Jan 05 2008
6 Common Problems with Superstrong Superheroes
Hello, I'm an assistant editor providing writing advice. SN specializes in superhero writing advice, obviously, but most of the advice here applies to fantasy and sci-fi as well.
Beat’em-up superheroes like the Hulk and Superman often suffer from these six problems.
1) Winning a battle with raw strength is rarely interesting. When people rave about the Matrix fight scenes, they mention the insane acrobatics, not Neo’s ability to slam a crater into the ground. X-Men 2’s White House scene was far more gripping than anything the Hulk has ever done. It’s hard to surprise your readers with a character that’s just super-strong. It may help to give your character a minor power or two to help him mix it up.
2) It’s hard to write dramatic fights for superstrong, supertough characters. A fight can only be dramatic if the protagonist faces some plausible threat. But if the hero can survive a bullet to the eye and is only vulnerable to an extremely rare mineral, then that means that only a supervillain can have an interesting fight with him. In contrast, Batman and Spiderman can have interesting fights with bank robbers and other low-powered thugs.
3) Incredible feats of strength are usually cheesier than feats of agility. Readers can accept even the most ridiculous acrobatic stunts. For example, Live Free or Die Hard (which isn’t even a superhero movie) was believable even though its acrobatic stunts made Batman look clumsy. In contrast, it was damn cheesy when the Hulk threw a tank and Superman pushed a planet out of its orbit.
4) It’s very hard to apply superstrength creatively. If a superhero can only solve problems with brute strength, it will get tedious very quickly. It might help to give your superhero a minor power or two so that he can mix things up a bit.
5) Superstrength is generic. That’s both an asset and a liability. Readers can understand generic powers more easily. But you’ll have to work harder to distinguish a superstrong character from other superstrong characters because there are so many of them.
6) Superstrong characters are harder to relate to. Humans are vulnerable; Superman isn’t.
Thank you for posting these. They’re definitely things I need to take into consideration as I write. I have a couple heroes with superstrength (one who’s just plain superstrong, and one who’s stronger-than-average but has other powers as well) – but hey! my heroes are based on Greek heroes, and strength was an important trait in Greek heroes. And while they’re superstrong, they are *not* invulnerable. Tougher than human, yes, but if my hero punches through a brick wall, he runs the risk of hurting his hand, as well.
Hmm my heroes can punch through metal without any harm. I personally love super strong heroes. Strength can do multiple things sonic claps, throwing objects, using super strong finger nails as blades, punching a hole in a boat or ship to cause sinking or a plane, bending doors or hard metal into shield to reflect bullets, making gloves out of cars, wrapping arms around somone breaking their bones, leaping really high in the air, using a heavy metal pole to impale people or tossing people into things such as glass to finish them off. You can smash a van and surf on it ect/
Spiderman and Batman are very powerful dude. Spiderman can lift 15 tons! He goes easy on normal humans to get pictures of himself and so he dosen’t hurt regular people. He can wipe out large groups easily and so can Batman.
Also stomping your foot a few times to start an an earthquake Gohan from dragonball Z did that in the Great Saiyaman Saga did that to have an excuse to leave school.
One of the problems with this article is that it’s quite possible to write a compelling character whose primary power is super-strength and invulnerability. Or have you not seen The Incredibles? Rather than his powers and feats of strength what made Mr. Incredible a compelling character, what made him compelling is him having that strength and not being allowed to use it to help people, which is what drives the plot forward. It’s what causes him to take up Mirage’s offer, start working for Syndrome and thus uncover the Diabolical Plot.
“One of the problems with this article is that it’s quite possible to write a compelling character whose primary power is super-strength and invulnerability.” Hmm… why would that be a problem for this article? This article focuses on how hard it is to write fight scenes with superstrong characters more than whether superstrong characters can be well-developed. (Also, good fights tend to make the characters feel more compelling, anyway… I think that’s the only reason anyone will remember Luke Skywalker or Neo).
Actually, I remember Luke Skywalker for the whole hero’s journey thing, going from a bratty, inexperienced kid to a disciplined warrior monk over the course of three films. The fight scenes were just window dressing. Neo, on the other hand, is lacking in any redeeming features to make him compelling in the first place, at least to me. I’m not really impressed by any of the Matrix’s stunts as I don’t care about the characters to begin with, the solipsist philosophy of the film bores me, and the writing is terrible.
But then, that may just be my opinion. The main problem with this article is that you seem to forget that a primary way of challenging a character and making people able to relate to them is to attack them in their weak points. And I don’t mean kryptonite; I mean that all the super-strength in the world sometimes just won’t work in the situation. How does someone with super-strength fight someone who’s intangible?
It takes an element of creativity to pull off a victory for the person with super-strength.