# Mundane changes to comic book origin stories **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 25, 2012, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882 "2012-04-25T04:24:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/121 "2012-05-30T21:57:27Z")
Fleeing an alien invasion, Dr. Donald Blake stumbles across a cave. Inside he finds a hideously ugly walking stick. Leaving it where he finds it, he tries to hide deeper in the cave. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/122 "2012-05-30T22:27:57Z")
Tired of being the shadow of Superboy, Lar Gand abandons the name Mon-El, leaves Earth and becomes a legendary hero in a different solar system. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/123 "2012-05-30T23:59:55Z")
A Chinese nobleman, well-educated but impoverished, stumbles across the wreck of an alien spaceship in a hidden valley. He is unable to reverse-engineer the alien technology (as even the simplest machines are not only far more advanced than anything on Earth, but are labeled in a completely alien language) but he does get rich marketing the ship as a tourist attraction. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/124 "2012-05-31T00:44:11Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > A Chinese nobleman, well-educated but impoverished, stumbles across the wreck of an alien spaceship in a hidden valley. He is unable to reverse-engineer the alien technology (as even the simplest machines are not only far more advanced than anything on Earth, but are labeled in a completely alien language) but he does get rich marketing the ship as a tourist attraction. He later meets the world’s greatest Swordsman – who, with neither a mandarin to supply futuristic alien tech nor costumed superheroes to go undercover alongside, simply continues his mundane criminal career: able to beat Captain America in a straight fight, if there were a Cap, which there ain’t; there’s just a crook who sometimes looks back on his days as a knife-throwing circus performer, idly wondering why nobody ever builds _ **really** _ nifty stuff into a blade’s hilt. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/125 "2012-05-31T01:49:21Z")
Andrea Thomas, a high school science teacher, found an ancient mystical amulet on an archeological dig in Egypt. The amulet belonged to Hatshepsut, an ancient Egyptian Queen and it gave the wearer the powers of Isis. The Egyptian government arrested Thomas and charged her with stealing antiquities, which carries a prison sentence of 25 years. After her release from prison she returned to the U.S., where she earned a meager living as a free-lance translator and tutor in Arabic. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/126 "2012-05-31T15:53:40Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > World renowned surgeon Stephen Strange suffers a car accident which leaves him with a permanent tremor in his hands. Though the tremor is slight, he is unable to perform surgery, the one thing that gave his life meaning. He travels the world for a cure, but nothing works. One day, while hanging around the docks of an Asian port city he hears a tale of a Magician who lives in the Himalayas. All of Dr. Strange’s instincts and learning tell him there is no such thing as magic, but he is desperate. With nothing to lose he visits the magician in his remote enclave. > > All his instincts and training were right. There is no such thing as magic. The magician was just a charlatan fleecing gullible tourists. Dr. Strange eventually accepts his condition and writes a popular book about his travels. He is now a lecturer at John’s Hopkins Medical School. > [@ToeJam](#): > > World renowned surgeon Stephen Strange suffers a car accident which leaves him with a permanent tremor in his hands. Though the tremor is slight, he is unable to perform surgery, the one thing that gave his life meaning. He constantly checks his thyroid levels, sees it’s normal, and cannot understand what is causing his problem. He then visits his primary care provider who starts him on propanolol and fixes his essential tremor. Dr. Stephen Strange returns to work, sheepishly, and with a new-found respect for the non-surgical side of medicine\*. > > \*I know, but it’s supposed to be science fiction! 😃 Hey man, I don’t mind you appropriating my first two sentences, but a little acknowledgment would have been nice. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882.md?page=6)