Is Zorro a Superhero?

So what you are saying is you know one Zorro story?

What's funny is I don't even call him a Superhero, I prefer pulp-Hero or proto-Superhero since the term Superhero wasn't heavily coined yet., until after Superman.
But some of the arguments here come from absolute ignorance of the character.

Then let's look at a different hero. The Phantom.

Fake super power of immortality. He dies, his son takes his place.

Or sticking to comics, Superman's ally Gangbuster, No superpowers. Al Pratt the Golden Age Atom. Jeff Mace, The Patriot. Jim Harper, The Guardian. Greg Sanders retroed to Saunders to make him the Golden Age Hawkgirl's cousin.

Superheroes all.

Not having super powers doesn't disqualify someone from being a super hero.
 
As pointed out, Zorro has fought the Supernatural, and himself used supernatural weapons; a sword forged with magic and alchemy, an amulet linked to his spirit guide, etc, so if you say there is no-supernatural in his world, and use that as your arbitrary criteria for him not being a superhero, You fail!

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Other than the spirit guide thing(I don't find spirit guides to be supernatural), I had no idea of any of this with Zorro; in all incarnations of his I've seen, I never came across any of this.

Great post though.
 
Last time I checked Los Angeles was located in California.

California was Spanish when Diego was born. It became a part of Mexico in 1821. In the Republc serial "Zorro's Fighting Legion" the year is 1824 and Don Diego is a Mexican citizen. In the Banderas movie, Don Diego dies in Mexican California.

In Isabella Allende's Zorro novel, Diego's Spanish Father married a half Spanish half Chumash mother. Mexican by geography after 1821.
 
California was Spanish when Diego was born. It became a part of Mexico in 1821. In the Republc serial "Zorro's Fighting Legion" the year is 1824 and Don Diego is a Mexican citizen. In the Banderas movie, Don Diego dies in Mexican California.

In Isabella Allende's Zorro novel, Diego's Spanish Father married a half Spanish half Chumash mother. Mexican by geography after 1821.

I knew that California was once a part of Mexico. I just didn't know exactly when it had split away from Mexico or when exactly it became a part of the United States. In all Zorro incarnations I had ever seen, Los Angeles and California was a Spanish colony.
 
I knew that California was once a part of Mexico. I just didn't know exactly when it had split away from Mexico or when exactly it became a part of the United States. In all Zorro incarnations I had ever seen, Los Angeles and California was a Spanish colony.

The mostly mythical California Republic (Sonoma County) exists from Ide's Proclamation June 15th, 1846 until it's 100 to 200 man army is absorbed into Brevet Captain John Fremont's Battalion on July 5th, 1846. That's right, not even three weeks. It really was a theft by the US disguised as a popular revolt.

Sept. 9th 1850. California joins the US.
 
Batman (expert martial artist, gymnast, detective, escape artist) = Superhero

Batgirl (expert martial artist, gymnast, detective, escape artist) = Superhero

Robin (expert martial artist, gymnast, detective, escape artist) = Superhero

Nightwing (expert martial artist, gymnast, detective, escape artist) = Superhero

The Question (expert martial artist & detective) = Superhero

Huntress (expert archer, martial artist, gymnast, detective, and escape artist) = Superhero

Green Arrow (expert archer, martial artist, gymnast, detective, and escape artist) = Superhero

Hawkeye (expert archer, martial artist, gymnast, and escape artist) = Superhero

Zorro (expert swordsman, gymnast, pugilist, detective, inventor, escape artist) = Superhero
 
It's only a superhero if it's inspired by Superman...



...The same way tha "Classic" applies only to art pieces that emulate the greco/roman style.
 
It's only a superhero if it's inspired by Superman...

But Superman was inspired by Doc Savage.....and Doc was highly trained and supremely athletic, but still a man. So a highly trained and extremely athletic man who fights crime is a superhero.
 
Yes, the idea is that even if there was an exact formula to determine who fits as superhero and who doesn't people woudn't use it anyways.
So Zorro is a superhero if enough people call him that. But calling him a superhero or not doesn't change the nature of the character.
 
Yes, the idea is that even if there was an exact formula to determine who fits as superhero and who doesn't people woudn't use it anyways.
So Zorro is a superhero if enough people call him that. But calling him a superhero or not doesn't change the nature of the character.

And the nature of the character is a person who puts on a mask and/or costume to fight crime under an alias. Batman, Katana, Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, Green Arrow, Hawkeye, Huntress, The Question, these are ALL classified as superheroes, even though NONE of them have any superpowers. The only difference between Zorro and these characters is he predates them by several decades. But the nature of Zorro's character is IDENTICAL to all of those mentioned above. So he is every bit the superhero they are.
 
He was a superhero before it was a thing. He's a hipster.
 
Technically the Disney Zooro hadthe minor power of Lightning advertising.
 
Zorro is a super hero of another culture... i never grew up with Zorro, but he sure is a super hero, just as Batman is.
 
Technically the Disney Zo[r]ro had the minor power of Lightning advertising.
LOL! "Lightning advertising" ?
The whole lightning-strike silhouette pose, could be another thing Batman "borrowed" from Zorro (by way of Frank Miller).
Batman was never really associated strongly with lightning.
Until; Miller being the one who canonically established Zorro as the movie Batman saw. The original DKR cover may have just been been another huge nod/homage?

The Dark Knight Returns:The night he was Born ....and the night he was Reborn.
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Bruce Timm took it further.

Interesting when Topps relaunched the Zorro franchise, they got Frank Miller for the #1 variants cover.
Not surprisingly his choice for iconic vision of Zorro, he went straight to the the lightning / silhouette.
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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.

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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
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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 -"Zorro’s 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.”
 
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