Disposable Superhero Maker

Erik Killmonger: The Heart-Shaped Herb did that? This all of it?
Shaman: Yes, so when it comes time for another king, we'll be ready.
Killmonger: Another king? Yeah, go ahead and burn all that.
Shaman: My king, we cannot do that. It is our tradition—
[Killmonger lifts the Shaman by the neck and chokes her]
Killmonger: When I tell you to do something, I mean that shit. Burn it all!

— Black Panther (2018)

A stock Super Hero origin story has the hero gain his powers via Freak Lab Accident, lightning, or some other accident. This is of course a non-reproducible and once-in-a-lifetime event, so others can't reliably use those methods to gain the same powers (though writers love to have lightning strike twice and recycle the origin for another character). The other half of the heroic community got their powers thanks to a scientific experiment gone right, usually funded by academia, big business or a government program.

So, it worked once, why not again? That was what the dean/CEO/government paid for, right? Well, it won't be used again. Ever.

Once the Super Prototype rolls off the Super-Soldier assembly line, the researchers will be more interested in running tests on what he can do than on perfecting the process used to make him. This may be justified if they want to determine how having Stock Superpowers affects a person in the long term, so they probably feel ethically uncomfortable with using a large testing population (which would be statistically ideal, but hey, ethics). But the more common reason is that Reed Richards Is Useless and everyone is now more interested in seeing how many tons the prototype can bench press or what other potential applications his Super-Senses have. That, and super powers are supposed to make you special. You can't be special if there are hundreds of you.

Often used to have a character continue to remain Cursed with Awesome. If he particularly dislikes being the subject of an Emergency Transformation and wants to go into the machine in reverse, this trope will be applied to keep that from happening.

Then again, there may be reasons why this was done, here are the usual:

• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: The machine shorted out after the first was created, the creator is dead, or the Phlebotinum Power Source is depleted.
• The powers were an unintended effect, the original is a Super Prototype, all attempts at replicating fail, are unstable, or plain crazy.
• The prototype worked for reasons they have never been able to figure out or duplicate.
• Subversion: It has been used more than once, but it produced a Psycho Prototype that destroyed the machine, sometimes after a younger brother was made.
• Variation: It has been used many times, but it was a long time ago, the machine is long gone, and the hero is the Last of His Kind.
• Fearing Muggle Power, Transhuman Treachery or both, the creator/test subject hides, disables or destroys the device, possibly until humanity is ready.

However, this may be just a temporary delay when this technology becomes common and obsolete. Especially in series that have some continuity. At some time, unexpectedly, prototype Super Soldiers may form a Redshirt Army of Super Powered Mooks or The Chosen Many, or unique superpowers turn into common abilities.

