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May HAVE, not may OF.
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* MagicMeteor: Although the trope is typically not used this darkly. May not of been a meteor either...
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* MagicMeteor: Although the trope is typically not used this darkly. May not of have been a meteor either...
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* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: At the end, all Specials are dead. The two most important non-Special characters - Dr. Welles and General Paulson - also die.]]
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* AnAesop: You only have a single lifetime in which to make a difference in the world. Figure out what your individual talents are, and put them to use!
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* InherentInTheSystem: This is the implication of the third act - that there are many things that could easily be made objectively better, but that improvement is hindered by entrenched interests and systemic corruption. The ultimate purpose of the Specials is to wield unchecked power for one brief moment in history to push humanity out of its rut and set it on the path to utopia.
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* VillainHasAPoint: The conspirators in Act 3 are completely right that Randy is making the entire government march in lockstep with him through blackmail, freeing him from the sort of checks on his power a president is meant to have.
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The year is 1969. [[MagicMeteor A single comet falls from the sky]], looking like God's finger. [[FlippingTheBird What finger of God it was]], Poet doesn't know. However it then explodes/disappears in a flash that lights the sky above the small [[EagleLand American]] town of Pederson. Poet is one of the 113 specials, the children that were ready to be born when that flash occurred and gave them powers that only ruin their lives. Each has a power regardless of their personality, [[BlessedWithSuck not that they want them.]]
to:
The year is 1969. [[MagicMeteor A single comet falls from the sky]], looking like God's finger. [[FlippingTheBird What finger of God it was]], was, Poet doesn't know. However it then explodes/disappears in a flash that lights the sky above the small [[EagleLand American]] town of Pederson. Poet is one of the 113 specials, the children that were ready to be born when that flash occurred and gave them powers that only ruin their lives. Each has a power regardless of their personality, [[BlessedWithSuck not that they want them.]]
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{{Spin Off}}s include:
* ''Rising Stars: Bright'' (2003): A series that takes place during Matthew Bright's rookie years as a police officer.
* ''Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead'' (2005): A series about Lionel Zerb, a Special who [[ISeeDeadPeople can see dead people]].
* ''Rising Stars: Untouchable'' (2006): About a Special who worked for the CIA as an assassin, Laurel Darkhaven.
* ''Rising Stars: Bright'' (2003): A series that takes place during Matthew Bright's rookie years as a police officer.
* ''Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead'' (2005): A series about Lionel Zerb, a Special who [[ISeeDeadPeople can see dead people]].
* ''Rising Stars: Untouchable'' (2006): About a Special who worked for the CIA as an assassin, Laurel Darkhaven.
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* OneTrackMindedArtist: A variation; as children, the Pederson Specials were all given an assignment to draw a picture of their earliest memory. ''Every single one of them'' drew a picture of the MassEmpoweringEvent that gave them all superpowers, despite the fact that none of them were even ''conceived'' that night.
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How To Write An Example - Don't Write Reviews
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* IJustWantToBeSpecial: One boy, born a year after the other "Specials", acts out and pretends to be one of the empowered 113. [[TearJerker He dies saving a girl's life from an out-of-control truck]]. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming The Specials all go to his funeral and honor him as one of their own.]]
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* IJustWantToBeSpecial: One boy, born a year after the other "Specials", acts out and pretends to be one of the empowered 113. [[TearJerker He dies saving a girl's life from an out-of-control truck]]. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming truck. The Specials all go to his funeral and honor him as one of their own.]]
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* AuthorTract: Issue #16 features a lot of discussion about how the conflict in the Middle East could be solved if there wasn't scarcity of resources or fertile land, with Poet outright denying Laura's comments about the conflict being much deeper than that, despite her being active in the region for at least a decade.
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* AuthorTract: Issue #16 features a lot of discussion about how the conflict in the Middle East could be solved if there wasn't scarcity of resources or fertile land, with Poet outright denying Laura's Laurel's comments about the conflict being much deeper than that, despite her being active in the region for at least a decade.
