Comments on: Which Origin Stories are Plausible?

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 20:13:05 +0000

Hmm, okay. Maybe the father genetically engineers a fruit to produce antibodies that can help fight a particular disease or a set of diseases. So, for example, just looking at HIV/AIDS... treating HIV in the US costs around $25,000 per patient per year. In the third world, it's about $90 per year, which is a substantial burden in desperately poor countries where the average income might only be a few hundred dollars to begin with.
So the father figures "hey, if I can engineer these fruits to grow the treatment for [your favorite pressing disease], it'd be helluva cheap for third-world farmers to grow their own treatments." Maybe the WHO is so excited about the prospects that they hastily sign off on the fruits without doing adequate long-term testing and they belatedly discovered that eating the fruits can cause substantial troubles a few years down the line. Unfortunately, by that point, it's too late for most of the people that have started eating them. A small portion of the people survive with superpowers.
I assume that you'd want these fruits to be eaten in both the first world and third world, so maybe instead of AIDS or malaria specifically you'd do something like influenza or just a generic resistance to disease. As for sci-fi mumbo jumbo, you can make bold claims based on biology terms found on Wikipedia. IE: "The fruit has been genetically modified to produce a protein that drastically stimulates lymphocytic activity in the bone marrow, accelerating the immune response against [target]." Eventually, you can reveal that these super-lymphocytes gradually lose the ability to distinguish between native and foreign cells, causing a severe autoimmune response that is typically fatal. I wouldn't recommend going into more detail than that unless you have a good reason to (for example, if you're doing a medical thriller like The Andromeda Strain).

By: Herojock

Herojock — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 19:50:18 +0000

Thanks B.Mac but I’m thinking more along the lines of pharmaceutical fruits and vegetables. The idea is that a new wonder vaccine is discovered by the heroes father and the public dub it the ‘holy grail’. His company is on a humanitarian mission and works with the World health organization and the Red cross to administrate it. Naturally it all goes wrong and it has to be rolled back before it causes a global crisis. Few millions might die, the few infected survivors gain powers. Not sure on everything yet though. But I do know the dad will end up killing himself out of immense guilt and the son will inherit his fathers burden.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:50:21 +0000

Maybe the food comes primarily from a farm downstream of a large chemical plant that just had a major accident. The authorities only shut the place down after the food has been on the market for several hours, giving the protagonists (and maybe the antagonists) a chance to ingest the contaminated food before it’s recalled.

In terms of pseudo-science, I don’t think you’ll need to drop too much mumbo-jumbo on this one. It’s commonly accepted among superhero readers that chemicals unfit for human consumption can cause superpowers (and few major health problems) when consumed by or exposed to protagonists. See Static Shock, TMNT, etc.

If you were so inclined, you could go into more detail into what the chemical plant is working on. Maybe something military-related. Maybe something nefarious. Either one would make it easier to understand why the chemicals just happen to cause superpowers, particularly exotic ones. (Generally, I think exotic superpowers deserve more explanation. Whereas superstrength, agility and intelligence are simply enhancements to what the body already does, borderline-magical abilities like weather-control and gravity-control usually benefit from a line or two of explanation to help readers suspend their disbelief).

By: Herojock

Herojock — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:32:14 +0000

Hey guys I’m in little need of assistance here. Simply I want people to gain abilities through eating food, plant and animals. I’m thinking along the lines of genetic modified and or dangerous chemicals. Not to sure yet, but any guidance with the pseudo- superhero science would be great.

By: Con-El

Con-El — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 03:16:25 +0000

They are individual villains. I mean some work together and some have similar goals, you know things like that. But my proudest accomplishment is the conception of The Empire. A group of some of the most powerful villains in my universe who have banned together to just do whatever they want. For now, it’s a small group but I intend to bolster their ranks during the course of the story.

As for the powers, well here’s the list.
-shadow manipulation
-super-strength
-multiplication
-telepathy
So brett, is that what you wanted to know?

By: brett

brett — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 04:13:14 +0000

Yeah I get what you’re saying, what powers do your villains have? Is it one villain and a bunch of henchmen or are there individual villains?

By: Con-El

Con-El — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:35:14 +0000

Not sure yet. I’m just trying to get some ideas. I’ve got my main project that I’m still trying to finalize and I merely wondered where I’m going next. I am attempting to build my own comic book universe not just one story. You know like how Marvel has X-men, Spiderman, Fantastic Four and the Avengers. I hope to construct a similar list of titale under my own banner. But for now I’m working on my one and only story for the time being. I’d like to get into details, but I’m afraid there really aren’t that many yet. I mean I’vew got the heroes, a few villains and the a tentative plot for arc 1, but that’s about it.

By: brett

brett — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:09:56 +0000

Hm, it’s interesting Con-el. Sounds like Robin hood with superheros and the broker is king richard. Would this be a stand alone like your other concept or a series?

