Long, rambling post on superhero conventions

[thormagni]

Superhero conventions
By John Clark
While putting together some ideas for a superhero scenario, I realized that folks who are not steeped in comic book lore could find it difficult to play a superhero, so I threw together some notes on what exactly makes a superhero setting. Some of the accepted conventions of the genre, if you will, that separate a superhero setting from any other modern genre. These are the conventions of a modern, mainstream superhero world, such as the DC or Marvel Comics’ universes and I am going to try to explain why these conventions exist using their in-game world logic. A game upholding all of these conventions would generally be known as a mainstream or “four-color” world.

Generally these conventions can be divided into broad groups: Motivation and World conventions. The Motivation Conventions outline how the protagonists in a standard superhero world view themselves and the world around them, i.e. why they do what they do. The World Conventions outline the way the world reacts to the superhumans in its midst.

Frankly, some of these conventions would seem absurd, overly optimistic or unrealistic in the modern world. Comic makers have addressed that by creating anti-heroes and post-modern superhero worlds. From the late ‘80s to the present, superhero comics have undergone two major trends toward an increasing number of anti-heroes and toward creators adopting post-modern superhero sensibilities. Anti-heroes are the law-breaking, lethal force using protagonists of comics. Post-modern superhero comics are those that choose to take a more “realistic” approach to the effect the presence of superheroes would have on our world.

For our purposes, the anti-hero comics stories to ignore one or more of the Motivation Conventions, while keeping their protagonists in a fairly standard superhero world. The post-modern worlds choose to eliminate one or more of the World Conventions while choosing to uphold some or most of the Motivation Conventions. The most frequently violated Motivation Convention in both anti-hero and post-modern comics is the standard superhero’s reluctance to kill an opponent.

It should be noted that anti-heroes and the protagonists in post-modern superhero comic books would frequently qualify as villains in the mainstream comics.

Before playing a superhero RPG, it is best to get a consensus between the players and GM on which of these conventions will be followed. A GM preparing for a four-color world would not be ready for lethal-force using superheroes. And similarly, a true-blue superhero would be out of place in a post-modern, degenerate superpowered world.

 

[thormagni]

Motivation conventions

Motivation conventions
1. Superheroes use their powers for the greater good. Superheroes are frequently defined by their powers – by some mechanism these modern people receive abilities that in earlier settings would have set them apart as at least demigods. They have abilities far beyond those of other people around them. The protagonist in a superhero setting chooses to use these special gifts in ways that benefit humanity, or at least in a way that keeps other powered beings from harming humanity. Whether to benefit oneself or benefit the community is frequently the most significant decision as to whether someone becomes a hero or a villain.
In game rationale: Generally the protagonists of a superhero tales are people who are predisposed to help others anyway. Police, lawyers, doctors, reporters and millionaire philanthropists are over-represented in the professions of superheroes. Every superhero generally has a reason they chose to use their powers for good rather than evil and that rationale will continue to motivate them for the rest of their careers.

2. Superheroes fight good vs. evil on a grand, physical scale. Superheroes are the strong line between good and evil in their world. They confront evil because evil must be confronted. Someone has to stand up against the evils of the world and they are the ones with the powers to do something about it. But the flip side is that evil usually comes in the form of an individual that can be punched out. Complex social and societal ills are generally not the province of a superhero. For example, the undeniable evil of genocide in a far away country rarely comes to the attention of the protagonists in a superhero world.
In game rationale: When Dr. Genocide unleashes his 50-foot tall robots of destruction on the city, the police and military are going to be helpless. There is no one else to call. The superheroes are the last line of defense. Generally superheroes are not subtle people and neither are their powers. They use those flashy powers for the obvious purpose of taking out evil people using their flashy powers to wreak havoc.

