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{{trope}}
[[File:nukehugger.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|'''Scientist:''' ''[[Unusually Uninteresting Sight|Young man]]... I'm afraid you've suffered some of [[Baleful Polymorph|the worst]] of what our... '''mighty little friend, the atom''' has to offer! It can power a city... or level it. Human-insect mutation is far from an exact science. But there are some things we do know... You'll grow. ''(tsk tsk)'' [[Department of Redundancy Department|Become bigger]]...!''
'''Dentist:''' I'm ''sorry,'' Bill!
|''[[Show Within a Show|MANT!]]'' - from the movie ''[[Matinee]]''}}
{{quote|''[[Caffeine Bullet Time|Bonk!]] is fulla radiation, which as we all know is pretty great for givin' people superpowers.''
|''[[Team Fortress 2]], The Scout Update''}}
This is the tendency in fiction for exposure to nuclear radiation or other hazards (including [[Green Rocks]]) to result in a character gaining super-powers when a quick death by acute radiation poisoning or a slow and agonizing demise by cancer or leukemia would be a more likely outcome.
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[[Television Is Trying to Kill Us|Don't try to tell that to anybody on the inside of the fourth wall, though]].
Unsurprisingly, this trope seems to have been at its peak in the atom-craze [[The Fifties|1950's]] when anything "atomic" was seen as cutting-edge, but is now falling out of favor as the common person's increased understanding of the negative effects of radiation make it increasingly less believable as a source for superhero mutation. A few superhero characters whose backstory involved gaining powers though irradiation have since been [[Retcon|re-written]] into [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|genetic engineering]] being responsible to capitalize on a new area of [[Science Marches On|scientific ignorance]] for viewers.
See also [[Phlebotinum Du Jour]] (for more unlikely things that promote superpowers) and [[Deus Ex Nukina]] (for more things that nuclear power can arbitrarily solve).
A [[Super
Not to be confused with [[Deus Ex Nukina]] or [[Atomic Hate]]. This trope is why ''[[Phlebotinum Muncher|you should never]]'' [[Nuke
Named for an obscure '80s alternative music hit, [[Fleeting Demographic Rule|oxymoronic as it may seem]] to use "obscure" and "hit" in the same sentence.
{{examples
* ''[[Godzilla]]'' movies aside, this is not a particularly common trope in Japan as, for reasons that should be abundantly clear to anyone with even the barest knowledge of history, the Japanese are much better acquainted with the effects that atomic radiation has on human physiology than most. There are however, a few examples. Many of [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s early sci-fi manga had radiation doing strange things. ''[[Metropolis (
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* ''[[Godzilla]]'' movies aside, this is not a particularly common trope in Japan as, for reasons that should be abundantly clear to anyone with even the barest knowledge of history, the Japanese are much better acquainted with the effects that atomic radiation has on human physiology than most. There are however, a few examples. Many of [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s early sci-fi manga had radiation doing strange things. ''[[Metropolis (Anime)|Metropolis]]'' featured a radioactive metal called Omotanium that could cause animals to grow to giant sizes, create artificial sunspots and even helped create a superpowered [[Artificial Human]]. ''Nextworld'' features various bizarre mutants created by nuclear testing including the superintelligent Fumoon who may or may not have been created from humans. Oddly enough, nobody ever got cancer or radiation sickness. Tezuka's later ''[[Astro Boy (Manga)|Astro Boy]]'' series handled this a bit better. The hero still got his powers from atomic energy, but that's because he was a nuclear powered robot. One Astroboy story, "The Coral Reef Adventure", involves nuclear testing in the Pacific & features animals & people who are hideously deformed & dying due to radiation.
** Also, in one episode of ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]'', there's a grasshopper mutated by radiation. Guess what happens? Well, here's a hint: The episode is called "The Gigantic Grasshopper."
** ''[[Ode to Kirihito]]'', on the other hand, is ''almost'' realistic about this. Irradiated water causes gradual, painful, and horrible death. Less probably, it makes people look like they're part-dog.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
== Comic Books ==
* ''The [[
** Not to mention [[She
** Worth mentioning that She-Hulk didn't directly get her powers from radiation but rather a blood transfusion from Bruce Banner, her cousin...
** And they're only the most famous. The Hulk comics have seen a whole horde of people mutated by gamma radiation over the years.
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** There's also [[Red Hulk]], who even absorbs radiation. Combining gamma radiation and cosmic power will let you do that, apparently.
* [[Spider-Man]] acquired his powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider.
