Puberty Superpower: Difference between revisions

The acquisition of superpowers or abilities at the onset of becoming a teenager, usually not below 14 or 15. This is probably to avoid the inherent danger of a child or baby casually using powers in a potentially destructive manner or, if there is one, blowing the [[Masquerade]]. However, more often, it works as a rather transparent metaphor for puberty.

Curiously, few such teens have trouble figuring out [[How Do I Shot Web?]]; apparently, the powers are just instinctive. This doesn't stop [[Professor X Likes Watching Teenagers Sweat|mentor figures]] from putting them through [[Training Fromfrom Hell]] to master those abilities, however.

See also [[Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday]]. Compare [[The Call Put Me Onon Hold]].

* ''[[Omamori Himari]]'': Yuuto's demon-hunting powers were supposed to have awakened when he turned 16. His powers took a little longer to manifest, however.

* Most later versions of [[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]], e.g. ''[[Smallville]]'', although original [[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]] continuity (including the 1978 movie) has him lifting cars as a baby. Read any Pre-Crisis ''Superboy'' comic featuring "Superbaby" to see [[Goo -Goo Godlike|why most writers don't let babies have super powers]].

** The X-Men spin-off '[[New Mutants]]' is explicitly this trope; all team members have powers that appeared with puberty, a varying number of years in the past (Xian's the longest ago (she's 19), Rahne's only a month or two before (at 13)).

** ''[[X Men Evolution|X-Men: Evolution]]'' [[Alternate Continuity|reworks continuity]] to put most of the main characters ''in'' their teens.

** Exceptions to the [[Puberty Superpower]] tend be extreme. The shapeshifter Morph, as explained in ''[[Exiles (Comic Book)|Exiles]]'', was born a fairly squishy mass of a baby. Nonetheless he counts himself lucky, since his power allowed him to quickly shift into a more normal appearance and live a fairly happy family life.

* While her father got it from a [[I Love Nuclear Power|radioactive spider-bite]], ''[[Spider Girl (Comic Book)|Spider-Girl]]'' Mayday Parker got her powers in the middle of a high school basketball game.

* Horrifically inverted in the back-story of Billy Butcher from ''[[The Boys]]''. After Butcher's wife was [[Rape Asas Backstory|raped by]] [[Beware the Superman|a superhero]], she dies when the unborn super-powered fetus literally rips itself out of her womb.

{{quote| '''Normalman:''' When did you get your super powers?<br />

* ''[[All Fall Down (Comic Book)|All Fall Down]]'' begins the day after Sophie Mitchell hits puberty.

** And to be honest, the film only has the main character as having his powers first activate on-screen whilst he was in his teens, and it does kinda say that what with the powers being in the blood, the [[Puberty Superpower]] is the last possible point for you to gain superpowers (unless you have a vat of toxic waste), afterwhich its pointless to have that cape at the ready.

* ''[[Carrie]]'' dealt with this theme. Note that [[Superhero|superheroessuperhero]]es aren't the only ones with super-powers...

* Magicians in ''[[The Covenant]]'' have a two-level [[Puberty Superpower]]. They first get their powers around age 13, and get a massive power boost when they hit <s>21</s> 18.

* ''[[Teen Wolf (Filmfilm)|Teen Wolf]]'', [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|if it wasn't obvious]].

* Similarly, ''[[Teen Witch (Filmfilm)|Teen Witch]]''

* Channelers in the ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' get their abilities as teenagers (or early twenties for men).

* Almost every superpower in ''[[Women of the Otherworld]]'' is a puberty superpower. Werewolves first begin to change at the end of puberty; the average age of their first change is 18, although it can happen anytime between 15 and 21. Witches can begin practicing minor spells at a young age, but after their first [[No Periods, Period|period]] can perform a ritual that greatly increases their magical strength. Half-demon powers also start showing up at the beginning of puberty, and increase in strength until their late twenties. In fact, the parallel young adult series focuses on adolescents just coming into their powers.

* The twin sisters in ''[[Twitches]]'' discover they have magical powers at age 14. In the the movie, it was curiously changed to 21.

* While '''Magyk''' in ''[[Septimus Heap (Literature)|Septimus Heap]]'' manifests itself much earlier than puberty, Apprentices achieve full abilities when they turn 14.

* Mostly averted in the novel ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]: Ghost: Nova'' with the titular character who is an extremely-powerful [[Psychic Powers|telepath]] and [[Mind Over Matter|telekinetic]]. While, normally, psychic individuals are required to be turned over to the Ghost Academy, Nova is from one of the Old Families of Tarsonis, and her father uses his considerable influence to keep her "gift" hidden. It's mentioned that she's been able to do things from infancy and always appears to know what people are thinking and feeling. However, it's not until she's in her teens that her powers start approaching "critical". When her parents are killed in front of her by a bunch of rebels, she literally goes nuclear, wiping out the rebels and any innocent bystander nearby, as well as shattering the penthouse dome, which is rated for nuclear strikes.

* Firestarters on ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]''.

* The special children in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' develop their powers at the age of 22 years and six months. Past puberty, but still valid as a metaphor for emerging into adulthood.

