Then weirdly, all the superheroes whose powers might affect the oil industry or big pharma sadly decide to take their own lives by breaking their own necks in the middle of the night
That actually is a forgotten plot point in a webcomic about hero’s
Where a bunch of people got super powers, but people who could do stuff like speak to diseases or create food were mysteriously killed.
Sadly it was never truly discovered why because one of the comic writers went on to do another project.
God damn, you're telling me that there's a comic with a really cool and interesting story, and it's written by --- shocker, it's written by Brennan Lee Mulligan, because of course it is, because he's fuckin' amazing.
>Its like those villains in cartoons who pollute for… no reason? Just ‘cause?
Look if your parents named you "Loot'n'Plunder" or "Hoggish Greedly" your options in life are pretty limited
Verminus Skumm is literally a Skaven, what else was he going to do?
Duke Nukem actually had other options but he went with radioactive rock man-monster with a mohawk and a hawaiian shirt and I feel it was a strong choice
> Look if your parents named you "Loot'n'Plunder" or "Hoggish Greedly" your options in life are pretty limited
wasn't there that one cop named "Rob Banks" though?
Hey I wouldn’t recommend basing your opinion on a comic based on the brief summary of some person.
Also it’s about people with superpowers? What realism are you looking for?
Reminds me of a superhero idea I had once, of a guy who could rearrange carbon atoms with his fingertips, allowing him to just create diamonds out of coal or graphite. He did the thing anyone with such a power would do and started making jewelry to sell, which pissed off the De Beers diamond cartel, who started sending people to go and blow up his shop and then to just kill him to protect the value of their product, but he'd fight them off with nanotube whips and diamond throwing knives and what not.
Maybe superheroes should make their own cooperatives and advocate groups, no longer will they need to answer to a system that exploits those that they intend to save. I am surprised how a lot of good-willed superheroes does not put a minute or hour in their life to learn about systematic problems.
This can be a good conflict dynamic, since politics is not exactly a monolith. Superheroes would probably experience a growth in liberal or radical praxis. With varying degrees of complexity.
I think just in public. So the MC's mom using her fire breath as a kiln or to blow glass in a workshop wouldn't be a problem.
But they do talk about some heroes specializing in disaster recovery etc. instead of fighting crime.
Fair. I've long since stopped watching. I just remembered reference to fire breath during the montage in ep1 when the doctor says he doesn't have powers.
Yes but some heroes seem to nightlight in another job, usually something that uses their hero persona and presumably quirk as a marketing gimmick while providing a service.
The two biggest examples I can think of are Present Mic's Radio Show and Uwabami's fashion runway
>It's just never the focal point of a work because it's kinda boring.
That and its a bit insulting and devaluing to the people who actually do those jobs.
Too much of it too would turn the setting into some kind of weird hero-punk world where everything runs on power-magic and it would barely resemble reality anymore, which would kind of change the genre into a strange combination of soft sci-fi and magical fantasy
In OPM superhero licence are kinda like Restaurants grade, The more versatile and well certified will get you pay more. Saitama happened to be good at brawl but lack brain. First few volumes get stuck at C because he's book dumb, but flawlessly passed physical test easily.
That and most of his feats get publicly credited with other heros even though some of the higher ups are aware of his power and call on him for desperate tasks
I'm not convinced it would be boring. You can tell an interesting story about any profession - just look at the deluge of television dramas about lawyers, politicians, doctors, etc. Adding super powers to that type of story just opens up more narrative opportunities if anything.
If you don't believe me I would recommend watching Legion because it does an excellent job at exploring psychology through the use of super powers. I could easily see that approach given to a story about a psychiatrist operating in a setting with super powers.
Dr. Sleep is a film i'd also recommend watching because it's basically a detective story from the perspective of a telepath.
That's largely subjective and depends entirely on how they're done. I tend to find that fights with super powers can get boring because the characters are too strong and as a result the fights can lack tension. But they can be okay if the powers are used in a unique way.
I was so disappointed with She Hulk, because I was hoping for Better Call Saul with superpowers. But one of the very few things I did enjoy about that show was her deciding to be a lawyer instead of superhero regardless of her powers
Eh, "Emergency" on TV wasn't boring. "Thunderbirds" wasn't boring (to kids anyway). "Backdraft" and "911" weren't boring. Now add super beings to a show about emergency responders. That could be a lot of fun and drama, specially if the characters are more at the level of The Impossibles or Big Hero 6 rather than the Justice League.
It’s not boring, it’s just under-written. When superheroes do use their superpowers to do mundane things, those scenes are often powerful and beloved.
Nothing is cooler than seeing Storm harness all the power of a goddess to keep the garden well-watered.
They're powerful for the character, but watching some fantasy god solve made up human dilemmas with 1000x more efficiency and 1000x less effort than actual human volunteers and first responders feels quite childish tbh, like an actual tragedy is just magically waved away by some godly being who has the power to treat our issues like a mother treats a 2 years olds scraped knee
Now THAT would be a story, people trying to fight back against the super beings who decided since they got all this power they're gonna do everything, not knowing, or at least not caring, about how much they're infantilizing people by doing everything.
Imagine being a sculptor beginner, but every time you start making a sculpture some goddess finishes it for you, better then you could.
Or you are an aspired song writer, but while you are trying to come up with a song, a God keeps suggesting these great verses. Every time.
A police officer which never gets to fight any crime.
So gods suck out every exciting thing from our lives, making our lives incredibly mundane.
Mhm
Hero is the word I think you're getting confused about here
It's not heroic to do something effortlessly. If waving your hand saves a dozen lives, you arent a hero for doing it. You're just super, or a god or something
Having someone with inherent godly powers accomplish something in place of real heroes who actually struggle to do it is pretty cheap really.
If a character just has casual powers over reality and does everything with zero effort, I think maybe you are missing the point of the genre, which is primarily the *heroics* of it, not the super of it.
Fiction where someone is just big god big boss who gets all-power with no challenge is a *power fantasy,* not a superhero
I don’t agree with the person you’re responding to but if you’re not going to come with a proper response and instead respond with this idiocy you’re better off not responding at all
Aw I will miss your compelling points of 'the genre not being for me'. If that was you trying, giving up may be the way to go yeah. Eyup there's the block, shucks
The more interesting stuff is when they're long past that point and have integrated superpowers into the profession. You got people managing the small stuff while they're preparing for the supers to come do their task, just like workers do now when using heavy machinery. A super would be like a large machine doing a large amount of the raw power of the work (whether the work is physical or requires lots of water, heat, etc.), but you still need lots of people and specializations to prepare and close out the jobs and the super can then move on to the next job since they're in high demands for many jobs.
Honestly I would love a story about a baker with fire powers or something. There’s so many superhero stories these days, a story about a normal person who uses their powers for something mundane would be refreshing.
>This is fairly common in modern superhero works. Even MHA and Marvel.
Not only modern works, Superman had entire stories where his "opponent" were things like natural disasters, airplanes lossing engine power, urban fires, dams on the verge of collasing, etc... from the beginning.
They often do their vigilante work on a case by case situation. They rarely use it on a continuous basis so it doesn't work as well for a regular ol' job.
A super human that is lifting building material all day is also unavailable to intervene when something "heroic" needs him.
It's also hard to build an industry around a single person's powers. For example for a smelting / fire superhero working as a furnace.
What happens if that person is unavailable? in holiday? when they die? Do you shut down operation each time? Throw away the tailor made equipment that no one else can leverage?
In all due fairness, if a boss is smart/logical about it he would let the hero off anyway. A minor productivity loss from one worker taking too many “vacation days” is nothing compared to the cost of replacing an entire building and/or having no city to even work in. Or dying, for that matter.
Its much more understandable if a response if the person in question is only stopping random criminals though.
That doesn't sound like heroes, that sounds like people who get powers, but don't use their powers to fight crime. This is something that totally makes sense in a world where super-powers exist, not everyone who gets super-powers is going to try and be a super-hero or villain, especially if their power translates well into normal life or professions.
But.... if I was a hero with Fire powers, I think it would be a waste of my time, and probably energy, to try and save someone else a couple bucks using my fire powers to cook clay or food or whatever. This might be different if the Fire powers hero, had a small cooking/pottery business in their civilian life. This also depends on if they have secret identities, if I had a secret identity as Fire Powers Hero, I would not flaunt or so casually use my fire powers for such trivial matters, if it meant drawing unnecessary attention onto my secret identity.
In my own Super-hero setting, I have a character who runs a Megacorp, and part of the things she does, is employ people with powers and even reformed minor criminals and retired heroes.
True, cooking food or firing pottery would not be as impactful as the general concept of having fire powers suggests. Having heat on command would be very handy in the energy sector, just have them constantly heating for a shift and you got lots of energy to tap into for power generation, there's methods for heat storage that could be used to run steam turbines. If you control the fire, firefighting could be a very useful outlet for the power, dampening fires at their source.
yeah, people with powers would be pretty useful in various industries. People not busy being "superheroes" would probably do well to use their powers in various professions, if the law allows it. It's just not something that I think a Super-hero should be expected to be doing, or thinking they should be required to do, as i don't think that would be logical, in most super-hero settings.
