In a generic “comic book” setting with superheroes/supervillains, what characteristics differentiate superhuman characters from the rest of us. What minimum criterion needs be met to classify someone as beyond normal.
I’ve always thought of “superheroes” as not necessarily being super-powered. Some superheroes and some supervillains have no obviously impossible powers, Batman for instance. He can’t do anything that someone else on the face of the planet can’t do, but he has a much larger skillset (and money and other resources) than any normal person has, but he still can’t do anything that requires magic (or sufficiently-advanced technology that appears to be such). He’s “normal”, but definitely at the highest limits above which we would have to call him “super-powered”.
Plastic-man, on the other hand, does things that you or I simply can not learn, no matter how talented, smart, fit, etc., we happen to be. I learn how to stretch my arm across the room to pull crisps out of a bag if my life depended on it. He’s super-powered even if he is kind of lame.
Where do you draw the line between “normal” and “super”?
Sure, in some cases, it’s clear-cut. Being able to fly unassisted is super. But what about, say, running really fast? Is Usain Bolt superhuman (he already has an appropriate name, at least)? What about someone who could finish a race a half-second quicker than him? Keep going this way, and eventually you get to the Flash.
In the example you give, I’d draw the line (rather vaguely) at the point where whatever is going on can’t possibly be sustained by known biological processes. At the rate the Flash burns calories, I imagine he’d need to consume his weight in food in a very short time. He’d perspire himself into dehydration in a few minutes, and the heat released by his activity should be sufficient to burst him into flames or flash-cook him. Yet none of these ill effects happen. That they don’t happen is a function of whatever makes him superhuman.
Oh yes, he does. His wealth is practically a form of sublte magic. His secrecy is basically magic (likewise nobody every noticing that Clark Kent is Superman). His willpower is far beyond human. As I mentioned in the other thread, Batman is definitely superhuman, just not as obvious.
The term ‘metahuman’ is sometimes used to make the distinction clearer. Metahumans are those who can do things beyond the limits of normal humans, which would include guys like Superman, Flash, and Martian Manhunter. Superhuman is a little fuzzier and might include people at the very peak of human ability like Batman.
That said, there’s a distinction between metahumans/superhumans and superheroes. Superheroes are those who fight threats on a scope above and beyond what normal humans face: alien threats, dimensional invaders, and other metahuman villains, as well as conquer-the-world evil geniuses and the like. You can do that even if you’re not a metahuman yourself. The human Green Lanterns aren’t necessarily even at the peak of human ability; they just have a nifty toy and the will and ethics to use it. But due to the nature of their conflicts, they’re definitely superheroes, as is Batman.
Agreed that this would be more appropriate in CS, since Superheroes are mostly in comic books, TV shows, and movies, not games.
But speaking of RPGs, the cut off between ‘the pinnacle of human performance’ and ‘superhuman’ is actually given in Mutants and Masterminds second edition - any stat above 20 is ‘superhuman’. Skills no cutoff is given (that I noticed), meaning for all his insane abilities, Batman will never count (however, there’s something of a limit for skills that aren’t backed by superhuman abilities, or powers, with the nature of the game). Powers, with a handful of exceptions, are inherently superhuman, as they let you do things that normal people can’t - the exceptions (that come to mind immediately…there may be more if I actually glanced through the book) are Device (which can be loaded with powers that are), Magic (which is a skill that lets you do things that are), and Strike (which is just ‘you can hit things with this’).
So what do you call a superpowered crimefighter who goes in for the whole cape-and-tights-and-underpants-on-the-outside look but only ever foils mundane crooks in between rescuing folks from burning buildings?
I guess that’s where you and I differ: to me, a hero with super-powers is, well, a super-hero, for lack of a better word.
So now imagine him in a world where he’s still perfectly willing to step up against “alien threats, dimensional invaders, and other metahuman villains” – except none of them ever actually show up, such that he’s only ever handling low-key threats. Is he still as heroic as ever, and still as super-powered?
Then again, that would still allow for cheetah-like speeds. And on the other hand, what if I’m standing too close to a rack of chemicals when lightning strikes, but I only get a little of the chemicals splashed on me, and get turned from a desk-jockey into the equivalent of Usain Bolt?
That would make you enhanced, but still not superhuman. ‘Superhuman’ is ‘above human’ if a human can’t do it, no matter how much they train, then it’s superhuman. If a human can do it if they’ve got the right combination of inherent ability and training, but you can do it as a baseline because you’ve encountered an alien orb, or have the metagene…then you’re metahuman (‘changed human’) and enhanced, but not superhuman.
Still as heroic, still as superpowered, but not superheroic. He’ll simply never have a chance to prove he’s a superhero in that scenario, as superheroes fight the threats normal humans are incapable of handling by themselves. Fighting mundane thugs and rescuing people from burning buildings are things normal people can do, he just does them more efficiently.
One of the common complaints about City of Heroes is that in the lower levels, you do fight gangs of thugs armed with little more than guns and bats, and that’s just not superheroic. It’s when you learn that one of those gangs has access to demonic powers and another starts showing signs of elemental control, and things escalate from there, that the superhero flavor of the game starts kicking in.
Definition Of A Superhero–any sentient entity possessed of powers, abilities, skills or technologies beyond those possessed by ordinary men, who uses these attributes to fight injustice & defend Mankind.
Not quite - the way I’m using it, (which matches how it’s used in most uses of the term I’ve seen) metahuman is an umbrella term for anyone who’s altered from human baseline. ‘Superhuman’ is the portion of metahuman that’s enhanced to the point - or trained to work with their enhancements to the point - that they can do something no ordinary human can, no matter how much they work at it.
Metahuman is a question of whether the person (of human extraction) is baseline normal.
Superhuman is a particular degree of how strongly they diverge from that baseline.