* Notable exception: Characters in ''[[The 4400]]'' were granted superpowers by {{spoiler|people from the future}} at various ages, from childhood to old age. The one in-show exception is Isabelle, who was conceived and implanted into Lily's body during her abduction, and shows extremely powerful abilities as an infant and even some powers while still in the womb. Indeed, the character of Isabelle never really goes through puberty at all, as she is [[Plot -Relevant Age -Up|aged]] from an infant to adulthood in an instant at the end of the second series.

* Betazoids (a naturally telepathic race) in ''[[Star Trek]]'' gain their mind-reading powers at puberty, except for a few rare exceptions who tend to be mentally unstable from not being able to "tune out" the mental noise around them.

* Averted in ''[[Bewitched (TV)|Bewitched]]'', where the [[Witch Species|witch-children]] are shown using magic even as infants. Of course they're [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-mortal]], so their abilities may be atypical.

* ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' claims that half-witches come into their powers on their [[Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday|16th birthday]], before which Sabrina's aunts had engaged in an elaborate [[Masquerade]] to keep the other world a secret from her -- thoughher—though this does not jive well with the later implications that witches are generally comically bad at dealing with things in the usual mortal way, and that deliberately avoiding magic is unhealthy for a witch. This is also [[Retcon|retconnedretcon]]ned in ''[[Sabrina the Animated Series]]'', where a 13-year-old Sabrina has full knowledge of the other world.

* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' averts this. Characters manifest their powers at various ages. Some, like Nathan Petrelli or Matt Parkman, manifest well into adulthood. Others, like Micah Sanders or Molly Walker, manifest before puberty. The youngest example is Donna, from the comics, who was unaware she had a power at all because she'd had it from ''birth''. She had simply assumed telescopic vision ''was'' normal. In fact, the only character confirmed to manifest during the teenage years is Claire Bennet, who manifests at 15.

* Averted on ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' - the titular character could use his magic 'before he could talk'.

* ''[[Spaced]]'': The comic Tim is working on is about an orphaned kid who is exposed to some weird chemical by an amoral 'Doktor' as part of some twisted experiment. Absolutely nothing happened and the Doktor destroyed his research. Then when puberty hit, the dormant chemicals in his bloodstream activated and the orphan kid mutated into the comic's titular Bear.

** Not most of them, prior to {{spoiler|Willow's spell at the end of the series}}. Only a few Potential Slayers ever end up being "activated". Most aren't, and if they're not called by the age of 20 or so, they never will be.

* In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and& Dragons]]'', sorcerers and psions develop their powers around puberty.

* In both ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse (Tabletop Game)|Werewolf: the Apocalypse]]'' and ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken (Tabletop Game)|Werewolf: the Forsaken]]'', werewolves or other fera/changing breeds generally go through First Change around puberty at the earliest. Depending on circumstances, it can happen significantly later in life, or ''very'' rarely [[Kid Hero|earlier]]. In the ''[[Tabletop Game/New World|New World]] of Darkness'', puberty is also a common time for psychic powers or the more innate forms of thaumaturgy to manifest.

* In ''[[Exalted (Tabletop Game)|Exalted]]'', children in [[The Empire|the Realm]] are [[Tyke Bomb|raised on the assumption that they might turn into Dragon-Blooded]]. This almost always happens during puberty, so children who do not transform in this way by their 20s are considered "failures" and assigned to lesser roles.

* Shigesato Itoi has stated [http://mother3.fobby.net/interview/m3int_04.html in an interview] that this was the way that all the characters with PSI powers gain new abilities throughout ''[[Mother 3 (Video Game)|Mother 3]]''.

* In ''[[Dragon Age (Video Game)|Dragon Age]]'', a mage's powers generally begin to manifest at the onset of puberty, though some can and do receive them much earlier.

* Mutants in the [[Whateley Universe]] usually manifest around age fourteen. It's a good thing there's a [[Super -Hero School|high school]] to ship them all off to...

* Another exception: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120813185936/http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ps238/comics/index.php PS238], which deals with "prodigies", who are elementary-school students with superpowers (one of the titular school's taglines is "[[PS 238PS238]]: Making sure the next generation doesn't break too much of this generation's stuff").

* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'' also makes an exception: Xykon, although being a Sorcerer, has his necromantic powers manifesting while still a young boy.

* The alien race Starfire of ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' belongs to is born with powers, but undergoes a metamorphosis during the teen years (with puberty metaphor fully in place) that may grant additional abilities.

* Danny in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' made light that he was gaining "evil puberty" powers once he received the Ghostly Wail. His powers from the beginning onset also reacted to his growing teenage body (example: his nervous emotions towards a girl triggered an unexpected intangibility).

* Parodied [[Refuge in Audacity|to hell in back]] in ''[[Harvey Birdman, Attorney Atat Law]]'', where Peanut gaining superpowers is used [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|as a stand-in for puberty]]. He's embarrassed by [[Raging Stiffie|his solar shield manifesting during a meeting]], is caught [[A Date Withwith Rosie Palms|shooting off his power bands to pictures of supervillains in the bathroom]], and nervously asks [[Super FriendsSuperfriends|Black Vulcan]] about [[Their First Time|his first time facing off against a bad guy]].

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