How do you write a good Superhero Origin without personal tragedy?

I am trying to write a superhero story. The whole "past traumatic experience makes guy dress up like a nutjob and go punching muggers on the street" is getting a little tiring, so I want to try something different. However, I find it hard to make it believable that without a particularly strong motivation, a dude would be willing to sacrifice a normal life for all the crap you get with being a vigilante.

What do y'all think?

I think Hiro Nakamura's was refreshingly upbeat. Not much of an origin story, but it made perfect sense for his character.

What kind of superhero do you envision your character? Is he someone idealistic? A pessimist?

Well, Kick Ass is a good example of superhero who didn't lose anyone important for anything, he just one day bout a freaky costume from eBay and just went out to fight crime.

Sometimes you want to help others. In most occasions, you can't. But it's not hard to imagine someone doing so if he/she could.

EDIT: Stumbled on the reply button by

edited 23rd Jun '11 5:20:58 PM by Fancolors

Well, my character is kind of like Spider-Man in a way. As a normal person, he is introverted and serious-minded, while his alter-ego is mischievous, wise-cracking and basically Chaotic Good. He always wanted to be that sort of person but he is too shy, so having a Secret Identity help him act like who he's really is.

edited 23rd Jun '11 5:22:35 PM by Nightwire

Spider-Man's pretty idealistic and good-natured. Maybe your guy could be motivated mainly by a strong desire to help others?

The problem is the question of why a serious-minded individual would pick costumed vigilantism as his preferred way of helping.

Er, he does not exactly wear a costume. Also a Freak Lab Accident is involved.

What I meant is that though my character look like a serious-minded dude, he is actually pretty rebellious inside. Being a vigilante gives him a chance to follow his hidden ideal.

edited 23rd Jun '11 5:29:29 PM by Nightwire

The Flash, Green Lantern, Thor. Lots of Superheroes have rather tragedy-less origins, at least in their original forms.

For those who don't know, the Flash suffered a science lab accident, the Green Lantern received The Call, and Thor was exiled to Earth.

What if he was just at the right place at the right time and saved someone impulsively. Then he has a moment of clarity "This what I want to do with my life!" Then he has his lab accident and gets the power to do so.

That's actually a good idea.

Hmm...now I have an idea to tweak my superhero's own origin story. Thanks.

That's what I have been thinking of. He may accidentally save the day and everyone else thinks he is a hero and he eventually become the mask.

It's very simple if you look at being a superhero as similar to a job.

What if being a superhero was like being a slave? What if superheroism was a family business? What if there are people in this world with amazing power who see evil and ruin and simply cannot help themselves except to stop it? What if for whatever reason (such as power incontinence or lack of other skills) those with power can only find socially-acceptable work in fighting crime?

You could have a reverse superhero — someone who has always had the superpowers, but then in a freak lab accident gets the impulse to mete out justice where there was none before.

Perhaps the very nature of his power made "normal life" unlivable, like The Thing?

A character Cursed with Awesome would do, especially if he or she decides to avoid I Just Want to Be Normal angst.

There may not be any real tragedy in the textbook definition for characters like The Thing, but those physically deformed types tend to be even more wangsty than those with traumatic pasts. Probably because it's an ever-present thing.

I wrote a story years ago about a girl who used the happened-on-a-situation-and-saved-the-day method to become a real-life version of a superhero (one of the only long stories I actually finished). If it helps at all, it worked out pretty well. It was the only part of the story I look back on and don't cringe about. It seems like a natural born or accidentally stumbled upon sense of justice is the best way to go for non-vengeance or traumatic drives.

Maybe if you want trauma to be involved without having an angsty past, you could give him a loved one with an angsty past. Maybe he's so moved by the story of someone he cares about that he just has to do something about it.

Well, he's sorta rebellious, but tries to act serious minded, right? You could always make it so he feels it's the only way he can be himself. After all, for many people, their face is the mask and the mask is their face.

It could be he's just one of those people who's seen other people's tragedies. Maybe a loved one, like Psychobabble said, or maybe just seeing the rampant crime in his neighborhood, and deciding they need someone to make the world a better place.

Or he could just be completely out of touch with reality, though that doesn't really mesh well with what you've told us about the character.

The whole "beneath the mask" and "always wanted to help other people" angle can work quite well my guy's motivation, I think.

How about this for an origin story: after being indirectly responsible for his best friend's turning into a dangerous supervillain, X feels that it is his responsibility to fix what went wrong.

What if he's the child of a police officer and admires his father/mother's work, and hears him/her complain about how little mundane police can do about supervillains?

I like the idea of superheroes as cops—a police auxiliary paid to deal with the nastier criminals that normal cops can't handle. Avoids the whole vigilante issue, and allows for a wide variety of temperaments among heroes (which is particularly important if you're going for Personality Powers—plenty of people who wouldn't fight crime for free would do it to finance another goal.)

Alternately, Fantastic Racism + relatives with weak but difficult-to-hide powers = motivation to protect first them, then other, similarly weak mutants.

edited 24th Jun '11 6:05:32 PM by feotakahari

That would work. Sounds both reasonable and like a farily realistic motivation.

&Those ideas have some merit and would be quite interesting for the story. I'd consider using something like that, as well. Nothing saying you can't use both.

I'm doing something similar, but with a Super Villain instead. May I suggest looking up some superhero comics and think how they might act realistically if they were brought up happily? (eg, what would happen Peter Parker/Spiderman was brought up by Uncle Ben and May (in a world where Ben wasn't killed) and apply a similar scenario to your character? Just my 50 cents

edited 25th Jun '11 10:17:18 PM by sabrina_diamond

Try Invincible. He was working at his fast food job...then threw the trash out, and they went into space.

Queue moment.

Then he goes home, and his dad casually asks "And how was your day son?"

"I got my powers today."

Cue reveal his father is already a hero.

You could also go with a fan of heroes, or some other desire.

Make him an Ascended Fanboy.

You could build his origin around the notion of modern man's sense of ingrained powerlessness; you know, his first response to any challenge is to appeal to the "proper authority," (see's a mugging, calls the cops, sees a fire, calls the fire department, won't take any steps to assist others personally because he's not "trained" to think it's something he can do himself) and the gaining of super powers literally empowers him, that is, makes him realize that he has the power to effect his own destiny and impact the world around him, for the better. Even without personal tragedy, the acquiring of super powers should cause some kind of radical shift in your hero's perspective; in many super hero stories, getting super powers pretty much is The Call.