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.
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Well...
Date: 2014-05-30 06:03 pm (UTC)This is very close to what happened to Dr. Doohickey. See "Dr. Doohickey and the Problem of Locomotion" and "Dr. Doohickey and the Mad Science Scrambler."
The mostly-paralyzed superhero I have is a speedster named Cheersquad. He hasn't shown up on camera yet but I'm watching.
>> Or if you want to go down another route, given the sort of will-power that's needed to overcome disabilities and function in a world designed for able-bodied people, imagine that with even a touch of psi or magic! You ccould go a long way with a little of that and lot of stubborn. <<
I haven't done that one yet. It's valid in Terramagne; aside from an innate talent manifesting in puberty, another really common path is that it grows in very slowly adjacent to the person's passion or career. Super-Intellect, Super-Gadgeteering, and Telepathy or Empathy are especially prone to that. So anything that makes the person exercise their willpower all the time could blossom into Super-Will. And you might not even realize that was a superpower until you tried to deny them necessary services and got your ass handed to you.
Okay, yeah, I think I could make this work without falling into the supercrip LaBrea. Feel free to prompt for it.
Re: Well...
Date: 2014-05-30 07:56 pm (UTC)Re: Well...
Date: 2014-05-30 08:06 pm (UTC)Re: Well...
Date: 2014-05-30 10:09 pm (UTC)Re: Well...
Date: 2014-05-30 10:11 pm (UTC)Re: Well...
Date: 2014-05-30 10:18 pm (UTC)