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.
Did you like this article? If so, please do me a favor and share it on Stumble.
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!”
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.
“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.”
Hey my character is a very powerful psychic, how ever his powers start off basically telepathy and telekinesis like reading surface thoughts and moving objects with his mind.His powers become much broader through practice and study. He could theoretically rearrange someones organs, but do you really think he could do that in an actual fight.I mean normally using his tk to levitate objects could be challenging but using it on a much smaller scale(such as molecular manipulation, and transmutting elements )would take a lot of concentration and focus which is hard to imagine some one doing if they’re in a battle. At one point my character’s tk and telepathy becomes finely tuned and his mastery over his psionics allows him to do incredible things. But reallistically in combat i think you’d be a little limited thus meaning they’d have to be creative and versatile in they’re power use to win the day.This being said take a look at characters like magneto who probablly started out with just magnetic based powers and now can manipulate trace amounts of iron in someones blood flow,only through skill and practice did his powers and they’re uses become more diverse than say levitating a bus or whatever. Although I don’t think it’s something he can just do on a regular basis it takes fine tune control over your powers to achieve something like that something you chouldn’t do if your being attacked by who and what ever.
Well, Nora’s psychic powers have serious limitations. She can only see into the future for 30 seconds once a year. She can read minds unlimited, but the subject would know what she knows, including her location, who she is, what she feels, everything. Not only that but they would know what she is reading their minds. Are these good limitations?
I am having trouble on a project i’m working on and I believe this discussion thread is the proper place to talk it out. So here it goes…
I am currently working on a comic book universe of my own creation and am running into a small, yet highly frustrating, problem. Sparring the details, I am attempting to create a world propulated entirely by characters who are supernatural in nature or that can manipulate magic in some way. The problem I’m having is trying to figure out how to execute magic/the occult in a fresh, yet grounded, way. I know magic is thought of as this superpowerful force that can do almost anything, but I did not want to do that with my magic manipulators. I want them to be grounded in some form of realism. Basically I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to portray magic in a realistic way.
Here’s an example of what I mean, first something framiliar,
-In the real world two men are sitting, watching the game. They are talking about the coming weekend, eagerly awaiting their big trip. They discuss the type of game they each have hunted before, and are soon playfully comparing their marks. This culminates when one of the men, the owner of the house in which the football game is being watched, stands up and points out his prized possession. A mounted lion’s head he acquired a year ago.-
Now, same scene but when they start comparing their marks, they say things trolls, goblins and faries. And the the man stands to show his prized possession, he points out a dragon’s head. I want to get across that these creatures running around and the fact that people can perform real magic is normal to THEM. But aside from that challenge I really don’t know how I want to portray the magic in my story. I have several ideas, but can’t seem to decide. So after all that, can somebody help me out please?
I don’t specify in magical fantasy. No offense but I’m gonna have to give this one up to B.Mac. The only thing I can think of is that there is a special object/ingredient for magic. I like to think a bit more scientifically and I do tend to over analyze (You should’ve seen how many things I said about a guy making a clone of a human to be a gladiator boy. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t have much sense of logic.) things. B.Mac…I wave the white flag.
That’s fine Nicholas, everyone has a specialty. And while trying to develope a world of supernatural superheroes and supervillains, I’m stepping a little outside my confort zone. So I get it, and I appreciate the honesty.
Hello, Comic Book Guy. First, a caveat: I don’t work much with fantasy and there aren’t tons of comic books in the genre. I’m not 100% sure I hit the mark on this one, so please feel free to ask clarifying questions.
If you’re trying to create a relatively realistic comic book with magic, one thing that might help is a relatively sober visual style. I think that’s one reason that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is easily the top-selling comic series with lots of magic and pretty much no one else regularly cracks the top 50. I think most magical comic book protagonists look some combination of gaudy and/or totally ridiculous (such as Dr. Strange, Zatanna, Raven, Jason Blood/Etrigan and maybe Hellboy).
Counterargument: pretty much every comic book protagonist looks gaudy and/or ridiculous (such as pretty much every suit of Spandex ever). However, I think that it affects magical characters more because 1) the magic is just inherently less believable and may make magical characters feel less relatable and 2) the traditional audience for comic books (mostly guys 18-30 years old) is not terribly enthusiastic about fantasy. I think Buffy succeeded by branching off into a more diverse audience, and I think that women are less receptive to the traditionally gaudy comic book visual styles.
