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RedneckRocker First Loyalty: Yourself from None Of Your Business Since: Jan, 2001
First Loyalty: Yourself
#1: Nov 11th 2012 at 1:02:17 PM

A friend and I were talking a few days ago, and he pointed out that when it comes to superhero movies, certain characters just won't ever appear because their powers aren't cool enough. And by "cool", I mean "kewl". And by "kewl", I mean, along the lines of awesome special effects.

Also, there are certain characters whose powers are a bit too complex to explain (especially if there's an entire team of characters). So they get either dumbed down or watered down.

So, let's discuss how certain characters or powersets could be translated for Hollywood. Here's a quick warm-up.

  • Forge's "technological awareness": Instantly knowing how to build any machine? Not that impressive. I know! We'll make his ability a form of telekinesis, where he can take ANY machinery and construct whatever he wants!
  • Jack Hawksmoor's urban control: Since Jack's got a bunch of powers (teleporting, "city sculpting", bring inanimates to life, etc.), it'd be difficult to explain without a ton of exposition. Can't think of how to dumb it down right now.
  • Any energy-based powered character: Instead of giving various "stunts" (such as teleporting via electrical devices or decreasing the temperature to make structures as weak as paper), just let 'em shoot their energy, and that'll be all they need.

Any others?

Embroiled in slave rebellion, I escaped crucifixion simply by declaring 'I am Vito', everyone else apparently being called 'Spartacus'.
Robbery Since: Jul, 2012
#2: Nov 11th 2012 at 1:15:44 PM

[up] I'll go you one more and postulate that complicated power sets or powers that require a lot of explanation can be a serious bar to a character's becoming popular at all, at least outside comics fandom and with the public at large.

DCC Since: Jun, 2011
#3: Nov 11th 2012 at 6:26:38 PM

Treat Jack as a Reality Warper but only in urban areas. That is, his power is "whatever the hell the writers want, except he can only do it in cities". There. Simplified.

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