I Love Nuclear Power: Difference between revisions

A [[Super Trope]] to [[Nuclear Nasty]], which specifically talks about ''monsters'' created by radiation. The predecessors to this trope are [[Lightning Can Do Anything]] and [[Chemistry Can Do Anything]]; before the discovery of nuclear power, electricity and chemicals were the go-to source for magical do-anything phlebotinum.

 

 

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.

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

** 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 ''[[Patalliro (Manga)|Patalliro]]'', Patalliro tries to hatch a "super duck" by irradiating a duck egg, but what hatches is just a rather large duck.

 

* [[Spider-Man]] acquired his powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider.

* In [[X Men]], the exact cause of mutant powers are rarely discussed. In the 60's however, Professor X explained his powers as the result of his parents working on the first atom bomb. The Beast's powers have been explained as the result of his father being exposed to radiation, while Sunfire was born in Hiroshima on the day when they dropped the atom bomb. All of these explanations have either been either [[Ret Conned]] or completely ignored.

* 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 [[Technopath|technopathic]] abilities.

** And rampaging sociopathy.

** 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 [[I Love Nuclear Power]].

* 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|Retconned]] that he absorbed energy from a nuclear-powered supervillain, which somehow allowed him to survive an atomic bomb blast, after which he gained his powers.

** 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 Ray Vision|see through solid objects]], and emit alpha rays from his eyes following strontium-90 fallout during a nuclear war. However, most other mutants in the series are merely disfigured.

* [[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.

* 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.])

* In [[X Men (Film)|X-Men: First Class]], [[Big Bad]] Sebastian Shaw believes that mutants are the "Children of the Atom" and believes all mutants are immune to radiation because of this. This is why he plans to {{spoiler|turn the [[Cold War]] nuclear, beliving that the radiation will wipe humanity out but spare mutants}}.

 

 

== Web Original ==

 

 

* 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.

* Two recurring villains of ''[[The Mask (Animation)|The Mask]]: The Animated Series'' got powers this way. First, they were two stupid teenagers that decided to get superpowers. They go to the nuclear power plant, get radioactive - and realize they forgot to bring a bug to bite them just before passing out by poisoning. As the ambulance is taking them away, an accident causes one to crash into a putty shop (turning him into the shapeshifting Putty Thing) and another into an aquarium (turning him into the harmless Fish Guy). Fish Guy didn't get anything good out of the deal either; even as a fish he still ''couldn't swim''.

* Parodied in ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]''. The Crimson Chin's origin story has him bitten on the chin by a radioactive ''celebrity''.