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Meta Origin: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.MetaOrigin 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.MetaOrigin, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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Back when [[Superhero]] comics started in [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]], there were no "universes" at first. Each character's adventures took place in their own little bubble. This came to an end with the first team-ups, such as the [[Justice Society of America]], or the "war" between the original Human Torch and Sub-Mariner. Slowly, individual characters became part of a greater whole.
This, however, led to a few questions. While it might make sense that a [[Freak Lab Accident]] could increase someone's natural strength and speed to superhuman levels, the fact that [[Million
Thus, certain [[Retcon|retcons]] were set up, changing it so that there was a ''reason'' why so many people were suddenly receiving super-powers. Essentially, this was the origin of the origins; thus, the [[Meta Origin]].
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A related concept is the [[Magnetic Plot Device]], which could be considered the meta origin of all the weird stuff that happens to you. In many cases, the Meta Origin will become the Magnetic Plot Device for that particular story, although the two concepts aren't always the same.
Contrast with [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]], [[All Myths Are True]]. See [[Mass Super
{{examples
== Anime And Manga ==
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** In ''[[Earth X]]'', '''everything''' is a direct-or-indirect result of Celestial manipulation. The superhumans, the Kree, the Skrull, and even the Asgardians.
** In ''Marvel Knights [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' #9, it was explained that, after World War II, big businessmen had feared superheroes would start interfering with politics and business, so they created most of the early supervillains, to keep them busy and make sure that [[Reed Richards Is Useless]]. This hasn't been mentioned again since, and may have fallen into [[Dork Age]] status.
*** Of course, the one who suggested this was [[Unreliable Expositor|a B-list supervillain on behalf]] of [[Unreliable Narrator|an A-list supervillain]] who [[Better Living Through Evil|made a living creating and arming B-list supervillains]]. Perhaps it's best to consider it the supervillain equivalent of NAMBLA, attempting to justify its [[Complete Monster|Complete Monstrosity]] by appealing to historical records of pedophilia and saying "things have always been this way". Well, we used to drill holes in people's heads to let out the evil spirits, and we stopped doing that, too. [[Shut UP, Hannibal]].
** In [[Ultimate Marvel]], pretty much everyone who isn't a mutant, an alien or a god has their powers derived from the [[Super Soldier]] project or one of its offshoots. The mini-series ''Ultimate Origins'' elaborates on the Meta Origin and how it connects everything else; {{spoiler|it seems that the [[Mutants]], too, owe their origin to the project}}.
** The forgotten miniseries ''Conspiracy'' implied this was largely true of the 616-verse as well but everyone's forgotten about that.
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** In [[Milestone Comics]] (now part of the DCU), many supers are "Big Bang Babies" who got their powers when a massive gang fight was broken up by cops deploying tear gas that had (without the cops' knowledge) been laced with "quantum juice".
* The [[Valiant Comics]] universe was a fairly ordinary universe with no supernatural aspects until a scientist named Phil Seleski accidentally created a "wish machine" that gave him [[Reality Warper|god-like powers]]. Due to events too long to summarize, he wound up collapsing the entire universe into a black hole. He tried to restore it, but, because he was a superhero fan, he subconsciously recreated the universe as a more fantastic version of the original, complete with invading aliens, evil robots, sentient [[Powered Armor]] and mutant-like "Harbingers".
* In the ''Wildstorm'' universe, the main sources of powers were either [[Half
** In ''[[Planetary]]'' it was revealed that all Century Babies are {{spoiler|part of Universe's immunity system, created to stop attacks from [[Alternate Universe|Alternate Earth's]].}}
** The mysterious comet that passed Earth in the 1970's, which was the cause of the powers of the Seedlings, not to mention the all-powerful yet crazed WarGuard.
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* All the superpowers on ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' supposedly come from certain people evolving a sort of "superpower gene," like in [[X Men (Comic Book)|X Men]]. However, a few scenes, as well as some [[Word of God]] comments, suggest there might be a quasi-religious aspect determining which people are granted which powers.
