>Story where a notSuperhuman in a world where superhumans are the norm earns his place at the top despite his lack of a superpower
>Eventually revealed that he does have a superpower or he gains a superpower through the course of the story
Every time
Are normals humans just always going to be at the mercy of superhumans?
I can only think of an anime, no comics or cartoons.
What are you thinking of?
Literally Batman you idiot. Stop watching anime.
I can't really think of any actually good Marvel examples (do people really give a fuck about Hawkeye?) but DC has always had a large amount of non-super powered heroes doing stuff in the form of the bat family
the power of being born super rich, and plot armor.
also I'm pretty sure there has been multiple accounts of him being recognized as "special" by some sort of higher power.
There was that one issue of Ultimate FF where they undo the rocket test and everybody gets superpowers from Skrulls. Then Ben (who didn't want powers) kicks the shit out of him as a normal human. Pretty good issue, honestly.
>Eventually revealed that he does have a superpower or he gains a superpower through the course of the story
I hate completely undermines the initial idea.
dumb frogposter
>Character leverages shit tier power in surprising ways to bring down incredibly strong enemies.
The best.
>his superpower is to counter plot armor
Best boy.
There was that one superhero movie forever ago(Sky High) but that's live action. There was another Disney movie before that that actually kept the protagonist non-powered(Up Up and Away)
What about this guy?
The whole point of settings like that is to show how varied people are, by physically representing that individuality through superpowers. Powerlessfags defeat the point of that. Nobody has no unique traits.
What about Attack on Titan? Becoming a Titan is a natural human ability, anyone can do it. Does that really count as a superpower?
>Are disabled humans always going to be at the mercy of normal humans?
This is what you sound like, OP. Get over it.
lol
saitama is possibly the worst example to bring up
But he has no super power.
Gee, faggotron, I guess normal people are going to reach his level with a basic strength regime, right?
There's a goddamned theme in the manga about how Saitama got his power just because he's that powerful, not because of 'hard work'.
To be fair, he kinda is just a normal guy fighting whatever in those flashback episodes. But in the regular episodeshe may as well have superpowers with regards to OPs thing.
King might qualify but I don't think that's what OP wants either.
>100 pushups
>100 situps
>100 crunches
>10 miles
>Everyday
>with no aircon
>for 3 years
>not hardwork
Let me see your 6 pack abs, user
This thread reminded me about this show.
Though I don't really remember how it ended.
Not everyone, but if you didn't read the mangá i will go into details.
I have a love-hate relationship with this type of thing:
On one side I love when someone uses grit, strategy, planning and wits to defeat a more powerful opponent. On the other side many times it's suspension of disbelief breaking when a completely normal guy defeats someone who is basically a living god compared to him.
I think it mostly depends if the plan of the character is solid and well founded in concepts we already saw in the story or if it's only possible through asspulls and the enemy acting like a retard.
>Gee, faggotron, I guess normal people are going to reach his level with a basic strength regime, right?
I don't see you doing 100 pushups, situps, crunches and 10 miles running every single day for like 10 years
In Sky High he gets a super power, doesn't he?
Or are you pointing that out as an example of what OP is talking about
You definitely see that more in Japan than the west. Mx0 is the first example that comes to mind, although it did it pretty tastefully.
The initial idea is that everyone has something that makes them unique. By the MC discovering his power, he discovers what makes him unique.
>the power of being born super rich
It was a small loan of one million IQ points.
in Sky High he gets two superpowers
It's like OP's example
top teir.
really though. There was this one mountain climber who lost his legz at the peak of his career. After recovery he found he could do more with metal spikes for legs than he could ever do with flesh wraped mineral sticks. His contemporaries threatned to cut off their legs to compete.
You mean like Batman or Ironman? Unless you believe being rich is a superpower.
Ironman clearly has the power to utilize some sort of hammerspace to get his suit to work.
i know exactly what you are talking about.
it wasn't sky high though.
all of the superhumans had a weakness to tinfoil
also there was some sort of plot to brainwash people using earthworms or something?
Yeah, there's a reason they don't allow double-leg amputees in the normal Olympics (They're faster on their blade legs than normal runners)
>the power of being born super rich
There are other super rich people that still didn't achieve what he has. It's not only his money what makes him Batman.
