The First Superhero Movie Ever Was Released Over 100 Years Ago Today

One would be forgiven for thinking that the superhero movie is a new invention. Thanks to the massive success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC’s blockbuster hit with this summer’s Superman, it’s easy to feel like superhero movies are a new thing, but that’s actually not the case. Superhero movies have been around for more than a century, thrilling audiences with tales of heroes helping the innocent, fighting crime, and saving the world, sometimes with superhuman abilities and often with an air of mystery to make things all the more exciting. It’s a genre that has undoubtedly become more popular than ever in the 21st century, but it owes a lot to a surprising film that influenced not only the movies but comic books as well — and that film celebrates its 105th birthday today.

Opening theaters on November 27, 1920, The Mark of Zorro is a unique moment in superhero history. The film isn’t always considered a superhero film — it’s often classified as a “swashbuckler film” characterized by sword fighting and adventurous heroes called swashbucklers — as the character of Zorro largely predates the superhero concept, but the film and hero fits perfectly within the genre and helps to give rise to the concept. A silent film, The Mark of Zorro was directed by Fred Niblo and starred Douglas Fairbanks and Noah Beery. Based on Johnston McCulley’s The Curse of Capistrano, The Mark of Zorro tells the story of Don Diego Vega (Fairbanks), a highly skilled swordsman who comes home old Spanish California and finds the citizens being maltreated by the wealthy and the colonial government. Horrified, Don Diego puts on a mask and takes up the guise of Señor Zorro and becomes the champion of the people, scarring evildoers with his mark, a “Z”.

Read Next

Rush Hour 4 Finally Gets the Official Update Fans Have Been Waiting On For Nearly 20 Years

The Mark of Zorro Helped Popularize the Idea of the Superhero… and is Key to Batman

By taking up a crusade in which he defends the common man against the corrupt powers that be — and by taking on a secret identity in order to do so — Zorro helped to popularize the idea of the superhero. Part of the story of The Mark of Zorro even includes Don Diego trying to balance his real “civilian” life with his efforts as Zorro, playing things up for humor when the woman he is interested in, Lolita Pulido, is not interested in the more awkward Don Diego, but is very interested in the more dashing Zorro.

Zorro as a character — popularized by the film appearance — also broadly had major impact on actual comic book characters. While Batman himself is not directly inspired by Zorro, the character’s early adventures are, with creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger drawing on characters like Zorro and the Shadow to establish various aspects of the vigilante. The influence Zorro had on Batman was so great that it ended up becoming a part of the character’s canon. A critical part of Batman’s story is that a young Bruce Wayne witnesses the murder of his parents as they are walking home from a movie. While in the initial telling of that now-iconic origin story the exact movie is not named, it is later established in The Dark Knight Returns #1 by Frank Miller that the Waynes were seeing The Mark of Zorro, specifically the 1940 version of the film starring Tyrone Power. It’s an interesting nod to the character – and movie – so integral to one of comics most iconic and definitive characters.

Zorro Continues to Inspire

Even with Miller specifically using the 1940 version of The Mark of Zorro as an Easter egg of sorts for Batman’s origin story, it’s the 1920 version that is the real inspiration and that in itself actually speaks to the larger importance of the 1920 film. That specific version marked a turning point for swashbuckler genre at the time, moving it away from something that was simply indicative of the time to instead combine the romance of the past with something more contemporary. The result was a more exciting approach to storytelling that created a sort of blueprint that continues to be utilized today. Elements of what The Mask of Zorro did remain present, not only in superhero stories, but in larger action films and superhero films even today.

What is your favorite version of The Mark of Zorro? Let us know your thoughts and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!