Jan 05 2008
6 Common Problems with Superstrong Superheroes
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.
I concur strongly. Powers that give you an edge are infinitely more interesting than those that make you a god. Like Captain America, Daredevil, Batman, Green Arrow, etc.
Just out of curiosity: If relying just on superstrength is so boring, then how has the Hulk series lasted for as long as it has?
“How has the Hulk series lasted for as long as it has?” Short answer: I have no idea.
Long answer: The Hulk’s series have lasted, but I don’t think he sells all that well as a solo superhero. For example, he placed #51 and #53 in the bestsellers chart for April 2011* and #46 and #50 in March 2011*. I think superstrength is less boring for a team superhero, because it’s easier to mix up the combat by switching to other characters. For example, the Thing is just one member of the Fantastic Four and Hulk is just one member of the Avengers. (The FF generally sell much better than the Hulk, particularly recently–they had the top-selling comic in March 2011 and hit #5 in April 2011).
Granted, it’s possible that these two months are just an aberration, but that strikes me as somewhat unlikely. I randomly selected 15 months from the past 15 years and the highest he ranked was #24 in August 1997. (A caveat: I don’t think my random selections included the World War Hulk event, which almost assuredly spiked his sales).
*The two most recent months for which statistics are available on Comichron.
I agree with these problems with a hero. I don’t know if anyone pointed it out yet though but a fight between a hero where the VILLAIN is super strong and the hero ISN’T would be pretty fun to write. Then you can have an exciting battle where the hero has to figure out how to defeat an unstoppable juggernaut….Like juggernaut from X-Men.