* In [[X
* Averted [[Post
* Deconstructed in the origin of the Cyborg Superman. In a pastiche of the [[Fantastic Four]], a space shuttle crew is exposed to cosmic radiation but suffer vastly detrimental effects. Two are killed immediately and resurrected in painful or dangerous forms, eventually leading them to suicide, and one is nearly drawn into an alternate dimension. The fourth member of the crew, Hank Henshaw, suffers an accelerated radiation poisoning which rots away his body. However, Henshaw's mind quickly returns to life with [[
** And rampaging sociopathy.
* Also lampshaded in the [[Marvel Universe]], when Rick Jones exposed himself to gamma rays to try to develop Hulk-like powers and got cancer instead. He got better, though.
* The [[Marvel Comics]] [[Elseworld]] [[Miniseries]] ''Ruins'' subverts this repeatedly. In its vision of a [[Darker and Edgier|darker, bleaker Marvel universe]], it imagines the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|"realistic"]] effects that the numerous radiation-fueled [[Freak Lab Accident
* In ''[[Daredevil]]'', toxic waste is spilled on him; he gains superpowers but also gets blinded.
** Lampshaded in one of the comics; when the empowering accident is discussed, a character points out, "You know what would happen to me if I got hit in the face with a radioactive isotope? I would get leukemia and die."
** This and many other Marvel origins are given a kind-of explanation in the ''[[Earth X]]'' miniseries, in that certain people have the ability to gain superpowers. What those powers are is determined by how they get them, but because of this [[Meta Origin|innate "spark"]], they do indeed gain abilities from things that would kill people without it.
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*** In the mainstream continuity, radiation-based origins have been explained as [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|genetic experiments]] by the [[Physical God|Celestials]] that were triggered by radiation.
* Averted in the ''[[Doom (Comic Book)|Doom]]'' comic. The Doomguy is very displeased with the fact that radioactive waste is carelessly left lying around.
* Knuckles the Echidna in the [[Archie Comics]] ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (
* [[The Flash]] has a minor recurring adversary named [http://www.hyperborea.org/flash/fallout.html Fallout], a former blue-collar worker who was hired to do work on a nuclear power plant, fell into the reactor, and emerged with translucent green skin and radioactive powers that caused him to inadvertently kill his wife and son. After Flash apprehended him he agreed to act as a living power source for the prison in which he was incarcerated as penance.
** In fact, Jay Garrick, the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] Flash, gained his powers when he accidentally inhaled fumes of ''heavy water'', a rare non-radiation based version of
* The [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] Atom from the [[Justice Society of America]] was originally just a short guy who worked out a lot, but when he came out of retirement in [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]] he had super-strength because the writer who brought him back [[Did Not Do the Research]]. It was later [[Retcon
* Turns out that irradiating the beehive you were studying will mutate the insects and cause them to [[Family
** One would assume he [[Eddie Izzard|likes his women like he likes his coffee. Covered in bees!]]
* Chen Lu was turned into the Radioactive Man in a Chinese attempt to create a human weapon. Pity they didn't check if he had plans for world domination first...
* Hilariously parodied in a ''[[Dilbert]]'' strip sequence, in which Dilbert decides to make himself a superhero costume and stand outside the local nuclear plant, in the hope that an accident will occur and give him superpowers. When he gets there, he finds a dozen other guys, all in various designs of spandex, who apparently all had the same idea.
* Johnny Alpha in ''[[Strontium Dog]]'' gained the ability to [[Telepathy|read minds]], [[X
* Taken to its uttermost extreme in ''[[Captain Atom]]'' - the titular character, rather than merely being irradiated, was actually vaporized by being at ground zero of a thermonuclear explosion. His mind or soul was somehow able to form a new body for itself, one with superpowers. In the [[Post
* [[DC Comics]]' other nuclear man, [[Firestorm]], also counts, since his origin involves terrorists leaving Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein to die when they blow up the latter's nuclear plant. The explosion ends up fusing them into a superpowered being instead. Later averted when Stein is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor as a result of being one half of the nuclear man midway through the second series.
** Also true of his [[Distaff Counterpart]] Firehawk, his Russian foe-turned-ally Pozhar, and several of his recurring villains.
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* [[Quantum and Woody]] got their powers after they were accidentally bombarded with quantum energy.
== Fan Works ==
* [[Bleach|Hinamori]] attempts to invoke this trope in ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5982232/17/Please_Stop_Eating_The_Hell_Butterflies Please Stop Eating The Hell Butterflies]''. Why? Well, [[Ax Crazy|she's crazy]], so there's that.
