Line #64 Main/StandardSuperheroSetting


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5	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/CityOfHeroes https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/freedom_phalanx_paragoncity.png]]]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:Just your average afternoon in [[SuperheroCapitalOfTheWorld Paragon City]].]]
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11
12	->''"What is more real? A world we are born into or one we create for ourselves?"''
13	-->-- '''Creator/StanLee'''
14
15	What StandardFantasySetting and StandardScifiSetting are for Fantasy and ScienceFiction, this is for SuperHero genre: a setting of the sort in which most (though not all) superhero comic books and other narratives take place. Though the genre dates to the 1940s, [[NewerThanTheyThink the clear and definite rules for generic superhero settings weren't really solidified]] until TheSixties, when Creator/MarvelComics and Creator/DCComics started making full use of their Universes. See also SuperheroPrevalenceStages.
16
17	'''Common ingredients:'''
18	* BigApplesauce: Incredible amount of super hero stories are set in either UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity or a fictional metropolis strongly resembling it. If not, there will in all likelihood still be a CityOfAdventure out there.
19	** SuperheroCapitalOfTheWorld: When a specific location in a superhero narrative is used long enough, its character roster of heroes and villains becomes so saturated that the location InUniverse and out becomes synonymous with hero-villain activity.
20	* ComicBookTime: Expect characters to last for decades without aging at all. [[note]] Though comics that are not LongRunners usually either avert this one, or justify it.[[/note]]
21	* StatusQuoIsGod: Prevalent, with [[VillainsActHeroesReact heroes preserving status quo]] and all changes being mostly cosmetic or temporary. Even in books that avert it, there's often a period of relative stability/routine adventuring, either in the {{Backstory}}, or the first act.
22	* FantasyKitchenSink: Most times, a generic SuperHero world has everything from gods to angels and demons to {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, from wizards and vampires to mad scientists and aliens to ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld. Every mythical creature may appear at some point.
23	** CrossoverCosmology: Usually one mythological pantheon running around is not enough.
24	* SecretIdentity
25	** BruceWayneHeldHostage
26	** LovesMyAlterEgo
27	* SharedUniverse: Most times, the setting is built around many comics sharing the same world or acting like there are others.
28	* TheCape: There is usually one of those, who inspires others and is seen as an example to follow. Nine cases out of 10, a CaptainErsatz of Franchise/{{Superman}}, though sometimes may be replaced by CaptainPatriotic.
29	* TheCowl: Street-level vigilante, most times based on Franchise/{{Batman}}, not the nicest of superheroes, usually serving as {{Foil}} for The Cape.
30	* DistaffCounterpart: There are usually several female heroes inspired by and/or related to male heroes who strive to become renowned heroes on their own, usually following the model codified by ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and often overlapping with the {{Sidekick}}.
31	* SuperTeam: Expect one main and biggest, working on global scale, and several smaller and local to appear here and there.
32	* MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks: If there is a definite time period when superheroes appeared for the first time, it will usually be in the 1940s, though the very first superhero may have shown up in 1938, the year the first Superman comic was published. Occasionally, [[ProtoSuperhero earlier heroes]] will be recognized, but even then, expect this era to be a turning point, one way or another.
33	* MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks: Most of the time, TheSixties will be noted as the time of the biggest superhero boom in history.
34	* MediaNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks: The time when superheroes began getting flaws and tackling more serious problems in the world. TheSeventies are the go-to decade for this age.
35	* MediaNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks: On a similar note, if a decade is singled out as darker and filled with Anti-Heroes, it will probably be the TheNineties, or less commonly TheEighties.
36	* SuperPowerLottery: People are probably getting all kinds of superpowers everywhere.
37	** RequiredSecondaryPowers: In later years, it has become more common to make use of this trope.
38	** FlyingBrick: At least one will certainly be there.
39	* LetsYouAndHimFight: It's hard to tell a situation where two superheroes meet and don't start beating each other.
40	* {{Crossover}}
41	** BatFamilyCrossover
42	** CrisisCrossover
43	* RadiationInducedSuperpowers, LightningCanDoAnything, TouchedByVorlons, TheChosenMany: Classic origin stories.
44	** PhlebotinumDuJour may occur in case of long-running universes.
45	** MetaOrigin, MassSuperEmpoweringEvent: Getting more and more popular.
46	* SuperHeroesWearCapes
47	* SuperHeroesWearTights
48	** NotWearingTights: If they don't.
49	* TheUnmasquedWorld: The variation where fantastic elements have always existed- in a superhero setting, magic and aliens are ''not'' a secret- they make the evening news.
50
51	'''The following may be removed if the setting falls in certain values of SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, or due to other Implementation Details:'''
52	* ClarkKenting: Concealment of a Secret Identity by means of a PaperThinDisguise that everyone just goes with.
53	* DeathIsCheap: Superheroes and other characters die all the time in comic books, only to be brought back.
54	* {{Deconstruction}}, {{Reconstruction}}, DeconReconSwitch
55	* HeroInsurance: Who's going to pay for all the damage done by superhero battles? Often done in more cynical works.
56	* CardCarryingVillain: Villains who make no bones about their evil-ness and actually revel in it. Often seen in many idealistic works.
