A common ailment in media, it would seem, is an aversion to call any superhero piece by the name "superhero". This comes from various sources, the primary being the fact that DC and Marvel hold a dubious trademark claim on the name (a fact that ires me, but that is not the purpose of this article), but that doesn't explain why people within works often never utter the word, despite it being widespread nomenclature for the genre and a rather second-nature word. It would seem some people are put off by the word itself, so I suggest a new one: wondrahero.
Don't get me wrong, I love the word superhero and would gladly see it used frequently, but it does have baggage behind it that it can't shake like other genre names can. In itself, it's a fairly limited term as a lot of people use it. People describe a superhero as a hero with superhuman powers, which makes sense when you look at Superman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, et al. However, it's problematic when one looks at Batman and tries to classify him in the same group, or to do the same with any one of the other powerless heroes, not to mention wondering where those whose power comes entirely from adornment (like Iron Man or Green Lantern) would fall. It's nice to have a phrase that leans away from emphasizing the "super" while also realizing a category different from the good guys of other genres.
But why "wondra" over a host of other things one could come up with? This is, in part, an attempt to tie to the nature of the genre without winding up with a word already in use for other things. After all, I can believe that other terms attempted didn't work because of their lack of public correlation in the public mind to the genre, they were too limiting or seemed a bit archaic.
Back in the Golden Age of comics, the term "mystery men" was bandied about in the comics, but that term by its very nature seems very dated (despite being the name of an enjoyable movie), likely due to the amount of time since it was commonplace, but such factors don't matter when the fact is that it does sound out of place. Likewise, you can say similar things about the term "costumed crimefighter", which also falls into problematic territory when you think of the superheroes that don't wear costumes (for instance, Savage Dragon or the Hulk or the like).
In more recent years, people have tried to remedy this by coming up with their own terms. Alan Moore coined the term "science heroes", which likely worked enough for him (he's Alan Moore; not much hasn't worked for him when he writes), but it's a restrictive term. Not only does it run into the "superhero" problem of referring to only individuals with powers, but those powers are limited to those that got them through scientific means, meaning Wonder Woman, Thor and more would not qualify. Not to mention, the term automatically conjures an air of science fiction, and I would think the public more likely to envision a "science hero" to be someone in that vein (like a Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers) or, going in a completely different direction, thinking it refers to the real-life figures in science whose discoveries changed the world for the better (Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, etc.). Like I mentioned, I wanted to think of a term that could be tied to the actual genre.
Other people have decided to go simple with their alternate nomenclature and use terms like "super", "differently powered individual", "evolved human", "capes", or the like. These all face the problem of narrowed specification, often referring to people with powers, but sometimes simply to them wearing a costume, which I've mentioned as not being universal things in the genre. "Differently powered individuals" and "evolved human" both sound highly technical, distant and a bit clunky to say, and the word needs a bit more of a dynamic, everyday feel. "Supers", "capes" and the like sound like they went too far the other way, like slang terms one might hear and, while slang is common, it's good to have a term for everyday speech that is given more weight than it. I know some say things like "long underwear heroes", but such terms refer to the costumes while also being more degrading, and I want a term that celebrates the genre.
So, it comes again to why "wondra" specifically. It's not a real word, and that's part of why I used it. I was going to say "wonderhero", but realized "wonder" already has its own weight in its own areas which would probably bog down such a term. But "wondra" seems pretty close to "wonder" and therefore could spark in one the idea of awe and spectacle that the genre does try to convey quite often, while also keeping with another aspect of the word "wonder" by allowing one to think of the ones with secret identities leaving the public to wonder who they are.
Of couse, one of the problems with the word "superhero" is that people find it necessarily positive, by putting the word "hero" in there, and so such a term needs a way to circumvent that. One could simply shorten it to "wondra", or go with "wondramen" (using "men" as meaning "people", not "males") or something else. Then you can also have the more everyday term one in a universe might use to refer to such a character, and keep the name for a genre from only referring to the good guys. After all, it's silly to put Wanted in a category that sayd "hero" when not a single main or supporting character is a hero at all.
I do admit problems in my term. "Wondra" sounds like a character (related to Thundra, perhaps?) and the fact that it isn't a real word can make it hard for people to latch onto it. As well, the public just has a better grasp on the term "superhero" and it's been in use for decades. However, I was hoping to create something that has a possibility of working. Maybe this is a challenge: noting my points above, to see if anyone can come up with a better term.