Rank the Superhero TV serieses

[darkwing_duck1]

Live Action
The Lone Ranger
Superman (50s)
Batman (60s)
Green Hornet (60s)
Man from Atlantis
Knight Rider
Greatest American Hero
MANTIS
Night Man
The Flash
Birds of Prey
Heroes
Smallville
Lois & Clark
Superboy
Zorro (90s)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Six Million Dollar Man
Bionic Woman (70s)
Bionic Woman (00s)
Wonder Woman
Power Rangers (any version)


Animated
Spider-Man (60s)
Thor (60s)
Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends
Superfriends
Superman (80s)
He Man (80s)
She-Ra
He-Man (00s)
Superman: Last Son of Krypton (aka: Superman TAS)
Batman (90s) (Batman TAS)
Justice Leage/JLU
Legion of Superheroes
Static Shock
Batman Beyond
X-Men (90s)
Spider-Man (90s)
X-Men Evolution
Wolverine & the X-Men
Spectacular Spider Man
Spiderman (MTV series)


I know I'm missing some...

 

[RandyS]

The Lone Ranger is not a superhero.

 

[Broccoli]

^ Depends on what you consider a superhero.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

^He has all the trappings of a superhero: Alter Ego, fights crime, distinctive costume, several "signiture elements" (Silver the horse, silver bullets), etc.

 

[Christopher]

Perhaps characters like the Lone Ranger, Zorro, the Scarlet Pimpernel, et al. should fall into the broader category of "costumed heroes."

 

[Checkmate]

Conceptually:

• The Greatest American Hero
• The Misfits of Science
• Heroes
• Smallville

Huh. Why is it the coolest concepts end up with the worst execution?

Favorites to Watch:

• Timmverse's DC (all of them; Batman and Superman at the top, followed by the others)
• Huh...

Well, I guess after looking back, that was a pretty short list. I watch most of the shows in the genre, but I'm pretty picky about the ones I'd say I "loved" let alone liked.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Perhaps characters like the Lone Ranger, Zorro, the Scarlet Pimpernel, et al. should fall into the broader category of "costumed heroes."

On what basis? That they don't possess a "power"? Batman would fall into that catagory as well then wouldn't he?

 

[Broccoli]

Perhaps characters like the Lone Ranger, Zorro, the Scarlet Pimpernel, et al. should fall into the broader category of "costumed heroes."

By that logic, so should Batman.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

1. Batman The Animated Series
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Everything Else

 

[A beaker full of death]

The 50s Superman series towers above the others.


I didn't see the Shazam series listed here.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Ranked from best to worst, deleting ones I have never seen:

Live Action
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Knight Rider (original)
Batman ('60's)

CRAP (but not horrible crap):
M.A.N.T.I.S.

WASTED POTENTIAL:
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

CRAP (any version):
Power Rangers (any version)

Animated
Batman (90s) (Batman: TAS)
Superman: Last Son of Krypton (aka: Superman TAS)
Batman Beyond
X-Men (90s)
Justice Leage/JLU (didn't care for the later incarnation JLU)

(He Man ['80's]
She-Ra
Don't recall enough about these to rank them)

 

[Christopher]

Perhaps characters like the Lone Ranger, Zorro, the Scarlet Pimpernel, et al. should fall into the broader category of "costumed heroes."

By that logic, so should Batman.

Yes, there is certainly precedent for listing Batman as a costumed hero (I didn't make the term up, you know). Strictly speaking, "superhero" is a subset of "costumed hero," although there are occasionally non-costumed characters who are regarded as superheroes, such as Buffy or She-Hulk (who's never really had a consistent costume as far as I know).

However, Batman is usually considered a superhero by virtue of a number of factors. Speaking in literary terms, Batman comics are very much a part of the superhero genre, and the Batman character is treated as an equal with other superheroes (and in fact as the one "normal" person who's able to beat any superhero around). As for in-universe justifications, Batman relies heavily on technology and gadgets to enable him to perform superhuman feats, putting him in the same league as Iron Man, Hank Pym, Green Arrow, the Green Lanterns, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, the Atom, and other such characters who are acknowledged as superheroes. A superhero isn't necessarily a hero with innate superhuman powers; it's a hero, particularly a costumed or otherwise visually distinctive hero, who performs supernormal feats by whatever means.

 

[Broccoli]

A superhero isn't necessarily a hero with innate superhuman powers; it's a hero, particularly a costumed or otherwise visually distinctive hero, who performs supernormal feats by whatever means.

