Jan 20 2008
Common Superpower Problems
If you’re writing a superhero story, don’t let your superpowers fall into these traps.
1. The hero’s powers can’t be used creatively. Readers really want to be surprised, so it’s very important that the powers be versatile. If your character is only superstrong, you can only surprise them by using different things as weapons. That gets tedious fast. (Watch a Superman or Dragon Ball Z fight scene). Test your superhero against some of these situations. Can he get through them in an unexpected way?
- Distracting a guard. (Cliche: mental control, illusions and possibly telekinesis).
- Nonviolently subduing a guard or cop (cliche: mental control and/or hypnosis).
- Preventing a building from falling (cliche: superstrength, telekinesis).
- Getting past a locked door (cliche: teleportation, phasing, lockpicks, blowing open the wall).
- Finding a password (cliche: anything electronic or electrical, beating it out of a bad guy).
2. The character’s limits are hard to grasp. In Heroes, a head wound will permanently kill the regenerating heroes, but a nuclear explosion won’t. Huh?
3. The character’s strength fluctuates arbitrarily. Most Superman cartoons feature two battles. Superman will lose the first bout (to raise the stakes) but he’ll win the second. He hasn’t gotten any stronger, so why does he wins the second time? That usually feels unsatisfying.
4. The superpowers are hard to understand. Ideally, you can explain each hero’s powers in a brief sentence. “He has spider-powers, like slinging webs and climbing and sensing danger” is OK. “She can control the weather” is even better. Please stay away from heroes that have many unrelated superpowers. What’s the connection between eye-beams, cold breath, flight, superstrength and x-ray vision? It sort of works for Superman because readers are exposed to him, but it is likely to ruin a superhero story that is completely new to its readers.
5. He’s overpowered. Superman is the best example of this. He can only have interesting fights with supervillains. (Theoretically, he could fight thugs armed with kryptonite, but Superman limping around isn’t much of a fight). If your character is completely immune to bullets and other common weapons, it will be hard for you to challenge him. Also, humans are vulnerable and we relate more to (somewhat) vulnerable heroes.
6. The hero’s superpowers ruin the drama. In particular, time travel, reading minds, erasing memories, and resurrection are particularly bad here.
- Time travel: if your hero can undo anything bad that happens, nothing will ever be dramatic. “Why doesn’t he just go back in time?”
- Reading minds: surprise, suspicion and uncertainty are all dramatic. A story about a psychic is all-but-unable to use any of them. (To some extent, lie-detection suffers from a similar problem).
- Erasing memories: this is probably the lamest way to protect a secret identity. It will also confuse readers because we can’t keep track of who actually remembers what.
- Resurrection: if someone can bring people back from the dead, death will become banal and the action will suffer. “He died, big deal. Why don’t they just bring him back?” This is almost as serious as time-travel.
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Cool…
Suppose a character can control space-time, but he tries to avoid doing it too often because if he makes a mistake he could accidentally destroy the universe?
One problem with telekinetic heroes is that they can instantly win fights by telekinetically rearranging their villains’ organs. So why don’t they, readers will ask. The author would try to explain that they have moral objections. When the villain is mere minutes away from conquering (or destroying!) the world, those moral objections feel flimsy.
A character that has vast powers but arbitrarily limits himself will also feel a bit flimsy. Why does he use his powers sometimes and not others? When he decides not to use his powers, it will probably feel arbitrary and dissatisfying. It might be easier to work with a hero that deals with external limits. For example, his powers allow him to go back in time, but he can only go back as far as an hour.
I guess the hero could slip something into their coffee or flood the room with a sleeping gas for 1b.
I like the coffee idea better than sleeping gas. Also, do you remember the scene in one of the X-Men movies where Mystique helps Magneto break out of jail by smuggling extra iron in the guard’s blood? That was kickass.
What if a time-traveling hero kills a younger version of himself, thus making an unending cycle?