3. Superheroes adopt a costume, codename and secret identity. Shortly after gaining their superpowers, superheroes usually develop a costumed identity, including: an elaborate and impractical costume, frequently with a cape, a superheroic codename that identifies them immediately as a superhero and hide their identity behind a mask. Even though the mask would do little in the real world to hide a person’s identity, in a superhero world, masks generally provide pretty foolproof protection from identity discovery in the superhero world. Superheroes also usually stick with the same name and costume for the majority of their career. They may go through phases where they switch costumes or identities for a period of time, but they usually go back to the original duds and name.
In game rationale: Superheroes want to inspire people and be easily recognizable amongst other superheroes, hence the costume and code name. At the same time, they generally have outside lives and families they are trying to protect, so it makes sense to keep their real identities secret. Think of the paparazzi and attention real world actors and athletes have to put up with. Now imagine that level of attention on someone who actually used those abilities to help people and risked their lives in the service to the community. It would amp up the level of public interest exponentially. Superheroes are trying to avoid that through anonymity.

4. Superheroes are reluctant to kill or to harm others. One of the brightest lines between a hero and a villain in a traditional superhero world is the heroes’ reluctance to kill or to maim an opponent. The superheroes frequently have the power to end an opponent’s life or seriously and permanently disable an enemy but make the conscious choice not to do so. A person who can crack a mountain in half with his fist should have little problem pulverizing a common supervillain robbing a bank or a purse snatcher. But superheroes generally use a gradual increase in force philosophy, finding the minimum force necessary to handle a given situation. In general, superheroes prefer to negotiate before restraining, to restrain before subduing, to subdue before harming, and to harm before killing. They save their big guns for the very last, preferring to try everything else before resorting to the devastating attack.. Killing is an absolute last resort.
In game rationale: They view themselves as protectors making a better world rather than gladiators ending a fight as quickly as they can. The heroes frequently have strict moral codes that prevent them from taking the life of another – they respect and defend life and are reluctant to end a life, even of the irredeemably evil. Other heroes simply choose to work within societal norms, not acting as judge, jury and executioner.

5. Superheroes uphold the social order and maintain neutrality. Superheroes are driven to improve the world and protect humanity, but generally choose to do so by taking down other super-powered people acting selfishly or to harm society. Although a superhero will fight a supervillain threatening the world with a nuclear weapon, superheroes generally don’t fight a third-world dictator doing the same. A super-powered detective might end a criminal’s murder spree, but do nothing about the problems of domestic violence. A bunch of racist goons terrorizing the city in suits of powered armor will get defeated, while a racist City Council candidate will be allowed to take office unimpeded. While the real world is full of worthy causes and political disputes, superheroes choose not to involve themselves in them. In fact, super-powered characters who choose to devote themselves to a pet cause are frequently seen as a well-meaning but deluded adversary in superhero tales.
In game rationale: Superheroes generally prefer to allow ordinary people to sort out the mundane problems while stepping in only to defeat the super-powered problems that crop up. Defeating megalomaniac would-be world dictators, alien invasions and super-powered gangs of jewel thieves takes most of a superhero’s time, energy and attention. By focusing on the narrow good of a particular cause, they would be neglecting the greater good.

 

[thormagni]

World conventions

World Conventions
1. Superheroes come from a mishmash of backgrounds. In a superhero world, almost anything can go as far as a source of superpowers. It is very common for a true mythological demigod or godling to share space on a team with a person altered through scientific experimentation, an atomic-powered mutation, an occult sorcerer, an alien and a millionaire inventor. Science, myth, sorcery and technology all are valid sources of superpowers within the same superhero world.
In game rationale: This is just the way things are in the superhero world. Ancient myths were at least in some part true, random mutations can cause people to develop superpowers, aliens exist even if the truth is not known to the general public, time travelers move throughout history without causing paradoxes, sorcerers can tap into energies from alternate planes of reality and scientists and technicians can develop powers far in advance of the prevailing technology of the day. The majority of the people with these powers then choose to divide themselves up into heroes and villains, using their powers for good and evil.

