Some Are Born With It, Others Get Hit With Gamma Radiation

Posts : 9 Join date : 2013-08-06

Some Are Born With It, Others Get Hit With Gamma Radiation
The Case of Whether Being Born With Powers Is Any Better Than Developing Them

The question that I am about to ask is one that has been asked since costume heroes have been saving our cities. Some heroes such as Superboy and Flytrap have been saving cities since they were young while heroes such as Sunburst and The Flash, this incarnation anyways, seem fairly new. This could mean a plethora of things but in my heart of hearts it brings me to recall the quote "Some are born with greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them". However, the quotation I have, and many others have, is if those who were born with powers are better than those who develop powers later on in life.

Superboy, Siren, Flytrap, and Jean Grey have been fighting crime since most of us can remember. Superboy has every cool power you can think of, except maybe super intelligence and invisibility. Siren can command people to do whatever she wants them to by just the sound of her voice. Flytrap controls all sort of plant life. Jean Grey has both telepathy and telekinesis. All of these powers seem to come from their birth. Superboy, much like Superman, was born on a distant planet where all people have these fantastic powers. I'm not sure why Flytrap was born with powers but Jean Grey is a mutant. These four were born with their powers and I believe that it is for the better. Being born with powers means that you have more time to work on your power and thus can perfect it. Since you're different from such a young age, you learn the morality and mentality of a hero quicker. Another benefit of being born with powers is that you don't have to worry about suddenly feeling out of place because, unfortunately, you've felt like this your entire life.

Yet with every upside there are down sides. Not all people who are born with powers are going to choose the high road and become a hero. We have those such as the man who, a few weeks back, was spotted at a bank in New York City manipulating the darkness and, no folks, it wasn't our beloved hero Nocturn. While heroes who are born with powers have time to sharpen their skill so do villains who are born with them. These villains have chosen the low road when it comes down to it. A downside that comes no matter if you are a hero or a villain I suppose is that those with powers realize at a young age that the police can't stop them. They become, on occasion, defiant against authorities.

As the problems and benefits are there for being born with powers, so are they there in the point of developing powers through outside means later in life.

Sunburst, the current Flash, and Iron Man are those that come to mind when I think of heroes who have developed their powers later in life. I think of heroes who have developed their powers later in life. We all remember the story of the high school class stuck in the caves when one of the students developed the ability to control light which is widely thought to be the origin of Sunburst. The current Flash became the Flash in an accident similar to the one that created the Flash before him, a freak accident in the Central City police labs. As for Iron Man, everyone knows the story of Tony Stark so I don't feel as if I should have to speak about that. You see, while the cons outweigh the pros (in my opinion) there is one major pro that I can think of. If powers are developed later on in life you get to, for no matter how brief a time, live as if you are a normal everyday person. You know the struggle that is civilian life and can relate to the general population.

Yet there are two major cons that outweigh the good in the case of developing powers later in life.

The first major con that comes to mind is the fact that the individual who develops the power has less time to learn how to control it. Let's look at The Flash compared to Quicksilver, a young man in the X-Men's gallery of villains. Quicksilver has the natural gift of super speed while The Flash developed his later in life. Can you imagine suddenly going from 0 to however fast he can go overnight? Not only would most, including myself, be mortally terrified but it would take them forever to get control of that. Perhaps on a deeper level, however, is what a person might do once they develop powers. There are two different ways this could go that make this horrible. One is that the person has a hatred of what they've become and decides to end it. The second is that if the person has been pushed around for their entire lives they could finally decide to push back.

While both methods of power have given us quite a few memorable heroes, and even villains, I believe that it is being born with powers that breed more powerful heroes.

On a side note, it seems that my comments about Mr. Jameson over at The Daily Planet were highly offensive...or so Mr. White, my boss Perry White, says. I'm suppose to apologize for calling him names. Instead I'm issuing he apologize to me for the ludacris things he said about heroes.

Neil Gallagher

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