Superhero Traditions

I recently decided it would be rather interesting to try to pin down "major" traditions of "superheroes" from different countries.

Since these are vague terms, I'm free to make totally nonsensical observations if necessary.

Western Superhero
Nation of Origin: United States.
Primary Medium: Comic books.
Costume: Extremely common, but not required.
Secret Identity: Extremely common, but not required.
Superhuman Abilities: Often but not invariably present. The Western Superhero may be born with these powers, but perhaps more commonly gains them due to an accident or a scientific formula. Usually science-derived.
Other Characteristics: I've dubbed this one the "Western Superhero" for lack of a better term. It's not really universally "Western" so much as it is the most common "Western" variety. Primarily found in English-speaking countries and in countries with strong connections to those countries. The Western Superhero is a strong, upstanding citizen who does right for the sake of doing right, or because they are haunted by the need for justice.

Super Antihero
Nation of Origin: United States.
Primary Medium: Comic books.
Costume: Somewhat common, but discouraged. If present, usually "scary."
Secret Identity: Variable-many go to jail, so not likely in those cases.
Superhuman Abilities: Sometimes present, but usually a minor part of the character-skills with weapons, grit, and cleverness are all more important.
Other Characteristics: Interestingly, this type of hero, who is frequently heavily armed, is very popular in Britain and Australia. There, the characters are often satirical, dark, and quite frankly terrifying (Death's Head is perhaps the most famous such character). The Brit/Aussie variant (which is more popular than the "Western Superhero" in those regions) is also much more likely to time travel and dimension hop-no doubt due to the influence of Doctor Who, and to have superhuman powers more central to the character. (These differences actually made me consider making the British Antihero its own category; consider it a major subcategory.) Antiheroes are of course morally ambiguous compared to many other superheroes. Generally found in the same countries as the Western Superheroes, although this isn't strictly followed.

Eastern Superhero
Nation of Origin: Japan.
Primary Medium: Live-action television.
Costume: Nearly required, and put on rapidly, usually impossibly fast.
Secret Identity: Sometimes present, but not seen as a big deal, and often only present if the characters fight secret, undetectable enemies.
Superhuman Abilities: Common, but usually secondary to a costume (which is often treated as the powers themselves) and weapons, which are very common. Often equated with martial arts. Also note that it is far more common for powers to be obtained (as opposed to merely being controlled) entirely using martial arts training. Often essentially magical, even if not explicitly magical.
Other Characteristics: Like the Western Superhero, the Eastern Superhero is an upright, highly moralistic individual. Unlike the Western Superhero, the Eastern Superhero usually carries a weapon, and that weapon is rarely nonlethal. Despite this seemingly horrific fact, since the Eastern Superhero rarely fights "real" people, usually instead slaughtering monsters and robots, it's at least sort of okay. Unless it's not. Note that while Japanese adults enjoy these characters, they rarely make the mistake of claiming they're not for children (despite the level of violence); very few such series are aimed at adults (GARO is the only one I've heard of). Also note that pretty much all Eastern Superheroes with weapons magically summon them out of nowhere. (For more information on Eastern Superheroes, you could easily look at my other blog, which is pretty much entirely about them.)

Luchador
Nation of Origin: Mexico.
Primary Medium: Live wrestling.
Costume: Required. The central part, of course, is the mask.
Secret Identity: They never remove their masks.
Superhuman Abilities: None. Many do, however, use martial arts-inspired techniques.
Other Characteristics: Luchadores (according to my mother, the word means "hero" just as much as it means "crazy masked wrestler who speaks Spanish") have the same place in Mexican and Latin American popular culture that superheroes hold in the United States, if not a more cherished one. The most famous Luchador, El Santo ("the saint"), appeared in over fifty films. (Pretty much all of them were called "El Santo vs. [cheap horror movie villains of your choice]." Several of these were dubbed into English as "Samson vs. ..." which is really rather strange.) Some might question my classifying them as "superheroes." I say, why not? They tell stories, and it's at least partially fictionalized, isn't it? Plus, I remember this live-action show from years ago called "Los Luchadores" which was about a Luchador who fought an evil genius chihuahua on his off-time. Cracky good stuff. (That was during the live-action kids show craze inspired by Power Rangers, who are among the most Americanized Eastern Heroes and probably the most famous in the USA. The show wasn't anything special, except for the fact that it featured a Luchador fighting a chihuahua that was piloting a spiky robot battlesuit on a regular basis.)

And that's a wrap for now. I may at some point do a follow-up if I find a "type" that really stands out as different from these.

-Signing off.