History Main / MassSuperEmpoweringEvent

* ''TabletopGame/{{Progenitor}}'', another ''TabletopGame/{{Wild Talents}}'' setting, subverts the Mass Super-Powering Event by having it empower only one person, and only become a mass event when it turns off superpowers are contagious, so every use of powers on someone has a chance of giving them powers (albeit, slightly weaker). Then those people pass on more (slightly weaker powers), often on enemies they use their powers to stop, and before you know it there are thousands to millions of superpowered individuals (though there is a limit to how many people each person can spread powers to, and that limit decreases to nothing after ten 'generations', so it's not like everyone will get powers).

* ''Anime/TheReflection'', the title is named for the event 12 years before the story that gave some people powers. [[spoiler:At the end of the 12th episode, a second wave seems to begin.]]

In SuperHero stories, there are [[JustForFun/HowToGiveACharacterSuperPowers many, many ways]] to [[SuperEmpowering give the lead superpowers]]. However, sometimes it becomes cost efficient in terms of descriptive effort or setting construction to give every character the same super hero/villain origin story in a Mass Super-Empowering Event.

So why do authors use this trope? After all, it reduces diversity of SuperHeroOrigin stories by repeating it across several characters. Well, it turns out that having fifty ways a FreakLabAccident can give you superpowers got old, fast, forcing quite a few {{Meta Origin}}s to be applied to tidy up the place. Another is that it frees the author from having to give exposition on the source of the powers to focus on the characters themselves and the way that they use their new powers, effectively giving more CharacterDevelopment and characterization by showing how they react to getting great power -- be it [[TranshumanTreachery betrayal]], [[SmugSuper smugness]] or [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility responsibility]]. It neatly provides a ready-made reason for [[ItsPersonal a connection]] between the hero and villain, especially if one of them (rightly or wrongly) blames the other for causing the event. In settings where this event is the one and only source of superpowers, it can help enforce a LikeRealityUnlessNoted "feel" for the setting, contrasting with standard comic book universes. Lastly, the cause for The Event can be a major plot hook for the hero(es) to unravel throughout the season.

A sister trope to MetaOrigin, in which multiple seemingly unrelated super-empowerings are {{retcon}}ned into having a common origin. Compare BizarreBabyBoom. Contrast RandomlyGifted. And do ''both'' with WorldWreckingWave, which may have this as a side effect. May overlap with MassTransformation if enough people effected are forced into new forms.

* ''Anime/{{Charlotte}}'' has [[spoiler: the short-period comet [[TitleDrop Charlotte]], which passes by Earth every 75 years and spreads dust particles across the planet small enough to be inhaled]], which stimulates the development of superhuman powers in children once they hit [[PubertySuperpower puberty.]]
* ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' fits this rather neatly, having a mysterious event which opened two mystical singularities known as "Heaven's Gate" and "Hell's Gate" -- in South America and [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Tokyo]], respectively -- resulting in people from around the world being transformed into either Contractors (those with special powers who are stripped of their emotions/morality [[spoiler: [[TinMan although, that turns out to be much more complicated]]]]) or Dolls (people left almost completely non-sapient who are used as living tracking devices), and the atmosphere around the earth being replaced by an AlienSky that cut off Earth from the rest of the universe.
* Calumon from ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' is something of a sentient version of this. [[spoiler: It's hinted throughout the series that he's the power of digivolution incarnate, with reactions and shows of power from him whenever the Tamers' digimon needed to evolve. Calumon is then captured by one of the Digimon Sovereign, and after being rescued and his captor beat around by one of his peers (as well as the Tamers), he fully 'awakens' and summons an army of Digimon to warp them all to Mega-level in order to fight the D-Reaper.]]
* ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'' has [[FreakLabAccident 1150 GMT, 24 December 1981]], in which babies born at that time become a Whispered.

