Here's the archangel Raphael describing Abdiel's challenge to Lucifer:
‘Yet Chains in Hell, not Realms expect: mean while
From mee returnd, as erst thou saidst, from flight,
This greeting on thy impious Crest receive.’
So saying, a noble stroke he lifted high,
Which hung not, but so swift with tempest fell
On the proud Crest of Satan, that no sight,
Nor motion of swift thought, less could his Shield
Such ruin intercept: ten paces huge
He back recoild; the tenth on bended knee
His massie Spear upstaid; as if on Earth
Winds under ground or waters forcing way
Sidelong, had push't a Mountain from his seat
Half sunk with all his Pines.
-- Paradise Lost 6, 183-199.
These are the original superheroes. You could imagine them drawn by Frank Miller. Here they are engraved by Gustave Doré