See also Super-Empowering. Contrast Mass Super-Empowering Event.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• The DCU:
  • Back in the 1950s, when Slade Wilson (Deathstroke) volunteered for the experiments that gave him his superhuman abilities, the serum eventually plunged him into a coma. The scientists decided to destroy the serum formula. Months later, Slade Wilson woke up with superhuman powers.
  • The late Firestorm/Suicide Squad villain Steel Wolf gained his super-strength through Soviet scientists' attempts to create an army of super-soldiers during World War II. Stalin didn't trust the idea of so many super-soldiers, so he had all the scientists killed.
  • This is subverted with The Flash, who originally got his powers in a one-in-a-million accident (lightning striking a cabinet full of chemicals that sprayed on him). The exact same accident happened to his nephew Wally, right when Barry was telling him about it! Years later, this was retconned as being a manifestation of a cosmic force called the Speed Force. However, on two occasions, the Flash has lost his powers and attempted to replicate the accident to regain them, with mixed results. In the first case, Wally West got the Super-Speed, but not the necessary reflexes to maneuver, blasting a trail of destruction across the country in the split-second before he could stop running. In the second case, during Flashpoint, Barry Allen suffers the real-life consequences of being struck by a bolt of lightning while being doused with dangerous chemicals, and has to fry himself two more times before it works.
  • Invasion! retcons a lot of DC's heroes into having a "metagene" that gives people powers when exposed to radiation or similar stresses, implying that most people would have died if exposed to Freak Lab Accidents or other superhero origins.
  • Notably, the same experiment that Captain America went through also happened in the DCU; the difference is, rather than being tested on a human during and then destroyed, it was tested on a dog and then destroyed. The dog went on to become Rex the Wonder Dog, and the serum was never heard from again. The story in which this happened was written in 1990 and is very parodic (the scientist "forgot" to write the formula down), but Rex was never given any other origin, so it's canon.
  • The Golden Age Shazam! had a Disposable Superhero Sidekick Maker with Tawky Tawny, a talking tiger who likes to walk around in tweed suits. For a long time, he had no backstory; when he finally got one, it came down to "some missionary's kid raised a tiger as a pet, then some random guy showed up for like two panels with a potion that made it sapient". It's never even explained if the potion was some kind of scientific or magical explanation. (For the record, Post-Crisis stories either make Tawny a totally normal tiger or some kind of magical spirit.)
  • Superman:
    • Writers have to come up with reasons why more Kryptonians didn't leave their dying planet and find another one with a yellow sun that would give them Flying Brick powers: Pre-Crisis said that they'd been so busy developing other science that they neglected space travel; It was later said that space travel was banned after Jax-Ur blew up a lunar colony. Post-Crisis had a device called the Eradicator that killed all alien invaders that set foot on Krypton with a side effect of killing Kryptonians who left the planet (Baby Kal-El was only able to leave because Jor-El had undergone genetic treatments he devised himself to remove that particular anomaly from his genetic makeup). The New 52 said that it was near impossible for spaceships to leave Krypton due to its high gravity. Dawn of DC via Batman/Superman: World's Finest reestablishes the Jax-Ur origin.
    • Supergirl's super-villain Shyla Kor-Onn created a device that can drain Supergirl's powers in Strangers at the Heart's Core. You would expect that more villains would try to build a copy of Shyla's machine in order to steal the powers of Superman or Supergirl, but it was never mentioned again.
    • "Supergirl's Super Pet": As treating a Kryptonite pebble with different chemical compounds in order to find a cure, Supergirl accidentally creates X-Kryptonite, a mineral which can give Kryptonian powers temporarily. However, Kara is unaware of the existence of the X-Kryptonite; and it is unlikely that she remembers the chemical makeup anyway.
    • Justified in "Supergirl's Big Brother". Although Supergirl is able to make power-granting pills, she is not interested in spreading them around because it is an experimental product whose effects only last one hour, and she cannot to be sure that people would not misuse their newfound powers. Moreover, the man who claims to be her adoptive brother decides to make one at his own risk, and he gets killed because he left out an important chemical and his invulnerability wore off too soon.
  • One Silver Age Batman/Superman crossover in Worlds Finest 1941 had a Mad Scientist invent a device that would give anyone a copy of Superman's powers for one day, and a second device that would negate Superman's powers. Naturally, Batman ends up getting the superpowers while Superman is Brought Down to Normal. In a subversion of No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup, the criminal works on building another copy of the superpower machine after the first is accidentally destroyed... but it's still never mentioned again after that story.
  • Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan was created by a botched experiment. All attempts to recreate the circumstances have resulted only in dead test subjects. Naturally, there haven't been very many attempts, since it gets progressively harder to find suitable volunteers for an experiment with such a high mortality rate, and you can't exactly use condemned criminals when there's a chance that they could gain godlike power. Manhattan himself says that such attempts will never succeed, though he does not say why. The reader is left to wonder whether this is because of the nature of the universe, or some random circumstance of the first incident, or whether Dr. M is using his own godlike powers to prevent the creation of others like him, or if his ability to perceive time differently means that he just knows that the attempts will continue to fail.
• Marvel Universe:
  • There's actually a company that sells Super-Strength named Power Broker, Inc. There's at least a 50% chance of severe physical and/or mental deformity, but that's not in the advertising brochure...
  • There's also the Brand Corporation, a division of a corrupt oil company that manufactures supervillains either as enforcers for Corrupt Corporate Executives, or in return for a cut of their profits.
  • The Super Serum that created Captain America is an obvious example. In various continuities and at various times, there have been given different explanations for why Cap was the only one produced — and several other heroes and villains have been produced with the same serum, or various further-developed variants/Psycho Serum knockoffs. In the original story, a Nazi spy destroyed the machine, all the data, and killed the scientist responsible for it, just moments after Steve Rogers had become Captain America. (One might wonder why he didn't do it a bit earlier, and save the Nazis a load of trouble...) But the serum keeps popping up, with various effects, although it's rarely used to its fullest.
    • The scientist who invented the Super-Soldier Serum intentionally kept part of the process in his head so it couldn't be used without his approval. His death caused the full formula to be lost.
    • However, Spider-Man: The Animated Series has a different explanation. The spy did kill the doctor, but a thief hired by other Nazis had a complete copy in his Photographic Memory before it was destroyed. He turns out to be Black Cat's estranged father, captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. to protect the secret and then broken out by the Kingpin. Then it gets complicated.
    • Nightcrawler asks Wolverine this question in X-Men: Evolution. The answer is that the procedure causes cellular breakdown in normal humans but works fine for mutants. Wolverine and Captain America blew up the device, but there was a backup. In the present, Wolverine destroys that one, but not before it's utilized by Magneto to restore his youth and vitality. Captain America's body is in cryogenic sleep until a cure can be found.
    • As seen in Truth: Red, White & Black, the Army later tested the Super-Soldier Serum on black soldiers in an analogue to the Tuskegee Experiments, only one of which survived without becoming deformed, Isaiah Bradley. Josiah X, Isaiah's son, retained the powers through his blood. Then Isaiah's grandson Eli (whose mother was conceived before Isaiah was experimented on) went on to become Patriot of the Young Avengers, using Mutant Growth Hormone to replicate the super soldier abilities until his grandfather provides a blood transfusion that gives him genuine superpowers. The writers' intention was that this was done before Captain America was created, but they got the dates wrong in the story and later issues have clarified that Steve Rogers was dosed before Isaiah Bradley.
    • Protocide, a soldier with a record for disobedience, was spared charges in exchange for him willingly becoming a subject of the Super-Soldier program, since the general in charge didn't like the scrawny, underweight, and untrained Steve Rogers being initially chosen.
    • Man-Thing was created partly due to an attempt to recreate Cap's serum (plus the magic of a cursed swamp).
  • A Canadian tried to recreate Bruce Banner's accident, but an Eldritch Abomination interfered, and he ended up with a fraction of the creature's power instead, turning him into the hero Sasquatch.
    • Note, however, that the Marvel Universe has a number of people who have gained powers through exposure to gamma radiation, including the Hulk, the Abomination, the Leader and Doc Samson. However, this is not universal, and most people will have the same reaction to extreme gamma-ray exposure as people in real life do — that is, radiation poisoning and/or cancer. One explanation offered was that all gamma-mutates have a certain mutant genetic code that allows them to gain powers from radiation exposure, with the stated conclusion that they all had a common ancestor — in other words, it is not so much the properties of the gamma rays themselves that are different from real life but how certain organic beings make use of them. However, Immortal Hulk offers a different explanation, that while real-life gamma radiation can manifest as both a wave and a particle, Marvel Universe gamma radiation can manifest as a wave, a particle, or a mutagenic third form that is supernatural in nature.
    • In the runup to Fall of the Hulks, the Leader and M.O.D.O.K. discover how to combine gamma radiation and cosmic rays so that anyone can be given Hulk-like powers. However, if not properly calibrated, the process leads to total physiological meltdown within 24 hours.
  • The Incredible Hulk's enemies, the U-Foes, were created as a deliberate attempt to recreate the same accident that created the Fantastic Four. One of the Fantastic Four's own foes, a Russian scientist by the name of Ivan Kragoff, also managed to get superpowers by recreating their circumstances. He took three apes and went into space with an unshielded ship. Thus was born the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes!
