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{{trope}}
[[File:serum.jpg|link=Captain America (comics)|frame|And be sure to drink it all, because sometimes the good stuff is on the bottom.]]
{{quote|'''Victor Mancha''': ''Wait, Back up. Your secret origin is drugs? Doesn't that kinda set a bad example for little kids?''
'''[[Cloak and Dagger (comics)|Cloak]]''': '''''I am not your ROLE MODEL!'''''
|''[[Runaways]]''}}
A hero who doesn't have his powers or abilities naturally, but has to get them from a process of digestion or injection of a specialized compound. For obvious reasons, depictions of this took a nosedive due to [[Media Watchdogs]], as depicting heroes taking what seemed to be drugs became a strict no-no.
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Heroes nowadays may get such treatments only once, often involuntarily (due to [[Playing with Syringes|evil experimentation]]) or as formal medical treatments. You're most likely to see this being done by villains, with an [[Anvilicious]] [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|addiction metaphor]] in effect.
[[Power-Up Food]] is the case when the abilities come from common foodstuffs. Applied to enough people at once, and it becomes a [[Mass Super-Empowering Event]]. If (as in the case of [[Captain America (comics)]], pictured left) only one person gets it, it's a [[Disposable Superhero Maker]]. A [[Superhuman Transfusion]] (especially if it's from someone who drank Super Serum) usually has the same effects.
Compare [[Psycho Serum]] and [[Bottled Heroic Resolve]]. See also [[Power Source]] and [[Spice of Life]]. For a similar trope in commercials, see [[Cereal-Induced Superpowers]].
{{examples}}
* ''[[8 Man|Eighth Man]]'' was a [[Cyberpunk]] [[Superhero]] who recharged himself (and his powers) through special ''cigarettes''. His were the only [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|cybernetics that didn't eat ones soul]] in the series. The [[OVA]] [[Revival]] ''Eight Man After'' used plain old experimental Super
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* ''[[8 Man|Eighth Man]]'' was a [[Cyberpunk]] [[Superhero]] who recharged himself (and his powers) through special ''cigarettes''. His were the only [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|cybernetics that didn't eat ones soul]] in the series. The [[OVA]] [[Revival]] ''Eight Man After'' used plain old experimental Super Serum -- in contrast to the [[Psycho Serum]] all the ''other'' cyborgs had to use.
* ''[[Naruto]]'': Although his abilities don't center around them, Chouji's food pills can increase his chakra supply dramatically, allowing him to use more powerful attacks more often. These leave him burnt out afterwards at best, in critical condition at worst.
** As do Kiba and Akamaru's battle pills, which had been mostly abandoned by the ninja corps due to the side effect of ''not being able to move for three days'' after a ten-minute dose.
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* {{spoiler|Ako's artefact}} as revealed in chapter 304 of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''.
* The drugs used by the Extended in ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' and ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'', which also double as a [[Psycho Serum]]. It has profoundly negative effects on the user, including fatal withdrawal symptoms.
* In ''[[Kurozuka]]'', the blood of the immortal vampire Kuromitsu can give both immortality and [[Super Strength]] to those who take it--''if'' they survive, which most don't.
== Comic Books ==
* In the [[Marvel Universe]]:
** [[Captain America (comics)]] got his powers this way, and [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|failed attempts to recreate the Super-Soldier serum]] are common plot points in both the regular and [[Ultimate Marvel|Ultimate]] universes.
*** For instance, the 1950s impostor Captain America used a Nazi German variant of the formula to enhance his body. However, he learned the hard way that is not enough; the subject taking the serum then has to have it activated and stabilized in his body by a radiological treatment using "Vita-Rays" in order to take it into his system safely.
*** Omega Red was a failed Soviet attempt at making the serum as well as giving Red tendrils in his arms made of carbonadium (an alloy of adamantium). While Omega Red did gain most of Caps powers, he is basically constantly dying and has to drain the life-force of others in order to live (fortunately for him his mutant powers along with his tendrils can do just that). Apparently something called the "C-Synthesizer" will cure him of his condition.