…
Another aspect that may help is making the magical characters feel magical. This is one aspect of Teen Titans’ Raven I’m not terribly fond of: I think she’s generally hard to distinguish from a nonmagical telekinetic (besides that she uses weird phrases a lot). Among novels, I thought Bitter Seeds did a much better job making its magic extraordinary. Every spell—and there were only a few cast throughout the book—was a high-stakes negotiation with a decidedly malevolent spirit. Bitter Seeds’ magic isn’t just a superpower by another name. (Also, like the magic system you’re trying to design, it’s very open-ended… The main limitation is what the characters can convince the spirits to give them, and how much it will cost to do so).
Another book I’m aware of, but sadly have not had time to read yet is The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud. Like Bitter Seeds, it uses a confrontational style of magic between a magician and his source of magic, in this case a familiar that rather hates magicians. Another possibility would be something like The Dragon and the George, whose main protagonist is the passive recipient of magic (an English Literature Ph. D that gets turned into a dragon) but doesn’t know how to use magic himself (or undo the curse) himself. If I were into fantasy, I would definitely have read the Wheel of Time series and H.P. Lovecraft’s Mythos, where magic is fueled by one’s own sanity. (It’ll make you think twice before wantonly flinging magic missiles).
Hmm. I hope that helped, but I’m getting the nagging suspicion that I may have missed the mark. In particular, I’m reading through the paragraph about the men watching the game and discussing the fantastical creatures they’ve bagged. I don’t think that it’ll be a huge difference that these two regular guys know about the supernatural creatures in their world and treat them like regular animals, versus the more cliché setup where supernatural elements are kept secret from Muggles/nonmagical people.
…
“I want to get across that these creatures running around and the fact that people can perform real magic is normal to THEM.” I think the Harry Potter series is a pretty good example of that. Besides Hermione, pretty much everybody Harry hangs around with is a magic-user raised by magic-users. Part of the fun of the series, I think, is seeing how Harry grows into a magic-using world where pretty much everything is unusual/new to him (and us) but everybody else is just totally used to people doing sports on broomsticks and accustomed to doing most everything with magic.
Wow. Thanks a lot B. Mac. You’ve given me a lot to consider. I got hit with some inspiration last night and am currently developing a world where we as humans grew up and matured with magic instead of science. Meaning that scientific breakthroughs in our world happened differently on this world. They’re the same but different. Lik this…
-Benjamin Franklin discovered lighting by tying a key to a kite string and flying it during a thunderstorm. But in the world I’m creating, he discovered lightning by accident when he mixed the wrong spells.-
Science for us is the process of discovery, so to will it be for the magic manipulators of my world. I’m not the best with words so maybe I’m not explaining well, but I hope this paints a picture that’s good enough. Again, thank you very much for your help and input B. Mac. It really helped.
“Science for us is the process of discovery, so too will it be for the magic manipulators of my world.” I like that. It sounds adventurous. I’m much less of a fan of magical systems that rely on just memorizing incantations. (One thing I liked about Harry Potter was that learning some of the spells went far beyond just learning the words–for example, the spell to summon a patronus was practically a quest in itself).
…
I’m glad to hear that my advice was helpful. Good luck!
Just a random question I haven’t noticed asked yet. How do you feel about characters who have trouble trying to control their powers? This would tap into the problem of fluctuating powers as at times by dumb luck they tap into the right power but usually they just rely on their simpler powers.
It could be an interesting obstacle for the character to overcome. For example, how does a character with blockbusting powers deal with a situation that calls for a much more precise set of powers? How does he deal with other superheroes (or police officers, if he’s the only hero in town) who may think of him as a disaster waiting to happen? What does he do when a villain tries to take advantage of his lack of control? If he gets too close to causing significant damage or accidentally hurting bystanders, what sort of steps will other heroes take to rein him in? (How might he/she respond if the team leaves him home on some missions because they don’t think they can trust him?)
However, one aspect of uncontrollable powers that annoys me is when they’re used to give the character a guilty past without actually making him/her responsible for anything. I’d much rather read about a character that actually made mistakes rather than a character whose main mistake is being born with uncontrollable superpowers.
PS: I like your name. If I went on an assault, would it be a B. MacAttack?
