The 21st-century modern American super-hero is not the equivalent of the twentieth-century modern American super-hero. In fact, the appearance of what is typically classified as the first “super” hero in comic books is 1938, with the publication of Action Comics #1, starring Siegel and Shuster’s Superman. The whole notion of “super” comes from this caped hero’s name. Previously, creators would have referred to characters, like the Phantom, as costumed heroes. However, while we may not see the traditional concept of the super-hero appear until after the first decade of the twentieth century, one can certainly trace backwards to the turn of the century and find evidence of characteristics and ideals that would eventually apply to the super-hero genre. The birth of American modernism and modernization is the key cultural development that will lead to the definition of the super-hero genre. To study this development I will turn to the single highest concept in super-hero comics history: the Wildstorm Comics publication, Planetary.