Differently-Powered Individual: Difference between revisions

** There are also certain other types of supers: Dolls (who have little personal volition and whose powers usually focus on ESP through a chosen medium), Moratoriums (who have no control over their powers and usually go into [[Superpower Meltdown|trance-like states of destruction]]), and Forfeiters (Contractors who lost their powers and regained their emotions).

* The [[Gorn|graphic]] [[Hentai]] [[Manga]] ''[[Mai Chans Daily Life]]'' refers to someone with unusual abilities as a "Physical Idiosyncrasy".

* [[Tiger and Bunny]] has NEXT. The NEXT that put on costumes and fight crime, however, are still called superheroes (or just heroes).

* ''[[Medaka Box]]'': Those with overpowering abilities (such as killing intent, analysis , and super reflexes) are known as Abnormals, which includes the protagonist as well.

** Invidual users are referred to as an "X-person"; Luffy is called a Rubberman, Miss Doublefinger is a Spikewoman, Mr. One is a Blademan (ironically, and almost certainly accidentally, his fruit is the "supa supa" in Japanese, so he's a "supa-man"), etc.

** Well, it might be accidental. Under the cover arc, it was revealed that Mr. 1 dream was to be a superhero.

* [[The DCU]] uses the term "metahumans" to designate humans who gain superpowers through the [[Meta Origin|metagene]], a latent gene that is "activated" by stress (for instance, those [[Freak Lab Accident|oh-so-common lab accidents]]); once activated, it can [[Superpowerful Genetics|carry a parent's powers down to his or her child]]. The [[Diniverse]] seems to use "metahuman". and "superhero" interchangeably. "Metahuman" is also sometimes used as a DC-equivalent of "mutant"; Some people are just born with an active metagene.

** The "Powers passed to kids" part is an example of [[Lamarck Was Right]], which is sorta-kinda-[[Truth in Television]], in the form of epigenetics.

* The [[Marvel Universe]] takes care to distinguish between "[[Mutants]]" (people who develop superpowers through an inherited trait) and "superhumans" (people who gain powers due to exposure of foreign elements), mainly because of the [[Fantastic Racism]] against the former (the pejorative term "[[Fantastic Slur|mutie]]" is quite popular among anti-mutant bigots). "Mutates" can be mistaken for either group (and many supplemental sources outside of the actual comics [[Did Not Do the Research|think superhumans are called mutates]]) but they're former humans [[Lego Genetics|genetically enhanced]] with superpowers by a villain with [[Mad Scientist]] credentials, such as the [http://marvel.wikia.com/Savage_Land_Mutates_%28Earth-616%29 Savage Land Mutates].

** Ironically, many superhumans are still mistaken for mutants, with [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] at the top of the list.

* [[Ultimate Marvel]] also uses "posthuman".

* As does ''[[Empowered (Comic Book)|Empowered]]'', even though many superheroes are [[Badass Normal|perfectly human]] there. Empowered also uses "capes" as a general superhuman term (Black Capes and White Capes for villains and heroes, respectively) "superchicas" for female superheroes and "supervill" for supervillains. "Superhero" and "supervillain" are still sometimes used, however.

* In ''[[Watchmen]]'', they are referred to as "costume heroes", "masked avengers" or "masks", which is appropriate, as most [[Badass Normal|don't have superpowers]].

* In ''[[The New Universe]]'', "paranormals" is the common term.

* The ''Next Men'' were called, well, Next Men. Those "triggered" into mutation — by [[Deus Sex Machina|having sex with Next Men]], or [[Superpowerful Genetics|being descended from those who did]] — were called Halflings in the future prequel/sequel ''2112''.

* In the universe of Paul Dini's ''Madame Mirage'', all enhanced humans, [[Mad Scientist|Mad Scientists]], and users of [[Powered Armor]] and other exotic technology alike are all called "mega-techs" or just "megas" for short.

* In Erik Larsen's ''[[The Savage Dragon]]'', they are called "Freaks".

 

* The ''[[Wild Cards]]'' series distinguishes among Aces (people infected with the wild card virus who gain superpowers), Jokers (people who survived the wild card virus but who were horribly mutated as a result), and Deuces (people who weren't mutated by the virus, but who got ''really'' [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|lame powers]]). Naturally, there is some overlap among the three: The prime example is the heroine/TV host Peregrine, who is technically a Joker because she grew wings, but is considered an Ace because they're functional and let her fly -— and are sexy. (The official term in the book's universe is "metahuman". It's rarely used outside of [[Fictional Document|scientific literature]], though.)

** And "exotic" was used briefly during the early years after the Wild Card virus was first released; the official name of the Four Aces was "Exotics For Democracy".

* Many fictional realms class their extranormal individuals as [[Witch Species|witches]], or (in older works) witch for female and warlock for male.

* Likewise, in ''[[Harry Potter]]'', all magically-endowed people are Wizards or Witches. The books imply that other terms like "warlock" are also used, but the differences, if they exist, are not touched upon.