I think time-travel is usually an awkward superpower because it leads to confusing situations like that.
I have a question,
Concerning #3: How do you keep your hero’s strength static without making the hero look helpless or pathetic?
If he/she’s the main character and fighting the final boss for the first time, he/she’ll lose that time. How do you keep them from getting on a bus and going to train atop Mt. Everest just to come back and stop the final villain? Do you give them some intellectual advantage, like figuring out the villain’s kryptonite or creating a trap (not possible because villain will not come to the trap this time)? What if time is of the essence, and the fate of an entire species rests on the hero (say the doomsday machine is ticking for 30 seconds)? Does he/she bring friends (I think it leads the hero to seem helpless without company)? Or would it be more dramatic (and for closure, too) if the hero sacrificed them both (hero and villain) to destroy/avert the doomsday machine? But what of other villains to come?? Who will stop them???
This all concerns an Alien Warrior Race on a different planet, by the way.
Any thoughts?
Midway through the story, the hero usually loses his first fight with the villain. But he usually wins in the climax. In the interim, the hero probably practices more, prepares better, plans better, etc. It isn’t necessarily a problem that the hero becomes more powerful. There just has to be some reason that he’s become more powerful. For example, maybe he trains really hard before the final fight.
I think most writers go for superstrength and invulnerability.
Superstrength and invunerability are a bit bland and WAY over used. I think the training is a better route..
What do you think about superspeed and invisibility? Do you think that they enhance each other or are they pointless to give to one hero?
What kind of abilities are good substitutes for superstrength and invulnerability?
I don’t think superspeed and invisibility would blend so well. They seem like they would overlap. Why would you need to be invisible if you could move so fast that people wouldn’t be noticed.
I think enhanced agility (gymnastic skills, kung fu skills, flexibility) would be a good substitute. Speed is also good. Maybe speed and agility would be a good substitution combo. Instead of being able to take blows, your character could dodge and counter them.
Yeah, that’s what I figured, but I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just a creative hiccup. Lol.
I think I’ve addressed this before. To recap, the powers don’t seem to complement each other and it’d be hard to fit them into a theme.
Is it a bad idea to have superhuman strength and invunerability?Personally those are some of my favorite abilties considering one of my favorite comic book characters Superman has them.
Also I heard somone mention Superman’s powers don’t go well together. Also when people speak of Superman which version do you mean Red and blue, Sword of Superman Supe’s? Each version has faults and others are better than others.
(X ray vision, Telescpic vision, Micrsocpis, Infa red, heat vision ect. Super strength.
The problem with Superman is, and always will be, he’s just too powerful. This can’t be stressed enough. Think of any situation and he’ll be able to use his powers in some way to win. That’s why they had to give him so many weaknesses. It’s not just Kryptonite, there’s also magic (which his powers don’t work on), the light of a red sun (which neutralises his powers) and lead (which he can’t see through). And his most powerful enemy is Lex Luthor, who relies on Kryptonite to win. His second most powerful enemy (I think) is Bizarro, and he’s a mirror image of Superman. That’s right, it takes a Superman to beat Superman. Nothing else can challenge him.
If Batman and Superman went to stop the same bank robbery, I assure you it would be much less interesting to watch Superman whoosh in and save the day in the blink of an eye than it would be to watch Batman sneak in, fight the baddies, disarm them, free the hostages and fight for his life as he stops the crime.
Not to be rude but I honestly don’t think Superman is too powerful. Their are beings WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more powerful than him. He can get through most situations but it’s not just pure problem he is very intelligent he is able to battle enemies without powers all the time. He dosen’t always use his abilties to overcome a situation he does use his head a lot too.
Also Superman dosen’t have tons of weaknesses anymore he’s powerful but not unstoppable. Also not all forms of kryptonite are weakness Red k has hundreds of effects some helpful some harmful like making him powerless. If he dosen’t have powers that dosen’t mean he’ll quit being a hero, he will still attempt to save people. Also Kryptonite weakneans him but takes a while to actually kill him. As for Magic his powers work on magic it’s just he can be affected it by it just as easy as another person.