Thanks, I’ve used that nickname on the web for years now
It’s actually kind of the main plot of my superhero story. How Canada’s been peaceful without superhero activity since WWII suddenly one kid accidentally gains super powers and tries to be a super hero after an event and you watch as the entire country shows their fear of the metahumans and the danger they are… so I guess it does work well Thankee
Sounds promising. Let me know if you have any other questions or need a beta reviewer. Good luck!
Hmm, let me run Norma Teague through this…
1) The hero’s powers can’t be used creatively.
* Distracting a guard. (Norma would pretend to see something scary.)
* Nonviolently subduing a guard or cop (Can’t do it with her powers.)
* Preventing a building from falling (Can’t do it at all.)
* Getting past a locked door (Find the damn key.)
* Finding a password (Same as locked door, except with a password.)
2) The character’s limits are hard to grasp. Her outfit’s protection wears down (increased pain signifies weakening protection), and her magical ammo is limited. It takes several hours to recharge.
3) The character’s strength fluctuates arbitrarily. Apart from the suit’s protection and its magical ammo, Norma doesn’t have enhanced physical abilities. She’s a good marksman (hunting for food since childhood), but a terrible hand-to-hand fighter.
4) The superpowers are hard to understand. Norma gets a dress that acts as armor and lets her shoot particle beams with any gun. I’d say this is pretty easy to understand.
5) He’s overpowered. Limited ammo, no enhanced physical abilities beyond taking damage, middling physical strength, poor hand-to-hand combat skills — Norma isn’t overpowered at all.
6) The hero’s superpowers ruin the drama. Norma’s powers do not allow her to time travel, read minds, erase memories, or resurrect the dead.
I’d say Norma comes out fine.
Two things: First, does anyone have any idea about how to use psychometry creatively in a story. I’m an imaginative person, and I’ve drawn a complete blank at applying psychometry.
Second, B. Mac, I think you need to come up with an article on comic book deaths and how we could apply them creatively (Remember the old addige “No one stays dead except Uncle Ben”).
Psychometry–the power to supernaturally find out information about something by touching it? I think its memorability hinges on what you’re using it for. For example, I don’t think it’d be very extraordinary to have a character touch a gun and be able to immediately identify it as the murder weapon. (A lab intern could have told us that, so it’s more mundane).
I think it’d also help if the skill gave somewhat limited information, maybe cryptic pieces that the character had to piece together. If the skill gives away too much information, I think it would probably ruin the element of mystery/discovery. (Your story doesn’t need to be a mystery, of course, but please do something besides rolling fight scenes). It’s not as impressive for a character to just solve the case just by flicking his superpower(s) on.
…
I generally would not recommend a “comic book death” (a temporary death) for anyone besides possibly Marvel or DC writers. It may make sense for them because their companies can’t afford to actually kill off characters worth hundreds of millions of dollars. However, a novelist or comic book writer NOT writing a series designed to last 50+ years doesn’t have much reason to jerk readers around with fake deaths, I feel. (What was the point of the hand-wringing and/or the inevitably rainy funeral scene if the character was never actually dead? If the character’s death has no long-term effect on the story, why would any of that material be worth the readers’ time?)
The main exception, I feel, is if the character’s fake death generates a lot more character development and/or excitement than wasted time. I think it helps if the reader knows pretty quickly that the character is not actually dead. For example, in the episodes Hereafter on Justice League, most of the characters thought Superman was dead, but the viewers knew that he had instead been sent forward in time. I think this is a more effective setup because it doesn’t rely on jerking the readers around.
That’s some interesting information, B. Mac. Thanks!
It’s the least I could do for one of my favorite supervillains. Also, I’m sort of fond of my scalp and would hate to have anything happen to it.
B. Mac, I need some help. I’m doing a story with a character who (like Claire Bennet, Adam Monroe, and Wolverine) has an advanced healing factor. But I need some help with limitations and other things so that the powers don’t get too confusing?
Sylar I think maybe you could make where healing simple woundsa is quite easy but large scale wounds take a large amount of stamina, or maybe the character cannot heal certain wounds ex: getting an arm ripped off. Just some ideas.
Thanks
@Sylar:
There are a lot of ways you can limit a healer. Claire remains unhealed until the bones are set properly; she’s had a rib sticking out of her side and just shoved it back in with no real problems. She can also regrow body parts, as evidenced by cutting her toe off with scissors. She doesn’t appear to feel pain; she did, after all, stick her hand into a pot of boiling water without flinching.