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* AuthorTract: Issue #16 features a lot of discussion about how the conflict in the Middle East could be solved if there wasn't scarcity of resources or fertile land, with Poet outright denying Laura's comments about the conflict being much deeper than that, despite her being active in the region for at least a decade.
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** JMS throws in a couple nods to his previous work on ''Series/BabylonFive'', with the phrase "signs and portents," and the ability to kill someone by telekinetically crushing their carotid artery.
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** JMS throws in a couple nods to his previous work on ''Series/BabylonFive'', with the phrase phrases "signs and portents," portents" and "last best hope", and the ability to kill someone by telekinetically crushing their carotid artery.
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** Also the [[spoiler:"Waco" incident where TheGovernment murdered seven Specials(and later made bullshit excuses about reflections of sunlight as in RealLife) - this turns every Special into a FlyingBrick who can shrug off ''artillery''.]] Mass pig slaughter ensues.
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** Also the [[spoiler:"Waco" incident where TheGovernment murdered seven Specials(and later made bullshit excuses about reflections of sunlight as in RealLife) - this turns every Special into a FlyingBrick who can shrug off ''artillery''.]] Mass pig slaughter ensues.
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-->'''Matthew:''' "I signed on to save lives. If I meant that, then I had to do what was necessary. Or it was all a lie. Whoever did this was smart, all right. Lead me on a wild goose-chase. And now my men are trapped inside the building I didn't search. I can't let them die. I refuse. Damn the exposure, '''I refuse'''.
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-->'''Matthew:''' "I I signed on to save lives. If I meant that, then I had to do what was necessary. Or it was all a lie. Whoever did this was smart, all right. Lead me on a wild goose-chase. And now my men are trapped inside the building I didn't search. I can't let them die. I refuse. Damn the exposure, '''I refuse'''.
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* ShoutOut: There were 113 specials born. The protagonist - who was conceived at the exact moment of the Flash and is thus the 113th Special - is named John. In the Bible, John 1:13 reads: "Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
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* ShoutOut: ShoutOut:
** There were 113 specials born. The protagonist - who was conceived at the exact moment of the Flash and is thus the 113th Special - is named John. In the Bible, John 1:13 reads: "Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." "
** JMS throws in a couple nods to his previous work on ''Series/BabylonFive'', with the phrase "signs and portents," and the ability to kill someone by telekinetically crushing their carotid artery.
** There were 113 specials born. The protagonist - who was conceived at the exact moment of the Flash and is thus the 113th Special - is named John. In the Bible, John 1:13 reads: "Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
** JMS throws in a couple nods to his previous work on ''Series/BabylonFive'', with the phrase "signs and portents," and the ability to kill someone by telekinetically crushing their carotid artery.
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** The Hero's ability is control of energy fields, supposedly minor and not of much use. He actually controls the power itself and is by far the deadliest.
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** The Hero's Poet's ability is control of energy fields, supposedly minor and not of much use. He actually controls the power itself and is by far the deadliest.
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* PubertySuperPower: Averted for the most part as all of the "Specials" were taken around the age of six and most of them had their powers activated over the next few years, mostly triggered at need (e.g. falling off a floor caused some to fly). Then there were some whose powers weren't activated until adulthood such as Cathy. Elizabeth is one of the rare ones as her power just turned on one day in high school.
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* PubertySuperPower: Averted for the most part as all of the "Specials" were taken around the age of six and most of them had their powers activated over the next few years, mostly triggered at need (e.g. falling off a floor caused some to fly). Then there were some whose powers weren't activated until adulthood such as Cathy. Elizabeth Chandra is one of the rare ones as her power just turned on one day in high school.
* SeriesContinuityError: Chandra is stated to be unable to fly, even after the power increase at the end of volume 1, and is usually seen being carried by John or Randy. Except when the writer or artist forgets, and depicts her flying anyway.
