Superheroes
Superheroes top the list of character categories. These unique beings have over-the-top bravery, appearance, strength, charisma, intelligence, health, and speed. What about magical characters? They are quite powerful, but it is not even a contest. Harry Potter must cast a spell to be bulletproof, while Superman only has to wake up in the morning.
Why don’t we put superheroes into every story? Like all character types, superheroes have their marketing niche. Remember all the 1980s detective shows? How about all the vampire movies in the 2000s? Zombies ruled the 2010s. They have all lost their luster as society gets tired of one genre and writers to adapt to the times.
Why don’t I jump onto the bandwagon and write a superhero book? I could call it Power-Bill. (Hey, that was an excellent pun. You should be laughing.) While I enjoy some superhero movies, buying into the concept is challenging. To explain, let’s examine Superman. He is strong, fast, tough, and can fly but powerless against Kryptonite.
The problem comes when I cannot relate Superman to something in my life. The creator of Superman made the character possible by altering physics. I certainly cannot fly, and no other human can. Have the rules only been changed for this one individual? Many superheroes must defy physics since there are so many comic books and movies. That way, Superman can have super friends and super enemies. Does the reader have to understand how physics gets altered? No, they are supposed to accept the modified physics laws unquestioningly.
Yet, in every moment of my life, there was no choice but to obey scientific laws. I would love to fly to work, but I cannot, nor can anybody else. What other science rules changed? Can he get a cold, or would the viruses bounce off his blood cells as the bullets bounce off his chest? To write about something, I must know.
Wait a minute. I wrote books with aliens. These creatures came right out of my imagination. Invented fact: My alien characters exist, and they came from another world on spacecraft that traveled faster than the speed of light. Truth: No alien has been conclusively proven to exist, and the laws of physics make traveling faster than the speed of light next to impossible.
How did I make sense of the altered universe I invented? Simple, I asked my readers to take a small leap of faith. My aliens are ‘people’ who live on another world. They have slightly different features that obey all biological laws, and their technology is more advanced than ours. Going faster than the speed of light to get to Earth? That was another minor leap of faith and included a plausible scientific explanation.
How about Batman? He is a rich person without super-abilities and uses this wealth to fight crime with fantastic devices. Everything he does (mostly) follows the rules of physics. Umm. That concept still seems unrealistic. Why not pay a private security guard to fight crime? A million dollars buys a lot of rent-a-cops.
What about a halfway point? The Guardians of the Galaxy movie characters do not have superpowers beyond their exaggerated natural abilities. To summarize, they were somewhat ordinary people on an adventure that nearly followed the rules of science. I still find this story difficult to relate to because they had a talking raccoon. That is too far a leap to write about. Can I fake a backstory? Readers easily spot awful concepts, and I have enough trouble with regular human characters.
Do I respect superhero writers? Writing is difficult, no matter what genre, and I appreciate writers with such wild imaginations. But unlike Superman, I cannot leap into the unknown.
You’re the best -Bill
May 20, 2020 Updated February 01, 2025
Why don’t we put superheroes into every story? Like all character types, superheroes have their marketing niche. Remember all the 1980s detective shows? How about all the vampire movies in the 2000s? Zombies ruled the 2010s. They have all lost their luster as society gets tired of one genre and writers to adapt to the times.
Why don’t I jump onto the bandwagon and write a superhero book? I could call it Power-Bill. (Hey, that was an excellent pun. You should be laughing.) While I enjoy some superhero movies, buying into the concept is challenging. To explain, let’s examine Superman. He is strong, fast, tough, and can fly but powerless against Kryptonite.
The problem comes when I cannot relate Superman to something in my life. The creator of Superman made the character possible by altering physics. I certainly cannot fly, and no other human can. Have the rules only been changed for this one individual? Many superheroes must defy physics since there are so many comic books and movies. That way, Superman can have super friends and super enemies. Does the reader have to understand how physics gets altered? No, they are supposed to accept the modified physics laws unquestioningly.
Yet, in every moment of my life, there was no choice but to obey scientific laws. I would love to fly to work, but I cannot, nor can anybody else. What other science rules changed? Can he get a cold, or would the viruses bounce off his blood cells as the bullets bounce off his chest? To write about something, I must know.
Wait a minute. I wrote books with aliens. These creatures came right out of my imagination. Invented fact: My alien characters exist, and they came from another world on spacecraft that traveled faster than the speed of light. Truth: No alien has been conclusively proven to exist, and the laws of physics make traveling faster than the speed of light next to impossible.
How did I make sense of the altered universe I invented? Simple, I asked my readers to take a small leap of faith. My aliens are ‘people’ who live on another world. They have slightly different features that obey all biological laws, and their technology is more advanced than ours. Going faster than the speed of light to get to Earth? That was another minor leap of faith and included a plausible scientific explanation.
How about Batman? He is a rich person without super-abilities and uses this wealth to fight crime with fantastic devices. Everything he does (mostly) follows the rules of physics. Umm. That concept still seems unrealistic. Why not pay a private security guard to fight crime? A million dollars buys a lot of rent-a-cops.
What about a halfway point? The Guardians of the Galaxy movie characters do not have superpowers beyond their exaggerated natural abilities. To summarize, they were somewhat ordinary people on an adventure that nearly followed the rules of science. I still find this story difficult to relate to because they had a talking raccoon. That is too far a leap to write about. Can I fake a backstory? Readers easily spot awful concepts, and I have enough trouble with regular human characters.
Do I respect superhero writers? Writing is difficult, no matter what genre, and I appreciate writers with such wild imaginations. But unlike Superman, I cannot leap into the unknown.
You’re the best -Bill
May 20, 2020 Updated February 01, 2025