2. Superheroes live in a world much like our own, but not quite. Despite the fact that aliens, gods, demons and witches walk the Earth in a superhero world, the planet is surprisingly similar to the actual world outside our window. People go to work, raise their children, attend church and go to grandma’s for Thanksgiving dinner, despite the fact that the world could end at any minute. In a technological sense, despite the availability of magic and super-science, the life of the average man is not noticeably different than it is in the real world.
In game rationale: Much like in the real world, in a superhero setting the man on the street has chosen to passively accept his world the way it is. Frequently they are disbelieving of the reality of the superhero world or just refuse to accept that things are as outrageous as they are portrayed in the media. To the mind of the man on the street, a superhero calling himself Heracles is more likely adopting an identity from mythology than an actual Greek god walking the earth. To their mind, aliens might invade, but the Earth was probably never in real danger of being overrun. And cutting edge technology such as teleportation, flying cars or hand-held laser weapons are theoretically possible but extremely expensive. Frequently the super-science superheroes use is so finely tuned, hard to replicate or counter-intuitive that even the best scientific and technological minds have no way to make it widely available.

3. Superheroes are paragons of physical perfection in costume and unnoticeable out of costume. More often than not, a superhero is a perfect physical specimen, handsome, muscular, tall and imposing. They wear skin-tight costumes that always cling in the right places and to the right body parts. The heroines are flawless beauties and the heroes are more perfectly built than Mr. Olympus. But when they remove their costumes, they blend in perfectly with the civilian population. A supervillain is not able to find their adversary just by rounding up all the 6-6, 300 pound bodybuilders in town with 1 percent body fat.
In game rationale: Heroes are so much larger than life when they are in costume, that they blend into the woodwork out of costume. Their skin-tight costumes accentuate their rippling physiques, but in civilian clothes they do not look nearly as impressive. Much like professional athletes or movie stars, they might look vaguely familiar or impressive in their civilian duds, but without the uniform they are not easily recognizable. Frequently superheroes take on non-super personas as complete nebbishes, as a way to throw people off the scent.

4. Heroes and villains rarely die in a superhero world and when they do, they frequently come back from near certain death, little the worse for the wear. It is extremely rare for a superhero or supervillain to be permanently or definitively killed. And if they are, the character is frequently brought back a few months or years later, with an amazing story of survival. The same is not true for average people in the game. Similarly, superheroes bounce back from injuries and illnesses that would kill or cripple a normal person.
In game rationale: A hero or villain is very, very rarely found to be definitively dead in the first place. Frequently the body is lost or completely destroyed in such a way that positive identification cannot be made. Deaths happen away from the eyes of onlookers. Clones are substituted at the last second, time travel is employed to change the past, extra-dimensional beings take pity on the dead soul, a previously unknown twin or doppelganger died instead of the real hero. Only extremely rarely does someone actually come back from the dead, instead it is more likely that for some reason they never actually died in the first place, despite all the available evidence. Normal people do not have access to the many escape clauses superheroes and supervillains use to cheat death.

5. Few gain powers and become the heroes. In any given superhero game, there is generally a small handful of heroes who are constantly under attack by a large and deep rogue’s gallery of villains. Charitably, there are 10 supervillains for every superhero but most long-lasting superheroes develop dozens of villains they have defeated over the years.
In game rationale: Few have the convictions and dedication to put themselves on the line for others. Heroes are required to sacrifice their personal desires, goals and health to safeguard the non-powered population. It is more likely that someone developing superpowers will use them for their own, selfish reasons than follow an altruistic path. Thus superheroes are left trying to fight the tide.

 

[thormagni]

And my thoughts for our game

When I say a straight, superhero game, I generally mean that all of these genre conventions will be in effect. Yeah, it is absurd for people to dress in Lycra and flash around the city beating each other up, but that is what happens in a superhero comic.

 

[thormagni]

And one more world convention

This is more true of comics than of superhero games in general, but:

6. Time passes very slowly for the hero and his supporting cast. While the world around the superheroes changes at moreorless the same pace as the real world, in the comic itself, the hero and his supporting cast frequently never age and if they do, they do so at an extremely slow pace. The way this plays out is that if the heroes met the president in 1974, they would meet Richard Nixon, in 1984 Ronald Reagan, in 2004, they would meet George W. Bush. However, in that time, the character will have personally only aged a few years, if at all.
In game rationale: There isn't one. Superheroes and their supporting casts are not so much extremely long-lived, or nigh-immortal as it is the case that writers simply do not deal with the aging of the characters in any meaningful way. They throw in topical references like band names, slang, presidents or clothing styles to keep the comics current and trendy, but never address that the same 17-year-old has lived through the popularity of Beatles, BeeGees, Beastie Boys, B-52s, Beck and whoever is popular today.