  • Spider-Man:
    • The radioactive spider that turned Peter Parker into Spider-Man died from radiation poisoning shortly after biting him, but not before it bit one other person.
    • Norman Osborn's "Goblin Serum" was an intelligence-enhancing serum that ended up giving him superpowers and driving him insane, and has been utilized by several Goblin-themed villains over the years, Norman included. In one storyline during Dark Reign, Osborn tried to combine the Goblin and Super Soldier serums into one, perfect soldier, with... less than satisfactory results.
  • Ultimate Marvel eventually reveals that all super-powers that are not alien in origin come from various attempts to replicate or better the Captain America program. Even the mutants.
    • The Ultimates themselves subvert this whenever possible, particularly in volume 2. The Giant-Man formula is used on a dozen or so marines (and he gives some to his ex-wife), and Iron Man's earlier prototypes are reproduced to arm soldiers (and he builds a suit for Black Widow).
    • Ultimate Spider-Man: Oscorp is contracted by S.H.I.E.L.D. to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum, and they succeed in developing an experimental substance dubbed "OZ". When Peter Parker gets a diluted dose of OZ mixed with spider DNA (courtesy of an experimental test subject spider) and gains spider-like powers, Norman Osborn figures that a dose of OZ combined with a sample of his own DNA will give him powers of his own — which it does, albeit with the unfortunate side-effect of bodily deformation.
    • The Super Soldier Serum wasn't totally lost during WWII. The problem is that it's invariably lethal, with only two exceptions besides Cap. The prototype turned out to be Nick Fury, leading Erskine to realize that it only works on Determinators. Steve Rogers got picked the very next day, due to his relentless attempts to enlist despite his polio-damaged physique. The next success wouldn't be for over fifty years, when Loki chooses an Iraqi youth whose father was killed by American soldiers.
  • It was revealed in "What If the Fantastic Four had Different Super-Powers?" (What If? v1 #6) that the cosmic radiation which gave the Fantastic Four their powers affected them in a certain way based on their personalities. Mr. Fantastic developed stretching powers because of his desire to go to any (ethical) lengths to acquire scientific knowledge. The Invisible Woman developed invisibility because she thought she was ignored by others. The Human Torch's powers were a result of his "flame-headed" personality. The Thing became a super-strong, rocky-skinned person as a result of his tough guy personality. That issue also revealed an alternate version of the Fantastic Four composed of the same members, but whose powers were based on different aspects of their personalities: Reed "Big Brain" Richard's intelligence turned him into a disembodied brain with incredible psionic powers; Sue "Ultra-Woman" Richards' "pliable personality" gave her stretching powers like Mr. Fantastic; Johnny "Mandroid" Storm's interest in machinery gave him the power to turn his body into living metal; and Ben "Dragonfly" Grimm's love of flying caused him to grow a pair of dragon-like wings.
  • X-Men: The U-Men, introduced in New X-Men, are a group of people who don't think that it's fair that some people are born with superpowers and abilities, and they weren't. So they wear special suits, grab loads of mutant neutralizing gear, hunt them down, kidnap them, and dissect them in the back of their special vans. They then take the parts from dead mutants that the powers are related to (for example, they'd cut out Cyclops' eyes, or Angel's wings) and then transplant the part into themselves to use the powers. That's right, they want to cut out Cyclops' eyes, remove their own eyes so they can implant his eyes, so they can have energy blast vision. The procedure is not without risk; if the graft is rejected, tissue necrosis of the transplanted part sets in and the recipient dies of blood poisoning.
• This is a recurring trope in Astro City.
  • Dr. Lewis Oscar Croft is a criminal scientist implicated in the creation of dozens of super-beings.
  • Dr. Ganss is a Mad Scientist in Kiefer Square who turns ordinary people into assorted super-villains. Later, he invents a technique to turn homeless people into superhuman Mooks.
  • TransGene is a corporation with the knowledge to create half-human Beast Men.
  • Dr. Nautilus creates aquatic monsters.
  • The Mock Turtle, a Gadgeteer Genius who decided to keep his exploration suit for himself.
• The Psycho limited series takes place in a universe where there is a superhero arms race rather than a nuclear arms race. Taking the drug to become a superhero still has a high failure rate, usually resulting in death.
• In The Boys, all superpowers are derived from exposure to the V-Compound. At full power, the V-Compound costs $19 billion per person. With around 200,000 superhumans in this world, many of the superhumans got their superpowers from a watered-down version of the compound.
• The Authority: Subverted in the first arc, where the evil dictator Kaizen Gamorra uses a bioreactor to pump out hundreds of superpowered clones (who have, at minimum, flight and heat vision abilities) every minute, launching them on Moscow, London and Los Angeles. Kaizen himself doesn't seem to have given himself any superpowers, so maybe there was a downside that doesn't get shown.