* The whole fractured frog rain phenomenon in ''Manga/{{Jagaaaaaan}}'', but [[spoiler:taken to a horrifying extreme in Chapter 40, where Chiharu creates an artificial fractured frog rain-revealing that he's been hoarding the fractured frogs he collects instead of eating them, and releasing the hundreds if not THOUSANDS of fractured frogs over/into the massive crowd gathered to protest the fractured human bill, unleashing completely insane fractured humans, rampaging and murdering throughout the crowd.]]
* In ''Manga/JujutsushiWaYuushaNiNarenai'', the Class 2-7 has the ''entire classroom they're in'' sucked to an alien world, and they're instructed by some unknown voice to swear devotion to the local gods to gain the [Vocation]s they need to survive. The students in question have no choice which deity they're paired with, what [Vocation] they're given, or their starting skills.
* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' had such an event in its history, causing most of humanity to develop "Quirks" as a result. At the time of the story proper, about 80% of the global population have powers, while the remaining 20% do not have any powers at all. In addition, the percentage of people with Quirks increased in each generation as time went by, and in the modern generation being born without a Quirk is extremely rare. It's also possible for non-human animals to have Quirks, but this is seemingly much rarer. However, it's also a SuperpowerLottery in that many quirks aren't particularly useful, such as the ability to stretch your eyes out of your head really far. Most of the time, a person's quirk is either [[SuperpowerfulGenetics a copy on one of their parents' quirks or a combination of both their parents quirk mixed together in some way]]. Also, a person can only ever get one quirk, so whatever you get, you're stuck with it. Except for two quirks that break this rule: [[SuperEmpowering One For All]], which can be voluntarily transferred from one person to another, and its evil counterpart, [[PowerParasite All For One]], which can involuntarily steal other people's quirks and allow the user to either utilize it themself or transfer it to someone else. What the actual event was that caused this empowering remains a mystery. As far as anybody knows, [[http://bokunoheroacademia.wikia.com/wiki/Luminescent_Baby one day a baby was born with the power to glow]], then suddenly other people around the world started gaining powers too, and the rest is history. Later parts of the story talk about a theory that Quirks are the result of a virus that was spread to humans through rodents that mutated us. However, none of this has yet to be proven, so the origin of Quirks remains a mystery.
* In ''Literature/MyriadColorsPhantomWorld'', a Japanese company named Alayashiki was attacked by terrorists, releasing a brain-altering virus. This caused people to start seeing mythical creatures, like {{Youkai}}. A small percentage of children also developed special abilities.
* ''Manga/{{NEEDLESS}}'' has a WorldWarIII level event causing a 'black spot'. Many of the people within this area have superhuman powers. [[spoiler: Late in the anime, it's revealed that originally a CrystalDragonJesus Figure existed within the area and his death caused the powers to spread throughout the black spot.]]

* At the end of Part One of ''Manga/TokyoESP'' [[spoiler:TheBadGuyWins and over 20% of Kanto gains PsychicPowers.]]

* ComicBook/{{Captain Carrot|AndHisAmazingZooCrew}} and each original member of his amazing Zoo Crew gain their powers because of exposure to fragments from the same strange meteor.
* In ''ComicBook/TheBoys'', the first supes in the setting were created by [[MegaCorp Vought American]] via [[SuperSerum Compound-V]]. Due to the extremely expensive nature of this process (it was said that the watered-down knockoff serum that Butcher used to give the rest of the team temporal super powers cost like one billion a single shot), Vought eventually arrived to the conclusion it wasn't going to be profitable in the long run. Instead, the corporation opted to try and invoke this trope through [[ToxicInc callous disregard of environmental protections]] hoping that at ''least'' some of the victims would develop powers useful enough to be worth recuiting.

* The ''ComicBook/{{Elementals}}'' comic by Bill Willingham had the Shadowspear, a mass of supernatural energy collected by BigBad Saker to help him conquer the world; when Saker is defeated by the Elementals, the Shadowspear spell runs wild and becomes attracted to pain and death, causing various people and animals all over the world who have died in especially weird ways to be resurrected as supernatural beings, most of whom fought the Elementals.
** What's more, an extremist religious group learns how the Shadowspear works and sacrifices hundreds of its followers in gruesome ways, trying to create their own superhumans. And it worked. The vast majority of these "martyrs" died, but enough were empowered to create the Rapture super-team.