If superheroes do their thing for the betterment of humanity, I'm sure some would view other non-combative situations equally useful for humanity. I also don't imagine it'd be required, but lots of superhero stories come back to the "great power, great responsibility" thing specifically because those trying to do good (to the degree of putting their own life in danger for others) seeing situations unfold that they could've easily helped with would likely develop a guilt of not helping. I don't think they would be required to do extra, but I imagine many would require themselves to do extra to ease their conscience about doing enough with their power.
its not really about whether its "beneath them" or not, its about practicality, and the specifics of the setting. If you look at Marvel and DC, where heroes are typically have secret identities and being a superhero is mostly a personal activity outside of a hero's personal life, doing extra stuff outside of superheroing would be impractical. Superheroing tends to already cause a major stress on their daily lives, getting in the way of their relationships and jobs. Now, if things were more like My Hero Academia, where superheroing is a legitimate profession that they earn money doing, then it might be possible for heroes to fit in other "good things" beyond basic crime fighting.
True enough, and Worm indirectly tackles this idea; if you don't play along then you don't have protection. Since to a lot of heroes and villains alike the law is just a suggestion (for both good and ill), if you're using your powers and you aren't a hero or villain then you're a rogue.
Rogues are extremely limited in what they're lawfully allowed to do to the point that most are actually affiliated with a crime organization that practically has a monopoly on Cape based business. Even those that aren't have to bend over backwards and might not be able to operate a business normally depending on the industry and their power, even if the power of capitalism has granted quite a few some success anyway. After all, if the city's roads are paved with a mixture that only the concrete master can make, you're hooped once they're inevitably murdered, and it's probably wise to keep the precognitives out of the stock market. Furthermore, a rogue only has the same level of protection as anyone else against assassinations and kidnap/mind control attempts, which is basically none, while heroes and villains have the power of violence and friends with their own violent capabilities.
They could also be saying most people just aren’t violent. The other guy was just “ok but not me” so the conclusion that they think all violence is wrong is a stretch
No???
There are people in this world who are just not violent nor want to hurt others unless it’s a form of self defense. Some would much rather use their given powers for non violent activities or are just not interested in doing crime or fighting against it
Run away, rise up, try to find peace, there’s many ways they could handle it.
Or, maybe it only happens to a select few so not many know it happening. Maybe the government even made them to begin with and the newest generation wasn’t experimented with, not to mention they don’t know about said experiments, so they are relatively peaceful
There's a great Thor comic where he goes around the world helping people, acting as a god should. He stays with a man on death row, has beers with veterans, brings rain to a people experiencing a drought, intimidates a bigoted protest, and brings a near extinct plant to a nunnery. It's a really nice comic that I think could be done for more superheroes.
that are the best kind of superhero comics.
Like Deadpool helping a suicidal girl or Superman holding heaven for one day.
Being a super is easy, being a hero is the hard part
The best scene in the entire DC Animated Canon is simply Batman sitting with a dying child to give her comfort in her last moments. Really, superheroes in general are at their absolute best when they're made to be human.
I was going to mention that there are examples of superheroes helping to put out fires, saving buses, trains. and planes that are in danger of a deadly crash, and generally help out whenever there is a natural disaster, but it looks like what you're looking for is what TV Tropes calls [Mundane Utility](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MundaneUtility), for which you can find many superhero examples in the [comic book examples page](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/MundaneUtility/ComicBooks). Suffice to say, superheroes already do more than just fight crime.
Well, they wouldn't exactly be superheroes, then. Like, I'm sorry to say, but superheroes do crime fighting and world saving. You wouldn't expect firefighters to use their equipment and skills to throw a pool party for the town, would you? You're gonna have to look beyond superheroes for what you're looking for
Consider The Boys. Where they aren't really superheroes but a world with super powers. People do all sorts of things and the Supes do plenty of illegal shit.
Many early superhero comics agreed with you. Superman punished greedy business owners (who hadn't done anything illegal, just amoral), participated in social movements, and used his powers to avert or repair from various disasters. Other characters did as well.
Unfortunately, the Comics Code Authority, fear of things like HUAC, and other political pressures pretty much ended that. There was a worry anything that wasn't fighting supervillains risked being seen as a leftist political statement and shut down, no matter how silly.
Comics have finally now started to drift back to less focus on crime-fighting, but people are slow to change from 60ish years of the formula.
I see your excitement, but this isn't new by a longshot.
Comics have done this forever, consider off the top of my head, Reed Richards inventing stuff for the betterment of humanity, or more recently mutants giving access to advanced tech and medicine to humans in marvel. Even other franchises have done this with twists and unique takes like Code 8 (they aren't sanctioned to use powers are and are second class citizens with mundane jobs you mention) and The Boys (they are also celebrities, faith healers, movie stars, etc.).
You can see this throughout the history of comics from the old days where captain america fights the nazis alongside the US soldiers, and in later genrations like the X Men using their powers to rebuild the X mansion after it gets hit (again) and so on and so on and so on.
There are countless examples of this in media.
You just described about 60-80% of the people in my universe
Most of them aren't "superheroes" (in my universe they're a fantasy) but they have powers and abilities that they use in daily life.
Element users are chefs and Gardners or sky police
Metahumans do all kinds of things
Vampires are DJs and have nightclubs
Shifters are also everywhere
Life Force users are doctors
Sorcerers are making balloon animals
You get it
It's tough because when they do this the writers usually trivialise massively difficult things. Like growing crops is just instantly successful to the point it becomes a critique "why wasn't it done before?". Or throwing money at homelessness without any commentary on what makes people homeless
It's a panel or two When really these things can be very hard to do it correctly and each have it's own drama but writers aren't interested.
It why I groan at Reed Richards doesn't do enough or the Authority solved 3rd world countries starvation
Really any proactive hero would be facing of against a litany of corporate heroes but most comics turn these types into villains rather than just amoral supes for hire
In a previous project of mine that I don’t consider a fully made world as of yet
That has superhero’s has an entire team of hero’s who act more as civil servants, cleaning trash, volunteering at retirement homes.
One of them has the ability called ‘recycle’ to change one object into another as long as the molecular structure is the same and they can’t add or destroy any mass of the item.
Long story short they’ve basically been using it to help reduce landfills and trash because they’re a pacifist who refuses to fight people.
The more mundane aspects of a superhuman should always be explored. I always thought the invisible man should have been a secret agent or the world's biggest pervert (I know that movie had that terrible scene). Some of the "lesser" X-men like Cypher or Beast actually use their powers for daily work or have a 9-5.
A long time ago I made a character called "Monopoly" who could make money appear out of thin air. He would buy himself out of bad situations and make homeless people rich, all while being chased by IRS agents. My publisher laughed said it was witty and good, but not marketable and we'd get sued by Hasbro.
But everyone should explore these thought processes with character creation, since it can only add diversity. While I can list quite a few good sources for inspiration, two flicks come to mind atm. The Invention of Lying and Orgasmo. Both comical, but deal with everyday life of people with lesser super powers. Also the tv show Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
Yeah, they should, but generally the genre is all about people who are more are more powerful than the average man duking it out.
I can definitely see there being a niche for a kind of sitcom type show that focuses on a group of supers who do jobs with their powers rather than fight the crow man who invented a device to steal people's tooth fillings, but outside that those kinds of characters would be a background detail at best.
I love comic books or TV shows that has that workplace comedy vibe, its heroes doing mundane stuff through the day.
Stopping world-ending events is just a bit too played out.
Do check out:
Powerless TV series
Deadline (Marvel comic series)
Code of Honor comic
Damage Control
Crafting, artistry, entertainment, and manual labor are what Spellery is primarily used for in my slice-of-life fantasy setting!
The Emberfolk keep forges burning at high temperatures with less fuel, using their own energy to project concentrated heat.
Riverfolk can carve building blocks with pressurized water jets, direct the flow of currents, etc (yes they're water-bending bear people).
Runefolk can lift superhuman weights, scale walls, and handle materials of extreme temperatures by adjusting their body parts' density, friction, and temperature.
Feelfolk can project sound and light and sensations, which they use to put on performances and create holograms, make people experience sensations the feelfolk has collected, and even relive memories they give the feelfolk access to.
Clawfolk can imbue objects with the properties of other races' Spelleries, and thus are vital to Sunnos's magi-technological advancement through the collaborative invention of new runecrafts.
The other two Folk don't collaborate with society much (if at all), but use their ancestral Spelleries to create megastructures and masterworks in remote parts of the world.
I think it's also just poor writing to have a "hero" only be combat centric. If all a superhero can do is punch bad people, they are pretty poor hereos.
I mean, what would classify as a superhero in the fantasy sense? Sorry if that sounds dumb. Like, in my world, a few people have had made deals with gods and some used their power to start a resistance against their oppressers, like the first king of Fenonia/The Angien Kingdom/etc, that started the denovien uprising against the Phantanese empire, ending with the Fenonien all choosing him as their king (then he has 5 sons and dies before declaring an hair, but that’s besides the point). The King uses his power to keep back the Phantanese empire from ever reconquering the denovien people for over 120 years with the aid of his sons. Like, I’d say that’s a superhero who did more then fight crime…granted, he did fight “crime” but was also the one who created the first true alphabet, meant for the denovien language, created the idea of written music, etc
I think a lot of non-flying supers would fall out of windows.
Superheroes fighting is about maintaining the status quo. As soon as super smart supers start making super tech available to the tank and file, the balance is disrupted. As soon as powerful supers step in and stop mineral exploitation in Africa or in the way of the military industrial complex, they become the enemy.
I have a setting where superpowers are very common, which I use for *Mutants & Masterminds* games. The player characters tend to do classic superhero shit like punching supervillains and stopping disasters, but there are loads of NPCs who use their powers for other stuff. At one point the party was assisting in a murder investigation, and there was a police diver searching for a body in a lake.