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** [[Hourman]] got his powers from the "miraculous vitamin" Miraclo, which gave those who took it superhuman strength and speed for exactly one hour. Miraclo turned out to be addictive, and both the Golden Age Hourman and his son who [[Legacy Character|took up his mantle]] had to fight the addiction. (He currently takes a non-addictive "homeopathic" version of Miraclo.)
** [[Batman]] villain Bane (who also appeared in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'') got his superhuman strength from Venom, a steroid-like chemical. In a [[Continuity Nod]], it later appears in ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' as a street drug and future-Bane has become a wheelchair-bound invalid due to the damage a lifetime of Venom use wrought on his body. In the comics, he also suffered severe problems from continued Venom use, but eventually got himself clean and now relies solely on his (considerable) natural strength.
** Elongated Man gets his stretchy power from a substance called
** Johnny Quick, The [[Mirror Universe]] [[Evil Twin]] of the [[Flash]], uses an extract of his [[Legacy Character|predecessor's]] ''blood'' to give him super-speed powers.
** B'Wana Beast used a mystic elixir from somewhere in Africa, though his 'base' was at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. His mask-slash-helmet allowed him to control animals, though the elixir allowed him to [[Biological Mashup|fuse two animals into one]]... which he could control with the helmet.
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* [[Bamse]] gets his super-[[Funny Animal|ursine]] strength from "dunderhonung", thunderhoney, which is disqualified from being [[Power-Up Food]] because it is not just regular honey, but has to be mixed correctly with various herbs and spices (the working ingredient is appearently a rare flower that only grows on a single island in the Aegean, guarded by a seven-headed monster). However, something like Ralph Dibney's metagene above must also be involved, since most people just gets three days of stomach cramps from eating dunderhonung, and it seems to run in the family.
* One of the ongoing plot threads in ''[[Empire]]'' centers around discovering the secret of the production of Eucharist, a highly addictive substance that supercharges the abilities of those who take it. People under its influence can dodge bullets, and the high is described as being "[[Better Than Sex]]."
* [[Daniel Clowes]] [[Captain America]] parody "The Battlin' American" has horrible addiction problems requiring him to take regular doses of the super serum. {{spoiler|The street thugs who steal it from him find this out the hard way.}}
* In the comic prequel to ''[[
== Film ==
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* In 2008's ''[[The Incredible Hulk (film)|The Incredible Hulk]]'', the source of the Abomination's powers is a double dose of the Marvel Universe's fabled Rebirth Project super-soldier serum , combined with a blood transfusion from Bruce Banner. This appears to have been done as part of an effort to provide visible ties between Marvel Studios' adaptations of their canon characters - in this case, laying groundwork for the ''[[Captain America: The First Avenger|Captain America]]'' film.
** Actually, even Banner's mutation into the Hulk in the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]] is due to his experimentation with the original serum. A combination of the fact that he didn't know what he was doing (the military had told him the work was for radiation resistance) and his replacing [[Techno Babble|Vita-Rays]] with Gamma radiation led to his transformation.
* In the [[The Bowery Boys||Bowery Boys]] movie ''Hold That Line'', Sach mixes a bunch of random chemicals together and drinks down the mixture. The potion turns Sach into a super-athlete. Inverted later in the movie when Slip tries to replicate the formula. Slip gives the potion to the college Dean, who {{spoiler|shrinks in size}}.
* In the 2011 movie ''Limitless'' the main character uses a drug to become super smart.
* After defeating his arch-nemesis Metro Man, [[Megamind]] decides to give Metro Man's superpowers to a random guy who would become the next champion of Metro City. He extracts Metro Man's DNA from some dandruff on his cape and accidentally injects it into {{spoiler|Hal the cameraman}}.
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== Literature ==
* ''[[Captain Underpants]]'' didn't have superpowers initially, but gained them after drinking some literal Super Serum off of an alien spaceship in book three. This simply complicated things further, naturally.
* ''[[Wild Cards]]'' plays the "
* Melange, or [[Spice of Life|spice]], drives the ''[[Dune]]''
** Not entirely. [[FTL Travel]] is enabled by the Holtzmann generator and is possible without spice, but you're running the risk of ending up inside a star or a planet 1 out of 5 times. It's the above-mentioned precognition that allows the Nagigators to plot a safe course through space.
