Extra-Solars And Supers

Last night, I reread the Prologue of Julian May's Galactic Milieu Trilogy, Volume I, Jack The Bodiless. This Prologue is set on a human-colonized extra-solar planet like many in the works of Poul Anderson. The Trilogy also features individuals with superior powers like the title characters, Jack the Bodiless and Diamond Mask. Thus, I thought, May's series occupies a conceptual mid-way point between Anderson's interstellar sf and the superhero tradition. However, Anderson's Psychotechnic History also echoes the latter tradition with "UN-Man," "The Sensitive Man" and human beings able to fly across interstellar distances in a later era. The nature and scope of the powers differ considerably but that fits with the tradition.

Superheroes, a distinct genre, split from sf. Superman is extraterrestrial whereas some of his colleagues are supernatural. Sf still contains superheroic elements, e.g., Larry Niven's Protector and Gil the Arm. It feels as if all fictional worlds are parallel universes. Niven even cameos the Joker in one Known Space story.