Superheroes in the Pokemon universe?

I'm writing a Pokemon Super Fic. It takes place in a region I'm making up, in which one of the local legendary Pokemon imbues the land with its mystical energy, making the entire region a Weirdness Magnet and occasionally causing its inhabitants to develop superpowers.

Rather than just slapping Differently Powered Individuals into the setting and calling it good, I'm trying to think through how the existence of Pokemon affects the way they work. Here is what I've realized so far:

• Pokemon have powers of their own that kind of render superheroes redundant.
• Every individual super would effectively be a team of up to 7.
• In a world where even the most dangerous villains and Olympus Mons are defeated by children on a regular basis, the situation would have to be extremely dire to justify the need for superheroes.
• A super could potentially be identified in their civilian persona if they use the same Pokemon for both. ^note Unless they can convince everyone that it's because they're such a huge fan of their alter ego. The ones who either have the time to raise multiple teams, or just plain lack a Secret Identity, don't have this issue.

Is there anything else I might be missing?

edited 26th Nov '17 5:59:40 PM by AgentKirin

Not really, I just say that honestly, you dont need to make things harsh to justify a super hero in the Pokemon world, the Pokeworld is just a fun place overall and a Superhero would basically work like a respected trainer.

Good point. I guess the conflict doesn't have to be impossible for normal people to handle. The supers could just be the ones who happen to be there.

The "respected trainer" thing is an interesting idea, too. I had been thinking of having a few of the most well-known supers be the main heroes of their respective areas of the region (although they didn't cooperate with each other much until the latest threat required them to team up).

It's the most streamlined and simple approach I believe. Are your Supers going to be expies or preexisting superheroes?

Normal respected trainers neither cooperate a lot, I imagine the superheroes being treated as basically mysterious kind trainers.

Isn't the Pokemon games already a superhero fiction? Kid hero becomes vigilante and beat up bad guys.

One of them is inspired a little bit by the Scarlet Pimpernel, and another is meant to evoke the image of The Cape, a la Captain America ^note although this one, being based on Empoleon, has Water-type powers and uses a completely different kind of shield. Other than that, they're more or less original.

So, kind of like the Champions in the canon games?

You're right, they kind of are... Evaporate the oceans? Flood the world? Rewrite existence? Conquer the region? Wipe out all other life on the planet? Those sound like supervillain plots to me. The difference here is that some of the trainers themselves have powers.

edited 27th Nov '17 8:38:53 PM by AgentKirin

When did all that happen?

I was just naming villain teams' plots from the games. ^note Magma, Aqua, Galactic, Plasma, and Flare respectively. They wouldn't be too out-of place as supervillains.

There's also the fact that various superhuman powers have manifested in humans in the games' canon already- Sabrina and the various psychics, or Riley and the Aura Guardians, all have abilities that are way beyond what any human would be capable of. For that matter, if I remember right, some of the fighters are at least hinted to have superhuman abilities as well.

So yeah- superheroes wouldn't look out of place at all in the Pokemon universe, and in fact apparently already exist, at least in the anime- a quick search reveals the existence of 'Gligarman', so... yeah.

Good point. It kind of makes me wonder why we don't see more superpowered crime-fighting already.

"Every individual super would effectively be a team of up to 7."

Not every trainer is carrying a full team though. You can also delve into the deal about personal connections and why pokemon form friendships and follow humans, pull something like they can respect powerless trainers more than powered ones (and the canon examples are more exceptions of mons forming deep bonds from a more rocky start).

Also for regulated battles of championships, the superhumans themselves would obviously be banned from taking the field themselves, even if they are public about the powers.

"It kind of makes me wonder why we don't see more superpowered crime-fighting already."

That's literally every time Team Rocket appears. And the chief plots of all the games include it.
It's everywhere.

edited 7th Dec '17 3:23:36 AM by Adannor

That's why I said "up to 7." They could be carrying less than a full team, but by the climax most of the main characters will probably have a full team, or close to it.

The personal connections thing sounds like a neat idea. My Intrepid Reporter protagonist will be building up her team over the course of the story, so I could incorporate it there. ^note Although I don't see a very strong reason that Pokemon would respect a normal trainer more than a super, or vice-versa. Both face obstacles, and having/lacking powers has no bearing on one's strength or skill as a trainer.

Definitely planning on having rules against superpower use during regulated battles.

When I mentioned "superpowered crime-fighting," I was talking about the superhumans, rather than the Pokemon. Good point, though. Pokemon are practically superheroes in their own right.

Personally, I'd probably go with superheroes being slightly stronger than non-legendary pokemon on average, because a trainer can carry up to six pokemon.

One possible origin for super-heroes could be actual exposure to pokemon DNA, allowing them to use certain pokemon attacks, like say, hyper bream and whatever. I probably wouldn't make them full on hybrids, just modified enough to use pokemon attacks.

That seems like a good power level: strong enough that their Pokemon don't make them redundant, but not so strong that they never need their Pokemon.

With the region essentially being a mini comic book world (on top of the Pokemon universe already being a Fantasy Kitchen Sink), there will definitely be some LEGO Genetics. One of the main characters, for instance, gets her powers after attempting to replicate Bill's Teleporter Accident in a more controlled manner using a sample of Charizard's DNA. ^note She does become a hybrid, though.

The supers in general fight in much the same way as Pokemon, including the type matchups and four-move limit.

I know he was sort of a joke character (a parody of Adam West's Batman) but a superhero-themed Pokemon story wouldn't really be complete without Gligarman!

I might throw in a Joke Character or two (but not Gligarman specifically, since the fic takes place in the games' universe), probably based on something with crappy stats/moves, or a useless ability, or just a silly design. Or maybe the Move Deleter as a supervillain.