"Superheroes" as a hybrid genre also presents magical and supernatural explanations for superpowers but Anderson did all that as well. He wrote fantasies featuring Conan, Norse gods and other supernatural beings.
I have said all or most of this before. These current reflections are prompted by concurrently reading David Lagercrant's The Girl In The Spider's Web which ingeniously incorporates Marvel Comics superheroes as fictions within the fiction. Our heroine is not super-powered but has been inspired to develop her human talents to a super-normal level by reading these characters while suffering injustice - a classic superhero "origin story."
Poul Anderson turned his hand to many kinds of work, including original stories about characters created by other authors. Isabel Allende wrote a Zorro novel and I wish that Anderson had written a Superman novel.
10 comments:
How about "The Sensitive Man," trained to temporarily focus his senses -- or boost his strength or reflexes -- to superhuman levels? Anderson even used the term "homo superior," which at least in the *X-Men* comics refers to superhuman mutants; I don't know if he invented the expression or not, but "The Sensitive Man" was published well before the first *X-Men* issue.
Also, can a not-precisely-good man be called a "hero" when battling downright evil opponents? If so, I present a "superhero" by the name of Don Luis Ildefonso Castelar y Moreno, who kicked the collective backside of the GENETICALLY-ENHANCED Exaltationists, killing two and wounded at least two others, including their leader, after they kidnapped him. They were explicitly described as "supermen" ... and they couldn't hold Don Luis prisoner. Doesn't that make HIM even more super?
David,
Yes, all valid. I have mentioned the Sensitive Man somewhere.
Paul.
See addendum just made to post.
Hi, David!
Now, why didn't I think of Don Luis Castelar? He certainly kicked Exaltationist rumps in a most satisfactory way! I would only add that, by his own lights, Don Luis was not really a bad man at all.
And, yes, you also made good points about the UN-Men.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I think you should have mentioned S.M. Stirling's four Draka novels. These featured who, by merciless training, study, and indoctrination (and later, by genetic modifications), strove to become super men. And the Draka philosopher Elvira Naldorrsen worked out socio/political/ideological expositions and rationalizations of Draka beliefs and aspirations.
Sean
Sean,
Yes, that is going back to the original Nietzschean meaning of "superman." So I have more to read of Naldorrsen in late books?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Some, but not as much as I would like in UNDER THE YOKE and THE STONE DOGS.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
You wished Poul Anderson had written a Superman novel. Well, he DID write a Conan the Barbarian book, CONAN THE REBEL.
Sean
Sean,
PA would have been good at realizing the planet Krypton and rationalizing Kent's powers.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Hmmm, I never thought of it like that before, but I agree!
Sean
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