Huh. Hugo Hercules. Who knew?

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Otherwise, I'd agree with Conrad. The Scarlet Pimpernel.

John Carter would count (and the original Superman is a rip off of John Carter, for the basis of his early abilities is the same - dude from high gravity world goes to low gravity world), I suppose, but, here you're referring to him as the first MAGAZINE (prose) superhero, while the Pimpernel came from a play. Still prose, though.

Yet, if we're looking for the earliest stories of humans with superpowers we're still looking at Gilgamesh, or Beowulf. I stand by my answer.

Yours,