By: Con-El

Con-El — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 11:23:24 +0000

Well that idea was an ‘off the top of my head’ idea that just popped up yesterday. I’d like to pursue it. But maybe I’d forget about the identity thieft concept completely. And maybe the idea would work better like this; two friends, who have superpowers use them in secret to provide good lives for their families and themselves by stealing small-scale stuff and ripping people off. You know they con people, but they aren’t out to hurt anyone. Perhaps one of the people they steal from is the superpower broker, earning his/her attention. The main character and his friend are approached by this person and their lackeys. The broker tells the main character that in order to make amends, he must now round up people with superpowers to bring to him/her, no questions asked. The main character’s friend and partner in crime is taken as collateral. At least until the debt has been repaid. So forgetting about the identity thieft thing, what do you think about this idea?

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 03:10:09 +0000

As far as identity theft, I found the premise of Existence 2.0 more interesting: the main character develops a body-swap process and uses it on a hitman that had been sent to kill him.
So the character loses his bank accounts, probably most of his possessions, his friends and family, etc. Why should readers care? Your premise sounds okay, but I don't feel it's as urgent as being thrown into the sink-or-swim world of a professional hitman.
Moreover, deeper in the rewriting process, one thing I'd worry about is that it sounds like the book starts more or less as he gets superpowers, but that the story starts noticeably after that (when his identity is stolen). How quickly could you wrap up the setup/premise and get to the part where he actually starts to resolve the conflict between him and the broker? If this were a comic book, I think it would be best if you could move from setup to the main conflict (or at least foreshadow the main conflict) inside of ten pages.
This might work better as a novel, I think. For one thing, novel readers will give you more time before getting bored and deciding that the story has failed to launch.

By: Con-El

Con-El — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:26:24 +0000

Hey guys since we’re talking about origin stories. I thought of an interesting idea today and would love to know what everyone might think. Ok so this idea would lend itself to a solo-hero story at first, like Spiderman. Ok so the main character would already be empowered and would be using his ability for fun and to show off. His life is great, right where he wants it. Fantastic family and a lab for performing his experiments with his friends and colleagues. Than his identity is stolen. His bank accounts and his experiments are nowhere to be found. The worst pert is that his colleagues, friends and even his family have no idea who he is. I’m talking the ulitmate identity theift. This spurs him to uncover who did this to him and why. This will lead him into conflict with, as I imagine it, a cut-throat businessperson (could be a man or a woman) who has become something of a superpower broker. This person would be the man main villain for his story for at least a couple arcs. I just wanted to get some opinions. Gauge the idea a little, so what does everyone think?

By: Mike Alexander

Mike Alexander — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:43:57 +0000

My background is in Biology, so I was inspired by some of my education:

My solution for the origin of powers (“Talents”) was that the arrival of two alien races altered reality (because of their ships’ Synapse drives- point to point quantum travel) so that anyone conceived around 1989 has the chance of having their junk DNA removed and placed into a third sex chromosome (Z, or “Zeta”). This is a deus in machina device that lets someone react to high stress environments and adapt instantly a mechanism to respond. For example, being struck by lightning allow Marc Embers to control electricity and thunderstorms as Tempest. Nick Jennings was in a fiery car accident in a snowstorm, so can control fire and ice.

The other option I have for Talents is magic. There are no magicians like John Constantine or Harry Potter, but someone can be a descendant of a deity- Mane, who can channel animal powers through his great X grandfather Cernunnos. Or someone can wield a mystic or cosmic object. Bluehook gets his elephant strength from a family heirloom, an ancient ankhus. Foxfire gets his powers of fire control from a gem from outer space, just one of hundreds floating around since the beginning of time.

As long as your universe’s rules are consistent, there really shouldn’t be an other limits on what is plausible or not.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:07:09 +0000

If you just take an idea but put a twist on it, it should be fine. I would recommend looking at lots of shows/comics and things like that. Checking their idea’s and then seeing the difference and you could take something from each one, creating your own.

By: Lighting Man

Lighting Man — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:58:55 +0000

Well, generally, the primary steps taken are indeed a different name (or no name) and a different origin, DC Comics handled this by using the same basic story as Marvel provided for the Inhumans, an alien race came to Earth and genetically altered numerous human beings, leading to an unrecognized separate-but-superior subspecies. However, I don’t think that a story using a basic “Wee! Superpowers randomly appeared!” origin is necessarily going to draw comparisons to X-Men unless you bring them. The television series Heroes invited them by actually using the whole evolution jargon taken directly from X-Men in the pilot and beyond, but there’s been plenty of stories before and after X-Men that involved random appearances of powers, and it really only becomes apparent they are inspired by X-Men when they directly take from the X-Men.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It’s_a_Good_Life_(The_Twilight_Zone)

By: TheNewHero

TheNewHero — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:24:22 +0000

How do you brign the whole mutant story in without feeling like an X-Men rip-off? Just change the mutant origin? The name?