Also he stores solar energy in his body so it would take a long time for the red sun to weaken him now. As for lead he can use his super hearing or just bust it down. As for enemies your way off. His strongest enemy is Doomsday aka the first villian ever to kill him. His second strongest is Zod and Brainiac. Than Myxy is technically the most deadly sense he can do almost anything but he’s playful.
Lex has no superhuman abilties so he’s nowhere near Superman’s level although he’s very intelligent and is rich. He can manipulate others and is a genius. He does not always rely on Kryptonite he uses a robot suit, steals Superman’s powers,Sends him to the Phantom Zone, uses mind control devices,cloning, trapping him in an illusions with technology, Taking his powers via magic, discovering his secerete and manipulating him, and their are tons of other ways he fights him. His intellect makes him Superman’s arch enemy. Bizzaro is an imperfect clone of Superman who has opposite powers ice vision, vacumm breath. heat breath ect and Superman can take care of him quite easily.
Also while it’s true Superman would move at light speed and wipe out the robbers easily,save the hostages, ect. It would be just as easy for Batman. Batman is a very powerful character in the comics, his movies are more down to earth. Stopping a robbery for Batman is just as easy as eating dinner. Batman knows 127 style’s of martial arts and is a master of stealth. Did I mention his godly utility belt which solves all his problems it has nuke’s,flash gernades, devices that can contain the enemy in ice, A robot suit which he used to fight Superman. Did I mention a drug that gives him kryptontion abilties, plus a bullet proof suit.
Batman walks in uses knock out gas walks in and brings the unconscious hostages out and tie’s up the criminals. Slower but still very easy.
Generally, think superstrength and invulnerability don’t work well together. For one, Superstrength kind of overlaps invulnerablity, if your strong enough to lift heavy objects you should be strong enough to take heavy blow. Secondly, this combination makes the character into a tank, and you’ll have to add some ridiculous weakness in order to hurt them.
I’m pretty sure were talking about generic Superman.
Superman isn’t interesting, becuase despite his grab-bag laundry list of abilities, he never uses his powers in interesting ways. He picks something up and throws it, seen it. Delivers super devastating punches, seen it. He flys into somone at full speed, seen it. Must I continue? One of the most interesting abilities he has in my opinion is ice-breathing, but he hardly ever uses that. With a little bit of creativity and common-sense, I think he could have totally beat Doomsday. Unfortunately, he persisted as plain old ridiculously strong Superman and got killed.
What do you think?
Well I don’t think superstrength gives you invunerability. For example Nikki from heroes has super strength but not invunerabiliy. She can still be hurt but she can lift things no ordinary human can. Makes the character into tank. Also not all weaknesses for strong people are ridicolous and some can be easily obtained. Well that’s your opinion many people think Superman is very interesting.
I personally think Superman is interesting and he often uses his powers in interesting way he does after all have superhuman intelligence. For example sometimes he dosen’t have to interact if criminals shoot bullets at somone he can move at super speed and blow the bullet back at the shooter. Or if an energy beam is coming at somone he can use heat vision to knock the beam of course. He can run around and create a tornado. He can move faster than light and go back in time to prevent somone from dieing ect.
He can use objects as shields for example if somone shoots a blast at somone he can throw a vehicle infront of the blast to create a smokescreen or he can use small beams of heatvision to start fires around somone. He can also use heat vision on himself to superheat his body or his hand to melt something. If somone can run faster than him he can use ice breath to freeze their feet and cause them to fall.
No, Superman could not have beaten Doomsday he is the ultimate warrior and was already immune to almost all his abilties except his super strength hence the reason Superman mainly used that. He could have flown them into the sun to fight because he can absorb large amoutns of solar energy and has infinite power but he didn’t have that skill when he first fought Doomsday. Doomsday constantly adapts and is invunerable to most forms of harm.Therefore he had to result to a combination of Strength and speed not to mention martial arts techniques. He is trained in several forms of martial arts about 1000.
