Deconstruction Of Superheroes, Specificly Reed Richards Is Useless

That's all well and good. But who stops Dr. Genocide when he decides that there haven't been enough cities exploding lately?

The army with super suits that were manufactured because Professor Awesome worked on a way of manufacturing them cheaply instead of running around with the prototype.

Then it's exactly like I said. The superhero cannot go extinct unless the gap in power between them and muggles is bridged.

Hell, in this case, this isn't even the death of the superhero, but the beginning of mass empowerment. If anything, you're creating more superheroes.

Yes but if everyone iis super than there is now super. And any issues the Shuster's marrying and having kid's with other superpowered being could cause? Aside from adding abilities to their genes.

I sincerely hope the fact that you're quoting a maniacal supervillain there is just coincidence. But it is a good point - the "superhero" as such will no longer exist when Everyone Is a Super.

Still, yeah wouldn't it be better if everyone could take a nuke and not age rather than one family?

If everyone could fly and breathe in space, then I'd say colonisation of the universe is pretty much in the bag.

So any issues a kid growing up with telepathy and empathy might have? Martin has those. And was there a real stigma about adoption in the 60's?

The problem with the "if everyone's super then no one is" argument is the assumption that all powers are created equal. Even if everyone in the world has Mr. Fantastic's Rubber Man abilities, Superman would still be Superman.

Good point.

Or that you give everyone all the powers. Point taken, though.

Wonder if Gran would tell anyone about how she used to be a Starfish Alien.

That would probably never come up in conversation, so it would have to be someone she chose to tell specifically.

Wonder how Jane and Martin would react to being descended from a Starfish Alien.

Martin's happy at the extra step away from the Puny Earthlings; Jane just thinks it's cool.

Wonder how they'd react to their extinction...

I have an image of Martin thinking something like, "Lovely. So eventually, the only person in my class is going to be my sister, until she finds some mortal to latch on to."

edited 19th Jul '11 10:32:50 AM by RedWren

I mean't the extinction of Gran's original race.

Depression? Annoyance? How do they find out?

Well Martin's just gotten tortured and thrown from space by a member of Gran's race looking for vengance. Gran decides it's best to admit it. And what was the thing about Jane and mortals?

edited 24th Jul '11 6:08:22 AM by Zolnier

Since you asked a bit back, back in the 1960s, at least in the US, being adopted outside your blood relatives was considered a stigma enough that many adoptees were not told until some crisis arose that the parents were forced to own up to. Being adopted within your blood family was not so much, which would apply to Jane. (That is, some bullies might rag on her about her "real" parents being dead, but most of her peers wouldn't care,)

And that time period's attitude towards adoptees was far improved from the 1930/40s, when adoption was a deep dark secret (because at the time it implied illegitimate birth.) One of the things that started changing attitudes, starting in the late 1940s, was war orphans, who had legitimate reasons for not having parents.

And then cross-cultural adoption, where parents simply couldn't hide the fact the kid looked nothing like them, really opened up societal attitudes and made it much more okay to talk about being adopted and being accepted for that.

Thanks for that. How might 60's sexism apply to her?

Since she's prepubescent, not quite as much as older girls—she'd be expected to wear skirts for school or other semi-formal instances, but being a tomboy was tolerated in young girls. Where sexism is most likely to rear its head for Jane is that in any instance where she and her male cousin are interacting with other people, those people are just going to assume that the boy is the leader. Also, her plans for the future will be assumed to include "wife and mother", and more conservative elders might try to steer her towards the "feminine" version of any career.

"I wanna be a doctor when I grow up!"

"Oh Jane, I'm sure you'll be a fine nurse."

It's worth mentioning that the National Organization for Women (NOW) wasn't founded until 1966, and in the early part of the decade, "feminism" had not yet been made the term for the then "women's liberation" movement.

If the family's been around a while and they mostly dedicate themselves to stock superheroism, then the appearance of a female superhero won't be considered anything unusual and something with which male chauvinists have to put up.

Would it make sense for newspapers to say that superheriones are only assisting their male teammates? Giving most credit to the male.

Oh, definitely, especially in the time period.