Heroes who gain powers while under great stress

[dsatow]

In Brave New World and as a standard comic meme, people get strange new powers when their lives are threatened.  I.E.  You get bitten by a high toxic radioactive spider and instead of dying of poisoning and radiation, you get spider powers!

 

So I was think about the fallout to this.  the most common one is:

 

1) More people start commiting suicide in a failed attempt to get superpowers.

 

but I also was thinking 

 

2) Terrorists are less likely to hold hostages and the ones that do are assured they won't be tortured or killed in propaganda and are kept comfortable.  (Don't want you hostage Hulking out.)

3) Insurance companies will not pay out if you gain superpowers as a result of the accident.  (you got into an accident and gain super strength, then you totaled your car to get out?)

 

Any other causalities?

[Pyronide]

there are a couple sadly common ones that I think would be interesting to throw into this idea...

 

1) Abusive Relationships would be at an all time low

2) People would be afraid of breaking up with obsessive significant others or harshly rejecting people flatout

 

 

just ideas to tinker with

[TheQuestionMan]

Nice!

[Comic]

Elementals had a fanatical religious group torture hundreds of its followers to death in bizarre ways in the hopes at least a few would suffer in unusual enough ways to attract the attention of the Shadow Spear and be brought back with powers.

 

Powers has Wannabes who will go to any NSFW extreme to either gain or increase their powers.

 

GalaxyQuest had actors rise to the heroic proportions of the roles they played when thrown into the dire situations their characters used to portray. While not strictly speaking super powers.. who are we kidding? Since when is teleportation, disintegration, and space flight not super powered?

[sinanju]

In Brave New World and as a standard comic meme, people get strange new powers when their lives are threatened.  I.E.  You get bitten by a high toxic radioactive spider and instead of dying of poisoning and radiation, you get spider powers!

 

So I was think about the fallout to this.  the most common one is:

 

1) More people start commiting suicide in a failed attempt to get superpowers.

 

but I also was thinking 

 

2) Terrorists are less likely to hold hostages and the ones that do are assured they won't be tortured or killed in propaganda and are kept comfortable.  (Don't want you hostage Hulking out.)

3) Insurance companies will not pay out if you gain superpowers as a result of the accident.  (you got into an accident and gain super strength, then you totaled your car to get out?)

 

Any other causalities?

 

I think...your basic premise is flawed. Yes, in comics, Bruce Banner is subjected to a lethal dose of gamma rays and Hulks out instead of dying. Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider and gets spider powers. And so forth.

 

But I've always seen their stories as the fantastically unlikely result of an accident that would, even in a comic book world, simply kill the vast majority of people. It's like winning Powerball. Yes, it happens, but it's not something to bank on. In most cases, exposure to lethal levels of gamma rays (or cosmic rays, for the Fantastic Four) won't give you powers, it's just gonna kill you.

 

So terrorists aren't going to worry about a hostage suddenly turning into the Hulk or the Human Torch. It's theoretically possible, yes, but far less likely than the government simply storming the building and shooting them all to death. And while there may be a few misguided souls who die trying to acquire powers, most people will weigh the odds and choose not to take the risk. (On the other hand, a survey once revealed that a large percentage of Olympic athletes would risk death if it meant they could achieve their goals in life, so maybe people would.)

 

I don't believe abusive relationships would be less common for fear the abused will Hulk Out or otherwise turn the tables. They can do that today by using a weapon--a knife or a gun--and that's far more likely (despite being very unlikely, statistically) than an origin story happening the millionth time you beat up your spouse.

 

I do agree that an insurance company probably won't pay out if you acquire superpowers in an accident--but mostly because the accident is most likely because they'll simply claim that as the equivalent of a superhero battle that levels a city block--the equivalent of an Act of God or an Act of War (i.e., the sort of risk that nobody can reasonably anticipate and plan for, and which no insurance company is going to cover).

[Steve]

Actually, the appearance of superpowers could have a snowballing effect in such a world. The first few superhumans are due to very rare accidents and circumstances, but then they have fights that expose more people to danger, triggering more superhuman origins. Those people then go on to have more fights, triggering even more origins.

[Tasha]

To prevent the snowball effect, you might want breakouts to only happen during certain events. ie Comets coming close to the earth, the various Meteor showers that happen during the year. Perhaps certain times of the year spike whatever it is that is fueling superpowers.

[Tasha]

Also the Powers TV show (On Playstation streaming video) has the OP's model of power breakthroughs. High stress will cause those who have the potential to gain powers. This leads to Wannabes who know they will get their powers eventually, and who do stupid things to try to help the process along.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Or, abusive relationships become significantly more awful, because in stress the abuser becomes the hulk...

[TheQuestionMan]

Marine Recruit Kyle Reese stands rigidly at attention, his face scarlet red, sweat running down his cheeks, eyes desperately looking up as the Drill Instructor screaming insults and sarcasms into his up tirned face. Shear terror grips him and his stomach knots and churns.

Suddenly everything turns red and now he is looking down at a startled Drill Instructor.

[Badger]

there are a couple sadly common ones that I think would be interesting to throw into this idea...

 

1) Abusive Relationships would be at an all time low

2) People would be afraid of breaking up with obsessive significant others or harshly rejecting people flatout

 

 

just ideas to tinker with

On #2, so this might have made my high school/college life better?