Nonhuman Superpowers?

[ysabetwordsmith]

We watched the new Godzilla  movie today.  (Good kaiju  movie, excellent special effects and references to other movies, overblown emotional yanking in some places.)  It got me thinking about the breadth of superpowers in Terramagne, the setting of my series Polychrome Heroics.

Are superpowers restricted to humans alone -- and if so, why -- or can other species have them also?  


My thoughts include:

* Humans share a lot of DNA with other species, especially mammals.  This leans toward innate powers appearing elsewhere.

* Radiation and some other factors are increasing the rate of mutation, and thus in this setting, the prevalence of superpowers.  Look at the mutated sealife, for example.  Environmental factors are likely to affect multiple species, not just one.  Imagine visiting Chernobyl only to discover that one of the elk has Laser Eyes.

* Superpower manifestation based on the effect of extraordinary circumstances on human will is unlikely to occur in nonsentient species.

* Superpower manifestation based on higher powers is unlikely to occur in nonsentient species.

* A sperm whale's brain averages 7.8 kilograms.  Imagine one with superpowers objecting to how humans treat the ocean.



* Some comics have really gotten into mutated, uplifted, or otherwise modified animals.  This includes everything from natural mutation through accidental enhancement to mad science experiments.  The results range from cringeworthy to awesome.  

* Having something like telepathic trees mindwiping loggers, or superpowered mice in a house, would expand the number of stories that could be told without relying on a human supervillain.  (We've HAD superpowered mice here; they are nerve-wracking to deal with.)  While mad science could already provide such things, that implies very different plot structure than naturally occurring cases.

Discuss.

Comments

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure cats don't count as super-powered already. You do know Chernobyl has a feral cat colony living in the remains of the reactor core... because it stays nice and warm during winter... and apparently they suffer no ill-effects from continuous exposure to radiation levels that would kill a human within minutes.

Hmm... there's an idea, 'and the cat came back' i.e a breed of immortal, indestructible cats. Now all they'd need is opposable thumbs and a higher IQ and both traits already exist among other cat populations. Of course, being cats, I'd doubt world domination would actually be an objective for them. Too much effort!

Oh well, just so long as it's not super-powered cockroaches... [Marvel did that one, it was gross.]

[zeeth_kyrah]

With the high mutability of feline genetics, I suspect some of those cats are already developing new capabilities.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

In fact, Leslie Fish had the idea of breeding cats for intelligence. She got quite far with it: Mrrrp the Magnificent was a tool-user.

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>I'm not so sure cats don't count as super-powered already.<<

Well, they have a healing purr, and survive trauma so well they're said to have 9 lives. It's not far from there to superpowers. Oh, and we had a cat who could walk through walls -- named Pixel for that precise ability.

>> You do know Chernobyl has a feral cat colony living in the remains of the reactor core... because it stays nice and warm during winter... and apparently they suffer no ill-effects from continuous exposure to radiation levels that would kill a human within minutes. <<

I had not heard of the cats, though I have heard of other wildlife there. Power Absorption kitties, yikes.

>> Hmm... there's an idea, 'and the cat came back' i.e a breed of immortal, indestructible cats. <<

It could work.

>> Now all they'd need is opposable thumbs and a higher IQ and both traits already exist among other cat populations. Of course, being cats, I'd doubt world domination would actually be an objective for them. Too much effort! <<

There are polydactyl cats who have opposable digits.

>> Oh well, just so long as it's not super-powered cockroaches... [Marvel did that one, it was gross.] <<

I have sentient cockroaches, although not super ones, over in Submerged Nebraska. So I probably won't do those in Polychrome Heroics.

Re: Hmm...

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

They aren't a hive consciousness and able to burrow into a person's brain and use them as a meat puppet are they? [yes, Marvels were sentient, scarily smart, everywhere...and not friendly.]

Granted, there are polydactyl cats with 'thumbs' and there are Margay's cats... who have actual opposable thumbs and can interbreed with domestic cats to produce fertile offspring with thumbs. Then there's LeFish cats... Leslie Fish's cats whom she's been breeding for intelligence for the last 30 years. [with some success.]

The Chernobyl cats are something of a curiosity. You see, there's a whole ecosystem in there now... there's a type of black 'fungus' that uses the high levels of radiation in much the same way as a plant uses light. [actually, it's not certain if it's a fungus or a lichen since it sort-of photosynthesises.] There are bugs that live off the fungus, and rats and mice that live off the bugs...and at the top the cats, who live off the rats and mice. All of whom have adapted to the high radiation levels...

Well, it was initially thought they'd adapted. But close study of the genes showed that the traits had been there all along... the mice & rats are actually derived from a strain normally found in the Sudan/Sini region, and probably came in on a ship. The fungus is common just about everywhere and is found on granite... and cats as you know come from desert ancestors.

Which points back to the natural nuclear reactor that went melt down in Africa and produced conditions very similar to the reactor core at Chernobyl. After that, evolution set in...

Which I suppose makes for a heck of an origin story!