* The Terrigen Bomb from Marvel's ''ComicBook/{{Infinity}}'' event awakened the powers of every human carrying Inhuman genes. This became the setup for some new titles -- for example, the new ''{{Comicbook/Ms Marvel|2014}}''.
* During the DC Comics crossover ''[[Comicbook/InvasionDCComics Invasion!]]'', the Dominators set off a "gene bomb" which activates a lot of people's dormant metagenes. Since the Dominators' aim was to get rid of Earth's superheroes, this was a textbook case of NiceJobFixingItVillain.

* Zig-Zagged in ''ComicBook/LazarusPlanet''. In ''ComicBook/BatmanVsRobin'', a volcano that hid a Lazarus Pit erupts after the Pit is spoiled by the magically-supercharged Helmet of Nabu, Dr. Fate's helm. The eruption causes magically charged superstorms that transforms humans caught up in them, futzes up some metahumans' powers or even adds extra powers to them.
* In Creator/MilestoneComics' universe, there was the "Big Bang", a massive gang war on Dakota Island. The event ended when police used tear gas unknowingly tainted with the mutagenic Quantum Juice, killing 90% of those caught in the gas and giving various superpowers to the rest. Virgil Hawkins aka ''Comicbook/{{Static}}'' was among the 10% of people who survived the Big Bang, and received his electric powers as a result.
* The White Event from ''ComicBook/TheNewUniverse''.
** Similarly, the White Event from the short-lived reboot ''ComicBook/{{Newuniversal}}'', which explores the idea more. Here, rather than being random happenstance, it's a deliberate act by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, designed to help mankind through a "paradigm shift" as the planet enters a "strangematter web". Problem is, the choosing is at random. So the man given the Starbrand is drunk off his ass ([[ComicBook/{{Nextwave}} sound familiar?]]), and the man give the Justice glyph is a brain-dead cop (who subsequently thinks he's in Hell). The setting also mentions a previous failed event, The Fireworks, which occurred back in the 60s, and only produced three superbeings, who were all killed within a decade. And there was ''another'' event several thousand years before, which did work... only one of the people empowered was an utter bastard who started killing and mind-raping the others for his own gain (and by the modern day, that event is completely lost to history).
* The miniseries ''ComicBook/North40'' has this happen to a small Midwestern town after someone reads from the library's resident TomeOfEldritchLore. LovecraftianSuperpower [[SuperpowerLottery Lottery]] ensues.

* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski's comic ''ComicBook/RisingStars'' has a version of this, where all the supers on Earth were in utero in a small midwestern town on the day of a bright flash of light. The first powers manifested when they were in elementary school. [[InhumanableAlienRights The government put them in a camp under military control]] [[AvertedTrope until the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional]]. They did have a normal-as-possible high school experience after that, but all the heroes and villains have [[EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether already known each other]] since childhood.
** In another of his comics, ''ComicBook/SupremePower'', all superpowers (except Hyperion and Zarda's) were caused by a nanovirus that came to Earth along with Hyperion.

* In Malibu Comics' ''ComicBook/TheUltraverse'', the only sources of superhuman powers were magic, technology ("wetware") or "the Jump Start" -- an alien artifact located on the moon that every so often sent out bursts of energy that granted humans superpowers, at first theorized to be intended to advance humanity to the point where we could reach the moon and free it, but later revealed as attempts to gather its scattered components including the {{Nanomachines}} that had long ago infected all life on Earth including humans.

* Creator/{{WildStorm}} Universe had several -- the Comet Effect, Gen Factor, being a partially human from one of the alien races that masqueraded their way through Earth's history, whatever it was that created Century Babies, exposure to the Snowflake... that should about cover it.

