Lots of superheroes are “children of the atom” in the sense that they derive powers from some sort of radioactivity (think Spiderman or Hulk or even Daredevil) while others are just born with powers without explanation (X-Men, Thor, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman).

Who is a superhero that is somehow grounded in reality, meaning that they could “potentially” make sense (either their origin story is believable, even if it has some obvious gap to make a super power happen, or their power is somehow limited or constructed in a “reasonable” way).

I guess with these restrictions, Batman would be OK since he’s got no superpowers, but he’s insanely rich and therefore can both train himself and have access to sophisticated gadgets, but can you think of less obvious ones (even if they’re minor characters)?

Thanks for reading this!

  • decerian@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    This isn’t a “comic book” universe, but the parahumans story universe (Worm and Ward) fits this pretty well.

    Without spoiling too much of the story, characters all get powers in response to traumatic events. The powers they get also tend to reflect the type of trauma that occurred, so if they lost an arm they might get a healing power, or if they were trapped in a burning building they might get the ability to phase through walls and a resistance to fire. All of the powers in the setting tend to follow this approach, and stay within the rules of the setting.