Writers Guide To: Making more interesting Superpowers

Get Yourself an Idea!

Sometimes, thinking out a character's powers can be difficult, particularly if you want something original and outside-of-the-box. (Though, do remember: popular and commonly-used powers aren't necessarily bad and can still be used in ways that are creative and interesting.) If you're looking to be original or unique, then bear in mind that the following are extremely common:

• Cat-type/cat-based powers.

• Wings.

• Elemental control powers (ie, earth, air, fire, water, lightning, ice, light, shadow).

• Whatever powers that the current run of popular powered characters have.

• Various combination of the above, especially wings and elemental powers.

It's up to you to decide whether it matters that your characters' powers are fairly commonplace or not, based on your own personal preferences and what seems most appropriate to the universe.

If your character is an OC, don't copy xir powers from the very canon characters xe's supposed to hang out with unless there's a very good reason for it, eg:

• It was passed down genetically from a parent.

• It's a feature of your character's kind. (Ghosts in Danny Phantom all have the power to become intangible and fly by virtue of being ghosts. All powers beyond that depend on the ghost.)

• It's an extremely common power in the universe. (In most superhero universes, flight, super strength, and generic plasma bolts are extremely common.)

• There are very few powers to pick from. (In Avatar: The Last Airbender, you've really only got four options.)

If you have a personality or persona in mind for your character already, you can use that to inspire your character's powers. For example, when Stan Lee created Iron Man, he started with the premise that he wanted to create a military-industrial complex hero. The concept of the technological Iron Man suit is a perfect fit for that theme. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe/Earth-199999 films with Loki, we see that most of Loki's powers involve illusion, which fits perfectly with his predilection toward deception and toward hiding his true feelings and emotions from others.

You could also center your character's powers around some sort of theme or concept. For example, the Hulk is what you get when make a superpower out of blind rage. The Dementors from the Harry Potter series are based around depression - hence why they drain all joy and happiness wherever they go, and why they can suck out a person's soul to leave behind an empty shell.

If nothing comes to mind, you can try randomization through at least one of the following to give yourself some inspiration:

• The Random Superpower Generator, which will give you a handful of potential powers for a character.

• The Magical & Weird Science Effects Generator - the effects can be used as superpowers just as easily.

• Yet Another Superpower Generation Tool, which will require a few dice or a dice-rolling website (there's one linked to on the page) and a little imagination.

• The coin and/or d6 method.

• You can go to a website that lets you choose from a selection of random pages, such a Wikipedia. For example, If you get a page such as this, you might take from it someone who boxes and has a paralyzing touch. Other sites you might try include randomwebsite.com or Imgur's random mode.