Wolverine is pretty much unparalleled with his healing factor; he heals almost instantaneously and without any real fatigue, plus he can come back from almost anything.
Some ways to cut back on your healer’s power:
broken bones heal too quickly, so they have to be broken again to be reset
they have a low tolerance for pain, or they experience it at all
they heal very slowly, such that a cut might take a minute to heal and a broken bone two or three days
healing leaves them very tired, or they need to be asleep to heal
they can only heal others, and not themselves
regrowing a finger or a toe might be possible, but not an arm or a leg
they can’t regenerate at all
anything fatal (say, getting shot) would be fatal to them, but non-lethal injuries they can heal (they can’t come back from the dead, but can recover)
every time they heal themselves, they’re actually bringing themselves closer to death (accelerated healing is also accelerated cell degeneration)
That’s all I can think of at the moment, but I’m sure there are other things as well.
@Snow
Well I would tend to steer clear of healers all together. They tend to take the seriousness away. For example, if a healer who’s day job was say an accountant working in a cubicle, missing a finger could be a serious problem, but if they can regenerate it-their day job isn’t at stake. However I do like your limitations (particularly the last one). However, the weaknesses can be more effective if your healer is a main character. For example, My charater (who is a healer) can’t heal people without fainting and cant heal herself. Now say she was healing a friend but knew vital information that they needed right then, they would be in some serious trouble.But if she was just some side superhero who just happened to be flying by, nothing much would be at stake and would just seem illogical.
I don’t mind healers in stories, but if they can heal OTHER people and not just themselves, it’s very hard to challenge the characters. Even if the healer has limits, like getting closer to death or passing out like Snow said, if they can heal other people it means that whenever someone gets injured there’s no drama, only the reader going “Yo, where’s the healerpants person when you need them?”
That said there are probably ways to get around that, I just haven’t thought of any. xD
Blah did it turn me into italics?
@Myna
Thats what I was saying-but if your healer COULD heal others but not themselves I gave Snow reasons why I wouldn’t do it and what to do if he/she (lol I’m not sure if Snow is a boy or a girl) did choose to make his/her characters like that.
PS:Btw-yes Myna-it is in italics lol.
@Nicholas
I definitely see where you’re coming from with avoiding healers altogether, especially as side characters. There’s not much drama when you can beat your character to a pulp and just have them skip (well, limp) on over to the local healer where it will get kissed better.
My current healer can only heal herself and is slowly losing all physical feeling (heat, cold, pain, etc.) She’s also one of the “live forever” types, and has outlived all of her family and friends several generations over. She’s not the main character in the story, but she is on the important side. Also, she works at Arby’s, because the job can transfer from city to city and she moves around a lot. I’m glad it’s only a short story, because I’m not sure her character would hold up for a very long one.
Your healer sounds like a pretty well-balanced character.
@Myna
The only way I’ve found to get around that is to make the healer dangerous to get to. Another of the healers I’ve created is wheelchair-bound and much better at healing others than himself. He’s also blind, and lives in an apartment in close to the center of a very hostile and fairly crowded city. My characters can’t exactly go waltzing out to see him for every skinned knee and paper cut, and where they are isn’t wheelchair accessible. He can’t bring people back to life, so if it’s serious enough that they need to risk getting to him, there’s a likelihood time is not on their side.
Also, I am a girl. XD
@Snow
Lol I figured so,but I didn’t want some dude getting mad sayin-”You callin me a sissy?!”. XD Anyway thanks for the compliment. My character’s name is Arre by the way. I have a review form here too. Here’s a link.
http://www.superheronation.com/2011/01/04/nicholas-cases-review-forum/
However-its been a LONG time since I’ve posted and I’ve made MANY changers since my last post (I even took out entire chapters). I’ve just been so busy animating I havent been writting that much. But I am writting more often now.
Hang on a second, let me try something… [/i]
@Nicholas:
Understood. Better safe than sorry. I like the name of the character, and I’ll be sure to look at the link soon. (I have a beta project that I’ve been putting off unfairly, and I’m hoping to get it finished tonight.)
I’ll keep the hiatus in mind, so thanks for the warning.
Animating?
@Snow
Yes I said it. Animating. Stick figure animation. I use flash. if you click my name’s link you’ll see what I mean-or check out my youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/isaiahtb
hope that fixes the italics thing…
hummmmm
I dunno what’s wrong with it. :/
Back in the code, where the italics started, instead of “</i>” for some reason it says “<i />” and I don’t know why. o.0 It’s very odd. Essentially, it’s telling the website that the italics are supposed to be open. That’s what I was trying back up in my comment; I put a closing tag in HTML and in BBCode for italics, but it didn’t fix it like I hoped it would.