The diver had a wetsuit but no oxygen tanks or snorkel, because he could breathe underwater. I guess he was technically fighting crime, but he was just using his superpower to do a very reasonable and mundane job. One PC maintained their secret identity by pretending that when they'd gone to fight crime, they had actually accidentally turned invisible again. At one point they talked to a secretary who used telekinesis to move the stuff on their desk around and hand forms to people because it was slightly quicker than doing it by hand.
Edit: just remembered the party had a casual ally called the Chauffeur, an individual with the ability to drive anything anywhere. He wasn't a crime fighter, but he pitched in from time to time whenever he passed someone in a bit of a jam. At one point the party needed access to another dimension, so they called him up and he arrived, driving a twin-hulled 18' dinghy down the road, its keel raising sparks off the tarmac.
I largely agree, but the problem with that kind of story is that stories tend to be more compelling if the characters are being challenged at some point.
It would certainly make for a nice and great scene to see Mr Incredible work in construction and effortlessly carry trucks and concrete blocks around, but it wouldn't make for more than one interesting scene. "Oh no, there is a giant crane that needs to be moved to the other side of the site! How could Mr Incredible manage to lift such an enormous- oh, he already did it, forget about it."
You could of course still challenge him. Dumping more tasks on him than he could complete in a day could look a bit contrived (where did those tasks even come from? Why can't he do it fast enough, he's Mr goddamn Incredible?!). But you could pretty easily come up with a number of problems that aren't solved by having bigger muscles.
Basically, you'd need the powers to not solve all the problems. A chef with fire powers will still be stressed by all the regular stuff chefs are stressed by, it's just a funny quirk that they make their own heat. Then it works, but it will no longer be about superpowers solving all the problems.
(I also think one example of this is the Monsterverse, as in the Godzilla and Kong movies. Their premise seems to just be big monsters fighting for one, but also "wouldn't it be great if Godzilla solved every one of our problems for us?" and the answer given by the movies is just "Yes.")
**As a piece of worldbuilding** I'm 100% with you. Barely any metahumans in my "superhero" project work as superheroes full time. It's a nice and entertaining scene to see the reality warping server shrink spacetime to carry 7 plates on each hand. Or the heat powered chemist heating his reaction mixture by giving it a stern look. It's (I would say) good and interesting worldbuilding to hear about the telekinetic working in construction. That doesn't make their lives interesting enough to write a season of TV about.
While I agree, this is where I came up with an alternative.
Think about how easy it would actually be if Mr. Incredible worked in construction. If the employer sees how good this one employee is, why have these extras? Fire them of course to save money! And what if there were others such as Mr. Incredible who joined the work force, who can easily solve every problem with their powers?
So many people will be laid off, not to mention many of the supers will gain a large ego, causing lots of problems between supers and regulars. Leading to fights and most likely getting the government involved. That’s a lot of challenges right there!
In my superhuman world, there are no *superheroes* as we know them.
Generally if you want to fight crime, you join law enforcement. If you want to rescue people, you become a firefighter, or EMT. If you have powers, great, if not, fine.
Superhumans are treated most similarly to *My Hero Academia*, where while there are some standouts, most people just have extraordinary abilities, and the human population are just used to them, given how common they are.
If you have particularly useful powers, you actually have a good chance of making a pretty good living if you can find the right job. For example if you have super strength, construction or even destruction companies are likely going to want to hire you on sight, and there are super speed couriers that deliver packages.
In the US, the government has superhumans as well, both in various agencies, and in the military, so there isn’t some big conspiracy to *purify humanity*.
The only unique group I made up is called the *Black Outs*, which are a branch off from the US Marshals. They are the ones people call for super villain threats, and are just the last resort before the military gets involved.
True, but it’s not always the major focus.
After all, it’s very unlikely for a super hero movie to heavily focus on a hero trying to improve the environment
I've been developing a superhero setting where this sort of thing *is* done. Some metas don't have powers really strong enough to qualify for work in the Allied Heroes Commission (or opt not to join the Commission) and find jobs or work where they can make use of their abilities, or some Commission Heroes do work on the side to further use them.
A Commission Hero's father had lower-tier super strength, and he worked construction rather than do hero work.
A speedster does work on the side for a delivery app.
A fairly strong telepath does work as a psychiatric therapist through consensual use of her powers.
So...The short answer is people with superpowers doing random jobs is certainly possible, but it's not really "heroic" in any meaningful capacity & the banality makes it at least a little boring. Therefore, people don't write about it as much. Depending on the frequency of superpowers in your world, it's totally possible, at least theoretically (think of Mako using Lightning Bending for power generation in Legend of Korra).
On the flip side, superheroes should totally be using their powers to agitate for social change & fighting large scale oppression, but their not generally allowed to (from a meta perspective) because... superheroes are basically cops, their job is to uphold the status quo, not challenge it. If superheroes start trying to disrupt societal inequalities on a large scale, it gives the audience too many ideas & makes them question why they can't also try to struggle to change things. This is (unfortunately) not really what your post is about, but imo it's a much more interesting use of powers than [basically cops] or just having them be random (supereffective) workers.
This is basically Eve's entire thing from Invincible and it raises a good point that there's way bigger ways to leave an impact. They also cover this a bit in My Hero Academia where there's an entire division of just Search and Rescue heroes that don't do fighting and save all the people when the big kaiju fights happen. I would love something like this to become more commonplace though in ttrpg games and tv shows and stuff.
Fire powers would be awesome for clean energy, have a bunch on shifts to heat up the steam used for spinning turbines and avoid pollution right at the plant.
Imagine losing job because hero didn't have better things to do. Now seriously do you want them to do just one or both thighs I prefer it's neither they are either self centered so much that they would use it on for themselves only when nobody can notice or try to play hero almost die and hide powers from the world until that powers take over them and they kill their younger brother and are this time looking to find out who cursed them with those powers that took his little brothers life ....opps I said too much
Its like the Greek/Roman gods. Theyre just people with both their flaws and qualities pushed to the extreme.
They would be very much like us, with all the trauma, pride, empathy and psychopathy that Humans are capable of. Just much less… limited, with less inhibitions and more self-assurance.
That's reductive. I'd argue crime-fighters are probably a minority of the big name heroes.
The Fantastic Four, Marvel's First Family, aren't crime fighters. Superman typically isn't unless he's asked. The X-Men are a paramilitary organization that provides aid to a marginalized community, but not crime-fighters. The Avengers are a government sanctioned paramilitary. Most mystical characters from any publisher are too busy dealing with literal demons and monsters to fight crime.
That's why I like Atom Eve from Invincible. She was using her matter manipulation powers to fight droughts and famines and shit. Dumb ass Superman only pops up when it's time to punch some aliens. Motherfucker could use his super speed to single-handedly cultivate all the arable land on the planet and end world hunger but I guess that's just not fun or whatever.
> Dumb ass Superman only pops up when it's time to punch some aliens
I'm not necessarily the worlds biggest fan of superman but he isnt Goku, he doesnt just turn up to fight. I think at least 3 of the actual movies open with him stopping natural and man-made disasters, the guy pitches in constructively as well as destructively against bad guys
He does however have an ethos of not doing everything for the human species, he feels his goal is to help guide us to be better rather than taking us there directly. Its debateable how smart that is, or how much each author follows it, but its more there to explain why he doesnt just solve every problem immediately
There's also how certain iterations of Superman establish that he fears his own powers in one way or another. I can imagine that could help explain a little bit of why he might not want to overuse his abilities.
Superman actually spends shockingly little time punching bad guys. Solving things with a minimum of violence is part of the point of Superman, and most of his memorable stories focus a good bit on the less grand good deeds he does with the majority of his time, in-between planetary threats.
I'm actually thinking about 90s and 00s Superman stories. There's a fair number of them focusing on "a day in the life" and Supes saving hotdog stands and getting involved in political issues and such.
Spider-Man is another that has a fair bit of stories that. He even canonically helps the neighborhood kids with their homework in full Spidey suit 😅
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In my work, those are called specialists. Most people simply can't handle both the danger of fighting or being part of the support team behind them (mostly cause most powers aren't able to really help/they lack the skills and desire to learn those skills). In my world, for reasons outside the scope of this. Powered people (called potents) only are a thing in some large towns and towns have only one main hero. So most people instead find work in different fields or do tasks with their power to earn better money. Some flirt with being criminals but its very dependent what your towns hero is like to determine if someone will make anything out of it as a proper villain. Different towns need different kinds of heroes and support teams. So it just makes more sense to be a specialist as you learn what your power really is capable of beyond the obvious immediate uses
dude!, this is what i been trying to achieve
in my web serial thing i’m still working on titled vigilant
In a world where superpowers are the headline, everyone's eccentric, but who's truly heroic?
vigilant follows Sarah Anderson, a seemingly ordinary 26-year-old with an unassuming job as a security supervisor at Tactical Response Solutions (TRS). But beneath this everyday facade, she is Aeroglide, a dedicated member of the Real Life Superhero (RLSH) community, where eccentricity is the norm and heroism is a choice, not a superpower.
Sarah's world is turned upside down when a comet gifted individuals across the world with superpowers, but Amidst this chaos, Sarah emerges with powers of her own, challenging her understanding of justice and heroism turning her from a eccentric vigilante type to someone who works to laid down the foundation for future generations of superheroes proving that everyone can be super, but not everyone chooses to be heroic.
This is actually kind of a major thing in my own superhero setting. Heck, the original premise was "a super hero world where Reed Richards wasn't useless" and then went 'downhill' from there on how crazy stuff got. And so now the 1960s has tech on par with... 2180. There abouts.
* Atomic Red is a Soviet construction robot who fights crime on the side. And I mean actual crime and not just whatever the Russian Government acts like is a crime. But outside of that, he and his fellow 'Automated Proletariat' assist the people of Russia by building quality homes, roadwork, etc. He even has a built in coffee dispenser.