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* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Elizabeth has a power that she is seen by everyone as the most beautiful person they can imagine. This hurts her in that no one sees the real her, and sees her as their own object of lust. [[spoiler:Later she gets the power to inspire love instead of lust.]]
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* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Elizabeth Chandra has a power that she is seen by everyone as the most beautiful person they can imagine. This hurts her in that no one sees the real her, and sees her as their own object of lust. [[spoiler:Later she gets the power to inspire love instead of lust.]]
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* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Paula Ramirez has the ability to sing beautifully in some manner that goes beyond her voice, almost like telepathically beaming beauty in to the brains of her listeners. Unlike every other Special important enough to have a name and appear in multiple issues right up to the end series, this ability is never used in any plot- or thematically-relevant or way.
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** ... except for [[spoiler: Joshua]], who misses out on the power increase because he doesn't feel he deserves it - there's a psychological component to the Specials' abilities that isn't clearly defined. Also [[spoiler: Cathy Jean]], who wasn't even aware that [[spoiler:she]] had powers in the first place; while everyone else is running around nigh-invincible, shrugging off machine-gun fire, [[spoiler: she gets killed by a single bullet.]]
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** Oddly averted with more difficult math -- while 113 women in a small town being pregnant sounds like a large number, about 3.13% of women are pregnant at any time. Adding in the male half of the population, this comes to just over 8000 people in Pederson, and doesn't even account for multiple births.
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* CorporateSponsoredSuperhero: Patriot.
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* CorporateSponsoredSuperhero: Patriot.Originally Patriot, who is sponsored by Nexus Corp. [[spoiler:Once he's freed from Critical Maas's mind control, his first movie is to quit and expose the unethical practices of Nexus Corp.]]
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* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: At the end, all Specials are dead. The two most important non-Special characters also die.]]
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* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: At the end, all Specials are dead. The two most important non-Special characters - Dr. Welles and General Paulson - also die.]]
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* TheCape: Patriot set out to be this due to being a huge superhero fan, but it was the capeless Matthew Bright who better embodies the ideals of this kind of hero. He wanted to help people so badly that he got a fake identity in order to be a police officer, since Specials were banned from any government service. At one point an investigation into some bombings results in several fellow officers being trapped in a burning building. To use his powers to save them means exposing himself as a Special, losing his job and being subject to a media circus, as well as the scorn of his friends. Matthew's inner thoughts says it all.
-->'''Matthew:''' "I signed on to save lives. If I meant that, then I had to do what was necessary. Or it was all a lie. Whoever did this was smart, all right. Lead me on a wild goose-chase. And now my men are trapped inside the building I didn't search. I can't let them die. I refuse. Damn the exposure, '''I refuse'''.
-->'''Matthew:''' "I signed on to save lives. If I meant that, then I had to do what was necessary. Or it was all a lie. Whoever did this was smart, all right. Lead me on a wild goose-chase. And now my men are trapped inside the building I didn't search. I can't let them die. I refuse. Damn the exposure, '''I refuse'''.
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* ImmunityDisability: One man's power is invulnerability from external harm--but this also leaves him highly insensitive to any form of touch, except on the back of his tongue, where he could still taste. He developed an eating disorder and became an indestructible obese man.
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* FeelNoPain: One of the Supers doesn't feel anything when he's hit (and is functionally invulnerable)... but on the other hand, he can't feel anything but taste, which is why he's obese.
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* NoSell: Subverted. One guy is completely invulnerable, but he's one of the first to be killed [[spoiler:by asphyxiation.]]
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* TimeSkip: 10 years between issue #8 and #9.
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* WritersCannotDoMath: The magazine in issue #9 is dated July 2012. However, in issue #22, which is supposed to set years later, it's stated that Randy Fisk unsuccessfully ran for President in 2008 and 2012, before winning in 2016. It's also stated that he was 48 in 2008, meaning that he was born around 1960. However, earlier it's said that the flash occurred at the end of the '60s, and all Specials were born not long after that.
