So, just like Batman then....
Spider-Man does that all the time, in fact.

If I could quote Tom Baker from the 4th Doctor Handbook:

I came to believe that The Doctor should have an air of naive innocence about him to counter his enormous wealth of knowledge and past experience. He had to seem vulnerable and therefore more interesting to an audience I felt would quickly tire of The Doctor as Superman.


Now I think Baker meant The Doctor should never be seen to be invulnerable like most classic superheroes such as Superman.

Another quote from the 3rd Doctor Handbook by Barry Letts:

'The Doctor was a flawed Knight in shining armour, but only in so far as he was 'human', In other words, he was a knight who had left part of his armour at home and had knocked the rest up out of old tin cans.'

That certainly doesn't apply to Batman, so my point stands. He's a hero, not a Superhero.

Not only that, The Doctor IS the The Doctor. He doesn't need any alter-ego or stupid capes, he is who he is.

The Doctor 10 had his moments with Capt. Jack running with their long coats floating behind them! Looked like Batman & Robin (?).
Personally, I think the Doctor is just a 'Hero' full stop.

I think they did that image very much on purpose....and it was funny as well as cool!

I don't think you really get the queastion being posed by the OP.

The question is not, does the doctor act exactly like Batman or Superman, but is the doctor a sort of Brittish re-imagining of the superhero concept.

Also, I think the discussion in the rest of the thread has quite clearly shown that the superhero genre is not defined by wearing a cape and having a secret identity,

And on the baker quote, i think we've made the point repeatedly that the Baker doctor acted much less like a superhero than, for example the Tennant Doctor.

But yes, carry on.

I realise Dr Who's attributes are not what you would call superpowers as they are natural to his biology, but Wonderwoman is definitely classed as a superhero, and she literally only has speed and strength on her side. These are natural to her physiology, as she is an Amazon woman with outstanding sport skills. Her other assets are bullet proof bracelets, a lasso and an invisible aeroplane. In fact the only 'superpower' she has is the ability to spin whilst simultaneously changing clothes.

She only had that last ability in the seventies TV show. The classic Wonder Woman puts her pants on one leg at a time like everybody else.

but wonderwoman is still classed as a superhero, so why couldn't dr who be classed as such?

That was kind of the point, I think. I'm going with yes, he is a superhero.

I don't know much about this subject, never having given it much thought (or any thought, in fact), though I did love Superman as a kid, before I knew the Doctor, actually. And I could never like the Batman, though Spiderman is sweet - at least in the films, sorry, rambling.

Anyway, the question I wanted to ask is, are there any British superheroes? Or is it a completely American concept?

I can't think of any, but, as I said, I know nothing about it.

And if there aren't any, does that mean that one of the prerequisites for superherohood is that the character has to be created by and in America?

There are plenty of British superheroes. The character generally recognised as the first British superhero was The Amazing Mr X, a masked crimefighter who debuted in The Dandy in 1944, but far better known was Marvelman, the British answer to Captain Marvel, published by L Miller & Sons throughout the 1950s and then revived by Alan Moore in 1982 in Warrior magazine. Then there's Marvel UK's Captain Britain, DC Thomson's The Comet and Billy the Cat and IPC/Fleetway's Steel Claw, The Spider and Robot Archie amongst many others. Being American is definitely not a requirement for being a superhero.

He does not wear tights, so I don't think so.

Well, I said I knew nothing about it

Thanks for the reply!

tiptoes quietly away

Do I really have to point out the number of superheroes who don't wear tights? Let's see: Luke Cage, Ghost Rider, Iron Man, Thor, the Sandman, the Question, Rorschach, the Hulk, the Thing-tell me when to stop, OK?-the Silver Surfer, the Shadow, Wonder Woman, the Punisher...ah, sod it-there are hundreds!

I still think Zatana is the only superhero to wear proper tights!

What about Black Canary?

Stockings I thought, but on reflection, yes, tights.

Don't forget Bananaman.

I was trying to.

I'd imagine he could be.

Batman is, and he can't scrape the surface of what the Doctor can do.

Batman's not very "super" though, is he? He's just a rich bloke with a lot of toys and some childhood trauma issues to work through. *unimpressed*

Superman - now there's a superhero. Special powers and abilities, that's what you need. I saw a documentary about Simon and Schuster, his creators, saying that Superman was partly born from their Jewish background. In the 30's they thought that the Jewish community needed to believe that America would stand up for truth and justice and protect them from the threat of the Nazi's and that Superman was intended to embody that.

The Doctor's arguably super...but is he a hero? Do heroes allow others to sacrifice themselves? Controversial, I know

And SuperTed!

Personally, while not wishing to knock the man of steel, I'd say that the lack of super powers is precisely what makes Batman more heroic than Superman. Far from being just a rich bloke with some toys, he is a man who has trained himself to be the ultimate human, physically and mentally, through years of sheer dedication to his cause, and who uses the skills he's obtained to routinely put his life on the line for others. Superman, by contrast, has never had to work that hard and is virtually invulnerable. Who is more of a believable role model?

An aside: in Grant Morrison's Justice League series, there is possibly my favourite ever scene focusing on Batman, and Batman doesn't even appear in it. The League have been defeated by invading aliens, all except Batman, who escaped. In this scene, the alien commander is in his control room receiving reports from his subordinates-reports indicating that the shape changing, heavily armed and super powered aliens are being picked off one by one, by Batman. The commander screams that this can't be happening because 'he's just one man'-and a manacled, bruised and battered Superman, hanging from the wall behind him, laughs and through a malicious smile retorts ' just one man. The most dangerous man on Earth'.That, to me, sums up Batman perfectly. He does the impossible through sheer determination.

As for your last point: yes, the Doctor allows others to sacrifice themselves, but that isn't unheroic, that's just having respect for their personal choices. The Doctor still routinely offers to sacrifice himself for the greater good, and that is much more important when considering his status, I think. Yes, he's a hero Of course he is.

Siegel and Shuster actually...

Them's the dudes, ta