Steampunk Superheroes?

There are sites out there who will tell you all about how to write steampunk. I was in one the other day. It had a checklist. Do you have a mad scientist? Do you have an airship? And so on…
That’s like saying in horror “Do you have a rape?” Do you have a monster?”

The problem is steampunk is mostly aesthetic. Dirigibles and mad scientists do not make a story. One way to get round this is to add another genre in. Mixing other genres to steampunk is not often done but can lead to interesting results.

For instance, consider crossing steampunk with epic fantasy. You have your quest, you have your races, you have the evil that must be vanquished, and you have it in a steampunk world. Okay, so admittedly you probably don’t want the list I just gave you as it is generic epic fantasy, but it can still lead to interesting results.

Comic fantasy has already been proved very successful. Discworld is clearly steampunk.

Dark fantasy, sword and sorcery fantasy, or perhaps even steampunk super-heroes.

It is worth considering