In Progress

Pulp Hero means the hero had no recorded superpowers, just a strong right hook and a ton of chutzpah.

1900s -
Hugo Hercules. Just some guy with tremendous strength (effortlessly lifting up cars etc.) wandering around town doing good deeds.

1910s -
John Carter of Mars
The Night Wind (powers unknown)
The Gray Seal (a master burglar and safecracker blackmailed into becoming a crime fighter)
Nyctalope (French, cybernetic heart and eyes!)
the Masked Marvel/Nightmask (gadgeteer)
Tarzan (Inspired Ka-Zar)


1920s -
The Red Shadow (pulp hero)
Buck Rogers
Popeye

1930s -
The Shadow
Chandru the Magician (inspiration for Dr. Strange!)
the Green Hornet & Kato
The Man of Bronze/Doc Savage - polymath
Domino Lady - pulp hero
The Moon Man (antihero, very likely inspiration for Mysterio)
Olga Mesmer/The Girl with the X-Ray eyes (half-Venusian, experimented on by mad scientist father. Super human strength and X-Ray vision) cited as a precursor for Superman
Dick Tracy
Flash Gordon
Mandrake the Magician (Father of Zatanna)
The Phantom Magician
The Phantom
the Golden Bat/Fantomas (Japanese: time traveller/summoned from Atlantis? Sword, flight, invulnerability)
Hugo Danner/Gladiator (in vitro mutate) (super strength & invincibility, “Super Soldier” for WWI in French Foreign Legion)
Doctor Occult - a proto-Constantine?
Rose Psychic - wears magic cape sewn by Betsy Ross (oh Golden Age, that’s adorable!)
The Clock - hypnotist, gadgeteer
The Spider - (think Bruce Wayne with a spider and gun obsession - killed by Morlun in the Spider-Verse saga!)

By 1939 the classic DC heroes start showing up and Namor under Timely which will become Marvel.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:22, Sat 24 June 2023.