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* WritersCannotDoMath: The magazine in issue #9 (see FictionalDocument) is dated July 2012. However, in issue #22, which is supposed to set years later, it's stated that Randy Fisk unsuccessfully ran for President in 2008 and 2012, before winning in 2016. It's also stated that he was 48 in 2008, meaning that he was born around 1960. However, earlier it's said that the flash occurred at the end of the '60s, and all Specials were born not long after that.
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The comic was published from 1999-2005. Creator/JMichaelStraczynski wrote it, and it has been speculated how much ''{{The 4400}}'' and ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' drew from it.
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The comic was published from 1999-2005. Creator/JMichaelStraczynski wrote it, and it has been speculated how much ''{{The 4400}}'' ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'' and ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' drew from it.
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* ShoutOut: There were 113 specials born. The protagonist's name is John. In the Bible, John 1:13 reads: "Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
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* ShoutOut: There were 113 specials born. The protagonist's name protagonist - who was conceived at the exact moment of the Flash and is thus the 113th Special - is named John. In the Bible, John 1:13 reads: "Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
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* PubertySuperPower: Some powers are triggered at need. Some from young age. Some just happened. Elizabeth's just turned on one day in high school.
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* PubertySuperPower: Some Averted for the most part as all of the "Specials" were taken around the age of six and most of them had their powers are activated over the next few years, mostly triggered at need. Some from young age. Some just happened. Elizabeth's need (e.g. falling off a floor caused some to fly). Then there were some whose powers weren't activated until adulthood such as Cathy. Elizabeth is one of the rare ones as her power just turned on one day in high school.
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* HarsherInHindsight: When asked why he doesn't arrest Saddam Hussein, Patriot replies that doing so would "only lead to more terrorism in the area". Fast forward several years, and look what happened... Saddam goes down, and the place went nuts!
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rising1.jpg]]
->''Poet's Journal. This is way it happened. Not the way I would like to think it happened. Or even the way it probably happened. Just the truth about the way it happened, and what came after. Though no one really understood what happened that night. Not for a long time. Not until the first of us was born.''
The year is 1969. [[MagicMeteor A single comet falls from the sky]], looking like God's finger. [[FlippingTheBird What finger of God it was]], Poet doesn't know. However it then explodes/disappears in a flash that lights the sky above the small [[EagleLand American]] town of Pederson. Poet is one of the 113 specials, the children that were ready to be born when that flash occurred and gave them powers that only ruin their lives. Each has a power regardless of their personality, [[BlessedWithSuck not that they want them.]]
The story is told by Poet, about his friends, the other Specials, and how they began and ended over a period of decades in {{flashback}}s and {{flashforward}}s.
The comic was published from 1999-2005. Creator/JMichaelStraczynski wrote it, and it has been speculated how much ''{{The 4400}}'' and ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' drew from it.
----
!!Tropes related to this comic book:
* TheAtoner: Jason after Chicago. His atonement? Straight out of Superman 4, Disarmament.
* BewareTheSuperman: Played with here; Specials mean well for the most part, but once everyone turns against them, we see how rough they can get in Chicago after the [[spoiler:murder of enough Specials the power is redistributed to the survivors, who are now pissed off and are all {{Flying Brick}}s.]]
* BizarreBabyBoom: All 113 were in utero or being conceived when a flash hit their small town. No one else gets powers, not even their children.
* BlessedWithSuck: Combined with the fact that the public hates them, the Specials have a terrible time with their powers.
* BookEnds: The last page of the comic draws from the first couple of pages.
* CaptainPatriotic: Flagg (later Patriot) works on a reputation as this, but Matthew Bright is a better example because he's so dedicated to his country he even wants to work for the police after being banned.
** Matthew goes as far as getting a fake name and joining the police under it, only getting discovered after he uses his powers to save several cops from a bomb. Subversion here as once he's found out the [[TurnInYourBadge Federal Government gets involved]] as per act of Congress the Specials are banned from Government jobs and he can't have a regular badge. So the police give him a special badge.