Film — Animated

• Averted in 9, where the scientist uses his machine to make not just one, but nine different ragdoll androids, each one containing a separate piece of his soul. Of course, the device used to power that machine also powers the evil machine that manufactures more evil robots (and sucks out the dolls' souls for more power). Kind of a problem there.
• In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles swats and kills the spider after it bites him. When he goes back to examine the dead spider the next day, it does an Ominous Visual Glitch which implies that it was accidentally pulled into this dimension by Kingpin's particle collider. Liv confirms that dimensional travelers degrade after a few days.

Film — Live-Action

• In Deadpool (2016), the group responsible for giving Wade his powers utilize chemical solutions to activate "dormant mutant genes" that are (apparently) in all people, and exposing the subject's body to increasing levels of "stress" — which amounts to pumping a person full of experimental drugs, then torturing them until either noticeable super-power spontaneously generate, or the subject dies.
• Fantastic Four (2005): Reed invents a machine that removes The Thing's powers and makes him look normal. He later uses it to get his powers back to fight Doctor Doom but the idea of using the machine to give other people superpowers or having The Thing change back and forth before and after missions is never brought up.
• Accidentally averted in the Spider-Man Trilogy. Here, Peter is not bitten by a spider that has accidentally become radioactive, but rather by a genetically engineered spider. The writers don't seem to have noticed the Fridge Logic, so it is unlikely that this will ever be revisited.
• Justified in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It turns out that the spider only works on people who are related to Peter Parker's dad, as it's gene-coded. Using it when not related leads to... issues. Specifically, the Lizard and the Green Goblin. So it's perfectly repeatable, just really dangerous.
• Averted in the finale of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, when Captain Jack Sparrow takes a piece of the gold to become undead himself to help defeat Barbossa.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Justified in Captain America: The First Avenger: HYDRA had sabotaged the super-soldier project from the start. Their goal was to see if this project would actually work as intended. When it did, the HYDRA moles then destroyed everything and killed everyone related to the project, including themselves. Well, except for the man who would become Captain America anyway.
  • Averted in Captain America: Civil War: A side plot involves Cap and Bucky racing to Siberia before Baron Zemo can unleash the five other Winter Soldiers that were created after the success of Bucky. It wasn't a perfect process, though — what we see of the other Winter Soldiers shows that they were far more aggressive and less obedient than Bucky.
  • The Incredible Hulk (2008): The government tried to recreate the super-soldier serum that created Captain America. They tried it on Emil Blonsky, successfully making him stronger, faster, and giving him accelerated healing, allowing him to recover from near-fatal injuries in a day. However, he is still weaker than Captain America, and the serum makes him more deranged and bloodthirsty. Blonsky later tries to add the power of Hulk's blood, resulting in him becoming the Abomination.
  • In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Ned asks Peter if the spider that gave him powers is still alive because he wants them too, but Peter explains that it died afterwards, similar to the comics.
  • The page quote is from Black Panther (2018), where after getting the physical enhancements of the Heart-Shaped Herb, Killmonger orders it destroyed so no one else can have them. Thankfully one leaf was saved to restore T'Challa's abilities so he could take down his villainous cousin. Sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever shows a fallout of the herb's destruction, as not having it anymore is part of why T'Challa dies of an illness between movies, and his sister Shuri's struggles to recreate the herb are only sated once she finds a similar plant in Namor's underwater land, leading to synthesized leaf done by combining said plant with a sample of T'Challa's blood.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze: Most of the ooze that mutated the turtles are disposed off by TGRI. The final cannister is stolen by the Foot; some of it is used to create Tokka and Rahzar (although, Professor Jordon Perry tampered with it so that The Shredder won't get perfect mutant henchmen, so the mutants become Dumb Muscles instead), Shredder saves the rest for creating more mutants in the future. However, the heroes manage to get it back and while the Shredder kept a tiny vial just in case, after being defeated, he used it on himself, becoming the Hulking Super Shredder. By the end of the movie, all of the mutagen is gone.

