Doc Savage

Doc Savage is a 1930's pulp character who was a very important forerunner to the modern superhero. Most fully realized by author Lester Dent, Doc Savage is a 6 ft 6 in giant, raised from birth to have great strength and endurance and near super-human physical abilities. He was also educated in all fields of learning in order to become a renaissance man, as well as a premier martial artist, explorer and adventurer. He is described by Dent as having the mental abilities of Sherlock Holmes and the physical abilities of Tarzan.

Doc does not wear a costume, but he does have a distinctive physical appearance. His skin is bronzed, his hair is close-cropped, and he has hypnotic gold-flecked eyes. Thus he is often described as "The Man of Bronze". Similar to Bruce Wayne, Doc has vast wealth and connections, and like Superman, he has a Fortress of Solitude. (Mort Weisinger pretty much lifted this idea in its entirety for the Superman mythos.) He also has a cohort of gifted teammates, which makes him the leader of one of the first 'super-teams'.

One of the more notable works in the Doc Savage canon, particularly for those interested in the Wold Newton hypothesis, is Philip José Farmer's fictional biography Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.