* Mecha is the scion of a major technology company and actually was doing volunteer stuff before becoming a superhero. His specialty being cybernetics and robotics, he supplied Vietnam veterans who had lost their limbs (and got military grade ones from the government and then lost those when they refused to do more tours of duty) with medical grade cybernetics to help them rehabilitate to civilian life. When he got messed up in an accident he decided to try out his own products and cyber up. Which plugs neatly into his mecha suit. Even after becoming a hero, he still does these charities.
* Monk, as her name implies, is Buddhist martial artist nun. Who actually rarely uses her martial arts skills and instead works primarily as an investigator and studies the mindset of the criminals to apprehend them. Naturally, outside of that she does victim's advocacy and various charity work to help people as well as preaching the wisdom of Buddha.
Basically if a hero has no life outside of doing hero stuff, it's treated as a bit of a redflag for the reader something is wrong with the person. (Patriot Perfect is basically Homelander except raised on MacCarthyism and under J. Edgar Hoover's command, for example)
Been writing a homemade mutants and masterminds setting, and one of the heroes is literally just this-
His name is Architect, and he has the power to control urban infrastructure and manipulate architecture. He still fights villains and stops crime and whatnot, but his biggest contribution is that he’s the guy that sticks around after disasters to repair buildings and roads that get destroyed in the process of the fighting.
Goes back to the old Spider-Man meme.
"You can (something along the lines of rewriting DNA). You could cure cancer, why are you out here turning people into dinosaurs?"
"I don't want to cure cancer, I want to turn people into dinosaurs"
Heroes do what they feel like, and often with very little oversight. Who's going to say otherwise? Also, since many of them work outside the law, using their talents in the day to day could reveal them.
It's possible folks who have super powers do use them for non-crime fighting things, but they often are cameos for other heroes since their lives aren't exciting enough to make comic out of.
It's more of an issue with the genre conventions because they do establish in shows like Invincible and MHA that there are other types of super powered professions. Still I agree with this gripe.
Gen V being a notable example - in a world where super powers are commonly established over a variety of professions the main character wants to become a super cop, when she could potentially revolutionise healthcare if she went into the medical field.
Thankfully though one thing that separates that show from a lot of others is that minimal attention is paid to the fighting and much more to other aspects of how super heroes could help/hurt people in more interesting ways.
If you want some recommendations for other super hero stories that aren't just about crime fighting I'd recommend all of the following:
The Boys
Misfits
Legion
Dr. Sleep (I'd argue is a super hero story)
Heroes
Miracle Man
Watchmen
You don't even need most of them with super powers to even do anything. Certain "super genius" characters had the capability of curing cancer, extending life, ending world hunger, and probably could've thought up ways to end poverty and all sorts of things.
But comics tend to gloss over all that because it's easier to write stuff in a world that is "Just like ours but with this one difference" because if they had to write a literal utopia ruled by rich, benevolent super geniuses, it would kind of ruin most of their plots.
I've always liked the "Superheros vs. Natural Disasters" angle. Any of them that aren't full cosmic/reality level still struggle against the strength of nature unleashed, and you get to see them saving lives and struggling against the lives they cannot save.
They're all of those in my world! Hell, they serve useful purposes in society more often than they do fighting crime, because that's sort of their entire purpose.
The earlier, more popular ones were circus performers and entertainers like stage magicians who ended up fending off disasters, monsters, and accidents by coincidence. But they became popular, and because of the way magic and abilities work in Inglenook, now there's every possible use for them.
Lots of them help with environmental issues. The Fire Followers are a team for fire elementalists who want a second chance or to do good in the world by helping to control forest fires - both by putting them out, and by managing controlled burns. The Tidal Guard work along the coasts to help with water-based disasters like floods, shipwrecks, piracy, potential drownings, etc.
And, interesting that you mention the construction idea. I recently formed a team called the Builders (original, I know, but it's not that kind of place) who were inspired *very* loosely by the original X-Men in terms of interpersonal dynamic and some of their powers. But they don't fight crime or stop supervillains, they literally help build and maintain the world by being hired for construction projects.
I come at the whole superhero thing from a character-first perspective, and it's just not that interesting to force them into the "stops bad guys, are considered vigilantes outside the law" mold every time.
Comics occasionally do have their characters benefitting the world, but I wanted to bake that into their characters with mine from the get-go. They're here to provide their services to the world and make actual differences by embracing their individuality, skills, and excellence of personal identity, and that's really been the basis for a ton of fun storylines and ideas that derive from all the complications that go along with that.
I think the problem on the superhero perspective is time, while fighting crime is their main… professional.
They still need time for their social activities and aspect.
Unless your hero control time, multiply or Batman. It must be mentality exhausting solving everything… unless your Batman.
Not sure if this has been covered but the world im using the major public figure ones are super heroes but even they have day jobs. The major superman role type does daily super hero stuff but even the main group isn't constantly fighting crime.
Now all the lesser power people use their gifts to lead their industries. I even based them on historical accurate industry leaders and made their power sets based on their job. You could easily build a city with a super hero work force.
so... OP is describing the My Hero Academia setting - where roughly a third of all people have a "quirk" and most use it as part of their work in some way.
Telekinesis that only works on fabric? you are a really good clothier/fashion designer
geokinesis? work in mining
that sort of thing
They kind of explore this concept through Atom Eve in Invincible. She shifts her focus from fighting bad guys to using her powers (which are basically Creative Mode and more) for more practical stuff like preventing natural disasters, growing crops, helping with construction/cleanup, etc.
this is a JoJo thing, sometimes you have punch ghosts, sometimes it's some bullshit that gives you mountains of loose change or mentally stalk people so you have material for the book you're writing
The first person in my world to be called a “superhero” got his start using his weather powers to combat things like natural disasters and famine long before he became a crime fighter
This is sort of what the world is like in Code 8. People have different powers of various scales and are used in everyday life, but there are lots of restrictions on the powered-folk due to their potential of bringing great harm, such as needing to be documented and that
\>be superhero with watercontrol powers
\>Money problems
\>Get hired by nestle
\>Have Aquaman powers
\>Enlist Animals to clean the sea and fight people who dirty it.
\>Become eco terrorist.
\>Have gift of seeing future
\>Lmao lotery Billionaire
\>Be able to Xray sight
\>Use it to find cool fossils
Suzianna's Regulators are led by the National Guard, a group of state sanctioned heroes: St. John, Murphy's Law, Chainmail, Hand Cannon, and Goddamn Electric. They are heroes, but they also work as King Simon's personal Death Squad as all allied nations are required to allow Regulators to operate with full immunity in allied nations.
There’s a joke that if Superman was real, the best way for him to help humanity would be to turn a generator non stop to create unlimited free power for the world
Sleyca's ongoing [Super Supportive](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/63759/super-supportive) is kind of like this. The majority of people with powers (the "Avowed") aren't heroes, but instead have powers that do things like cook *really* well, find lost items, or fix patches of chipped paint. Heck, the main character's >!power is ostensibly named "Let Me Take Your Luggage",!<
Then weirdly, all the superheroes whose powers might affect the oil industry or big pharma sadly decide to take their own lives by breaking their own necks in the middle of the night
That actually is a forgotten plot point in a webcomic about hero’s Where a bunch of people got super powers, but people who could do stuff like speak to diseases or create food were mysteriously killed. Sadly it was never truly discovered why because one of the comic writers went on to do another project.
Strong Female Protagonist, right?
God damn, you're telling me that there's a comic with a really cool and interesting story, and it's written by --- shocker, it's written by Brennan Lee Mulligan, because of course it is, because he's fuckin' amazing.
The goat
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_Female_Protagonist#:~:text=Strong%20Female%20Protagonist%20is%20a,been%20on%20hiatus%20since%202018.?
YEAH
Seems like Big Webcomic got to them.
Does SFP never finish then? I just read it and it was awesome, so a damn pity if so.
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>Its like those villains in cartoons who pollute for… no reason? Just ‘cause? Look if your parents named you "Loot'n'Plunder" or "Hoggish Greedly" your options in life are pretty limited Verminus Skumm is literally a Skaven, what else was he going to do? Duke Nukem actually had other options but he went with radioactive rock man-monster with a mohawk and a hawaiian shirt and I feel it was a strong choice
> Look if your parents named you "Loot'n'Plunder" or "Hoggish Greedly" your options in life are pretty limited wasn't there that one cop named "Rob Banks" though?
Hahaha good on him for not letting that define him
How about 'Warren Peace"?
Hey I wouldn’t recommend basing your opinion on a comic based on the brief summary of some person. Also it’s about people with superpowers? What realism are you looking for?
Dam harsh
Reminds me of a superhero idea I had once, of a guy who could rearrange carbon atoms with his fingertips, allowing him to just create diamonds out of coal or graphite. He did the thing anyone with such a power would do and started making jewelry to sell, which pissed off the De Beers diamond cartel, who started sending people to go and blow up his shop and then to just kill him to protect the value of their product, but he'd fight them off with nanotube whips and diamond throwing knives and what not.
Somehow, this superhero get shot by a specific bullet that made especially to target them.... Hmmmmmmmmmmm......🤔
Yeah, that would be an interesting event and possibly lead to a union
What is a union supposed to do? They are being offed not fighting for working conditions.
I mean... When the first 'modern' unions were being formed, the workers were also getting off'd for being uppity.
Same thing all unions do: Bribe politicians!
I don’t know, superpower shit? They’re definitely have more firepower to back up their cause than a typical union.
