What is a well structured origin story (or super power) for a comic book super hero? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by ConstipatedWatson@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Lots of superheroes are "children of the atom" in the sense that they derive powers from some sort of radioactivity (think Spiderman or Hulk or even Daredevil) while others are just born with powers without explanation (X-Men, Thor, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman).

Who is a superhero that is somehow grounded in reality, meaning that they could "potentially" make sense (either their origin story is believable, even if it has some obvious gap to make a super power happen, or their power is somehow limited or constructed in a "reasonable" way).

I guess with these restrictions, Batman would be OK since he's got no superpowers, but he's insanely rich and therefore can both train himself and have access to sophisticated gadgets, but can you think of less obvious ones (even if they're minor characters)?

Thanks for reading this!

Edit: thanks for all the answers and apologies for the slow replies. I've had a couple of complicated days. I'll now go through answering you. Several people made me realize I hadn't been precise in what I meant and helped with their answers. I was looking for superheroes or superpowers that are somehow "believable" in that they're either constructed in an unexpected way or in a way that you could almost accept as plausible

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[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 6 points 4 months ago

I'm not super knowledged in X Men lore so feel free to correct me but, isn't Wolverine the result of an experiment that doesn't involve radioactivity? All the others are just mutants but he wasn't born like that. Also there is another neuron in my brain saying Sabertooth is similar to wolverine in that sense but maybe I'm just making this up, I'm not sure.

[-] Klear@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Wolverine is a mutant and was born that way, but the experiments added the whole indestructable skeleton on top of that. The only reason he survived the experiments in the first place was because he's got crazy fast healing as a mutant power.

However, Deadpool might fit the bill, at least in some versions. He was given Wolverine's healing factor in the same Weapon X project. It's actually super powerful and would kill him if it wasn't in a constant deadlock with his cancer which is also constantly killing him. There was a comic where Norman Osborn attempted to assassinate him by shhoting him with a cure for cancer...

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 4 months ago

Cheers!

[-] ConstipatedWatson@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

That's an interesting take, because it is a plausible origin story arising from an "implausible" one! What I mean is that, according to the (admittedly not well defined) "bounds" of my original post, mutants have a less believable origin story since they're just born with powers, but Deadpool becomes a superhero since he already lives in a universe where mutants and healing factors exist and so it makes sense they make experiments on it!

I didn't know Norman Osborn tried to kill Deadpool with a cure for cancer. That's a neat plot device!

[-] ConstipatedWatson@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

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!

this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024

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