Talk:Olga Mesmer

This page should not be speedy deleted because...

This page should not be speedily deleted because... (Olga Mesmer is either the first super heroine or the first super hero of either gender; which makes her extremely historically significant to understanding the history of comic books. It doesn't matter her stories did not last as long as Superman; Will Eisners Wonder Man only appeared in one issue before a lawsuit noted his similarities to Superman. Wonderman has a wikipedia page; I;m pretty sure Olga Mesmer had more than one story. By that logic, if indeed her first appearance was in august of 1937 and not October of 1938 than Superman is actually rip off of her. They both have alien origins, super strength and x-ray vision. CensoredScribe (talk) 16:13, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

• CactusWriter, I saw you added the reader already--thanks. This makes the point of "first superhero ever", but it has October 1938--and the title page does not inspire much confidence for reliability. Drmies (talk) 16:36, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
• CactusWriter, CensoredScribe, LadyofShalott, we should get this ready for DYK, for women's history month: imagine--"DYK that the first superhero, beating Superman to the punch by half a year, was a woman named Olga Mesmer?" Drmies (talk) 16:53, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
  • Drmies, as far as the date goes, August 1937 appears to be right. Here is a sale from a couple of years ago of the original issue on Ebay. Ebay is not RS, of course, but we may be able to locate the original issue somewhere. There is obviously some discussion about whether Mesmer was a true comic book hero rather than a precursor, so those discussion points should be included. I agree with you -- it is a very good topic to include at DYK. — CactusWriter ^(talk) 17:05, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure we should be making the claim "the first superhero" or even "the first superheroine." Without superhero conventions such as a costume and a secret identify, Olga Mesmer is no different from Hugo Danner, Popeye and other precursors. I believe she should have an article, but it won't help the case for it if we're making inflated claims. --Tenebrae (talk) 17:34, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

But then not all superheros have secret identities, there's even some, like the Question who just wears a suit, or Wolverine who quite often goes round in his own clothing (and certainly in his films where there's not a hint of yellow spandex), goes for some other mutants too, and there's characters like Blade or Green Hornet. But there really only needs to be a reliable source that refers to her as that though to cite it in the article, and I see a counter point is also included likewise with an RS, so seems like there's balance. -Reading about her, she certainly seems on the cusp of pulp style heroes and superheros, there's an interesting spectrum between them rather than a clear demarcation line.219.88.68.195 (talk) 21:42, 15 September 2015 (UTC)