Deconstructing Superpowers

Pretty much every work with superpowers depicts a world where there are both stereotypical good power-users and stereotypical bad power-users.

But if normal people, honest to god normal people, were to get superpowers, what exactly would happen? We only have to look to the wonderful world of sandbox gaming.

The basic premise of the idea is to tell the story through the perspective of a soldier in a sandbox game. The helpless Mook who can only sit and watch the cruel human gods rampage, drunk on power. Does this sound like a good idea?

Well, in this case, it's usually noted that this "normal person" who has obtained their powers will be effected psychologically by it. They will know that their deepest goals and wishes will either be closer to obtain, or impossible, depending on the situation.

For example, Light from Death Note. Yes, he was a rather intelligent high school student, but it's not strange for schools to see students which could be considered prodigies. But then he obtained the Death Note. A notebook which granted him the power to kill anyone he wanted to by simply writing their name within the notebook.

The rest... anime history.

So, in short, obtaining powers, supernatural or whatever, can greatly effect a seemingly normal person psychologically.

Another good example would be X-MEN, in which case teenagers are effected by their X-Gene granting them superhuman or supernatural abilities.

edited 17th Dec '10 5:59:09 AM by DarkKaizer

That was pretty much the plan. Some potential power-users include such seemingly normal people as a highschool girl, a retired grandpa, a grocery store clerk and a real-estate agent.

Well, whichever way you decide to go about it, it should make a pretty good read. I would be more likely to read it if the story showed the mental effects the powers had on the characters over time, but that might just be me.

A lot of people would go on a power trip; many "nice" people wouldn't be so if they could do whatever they wanted.

It'd also be neat to see something rarely done in this scenario: Have somebody openly announce their powers and use them to make loads of money.

Also, I figure the villain should start as a Well-Intentioned Extremist and slowly grow more power-crazed as he gets stronger.

If you want to really deconstruct it, have the villain start by wanting to be a superhero. Under pressure from the enormous number of crimes he has to stop, he slowly begins to slide into being a Well-Intentioned Extremist. It just keeps getting worse, until he finally has to be put down. Trigger Alas, Poor Villain moment.

edited 18th Dec '10 4:39:01 PM by Ultrayellow

I think it could also be interesting to look at the limitations of powers. One character I was thinking of using in a story I ultimately didn't write was an honest cop who manifested the power to summon flames, without the ability to control said flames, and ultimately found that such an ability was too destructive to make much use of.

Alternately, have an idiot who projects light-permeable force fields try to use one to block a laser.

Perhaps take a poke at the occasional uselessness of powers that can only destroy.

Read as: A fire user caught between a rock and a hard place. Sure, he could burn the guy he's fighting to a crisp. Only problem is that the guy he's fighting lured him into a forest. Burn the forest down and catch the bad guy, or let him go and save the forest and all the little woodland critters living within?

Something along those lines, yes.

One of my own characters has what I refer to as "Nightmare Powers" as in whenever she uses her pwoers, nightmarish things start happening around her, like eyes opening up in walls and things start to rot. The twist is that the people she is trying to save know that she is the one using the powers and is on their side but the imagery still frightens them.

I'm thinking for one of the protagonists, I'll have a power-user who can sever the atomic bonds of anything she touches.

Must... think of way... to make her life... miserable...

Radiation works for most people, would it for your character?

Radiation would affect her, yes.

Wouldn't that basically be initiating a nuclear fission reaction? Or is she just separating the molecules into their constituent atoms rather than splitting the atoms themselves?

Separating the atoms making up the molecules. Even I'm not crazy enough to make nuclear fission a superpower.

edited 20th Dec '10 6:16:13 PM by KSPAM

If you're hurting for a way to make her life miserable, the Required Secondary Powers (awareness of the individual molecules around her, knowing the atoms that make up every one of them) would make normal life quite difficult.

Processing all that would have to be a bitch.