300 BC. We know those stories today as “The Epic Of Gilgamesh”.

At the start, Gilly’s method of rule was of a mostly cruel and rapey persuasion — a regular “evil king” character. Ol’ Gilly was claimed to have had superhuman strength (remember, Goddess mom?), and a 1000 years of people hyperbolising his life. But all this changed when he met Enkidu.

Enkidu was a nice enough chap who appeared out of the forest when he heard the cries of the people against Gilly. Obviously Gilly, with his massive ego, challenged this new man to a fight. Now, Enkidu was no slouch — he had his own crossfit routine with the whole jungle as his gym, so he accepted the fight. Stories are divided as to the actual outcome, but it is accepted that Enkidu proved a match for Gilly. So, just as good punch ups often go, the fight ended with mutual respect and the two became drinking buddies (and this is how I also discovered the answer to the unrelated question- “which was the first storied bromance?”). From this point on, Enkidu and Gilly were inseparable, and went on tons of adventures together. They beat up a monster and got rid of woodland critters from a tree, but that all changed when they rejected the advances of Goddess Ishtar, who hath fury not hath by Hell. But then this is where the Jai and Viru story took a sad turn.

On return from the successful decapitation of the monster Humbaba (scarier than he sounds), Goddess Ishtar asked Gilly to become her consort — or boy toy. Gilly, with his high standards, repudiated her, which did not sit well with our little princess. Ishtar — known as the Queen of Heaven (weird, since her Dad and Mom were both Gods too), was displeased with being rejected by and guilted her daddy (Nanna, the God of the moon) to send a heavenly bull to tear Gilly a new one. Alas, the bull was easily vanquished by Gilly and Enkidu (and went on to serve as the inspiration to Rajamouli when making Bahubali #joke). The overzealous BFF Enkidu, flush with adrenaline, ripped the dead bull’s thigh and threw it at Ishtar screaming, “If I could lay my hands on you, it is this I should do to you, and lash your entrails to your side.” Clearly, he was not educated in the manners of addressing a lady. This angered Ishtar enough for her to curse him to fall ill and slowly die — a curse that did eventually come true.

Gilly, distraught and possessed by a recognition of his mortality, started travelling far and wide, looking for something that could make him immortal. When he heard about Utnapishtim (this chap who once survived the great flood and was given immortality as his medal of honour), Gilly headed in his direction. On his way, Gilly killed a lion, met a scorpion man (legit villain minion), and hung out with Siduri, the Goddess of Beer and Wisdom (my new deity to worship), who helped him get to Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim turned out to be a tough cookie, and even though he gave Gilly a few chances, Gilly fell short, and ultimately failed to attain immortality.

Now, even though Gilly had failed in his quest, his adventure had not been futile. Gilly had used this as a chance to learn an important lesson — that righteous living is more important that immortality. With this new wisdom, he spent his remaining days back in his kingdom, ruling like a fair and just king. According to legend his subjects went on to love him so much, that when he died, they diverted the flow of River Euphretes just so they could bury him in the riverbed (a weird request if there ever was one).

So, why do I call him the first Superhero? He was

The first very good man who is admired for his particular and especial courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.

First very good or pleasant chief male character in a book, play, or film, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize (I mean it was scribed, but they didn’t have books back then)

I don’t know about you, but I now want a full 200 — page graphic novel of this story. And maybe a movie or two to go along with it. But maybe that’s just me.

Now, I know I have not analysed all possible combinations of my analysis, but this post is already almost 2000 words and I want people to actually read what I write! Stay tuned for Part 2 (The Greeks) of the post next week for the rest of the analysis. But for now, the immediate next post will be me diving into my “Design” topics, and demystifying one design tool that would make it easy for anybody to use. Hope you enjoy that too!

Extra note: If you want to hear this story in a British accent, because who doesn’t, here’s Capt Pickard narrating his story to the injured Tamarian captain, Dathon. A small side note, my blogs will sound way more fun if you read them in the voice of Patrick Stewart. Just a suggestion.