Superhero Categorisation

This is something I've been giving quite a bit of thought to, lately. Lately, a couple of Marvel productions have taken it upon themselves to break their heroes down into distinct categories, based on their powers and/or origins. Shonen anime Marvel Disk Wars did it first, breaking it down into five groups.

• Fight: Hand-to-hand combatants closer to human skills, with a few weapons and gizmos here or there, i.e. Captain America, Hawkeye, Green Goblin.
• Tech: Entirely mechanical beings, or else people that rely largely upon machinery, i.e. Iron Man, Sentinels
• Energy: Magic users, elementals, or other supernatural forces, i.e. Thor, Storm, Loki
• Power: Powerhouses, chiefly reliant on brute force, i.e. Hulk, Juggernaut
• Animal: You guessed it, Animal-Themed Superbeing, i.e Ant-Man, Wolverine, Spider-Man

Then along came the video game Contest of Champions, which had its own way of sorting the superfolks.

• Skill: Baseline humans only, i.e. Hawkeye, Winter Soldier
• Science: People with powers from scientific sources, i.e. Cap, Spider-Man, Hulk
• Mystic: Fighters with powers paranormal in nature, i.e. Iron Fist, Scarlet Witch
• Cosmic: Those from past the stars and beyond the moon, i.e. Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Thor
• Tech: Same as before, i.e. Iron Man, Star Lord
• Mutant: Pretty sure this is self explanatory, i.e. Colossus, Storm, Cyclops

Now, from time to time, I find myself going back to this, and trying to see what could be done with it. How much overlap is there on a single person? How many heroes have villains from different groupings? Could some characters be reimagined in other categories? And, if you broke all the classes apart, and gave them each their own world with rules tailored to them alone, would they still be functional, well rounded stories?

Not only that, but these are, obviously, class systems tailored to Marvel personages. Would it be possible to apply them to, say, the DC stable, without major imbalances going on? Obviously, Marvel would have the lions share of the Mutant characters, though DC still has that metahumans thing going on, as far as I know. But should both those categorising systems be scrapped entirely, in favour of something that could encompass any heroes from any company?

So, with that ramble concluded, please let me know your thoughts, and comments. Also, if you've encountered any other classification systems, or think you can brainstorm a better one, then by all means, share it down here.

edited 23rd Mar '15 4:25:21 PM by LizardOfAus

In DC there'd be significant overlap the close-combat and tech categories thanks to Batman and his various proteges.

Classification is ultimately a limiting thing. If not to the characters themselves, to the mind of the classifier. I meet entirely too many people who think superheroes, regardless of what media they're being utilized in, have to fall into one of the categories from City of Heroes or DC Online. Or that super-hero teams need to be staffed by heroes who complement each other tactically (from a game perspective that's fine; from a storytelling perspective, it's limiting and puts too much emphasis on combat, IMO).

People do it with fantasy as well. I remember being in conversations with people who could not talk about fantasy novels without wanting to use D&D terminology and the like.

Injustice: Gods Among Us classified its characters into "powers" and "gadgets".

Personally, I'd classify them between normal, science-powered, and magic-powered in order to line it up with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman respectively.

There is nothing normal about Batman.

Perhaps, rather than "Normal," Batman would be better classified as "Intensively Trained" or "Highly Trained."

More like "Freak of Nature". When you've mastered 100+ martial arts, hold degrees in twelve different fields, and extensive knowledge of others, are a strategic genius second-to-none and a competent (by DC Universe standards) technogeek and run a multibillion dollar empire, you have passed well beyond what any amount of training can do for you.

I say "Highly Trained," as a shorthand for "Highly Trained in a Comic Book Setting." In a comic book setting, training and will can MAKE you superhuman, even if it isn't called that. The Legion of Super Heroes' Karate Kid fought Superboy to a standstill once, and he was just insanely skilled at martial arts, without gadgets or anything else. It's not even remotely realistic, but then it's hardly the only unrealistic thing going on. Batman's not the only one it benefits, though.

I understand the desire to point out Batman's fundamental unreality, however. People keep holding him up as realistic when he's really not, not at all. His motives are perhaps the most easily understood (even if you don't have a lot of imagination)

Karate Kid was never held up as normal though. During the period you're referencing Karate Kid's skills were so advanced that they actually took him into metahuman territory (sidenote, but he didn't fight Superboy to a standstill; he lost the fight). No one can get into the Legion without a superpower, after all, and to top it off, when President Boltax/Universo outlawed superpowers in one story, Karate Kid was forbidden from using his karate and judo skills, because his mastery of them pushed him over the line into being superhuman.

Batman is never treated that way.

edited 29th Mar '15 10:26:13 AM by AmbarSonofDeshar