# Superheroes who sought out their superpowers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760 "2008-07-16T22:55:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/41 "2008-07-19T16:21:25Z")
All the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. agents were volunteers. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/42 "2008-07-19T17:08:13Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] I always thought he heard it while having really good sex with Jim Nabors. [/QUOTE] You misheard. He sought out his powers after he heard his \*\*neighbour’s \*\* wife say “Jim, I’ll give you oral sex the day the kid next door learns to fly” ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/43 "2008-07-19T18:47:57Z")
[moderating] Since this isn’t game-related, let’s move it over to Cafe Society [/moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/44 "2008-07-19T21:00:15Z")
[QUOTE=C K Dexter Haven] I don’t remember how Billy Batson learned the magic word to give him super-powers… whether he had to find it or whether it was sheer accident or what. [/QUOTE] His origin always seemed hinky to me, though it was written in a more innocent time: Homeless kid gets lured into the sewers by an old man who promises to show him something wonderful, and who says he’s been watching the kid for some time. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/45 "2008-07-19T21:51:47Z")
Super Chicken drank a cocktail and Underdog took a pill. What kind of role models were they? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/46 "2008-07-19T22:06:21Z")
[QUOTE=TWDuke] Super Chicken drank a cocktail and Underdog took a pill. What kind of role models were they? [/QUOTE] And Steve Ford\* [bought a tonic.](http://www.toonhound.com/buytonicboy.htm) \*Ford instead of Austin, do you get it? And he’s _buytonic_ ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/47 "2008-07-19T22:55:24Z")
Stature said she had been stealing Pym Particle gas from her dad for years. USAgent bought his super-strength from a criminal called Powerbroker. The government hired Taskmaster to teach him to fight. Alter Boy got a job at a club catering to superheroes, essentially auditioned to become Confessor’s sidekick and eventual successor. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/48 "2008-07-20T06:13:08Z")
No mention of the Silver Age [Atom](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_(Ray_Palmer)), Ray Palmer? Combining white dwarf star matter with a mysterious force from within his own body, he fashioned a device to allow him to alter his size and mass, often shrinking himself down to six inches or less, and returning his body to full-size. He also developed a costume which, while invisible when stretched, becomes visible when he shrinks his height. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/49 "2008-07-20T06:43:24Z")
[Elektra?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektra_%28comics%29) ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/50 "2008-07-20T06:48:17Z")
[Shang-Chi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Kung_Fu)? ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/51 "2008-07-20T06:55:04Z")
I think both Electra and Shang Chi have exceptional Human abilities but differ from Batman in that there is a mystical and ordained vibe to their backstories. They do have superpowers in a supernatural way. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/52 "2008-07-20T07:33:42Z")
Kent Allard a.k.a. Lamont Cranston a.k.a. The Shadow had to learn how to cloud men’s minds so they could not see him. (The Shadow’s origins are sort of convoluted. He began as the narrator of a 1930s anthology series who became more popular than the stories he was introducing and inspired a series of pulp novels about a vigilante who dressed in black and was really good at hiding before becoming the more familiar radio and film detective who could make himself invisible.) ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/53 "2008-07-20T11:09:59Z")
I would maintain that Batman would count since, in at least a few continuities, he travels abroad seeking the training and experience he would need to fight evil, which is why he has exceptional abilities (now, he might possess certain Type A personality traits, along with large sums of money, which would help him a lot, but this isn’t the main crux of what makes him who he is. He would still be Batman if he used his home office in his apartment instead of a Batcave, and if he rode around on a Kawasaki dirtbike instead of the Batmobile. Hell, there’s an Elseworlds comic where The Bat Man was a cop in a ski mask and trench coat armed with a baseball bat and a tommygun in the 30’s, but he’s still identifiably Batman. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760/54 "2008-07-20T11:15:55Z")
Dunno if you consider them superheros by any stretch, but Giles and Wesley from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are both who they are very much because of decisions they made before and after being associated with the Watcher’s Council (Giles with his history as Ripper, and Wesley’s transformation from bowtie geek on Buffy to pistol-packing badass in the later seasons of Angel). In the same universe, Willow sought out the knowledge of the Black Arts which allowed her to become a superbeing in her own right (occasionally villain, sometimes hero, usually comfortable as an epically powerful sidekick) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superheroes-who-sought-out-their-superpowers/456760.md?page=2)