I will check out the YouTube as soon as I finish this chapter in my beta project.
Oh, good gravy.
“” and “” without quotes. Maye that will work to show you what I mean. :/
Never mind. -///-
I figured such. I think my post caused it.
I wanna write a story about a girl who has some sort of psychic or telepathic powers because her dad was an alien but she never knew him. She’s very careless with her powers and that will get her into trouble with the alien race she’s from. Eventually she’ll have to make the choice to either help the aliens or the humans… Does that make sense? How can I develop this? (And should I stick with the powers I have? Because from the looks of it mind-reading and the likes aren’t the best choices.)
“a girl who has some sort of psychic or telepathic powers…” For a female character, it might be more original to try something besides psychic or telepathic powers.
“Eventually she’ll have to make the choice to either help the aliens or the humans.” Is there something in place that would make that decision hard? (The harder the choice is, the more interesting I think it will probably be).
Hey B/Mac I don’t mean to pester and you’re probably busy. But I sent you an e-mail. Don’t rush, just keep it in mind ok?
Also Anne Visible, something to consider when crafting psychic powers is scope. For example I’m developing a story in which my hero gains psychic abilities. He can move onjects with his mind, that’s it. It’s a very basic form of telekinesis. So the scope of the powers can help you determine the scale of the story and even the types of enemies the hero faces.
“But I sent you an e-mail. Don’t rush, just keep it in mind ok?” Yeah, I got it, but it’s the school year and I spend a lot of time with students. Please give me a week.
Ok, sorry. I’m just excited. I apologize.
What would you consider a good superpower. My superhero team fights bullies at their school, they do it with fire. But it only works if they’re very angry or feeling emotional. But if they use there powers a lot it will make their powers out of control even more. And only bring harm to themselves. (Not done with plot yet)
“What would you consider a good superpower?” It really depends on the story and the medium (novel vs. comic book vs. movie). In novels, I feel like pretty much any superpower could work IF it doesn’t create plot problems (like leaving the characters underchallenged–immortality, unlimited time travel, and unlimited mind-reading can raise some issues there). In contrast, in a movie, the superpowers don’t just have to contribute to a smooth and dramatic plotline, but also create epic visuals. So, in a movie, agility or something else that can contribute to acrobatic stunts is really handy.
…
They’re fighting bullies with fire? Uhh, I’m not familiar with what exactly the bullies did, but that could seem a bit disproportionate. The leap from bullying to superpowered flamethrowers is quite a big one. I’d recommend being careful about having a protagonist respond TOO disproportionately–unless you deliberately want this to come off as a mistake that the protagonists will get called out for by other characters–because it could compromise the protagonists’ likability. In this particular case, responding to bullies with horrific force (and lighting a regular human on fire is pretty horrific) could make the heroes seem like they’re doing a lot more damage than they’re preventing. Have you read Stephen King’s Carrie?
Finally, I find bullies a bit underwhelming as an antagonist for superpowered heroes. Will these bullies be able to challenge the heroes? Will they be even slightly sympathetic? (I find antagonists more interesting if they are slightly sympathetic–it makes the conflict more complex and harder to predict). One possibility is that the antagonist is a victim of the bullies that somehow gets superpowers and intends to escalate the situation in a notably violent way (i.e. killing the bullies). On the one hand, I think most heroes would want to prevent the bullies from getting killed, even though they have been behaving badly. On the other hand, the heroes would probably want to do something so that the bullies stop misbehaving.
I think one of the most interesting things about real human beings is that just because we can TECHNICALLY do something doesn’t mean that we WILL do it or that we can ACTUALLY do it.
Consider for a moment a person who is terrified of heights who gets superpowers, one of which can easily be used to fly. There is a distinct possibility that the character won’t even THINK of flying until the underlying character problem is dealt with, and that psychological action right there can be absolutely fascinating done well.
Schlock Mercenary had an interesting incident like this, where the tiny little roboticist used her martial arts in the middle of a riot WHILE wearing a suit of powered armor. She ended up surrounded by a pile of very dead bodies. The effect that this had on her personality rendered her effectively useless in combat afterward, despite the fact that she had demonstrated the CAPABILITY to tear through enemies without any weapons but her armored fists.
