Last fall, I was invited to talk at a science fiction convention in Copenhagen, Denmark, called Fantasticon.  My friend helped to organize the convention, and he knew I had spoken at other conventions in the United States.  When he asked what I wanted to talk about, I decided to go with a topic I had started discussing at an anime convention years before — and a topic I had conducted an online survey on when I arrived in Denmark.

 

I talked about superheroes around the world.

The point of the talk was to discuss what defines a superhero, how people around the world understand what superheroes are, and the extent to which characters from cultures other than the USA could qualify as being superheroes.

It was a great conversation, looking at the survey results and examples I found from around the world.  Indeed, if you do not know about Italian Spider-Man, go to YouTube video and learn more.

Along with the chart above, here is the PowerPoint from my talk, with my survey results and the examples from around the world.  I also outline my definition of a superhero, based on what others have theorized and looking around at what fans have said.