{{quote|
== Film ==
* Referred to by the school nurse in ''[[Sky High]]''; "The kids who get bit by radioactive insects or fall into a vat of toxic waste, their powers usually show up the next day. Or - they die."
* After ''The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms'', this became a very popular way to create a [[Attack of the 50
** ''[[Godzilla]]'' is the most famous example.
** ''[[Them]]'' is another good one.
* ''[[Class of Nuke 'Em High]]'' is about a high school next door to a ''leaky'' nuclear power plant.
* Something similar in ''[[Dark Storm]]'': Exposure to dark matter causes anything to disintegrate. Except if it's a human. Then he gets dark matter-controlling super powers. [[You Fail Biology Forever|Somehow.]]
* In "Mant!", the film-within-a-film of ''[[Matinee]]'', radiation combines a shoe salesman with an ant. ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y2Lbhwl23M He gets bitten while getting a dental x-ray.])
* As seen in the ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' episode, ''[[Beginning of the End]]'' has radiation not only increasing the size of crops, but the size of the grasshoppers who eat the crops! The army then suggests [[Nuke
* In [[X
== Literature ==
* Parodied in [[The Onion]] book ''Our Dumb Century'', where a headline from 1963 declares "[[Spider
* In ''[[Perry Rhodan]]'', the first Mutant Corps consisted almost solely of individuals endowed with various [[Psychic Powers
* In ''[[Gone (novel)]]'', people can die from radioactivity (and some of them nearly do), but it's also a potential cause for the superpowers that some of the kids have. It's also what the local monster feeds on. Justified, because ''[[Gone (novel)]]'' takes place in an [[Alternate Universe]] where the laws of science have been rewritten.
* In the ''[[Wing Commander (
* In the [[Jakub Wedrowycz]] stories, the Chernobyl power plant incident released radiation since used as [[Applied Phlebotinum|a handy explanation]] or theory for the appearance of [[When Trees Attack|psychic trees]], [[Little Red Riding Hood|talking wolves]] or dinosaurs.
* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s [[Foundation]], everything good is atomic. The kingdom of Anacreon is seen as horrifyingly barbaric for their burning of fossil fuels.
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Subverted in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' season three, where a couple characters die from a machine that exposes them to radioactivity that causes exploding tumors. Yeah, we thought it was rather improbable too.
* Spoofed on ''[[The Daily Show]]'', with a [[Public Service Announcement]] stating that exposure to radioactive mist and substances will, in fact, not give you superpowers. [[Spider
* ''[[Penn
* Brutally averted in ''[[Farscape]]'' where Crichton builds a wormhole-controlling device with a nuclear power source. {{spoiler|His ally turned enemy steals it and in the ensuing chase, the radiation shield protecting the power source is knocked open, meaning Crichton has to make a split-second jump towards the device to render it safe. He fails, absorbs a lethal dose of radiation and succumbs to his illness by the end of the episode.}}
== Music ==
* "Nuclear Babies" by [[Oingo Boingo]].
== Tabletop Games ==
* Viciously averted in ''[[GURPS]]'' where too much radiation will cause all sorts of horrible things to happen to you even if you successfully make a save against the effect. In fact radiation damage causes a build up of genetic damage that is incurable without special powers or advanced technology. However, "weird radiation" can result in powers.
* Embraced lovingly by every edition of ''[[
* ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'' has the Zeka, named after the Russian gulag prisoners who worked the uranium mines. They're the result of several demiurges who exposed corpses to nuclear power, triggering the Azoth to reanimate them. They may have the worst luck of any Promethean - they're [[Walking Wasteland|living fallout]], doomed to exist only in radiation-filled hellholes. And if they pull off the Great Work and become human? They have an ''excellent'' chance of dying from radiation poisoning thanks to their innate radioactive contamination. No wonder so many of them turn to [[The Dark Side]].
* In ''[[Deadlands]]: Hell on Earth'', being exposed to supernaturally-charged radiation could potentially give useful mutations (like an extra mouth that consumes the life essence of all that die near you), or it could give you a horrible deformity (like an extra mouth that never SHUTS the HELL up), or it could just kill you. Then, there are the [[Religion Is Magic|rad-priests]] called Doomsayers, who prove that, if you love radiation enough, it just might return the favor.
* Some superheroes (and villains) in ''[[Champions]]'' received their powers from nuclear radiation or being descended from people exposed to radiation.