** In the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, mutants appeared in the world [[spoiler:thanks to SuperSoldier experiments performed on Wolverine, the first true mutant]].

* In ''Fanfic/AllForLuz'': The story starts after Luz's universe goes through what All For One calls a "Quirk Awakening", with 10,000s of people developing powers (all children and teenagers), including Luz. A month later, The World Health Organization dubbed it “The Mass Power Awakening Event or, the MPAE. [[spoiler:All For One was actually the one that caused it after his death at the hands of All Might in his world and his soul was sent to another world and [[EnemyWithin put into Luz's head]]. He notes it's more advanced than the one that happened in his world, which will lead to more devastating global consequences]].

* ''FanFic/MyLittleAvengers'' has three: the first happened in the distant past, when Asgard was destroyed, and the magic released by it created Celestia and Luna, as well as the first Unicorns and Pegasi. The second occurs when Celestia is forced to release most of her own magic when Loki attacks her; this causes random mutations across Equestria. The third occurs at the end of the story, when [[spoiler: Loki dies, and his magic is released in the same way. According to him, this will ensure that everypony (and every other species) will all be mutants within a few generations]].
* The dramatic climax of ''Fanfic/{{A New World|IcedFairy}}'' includes a downpour of dragon blood, which dramatically increases the power of youkai touched by it, and transformed humans soaked in it into youkai.
* ''Fanfic/TheNucleusIncident'', a very popular ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' fanfic, involves the RED team being exposed to a blinding light the glowing machine in the center of the Nucleus map gives off one day. Each team member wakes up some time later to find out they've acquired strange superpowers [[spoiler:and the BLU team have superpowers of their own]].
** The fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/37170685/chapters/92733898 Hikari]]'' which is explicitly very inspired by ''Fanfic/TheNucleusIncident'' has a similar thing but in ''VideoGame/LibraryOfRuina'' with the Light going momentarily haywire and granting the Patron Librarians initially uncontrollable superpowers. There is also a hint of a certain assistant librarian not being entirely normal. Incidentally, the number of suddenly empowered characters is the same (9) as [[BadassNormal Roland]] and [[RobotGirl Angela]] are both entirely unaffected.
* Downplayed in the ''Fanfic/OversaturatedWorld.'' At the end of the first story, the whole world is infused with magic and every human has strange new mutations... but for the most part these mutations follow very similar patterns, with only a few individuals being more powerful than everyone else.

* Downplayed in ''FanFic/APosseAdEsse'', a VideoGame/DieAnstalt fanfic in which the six playable toys get specialized superpowers. The energy wave coming out from Dr Wood only affects the toys inside the asylum at the time; in fact, not even that far, since Dub [[TheTeamNormal is found without any]], being "furthest away from the blast".

** Invoked and deconstructed when [[spoiler: North Korea gives various empowering substances to ''680,000'' soldiers]]. The vast majority of recipients just ''die'', and most of the survivors are grossly mutated without gaining any special abilities. Only a handful of them ([[spoiler:six, out of more than half a million]]) end up with combat-useful powers.
** There's a more successful (but [[VillainsActHeroesReact unintended]]) example when [[spoiler: the traces of GC-161 leaking into Paradise Valley's water system cause a significant fraction of the population to gain various powers]].

* ''Fanfic/ZimTheWarlordIrkenReversion'': According to Zim, every species goes through a phase where they experiment with [[PoweredByAForsakenChild Childergy]], ultimately leading to a critical mass moment, with unpredictable results. Sometimes it will devastate the planet, but others it will alter the species on it in ways that result in bizarre abilities. In the case of Earth, the end result is [[spoiler: all native species getting the potential for magic and psionic powers]].
* The Megarift Disaster in ''Fanfic/SacrificeRavenshell'' is an incident where-in something in Dimension X goes horribly wrong and a rift opens above New York, spilling a portion of Dimension X onto New York City, including a massive amount of mutagen. This results in an estimated 1.2 million mutants now inhabiting the city.
* This is why Incubators in ''Fanfic/AHistoryOfMagic'' feared Anomalies, humans that spontaneously developed magical abilities without contracting with an Incubator, because one powerful enough could cause this trope to happen. It was why [[spoiler:they had arranged for Jesus to be crucified, and why 2B was executed for covering up that Mary Magdalene had been an Anomaly as well for endangering their mission.]] Their fears were eventually realized when Billy Kane used Haitian magic to become a Puer Magi without contracting, which set off a chain reaction that cause Puer and Puella Magi to spontaneously awaken all over the world.