** In ''The Tales of Beedle the Bard'', it is explained that "warlock" is a title for a very powerful/accomplished wizard, similar to being given the title of knight.

* The use of the name ''Homo Superior'' goes back at least to the 1930 story "Odd John" by Olaf Stapledon. It's been used everywhere from pulp sci-fi to [[Marvel Comics]] to [[The Tomorrow People]] to refer to superhumans as the "[[Evolutionary Levels|next stage of evolution]]".

** In ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', however, due to [[Lost in Translation|loose translation]] in the English-language version of the game, "Esper" refers to the [[Functional Magic|magic]]-wielding [[Mons|monsters]] that can be [[Summon Magic|summoned]] by players.

* The ''Temps'' shared world of tongue-in-cheek British superheroics used "paranorm". As well as the accepted and standard term, however, it was ''also'' a slur used by [[All of the Other Reindeer]]. The powered individuals themselves preferred "Talented".

 

== Live Action TV ==

** In-show, though, collective terms are rarely used, other than vague terms such as "others like me".

** In the dystopian future where it's [[Broken Masquerade|common knowledge]] that there are people with powers, they tend to be referred to as "the special people". The online comics show that it's apparently "The Company"'s policy to describe them as "specials". Danko of Volume 4 used "Specials" at least once.

** The [[Fan Nickname|general fan consensus]] seems to have "[[Evolutionary Levels|evolved humans]]" being the term of choice, so much so that even NBC's publicity department is [[Sure Why Not|using it]].

** "Specials" becomes a general term late in Volume 5.

** They also refer to the small subset of Telepaths with a telekinetic talent as "Teeks".

* ''[[The Tomorrow People]]''. It's right there in the name.

* On the TV version of ''[[Painkiller Jane]]'', all those with powers except for the title character are called Neuros, short for Neurological Aberration.

** That's because Neuros are only the {{spoiler|failed stage 1 experiments. Jane is stage 2}}.

* ''[[Sanctuary]]'' uses the term "abnormals" for humans with strange qualities.

** They also use the term to refer to non-human cryptids, such as merpeople and sasquatch. It is not clear whether the term also applies to the non-sentient cryptids — no one has yet used the term directly when talking about a specific non-sentient animal, but Magnus does refer to the Sanctuary's residents collectively as "abnormals".

* ''[[Mutant X]]'' uses the slightly strange term "New Mutants". No mention is ever made of "Old Mutants". Maybe it's to distinguish their differences from ''[[Mutants|actual mutations]]''.

* In ''[[Haven]]'', the Troubled are people who have started to (or always did) display strange powers.

* ''[[Alphas]]'', obviously, uses the term alphas.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* The [[Tabletop RPG]] ''Aberrant'' uses "novas" (a general pop culture term for superhumans) and "aberrants" [[Fantastic Racism|(the superhuman equivalent of the N word)]].

** Non-Aberrant [[Psychic Powers|Psychics]] have a separate terminology: they're called "mesmerists" in ''Adventure!'', "psychs" in ''Aberrant'' and "psions" in the future setting of ''Trinity''.

* The superhero RPG ''Brave New World'' uses the term "deltas" to refer to heroes, as delta represents the process of change in scientific formulae. Particularly powerful "[[Evolutionary Levels|evolved]]" delta heroes are called "alphas".

* The somewhat awkward term "Psychiccer" is used in ''[[Psychic Force]]''.

* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', they're biotics. Justified in that it isn't pure brainpower that lets them perform incredible feats, and several in-universe sources hint that the name was deliberately chosen to keep people from misunderstanding what biotics are capable of (e.g. no mindreading). The asari complicate matters, as they are all biotics and they do appear able to read minds (embrace eternity!). This is related to their method of reproduction (synching their nervous system with that of another person), however, and not biotics at all.

** Well, the original first heroes, the Greek ones, were a bit less about doing heroic stuff and more about being famous and really powerful. Only in modern times, it's a term that's associated with goodness. So they might just as well have started to use the term in its original meaning.

* Mages in ''[[Dragon Age]]''.

 

== Webcomics ==

* [[Amya|Amya Chronicles]] refers to humans with powers as "spell-touched".

* ''[[Blue Yonder]]'' has "capes."

 

* The [[Academy of Superheroes|ASH universe]] refers to the most powerful as Supernaturals and the lesser lights as Supernormals.

* [[Destine Enormity]] uses the phrase "Power Users," although its opposite term, "Normals," is more commonly used. They rarely need to talk about Power Users, in much the same way that fish rarely need to talk about water.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* [[Static Shock]] uses "Bang Baby" to describe humans mutated by the industrial gas explosion known as the [[Mass Super-Empowering Event|"Big Bang"]] and Static himself considers the term ''[[Mutants|mutant]]'' to be degrading ([[Take That|take that, X-Men]]). Eventually they settle on 'metahuman' as more non-big bang supers started showing up (and when the show became a more established part of the DCAU).

 

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