* This may or may not be the cause of the mutation of every last citizen of Alpha Complex in ''[[Paranoia]]''.
* One possible Origin in ''Super [[Munchkin (
== Video Games ==
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* ''[[Fallout]]'' had the ghouls, people who were scorched and sterilized by the atomic blasts. On the bright side they now live for centuries (which explains the presence of ghouls in ''Fallout 2''). Some even glow in the dark and they're absolutely immune to any kind of radiation (in fact, they even require a minimum of radiation to survive and it heals them). Rats also mutated to the size of a pit bull, and cows grew an extra head. Other species such as the Deathclaws have more ambiguous origins, while Super Mutants on the other hand were created via a virus that forced them to 'evolve'.
** In ''[[Fallout 3]]'' as a side effect of having to become irradiated for a survival guide research mission, the player character can develop a mutation that causes his crippled limbs to fix themselves if he is irradiated. Though it's half due to the therapy, which involved "Twisting your DNA like a kitten with a ball of yarn!" Cars also got miniaturized nuclear reactors as engines just before the end of the world.
** The games have some [[Armed
*** The uneasy compromise arrived at by the time of ''New Vegas'' seems to be that radiation only creates a ghoul in ''just'' the right amount. Too little is just a person with Deadly Radiation Poisoning, a little too much is a mindless feral ghoul, a little more than that is a Glowing One, and more than that is a very, very dead human.
*** Though this does make the non-feral Glowing One, Jason Bright, even stranger.
** FYI, the Deathclaw was a creature created by the US Government, who intended to tame them and use them on Special Operations against the Chinese. After the War, Deathclaw escaped into the wasteland and started breeding.
** Also, the games have Radaway, which can harmlessly<ref>
** It should be nated that the ''Fallout'' universe runs on the "Science!" of fifties science-fiction rather than hard science as even the laws of physics are subject to [[Rule of Cool]]. There are examples of realistic radiation exposure from a nuclear war in the occasional [[Apocalyptic Log]] that are as nightmarish as the radiation spawned monstrosities ''because'' they're done realistically.
** While radiation sickness will still eventually kill you in [[Fallout: New Vegas]] there are two perks that make you stronger the more radiation you absorb, [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Rad_Child Rad child] and [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Atomic! Atomic!]. You still get radiation sickness effect but gain a healing factor, speed boast and fast action point recovery.
* ''[[STALKER]]'' includes mutants (of human origin), that can survive several shotgun blasts, as well as others that float and turn invisible, all as a result of the radiation from Chernobyl.
** The wasteland in STALKER was created long after the Chernobyl accident by a secret weapons lab operating in the Exclusion Zone. It has nothing to do with radiation.
* ''[[
* The Zebesian Space Pirates in ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' use [[Applied Phlebotinum|Phazon]], a radioactive substance, to create elite troops. If the player reads the Pirate Data entries from your scan visor, it is learned that some of those exposed to Phazon radiation go insane and attack their allies.
** Some? Try ''all.'' [[The Corruption|Including you, eventually.]]
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* The Hierarchy in ''[[Universe At War]]'' love radiological weapons. This may be because radiation heals purebred hierarchs, and they get to use the dead and dying indigenous population as zombies.
* The TEC in ''[[Sins of a Solar Empire]]'' never leave home without a truckload of nukes for siege purposes. The Marza dreadnought can also be upgraded to re-purpose one for ship-to-ship warfare. Their superweapon, the Novalith Cannon, fires a massive, high-yield nuclear bomb at their hapless enemies' planets. One shot reduces the planets' population by 90%, and makes the rest die of radiation poisoning, two completely sterilizes the planet and makes it unusable for 5 minutes in real-time, which works out to several weeks game-time.
* The UEF in ''[[
* ''[[Touhou]]'' has Utsuho Reiuji, a [[Crows and Ravens|hell raven]] with the power of manipulation of nuclear fusion, a control rod that doubles as an [[Arm Cannon]] that would make [[Metroid|Samus Aran]] jealous, a concrete boot on one foot and "electrons" orbiting the other.
** She also plays this trope
** Also, the kappa and a couple of mountain goddesses seem to have a strange love for this new power.
*** It was those goddesses who allowed Utsuho to gain that power in the first place as part of their plan to gather faith by advancing the technology of Gensokyo.
* The "Frei" line of spells in the ''[[Persona]]'' series.
== Web Comics ==
* Parodied in ''[[The Non
▲* Parodied in ''[[The Non Adventures of Wonderella]]'', where Wonderella uses radiation to accelerate ''fermentation'' of some beer that she's brewing...radiation ''from her cell phone''. This naturally creates a beer monster, and then things get weird.
