Ways for a "natural" character to be super.

[normalperson]

I feel like this would be fun to discuss.   No need for any real seriousness.    I want to brainstorm ways for "natural" characters to be competitive with other superheroes.            

 

The easiest is the "superman" way, where your character has super powers due to every member of their alien race having them, but if we include that we are making things too easy for ourselves. 

 

Some other possibilities are psychic powers and/or mastery of Chi, but those come close to the edge of mutation and magic, since a psychic has to start with some psychic potential, and Chi could be considered a kind of magic. 

 

I think the most fun is imagining some body builder and/or athlete becoming so athletically skilled that they are competitive with real super heroes.   I guess that is Back Alley Brawler's origin?

 

Another option is the "Indiana Jones" type approach, where the character's powers are really the result of wit, some skills, and huge amounts of "plot armor". 

 

Batman kind of straddles the line between "natural" and "tech". 

[Techwright]

Okay, ruling out natural for non-humans, as you've noted,  it really comes down to cunning, creative thinking and speedy adaptation to events and environments. Oh, and no small amount of courage.  Keeping a cool head when a monster is trying to kill you can make all the difference. What little I know of DC Comic's Wildcat serves as a pretty good example.  I believe he may use a suit with some sort of claws in the gloves, but basically he started out as a great boxer (perhaps they've upgraded him to MMA now?).  Captain Kirk is another example when he fights the significantly stronger Gorn (admittedly not the terrifying versions later Treks showed) and despite being hurt and stressed, has the clarity and knowledge to figure out the resources in their environment and fashion a rudimentary lathe cannon from those resources.

 

A natural human will likely also have an excellent memory and be well-versed in several key topics such as engineering and computer technology, to aid in their on-the-spot adaptations to the environment.  Think "MacGyver".

[cranebump]

Money.

[Skyhawke]

7 minutes ago, cranebump said:

Money.

 

This guy gets it.

[Go0gleplex]

All natural! lol

[Sanguinesun]

Really you could've consolidated this into your other thread (or vice versa) regarding questioning whether psychic is natural or mutation.

[biostem]

4 hours ago, normalperson said:

I want to brainstorm ways for "natural" characters to be competitive with other superheroes. 

If we're ruling out high-tech gear as being more "tech", then it'd have to come down to raw skill and training;  Maybe your character is baseline human, but due to intense physical and mental conditioning & training, they can predict and account for incoming attacks, wield their chosen weapon(s) with deadly precision, (even if they are just said character's fists or feet), and otherwise keep up with more empowered individuals...

[Ukase]

I think about Green Arrow. While some of his arrows may use various tech gizmos, he's still just a man. Certainly not as techy as Batman. But both have labored in the gym, and I'm not sure they're not using anabolic steroids on some kind of cycle, but I guess then they wouldn't really be natural. Still, if I'm thinking "Natural" origin, Green Arrow is the guy that comes to mind. Or Hawkeye if you're a Marvel fan. 

[SmokinIndo]

I consider any kind of weapon-master "natural" in origin, even if they carry magical weaponry/ammunition. That's how you make them competitive. The way I see it is that it still takes years of martial training to wield a sword or a bow, even if those weapons have mystical properties. In City of Heroes, magic is encountered everywhere, even on the streets of Steel Canyon. It's not difficult to believe that my purely natural archer would pick up a few enchanted rocks and turn them into arrowheads. Same thing with tech. She can fire an arrow that shoots someone back in time, because she knows a guy that can build that for her. that That's how I make her competitive with other people who have actual superpowers.

[Mopery]

Consider that Scientists in the 19th century were called Naturalists, because Science is nothing more than the study of the natural world.

Kind of complicates things.

[Without_Pause]

My namesake here is Claws/wp. WP is simply their own willpower, and she uses the fingerless gloves, but the Claws look attached to them, so it is not the same as Wolverine. Batman can be super due to how much of a tactician he is so that can be considered natural.

[Luminara]

1. Rescue cats.
2. Rescued cats reproduce.
3. Rescue more cats.
4. Rescued cats reproduce.
5. Resort to superhuman feats in order to keep the rescued cats fed.

"Fite me!"
"I have 52 cats."
"please don't hurt me"

[Techwright]

16 hours ago, Ukase said:

I think about Green Arrow. While some of his arrows may use various tech gizmos, he's still just a man. Certainly not as techy as Batman. But both have labored in the gym, and I'm not sure they're not using anabolic steroids on some kind of cycle, but I guess then they wouldn't really be natural. Still, if I'm thinking "Natural" origin, Green Arrow is the guy that comes to mind. Or Hawkeye if you're a Marvel fan. 

 

Both characters have changed over the years.  Both started out in the comics and a few cartoons as gimmicky: nearly entirely focused on trick arrows.  This has changed over time.  Stephen Amell and Jeremy Renner both gave the characters what you describe.  Their interpretations show guys who uses the bow and arrow as a weapon of choice, but disarmed, they're still lethal combatants.  The modern public has gravitated to these as the best interpretations, over say, a trick arrow with a boxing glove at the end of it.

[Captain Fabulous]

I have a natural MA/SR Scrapper, an Emma Peel type super spy. It works.

All of the Bat-Family are natural as is much of his rogue gallery (Catwoman, Penguin, Joker, Scarecrow, Riddler, Two Face). Green Arrow and Speedy, Hawkeye, Punisher, Wildcat, Black Cat, Black Widow (I think she's currently human in the comics), and Sam Wilson just to name a few off the top of my head.

