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Which Superhero has the dumbest origin.

Superman. Change the colour of the sun, and suddenly he has superstrength, superspeed, superintellect, flight, x-ray vision, heat vision, telescopic and microscopic vision, superhearing, can go into space without breathing (and travel at supraluminal speeds?), time travel, freezing breath, hurricane breath, etc. It's a wonder people don't burst into jags of laughter every time the character appears.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Superman's powers weren't always because of the yellow sun. His "original" origin had him coming from a race of supermen from a planet with a denser gravity than ours, thus allowing his musculature to be stronger than ours and granting him the ability to "leap tall buildings" in a single bound.
 
One of Ambush Bug's many origins included a riff on Superman's origin, as Superman flies off thinking of how ridiculous Ambush's stated origin was, he realizes its it is his own.

I'd argue Bouncing Boy who accidentily ingests a formula while not paying attention.
 
Still not as silly as the Golden Age Whizzer, who got super-speed after receiving a blood transfusion from a mongoose!

*snicker*

Bananaman was from the moon!?

Also, I always thought Robin's origin story was pretty good, tragic really.

Superman. Change the colour of the sun, and suddenly he has superstrength, superspeed, superintellect, flight, x-ray vision, heat vision, telescopic and microscopic vision, superhearing, can go into space without breathing (and travel at supraluminal speeds?), time travel, freezing breath, hurricane breath, etc. It's a wonder people don't burst into jags of laughter every time the character appears.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

This isn't Superman's origin story, it's just the reason for his superpowers, and really any reason given for super powers is going to be pretty silly.
 
Superman. Change the colour of the sun, and suddenly he has superstrength, superspeed, superintellect, flight, x-ray vision, heat vision, telescopic and microscopic vision, superhearing, can go into space without breathing (and travel at supraluminal speeds?), time travel, freezing breath, hurricane breath, etc. It's a wonder people don't burst into jags of laughter every time the character appears.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

That's how he gets powers, not his origin. ;)
 
The Sentry is a pale immatation of MIRACLEMAN.:vulcan:
And Miracleman is a Captain Marvel knockoff, while Captain Marvel is a Superman clone. ;)
You know, I always wondered, if Cap is such a ripoff, why DC continues to use the character and the mythology, and is able to do so in ways so differently than they use Superman and his mythology.:shifty: And I just realized that it was Learned Hand, of all people, who presided over one of the biggest travesties I know of in intellectual property law. :(

Anyway, on-topic, Marvel does have a pretty questionable origin. Small child wanders into the subway and meets a creepy old man, who gives him the lightning.
 
I always thought Kyle Rayner's origin was pretty silly, though Judd Winnick did a small, clever retcon that made it better. Basically we are to believe that after Hal goes crazy and the Guardians sacrifice themselves to ? (I was never clear on this...because what they did, did not really work), leaving Ganthet, the last Guardian. Ganthet decides that Earth is the best place to go and with very little power flies to Earth and gives the last ring to Kyle, saying, "You will have to do." I never got why Ganthet would go to the same planet where Hal came from and then just (seemingly) randomly hand the ring to the first person he finds. We're talking about a power ring that used to require training to use.

Later on Ganthet even comes back to claim the ring from Kyle, claiming it was only a temporary thing (this after Kyle starts establishing himself as a hero and even defeated Parallax once...following Ganthet's return and Kyle's second defeat of Parallax, Ganthet lets Kyle keep the ring).

Judd's retcon was to have Ganthet "conveniently" forget about what happened and slyly reply that there was more to it then he let on. I prefer this to the original in that it makes it seem that everything was planned and Kyle had a role to play.

While we're on third generation heroes, the third flash, Wally West, had a pretty dumb origin, in that it was a retread of his mentor's origin. Wally, the nephew of Iris West (Barry's girlfriend) spends the summer with his Aunt and meets Barry. He's bored until Barry mentions he knows the Flash and arranges for Wally to meet Barry in his laboratory (which he set up at home and lets the Flash use, supposedly). Wally meets his hero and asks how he came to be the Flash. Barry tells him, while setting up the chemicals on the shelf to replicate the chemicals that were there when he was created. Suddenly, lightning strikes again, knocks over the same chemicals, this time on Wally, and boom, Wally is Kid Flash!

Where to begin on this one! First, Wally, while being a kid, was pretty thick not to realize that the Flash, who is a chemist like Barry, conveniently uses Barry's lab, instead of one of his own. Second, Wally's origin from that point on is the same as his mentors! Third, a letter retcon had Barry return, following his run to the "death" in Crisis on Infinite Earths as the lightning which hits him and gives him his powers (in combination with the chemicals). This makes the unlikelyhood of lighting crashing through a window and hitting a shelf with chemicals on it more believable. It does nothing to explain how that freak accident happened again!
 
Ironman (had to build a suit in a warzone) and Batman (witnessed the death of family now wants to fight crime) are at least semi plausible
They are good if not great origin stories


TOP 10 WORST ORIGINS OF ALL TIME

10
Spiderman, got bitten by a radioactive spider. That's it Stan? I know it was the 60s and all but was that the best you could come up with?

