How do Superheros earn their title?

Pictured: 'Z', Real Life Superhero since 2001.

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    So I've been doing a bit of reading on something that I thought was a simple topic: Superheros. 

Batman. Superman. Wolverine. Deadpool. Kickass. I mean, after a quick google search I even found 'real life' superheros along with the wacky personas that they make for themselves. That being said, I'm starting to see the similarities between the heroes we grew up to know and love and the people that abuse their Halloween City memberships.

    The one thing that I saw in all the 'heroes' I stumbled across is that they're all different from each other in vastly different ways. Now I know that sounds like a no-brainer, but think about it: there's no one quality or trait that can identify every single superhero, and this is true even to the point that these 'superheros' exist in real life with no powers whatsoever. Further reading lead me to the 'heroenkonzept' idea, where everything - and I mean everything - about a hero's story is what makes them one, terrible catchphrases included.

   Knowing of the heroenkonzept made the pill of 'real life men-in-tights' easier to swallow, but I found myself looking for the fake superheros soon enough. I found myself watching something new, a show called Preacher where the hero of the story as a pastor of a run down church in Texas, who then is suddenly possessed by the embodiment of something that angels in heaven were storing for safe-keeping. The protagonist in question isn't that good of a person, only getting himself and trouble and others killed, but one thing that I found interesting in the show is that his clientele are absolutely horrible people through and through. Was the Preacher a hero because he was empowered by a godly force, or was he one because he wanted to be good despite being surrounded by bad?

   If anything, looking back on the idea of a hero, I think the one thing that they all share is that it takes regular people like us to call them heroes. If we didn't do that, even figures like Superman would be just aliens or beings from another world instead as a hero, and because we don the title of hero upon figures real or fake, we can look and marvel at the feats they've accomplished.