Which Superhero has the dumbest origin.

[Klaus]

Mr. Wonderful and the rest of the Interesting Four!!

 

[Myasishchev]

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.

Yeah, Captain America's not so bad, particularly because he's not actually superhuman per se (he's "peak human"), although he is ordinarily played as effectively superstrong and superagile. He does remain a bit of a walking testimonial for experimental steroid abuse--but at least that's plausible enough. It only gets implausible when the super-soldier serum wouldn't work on anybody else.

 

[Checkmate]

It's not that it wouldn't work on anybody else, it's that they were never able to reproduce it exactly. Which itself is pretty stupid, especially considering his shield is also a one-of-the-kind can't-seem-to-reproduce artifacts.

 

[Myasishchev]

Maybe I'm confusing the Ultimate universe version--I thought the serum was keyed to Rogers, instead of the serum being simply lost.

Hard to say which one is actually sillier...

 

[ltcmmanderdata]

this is a tough one. spider man maybe.

 

[hyzmarca]

Maybe I'm confusing the Ultimate universe version--I thought the serum was keyed to Rogers, instead of the serum being simply lost.

Hard to say which one is actually sillier...

The serum will work on anyone. However, in addition to the serum, Rogers was exposed to "vita-rays". This radiation exposure is necessary to stabilize the formula. Without it, super soldiers have all the physical capabilities of Captain America, but invariably go insane, which was the fate of the 50s anti-communist Cap.
Since the fellow who made the serum died and neglected to tell anyone about the vita-rays, there has never been a successful recreation.

 

[miraclefan]

And to think people still ask me why I don't buy comics from the big two!

 

[Anwar]

Maybe I'm confusing the Ultimate universe version--I thought the serum was keyed to Rogers, instead of the serum being simply lost.

Hard to say which one is actually sillier...

The serum will work on anyone. However, in addition to the serum, Rogers was exposed to "vita-rays". This radiation exposure is necessary to stabilize the formula. Without it, super soldiers have all the physical capabilities of Captain America, but invariably go insane, which was the fate of the 50s anti-communist Cap.
Since the fellow who made the serum died and neglected to tell anyone about the vita-rays, there has never been a successful recreation.

You'd think Rogers himself would remember the radiation treatments, why didn't HE ever tell anyone?!

 

[Nerys Myk]

Maybe I'm confusing the Ultimate universe version--I thought the serum was keyed to Rogers, instead of the serum being simply lost.

Hard to say which one is actually sillier...

The serum will work on anyone. However, in addition to the serum, Rogers was exposed to "vita-rays". This radiation exposure is necessary to stabilize the formula. Without it, super soldiers have all the physical capabilities of Captain America, but invariably go insane, which was the fate of the 50s anti-communist Cap.
Since the fellow who made the serum died and neglected to tell anyone about the vita-rays, there has never been a successful recreation.

You'd think Rogers himself would remember the radiation treatments, why didn't HE ever tell anyone?!

The Vita-rays were never forgotten. For some reason people using the the formula didn't think they were an important part of the process. The serum its self is what most focused on.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

TMNT! I love them all but seriously...Most of the characters are like

 

[Hermiod]

You'd think Rogers himself would remember the radiation treatments, why didn't HE ever tell anyone?!

Presumably because he doesn't understand the technology behind them. He would not be able to help recreate them.

 

[hyzmarca]

The radiation treatment was done in front of witnesses. But Erskine was paranoid about his work being stolen by Nazi spies (and rightly so), and thus didn't keep any sort of written records. His death at the hands of a Nazi spy was accompanied by the destruction of the Vita-Ray machine, thus preventing any attempt to reverse-engineer it, even though they were able to reverse engineer the serum components from Steve Rogers's blood. .

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

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.

Cap had a good origin, Robin the Todd version who used steal hubcaps off the Batmobile...well the fans hated him so much they voted Joker to give him a horrible death

 

[wamdue]

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?


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

the movie origin for Spiderman is a bit more plausible, its not brilliant, but it is more believable than anything involving radiation.

and Composite Superman, just looked at him on wikipedia, damm that is just a really dumb idea full stop, still we might have found someone who could defeat Sylar.

 

[Maurice]

The Sentry is a pale immatation of MIRACLEMAN.

And Miracleman is a Captain Marvel knockoff, while Captain Marvel is a Superman clone.

I know that already.

Aaaaand one can argue that Superman is a knockoff of the hero of Phillip Wylie's 1030 novel, Gladiator. Hugo Danner's father invents a secret formula that creates superpowers, like super strength, bullet proof skin and the ability to jump like a grasshopper, thus leaping tall buildings in a single bound.

More about Gladiator.

 

[Praetor]

Isn't it pretty well established that Gladiator was the direct inspiration for Superman?

 

[Mr. Chubbykins]

The Silver Surfer's origin is pretty weird. To save his world from a giant planet-eater, he agrees to fly around the galaxy on a surfboard and lead the planet-eater to other inhabited planets.

Then someone tells him that's a bit nasty, and he changes his mind.

Ooookay.

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

The Silver Surfer's origin is pretty weird. To save his world from a giant planet-eater, he agrees to fly around the galaxy on a surfboard and lead the planet-eater to other inhabited planets.

Then someone tells him that's a bit nasty, and he changes his mind.

Ooookay.

I think Surfer's game was he was offering to help Galactus find some unintelligent worlds that got primitive life. To spare his home, he would bring Galactus to snack on lesser homes

The big guy duped him and re programed him as a superpowered killing machine who was completely souless

Galactus then set his sights on Earth,
some big advanced alien headed being called Watcher realizes the Apocalypse is coming to Earth so he brings up his space ship to watch the doomsday fireworks display.
This Watcher dude, although he doesn't really do anything but because he's got so much scifi tech is an important player.

Fan4 are getting their butts hammered by Surfer, so taking on the big Galactus is way out of their league.
They finally come up with a stalemate plan, they send torch to jack the Watcher spaceship and steal a new fancy toy called the Nullifier.
Surfer realizes he's on the wrong side and helps hold of Galactus for a few moments. Surfer moves faster than light so Galactus has trouble swatting him at first. Eventually big Galactus makes a blow connect and Surfer drops like a stone.
Reed Richards in one last throw of the dice shows this new stolen toy to Galactus, a Nullifier that can end everything and turn any matter into nothingness.

Galactus goes "I wasn't that hungry anyways" says a few nasty things to the Fantastic4 and blasts Surfboy trapping him on the planet

For the next few months the Silver dude rediscovers his spirit while trapped on Earth, he lives the life of a fallen angel. After a while Marvel probably realized Surfer was way too overpoweed so the allowed the Stan Lee, Jack Kirby creature to break free from the Galactus prison and take off exploring the universe.

anyhow that's his origin in short

and by the time he got home to Zenn-La, it was reduced to dust.

Galactus after experiencing Surfer's betrayl said he was no longer obligated to keep his promise of not eating Surfer's planet. He returned to Zenn-La for an all you can eat buffet while Surfer was stuck on Earth.


The worst thing about Surfer's origin is marvel continuity, they keep hitting the rest and retconning everything

 

[coolghoul]

^ I thought his girlfriend from Zenn-La escapes. What's her current status?

I really enjoyed the writeup btw. While I haven't read the classic Galactus story (but read several allusions to it in other comics), I have actually read the Essential Silver Surfer vol 1 (which is this delightfully verbose and angsty bunch of early Silver Surfer comics - the only bad point is that it's all black & white - but the Silver Surfer really works in B&W).