You see, when you said how Superman would fight all of those weaknesses, you just proved how overpowered he is. Even his weaknesses can’t hold him in.
And no matter how powerful Batman is, he’s nowhere near as strong as Superman. He doesn’t even have superpowers!
What you said about Lex Luthor is absolutely true, Lex is a great villain, but that doesn’t make Superman any better.
I like Superman, but not that much…
Batman and Spider-Man are waaaay better.
What’s interesting about Batman is that despite all his gadgets, there is still a major chance that he can fail. Sure, he has gadgets, but if he can’t stop the robber from pulling the trigger to some ladie’s head, what’s the point. Superheroes need to be able to fail, and not always by some outrageous standard. If the robber tried to shoot a hostage, Superman would speed in, stop the bullet, and knock out the guy. I don’t know about you, but seems pretty boring. Likewise, if another robber snuck up on Superman (which isn’t possible because of super-hering) and hit him over the head, Superman laugh and punch the guy out. But if were Batman he’d get knocked out. I’m not saying I want the heroes to lose, but the chance of failure or death makes the scene interesting.
Two scenes:
Superman is surrounded by a group of killers with guns. The readers will say “Stupid bad guys, guns dont work on Superman. Wait, if I know he’ll win, why bother reading this” *throws away comic.
Batman is surrounded by a group of killers with guns. The reader will say “Uh-oh, how’s he going to get out of this one.” *reader continues reading*.
But I’m proving he uses his brain he has methods of facing them. He prepares before going into battle. He has a lead suit to protect him from kryptonite, can store solar energy, super mode to wipe out enemies. Also Superman isn’t really that powerful compared to others like Zartanna. Actually Superman’s strongest enemy is Superman prime he’s superman without limits and is immune to all forms of kryptoniet, magic, and pain in general. He’s the defination of overpowered. Compared to him Superman is a regular human.
Dude, seriosuly Batman has beaten Superman in fights. Batman dosen’t need superpowers he fight Darkseid(Superman’s strongest enemy the only one stronger is Superman – prime and he was so godly his transformation was temporary). Not only did he live he managed to fight him with magical items only New gods should have enough willpower to use.
You do realize Batman can carry up to 2 tons thanks to his increadible training. He can wipe out Criminals just as easily as Batman. He faced Joker with Mxy’s powers aka Emperor Joker. He can beat Superman and has done it. He has acess to a large arsenal of weaponry. He can use artificial superpowers though, if he needs too. A regular smart human is Superman’s arch enemy.Many have beaten Superman before.
Tom makes an amazing point. If his own weaknesses can’t stop him, that’s pretty unsatisfying.
Oh, Nevermind.
Yes Ragged boy Batman use to have a high chance of failing but now he dosen’t. He’s a master of 127 styles of martial arts and one of them is Stealth. He wouldn’t get surrounded by men. He also has his friends Robin and co. He has his gadgets he can call. Actually he does have gadgets that will prevent a criminal from pulling a trigger. He has knock out gas which works very quickly and he has objects that will instantly incase the shooters in ice.
Therefore he can beat the average robbers in a few minutes. Batman is strong. Superman can fail just not to regular humans except Lex. Actually I don’t find that boring he likes to mess around sometimes for example moving the criminals around at light speed causing them to shoot/ hit each other or something silly. It’s very intertaining and sometimes funny.
If someone hit Superman they would break their hand instantly. Superman can’t punch people his fist would tear through their skin. He just usually uses super breath or their bullets bounce of him and hit them. Dude if somone hit Batman he would not get knocked out he’s insn’t an average human he’s peak level. First of all he has excellent hearing and can hear their foot-steps. If somone hit him they would hurt their hand and he would turn around and kick them through a window.