It’s like the fact that guns would make Batman’s job much easier in some cases, but he always refuses to use them. This choice is deeply anchored in his personal psychology, as his parents were killed by a man with a gun and he has fixated part of his hatred onto guns.
Perhaps you have a character who has superstrength and invulnerability, but he was raised in an abusive family where his father beat his mother to death and he is terrified of becoming his father. Therefore, he constantly holds his powers in check and is terrified of letting go of his emotions in a fight because of what he may do. What if he does beat an opponent to a pulp? Is he now becoming his father? Should he flee from any use of violence to avoid this? What if his opponent is a woman? What if his opponent is a shapeshifter who has researched the hero and changes to look like his mother in the middle of the fight, screaming “Stop hurting me Dan!”
The mind has limitless potential to cripple even the most powerful individual in what are seemingly the simplest situations.
B.McKenzie , I forgot to mention the Infernos aren’t superheroes yet. They also don’t light people on fire, they burn them (a bit). My main character has an anger issues and in the beggining believes preventing bullies would be good that way because she doesn’t know what else to do. (It scares her) the other character’s fire power doesn’t burn the bullies, they use it for other things. Like one uses his fire to grab anything he wants that’s near him, like his pain pills he uses to calm himself down for a school day. They don’t prevent anything yet. They are just kids with a fire ability. They learn to use their fire for better things later. And no, I haven’t read Carrie, I hardly read books unless I have to.
“And no, I haven’t read Carrie, I hardly read books unless I have to.” Hmm. If at all possible, I’d recommend working on that (if you’re interested, please see Why Is It So Important That Writers Read Widely?) My rule of thumb is that it’d probably help to read at least 25-50 novels in your genre(s), if at all possible*. The editors best-suited to your manuscript will probably have read hundreds of books in the genre(s), so it really helps to be very familiar with the conventions of the genre and how to build upon and/or subvert them.
-_- well thanks for the tip, but I actually wanted to write for myself.
I don’t think I want to publish anything in my lifetime. :/
Ah, okay. Never mind, then.
This one’s kind of specific but I never liked how Superman just plucks falling people out of the air, especially when he’s coming up at them. Instead of hitting the pavement at 200 miles per hour, they’re hit by the man of steel at an addition 200 miles per hour. So we can save falling people by shooting a statue out of a cannon at them? In real life the first time he tried that he wouldn’t be a hero, he’d bee hosing off his uniform.
Flying superheroes would probably do better to grab falling people at roughly the same velocity the victims were falling. Otherwise, jerking them from 170 mph downwards (terminal velocity) to, say, 0 mph or 100+ mph upwards would be tragically similar to a 170+ mph car-crash without a seat belt. If Superman handles the grab safely, then he can deaccelerate normally* for a safe landing.
*Well, he’d probably want to deaccelerate a bit more gently than normal, just to make sure he didn’t wreck his “passenger,” but the principal danger is in the grab. Relatedly, Spider-Man’s webs killed Gwen Stacy by causing her to suddenly stop.
^^ “Relatedly, Spider-Man’s webs killed Gwen Stacy by causing her to suddenly stop.”
apparently thats not true, i heard that she’d already died from a heart attack, but Spider-Man still feels guilty and feels like it was his fault.
From what I’ve read, it’s pretty unclear just what killed Gwen Stacy exactly.
But on the same note, yeah, it’s not just the ground that kills you. If reality was always in play, there’d be a lot of dead damsels lying about.
They may have retconned it since, but originally it was the web. There’s even a sound effect noting that her neck snaps to the whiplash.
…
Also, she’s somewhere between 20-25, right? Even when put into a stressful situation such as a kidnapping, a heart attack would probably be implausible. (Marvel may have had second thoughts about whether Spidey was involved in the death, but this alternate explanation is really grasping at straws).
Yeah i agree, marvel probably changed it.
I know the debate on pairing superstrength and invulnerability was three years ago, but I’d like to chime in:
While I agree that it is an overused combo, and that pretty much the most interesting fights that character can have are when it’s against a supervillain (or against multiple supervillains simultaneously) whose physical strength level and invulnerability levels is near, at, and/or greater than the hero’s level.
That said, I think it’s just a matter of being creative when it comes to making the stories and the hero interesting in his or her fights, and that it’s not as limited as it’s been made out to be.