So, just like the Lone Ranger, Zorro, etc.

 

[RandyS]

^He has all the trappings of a superhero: Alter Ego, fights crime, distinctive costume, several "signiture elements" (Silver the horse, silver bullets), etc.

Oh. When I hear the "The Lone Ranger", I automatically think "western".

 

[Christopher]

A superhero isn't necessarily a hero with innate superhuman powers; it's a hero, particularly a costumed or otherwise visually distinctive hero, who performs supernormal feats by whatever means.

So, just like the Lone Ranger, Zorro, etc.

But do they perform supernormal feats? One could argue that the Lone Ranger's ability to reliably shoot guns out of people's hands demonstrates supernormal aim and coordination, but it falls within the range of unrealistic abilities that are generally presented as normal heroic skills in fiction. (Such as, say, the ability to fly through a pane of glass without sustaining life-threatening blood loss, or the ability to fall off a roof and catch yourself several stories down on a window ledge without instantly breaking your fingers.) And really it's only the reliability of it that's unrealistic; shooting a gun out of someone's hand is within the realm of possibility for a normal human with sufficient firearms training and skill. (The other unrealistic part, as the Mythbusters demonstrated recently, is that the shrapnel from the shattered bullet would probably injure or kill the disarmed party; then again, the Lone Ranger's silver bullets would have less mass and kinetic energy than lead bullets and thus their shrapnel might be less damaging. On the other hand, they're harder than lead bullets so they'd absorb less kinetic energy through deformation as they shattered, so the shrapnel might be more dangerous. I'm not sure; I can't seem to find anything online that addresses it, not in a cursory search.)

As for Zorro, I don't thing there's anything supernormal that he's been depicted doing; his abilities are basically those of any skilled swordsman and equestrian. He just does it wearing a mask. And has the acting skill to pull off a dual identity. Nothing supernormal there.

 

[Broccoli]

^ Now, you are just splitting hairs.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Perhaps characters like the Lone Ranger, Zorro, the Scarlet Pimpernel, et al. should fall into the broader category of "costumed heroes."

By that logic, so should Batman.

Yeah those guys are all superheroes (which can include non-supernatural or sci fi characters). And there's no reason the Western genre can't be crossed with the superhero genre, as it is with Lone Ranger, Zorro, Jonah Hex, etc. Hey ya can't argue with wikipedia!

Jonah Hex is an upcoming American superhero Western film based on the DC Comics character of the same name.

Of that whole list, the only superhero show I've ever really liked is Heroes. How depressing is that?

^ Now, you are just splitting hairs.

Aw, he's just doing what he does best. We all need our hobbies.

 

[Christopher]

^ Now, you are just splitting hairs.

No, my aim's not that good. I bet the Lone Ranger could do it, though.

Seriously, I'm trying to do the opposite -- to show that there's a continuum of terms here and a lot of overlap, and that the terms are not rigidly defined and delineated by the thickness of a hair, but are more a matter of usage and tradition. In reality, the dividing line between a costumed hero and a superhero is not that clearly defined, and there are certainly characters who fall into the grey area. I'm simply trying to offer a useful standard for categorization, something a bit more meaningful than "Batman's a superhero because he's considered one by tradition." I think differentiating between supernormal achievements (whether by innate powers or fancifully advanced technology) and more normal feats of derring-do is a useful distinction, but I make no claim that it's an absolute or hair-thin distinction.

And I'm not the one declaring for the first time in human history that Batman is a superhero and the Lone Ranger isn't. That's just how they're conventionally defined in my experience, and I'm simply attempting to offer a rationale for that pre-existing convention.

 

[Greg Cox]

I actually had this argument regarding ZORRO a few years back. I wanted to market a line of new ZORRO novels as science fiction because Zorro was a superhero, but others at Tor argued that he was a Western hero. In the end, we sold them as mainstream fiction--and the series failed.

I'll go to my grave thinking ZORRO would have sold better if he had been shelved in the SF section along with all the other superheroes.

In general, I think any definition of "superhero" that excludes non-powered characters like Batman or the Green Hornet or the Phantom is fundamentally flawed . . . . although the Scarlet Pimpernal and the Lone Ranger are definitely borderline cases.

 

[Gryffindorian]

The Lone Ranger is not a superhero.

Aye. If he's considered a superhero, then so is Al Bundy.