# Newly discovered superpowers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 11, 2011, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072 "2011-02-11T22:23:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Evil\_Prince\_Zorte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@The\_Evil\_Prince\_Zorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Evil_Prince_Zorte)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/1 "2011-02-11T22:23:33Z")
I am looking for examples of movies or TV shows where an ordinary character discovers they have new or latent superpowers. Examples off the top of my head would be Spiderman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Heroes. Usually there is a sequence where they are trying out their new powers, astonished at what they can do, or some other character has to tell them their place in some mythology or the secrets of their origins. Any other examples? ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/2 "2011-02-11T22:36:41Z")
Don’t they pretty much \*all \*do that? One of the more recent superhero shows, _No Ordinary Family_, does it. _Smallville’s_ first season was pretty much that. I’m having a hard time thinking of any more superhero shows in recent years, though I’m sure there must have been several. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/3 "2011-02-11T22:39:36Z")
The only counterexamples I can think of are Batman or Iron Man, who went to painstaking trouble to develop/build their “powers”. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/4 "2011-02-11T22:41:00Z")
IIRC the Batman and Superman cartoons both just started with them as established heroes already knowing their powers. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/5 "2011-02-11T22:52:16Z")
Another example would be _Unbreakable_. Note that the origin story for Buffy is in \*Buffy the Vampire Slayer \*the movie. She is fully powered in the first episode of the TV show. I think that back in the day this was much less common. The first \*\*Superman \*\*and \*\*Batman \*\*stories started with no origin, didn’t they? The origins came later. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/6 "2011-02-11T23:09:24Z")
My as yet unsold pilot for “Sea Cucumber Man” does not cover his origin, which will be revealed over the course of the first season. He emerges on the scene with his unique, gut-wrenching ability to incapacitate his enemies fully developed, and his very fast regenerative powers hinted at… ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/7 "2011-02-12T00:01:20Z")
I would imagine that The Greatest American Hero (TV show) has a scene like that. Disclaimer: I’ve never seen a show, only read about it. Another one: The Mask starring Jim Carrey. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/8 "2011-02-12T01:27:31Z")
River Tam from _Firefly/Serenity_ has super powers all along, she’s just too broken to know it and/or they’re triggered by external forces. She only taps them willingly towards the end of the movie, when she’s become so insane she sort of approaches sanity from the other side. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/9 "2011-02-12T01:28:28Z")
TV shows: [The Flash](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098798/) ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/10 "2011-02-12T01:33:17Z")
Pretty much all of them, unless you exclude origin stories. ---
**Author:** ![Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ee7513/32.png) [@Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kim_o_the_Concrete_Jungle)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/11 "2011-02-12T01:48:44Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > I would imagine that The Greatest American Hero (TV show) has a scene like that. Disclaimer: I’ve never seen a show, only read about it. I saw it, back in the day. The premise of the show is that the guy gets given his superhero power-suit by aliens, but he loses the instruction manual almost immediately. So he has to fumble around trying to figure out how it works. At first, he’s pretty crap with it (can’t fly without crashing into walls – stuff like that). But as the series progresses he starts to get better at controlling the suit, and he discovers more of it’s powers. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/12 "2011-02-12T02:11:33Z")
The title character of the excellent Canadian series _Lost Girl_ knows about one power (she is very persuasive when she touches people) and a curse (having sex kills her partner, while healing her) at the outset, but the first episode is the story of her discovering where the abilities came from. She works out how to use her talents far more effectively as the series progresses. ---
**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:** [February 12, 2011, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/13 "2011-02-12T04:10:57Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#): > > I think that back in the day this was much less common. The first \*\*Superman \*\*and \*\*Batman \*\*stories started with no origin, didn’t they? The origins came later. No, the basics of Superman’s origin pretty much showed up on page one of ACTION COMICS #1: _“As a distant planet was destroyed by old age, a scientist placed his infant son within a hastily devised space-ship, launching it toward Earth … a passing motorist, discovering the sleeping babe within … When maturity was reached, he discovered he could easily: leap 1/8th of a mile, hurdle a twenty-story building … raise tremendous weights … run faster than an express train … Clark decided he must turn his titanic strength into channels that would benefit mankind. And so was created SUPERMAN! … Kent had come from a planet whose inhabitants’ physical structure was millions of years advanced of our own.”_ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Evil\_Prince\_Zorte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@The\_Evil\_Prince\_Zorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Evil_Prince_Zorte)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/14 "2011-02-12T05:47:08Z")
Another one I just thought of was Percy Jackson. After bad guys start coming after him, he finds out he is the son of Poseidon and has supernatural abilities that appear as he learns to harness them. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/15 "2011-02-12T07:47:28Z")
_Star Wars_ (ep. IV). _The Matrix_. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newly-discovered-superpowers/571072/16 "2011-02-12T08:45:57Z")
Didn’t Doctor Xavier near the brink with his superpowers as a young man before learning to harness them… that same control he was trying to pass on to Jean Gray in the movie before she annihlated him?