9
Robin, wants to be a hero because....I never figured that one out? Is it because he trying to dress up as Batman's Greek lover? Whatever the reason its lame

8
Hulk, more radiation, this time its an atomic bomb and its more superpowers

7
Flash, Barry Allen working late next to a cabinate full of a variety of strange chemicals, all of a sudden lightning strikes and he gets his super speed powers

6
Composite Superman, more lightning- dumbass almost kills himself. Superman saves him. He then returns to his janitor job. I quote wiki : Meach was sweeping in front of a series of statuettes depicting the Legion of Super-Heroes, a bolt of lightning passed through an open window and struck the display. The statuettes, which were actually miniature lifeless duplicates of the Legionnaires, unleashed an energy blast that struck Meach. Meach discovered that he was endowed with the combined powers of the Legion members. Determined to defeat Superman and Batman, Meach used his shapeshifting power to turn his skin green and form a costume that was half Superman's, half Batman's. Calling himself the Composite Superman

5
Kid Flash, more lightning. Kid visits his uncle who happens to be working with a cabinate of the exact same varitey of strange chemcials, all of a sudden the improbable unlikelihood of the exact thing happening with a random lightning strike, but the exact same chemicals in the exact same positions finally strains disbelief even in the cartoon universe.

4
Superman he was just born that way. Moses in a basket beginning, I don't get how nobody has figured out he's Clark Kent...glasses!?!? That's all you got? He gets his power from the Sun...that's it. So why doesn't he fall out of the sky like a rock when the sun sets? Why isn't he weaker in winter time? The origin is lame, he's supposed to be the last son of krypton but his never ending extended family of babies, supergirls, super dogs is even lamer


3 Fan 4 by Cracked dot com 5 of the Most Absurd Superhero OriginsBy Jay Pinkerton. What would have really happened the Fantastic 4:
Reed Richards wisely decides to keep quiet about his goal to beat the Communists to Mars after noticing the horrified looks on his colleagues' faces, and so manages to get into outer space without tipping off the authorities. Once there, the four are bombarded with cosmic rays and, as advances in radiation can attest, nothing much happens initially. Since it takes the better part of a year to reach far-off Mars, Reed and co. settle in for the voyage, playing charades and watching Ben Grimm's astonishingly comprehensive collection of amateur pornography.After a month of lethal radiation, Johnny develops a cataract in his left eye and Ben Grimm becomes sterile. After two months, Susan's hair begins to fall out in clumps and Richards starts pooping blood. By the time they reach Mars, every one of them has cancer. Luckily, due to the heavy nuclei in cosmic radiation all are profoundly brain damaged at this point, and nobody even notices. Now piloting a spacecraft while legally retarded, Reed suggests they abandon their Mars mission and fly off in the direction of a distant galaxy instead, on the grounds that it looks like ice cream. They are never heard from again.

2
Sentry, Marvel's superman clone with an even more lame origin

1
Bouncing Boy, was supposed to deliver a super-elastic fluid instead the idiot almost poisons himself opening the bottle and drinking it.
Lame origin, lamer hero
 
ooh i have one. extacy. a hooker got exposed to a john who works in a lab and had radiation. now she has the power to make people orgasm to the point that it kills them.
 
We never learned the Tick's origin did we? All we know is that he's legally insane and an escapee from a mental asylum (in the comics) and that he was suckered into going to The City after annoying everyone at a bus station (in the show). No idea where his powers came from or why he was driven insane.
 
9
Robin, wants to be a hero because....I never figured that one out? Is it because he trying to dress up as Batman's Greek lover? Whatever the reason its lame

Dick Grayson wanted to become Robin to avenge the death of his parents.

Jason Todd, Post-Crisis, was a street punk. Batman was trying to redeem him and Jason was all about the violence.

Tim Drake discovered that Batman was Bruce Wayne after following Dick Grayson, who he idolized. He realized that after the death of Jason Todd, Batman was becoming unhinged and reasoned that Batman needed a Robin.
 
Jason Todd, Post-Crisis, was a street punk. Batman was trying to redeem him and Jason was all about the violence.

that's the one who annoyed me, the guy who was introduced trying to steal hubcaps off the Batmobile. Batman should have went braveheart on his ass instead of trying to recruit him.
 
Any superhero whose origin started from an accidental contact with/exposure to weird chemicals (Plastic Man, etc.). How could they not get cancer or die of poisoning?
Because comic books don't operate on any principle of reality. :-)

Not to say it's simply okay to have characters do things that make no sense from what was established in the comic, or break the characters normal behavior, but since there are no superheroes it makes sense that their origins will be huge bit of b.s.

Well, in fairness to the companies Marvel and DC did come up with an explanation that some people in the world have a special gene that allows them to get powers instead of dying when exposed to radiation, chemicals and whatnot. So, they have addressed the issue.
 
The Tick's is the most un-dumb then. I remember him accompanying someone through his subconscious in one episode and all kinds of strange imagery started appearing. The companion noted that the Tick didn't date much. I laughed a lot and wondered why anyone thought this was a kids' show.
 
Captain America:

Doctor: Here, drink this.

Rogers: (Gulp) Okay, but I don't see how...Good God, I'm superhuman!
 
Captain America:

Doctor: Here, drink this.

Rogers: (Gulp) Okay, but I don't see how...Good God, I'm superhuman!

Actually I always figured that was fairly believable, at least as much as any other "super-powered" origin story.

Also, Robin's origins are pretty much the same as Batman's, the details are different, but he's pretty much Batman's shadow.
 
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