* ''Westernanimation/DCLeagueOfSuperPets'' has a shard of orange Kryptonite, which give superpowers to animals, brought into an animal shelter by [[KillerRabbit evil guinea pig Lulu]], empowering her and the other pets.

* In ''Film/AllSuperheroesMustDie'' this is hinted at for the reason that all of the heroes got their power [[spoiler:except for Charge]] in the first place.
* In ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'', The Lizard plans to make all humans into superpowered [[LizardFolk reptilian humanoids]] like him by releasing a chemical cloud from Oscorp's tower, to eliminate the weaknesses he believes plague humanity. Needless to say, Spider-Man stops him.
* ''Film/MegaMonsterBattleUltraGalaxyLegends'': The movie's prologue reveals that the [[Franchise/UltraSeries Ultramen]] all got their superpowers when an attempt to revive their dying star not only mutated the entire planet's population into [[OurGiantsAreBigger giants]] but also released a universe-spanning energy wave that gave rise to the universe's many kaiju. In response, the Ultras collectively chose to protect peace and justice in the universe for millennia to come.

* The creation of The Maze in Creator/GaryGibson's ''Literature/AgainstGravity'' novel marked the beginning of a rather long and drawn out empowering event; as an ElaborateUndergroundBase dedicated to researching how to make SuperSoldiers via the use of {{Nanomachines}}, it processed hundreds or perhaps thousands of people. Many eventually escaped and spread across the world, with [[SuperSpeed enhanced speed]], [[SuperStrength increased strength]], [[HealingFactor regeneration]], [[SuperReflexes superior reflexes]], [[TechnoPath sensing and control of electronics]], [[SuperSenses enhanced vision and hearing]]... you get the idea.
* The web novel ''Literature/{{Anathema|2014}}'' has The Pulse. After a worldwide blackout on February 2010, people around the world began developing supernatural abilities.

* In ''Literature/TheGrimnoirChronicles'' books, at some point before the American Civil War, people all over the world suddenly started gaining superpowers.
* The titular Infection of ''Literature/TheInfected''. An unexplained event that causes superpowers, and still is. It's not evolution, mutation, or a disease, though people thought it might be in the early days and tried quarantining Infected. Actually, there are at least a couple of "specific infectors" whose power ''is'' that they're contagious and spread powers around.
* In ''[[Literature/RoxyWasHere I Need A Hero]]'', the event only ever referred to as "The Event", seemingly triggered by a nuclear detonation that destroyed the city of Madison, Wisconsin, gave every single human being on Earth superpowers. In the chaos that ensued, a small subset of humanity went mad with their new power and ended civilization across the globe by killing more than 90% of the population. 10 years later, only a handful of people know what caused it, and the protagonist Roxy is not yet one of them.
* ''Literature/MidnightsChildren'' by Salman Rushdie has 1001 children born at midnight on the day India gained its independence acquiring low-level superpowers and a telepathic network as a result.
* In the ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' books, the only way for a potential Allomancer of any kind to unlock their abilities is to face a near-death experience, resulting in an event called "Snapping." Late in second book and all through the third one, the [[spoiler: mist sickness]] is a deliberate attempt by [[spoiler: [[BigGood Preservation]]]] to forcibly unlock the Allomancy inherent in the entire human population by deliberately push anyone who has inherent Allomantic powers to near-death.

