If you're interested in where superhero conventions originated, read The Scarlet Pimpernel. There you'll find the use of disguise and a calling card and the ability to outwit adversaries, among other tropes that led to Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and other heroes.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is set during France's Rein of Terror, when aristocrats went to the guillotine whether or not they were guilty of anything. A secret English society of aristocrats led by the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel carries out daring rescues of their French counterparts, leaving behind an image of the scarlet pimpernel plant. French agent Citizen Chauvelin is determined to discover Pimpernel's identity and blackmails Marguerite Blakeney, a French woman married to an English lord, into helping him. When Marguerite discovers who the Scarlet Pimpernel is, she feels traitorous and rushes to try to save him.
Despite the bloody French Revolution as a backdrop, and author Baroness Orcz's sympathy for the nobility, the novel is an adventure story, not a political tract. The book was the first in a series of 15 featuring the superhero with a secret identity.
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