* CorporateSponsoredSuperhero: Patriot.
* DifferentlyPoweredIndividual: "Specials".
* DieOrFly: Many powers get triggered by either the need for their use or the situation. A few seem to have been on since as a small child, but most don't get activated until after the kids are taken to camp. How people figure out who can fly is to jump off the roof. Those that can fly do so. Those who can't get broken arms and legs.
* FictionalDocument: A large part of issue #9 is a fake magazine called "Mediaweek", which describes the situation 10 years after the events of the previous issue.
* FlyingBrick: Matthew Bright and Patriot. Poet can use some of those powers, but hides it due to Dr. Welles belief that Poet's the failsafe.
** After the incident [[spoiler:most of the surviving specials get enough power to throttle them to high power and give them these abilities with their other powers]] .
* FlightStrengthHeart: Patriot is a flying brick with super senses for radiation, Joshua Kane can fly and has strength as well as lights, Willie Smith can not only fly and have the strength and speed, he's a minor telepath. After Volume 1, [[spoiler:the surviving specials are all much stronger since the power is conserved. Except Brody, he gets even smarter]]
* FreudianExcuse: Freud explains most of screwed up nature of the folks involved.
* HarsherInHindsight: When asked why he doesn't arrest Saddam Hussein, Patriot replies that doing so would "only lead to more terrorism in the area". Fast forward several years, and look what happened... Saddam goes down, and the place went nuts!
* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Laurel can use her powers to telekinetically manipulate tiny objects. It sounds lame, but those tiny objects include your arteries. Deadly. Another gets the ability to be smart, is smart enough to commercialize just enough to hide and spends his time inventing and proving here ReedRichardsIsUseless doesn't apply. . A third gets the ability to talk to the dead. Uses it to get the secrets of the dead and be able to fight political blackmail.
** The Hero's ability is control of energy fields, supposedly minor and not of much use. He actually controls the power itself and is by far the deadliest.
* HeroicRROD: [[spoiler: Laurel manages to turn the deserts of the Middle East into fertile lands, but it kills her.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: Defeating Critical Maas takes four: [[spoiler: Cathy Jean, Joshua, Matt (though he just falls into a coma and gets better eventually) and Stephanie Maas]].
* IJustWantToBeNormal: They're all so BlessedWithSuck, who could blame them? A few are not quite as hostile due to PowerPerversionPotential
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: One boy, born a year after the other "Specials", acts out and pretends to be one of the empowered 113. [[TearJerker He dies saving a girl's life from an out-of-control truck]]. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming The Specials all go to his funeral and honor him as one of their own.]]
* InMediasRes
* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: At the end, all Specials are dead. The two most important non-Special characters also die.]]
* KillOneOthersGetStronger: If a Special dies, his/her energy is transferred to the surviving Specials, making their powers stronger.
* KryptoniteFactor: All the Specials can be killed. When an invulnerable Special is found murdered, the other Specials are suspects, since they watched each other grow up and have seen each others' weaknesses.
* MagicMeteor: Although the trope is typically not used this darkly. May not of been a meteor either...
* MagicPants: Averted: Pyre is naked when he's using his powers.
* MassSuperEmpoweringEvent: The meteor dropping.
** Also the [[spoiler:"Waco" incident where TheGovernment murdered seven Specials(and later made bullshit excuses about reflections of sunlight as in RealLife) - this turns every Special into a FlyingBrick who can shrug off ''artillery''.]] Mass pig slaughter ensues.
* PlayingWithFire: Pyre, Lee Jackson.
* PowerPerversionPotential: Several. Most try to figure out a way to make a few bucks on their powers. Some become government assassins. Some go full super-villain or use their powers in kinky ways. Maas has to use her power in a perverted manner for it to work, at first.
* PubertySuperPower: Some powers are triggered at need. Some from young age. Some just happened. Elizabeth's just turned on one day in high school.
* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Averted, as the last third of the series is devoted to the Specials using their powers to help humanity. For instance, Brody Kempler, who has the power of super-intelligence, is smart enough to hide until he's ready with his inventions. Including cures for just about every disease, fusion power, and an interstellar spaceship.
** He's still stumped by [[spoiler:Jason's]] radiation sickness - any normal person would have been dead after absorbing a fraction of his rad count, so Brody doesn't even know where to ''start.''
* ShootingSuperman: Or shooting Pyre. Bullets don't have effect on him.
* ShoutOut: There were 113 specials born. The protagonist's name is John. In the Bible, John 1:13 reads: "Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Elizabeth has a power that she is seen by everyone as the most beautiful person they can imagine. This hurts her in that no one sees the real her, and sees her as their own object of lust. [[spoiler:Later she gets the power to inspire love instead of lust.]]
** It's implied that another Special sees her as she really is because he fell in love with her as a child, so her real self is the most beautiful person he can imagine.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Goes both ways. On one hand, you have an evil government agency who wants to control/kill all the main characters, but on the other hand, the Middle East getting farmable land stops all the fighting in that region, vigilantism ends all crime and terrorism, and everyone getting the ability to read minds for a day results in world peace.
* StrawmanPolitical: Joshua's dad is a pretty harsh strawman of the religious right. The main antagonist, General Paulson, is a stereotypical GeneralRipper. While Patriot works for Nexus Corp, he's a fairly selfish JerkJock corporate tool [[spoiler:who is being mind-controlled by Critical Maas (who he willingly cheated on his wife with)]]. Once he quits and becomes good, he lets everyone know they're an evil MegaCorp whose been dumping toxic waste and holding sweat shops amongst other things.
* SuperPoweredEvilSide: Stephanie Maas/Critical Maas
* SuperpowerfulGenetics: Averted. Specials' children don't get their powers.
* SuperPowerLottery: Oh Boy. Powers vary, and many get some combination of a classic power, flight or strength, with some thing else. So you got the 'high powered' Patriot and Mathew Bright with Genius level minds, super-strength, and flight. Goes all the way down to the lower powers of [[WhatKindofLamePowerIsHeartAnyway Heart]] with Paula Ramirez's ability to sing beautifully. At the end of Book 1, [[spoiler:TheGovernment kills one too many of them in a Waco-style incident, pushing all of them to high power, and most gain at least strength or flight, except Brody who gets even smarter.]]
* TouchOfDeath: Laurel has it; specifically she's touching the artery giving blood to the brain.
* WritersCannotDoMath: The magazine in issue #9 is dated July 2012. However, in issue #22, which is supposed to set years later, it's stated that Randy Fisk unsuccessfully ran for President in 2008 and 2012, before winning in 2016. It's also stated that he was 48 in 2008, meaning that he was born around 1960. However, earlier it's said that the flash occurred at the end of the '60s, and all Specials were born not long after that.
----
->''Poet's Journal. This is way it happened. Not the way I would like to think it happened. Or even the way it probably happened. Just the truth about the way it happened, and what came after. Though no one really understood what happened that night. Not for a long time. Not until the first of us was born.''
The year is 1969. [[MagicMeteor A single comet falls from the sky]], looking like God's finger. [[FlippingTheBird What finger of God it was]], Poet doesn't know. However it then explodes/disappears in a flash that lights the sky above the small [[EagleLand American]] town of Pederson. Poet is one of the 113 specials, the children that were ready to be born when that flash occurred and gave them powers that only ruin their lives. Each has a power regardless of their personality, [[BlessedWithSuck not that they want them.]]
The story is told by Poet, about his friends, the other Specials, and how they began and ended over a period of decades in {{flashback}}s and {{flashforward}}s.
The comic was published from 1999-2005. Creator/JMichaelStraczynski wrote it, and it has been speculated how much ''{{The 4400}}'' and ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' drew from it.
----
!!Tropes related to this comic book:
* TheAtoner: Jason after Chicago. His atonement? Straight out of Superman 4, Disarmament.