>plot armor
I wish people would stop saying this shit. Every hero that wins at the end has "plot armor". Everything is written so they can win. Even Superman, Goku, Flash, Spider-Man, The Hulk or whoever your superpowered character is your favorite.
Batman wins because he is Batman. Always.
Why are batfags easily triggered?
because OP it's not about powers, it's about someone being ostracized and then learned they were still part of the community anyway
you're just too pleb to understand
I mean, sort of.
He won that "Hulk vs." fan argument, at least.
>Character starts out with a lame power
>Power is way too specific to be practical
>As the series goes on Character finds out that their power is actually way better than they thought and were using it the wrong way all along
His superpower was to counter HIS OWN plot armor. It was an anti-power that made it so that the only way he could ever win was through completely legitimate means without any outside help or luck, while his opponents could have as much of that stuff as they wanted.
Devil Style worked on others too. That's why he needed it to have a chance at beating a protagonist like Medaka.
what i mean is he isn't a "mortal" because he constantly gets into situations where any normal person would have a very good chance of dying.
read the boys or something like that, jesus
So like... character is always weightless and finds out later they can actually manipulate their own gravity?
>Character can move things telekenitcally
>Later figures out he can teleport
>finally realizes his power was to bend space continuum to his will
Batman, Green Arrow, Hawkeye, The Question, The Green Hornet, Nightwing, Red Robin, Batgirl, Robin, Red Hood, Batwoman, Catwoman, Rhorshach, Kim Possible, Nick Fury, James Bond, Dick Tracy, Iron Man, War Machine, Jonah Hex, and Punisher prove you wrong.
*mic drop*
Just say my hero academia already, user.
>the power of....plot armor.
But should any human achieve anything a superhuman can't in a story that would apply to them anyway.
If the author rigs a story specifically to elevate a rudimentary human above his superiors then it is by the whim of the plot, nothing else.
There's no logical reason someone whose specific trait is being relatable, average and ungifted should be able to do anything those who share a similar background plus new gifts can't.
Unless there's literally a force in the universe that deliberately favors them, not for any particular point just to spite others or worse some contrived moral about how being humble and human is the best. Except then it's not a story about being humble, it's about hubris, and it's less so being human and limited and more about being the messiah.
I mean what kind of backwards double power fantasy would even facilitate such a bizarro situation where Joe Everyman wants to be unremarkable but still somehow better than everyone else?
Bowing a knee so the crippled don't feel shadowed by the facts of life is just going to lead to some retarded duckwalk nightmare world.
An exception I can sort of think of where this sort of thing was written semi-plausibly for its setting is how Moore wrote Todd in For the Man Who Has Everything, but there it's less so that he did anything no one else could and more that as a result of the other three stepping up first for Mongul's punishment Jason was able to use his guile and Mongul's distracted state to his advantage. Had Jason tried to put the Black Mercy on Mongul before he was occupied with Wonder Woman and Superman Mongul would have just swatted it and squashed Jason's head.
>I can speak all languages
>literally every languae
>therefore I can talk to animals
>computers count too
>and cities, I think
>body language is a language
>I am now super good at Kung-Fu
Fucking X-Men
>Punisher
When does he go up against metahumans and win?
The ideal would be not that they're better than everyone like those many, many shitty self insert stories, but that they have their own place and usefulness within the universe and story. You see this sort of thing pop up with characters who have shitty powers or have the same powers as someone else. The obvious moral, if we want to reduce it to things like that, is that the world and its problems are too large for any one person or small group of people to handle, no matter their personal talents or powers. There's always room for someone to be able to accomplish something important on their own terms.
Obviously that story where everyone loses their superpowers and learns that true heroism is sucking Batman's World's Greatest Dick is a thing you want to avoid. The one you listed there is the thing you want to shoot for. They're not better than the supers, they don't show them up, they're just shown to be able to accomplish important things through other skills or personality traits. Usually this makes them the mission control or management level guy, like Dick leading the Teen Titans.
I recall PS238 having the local son of Superman have no powers and stay that way. He became Robin, essentially, which dovetails into what we've discussed here.
There is literally a oneshot called "Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe." Written by, who else, Garth Ennis.
best girl.