I would keep reading though Superman often faces challanges like the Intergang and Morgan Edge average people who challange Superman by things such as kidnapping family members, kryponite, hiring other super powerd criminals ect.
Batman has a bullet proof suit but I won’t argue about that either and he is able to take multiple bullets without showing any sign of pain.
Okay your saying his own weakness can’t stop him. Magic isn’t a weakness he’s just not immune to it. He dosen’t carry a lead suit with him so he can be suprised with kryptonite and their are different types so it’s not just the same thing every time. He often has to fight enemies without powers also did I mention all his enemies are capable of beating him and have done it multiple times.
Metallo, Lex, Bizzaro(Well with additional power from blue sun), Superboy prime. Doomsday, Darkseid. He is able to wipe out Batman’s enemies and others but his own are challangeing to him.
Valid argument, but you’re still missing the point.
Your original question was: “Is it a bad idea to have superhuman strength and invunerability?”
Personally, I think so. I gave my opinion on the matter, I’m only trying to help. But if you don’t want to take my opinion for what it’s worth. So be it, I can respect that you disagree with me.
I’ll just butt out of this one. Seeya.
Oh right back on topic I’ve decided my character will only have super strength, will be able to take heavy hits, but can still be hurt by weaponry like bullets, gernades. I don’t want to have to make up a ridicolous weakness so I’ll limit it to super strength only.
I was disagreeing with you about superman.
All right, if I explain my characters…
Meg/Sparks can manipulate electricity.
Ian/Gabriel can fly and can heal physical injuries.
Connor/Nimbus can manipulate and read aura, as well as being able to cure mental injuries.
Darren/Mindwave is a telekinetic who can also erase memories.
Jazz/Nightshade is an animal shapeshifter.
Pierce/Titan is a metal manipulator with a degree of invulnerability.
Technically, Pierce can become partially invulnerable by coating himself with metal, but he requires adequate materials (lots of metal), time, and a lot on concentration (If he gets distracted the shell will recede). When he does this, he is bulletproof and cannot be injured with any sharp weapons, but becomes increasingly vulnerable to heat and electricity. Therefore, doing this is inadvisable when in a thunderstorm (unless he is next to Meg, whose powers work like a lightning rod).
- Wings
I persnoally think being invunerable and impossible to harm is fine you can still make a good story and challange the hero. Some of my characters being anime/manga can take serious amounts of pain and will eventually become invuenrable unlike novel and movie characters. Your metal guy can cover himself in metal become invunerable but still have issues and he can be cool. If somone fires a bullet he can cover a certain part of his skin in metal to fake his ndeath thanj ump up and rescue somone ect
what superpower can you give a zombie???
Well, zombies eating brains is a common cliché. Perhaps said zombie could acquire most of the skills and memories of those whose brains he consumes; also possibly having the ability to regenerate by consuming flesh, the ability to ignore most pain and wounds due to being technically dead, and possibly superhuman strength due to the fact that the lack of pain would lead to being able to impart greater levels of effort. It’d have to be a supervillain more than a superhero, though, because eating brains is not what I’d call standing up for truth and justice as much as basic cannibalism.
Would it be trashy if a superhero’s human abilities were enhanced to maximum potential?
Where would it be a good place for the superheros to come from? Anywhere except New York– it’s so overused.
“Would it be trashy if a superhero’s human abilities were enhanced to maximum potential?” I’m not sure I understand that question. I think it’s okay if the character is essentially a really, really gifted human. For example, Batman and probably Captain America rely more on superior training than superpowers. I think it works for them.
If you pick a real-world city, I’d recommend using a city in the nation you plan to publish in. For example, if you wanted to publish for UK readers, I imagine they would relate more to London than New York City or Los Angeles or wherever. Aside from that, I don’t think it matters very much.