** A two-parter in season 3 attempted to retcon an explanation that an eclipse was what caused the characters' latent powers to emerge, with another eclipse taking those powers away.
* The superhumans in the TV version of ''[[Painkiller Jane]]'' were all either "[[Differently
** Also, all Neuros are, apparently, {{spoiler|rejected test subjects of the corporation investigated in the pilot, and their powers are unintended consequences of messing with the brain}}. Jane, with her [[Healing Factor]], is an advanced Neuro who can't be [[Power Nullifier|chipped]].
* In The4400, everyone's powers are due to everyone getting a fifth neural transmitter, promicin, when they were kidnapped by the future.
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* In the [[Whateley Universe]], people with the "meta-gene complex" may just manifest as a mutant (typically around age fourteen) for no known reason. However, at least a sixth of everyone on earth has this genetic structure, and yet there are only thousands of mutants. The roughly 600 mutants at Whateley Academy represent by far most of the high-school age mutants on the planet.
* ''[[Academy of Superheroes]]'' has the Magene, which gives one the ability to, essentially, break the laws of physics. The original holders in prehistory were powerful wizards, and the most powerful [[Ancient Astronauts|became the gods of mythology]]. In the modern day, the gene is far more diluted, resulting in superhumans. There are highly-detailed classifications detailing what kind and how powerful a particular individual's physics-violating abilities are.
* The ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' copied the Marvel solution by having [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] [[Ancient Astronauts]], the P!k Gardeners, experiment on early protohumans millions of years ago, adding the metagene to human DNA, thus allowing the possibility of superpowers. The [[Mass Super
* In the comicbook-styled Omega universe, all superpowers (be they [[Ritual Magic|magic]], [[Psychic Powers|psychic]] or even [[Ki Attacks|chi]]), come from the same source i.e. all humans are at least latent psychics. [[Differently
== Western Animation ==
* The 1990s ''[[Spider Man the Animated Series]]'' has the science of "Neogenics", which is basically the science of applying [[Lego Genetics]] to an existing life-form (why take years to grow your super-mutant to adulthood when you can zap someone who is already an adult?) in a process that involves a kind of radiation. The spider that bit Peter hadn't been zapped by generic [[I Love Nuclear Power|radiation]], but with a "neogenic recombinator". Neogenics goes on to be responsible for the transformation of almost every member of Spider-Man's [[Rogues Gallery]], mostly preserving their comic-book origins but pulling them together in a way that makes it a bit more plausible than a million [[Million
** Also, in the Six Forgotten Warriors arc, [[Captain America]] brand [[Super Serum]] is responsible for six [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] heroes. Originally, they'd each had their own, separate origins ([[Dork Age|mongoose blood]], anyone?)
*** When your name is The Whizzer, ''every'' age is a [[Dork Age]].
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** ''Spectacular'' also makes use of the ESU genetics lab: For one thing, it's where Spider-Man himself got his powers. Then there was the accident with electric eels that created Electro, which in turn affected Doc Connors' Lizard serum. Doctor Warren later used the Lizard serum research to give Kraven powers. And to top things off, the symbiote later known as Venom was to be studied in the lab, too.
* Bang Babies from ''[[Static Shock]]'' all got their powers from a single event.
* While much less overarchingly-celestial in origin, ''[[Superman the Animated Series]]'' tended to interlink the origins of various characters that were previously not related in-comics, making for stronger continuity: For instance, rather than being made by an unaffiliated scientists, Metallo and Bizarro are now the direct creation of Lexcorp (though the latter was true in the comics canon as of John Byrne's [[Post
* In the ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'' verse, each sapient species has evolved a series of traits that they consider mundane, and others consider superpowers. The [[MacGuffin|Omnitrix]] was designed to allow a single individual to use all those myriad powers.
** Oh, and Humanity's "superpower" is the [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway|ability]] to produce [[Half
*** Such beings include bipedal humanoids made of diamond-like rock, or '''fire'''. [[Squick|It kinda makes you wish]] [[No Biochemical Barriers|it WAS impossible.]]
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