* In ''Literature/{{Phaeton}}'' whenever a nuclear bomb goes off or a public experiment is carried out either this will happen or eveyone will die.
* In Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer's "biographies" of Franchise/{{Tarzan}} and Literature/DocSavage (and the MassivelyMultiplayerCrossover "Wold Newton Universe" based on Phillip's stories), the Event is the titular Wold Newton meteorite. The radiation of the meteorite affected the passengers of a passing coach (and several animals in the area); their descendants were endowed with unusual strength, intelligence, and ambition, becoming [[ATrueStoryInMyUniverse the inspiration for]] many of the heroes and villains of fiction. (See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wold_Newton_family the other wiki]] for more details.

* In ''Literature/ScorpionShards'', the protagonists' superpowers are triggered by the supernova of a distant star. The shards of the star's soul enter the bodies of all six of the infants born at the exact moment of its destruction.
** At the end of the series, [[spoiler:billions of stars go supernova simultaneously, transforming the entire next generation of humanity into Star Shards in recognition of the Shards showing mercy on their enemies in the final battle]].
* ''Literature/SuperMinion'' actually has two, though they are related. Every few years, there is an event called an Odd Summer, which among other things causes people to develop permanent superpowers. Additionally, the mutavus virus, which appeared during a previous Odd Summer, will occasionally trigger in someone close to death and change their body in such a way as to make them more resilient. Depending on the situation, mutavus can range from fairly benign to [[FateWorseThanDeath utterly]] [[BodyHorror horrific]].
* In ''[[Literature/NightWatchSeries Twilight Watch]]'', the book's villain wants to use a magical artifact to turn all humans in the world into [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Others]], not realizing that it'll be total chaos with people settling scores and grudges with magic rather than the usual way. In ''Sixth Watch'', a prophecy predicts the death of all Others in the world. It's explained that this will result in humans becoming Others to compensate with the same result as in ''Twilight Watch''. Both events are averted, fortunately.

* The powers manifested by ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'' are eventually revealed to stem from a "[[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain fifth neurotransmitter]]" called "Promicin". It can be [[SuperSerum injected into normal humans]] to give them powers. Or kill them, it's about even odds.
** The series has arguably had three mass super-empowering events, the first being the infusion of the initial 4400 returnees with promicin. Many non-returnees later get powers when [[WellIntentionedExtremist well-intentioned extremists]] make promicin shots available to the public. The series ends with thousands of people in Seattle, [[spoiler: including almost all of the remaining protagonists]], getting powers as a result of the PowerIncontinence of a character with the ability to release promicin into the atmosphere.

** Of course, this doesn't include powers granted through magic, and an episode of ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' Season 3 also revealed that metahumans exist who were nowhere near Central City at the time of the accelerator explosion. We also learn (in the post-Flashpoint timeline) that [[spoiler:Caitlin and her father gained their ice powers long before that as a result of an attempt to cure ALS]].

* The cast of ''Series/{{Misfits}}'' and most of the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters Of The Week]] are empowered by a mysterious storm that included misshapen black clouds and hailstones the size of dogs. [[LightningCanDoAnything Everyone struck by lightning got superpowers]].

* The [[GreenRocks Kryptonite]] meteor shower of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' in which Clark first arrived to Earth and at the same time giving many of the locals odd powers and/or [[PsychoSerum altering their personality sometimes]] and causing them to become the MonsterOfTheWeek. There are a few humans empowered by Kryptonian technology, and it's vaguely implied that there's some Kryptonian ancestry among humanity.
* This is the OriginStory of the title entities of the ''Franchise/UltraSeries''. They originated as beings similar to humans, but their sun began to die. So they built the Plasma Spark to act as their artificial sun to survive. This had the side effect of mutating the entire species into gigantic EnergyBeings of immense power.
* ''Series/RaisingDion'': Years prior to the events of the show, a unique aurora borealis in Iceland gave everybody who was there to watch it superpowers. It took some years for these powers to manifest however. Dion's father Mark was one of these people, and he passed them on to his son.
* In ''Series/TheTick2016'', while there are some characters who seem to derive their powers from other sources, the arrival of ComicBook/{{Superman}} {{Expy}} Superian on Earth introduced genetic anomalies into the human population that kicked off the Age of Superheroes.