For example, even without your hero fighting superstrong characters who also have invulnerability, you can easily counteract or render superstrength useless with a character who has no superstrength or invulnerability.
Perfect example: Imagine pairing Invincible against Sandman in a fight in the desert; Invincible can be as strong as he likes, but no matter how hard he punches Sandman, his punches would pretty much just go right through Sandman.
Invincible would have to use his brain on this one, particularly since there is likely no water supply readily available. I would find that scenario and fight very interesting.
Or how about an antagonist who can freeze your every movement with his mind while robbing a bank? Superstrength and invulnerability are useless against that.
Or how about someone with the ability to take control of you via pheromones? (Poison Ivy vs. Superman). Granted it’s been done before, but it certainly counteracts superstrength and invulnerability, and there’s plenty of room for doing interesting twists with this; imagine that the pheromones become more potent the longer that the antagonist has your hero under his or her control, and runs the danger of becoming a permanent bond between the hero and the antagonist.
Or how about placing other limits on the character? For example, let’s make it so that your hero cannot breathe in space. What does he do when there is a superpowered space-born threat who can breathe in space that your hero must meet and fight before that threat can reach the earth? Logically speaking, the most believable place of battle is either a space station or a space ship, each of which are not usually indestructible, so what happens when the hull of the ship is breached or compromised? That’s an advantage you have given the opponent.
Using that same weakness, how about if an antagonist puts a force field bubble over and around your hero’s head, cutting off his air supply?
Or how about using that superstrength and invulnerability against your hero? Instead of catching all the bullets that are fired at him, he just lets it ricochet off of him, killing innocent bystanders who were unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire, or perhaps your hero knocks on his girlfriend’s house, to whom he did not reveal that he is a superhero, and blows the door off its hinges without meaning to?
My character Megapower has superstrength and invulnerability when he is in his superhero form, but I already have half of a dozen low-level and high-level villains who are able to counteract his superstrength and invulnerability without matching his superstrength and invulnerability levels. And I even have one who does, with other distinct advantages (which I’d rather reveal when I get Megapower published). I’ve even given Megapower some limits.
So all in all, I guess what I’m saying, if I’m saying anything at all, is that pairing superstrength and invulnerability is not as constrictive in telling good stories, conflicts, and great fights as one might think; it just takes using your imagination and your creativity.
And on the subject of Superman, I don’t think he’s too powerful as much as it is that writers more often than not have failed to humanize his conflicts and stories along neglected to build interesting plots through his Clark Kent side.
“For example, even without your hero fighting superstrong characters who also have invulnerability, you can easily counteract or render superstrength useless with a character who has no superstrength or invulnerability.” I agree the situations you’ve named could be dramatic for someone with only strength and toughness. I’d be really careful about any additional superpowers, since Superman’s secondary superpowers ruin pretty much any of these potential scenes.
–Heat rays against Sandman (to turn him into glass)
–”how about an antagonist who can freeze your every movement with his mind while robbing a bank?” Superman is sometimes highly resistant to mind control. For example, he was pretty much the only person on Earth not affected by the electoral shenanigans of Tempus/John Doe in Lois & Clark.
–”how about if an antagonist puts a force field bubble over and around your hero’s head, cutting off his air supply?” I believe he can hold his breath for several hours. Plus, the forcefields would have to be extremely tough to keep Superman from holding his way through. (Also, he’d sort of have to be an idiot to have superspeed and 1) get hit by the forcefields to begin with or 2) not neutralize the enemy in the first second of the fight. I think superspeed makes most of Superman’s fights into idiot plots, where he HAS to idiotically not use his powers because otherwise he’d resolve most of his fights without any chance of drama).
–”perhaps your hero knocks on his girlfriend’s house, to whom he did not reveal that he is a superhero, and blows the door off its hinges without meaning to?” Superman’s control over his superpowers is disappointingly precise. For example, he doesn’t JUST fly, but he has the maneuverability of a hummingbird and the speed of a spaceship. I think his flight will (almost?) always be less dramatic than similar scenes for a gliding Batman or a webslinging Spider-Man because their powers are so much more limited/constrained.
I apologize, I should have made myself much clearer in my first post. I wasn’t talking specifically about Superman, only about characters in general who possess the combination of superstrength and invulnerability.
If I were talking about Superman specifically, I would have conjured up other scenarios.
Ah, my apologies for misunderstanding.