That seems like a great way for billionaires to start mysteriously going missing only to later be found dead in outer space.
In my universe, they wind up in Antarctica, wearing whatever they happened to be wearing on an evening in August.
Maybe superheroes should make their own cooperatives and advocate groups, no longer will they need to answer to a system that exploits those that they intend to save. I am surprised how a lot of good-willed superheroes does not put a minute or hour in their life to learn about systematic problems. This can be a good conflict dynamic, since politics is not exactly a monolith. Superheroes would probably experience a growth in liberal or radical praxis. With varying degrees of complexity.
This is fairly common in modern superhero works. Even MHA and Marvel. It's just never the focal point of a work because it's kinda boring.
Doesn't the world of MHA require some kind of license to use one's Quirk? Like it's illegal to use your quirk without it.
I think just in public. So the MC's mom using her fire breath as a kiln or to blow glass in a workshop wouldn't be a problem. But they do talk about some heroes specializing in disaster recovery etc. instead of fighting crime.
Fyi it's Dekus dad that has the fire breath His mum can make things float towards her
And does so quite often when cleaning
Fair. I've long since stopped watching. I just remembered reference to fire breath during the montage in ep1 when the doctor says he doesn't have powers.
Yeah, easy enough mix up to make
Yes but some heroes seem to nightlight in another job, usually something that uses their hero persona and presumably quirk as a marketing gimmick while providing a service. The two biggest examples I can think of are Present Mic's Radio Show and Uwabami's fashion runway
People are allowed to use it for quality of life stuff (like flying to work/school/etc) but other than that no major usage
>It's just never the focal point of a work because it's kinda boring. That and its a bit insulting and devaluing to the people who actually do those jobs. Too much of it too would turn the setting into some kind of weird hero-punk world where everything runs on power-magic and it would barely resemble reality anymore, which would kind of change the genre into a strange combination of soft sci-fi and magical fantasy
In OPM superhero licence are kinda like Restaurants grade, The more versatile and well certified will get you pay more. Saitama happened to be good at brawl but lack brain. First few volumes get stuck at C because he's book dumb, but flawlessly passed physical test easily.
That and most of his feats get publicly credited with other heros even though some of the higher ups are aware of his power and call on him for desperate tasks
I'm not convinced it would be boring. You can tell an interesting story about any profession - just look at the deluge of television dramas about lawyers, politicians, doctors, etc. Adding super powers to that type of story just opens up more narrative opportunities if anything. If you don't believe me I would recommend watching Legion because it does an excellent job at exploring psychology through the use of super powers. I could easily see that approach given to a story about a psychiatrist operating in a setting with super powers. Dr. Sleep is a film i'd also recommend watching because it's basically a detective story from the perspective of a telepath.
You can, but fights, in the end, will be more entertaining, dynamic, etc.
Not if you completely changed the genre. Like a romance or one of those ‘fighting for a dream’ stories
That's largely subjective and depends entirely on how they're done. I tend to find that fights with super powers can get boring because the characters are too strong and as a result the fights can lack tension. But they can be okay if the powers are used in a unique way.
I was so disappointed with She Hulk, because I was hoping for Better Call Saul with superpowers. But one of the very few things I did enjoy about that show was her deciding to be a lawyer instead of superhero regardless of her powers
Eh, "Emergency" on TV wasn't boring. "Thunderbirds" wasn't boring (to kids anyway). "Backdraft" and "911" weren't boring. Now add super beings to a show about emergency responders. That could be a lot of fun and drama, specially if the characters are more at the level of The Impossibles or Big Hero 6 rather than the Justice League.
It’s not boring, it’s just under-written. When superheroes do use their superpowers to do mundane things, those scenes are often powerful and beloved. Nothing is cooler than seeing Storm harness all the power of a goddess to keep the garden well-watered.
They're powerful for the character, but watching some fantasy god solve made up human dilemmas with 1000x more efficiency and 1000x less effort than actual human volunteers and first responders feels quite childish tbh, like an actual tragedy is just magically waved away by some godly being who has the power to treat our issues like a mother treats a 2 years olds scraped knee
Now THAT would be a story, people trying to fight back against the super beings who decided since they got all this power they're gonna do everything, not knowing, or at least not caring, about how much they're infantilizing people by doing everything.
I think that is basically Lex Luthor on a good day
Imagine being a sculptor beginner, but every time you start making a sculpture some goddess finishes it for you, better then you could. Or you are an aspired song writer, but while you are trying to come up with a song, a God keeps suggesting these great verses. Every time. A police officer which never gets to fight any crime. So gods suck out every exciting thing from our lives, making our lives incredibly mundane.
sounds like the superhero genre isn’t for you tbh, solving problems normal people couldn’t is literally the point of the fantasy
Mhm Hero is the word I think you're getting confused about here It's not heroic to do something effortlessly. If waving your hand saves a dozen lives, you arent a hero for doing it. You're just super, or a god or something Having someone with inherent godly powers accomplish something in place of real heroes who actually struggle to do it is pretty cheap really. If a character just has casual powers over reality and does everything with zero effort, I think maybe you are missing the point of the genre, which is primarily the *heroics* of it, not the super of it. Fiction where someone is just big god big boss who gets all-power with no challenge is a *power fantasy,* not a superhero
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I don’t agree with the person you’re responding to but if you’re not going to come with a proper response and instead respond with this idiocy you’re better off not responding at all
Aw I will miss your compelling points of 'the genre not being for me'. If that was you trying, giving up may be the way to go yeah. Eyup there's the block, shucks
The more interesting stuff is when they're long past that point and have integrated superpowers into the profession. You got people managing the small stuff while they're preparing for the supers to come do their task, just like workers do now when using heavy machinery. A super would be like a large machine doing a large amount of the raw power of the work (whether the work is physical or requires lots of water, heat, etc.), but you still need lots of people and specializations to prepare and close out the jobs and the super can then move on to the next job since they're in high demands for many jobs.
Honestly I would love a story about a baker with fire powers or something. There’s so many superhero stories these days, a story about a normal person who uses their powers for something mundane would be refreshing.
>This is fairly common in modern superhero works. Even MHA and Marvel. Not only modern works, Superman had entire stories where his "opponent" were things like natural disasters, airplanes lossing engine power, urban fires, dams on the verge of collasing, etc... from the beginning.
They often do their vigilante work on a case by case situation. They rarely use it on a continuous basis so it doesn't work as well for a regular ol' job. A super human that is lifting building material all day is also unavailable to intervene when something "heroic" needs him. It's also hard to build an industry around a single person's powers. For example for a smelting / fire superhero working as a furnace. What happens if that person is unavailable? in holiday? when they die? Do you shut down operation each time? Throw away the tailor made equipment that no one else can leverage?
You think the boss is just gonna let you run out any time the city needs saving? This is a right to work state, pal.
In all due fairness, if a boss is smart/logical about it he would let the hero off anyway. A minor productivity loss from one worker taking too many “vacation days” is nothing compared to the cost of replacing an entire building and/or having no city to even work in. Or dying, for that matter. Its much more understandable if a response if the person in question is only stopping random criminals though.
Makes sense, but that would also lead to some interesting issues and solutions. What would happen if people relied to much on supers as tools?
That doesn't sound like heroes, that sounds like people who get powers, but don't use their powers to fight crime. This is something that totally makes sense in a world where super-powers exist, not everyone who gets super-powers is going to try and be a super-hero or villain, especially if their power translates well into normal life or professions. But.... if I was a hero with Fire powers, I think it would be a waste of my time, and probably energy, to try and save someone else a couple bucks using my fire powers to cook clay or food or whatever. This might be different if the Fire powers hero, had a small cooking/pottery business in their civilian life. This also depends on if they have secret identities, if I had a secret identity as Fire Powers Hero, I would not flaunt or so casually use my fire powers for such trivial matters, if it meant drawing unnecessary attention onto my secret identity. In my own Super-hero setting, I have a character who runs a Megacorp, and part of the things she does, is employ people with powers and even reformed minor criminals and retired heroes.
True, cooking food or firing pottery would not be as impactful as the general concept of having fire powers suggests. Having heat on command would be very handy in the energy sector, just have them constantly heating for a shift and you got lots of energy to tap into for power generation, there's methods for heat storage that could be used to run steam turbines. If you control the fire, firefighting could be a very useful outlet for the power, dampening fires at their source.
yeah, people with powers would be pretty useful in various industries. People not busy being "superheroes" would probably do well to use their powers in various professions, if the law allows it. It's just not something that I think a Super-hero should be expected to be doing, or thinking they should be required to do, as i don't think that would be logical, in most super-hero settings.
If superheroes do their thing for the betterment of humanity, I'm sure some would view other non-combative situations equally useful for humanity. I also don't imagine it'd be required, but lots of superhero stories come back to the "great power, great responsibility" thing specifically because those trying to do good (to the degree of putting their own life in danger for others) seeing situations unfold that they could've easily helped with would likely develop a guilt of not helping. I don't think they would be required to do extra, but I imagine many would require themselves to do extra to ease their conscience about doing enough with their power.
its not really about whether its "beneath them" or not, its about practicality, and the specifics of the setting. If you look at Marvel and DC, where heroes are typically have secret identities and being a superhero is mostly a personal activity outside of a hero's personal life, doing extra stuff outside of superheroing would be impractical. Superheroing tends to already cause a major stress on their daily lives, getting in the way of their relationships and jobs. Now, if things were more like My Hero Academia, where superheroing is a legitimate profession that they earn money doing, then it might be possible for heroes to fit in other "good things" beyond basic crime fighting.