And as you mentioned aliens like Superman and Martian Manhunter would be considered natural. You could make an argument that gods like Thor and Hercules would also be considered natural.

[Mack008]

Don't forget the Punisher who's just "driven." 

(To put it politely.)

[Display Name]

Does inheriting powers count?  Like Spider-Girl from the "What If?" series that eventually had her own run?  I loved that series!  Or maybe she's just a mutie...

[InvaderStych]

21 hours ago, Luminara said:

1. Rescue cats.
2. Rescued cats reproduce.
3. Rescue more cats.
4. Rescued cats reproduce.
5. Resort to superhuman feats in order to keep the rescued cats fed.

"Fite me!"
"I have 52 cats."
"please don't hurt me"

 

[Forager]

Prep time.

[Stormwalker]

On 2/3/2025 at 4:13 PM, normalperson said:

I feel like this would be fun to discuss.   No need for any real seriousness.    I want to brainstorm ways for "natural" characters to be competitive with other superheroes.            

 

The easiest is the "superman" way, where your character has super powers due to every member of their alien race having them, but if we include that we are making things too easy for ourselves. 

 

Some other possibilities are psychic powers and/or mastery of Chi, but those come close to the edge of mutation and magic, since a psychic has to start with some psychic potential, and Chi could be considered a kind of magic. 

 

I think the most fun is imagining some body builder and/or athlete becoming so athletically skilled that they are competitive with real super heroes.   I guess that is Back Alley Brawler's origin?

 

Another option is the "Indiana Jones" type approach, where the character's powers are really the result of wit, some skills, and huge amounts of "plot armor". 

 

Batman kind of straddles the line between "natural" and "tech". 

 

My view on each of these:

 

Chi could be either natural or magic depending on your approach to it.  How mystical are your martial arts?  If your martial arts are focused primarily on the physical, and the chi abilities come as a consequence of mastering your body and its energy flows, then it still falls in the realm of a Natural.   If your martial arts are more spiritually inclined, then you start to get into the realm of a Magic origin.  In most fictional martial arts, the line between the physical and the spiritual is blurred - you can influence the spiritual from the physical side, and the physical from the spiritual side.  So it's a matter of your approach.  My martial arts hero Liberty Star is a Natural even though she does have Focus Chi, because she obtained her chi focus ability by training her body until she could feel and manipulate its energy flows by sheer body mastery.  Her Super Reflexes powers work similarly; she's so in-tune with her body's energy flows that she has learned to recognize the energy flows in others as well, and can thus (in combination with reading their stance and movements) tell what they're going to do next.

 

(And as an example of how you can refluff powers for any Origin, my other Martial Arts hero Patriot Dream has the "Focus Chi" power, but in her case it doesn't represent chi abilities at all - it's her Mutant power at work, which makes her stronger depending on how deeply she believes in what she is fighting for).

 

If you want to get really complicated, I have a character who has a mutant power that gives her perfect body awareness and control (basically, I built her concept around the Regen power of "Integration" taken to the extreme), and she actually gains some chi manipulation abilities from that.  Of course, she's also a ninja and thus also verges into Magic as she uses some shadow manipulation techniques which are definitely in the realm of ninpo ("ninja magic").  So while she's classified as a Mutant origin, some of her powers reach outside her Origin a bit.  After all, your origin is what provides the core of your powers.  Many heroes cross origin boundaries somewhat.

 

Psychic powers could potentially be ANY origin, depending on how you acquired them.  If you acquired your psychic powers via intense practice and mental focusing techniques that theoretically anybody with sufficient discipline could attain if they knew the method?  That's Natural.  Inborn mutant power is obviously Mutation.  If you did experiments on yourself and developed powers from them, or if you had a science-y accident and developed them, or if you took the Family route and obtained them through drugs, that's Science.  Psychic powers via mysticism?  That's Magic.  Psychic powers via some kind of device?  That's Technology.

 

And yeah, if you have a Willpower/SS tanker who is just really determined and works out so hard he's a Strongman-competition level bodybuilder, then he's obviously a Natural.  Even if he takes some supplements, that's not enough to qualify him as Science (unless he's taking some really extreme or experimental supplements, that is).

 

As you say, Indiana Jones is definitely a Natural.  Han Solo and his ridiculous luck is also a Natural.  A Jedi, on the other hand, is probably Magic (depending on how you feel about midichlorians), since Jedi arts definitely lean deeply into the spiritual side of things.

 

I view Batman (as most of the writers write him, anyway) as a Natural origin.  The core of his abilities stem from intense martial arts training, a brilliant mind, and highly trained detective skills.  The technology augments that.  However, there have been some writers which have strained the edge of that and pushed him toward Tech a bit, making him rely on gadgets just a bit too much.  And as I've said in other posts, Jean-Paul Valley's brief stint as Batman definitely crossed the line into tech, because every problem he ran into his solution was "upgrade the suit" until he reached the point that he was basically wearing power armor.  Bruce even called him out on relying on the suit too much.

[Andreah]

I read an article some years ago about untapped genetic potential in humans. The made a good case that there is a lot of it. It would just take astronomical odds for someone to win enough of the genetic lottery to go far beyond our current one in hundred million peak athletes. But it is possible.

 

You don't need chi and all that, just a really good RNG roll.