Cities have a slightly different feel– for example, Salt Lake City, East St. Louis, and Washington have different kinds of people and scenes. If you’re looking for a gritty city to fit a super-seedy story, SLC would make a poor setting. But usually I don’t think it matters a lot. Would a story change all that much if it moved from Pittsburgh to Chicago or from San Diego to Houston? Probably not.
If you’re doing a comic book, I’d recommend sticking with a city with a recognizable skyline and many memorable buildings unless you have a very good reason to select another city. Within the US, I’d say that Chicago, New York, Washington, and maybe Seattle have very memorable skylines.
What sort of mood are you going for?
I found a different way to do the “hero fails the first fight, wins the climax”. Since I’m doing a story about a superhero team and the main plot of my first story is an alien invasion, this is what I came up with:
Halfway through the book, the invasion starts. The team is still new and each member acts like they’re still a solo hero. They fail and the aliens succeed in conquering the world. The team regroups and finally starts working together, becoming more of a team. They defeat the aliens and establish themselves as a premier superhero team.
I also had an idea about the team splitting up and going to different parts of the world to cripple the aliens’ defenses but I’m not sure if I want to do that. It was done at the end of both X-Men: Evolution (Apocalypse storyline) and Justice League: Unlimited (Darkseid storyline). Like I said, I have a different idea of executing it but I’m not sure if it’s been overdone already.
Have you considered forcing them to recruit a militia in the different areas? Assuming you’re going with the more popular option of having relatively unpopular or publicly unknown prior to their success. as you mentioned, depending on the varied characters, it could offer numerous chances for character development or comic relief. For example, if one of your characters is a morally upright character with a restricted concept of morally gray, he could struggle with recruiting civilians to act primarily as cannon fodder for someone much more powerful then them, an inhuman or homosexual character could be sent to a southern region of the United States, a drug addict could be sent to poppy farm in Afganistan, an alcoholic to whiskey-producing region of Ireland so on and so forth.
Each sector could represent a different and unique problem for whatever reason, but you’d need an in-story reason for it so it didn’t seem so coincidental, for instance, the aliens could set up a base on the poppy farm so they could easily create opioid drugs for extending the life-span of human slaves, the whiskey could be for bribing extremely powerful crime bosses or corrupt politicians if the aliens are trying to minimize human resistance.
This would also offer a political commentary angle if you sought to use one, even though they are often held in poor regard, since the aliens would focus on occupying the structures that make the bourgeois what they are, while eradicating or abusing the powerless proletariat. The subsequent destruction of the new bourgeois by the uprising proletariat, but the newly empowered silently acquiescing the power they’ve attained to the same old forces that have always occupied them could be a powerful message if handled right. Of course, just a suggestion and something to think about.
Regarding resurrection, would it be a bad idea to give that power to the super villain? Lately I’ve been trying to flesh out a story that I’d like to eventually write; in it the main villain has the ability to raise the dead to use as minions. I was going to put a limit on it though (no raising a whole graveyard).
I think resurrection is much more acceptable for a main villain than any other character. I could understand how the greatest evil would refuse to let himself die. I think if he come back more than three times then it would start to grate, though. Overall, I say “go for it!”
The problem with mind reading is people always summarize their every thought in clear, concise sentences. When was the last time you caught yourself thinking through your every plan and motive as if you were explaining it to someone else?
I used to have a mind-reading hero. He heard all nonverbal thought as “a mixture of television static and the clanging of pots and pans”.
He was part of a larger group of utterly useless heroes.
Would pyrokinesis and super speed be too unrelated?
I’ve never seen pyrokinesis and superspeed together, but I think it could work. Maybe the two powers are connected in some way, such as doing some fire-manipulation by moving really fast. (Maybe the friction is how he starts his fires). Also, I could imagine some situations in which he uses the two powers simultaneously. (For example, to trap someone in a ring of fire).
Okay, thanks! I was worried when I read about unrelated powers and I realized one of my characters had kind of un related powers.