 

[Bob_Probst]

All very interesting. and even though I'm not the biggest superhero comic fan -- I somehow know and understand all of this.

It seems to me that the whole comic world is a simple construct intended to tell the same story of good vs evil over and over and over. The general populace acts as a greek chorus might -- observers and commentors of great events that they don't fully understand. While the heroes and villians may change names and cloths and powers -- they don't significantly differ.

I'd find it particularly interesting to better understand how this convention formed in modern comics. Who was the first modern superhero? What prior conventions was he molded from?

 

[Odovacar's Ghost]

I've been watching Harvey Birdman to prep me how real superheroes act. This is a good example isn't it? It has the Justic league in it.

 

[thormagni]

I'd find it particularly interesting to better understand how this convention formed in modern comics. Who was the first modern superhero? What prior conventions was he molded from?

Interestingly, the first modern superhero was probably Superman. Although there were earlier pulp heroes such as The Shadow, who had many of the genres and conventions in place, Supes was the first one to really encompass all of these and set them in stone as the tropes the subsequent genre would be based upon.

He had the costume, the "mild-mannered" Secret ID, the devotion to truth, justice and the American way (whatever that meant in 1938), the aversion to involving himself in politics (through a fluke of superpowers Clark Kent was declared 4-F in World War II and never really participated in the war in the comics world,) the constant physical fights against the forces of evil, the aversion to killing (although Superman was not averse to threatening to kill someone in those early days, such as by dangling them from the top of a tall building.)

 

[chachi]

conventions

I guess I feel that I want superheros to be tougher than just some weirdo in spandex that leaves some villian tied up to a street lamp waiting for the cops to arrive. I never understood or accepted that. As a citizen, I say superheros should use lethal force to protect the public/my ass. If superheros are sworn to public protection, then why would Batman leave the Riddler alive? Especially after he has escaped the past 37 times that he was captured.

Also, from a game play perspective that seems dumb. What kind of an Intelligence, er, Mind check would I have to fail to leave the mortal, corrupt, cops in charge of taking in this SUPERvillian and putting him away? And not that this would effect gameplay for a one time adventure, but it would seem to get tiresome for the heros to keep chasing the same handful of villians around all of the time? I can play it either way, it's just my two cents.

 

[thormagni]

If superheros are sworn to public protection, then why would Batman leave the Riddler alive? Especially after he has escaped the past 37 times that he was captured.

Also, from a game play perspective that seems dumb. What kind of an Intelligence, er, Mind check would I have to fail to leave the mortal, corrupt, cops in charge of taking in this SUPERvillian and putting him away? And not that this would effect gameplay for a one time adventure, but it would seem to get tiresome for the heros to keep chasing the same handful of villians around all of the time? I can play it either way, it's just my two cents.

Yeah, the thing about the genre conventions is that today's anti-hero and post-modern comics frequently bend or break the traditions for dramatic effect. Batman doesn't kill because Batman is basically a character in a standard superhero comic book. But if you move away from the standard superhero genre, into say a real world setting that has added super-powered beings, you are likely to see more "realistic" behaviour.

For example in the post-modern vein, the Authority is a group of Superman-power-level characters in the former Image comics universe (now Wildstorm, owned by DC) who have decided to act, pretty much exactly as you describe. They take people OUT. If you are an invading army that declares war on the Earth, well war is hell and some bug-eyed aliens are going to die. And when it becomes obvious that the U.S. government has become corrupt and is the CAUSE of much of the badness in their world, they just take the country over. (although this is technically the breaking of two of my conventions: not killing and not getting involved in politics, etc.) They also do not have any appreciable secret IDs. But they do have costumes, code-names and generally resolve problems by beating somebody up.

Also, say Punisher, Lobo or Wolverine break the no-killing convention pretty frequently.In the case of Punisher or Lobo, you might even say gleefully. Which is what makes them both anti-heroes.