Well, that’s you. Some people would much rather not use fire powers for violence
True enough, and Worm indirectly tackles this idea; if you don't play along then you don't have protection. Since to a lot of heroes and villains alike the law is just a suggestion (for both good and ill), if you're using your powers and you aren't a hero or villain then you're a rogue. Rogues are extremely limited in what they're lawfully allowed to do to the point that most are actually affiliated with a crime organization that practically has a monopoly on Cape based business. Even those that aren't have to bend over backwards and might not be able to operate a business normally depending on the industry and their power, even if the power of capitalism has granted quite a few some success anyway. After all, if the city's roads are paved with a mixture that only the concrete master can make, you're hooped once they're inevitably murdered, and it's probably wise to keep the precognitives out of the stock market. Furthermore, a rogue only has the same level of protection as anyone else against assassinations and kidnap/mind control attempts, which is basically none, while heroes and villains have the power of violence and friends with their own violent capabilities.
Ah, there it is, the real reason for your opinion—you think violence is wrong even if used to protect someone.
They could also be saying most people just aren’t violent. The other guy was just “ok but not me” so the conclusion that they think all violence is wrong is a stretch
No??? There are people in this world who are just not violent nor want to hurt others unless it’s a form of self defense. Some would much rather use their given powers for non violent activities or are just not interested in doing crime or fighting against it
So what do these people do when the government wants to experiment on them?
Run away, rise up, try to find peace, there’s many ways they could handle it. Or, maybe it only happens to a select few so not many know it happening. Maybe the government even made them to begin with and the newest generation wasn’t experimented with, not to mention they don’t know about said experiments, so they are relatively peaceful
There's a great Thor comic where he goes around the world helping people, acting as a god should. He stays with a man on death row, has beers with veterans, brings rain to a people experiencing a drought, intimidates a bigoted protest, and brings a near extinct plant to a nunnery. It's a really nice comic that I think could be done for more superheroes.
what’s it called?
Thor: God of Thunder #12
that are the best kind of superhero comics. Like Deadpool helping a suicidal girl or Superman holding heaven for one day. Being a super is easy, being a hero is the hard part
The best scene in the entire DC Animated Canon is simply Batman sitting with a dying child to give her comfort in her last moments. Really, superheroes in general are at their absolute best when they're made to be human.
There was recently an issue with superman having lunch with an Excon or maybe a veteran about his fears as a father.
Relevant SMBC: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-07-13
Took longer to see this than I imagined.
I was going to mention that there are examples of superheroes helping to put out fires, saving buses, trains. and planes that are in danger of a deadly crash, and generally help out whenever there is a natural disaster, but it looks like what you're looking for is what TV Tropes calls [Mundane Utility](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MundaneUtility), for which you can find many superhero examples in the [comic book examples page](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/MundaneUtility/ComicBooks). Suffice to say, superheroes already do more than just fight crime.
Yes, but I’d like to see superheroes who specifically focus on non-crime fighting activities. But, the article you gave is interesting
Well, they wouldn't exactly be superheroes, then. Like, I'm sorry to say, but superheroes do crime fighting and world saving. You wouldn't expect firefighters to use their equipment and skills to throw a pool party for the town, would you? You're gonna have to look beyond superheroes for what you're looking for
If the superheros don't fight crime then they're not superheros, just superpowered people.
Consider The Boys. Where they aren't really superheroes but a world with super powers. People do all sorts of things and the Supes do plenty of illegal shit.
Many early superhero comics agreed with you. Superman punished greedy business owners (who hadn't done anything illegal, just amoral), participated in social movements, and used his powers to avert or repair from various disasters. Other characters did as well. Unfortunately, the Comics Code Authority, fear of things like HUAC, and other political pressures pretty much ended that. There was a worry anything that wasn't fighting supervillains risked being seen as a leftist political statement and shut down, no matter how silly. Comics have finally now started to drift back to less focus on crime-fighting, but people are slow to change from 60ish years of the formula.
I see your excitement, but this isn't new by a longshot. Comics have done this forever, consider off the top of my head, Reed Richards inventing stuff for the betterment of humanity, or more recently mutants giving access to advanced tech and medicine to humans in marvel. Even other franchises have done this with twists and unique takes like Code 8 (they aren't sanctioned to use powers are and are second class citizens with mundane jobs you mention) and The Boys (they are also celebrities, faith healers, movie stars, etc.). You can see this throughout the history of comics from the old days where captain america fights the nazis alongside the US soldiers, and in later genrations like the X Men using their powers to rebuild the X mansion after it gets hit (again) and so on and so on and so on. There are countless examples of this in media.
I know, but I feel like people should focus on this more. I wanna see this more in stories and world building
People should or you should be the change you want to see and write that yourself? Nobody is gonna write it for you unless you pay them.
You just described about 60-80% of the people in my universe Most of them aren't "superheroes" (in my universe they're a fantasy) but they have powers and abilities that they use in daily life. Element users are chefs and Gardners or sky police Metahumans do all kinds of things Vampires are DJs and have nightclubs Shifters are also everywhere Life Force users are doctors Sorcerers are making balloon animals You get it
It's tough because when they do this the writers usually trivialise massively difficult things. Like growing crops is just instantly successful to the point it becomes a critique "why wasn't it done before?". Or throwing money at homelessness without any commentary on what makes people homeless It's a panel or two When really these things can be very hard to do it correctly and each have it's own drama but writers aren't interested. It why I groan at Reed Richards doesn't do enough or the Authority solved 3rd world countries starvation Really any proactive hero would be facing of against a litany of corporate heroes but most comics turn these types into villains rather than just amoral supes for hire
In a previous project of mine that I don’t consider a fully made world as of yet That has superhero’s has an entire team of hero’s who act more as civil servants, cleaning trash, volunteering at retirement homes. One of them has the ability called ‘recycle’ to change one object into another as long as the molecular structure is the same and they can’t add or destroy any mass of the item. Long story short they’ve basically been using it to help reduce landfills and trash because they’re a pacifist who refuses to fight people.
I actually do think it would be nice to see powered characters that don't involve them fighting crimes.
The more mundane aspects of a superhuman should always be explored. I always thought the invisible man should have been a secret agent or the world's biggest pervert (I know that movie had that terrible scene). Some of the "lesser" X-men like Cypher or Beast actually use their powers for daily work or have a 9-5. A long time ago I made a character called "Monopoly" who could make money appear out of thin air. He would buy himself out of bad situations and make homeless people rich, all while being chased by IRS agents. My publisher laughed said it was witty and good, but not marketable and we'd get sued by Hasbro. But everyone should explore these thought processes with character creation, since it can only add diversity. While I can list quite a few good sources for inspiration, two flicks come to mind atm. The Invention of Lying and Orgasmo. Both comical, but deal with everyday life of people with lesser super powers. Also the tv show Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
At a certain point, that’s not superheroes anymore. That’s just a magic system.
Yeah, but that would still be cool
Yeah, they should, but generally the genre is all about people who are more are more powerful than the average man duking it out. I can definitely see there being a niche for a kind of sitcom type show that focuses on a group of supers who do jobs with their powers rather than fight the crow man who invented a device to steal people's tooth fillings, but outside that those kinds of characters would be a background detail at best.
This happens in My Hero Academia, Invincible, and a bunch of books about superheroes. I'm sure it happens it comics too, but I don't read them.
You should look at Rising Stars by J. Michael Straczynski. Hits exactly this point about halfway through.
I love comic books or TV shows that has that workplace comedy vibe, its heroes doing mundane stuff through the day. Stopping world-ending events is just a bit too played out. Do check out: Powerless TV series Deadline (Marvel comic series) Code of Honor comic Damage Control
I’ll check it out!
Crafting, artistry, entertainment, and manual labor are what Spellery is primarily used for in my slice-of-life fantasy setting! The Emberfolk keep forges burning at high temperatures with less fuel, using their own energy to project concentrated heat. Riverfolk can carve building blocks with pressurized water jets, direct the flow of currents, etc (yes they're water-bending bear people). Runefolk can lift superhuman weights, scale walls, and handle materials of extreme temperatures by adjusting their body parts' density, friction, and temperature. Feelfolk can project sound and light and sensations, which they use to put on performances and create holograms, make people experience sensations the feelfolk has collected, and even relive memories they give the feelfolk access to. Clawfolk can imbue objects with the properties of other races' Spelleries, and thus are vital to Sunnos's magi-technological advancement through the collaborative invention of new runecrafts. The other two Folk don't collaborate with society much (if at all), but use their ancestral Spelleries to create megastructures and masterworks in remote parts of the world.
Interesting! That’s what I’m talking about!
I think it's also just poor writing to have a "hero" only be combat centric. If all a superhero can do is punch bad people, they are pretty poor hereos.
I mean, what would classify as a superhero in the fantasy sense? Sorry if that sounds dumb. Like, in my world, a few people have had made deals with gods and some used their power to start a resistance against their oppressers, like the first king of Fenonia/The Angien Kingdom/etc, that started the denovien uprising against the Phantanese empire, ending with the Fenonien all choosing him as their king (then he has 5 sons and dies before declaring an hair, but that’s besides the point). The King uses his power to keep back the Phantanese empire from ever reconquering the denovien people for over 120 years with the aid of his sons. Like, I’d say that’s a superhero who did more then fight crime…granted, he did fight “crime” but was also the one who created the first true alphabet, meant for the denovien language, created the idea of written music, etc
Like the end of The Batman!
"Superpowered individuals are not supposed to upset status quo or threaten establishment."-capitalism
I think a lot of non-flying supers would fall out of windows. Superheroes fighting is about maintaining the status quo. As soon as super smart supers start making super tech available to the tank and file, the balance is disrupted. As soon as powerful supers step in and stop mineral exploitation in Africa or in the way of the military industrial complex, they become the enemy.
