Looking through the history of comics and superheroes, Coogan wrote Superhero: The Secret Origin of the Genre in which he argues that the superhero has to complete the triangled requirements in order to be considered a true superhero: "mission, powers, and identity. In the classical superhero story, the mission has to be a prosocial one, the powers above those of ordinary humans, and the identity a double one including a private civilian self distinct from the public hero avatar" (Hatfield, Heer, and Worcester 3). This triple requirement helps pinpoint the origins of the superhero to Superman himself, as those who came before him did not fulfill this triangle completely. Or did they?
Consider some of the earlier heroes that appeared in comics: The Flame, Yarko the Great Master of Magic, The Clock, Rex Dexter, and The Comet (Supermen!). Each go along with what Richard Reynolds' describes as a cross between science and magic (106) but some fall short of Coogan's triangle of traits. Interestingly, each of these heroes are also absent from the Superhero Database.
Let us go over each: The Flame is called such because he has a gun that shoots fire (handy to fight off zombies) but he is only a man. Yarko has mysticism but his mission is not so much prosocial as it is to help a friend find out why his daughter died ( it is also like the Greek tale of Hercules going down to see Hades and crossing the river Styx mixed with Egyptian mummies). The Clock has a costume and fights for the good of mankind but he has no powers. Rex Dexter is a man from "the future", not so much a superhero (point of interest for this comic was that Rex's father sold the robots being used to take over Earth to the villain).
The Comet is the only one of the three that seems to fit all of the triangle: he does have the costume, he has powers above a human, and he acts to help society. However, he also kills many people and steals from society. Yes, he was hypnotized into doing all those criminal acts. Not only did I find it interesting that The Comet was one few in Supermen! to fit into Coogan's criteria but that The Comet's comic showed how easily a superhero can become a supervillain. The struggle that Batman deals with, that line he tries so hard not to cross between good and bad, is crossed in the 1930's/40's. It would be interesting to read the next few issues of The Comet to find out how the writer(s) dealt with this transition.
The others, however, can only be considered heroes. They delve into detective stories with mysteries to be solved but lack that extra attribute to make them be superheroes.