Deconstructing the standard superhero deconstruction

Trying to figure out how to do a dystopian world that got to its present state not because muggles need to Beware the Superman, but think they need to. Would be about a guy who gains powers and, rather than hide, make a costume and do the right thing even at great risk to himself.

Point of divergence from real life: On June 11th, 1934, people, out of nowhere, started gaining super powers from, as is discovered some time in November of '61, cosmic rays. All over the world, this leads to public hysteria of X-Men-ian proportions. Nations the world over lose varying-but invariably massive-amounts of their shit, with the UK losing the most.

By the present day, the Cold War is technically still ongoing, but its main point of conflict is no longer economic, since the Second World has widely adopted Deng Xiaopeng-esque reforms (if not to the degree that they become Communist In Name Only, as China has). It's purely a matter of politics now. The main cultural disconnect? The Warsaw Pact and the other oppressive police states making up the Second World thinks people with super powers should be put to work for the state and the people whenever they pop up, while NATO and the other oppressive police states making up most of the First World think freaks (that right about tells you how the powers that be in the First World think about supers) should be put to death before they show their true natures and officially go on murderous rampages.

Important note about the setting: since it's meant to be a deconstruction of the trite, go-to angle that deconstructing superheroes swiftly became, With Great Power Comes Great Insanity is not the case here, at least with regard to superpowers. The overwhelming majority of people who gain superpowers just keep on living their normal lives, if now in mortal terror of being found out while they learn to shot web, or of shotting web on accident where they can be found out. Worst case scenario, criminals who gain superpowers just keep doing what they've been doing already, now with powers to make it easier.

So... what details should I add in? How would this great freakout change history, other than leading to most of the real world's democracies (India and Japan are the only exceptions I've come up with at the moment) becoming police states? What other outliers would there be, where anti-super hysteria didn't get to the point where it started impacting civil liberties? How would pop culture have changed, beyond it being stifled by the real world's biggest producer of it clamping down on freedom of expression? And so on and so forth.

edited 16th Apr '15 3:29:18 PM by Bonerfart

This is basically the plot of X-Men. But yeah, I think it could work. In fact, a dystopia could form based on a sort of Bergeson-esque desire to "make all equal".

I'd say The Grimnoir Chronicles does a pretty good job at offering a great variety of reactions to differently powered individuals, including mandatory drafting in China and the USSR, and somewhat general anxiety in the USA. However, one of the more interesting notions of the books is the fact that gadgeteer geniuses are also among the empowered, leading to a full-blown alternate universe circa 1930. But even more importantly - acceptance of the empowered is very much dependent on the specific powers themselves, as there seem to be a strictly defined variety of abilities. For instance, healers and the aforementioned gadgeteers are well respected and even revered; low-level gravity masters are generally regarded as dumb muscles; and functional necromancers give everyone the creeps.

In general, I guess reaction to the empowered will mostly be on a case-by-case basis, or even a matter of values dissonance. With that in mind, a genuine costumed superhero could well be someone whose powers don't match their character, trying to do the right thing against popular prejudice regarding their specific abilities - prejudice that the dystopian states themselves might use to justify their oppression. At any rate, it'll actually be a pretty fresh take on the matter if the person in question is genuinely upstanding and optimistic, rather than yet another gloomy anti-hero angsting over potential power incontinence or being cursed with awesome in general. So, kinda like a superpowered perky goth. Food for thought.

edited 27th Apr '15 2:32:37 PM by indiana404