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SF can be credited with the creation of the 20th century "superhero" genre. Prior to 1900, detectives, cowboys, soldiers, and myths (like Paul Bunyan) dominated adventure stories. The growing popularity of SF in literature and movies led to the first heroes with "superhuman" abilities based on elements taken from science fiction, including alien origins or artifacts, advanced gadgets or tools, and powers obtained from lab experiments (or accidents). Their popularity in turn crowded out most non-superhero characters, and forced others to be altered to suit the new SF geist.
The first superhero costumes drew heavily from illustrator Alex Raymond's costume designs for the Flash Gordon newspaper strip, featuring capes, boots, chest insignias, bright colors and swashbuckling lines.
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