Literature

• Subverted in Animorphs — their powers come from Elfangor's Escafil Device, but shortly afterward he is killed and all the wreckage of his ship destroyed by the Yeerks. However, twenty books later a random kid named David finds the device at the site where Elfangor crashed, and the Animorphs get it back. This would have major repercussions for the series, especially when they use it to create an army of Auxiliary Animorphs and the Yeerks get the device.
• The Postman averts this trope. The super-soldier villain (subjects were chosen for aggression and willpower rather than mental stability) is eventually defeated by a super-duper-soldier hero who was created specifically to counter the super-soldier threat. The novel implies that many soldiers of both types were created pre-apocalypse.
• Subverted in Fine Structure, where a major ongoing problem is that Flying Brick superheroes are created, at random, once a year. And each Power is twice as powerful as the last one. And they're Born violently insane, at least temporarily. Turns out you can kill a lot of people if you're as fast as the Flash and as strong as Superman. Later on, the Americans figure out how to create arbitrary numbers of 6th and 7th level Powers by tapping some of Xio's power.
• In Wild Cards, it's mentioned that certain extremist groups voluntarily expose themselves to the Wild Card virus in hopes of getting powers, despite the 99% failure rate and 90% death rate.

Live-Action TV

• The 1950s British Invisible Man series justifies this trope. The scientists know that it's possible to create more invisible humans (and they have already created invisible experimental rabbits) but since they can't make the subjects visible again yet, they decide to stick to what they have.
• In The 4400, promicin is discovered as the source of the 4400's powers. Eventually, it was replicated and used to enhance one faction's soldiers, then later made available to the public, although demand for it was somewhat reduced by the fact that half of the people who took it died soon after. Towards the end of the series, however, one person's promicin power was to spread promicin to everyone in a massive radius. Including the side effect of a 50% death rate.
• Subverted in The Incredible Hulk (1977). In principle, anyone could recreate the experiment that changed Dr. David Banner, it's just that nobody has any reason to. One of the two-part episodes revolves entirely around a much earlier experiment in another part of the country that had turned another man into a Hulk, and the discovery of a cure, which Dr. Banner cannot use because the former Hulk has re-exposed himself, become a murderous Hulk, and there's not enough of the needed compounds for two treatments.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • After passing in and out of the Hex multiple times in WandaVision, Monica Rambeau ends up with permanently altered physiology and energy-based superpowers. Before anyone else can repeat this, the Hex disappears and it's left very unlikely that something like it would be created again.
  • The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: After decades of scientists trying and failing, Dr. Nagel finally managed to recreate and in fact perfect the super-soldier serum, which he began distributing to terrorist groups. Zemo — who hates supers — kills him and destroys all of the remaining doses, then hires an assassin to kill all the remaining super soldiers save John Walker before they can be experimented on.
  • Ms. Marvel (2022): Discussed in the finale, when Bruno says Aamir asked him if he could also get Hard Light powers from the bangle since he's part-Clandestine like Kamala. It turns out he can't; Bruno says he studied Kamala's genetics more closely and the actual reason Kamala has powers is because she's a Mutant, complete with a Sting of the 90s X-Men theme.
  • The first episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law explains why the Hulk's powers can't be handed out freely. It turns out that Bruce Banner has an incredibly rare genetic mutation that allows him to survive gamma radiation. Luckily, his cousin Jennifer Walters shares that mutation, because otherwise the dose of Bruce's blood she accidentally receives would've just killed her. Also, just to play it safe, Bruce destroys the sample of Jen's blood he took after he's done testing it, just on the slight off-chance it ends up with someone else who can Hulk Out.
• In some Power Rangers series the Rangers powers have been created through technology rather than coming from some more mystical sources. One might question why those generations don't make more rangers and give them the same or similar tech. One subverts this in that they have more ranger teams while another has a good reason why there aren't more.
• In many Showa era Kamen Rider series, the villainous organizations attempt to create another Rider to take out the hero. The original series had Shocker create a stronger version of Kamen Rider to eliminate him. The plan is ruined when Kamen Rider shows up and rescues the newly created cyborg before he could be brainwashed, effectively doubling Shocker's problems!