* In the ''VideoGame/FreedomForce'' games, when Mentor's ship is destroyed in Earth's orbit by Lord Dominion's forces, his supply of Energy X (the most powerful substance in the universe!), rains down all over Earth, empowering many heroes and villains.
** This was actually Lord Dominion's plan for Earth all along, except he only planned to give Energy X to criminals, then sit back and watch humans destroy each other.

* ''VideoGame/WarFrame'' has the Zariman Ten Zero incident, in which a colony ship got lost in the Void, and when it was recovered the people inside had awakened mysterious Void powers, and would become the [[PlayerCharacter Tenno]]. [[spoiler: It's later revealed that it wasn't Void exposure that granted them this power - the adults of the Zariman went insane and murderously feral when the ship was lost, while the children were seemingly immune to it - and they were soon contacted by a being known as the 'Man in the Wall' that made a 'deal' with the children to grant them control of the Void to defend themselves from their own parents.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* The Change in ''Chisuji'' (happened before the story starts).

* In ''Webcomic/StrongFemaleProtagonist'' -- A world-wide storm that occurred around twenty years before the start of the comic is heavily implied to have given some of the super-powered individuals their powers. Everyone with superpowers is shown to be around 20-21 years old, although not everyone around that age has powers.
* ''Webcomic/{{Wondermark}}'' -- [[http://wondermark.com/024/ Spoofed]]
--> "'''You there'''! Have you seen my '''son''' go by? He's infected with a terrible virus that will '''kill''' one third of the earth's population, making five eights of those remaining '''lactose intolerant''' and while granting amazing '''superpowers''' to a quarter of the remainder!" \\

"Wait, no, start over. I was always bad at math."
** For those interested, approx. 7.5 billion people in the world (as of October 2017 estimates), that would be roughly 469 million individuals with amazing superpowers or about 1-in-11 people (granted that's after 1-in-3 people have died).
* The Weirding in ''Webcomic/{{Yosh}}'' (happened before the story starts).

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' ''Apotheosis'' canon is an AlternateContinuity where an extradimensional EldritchAbomination called [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3396 SCP-3396]] has given 7% of Earth's population superpowers. Turns out, mutants can infect other people too.
** [[spoiler: This leads to an [[ApocalypseHow apocalyptic scenario]] in which the Foundation tries to control the rapidly grown number of empowered individuals and ends up destroying the world in the name of "preserving normalcy", with agents killing themselves when it's clear that they are on the losing side. A short story set [[AfterTheEnd fifty years later]] shows that mutants survived the event known as "the Cleansing" and have likely totally replaced "normal" humans.]]

* The Nanite Event from ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex''. Five years ago, there was an explosion in a research facility, and {{nanomachines}} infected every living thing on Earth. Every so often, the nanomachines turn something into a mutant, usually mindless and aggressive. And it's not just humans -- animals and plants can be mutated, too.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/48488527/chapters/122307433 Miraculous City]]'' starts with Monarch granting Mr. Pigeon a special Alliance Ring meant to channel powers from all the stolen Miraculous at once. During the fight, Ladybug's Yo-Yo wraps around the ring, causing a surge of energy that spreads across the entire city. By the time that Monarch depowers Mr. Pigeon, every person in Paris has ability to transform into a Miraculous form and use that power, including the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous.

* The web novel ''Literature/{{Anathema}}'' has The Pulse. After a worldwide blackout on February 2010, people around the world began developing supernatural abilities.

* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'':
** ''Series/TheFlash2014''. The same [[MagicalParticleAccelerator particle accelerator]] accident that gave the main character his powers is also responsible for multiple [[VillainOfTheWeek villains of the week]], and the team's stated goal is to deal with any other 'metahumans' similarly created by the accident. Season 2 involves metahumans from an AlternateUniverse, which had its own particle accelerator accident.