superhero

[Mullins, Bill]

Superhero -- OED has 1917


The Atlanta Constitution; Dec 5, 1909; pg. 14 col 7 "Some Omitted Heroes
(From the Baltimore Sun)"
"And so it happens that many of the nations super-heroes do not appear
upon the Carnegie list."

Los Angeles Times; Jul 21, 1912; sec III p. 21, col 3.
"New Books Reviewed" by Williard Huntington Wright
"Peter is, in fact, a sort of super-hero, a trans-leading-man, a Cyclops
of unselfishness, a Dreadnought of duty."

Pennsylvania | Clearfield | The Clearfield Progress | 1915-10-25  p. 4
col 5.
"Warring Airmen Observe Curious "Code of Honor" " by William Philip
Sims, UPI
"Psychologists ask if the warfare in the sky isn't developing the
superhero to whom killing is a sport and death but defeat, like arriving
second in a hundred yard dash. "

The OED SF project has 1942 for an SF sense: "a person with superpowers
who uses them to fight crime".

Wisconsin | Oshkosh | The Oshkosh Northwestern | 1936-03-09 p. 2 col 1.
"OLDTIMERS GLORY FOR DAY IN TALL TALES AND MEAL" (Associated Press)
[referring to Paul Bunyan]
"Laughingly they sat on logs placed around bonfires, did justice to a
mean which Chief Cook Gus Weber claimed was the equal of Paul's great
black duck dinner, and improved on the yarns told about the superhero."

Washington Post; Nov 3, 1939; pg. 24, col 1. [advertisement for Superman
comic strip]
"Every week this paper will carry the extraordinary exploits of the 20th
Century's Super-Hero in colors!"