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What is a well structured origin story (or super power) for a comic book super hero? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by ConstipatedWatson@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Lots of superheroes are "children of the atom" in the sense that they derive powers from some sort of radioactivity (think Spiderman or Hulk or even Daredevil) while others are just born with powers without explanation (X-Men, Thor, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman).

Who is a superhero that is somehow grounded in reality, meaning that they could "potentially" make sense (either their origin story is believable, even if it has some obvious gap to make a super power happen, or their power is somehow limited or constructed in a "reasonable" way).

I guess with these restrictions, Batman would be OK since he's got no superpowers, but he's insanely rich and therefore can both train himself and have access to sophisticated gadgets, but can you think of less obvious ones (even if they're minor characters)?

Thanks for reading this!

Edit: thanks for all the answers and apologies for the slow replies. I've had a couple of complicated days. I'll now go through answering you. Several people made me realize I hadn't been precise in what I meant and helped with their answers. I was looking for superheroes or superpowers that are somehow "believable" in that they're either constructed in an unexpected way or in a way that you could almost accept as plausible

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[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

All of the Robins; Batman is basically the least interesting character in his own city...

[–] ConstipatedWatson@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

That's right! In a sense, Batman is very grounded as a comic book in that several of the main characters (Batman and the Robins) all are well trained people but with no super powers, so they are believable!

There is another answer below about Poison Ivy and Mr Freeze which I also liked and commented on and which (coupled with your answer) points to how much of the lore around Batman is well constructed (that is, characters and villains have a "believable" and well thought origin story)