* BewareTheSuperman: Played with here; Specials mean well for the most part, but once everyone turns against them, we see how rough they can get in Chicago after the [[spoiler:murder of enough Specials the power is redistributed to the survivors, who are now pissed off and are all {{Flying Brick}}s.]]
* BizarreBabyBoom: All 113 were in utero or being conceived when a flash hit their small town. No one else gets powers, not even their children.
* BlessedWithSuck: Combined with the fact that the public hates them, the Specials have a terrible time with their powers.
* BookEnds: The last page of the comic draws from the first couple of pages.
* CaptainPatriotic: Flagg (later Patriot) works on a reputation as this, but Matthew Bright is a better example because he's so dedicated to his country he even wants to work for the police after being banned.
** Matthew goes as far as getting a fake name and joining the police under it, only getting discovered after he uses his powers to save several cops from a bomb. Subversion here as once he's found out the [[TurnInYourBadge Federal Government gets involved]] as per act of Congress the Specials are banned from Government jobs and he can't have a regular badge. So the police give him a special badge.
* CorporateSponsoredSuperhero: Patriot.
* DifferentlyPoweredIndividual: "Specials".
* DieOrFly: Many powers get triggered by either the need for their use or the situation. A few seem to have been on since as a small child, but most don't get activated until after the kids are taken to camp. How people figure out who can fly is to jump off the roof. Those that can fly do so. Those who can't get broken arms and legs.
* FictionalDocument: A large part of issue #9 is a fake magazine called "Mediaweek", which describes the situation 10 years after the events of the previous issue.
* FlyingBrick: Matthew Bright and Patriot. Poet can use some of those powers, but hides it due to Dr. Welles belief that Poet's the failsafe.
** After the incident [[spoiler:most of the surviving specials get enough power to throttle them to high power and give them these abilities with their other powers]] .
* FlightStrengthHeart: Patriot is a flying brick with super senses for radiation, Joshua Kane can fly and has strength as well as lights, Willie Smith can not only fly and have the strength and speed, he's a minor telepath. After Volume 1, [[spoiler:the surviving specials are all much stronger since the power is conserved. Except Brody, he gets even smarter]]
* FreudianExcuse: Freud explains most of screwed up nature of the folks involved.
* HarsherInHindsight: When asked why he doesn't arrest Saddam Hussein, Patriot replies that doing so would "only lead to more terrorism in the area". Fast forward several years, and look what happened... Saddam goes down, and the place went nuts!
* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Laurel can use her powers to telekinetically manipulate tiny objects. It sounds lame, but those tiny objects include your arteries. Deadly. Another gets the ability to be smart, is smart enough to commercialize just enough to hide and spends his time inventing and proving here ReedRichardsIsUseless doesn't apply. . A third gets the ability to talk to the dead. Uses it to get the secrets of the dead and be able to fight political blackmail.
** The Hero's ability is control of energy fields, supposedly minor and not of much use. He actually controls the power itself and is by far the deadliest.
* HeroicRROD: [[spoiler: Laurel manages to turn the deserts of the Middle East into fertile lands, but it kills her.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: Defeating Critical Maas takes four: [[spoiler: Cathy Jean, Joshua, Matt (though he just falls into a coma and gets better eventually) and Stephanie Maas]].
* IJustWantToBeNormal: They're all so BlessedWithSuck, who could blame them? A few are not quite as hostile due to PowerPerversionPotential
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: One boy, born a year after the other "Specials", acts out and pretends to be one of the empowered 113. [[TearJerker He dies saving a girl's life from an out-of-control truck]]. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming The Specials all go to his funeral and honor him as one of their own.]]
* InMediasRes
* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: At the end, all Specials are dead. The two most important non-Special characters also die.]]
* KillOneOthersGetStronger: If a Special dies, his/her energy is transferred to the surviving Specials, making their powers stronger.
