100 Greatest Superhero Stories Ever
By Steve Lam
Image Courtesy of A.C. McClurg
#97. Tarzan of the Apes
Medium
Novel
Release Date
1912
Credits
Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Illustrator: Fred J. Arting
The Reason It’s Great
There’s a reason why anyone who swings on a rope will do Tarzan’s ululating yell. Though the exact yell wouldn’t be heard until actor Johnny Weismuller performed it in the film Tarzan and the Ape Man (1932), it was writer and Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs who first described it in his novels as “the victory cry of the bull ape.”
Tarzan is another one of those characters who people don’t assume to be a superhero. He has no gadgets—in fact, far from it—and definitely doesn’t wear a costume, although you can say that his loin cloth is his version of one.
Tarzan has a story almost like Superman’s. Again, maybe we should be saying that “Superman’s origin is a lot like Tarzan’s” since Tarzan’s creation predates the Man of Steel’s. You have an infant whose parents both die tragically, is adopted into a foreign world by its native inhabitants, and grows up protecting his adoptive home. He also possesses almost superhuman-like strength and agility. Above all else, he rescues people and helps the oppressed.
The novel would later be adapted to the medium of superheroes—comic books. And from there, Tarzan’s popularity landed him in radio, television, and feature films.