** As if they weren't already weird.
* Also parodied in one of the ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' stick-figure fillers where Torg is bitten by a radioactive animal and gains the superpower to lose his teeth and hair. Fortunately, aliens are nearby to cure him and give him real superpowers.
*
* In ''[[
* Parodied in ''[[Shortpacked!]]'' - [http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=404 Mr. Terrific] was bitten by a radioactive "T".
== Web Original ==
* Antimatter particles and radioactive rays are legitimate powers in [[Chaos Fighters]]. They are considered [[Non
== Western Animation ==
* Parodied in the ''[[Earthworm Jim (
* Played straight and parodied in the ''[[
{{quote|
'''Adam West:''' Oh my.
'''Doctor:''' Probably from rolling around in that toxic waste. What in God's name were you trying to prove?
'''Adam West:''' I was trying to gain super powers.
'''Doctor:''' Well that's just silly.
'''Adam West:''' Silly, yes... idiotic... yes. }}
* Likewise the ''[[
** Another episode featured a nuclear powered grill that through the magic of radiation was able to bring piles of snot to life (and melt the polar ice caps). Well it was sort of a dream, but it took up the entire episode and given the setting...
* Listen to the theme-song for the old ''[[Spider-Man]]'' animated series: "Is he strong? Listen, bud, he's got radioactive blood!" ...in real life, people with radioactive blood aren't particularly strong.
* Played a bit more logically in ''[[Batman Beyond]]'': The radiation that turned Derek Powers, the [[Big Bad]], into the super-powered Blight was actually therapy for a dose of his own experimental nerve gas. Somehow, their combined effects turned him into a glowing green skeleton, possessing explicitly radiation-based superpowers and weaknesses, with a half-life of one season.
* Used in ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'', as a [[G
* Two recurring villains of ''[[The Mask (
* Parodied in ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]''. The Crimson Chin's origin story has him bitten on the chin by a radioactive ''celebrity''.
{{quote|
'''Celebrity:''' Grrarrr! }}
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' used this trope a little lightly. The hero was radiated by ecto energy that altered his genetic structure.
* ''[[The Simpsons (
** In the episode where the family became farmers, Homer iradiates the crops with plutonium borrowed from the nuclear plant in the hope that they grow bigger, like in the movies. Instead, he ends up with normal-sized tomatoes, only they have combined with tobacco to form "tomacco".
* ''[[
* On ''[[Batman:
== Real Life ==
* Parodied by [https://web.archive.org/web/20140111123208/http://wearscience.com/design/cheers/ this shirt].
** And [https://web.archive.org/web/20131012050746/http://wearscience.com/design/hugger/ this one.]
* [[
** On the other hand, the (perception of the) level of radiation released in the mind of the public is very different than the reality and the animals aren't necessarily going to worry about the level of radiation anyway.
** Bear in mind, it was only after the first few weeks after the disaster that wildlife began to thrive in Chernobyl, after the radiation levels dropped. After that, the radiation was still dangerous for humans, but not for animals- most animals have much shorter lifespans (about ten years or so), and thus do not have enough time for the radiation they've absorbed to turn into cancer. You still can't eat any animals there of course.
* Not a case of Truth in Television. A 10 Sv (1,000 REM) dose of ionizing radiation has a lethality of 100% within seven days. Death caused by severe diarrhea and intestinal bleeding, by the way. One of the worst ways to die.
* The true story of [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4842268/Radioactive-sex-offender-on-the-run.html Thomas Leopold] a ''[[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|radioactive pedophile]]''.
* For a few decades after its discovery, radiation was marketed as some kind of cure-all drug. [http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-08/healthy-glow-drink-radiation For those too lazy to click,] consider the specific case of Eben Byers, who drank three bottles of radioactive water a day to stay healthy. The Wall Street Journal ran an article after his death titled "The Radium Water Worked Fine [[Squick|Until His Jaw Came Off]]".
** Many radioactive quack cures include:
*** [http://periodictable.com/Samples/090.8/s13.JPG Radithor], mineral water mixed with radium.
*** [http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/toothpaste.htm Doramad Radioactive Toothpaste], which contained thorium, though its actual radiation level was rather low.
*** [
* [[Shoe-
* This is the theme of one 1959 DC PSA, [https://web.archive.org/web/20131207090933/http://www.politedissent.com/archives/4611 "The Atomic: Servant of Man"].
* [
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