Disabled Superheroes
May. 30th, 2014 04:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithHere's an interesting post about disabled superheroes with attention to combinations of disabilities and superpowers.
One reason I think supports such combinations is that the acquisition of superpowers is often violent. If you don't get some kind of regenerative ability, you are rather likely to sustain permanent damage: Dr. Laser has disfiguring scars. Other times it may be transient but still really uncomfortable: Aquariana has hypersensitive skin so she can't wear clothes comfortably, which might or might not improve. Certain causes that may be less violent can still have negative side effects: Koroleva is a supervillain whose powers probably came from radiation -- her parents were evacuated from Chernobyl -- and her right hand has fused fingers.
Another obvious reason is that superhero work is dangerous. Soldiers, police, firefighters, etc. all work high-risk jobs and have a consequently high rate of retiring due to disability. Cheersquad has Super-Speed but is mostly paralyzed now; he used to drive a zoom ambulance until someone crashed into it. Then again, some people keep working despite disabilities. Dr. Doohickey lost his legs and kept going. Valor's Widow deals with monumental grief.
Factors can combine, too: Groundhog has Flight, but never uses it due to agoraphobia, acrophobia, and weak lungs. It manifested when he was an infant, he went sailing up into the sky, and the altitude injured his lungs before anyone could get him down. Then his parents kept him indoors while he was growing up.
One reason I think supports such combinations is that the acquisition of superpowers is often violent. If you don't get some kind of regenerative ability, you are rather likely to sustain permanent damage: Dr. Laser has disfiguring scars. Other times it may be transient but still really uncomfortable: Aquariana has hypersensitive skin so she can't wear clothes comfortably, which might or might not improve. Certain causes that may be less violent can still have negative side effects: Koroleva is a supervillain whose powers probably came from radiation -- her parents were evacuated from Chernobyl -- and her right hand has fused fingers.
Another obvious reason is that superhero work is dangerous. Soldiers, police, firefighters, etc. all work high-risk jobs and have a consequently high rate of retiring due to disability. Cheersquad has Super-Speed but is mostly paralyzed now; he used to drive a zoom ambulance until someone crashed into it. Then again, some people keep working despite disabilities. Dr. Doohickey lost his legs and kept going. Valor's Widow deals with monumental grief.
Factors can combine, too: Groundhog has Flight, but never uses it due to agoraphobia, acrophobia, and weak lungs. It manifested when he was an infant, he went sailing up into the sky, and the altitude injured his lungs before anyone could get him down. Then his parents kept him indoors while he was growing up.
Re: Disability and superheroes
Date: 2014-05-30 05:43 pm (UTC)Often, yes. Sometimes the body or brain can compensate for damage and create a new ability. Sometimes replacements are better than the original. People have been telling those stories for thousands of years. The problem is that, if they don't tell the other kinds of stories, it throws off the balance and becomes aggravating.
One thing I liked about the Daredevil movie was that, in addition to how beautifully it rendered his echolocation, it also included several examples of the limitations.
When I'm writing about a disabled character who has superpowers or a terrific piece of adaptive equipment or whatever, I try to keep an eye on the ways that experience differs from the ordinary. So if you look at the daughter of Monster House, she has a seeing-eye gremlin and the Eye of Fate which allows her to see everything that destiny touches. There are still things she can't see. She can move through the world about as well as a conventionally sighted person, but not the same as them.
>> I mean, /honestly/, could you imagine the hue and cry if /all/ redheads were portrayed as psychic? No one, but no one would tolerate that, even if it were /always/ a positive portrayal. <<
It's not that far from the truth. There's a very strong trend for using redheaded characters to mark psychic, psychotic, or other unusual motifs.
>> And what if all blue-eyed people were portrayed as morally 'right' and perf-- (oh, wait... we did that for a long, long time... Sigh.) <<
Yep.
What really matters is diversity. If you have enough characters, and you make a point of spreading out the traits, then you can avoid the repetition problem.
Re: Disability and superheroes
Date: 2014-05-30 07:02 pm (UTC)Or, deliberately, closely mirror both advantages and disadvantages. For example, if I had someone with your Danso's ability to manipulate powers, I'd make them near the same age (15-18), but of a slightly different background, or maybe with a single supportive adult when everything else went to blazes, and then /deliberately tell/ the story of how they react differently to the same kinds of powers. Erik and Charles in Marvel, IF instead of being a WW2 camp survivor, oppressed Jewish person et cetera, et cetera, Erik had also been a wealthy boy who attended all the best schools and graduated Oxford the way others expect to go to the movies: as a matter of course so obvious it's barely worth mentioning.
Then, the writer can play off personality versus experience, social rejection versus personal integrity. I think it highlights those kinds of stories in more powerful, more intimate ways... but Marvel can't even get She-Hulk's movie a decent freaking writer, so don't expect those stories from mainstream comics for a long, long time.
Re: Disability and superheroes
Date: 2014-05-30 07:14 pm (UTC)Well, we've got Danja who has a single facet of Danso's much broader talent. What about loosening the belt another notch, to someone with Average (0) Energy Manipulation? Danso would be better as his own subcategory, but the other person would be more versatile. This could be someone Danso meets at school, or in the teen parent support group, etc. It might be interesting for him to have a friend who is white, middle class, had everything -- and then developed superpowers that kicked him to the bottom of the social pyramid has no ever-living idea how to cope with that.
>> Erik and Charles in Marvel, IF instead of being a WW2 camp survivor, oppressed Jewish person et cetera, et cetera, Erik had also been a wealthy boy who attended all the best schools and graduated Oxford the way others expect to go to the movies: as a matter of course so obvious it's barely worth mentioning. <<
*chuckle* So, so many jokes about "You TOLD me I should marry a nice doctor, nu? Charles is nice, and he has a doctorate."
Also, I'm toying with another aspect of the Charles/Erik divergence across ethical boundaries, whether to fight violence with violence or with peace. Totally different characters but same core conflict, and queerplatonic affinity.
>> Then, the writer can play off personality versus experience, social rejection versus personal integrity. I think it highlights those kinds of stories in more powerful, more intimate ways... <<
I agree. It's really interesting to see how people diverge.
>> but Marvel can't even get She-Hulk's movie a decent freaking writer, so don't expect those stories from mainstream comics for a long, long time. <<
Well, stuff 'em. If they want to leave huge areas of the market open for other folks to develop, I can work with that. I may not have a Tony-Stark-sized development budget, but I can write fast and I have fans who like to buy my stuff. Maybe someday an artist or film student will fall in love with it, and more will happen.