Zorro is a super hero of another culture...
"another culture" That is interesting.
I always saw Zorro as part of American culture. Created by an American (Johnston McCulley) on paper, and then again in film (Fairbanks), all the way to Walt Disney, all very American icons, with a very american take on the place and time; the spanish-american west.
Although some might see it as entirely separate, enough of that culture and setting California to Texas has been absorbed
into what is today "american" culture, that it like Zorro forms a part of it. These guys seem to recognize it.
(although I can see why some would deny it today)
Taking into account the real world Legends surrounding Joaquin Murieta who may have in part inspired the character, again took place in what would become current day US, and now forms part of it's culture.
Further the strong legacy aspect of the character, with his descendants all play out into modern-day America.
Before Batman existed, one of my favorites Zorro incarnations is 1937 Republic Serials: Zorro Rides Again's James (Santiago) Vega, the great grandson of Diego, fighting mobsters and racketeers, on city roof tops, swinging from buildings, chasing automobiles, dodging tommy gun bullets, using revolvers, and racing to his black sedan bellow, driven by his loyal manservant Renaldo. Again all before Batman even existed, just like his pulp contemporaries The Shadow, the Phantom etc.
This was then explored even further in Zorro Gen Z
I see him very much as an
American product and character.
Although I can see why some would draw a line who want see it as "foreign".
... i never grew up with Zorro, but he sure is a super hero, just as Batman is.
There is four significant kids who did grow up with him: Then went on to help define the superhero genre-
Jerry Siegel: "I loved The Mark of Zorro, and I'm sure that had some influence on me." ..."When writing the script, I had Douglass Fairbanks very much in mind in the athletic stunts that he did too, so the influence of Douglass Fairbanks was not only in the art but in the visual action."
Joe Shuster - "I was a great fan of Douglas Fairbanks, and so was Jerry and I tried to use his stance, the way Douglass Fairbanks looked, ...with his hands on his hips, in Robin Hood and Mark of Zorro, in all those he had those marvelous attitude..." " [His costume] was inspired by the costume pictures that Fairbanks did: they greatly influenced us. He did The Mark of Zorro, and Robin Hood, and a marvelous one called The Black Pirate - Fairbanks would swing on ropes very much like Superman flying... the feeling of action as he was flying or jumping or leaping - a flowing cape would give it movement.
Bill Finger - "Batman was a combination of Douglas Fairbanks [who played Zorro] and Sherlock Holmes."
Bob Kane -"Zorros use of a mask to conceal his identity as Don Diego gave me the idea of giving Batman a secret identity
Bruce Wayne would be a man of means who put on a façade of being effete. Zorro rode a black horse called Tornado and would enter a cave and exit from a grandfather clock in the living room. The bat-cave was inspired by this cave in Zorro. I didn't want Batman to be a Superhero with superpowers
So I made Batman an ordinary human being; he is just an athlete who has the physical prowess of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who was my all-time favorite hero in the movies.