57	* ReedRichardsIsUseless: A character cannot use their amazing inventions to better the world around them, because StatusQuoIsGod.
58	* BewareTheSuperman: Superpowers aren't always a good thing, and can sometimes be a source of fear if the one bearing them does not have your best interests in mind.
59	* CutLexLuthorACheck: A villain uses their powers and gadgets to commit robberies when they could easily use their gifts to get money the legal way.
60	* SmugSuper: Some supers have massive egos to match their powers, and aren't shy about rubbing this in the faces of others.
61	* SuperRegistrationAct: A law requiring those with superpowers to be registered with the government in a national database or face penalties. If it's not a villainous plot to get rid of superheroes, it is often the subject of more cynical stories.
62	** CapeBusters: Normal humans who combat super-beings with technology, smarts and ruthless tactics. Can be heroes or villains depending on the work.
63	* SuperHeroSchool: A school that teaches young people with superpowers how to be superheroes.
64	----
65	!Examples:
66
67	[[AC:Anime & Manga]]
68	* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan''
69	* ''Anime/TigerAndBunny''
70
71	[[AC:ComicBooks]]
72	* Creator/MarvelComics:
73	** Franchise/MarvelUniverse, one of the two {{Trope Maker}}s.
74	** ComicBook/UltimateMarvel
75	** ComicBook/MarvelComics2
76	** ComicBook/SquadronSupreme
77	** ComicBook/SupremePower
78	** ComicBook/TheUltraverse
79	* Creator/DCComics:
80	** Franchise/DCUniverse, being the other of two Trope Makers.
81	** Creator/{{Wildstorm}} Universe (now incorporated into the DC Universe)
82	* Creator/ImageComics Universe which is a mix of several smaller, that may or may not be in one continuity, depending on whatever the writer feels like. Most of them (''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'' is a little debatable), fit this trope.
83	* Creator/ValiantComics Universe
84	* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', as a DeconReconSwitch of the genre, hits most, but not all, of the above.
85	* ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'', though usual Status Quo has been thrown out of the window at the very beginning.
86	* ''Comicbook/TheBoys'', though it plays with expectations.
87	* ''ComicBook/PS238''
88	* ''ComicBook/ZenescopeEntertainment''
89
90	[[AC:{{Film}}]]
91	* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse
92	* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse
93	* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''
94	* ''[[Film/SkyHigh2005 Sky High]]''
95
96	[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
97	* ''Literature/WildCards'' is something of a subversion. There are people with remarkable powers, and even a rough Golden and Silver Age (an alien viral outbreak shifted the world from nonpowered WWII heroes to superpowered individuals), the overwhelming majority of those afflicted (and more than a few of our protagonists) don't engage in traditional superheroics.
98	* ''Literature/{{Wearing the Cape}}'' a {{Reconstruction}}.
99	* ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible''
100	* ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain''
101	* ''Literature/{{Hero}}''
102	* ''Literature/SuperPowereds'' is based in one of four super hero colleges set up to train future super heroes. The books dig pretty deep into how such a system would actually work, including the various government agencies, licenses, and paperwork that had to be created to handle everything.
103	** ''Literature/{{Corpies}}'' is a spin off that focuses on hero and a group of non-heros who do search and rescue work, and the differences between those who got a hero license and those who didn't.
104	* ''Literature/JusticeSquad''
105	* Literature/WhateleyUniverse: While the series as a whole is set in a SuperheroSchool (even if the school administration would disagree on the 'hero' part, as the school is technically a TruceZone between heroes and villains), the overwhelming majority of Superhero setting tropes have some degree of expression in the series, whether deconstructed or played straight (or often, both). There even were the equivalents of the Golden and Silver ages in the series BackStory.
106	* ''{{Literature/Worm}}'' is an interesting [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of the setting but takes the opposite approach of most deconstructions; instead of playing all the standard tropes straight and seeing what the world looks like with them taken to their logical extremes, it instead starts with a Standard Superhero Setting and then explores what set of circumstances would have been necessary to generate it.
107
108
109	[[AC:TabletopGames]]
110	* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds''
111	* ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}''
112	* ''Superpowers Companion'' module for ''TabletopGame/SavageWorlds'' assumes this.
113	* ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse''
114
115	[[AC:VideoGames]]
116	* ''VideoGame/ChampionsOnline''
117	* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes''
118	* ''VideoGame/FreedomForce''
119
120	[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
121	* ''Webcomic/{{Acrobat}}''
122	* ''Webcomic/AlmightyProtectors''
123	* ''Webcomic/BadGuyHigh'', though it's rather played as a parody most of the time.
124	* ''Essay Bee Comics Presents Fusion''
125	* ''Webcomic/HeroesUnite''
126	* ''Webcomic/{{Magellan}}''
127	* ''Webcomic/PowerpuffGirlsDoujinshi'', being a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover between several cartoons from which many are from SuperHero genre or already are examples of this trope, obviously turned out into this.
128
129	[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
130	* Entire Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse
131	* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003''
132	* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros''
133	* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''
134	* Both ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' with its two sub-shows - ''Dial M for Monkey'' and ''Justice Friends'' and WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls. Even more so if you count CanonWelding between them, caused by apperances of superheroes Major Glory and Valhallen in both shows, among many other things.

Context Main / StandardSuperheroSetting