  • Also, actually justified. Rider technology, is pretty much the same as the technology used to use the mooks... just with minor differences. So, they are using the tech, just not in the same way.
  • In the Heisei era onward, many shows where the Rider's powers come from human technology do lead to mass-production late in the series. Unfortunately the number of corners that need to be cut in the name of mass-production tend to make these replicas into cannon fodder.
  • Kamen Rider Gaim centers much of its conflict around the logistical issues that come with the superhero maker not being disposable: Yggdrasil has the time and resources to turn a billion people into superheroes, but that leaves seven billion people that need to be given a Mercy Kill before the impending event that will turn all non-supers into monsters.
• In the universe of The Six Million Dollar Man, only five or six people in history have been fitted with bionic limbs, despite the thousands of amputees and paraplegics that could benefit from such technology. The excuses are that A) bionic parts are horrifically expensive, and B) the technology is still a closely-guarded government secret.
• The knowledge to make a quicksilver gland in The Invisible Man died with its creator, the protagonist's brother. However, the Big Bad Arnaud, who helped create the original, is eventually able to make another for himself, although it doesn't quite work as intended (he's permanently invisible). Slightly subverted in another episode where it's implied that the gland was originally reverse-engineered from an invisible bigfoot.
• The machine that made Ray indestructible in Henry Danger only worked on Ray as the variables surrounding Henry's specific physiology at the age he was were the x-factor that made it happen. Everyone else just gets Body Horror.

Tabletop Games

• The most valuable loot in Base Raiders tends to be superpower sources, in which case it's justified in that the superheroes or villains that created them vanished during Ragnarok. On the other hand, the DIY Superpowers movement tries to recreate the origins of superheroes, but success is somewhat rare.
• In Heroes Unlimited, any tech that gives humans genuine superpowers somehow only works once or a handful of times. There's a lot of groups that are experimenting and trying to find the magic formula, but nobody can mass produce superhumans in large quantities yet. The few cases where they do have reliable results either use bionic reconstruction or another understood technology, or are expensive and super-secret, so no Super-Soldier program has expanded beyond a couple of elite Super-Squads.

Theme Parks

• This is averted in The Incredible Hulk Coaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure, as both versions of the ride ultimately have the conditions that turned Bruce Banner into the Hulk being successfully recreated.

Video Games

• Subverted in Final Fantasy VI, where the machines in the Magitek Research Facility are used to grant magical powers to pretty much the entire Imperial Army, until the heroes destroy the machines for ethical reasons. This makes things much, much worse.
• In the universe of First Encounter Assault Recon, it seem that super-reactions can be gained though a certain procedure, but given what happened afterwards, further experimentation seems inadvisable.
• Subverted in Luminous Arc 2, where the prototype Runic Engine works fine (except the bit where it becomes fused to the main character's hand right at the start and continues to do so throughout the game, but the more powerful copies mass-produced for an entire battalion of soldiers using its data slowly corrupts the user's body due to their lack of ability to control it and eventually crystallizes them.
• Justified in Dragon Age: Origins, where a drop of an Archdemon's blood is required for the Joining, and the Ferelden Grey Wardens are fresh out of it.
• Mega Man:
  • If Mega Man's design is so good, why doesn't Dr. Light build an army of them to counter Dr. Wily's Robot Masters?
  • Justified in the Mega Man X series, where main characters X and Zero are "relics" created by the long-dead Dr. Light and Dr. Wily, respectively. The Reploids of the future are — as the name implies — imperfect replicas that are vastly less powerful and subject to going murderously insane.
• Double Subversion in the Kingdom Hearts II level based on the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie; Luxord gets a Heartless to steal ALL the gold to make an invincible undead Heartless. One (surprisingly easy) Puzzle Boss later, the gang decides to send the gold to the bottom of the ocean to prevent someone from doing that again.
• Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes: The intro of the game has Dr. Zomboss unleash the Hero-Tron 3000, which he uses to transform a basic Zombie into Super Brainz. In his joy he accidentally pushes the Big Red Button that causes it to malfunction and self-destruct, giving super powers to select Plants and Zombies around the world.