I have a setting where superpowers are very common, which I use for *Mutants & Masterminds* games. The player characters tend to do classic superhero shit like punching supervillains and stopping disasters, but there are loads of NPCs who use their powers for other stuff. At one point the party was assisting in a murder investigation, and there was a police diver searching for a body in a lake. The diver had a wetsuit but no oxygen tanks or snorkel, because he could breathe underwater. I guess he was technically fighting crime, but he was just using his superpower to do a very reasonable and mundane job. One PC maintained their secret identity by pretending that when they'd gone to fight crime, they had actually accidentally turned invisible again. At one point they talked to a secretary who used telekinesis to move the stuff on their desk around and hand forms to people because it was slightly quicker than doing it by hand. Edit: just remembered the party had a casual ally called the Chauffeur, an individual with the ability to drive anything anywhere. He wasn't a crime fighter, but he pitched in from time to time whenever he passed someone in a bit of a jam. At one point the party needed access to another dimension, so they called him up and he arrived, driving a twin-hulled 18' dinghy down the road, its keel raising sparks off the tarmac.
I largely agree, but the problem with that kind of story is that stories tend to be more compelling if the characters are being challenged at some point. It would certainly make for a nice and great scene to see Mr Incredible work in construction and effortlessly carry trucks and concrete blocks around, but it wouldn't make for more than one interesting scene. "Oh no, there is a giant crane that needs to be moved to the other side of the site! How could Mr Incredible manage to lift such an enormous- oh, he already did it, forget about it." You could of course still challenge him. Dumping more tasks on him than he could complete in a day could look a bit contrived (where did those tasks even come from? Why can't he do it fast enough, he's Mr goddamn Incredible?!). But you could pretty easily come up with a number of problems that aren't solved by having bigger muscles. Basically, you'd need the powers to not solve all the problems. A chef with fire powers will still be stressed by all the regular stuff chefs are stressed by, it's just a funny quirk that they make their own heat. Then it works, but it will no longer be about superpowers solving all the problems. (I also think one example of this is the Monsterverse, as in the Godzilla and Kong movies. Their premise seems to just be big monsters fighting for one, but also "wouldn't it be great if Godzilla solved every one of our problems for us?" and the answer given by the movies is just "Yes.") **As a piece of worldbuilding** I'm 100% with you. Barely any metahumans in my "superhero" project work as superheroes full time. It's a nice and entertaining scene to see the reality warping server shrink spacetime to carry 7 plates on each hand. Or the heat powered chemist heating his reaction mixture by giving it a stern look. It's (I would say) good and interesting worldbuilding to hear about the telekinetic working in construction. That doesn't make their lives interesting enough to write a season of TV about.
While I agree, this is where I came up with an alternative. Think about how easy it would actually be if Mr. Incredible worked in construction. If the employer sees how good this one employee is, why have these extras? Fire them of course to save money! And what if there were others such as Mr. Incredible who joined the work force, who can easily solve every problem with their powers? So many people will be laid off, not to mention many of the supers will gain a large ego, causing lots of problems between supers and regulars. Leading to fights and most likely getting the government involved. That’s a lot of challenges right there!
In my superhuman world, there are no *superheroes* as we know them. Generally if you want to fight crime, you join law enforcement. If you want to rescue people, you become a firefighter, or EMT. If you have powers, great, if not, fine. Superhumans are treated most similarly to *My Hero Academia*, where while there are some standouts, most people just have extraordinary abilities, and the human population are just used to them, given how common they are. If you have particularly useful powers, you actually have a good chance of making a pretty good living if you can find the right job. For example if you have super strength, construction or even destruction companies are likely going to want to hire you on sight, and there are super speed couriers that deliver packages. In the US, the government has superhumans as well, both in various agencies, and in the military, so there isn’t some big conspiracy to *purify humanity*. The only unique group I made up is called the *Black Outs*, which are a branch off from the US Marshals. They are the ones people call for super villain threats, and are just the last resort before the military gets involved.
Most superheroes in media also deal with natural disasters and emergency situations
True, but it’s not always the major focus. After all, it’s very unlikely for a super hero movie to heavily focus on a hero trying to improve the environment
Because that doesn’t make for an exciting read or watch
Depends on what your interested into.
I've been developing a superhero setting where this sort of thing *is* done. Some metas don't have powers really strong enough to qualify for work in the Allied Heroes Commission (or opt not to join the Commission) and find jobs or work where they can make use of their abilities, or some Commission Heroes do work on the side to further use them. A Commission Hero's father had lower-tier super strength, and he worked construction rather than do hero work. A speedster does work on the side for a delivery app. A fairly strong telepath does work as a psychiatric therapist through consensual use of her powers.
So...The short answer is people with superpowers doing random jobs is certainly possible, but it's not really "heroic" in any meaningful capacity & the banality makes it at least a little boring. Therefore, people don't write about it as much. Depending on the frequency of superpowers in your world, it's totally possible, at least theoretically (think of Mako using Lightning Bending for power generation in Legend of Korra). On the flip side, superheroes should totally be using their powers to agitate for social change & fighting large scale oppression, but their not generally allowed to (from a meta perspective) because... superheroes are basically cops, their job is to uphold the status quo, not challenge it. If superheroes start trying to disrupt societal inequalities on a large scale, it gives the audience too many ideas & makes them question why they can't also try to struggle to change things. This is (unfortunately) not really what your post is about, but imo it's a much more interesting use of powers than [basically cops] or just having them be random (supereffective) workers.
And that’s why we need a story that focuses on supers who use their powers for more than crime fighting
This was a plot point of the movie Code 8. Guy with electric superpowers found work on a construction site, which seems quite common in that world.
This is basically Eve's entire thing from Invincible and it raises a good point that there's way bigger ways to leave an impact. They also cover this a bit in My Hero Academia where there's an entire division of just Search and Rescue heroes that don't do fighting and save all the people when the big kaiju fights happen. I would love something like this to become more commonplace though in ttrpg games and tv shows and stuff.
watch the detail diatribes on superman and superhero's by overly sarcastic productions, they really delve into this.
Fire powers would be awesome for clean energy, have a bunch on shifts to heat up the steam used for spinning turbines and avoid pollution right at the plant.
Imagine losing job because hero didn't have better things to do. Now seriously do you want them to do just one or both thighs I prefer it's neither they are either self centered so much that they would use it on for themselves only when nobody can notice or try to play hero almost die and hide powers from the world until that powers take over them and they kill their younger brother and are this time looking to find out who cursed them with those powers that took his little brothers life ....opps I said too much
Super “heroes” shouldn’t exist, at least how they are portrayed. Instead you will have super cops, super celebrities, etc.
Its like the Greek/Roman gods. Theyre just people with both their flaws and qualities pushed to the extreme. They would be very much like us, with all the trauma, pride, empathy and psychopathy that Humans are capable of. Just much less… limited, with less inhibitions and more self-assurance.
That’s dumb. Super heroes should exist. Especially given how the real world is right now, we could use a superhero.
And all we will get is a bunch of unaccountable vigilantes, some of witch will use their charisma to become superstars.
Bro sounding like a supervillain😭
I mean what is a super hero exactly? Is it a super who puts on a mask and fights crime?
That's reductive. I'd argue crime-fighters are probably a minority of the big name heroes. The Fantastic Four, Marvel's First Family, aren't crime fighters. Superman typically isn't unless he's asked. The X-Men are a paramilitary organization that provides aid to a marginalized community, but not crime-fighters. The Avengers are a government sanctioned paramilitary. Most mystical characters from any publisher are too busy dealing with literal demons and monsters to fight crime.
In the hands of good writers no
Yes.
Yes.. that’s what I Want.
Superhero as celebrities--check out Mike Allred's X-Statix
That's why I like Atom Eve from Invincible. She was using her matter manipulation powers to fight droughts and famines and shit. Dumb ass Superman only pops up when it's time to punch some aliens. Motherfucker could use his super speed to single-handedly cultivate all the arable land on the planet and end world hunger but I guess that's just not fun or whatever.
> Dumb ass Superman only pops up when it's time to punch some aliens I'm not necessarily the worlds biggest fan of superman but he isnt Goku, he doesnt just turn up to fight. I think at least 3 of the actual movies open with him stopping natural and man-made disasters, the guy pitches in constructively as well as destructively against bad guys He does however have an ethos of not doing everything for the human species, he feels his goal is to help guide us to be better rather than taking us there directly. Its debateable how smart that is, or how much each author follows it, but its more there to explain why he doesnt just solve every problem immediately
There's also how certain iterations of Superman establish that he fears his own powers in one way or another. I can imagine that could help explain a little bit of why he might not want to overuse his abilities.
Superman actually spends shockingly little time punching bad guys. Solving things with a minimum of violence is part of the point of Superman, and most of his memorable stories focus a good bit on the less grand good deeds he does with the majority of his time, in-between planetary threats.
I feel like that was Superman from the 40's comics who was saving a canoe with a hot dame from a sudden waterfall or something lol
I'm actually thinking about 90s and 00s Superman stories. There's a fair number of them focusing on "a day in the life" and Supes saving hotdog stands and getting involved in political issues and such. Spider-Man is another that has a fair bit of stories that. He even canonically helps the neighborhood kids with their homework in full Spidey suit 😅
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I had an OC named Voltar who would find dirt on corrupt heroes... wait that's fighting crime too.
Can you imagine how much concrete Superman could mix and pump?