* KryptoniteFactor: All the Specials can be killed. When an invulnerable Special is found murdered, the other Specials are suspects, since they watched each other grow up and have seen each others' weaknesses.
* MagicMeteor: Although the trope is typically not used this darkly. May not of been a meteor either...
* MagicPants: Averted: Pyre is naked when he's using his powers.
* MassSuperEmpoweringEvent: The meteor dropping.
** Also the [[spoiler:"Waco" incident where TheGovernment murdered seven Specials(and later made bullshit excuses about reflections of sunlight as in RealLife) - this turns every Special into a FlyingBrick who can shrug off ''artillery''.]] Mass pig slaughter ensues.
* PlayingWithFire: Pyre, Lee Jackson.
* PowerPerversionPotential: Several. Most try to figure out a way to make a few bucks on their powers. Some become government assassins. Some go full super-villain or use their powers in kinky ways. Maas has to use her power in a perverted manner for it to work, at first.
* PubertySuperPower: Some powers are triggered at need. Some from young age. Some just happened. Elizabeth's just turned on one day in high school.
* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Averted, as the last third of the series is devoted to the Specials using their powers to help humanity. For instance, Brody Kempler, who has the power of super-intelligence, is smart enough to hide until he's ready with his inventions. Including cures for just about every disease, fusion power, and an interstellar spaceship.
** He's still stumped by [[spoiler:Jason's]] radiation sickness - any normal person would have been dead after absorbing a fraction of his rad count, so Brody doesn't even know where to ''start.''
* ShootingSuperman: Or shooting Pyre. Bullets don't have effect on him.
* ShoutOut: There were 113 specials born. The protagonist's name is John. In the Bible, John 1:13 reads: "Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Elizabeth has a power that she is seen by everyone as the most beautiful person they can imagine. This hurts her in that no one sees the real her, and sees her as their own object of lust. [[spoiler:Later she gets the power to inspire love instead of lust.]]
** It's implied that another Special sees her as she really is because he fell in love with her as a child, so her real self is the most beautiful person he can imagine.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Goes both ways. On one hand, you have an evil government agency who wants to control/kill all the main characters, but on the other hand, the Middle East getting farmable land stops all the fighting in that region, vigilantism ends all crime and terrorism, and everyone getting the ability to read minds for a day results in world peace.
* StrawmanPolitical: Joshua's dad is a pretty harsh strawman of the religious right. The main antagonist, General Paulson, is a stereotypical GeneralRipper. While Patriot works for Nexus Corp, he's a fairly selfish JerkJock corporate tool [[spoiler:who is being mind-controlled by Critical Maas (who he willingly cheated on his wife with)]]. Once he quits and becomes good, he lets everyone know they're an evil MegaCorp whose been dumping toxic waste and holding sweat shops amongst other things.
* SuperPoweredEvilSide: Stephanie Maas/Critical Maas
* SuperpowerfulGenetics: Averted. Specials' children don't get their powers.
* SuperPowerLottery: Oh Boy. Powers vary, and many get some combination of a classic power, flight or strength, with some thing else. So you got the 'high powered' Patriot and Mathew Bright with Genius level minds, super-strength, and flight. Goes all the way down to the lower powers of [[WhatKindofLamePowerIsHeartAnyway Heart]] with Paula Ramirez's ability to sing beautifully. At the end of Book 1, [[spoiler:TheGovernment kills one too many of them in a Waco-style incident, pushing all of them to high power, and most gain at least strength or flight, except Brody who gets even smarter.]]
* TouchOfDeath: Laurel has it; specifically she's touching the artery giving blood to the brain.
* WritersCannotDoMath: The magazine in issue #9 is dated July 2012. However, in issue #22, which is supposed to set years later, it's stated that Randy Fisk unsuccessfully ran for President in 2008 and 2012, before winning in 2016. It's also stated that he was 48 in 2008, meaning that he was born around 1960. However, earlier it's said that the flash occurred at the end of the '60s, and all Specials were born not long after that.
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