Unless you’ve just arrived from the planet Krypton and have a very high opinion of yourself, you probably won’t need to use the word “hero” on a visit to Spain, Mexico, or another Spanish-speaking country.
But it’s a useful word to learn, nonetheless. After all, we’re living in an age of superheroes, with a new costume-clad hero adorning the big screen every month. Learning about a folk hero/national hero is also a great way to familiarize yourself with a nation’s culture and history.
With that in mind, let’s look at some useful words and sentences relating to this theme.
What is Hero in Spanish?
The word “hero” in Spanish is héroe, pronounced “heh-row-eh”. As for “superhero”, it’s superhéroe, which is pronounced as “soup-er heh-row-eh”.
Other Heroic Words in Spanish
You need more than a hero to tell a story, so let’s look at some other relevant words in Spanish.
Villain
Every hero needs a villain. In Spanish, the word for “the villain” is la villana for feminine and el villano for masculine. The word comes from the Latin “villa”, which we still use to refer to a type of property today. It used to mean a commoner/peasant and eventually became associated with the antagonist of a story.
Protagonist/Main Character
The word “protagonist” is very easy to remember in Spanish as it’s protagonista. The word is Greek in origin and comes from two words meaning “the most important” and “actor”.
Solider and Warrior
The word for “warrior” can be both masculine (el guerrero) and feminine (la guerrera). As for “solider”, it’s not too different from English: el soldado.
Superhero Names in Spanish
Many superhero names and characters are the same in Spanish as they are in English. “Jedi” is still jedi, and Spanish speakers also say Thor. There are some notable differences, though:
- The Avengers = Los Vengadores
- Black Panther = Pantera Negra
- The Wasp = La Avispa
- Poison Ivy = Hiedra venenosa
- Green Goblin = El Duende Verde
- Black Widow = Viuda Negra
- Spider-Man = El Hombre Araña
- Batman = El Hombre Murciélago
- Wolverine = Guepardo
- Wonder Woman = La Mujer Maravilla
- Superman = Superhombre
- Hawkeye = Ojo de Halcón
- Iron Man = El Hombre de Hierro
- Valkyrie = Valquiria
- War Machine = Máquina de Guerra
If you recognize all of these heroes, you may also want to learn the phrase Me encantan las películas de superhéroes, which means “I love superhero movies”.
What is the Most Popular Superhero Movie in Spanish-Speaking Countries?
It’s hard to pinpoint a country’s favorite superhero, but Box Office figures can give us a pretty good idea of which caped-heroes go down well in Spanish speaking-countries.
Over the last 20 years, only 2 superheroes have topped the Box Office in Spain during any given year. Both were Spider-Man, first in 2002 with Tobey Maguire’s first outing and then again in 2021 with Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Spider-Man: No Way Home also went down really well in Mexico and was the biggest film in 2021. However, Mexican audiences seem to love superheroes in general.
During the past 21 years, 9 of the top annual films have been superhero films, including 3 Avengers movies and 3 Spider-Man movies.
This Spider-Man obsession could be one of the reasons we were introduced to a Latin American Spider-Man in the Into the Spider-Verse film.
Spanish Comic Book Sounds
Fight scenes in comic books often use onomatopoeia to describe punches and kicks, such as iconic words like BLAM and POW.
You’d think that these things were universal, but that’s simply not the case. You see this all of the time with animal sounds, such as the guau-guau that Spanish speakers use to mimic the sound of a dog (woof), or the eum-mae used in Korea for the sound of a cow (moo). But you also see lots of interesting variations in comic book sound effects:
- Pow = Pum
- Hahaha = Jajaja
- Splash = Plaf
- Boom = Pataplum
- Knock-Knock = Toc Toc
- Hiss = Siseo
Other Spanish Words That Relate to Superheroes
We’ve told you how to say the names of superheroes and we’ve looked at the onomatopoeia used in comic books. Now it’s time to add to our Spanish vocabulary with some important words that every true hero should know:
- Brave = Brava/Bravo (synonyms include valiente as in “valiant”)
- Mask = La máscara
- Cape = Capa
- Comic Book = Revista de historietas
- Duty = El deber
- Battle = La batalla
- War = La guerra
- Protect the World = Proteger al mundo
- Enemy = Enemigo / Enemiga
- Sidekick = El compañero / La compañera
- Work as a Team = Trabajar en equipo
Etymology Check
When you think of heroes, you probably think of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Spider-Man.
Maybe you think of the local hero who saves a child or a national hero who defends their country. These are two very different definitions and yet they are used interchangeably.
Surprisingly, the concept of a hero being both god-like and human has existed for thousands of years.
Both the Spanish word and English word come from the Old French heroe, which itself can be traced back to Latin and Greek. The Greeks are known to have used the word both in reference to demi-gods and super-human warriors (Hercules, Achilles, etc.,), as well as warriors who fought as free men.
The Greeks know a thing or two about heroes. Not only did they give us the stories that inspired many modern superhero myths, but in the words of Winston Churchill, “Until now we used to say that the Greeks fight like heroes. Now we shall say: Heroes fight like Greeks.”
The word “super” also has an interesting history. Unsurprisingly, super in English and súper in Spanish have the same etymology. They come from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning “over” or “above”, a cognate of the Greek word “hyper”.
The word “super” exists relatively unchanged in dozens of languages. The pronunciation varies, but it’s written exactly the same in English and Spanish as it is in Estonian, Bosnian, German, Hungarian, Italian, Indonesian, Malay, and Sudanese, to name just a few.