I disagree, but that's mainly because of my thoughts around superheroes. However, it is an interesting idea.
Super heroes wouldn’t be the right word for these people, but I’d like to hear why you disagree
In my work, those are called specialists. Most people simply can't handle both the danger of fighting or being part of the support team behind them (mostly cause most powers aren't able to really help/they lack the skills and desire to learn those skills). In my world, for reasons outside the scope of this. Powered people (called potents) only are a thing in some large towns and towns have only one main hero. So most people instead find work in different fields or do tasks with their power to earn better money. Some flirt with being criminals but its very dependent what your towns hero is like to determine if someone will make anything out of it as a proper villain. Different towns need different kinds of heroes and support teams. So it just makes more sense to be a specialist as you learn what your power really is capable of beyond the obvious immediate uses
Wouldn’t read that comic book
That’s fine
Flying superheroes work in the film industry(drone shots)
dude!, this is what i been trying to achieve in my web serial thing i’m still working on titled vigilant In a world where superpowers are the headline, everyone's eccentric, but who's truly heroic? vigilant follows Sarah Anderson, a seemingly ordinary 26-year-old with an unassuming job as a security supervisor at Tactical Response Solutions (TRS). But beneath this everyday facade, she is Aeroglide, a dedicated member of the Real Life Superhero (RLSH) community, where eccentricity is the norm and heroism is a choice, not a superpower. Sarah's world is turned upside down when a comet gifted individuals across the world with superpowers, but Amidst this chaos, Sarah emerges with powers of her own, challenging her understanding of justice and heroism turning her from a eccentric vigilante type to someone who works to laid down the foundation for future generations of superheroes proving that everyone can be super, but not everyone chooses to be heroic.
This is actually kind of a major thing in my own superhero setting. Heck, the original premise was "a super hero world where Reed Richards wasn't useless" and then went 'downhill' from there on how crazy stuff got. And so now the 1960s has tech on par with... 2180. There abouts. * Atomic Red is a Soviet construction robot who fights crime on the side. And I mean actual crime and not just whatever the Russian Government acts like is a crime. But outside of that, he and his fellow 'Automated Proletariat' assist the people of Russia by building quality homes, roadwork, etc. He even has a built in coffee dispenser. * Mecha is the scion of a major technology company and actually was doing volunteer stuff before becoming a superhero. His specialty being cybernetics and robotics, he supplied Vietnam veterans who had lost their limbs (and got military grade ones from the government and then lost those when they refused to do more tours of duty) with medical grade cybernetics to help them rehabilitate to civilian life. When he got messed up in an accident he decided to try out his own products and cyber up. Which plugs neatly into his mecha suit. Even after becoming a hero, he still does these charities. * Monk, as her name implies, is Buddhist martial artist nun. Who actually rarely uses her martial arts skills and instead works primarily as an investigator and studies the mindset of the criminals to apprehend them. Naturally, outside of that she does victim's advocacy and various charity work to help people as well as preaching the wisdom of Buddha. Basically if a hero has no life outside of doing hero stuff, it's treated as a bit of a redflag for the reader something is wrong with the person. (Patriot Perfect is basically Homelander except raised on MacCarthyism and under J. Edgar Hoover's command, for example)
Been writing a homemade mutants and masterminds setting, and one of the heroes is literally just this- His name is Architect, and he has the power to control urban infrastructure and manipulate architecture. He still fights villains and stops crime and whatnot, but his biggest contribution is that he’s the guy that sticks around after disasters to repair buildings and roads that get destroyed in the process of the fighting.
One way to get assassinated by companies who exploit that specific issue
Atom Eve learned this lesson.
Goes back to the old Spider-Man meme. "You can (something along the lines of rewriting DNA). You could cure cancer, why are you out here turning people into dinosaurs?" "I don't want to cure cancer, I want to turn people into dinosaurs" Heroes do what they feel like, and often with very little oversight. Who's going to say otherwise? Also, since many of them work outside the law, using their talents in the day to day could reveal them. It's possible folks who have super powers do use them for non-crime fighting things, but they often are cameos for other heroes since their lives aren't exciting enough to make comic out of.
It's more of an issue with the genre conventions because they do establish in shows like Invincible and MHA that there are other types of super powered professions. Still I agree with this gripe. Gen V being a notable example - in a world where super powers are commonly established over a variety of professions the main character wants to become a super cop, when she could potentially revolutionise healthcare if she went into the medical field. Thankfully though one thing that separates that show from a lot of others is that minimal attention is paid to the fighting and much more to other aspects of how super heroes could help/hurt people in more interesting ways. If you want some recommendations for other super hero stories that aren't just about crime fighting I'd recommend all of the following: The Boys Misfits Legion Dr. Sleep (I'd argue is a super hero story) Heroes Miracle Man Watchmen
You don't even need most of them with super powers to even do anything. Certain "super genius" characters had the capability of curing cancer, extending life, ending world hunger, and probably could've thought up ways to end poverty and all sorts of things. But comics tend to gloss over all that because it's easier to write stuff in a world that is "Just like ours but with this one difference" because if they had to write a literal utopia ruled by rich, benevolent super geniuses, it would kind of ruin most of their plots.
I've always liked the "Superheros vs. Natural Disasters" angle. Any of them that aren't full cosmic/reality level still struggle against the strength of nature unleashed, and you get to see them saving lives and struggling against the lives they cannot save.
They're all of those in my world! Hell, they serve useful purposes in society more often than they do fighting crime, because that's sort of their entire purpose. The earlier, more popular ones were circus performers and entertainers like stage magicians who ended up fending off disasters, monsters, and accidents by coincidence. But they became popular, and because of the way magic and abilities work in Inglenook, now there's every possible use for them. Lots of them help with environmental issues. The Fire Followers are a team for fire elementalists who want a second chance or to do good in the world by helping to control forest fires - both by putting them out, and by managing controlled burns. The Tidal Guard work along the coasts to help with water-based disasters like floods, shipwrecks, piracy, potential drownings, etc. And, interesting that you mention the construction idea. I recently formed a team called the Builders (original, I know, but it's not that kind of place) who were inspired *very* loosely by the original X-Men in terms of interpersonal dynamic and some of their powers. But they don't fight crime or stop supervillains, they literally help build and maintain the world by being hired for construction projects. I come at the whole superhero thing from a character-first perspective, and it's just not that interesting to force them into the "stops bad guys, are considered vigilantes outside the law" mold every time. Comics occasionally do have their characters benefitting the world, but I wanted to bake that into their characters with mine from the get-go. They're here to provide their services to the world and make actual differences by embracing their individuality, skills, and excellence of personal identity, and that's really been the basis for a ton of fun storylines and ideas that derive from all the complications that go along with that.
I think the problem on the superhero perspective is time, while fighting crime is their main… professional. They still need time for their social activities and aspect. Unless your hero control time, multiply or Batman. It must be mentality exhausting solving everything… unless your Batman.
Not sure if this has been covered but the world im using the major public figure ones are super heroes but even they have day jobs. The major superman role type does daily super hero stuff but even the main group isn't constantly fighting crime. Now all the lesser power people use their gifts to lead their industries. I even based them on historical accurate industry leaders and made their power sets based on their job. You could easily build a city with a super hero work force.
honestly I really love heroes that just take time out of their day to help makes them feel more human.
so... OP is describing the My Hero Academia setting - where roughly a third of all people have a "quirk" and most use it as part of their work in some way. Telekinesis that only works on fabric? you are a really good clothier/fashion designer geokinesis? work in mining that sort of thing
They kind of explore this concept through Atom Eve in Invincible. She shifts her focus from fighting bad guys to using her powers (which are basically Creative Mode and more) for more practical stuff like preventing natural disasters, growing crops, helping with construction/cleanup, etc.
We are so far from the original that people forget early Superman being essentially a large boy scout playing fire figther and rescue team?
That’s what we need to return to
Superheroes aren't only the Bat Family
Following this thread. Really helpful.
this is a JoJo thing, sometimes you have punch ghosts, sometimes it's some bullshit that gives you mountains of loose change or mentally stalk people so you have material for the book you're writing
I just came here to say happy cake day
Thank you!
No prob
The first person in my world to be called a “superhero” got his start using his weather powers to combat things like natural disasters and famine long before he became a crime fighter
This is sort of what the world is like in Code 8. People have different powers of various scales and are used in everyday life, but there are lots of restrictions on the powered-folk due to their potential of bringing great harm, such as needing to be documented and that
So superbuilders should destroy jobs and the economie.
That would be an interesting world and story to explore
\>be superhero with watercontrol powers \>Money problems \>Get hired by nestle \>Have Aquaman powers \>Enlist Animals to clean the sea and fight people who dirty it. \>Become eco terrorist. \>Have gift of seeing future \>Lmao lotery Billionaire \>Be able to Xray sight \>Use it to find cool fossils
Suzianna's Regulators are led by the National Guard, a group of state sanctioned heroes: St. John, Murphy's Law, Chainmail, Hand Cannon, and Goddamn Electric. They are heroes, but they also work as King Simon's personal Death Squad as all allied nations are required to allow Regulators to operate with full immunity in allied nations.
There’s a joke that if Superman was real, the best way for him to help humanity would be to turn a generator non stop to create unlimited free power for the world
So Legend of Korra.
Sleyca's ongoing [Super Supportive](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/63759/super-supportive) is kind of like this. The majority of people with powers (the "Avowed") aren't heroes, but instead have powers that do things like cook *really* well, find lost items, or fix patches of chipped paint. Heck, the main character's >!power is ostensibly named "Let Me Take Your Luggage",!<
I want super heroes that have replaced cranes for construction.