A taxonomy of superhero tropes

Miss Gender <@girldrawsghosts> suggests:

ill die on the hill that batman, superman, the hulk, and spider-man are the four definitive superhero archetypes

every other comic book superhero falls somewhere within the the venn diagram of the four

I’ll break down what tropes each codified

batman

rich - gothic - human - technology-based - scientist

superman

“other” being - nearly invulnerable - but one specific weakness - powers are vaguely defined at times, and explanations change - reporter

the hulk

caught in experiment they were responsible for - turns into a monster - is treated as a monster - clearly defined separate personalities

spider-man

young • comic relief • powers come from event he wasn’t responsible for • traversal method defines characterization • the Everyman (not as a disguise or secret identity, but literally in terms of the core of the characters entire personality)

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now yes, things like doc savage and the shadow predate superman and batman, but again, this is about the definitive tentpoles of a character. the ones that solidified them into a rue archetypes.

It’s also SUPER important to stress that these archetypes were established between the 30’s and 60’s, so things have been added or removed since then as time and culture has evolved. I’m talking about when they locked in the fundamentals.

That got me thinking about four poles of superhero Archetypal Stuff in a more structured way:

 

archetypal hero
Batman	Supes	Spidey	Hulk
core
paragon	super-human	everyman	monster
temperament
brooding	angelic	wisecracking	multiple personalities
motivation
trauma	benevolent	adolescence	passion
origin
tragedy	essence	accident	self-inflicted tragedy
powers
gadgetry	flight	eccentric theme	brawn
profession
rich	reporter	student	scientist / engineer
tone
gothic / noir	optimistic	soap operatic	tragic

You can mix-and-match these tropes, sometimes even combining two from the same axis, but the Big Four Tentpole Superheroes reflect particularly strong clusters.