• 5 Posts
  • 43 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 22nd, 2023

help-circle










  • I’m trying to answer everyone and you pointed out correctly something I didn’t define well in my original post: I was trying to find either “believable” powers (in the sense of being well constructed) or “believable” origin stories. They didn’t need to come from radioactivity only. The reason I was excluding mutants in my original post was that they have powers since they have a different gene, but that is a very “cheap” way of creating a superhero, since no other explanation is necessary!

    Wolverine (as pointed out in the first answer to your comment) is born a mutant and later on given an indestructible skeleton.

    Make no mistake: the post is not about superheroes being or not being cool because of their origin story or super powers. I really like Wolverine and Sabertooth!


  • That’s a great and involved origin story. Jack takes the mantle though he wants no part in it and becomes a superhero to protect and avenge his family.

    It’s interesting to have superheroes who are born out of revenge, like the Punisher mentioned in another comment. I guess revenge is also part of the Spiderman lore, though it isn’t involved in what makes him Spiderman in the first place (and also isn’t shown acting out of rage, like the Punisher).

    I admit to not knowing Starman enough so I don’t know if he’s shown acting out of rage (like the Punisher) or of justice (like Spiderman)





  • Hawkeye and Black Widow are examples of what I was looking for, thanks! They are normal people with extremely good training.

    Daredevil is one I was kind of ruling out in my original post since he gets his powers from chemicals spilled on him, so it feels a bit like a “deus ex machina” plot device, like being a mutant or an alien or touching something radioactive. EDIT: on second thought, you’re right that it’s known that if you (unfortunately) go blind your other senses somehow help you make up for the loss of sight and so it may be believable that by chance the chemicals he was wetted with could somehow heighten his senses, so actually Daredevil is more in line with what I was looking for than I initially thought!

    Poison Ivy and Mr Freeze are amazing answers! Poison Ivy is “believable” in that she’s grown immune to poison because the mix of herbs she’s taken “could” have an unexpected effect and Mr Freeze too is awesome in that he’s a scientist trying to save his terminally ill wife with cryogenics and somehow the experiment goes wrong.

    Now you’re also making me think about the very first episode of the Batman animated series where a scientist researching bats is turned into one.

    Your answer suggests that a source of “believable” origin stories are experiments gone wrong, if the experiments are somehow well thought and resembling actual science

    Edit: updated my thoughts on Daredevil after reading another answer on para humans in this thread.