As this has to do with superheroes, I’m sure somebody have already done it, as everything superhero-related seems to be done. But I haven’t seen it anywhere, so in my book it’s still a new idea.
I’m sure many of us would love being “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound”. It would be pretty awesome. But while those are pretty awesome powers, can they really be used against criminals today?
Do people still rob banks? I can’t remember the last time I opened the newspaper and read about a bank robbery. What I do read about all the time, however, is fraud, phishing, people cheating on their taxes, executives cheating money out of their companies… You get the idea. These are things I really can’t see Superman solve. I’m sure Batman would do a good job going up against any of these people, but that’s because he’s Batman and therefore he’s awesome all the time.
But is it possible to imagine a superhero whose powers are pretty much perfect for modern crimes like these? A Human Calculator, who could look over your tax return and immediately notify the police if the numbers didn’t make sense? Or the Phisherman’s Enemy, who had the psychic powers of being able to look at your e-mail and immediately tell you the physical location of the person who sent it? Heck, he could probably do better – he could probably hear your e-mail going through the wires even before you got it and based on that know where it came from. Of course, this would have to be done for comical effect, as comics about such a character wouldn’t be very action-packed.
For a much darker mood, one could also develop heroes with special superpowers designed to help the victims of other crimes that we unfortunately see a lot of today: sexual abuse, or rape. That is more up the alley of existing superhero comics, but when it comes to dealing with rape victims, being faster than a speeding bullet is practically worthless. Could there be superpowers better suited for sexual crimes?
I’m not talking about heroes with completely worthless powers here, like in this Optipess strip – I’m talking about heroes with powers that are designed for a whole different kind of crime than the ones Superman solves. Taken to its extreme for humour, we get this XKCD strip.
Yes, I’ve written ten ideas in ten days! That still means I have ninety left before, but when I manage to do ten, I see no reason why I shouldn’t be able to do a hundred. This is fun!
“A Human Calculator, who could look over your tax return and immediately notify the police if the numbers didn’t make sense?”
Autism! It’s a superpower! ;D (Casually assuming all forms of autism results in rain man-like abilities, of course…)
“Autism! It’s a superpower!” should be a T-shirt.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Noel Curry, Olaf M. Solstrand. Olaf M. Solstrand said: New blog post! Idea #10: Modern superpowers http://bit.ly/9E0rAp [...]
I dunno why, but most of this post made me think of DC’s Oracle. Ironically, she obviously doesn’t even HAVE super powers.
The idea is sound, though. It seems to lend itself to detective-type stories, albeit with the sci-fi-like twist of extraordinary powers. As you say, similar things have indubitably been done before, but if they really put their mind to it, I can easily see someone making quite the original and distinctive-feeling universe on this premise.
Yes, obviously, as “short strip for fun”, this has probably already been done a zillion times. But done right, this could easily become something very original.
It’s a neat idea if you could pull it off properly. The thing with these sort of “modern crimes” is that they don’t make much of a spectacle, and that’s really what superhero comics are about. If you’re “just” going after white collar criminals, you really don’t need to be a superhero of any kind – you just have to be a mean detective. If you can’t provide your audience something they haven’t seen before, you better package it in a damned interesting way.
This reminds me of a Young Adult novel I read a while ago called ‘How To Ditch Your Fairy’ by Justine Labalastier, in which it was a perfectly normal fact of life for people to have semi-superpowers in mostly mundane situations. The main character for instance has a ‘Parking Fairy’, and her best friend has a ‘Clothes-shopping fairy’. I like the idea of a power being super-esoteric for a task specific to our times, like someone who can instantly know what anyone’s latest facebook status is, or who always pulls out exactly correct change from their pocket… really when you think about it these would be a lot more useful on a day to day basis than what most superheros get up to.
Thanks for the tip, Izzy, I’ll try to check it out. Sounds like an interesting story.
Reminds me of a superhero concept a friend of mine once made; Window Opener Boy! He can open any windows instantly, up to third floor. He’s a great sidekick for any superhero who wants to make a dramatic window entrance.
Sounds awesome. Has he published it somewhere (on the Internet or elsewhere)? Would love to read about Window Opener Boy.
Not as far as I know, for now it’s just a concept. There are a few sketches, but nothing more. He’s the sidekick of Ritalin Girl, made by another of my friends.