I remember The Black Tatoo was kinda cool, but I never read the whole series, and it seemed more anime-ish than super hero-ish.

Just curious, maybe someone could answer me...

How come superheros and comic books are so synonymous?

Discounting films, you very rarely see superheros in any other medium, and the majority of comic books/graphic novels are about superheroes (with notable exceptions obviously). I realise that superheros really originated in comics, but that was decades ago, I would have thought that they would have diverged a lot more since then.

Soon I Will Be Invincible. Read it now.

Seven Soliders series, Green Lantern's latest stuff is always really cool. Deathstroke the Terminator, old but awesome. Watchmen, Marvel Zombies. Now these last two aren't really superhero but Y: The Last Man and The Walking Dead.

Diddy_King:

thedeathscythe:
Seven Soliders series, Green Lantern's latest stuff is always really cool. Deathstroke the Terminator, old but awesome. Watchmen, Marvel Zombies. Now these last two aren't really superhero but Y: The Last Man and The Walking Dead.

I'm looking for actual novels, not graphic novels (Though Y: The Last Man was awesome).

Ohhhh, ahaha, okay, I kinda skimmed the title. Hmmm, superhero novels, hmm....

Don't got any man, sorry D:

Wild Cards : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Cards

I might point out that as you hinted, superheroic abilities have made their way into quite a bit more than the spandex genre. Most "superheroes" now don't wear their spandex, but are still pretty "super".

The anime -style "superheroes" (and they are) has killed Fantasy for me, I realize quite a few people like it however. Salvatore comes to mind, if you like that kind of thing.

The most realistic treatment of this I have seen is the Laurel K Hamilton books, which is...
wow, I don't have words for that, other than "Buffy minus cheese" or "what people with extra-ordinary abilities would really do to each other".

Absolutely not for young readers.

One of my favorite books about superheroes was definitely Hero by Perry Moore. I'm going to say it now, the main character is gay. I just want to get this out there before someone gets offended.

Side note, the gay thing not a spoiler as it is on the back of the book and comes in the story early.

Diddy_King:

I have heard of Wild Cards but I can't find a copy at my library or any other library in my area (to order it from). I may have to break down and buy it.

Anything in particular by Hamilton? Looking at her stuff on Amazon and she comes across as one of those cheesy, supernatural romance novelists.

I didn't realize it, but some new Wild Cards have come out since I read the series. Good luck on finding them.

As to Hamilton, I'd avoid the Fairy series altogether; the Anita Blake series, you could skip the first couple of books. Cheesy supernatural romance... Hmmmn. It's not twilight.
It's certainly supernatural - like I said, these books are a good take one what would happen if there were these kinds of superhumans.
There's romance, certainly, but the combat, frankly, is some of the most unsettling, most REALISTIC fighting I have ever read in any series, fiction or otherwise. Maybe the word hideously brutal? But unlike anime, not stupid.
I could take this series and slap the Twilight lady - and Joss Whedon - about the head... On the other hand, you didn't ask for "relatively" realistic.

Oddly, I haven't come up with any new since the original post, my personal preference is for heroes that DON'T have 'super' powers. There's always Salvatore.
My opinion/experience is that kind of fiction always exists but tends to be more identifiable in comics or anime than in books, generally. I'll spare you my take on why.
There's also Harry Potter.

ps: MovieBob did one of his pieces the commonality of this - the elite powered group within the larger mass - sadly I can't remember which it was.

Edit: I forgot, both marvel and DC did "prose" novels for their superhero lines, those shouldn't be hard to find.

the Dept of Science:
Just curious, maybe someone could answer me...

How come superheros and comic books are so synonymous?

Discounting films, you very rarely see superheros in any other medium, and the majority of comic books/graphic novels are about superheroes (with notable exceptions obviously). I realise that superheros really originated in comics, but that was decades ago, I would have thought that they would have diverged a lot more since then.

We were watching a movie that is the Lone Wolf comics as movies ( shogun assassin? i believe ) -
which, much to your point, was shown to me by a friend with no idea what the comic was.
Then we watched "Kung Fu Hussle" , and I realized the Kung FU & Anime style takes up the same "head space" as comics and superheroes ( and Harry Potter ) - substitute CHi for magic or super powers.

I wrote elsewhere that gamers my age ( old ) might well remember when D&D's parent company was first bought out to where it no longer belonged to gamers ( later it was bought back by other gamers, who lost control of the company again, last I knew, it belonged to Hasbro.. sigh )
Point being, in this time period, we watched the game change from mostly a "pulp" feeling - gritty fantasy with a touch of horror - and be re-marketed to a greatly sanitized, "lighter" set of worlds , as the powers that were went after the 'comic book' demographic.
I won't say there wasn't the possibility of becoming "superheroic" in the game before that - there was - but the game's focus increasingly changed towards that, and it was up to the "indies" to be the exceptions.

The short answer is, with exceptions like Harry Potter, we, at least in America, have expected a less "childish" atmosphere / premise form our books (serious) than from our cartoons and comics kung fu and wrestling ( lowbrow ) - I'm not saying it's entirely reasonable, just that it's the overall consensus/expectation
This is why Watchmen or V for Vendetta, comics more "serious" than most "literature"; or Harry Potter, a book "for" younger readers, seem "surprising" to the culture at large with it's expectations.
You often run into this trying to explain to people ( especially Americans ) this cartoon is NOT for children.
Moviebob had a feature that delved into "why" and what this head-space addresses- I won't parrot him with less skill ( if you're interested I'll try to figure out which it was)-
but I think you'll find these two main factors continue to dictate the phenomenon you observed.

Badger Kyre:
snip

Just wanted to quote you to say you've got one badass avatar of Rorschach...