What would it be like if supers, who were solitary and territorial at begining, gradually organized themselves into a society/circle/organization?

And I think many supers simply don't like to be with their own kind, and some may even try to kill other supers who invade their territory if they can.

when mingling among ordinary people, those supers feel secure and superior because their superpowers are an unparalleled huge advantage. when they are with other supers, they are no longer unique and advantageous, but just ordinary members among the world of supers,powerful supers may (very likely) discriminate, bully, plunder, and enslave weaker supers.
 

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Seems pretty well covered in the comic books over the decades. You either get the Justice League or The Seven.
 


See, that right there justifies the existence of an anti-supers movement - if these destructive individuals don't have control over their actions then you have a pack of mad dogs with antipersonnel missiles in their back pockets. At that point you've depersonalized the Supers into a thing rather than people, and that's a really problematic trope in fiction. (see Starship Troopers, any wartime propaganda, most human-vs-machine conflicts...)

I think it makes for a better worldbuilding concept if it's not something inherent in the Supers that guides their actions, but rather that these are normal human psyches suddenly given capabilities way outside of the box. There are a lot of interesting analogues this could bring forward: if an individual possesses the ability to kill hundreds of humans with superpowers, what safeguards need to be put in place for the common good? This could parallel real-world situations such as "if an individual has enough wealth to destabilize and disenfranchise hundreds or thousands of humans by their decisions, what safeguards need to be put in place for the common good?"

You'd find arguments like "Can there exist a truly good Super?" in the way that we have real-world arguments like "Can ethical billionaires exist?" - think about how certain writers emphasize Superman's alien nature: yes, he uses his abilities for altruistic purposes and the protection of humanity, but what if he didn't? - this is the justification for Lex Luthor's actions, most of the time.

So I imagine you'd see a lot of Supers working either in secret or obscuring their identities simply because there would be an inherent fear and distrust. Nietzsche wrote about a similar concept in Thus Spoke Zarathustra from the spiritual and intellectual perspective, the "Overman" who would use his enlightened mind for the common good but still be distrusted by the Common Man for his abilities; contrasted with the "Last Man" who would use that enlightenment for pure self-interest and justify the Common Man's antipathy.

JMS's Rising Stars comic really leaned into this - superheroes are cool, until they aren't. They're trustworthy, until they're not. If you're a Super who can blend in with the population, why would you want to submit yourself to that distrust and antipathy unless you really don't consider yourself part of common humanity? Down that way lies your Homelander psychosis - "I'm a god, everyone else is just insects".

This is basic comic book psychology, the idea that superheroic identities exist to portray supers as mythical, as more concept than man, because people can believe concepts and caricatures to be free of human foibles and weaknesses. If Stupendous Man flies in to save an airliner from crashing, people accept it - that's what Stupendous Man does. If Doug Gruberman flies in and saves an airliner from crashing, people want to know what this guy's motives are. Does he have stock in the airline? What if other airlines crash more often because they don't have a superhuman looking out for them?

I think humanity would almost have to create the fiction of superheroes and heroic alter egos to insulate themselves from the existential dread that the presence of supers would bring with it.
 




One million of them in 1999 is way too many for anyone to think they are alone for long (outside of extremely isolated communities). Multimedia would latch on to supers immediately. They would be everywhere.

What I mean is, I think your premise is in conflict with itself.
1 million out of what, 5.8 billion?

.0172% of the population.

So if America had 270 million people in the 90's, that would be less than 50k people in the US.

Most of whom would probably not being trying to do amazing things for fear of government dissection.
 

See, that right there justifies the existence of an anti-supers movement - if these destructive individuals don't have control over their actions then you have a pack of mad dogs with antipersonnel missiles in their back pockets. At that point you've depersonalized the Supers into a thing rather than people, and that's a really problematic trope in fiction. (see Starship Troopers, any wartime propaganda, most human-vs-machine conflicts...)

I think it makes for a better worldbuilding concept if it's not something inherent in the Supers that guides their actions, but rather that these are normal human psyches suddenly given capabilities way outside of the box. There are a lot of interesting analogues this could bring forward: if an individual possesses the ability to kill hundreds of humans with superpowers, what safeguards need to be put in place for the common good? This could parallel real-world situations such as "if an individual has enough wealth to destabilize and disenfranchise hundreds or thousands of humans by their decisions, what safeguards need to be put in place for the common good?"

You'd find arguments like "Can there exist a truly good Super?" in the way that we have real-world arguments like "Can ethical billionaires exist?" - think about how certain writers emphasize Superman's alien nature: yes, he uses his abilities for altruistic purposes and the protection of humanity, but what if he didn't? - this is the justification for Lex Luthor's actions, most of the time.

So I imagine you'd see a lot of Supers working either in secret or obscuring their identities simply because there would be an inherent fear and distrust. Nietzsche wrote about a similar concept in Thus Spoke Zarathustra from the spiritual and intellectual perspective, the "Overman" who would use his enlightened mind for the common good but still be distrusted by the Common Man for his abilities; contrasted with the "Last Man" who would use that enlightenment for pure self-interest and justify the Common Man's antipathy.

JMS's Rising Stars comic really leaned into this - superheroes are cool, until they aren't. They're trustworthy, until they're not. If you're a Super who can blend in with the population, why would you want to submit yourself to that distrust and antipathy unless you really don't consider yourself part of common humanity? Down that way lies your Homelander psychosis - "I'm a god, everyone else is just insects".

This is basic comic book psychology, the idea that superheroic identities exist to portray supers as mythical, as more concept than man, because people can believe concepts and caricatures to be free of human foibles and weaknesses. If Stupendous Man flies in to save an airliner from crashing, people accept it - that's what Stupendous Man does. If Doug Gruberman flies in and saves an airliner from crashing, people want to know what this guy's motives are. Does he have stock in the airline? What if other airlines crash more often because they don't have a superhuman looking out for them?

I think humanity would almost have to create the fiction of superheroes and heroic alter egos to insulate themselves from the existential dread that the presence of supers would bring with it.

A big problem is: when you are that unique super, you can see yourself as a god while ordinary people are insects. but when you have to deal with a lot of your own kind, even those more powerful and especially far more powerful supers may see you as an insect, and bullying and enslaving the weaker supers will satisfy their ego more than merely ordinary people.
 

1 million out of what, 5.8 billion?

.0172% of the population.

So if America had 270 million people in the 90's, that would be less than 50k people in the US.

Most of whom would probably not being trying to do amazing things for fear of government dissection.
Thar last bit is a conceit that makes no sense based on.what we know about humans.
 

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