Web Original

• The origin story of Hive in the Whateley Universe: a one-of-a-kind nanite artificial intelligence is ready for testing, but criminals try to steal it first. The only survivor of the resulting battle and explosion is the night guard, Sam Everheart. The nanites survive by remaking his body. So... no surviving researchers, no surviving equipment, no surviving notes or records, and the rebuilt nanite body is ex-military who can't make nanites. Unfortunately for Hive, all other attempts at making nanite-superhumans have failed horribly, so now everyone is interested.
• Justified in Worm, where it is possible for someone to gain powers from an incredibly traumatic event. Not everyone who goes through such an event gets superpowers, and any further criteria is unknown. Anyone traumatizing someone to induce superpowers would wind up Hoist by His Own Petard if they succeed with their victim. Averted with Cauldron, who have refined the process and sell the treatment.
  • This is later revealed to be because Scion had preselected humans to give powers to, which would only awaken during a suitably traumatic event. Cauldron's formulas are stripped from Scion's partner, who is now dead. This makes their formulas a finite resource as well.

Western Animation

• Ben 10: In every reality, there's only one Omnitrix, and in most of them they belong to Ben. Justified in that Azmuth, the only being in 3-5 (exactly how many is up for debate in-universe) galaxies smart enough to build one, regrets having made the first when he's introduced. He only lets Ben keep the one he did make because Ben is The Chosen One.
• Danny Phantom: After Samantha alters history and prevents Danny from getting his powers, they fix things by having him enter the Ghost Portal and then turning it on.
• This was brought up in The Spectacular Spider-Man, although most of Spider-Man's villains are products of mistakes or malfunctions. Rhino was a perfect success, so after enough time to avoid a paper trail, Norman Osborn attempts to sell the Rhino armor schematics to the highest bidder. However, no explanation is made of why Vulture, once he teams up with Master Planner, doesn't build an army of Vultures instead of doing everything himself. This was later expanded on and explained in the comic adaption.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
  • There doesn't appear to be a limit to the amount of Chemical X available. It can even be found in the toilet! The girls did create another girl to help them out, but she turned out to be unstable and exploded. Since the Professor was successful the first time, maybe more heroes could be created that didn't suffer from that problem.
  • One episode featured a Mad Scientist getting his hands on the formula used to create the girls and using it to mass produce knockoffs of them. Surprisingly, it actually worked, with the only flaws being the result of the bad guy not using the correct amounts to save money (at one point he even has one recycled for being "too perfect").
  • The accident that created Mojo Jojo, on the other hand, could be replicated, and Mojo indeed used it again and again to create more hyperintelligent primates as his first big scheme. However, every single one of said primates went rogue and attacked everyone equally, including Mojo, which is why he hasn't tried it again since.
• The Transformers: Vector Sigma is ancient Cybertronian supercomputer capable of imbuing new Transformers with sentience, and was responsible for bringing life to the entire Cybertronian race in the past. During the course of the show, it's only ever used to create the Stunticons and Aerialbots and never any more, due to its key being stolen and later destroyed. The Autobots could only reactivate Vector Sigma once without the key due to Alpha Trion performing a Heroic Sacrifice.

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