* ''[[The 39 Clues]]'' series is all about gathering 39 ingredients, or "Clues", to {{spoiler|create a Super Serum that gives you the abilities of each of the four "branches" of the family searching for it - the cunning of the Lucians, the intelligence of the Ekaterinas, the strength of the Tomas, and the artistic talent of the Janus}} - feasibly allowing you to rule the world. These Clues include all kinds of ingredients, from harmless ones you can find in a grocery store such as {{spoiler|honey, salt, and mint}} to highly toxic substances like {{spoiler|mercury, lead, and king cobra venom}}.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* In the ''[[Rifts]]'' [[Tabletop RPG|pen-and-paper RPG]], the "Juicer" character class gain their superhuman abilities from a constant feed of intravenous drugs. The drawbacks are addiction, permanent organ damage in two years (making removal problematic), and death within seven. Of course, as most are shock troops and mercenaries, many die in combat long before that.
* Part of the extensive, complex, long and dangerous process of creating [[Warhammer
** In [[James Swallow]]'s ''[[Blood Angels|Red Fury]]'', Rafen and his company come up against foes who inject themselves; Rafen is familiar with [[Bottled Heroic Resolve]], and explicitly aware that this is far more. For one thing, they rise up from apparent death with them.
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== Video Games ==
* The video game ''[[Galerians]]'' was centred around a [[Tyke Bomb|boy]] named Rion, who had powerful latent psychic abilities he needed to consume drugs to use. His addiction caused him to waste away slowly.
* Another video game
** It actually does retain the semi-scientific stance; the only significant change between the original game and Crisis Core (for example) is that Jenova cells are ''not'' injected as a matter of course. The mako energy process was also changed from "showered with" to "infused with". It doesn't necessarily make the SOLDIER operative super-strong, but it does allow them to do things that normal humans are not capable of (jumping ''really'' high, summoning magic without materia, etc).
*** And the Jenova cells are a normal part of the procedure. The only exception I can think of is Weiss of Deepground. [[Super Strength]] is also pretty much standard, though third class operatives aren't that much stronger than the average fighter. Not sure where in the games (or [[Advent Children|the movie]] the "magic without materia" thing comes from. The closest is Zack being able to call up summons without the materia being equipped.
** Not to mention that the original game was a victim of [[Blind Idiot Translation]], which makes using the English version as a source for canon info [[Dub
* In ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'', {{spoiler|Wesker}} needs a frequent and ''precise'' dose of the virus running through his body in order to keep his superpowers and still stay [[Bishonen Line|(relatively) human-looking.]] {{spoiler|This becomes the major gimmick of the penultimate boss fight, where the protagonists give Wesker [[Phlebotinum Overload|an intentional overdose of the serum,]] and send him into a [[Villainous Breakdown]].}}
* In [[City of Heroes]] the enemy group The Freakshow are cyberpunks powered by a drug called Excelsior, the [[Troll]] gang by massive overdoses of street drug Superadyne (or superdyne, or just 'Dyne), and with the release of the Superscience booster pack, players can change their costume by way of emotes that have them either drinking a potion from an Erlenmeyer flask or shooting up in the arm with a vial of the titular trope.
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* [[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'s Super Soldiers get their superhuman abilities from being injected with a strain of [[The Virus]] that has beneficial properties and none of the downsides.
* Runescape has the Combat Potion made from Harralander herbs which can improve your stregth and reflexes but most of all the herb in general has energy stimulating properties.
* [[Inazuma Eleven]] has Aquas of the Gods (Ambrosia) is the
* ''[[Deus Ex]]'' has "physiopharmaceutical" augmentation for the Men in Black, which among others makes them seriously [[Made of Iron]].
* In ''[[Freedom Force]]'', the Domain's secret weapon is Energy X, which they have used to conquer all dimensions except this one. In order to have some fun, Lord Dominion decides to give Energy X canisters to Earth's worst criminals and watch them tear apart the planet. An alien named Mentor steals the ship containing the canisters and takes it to Earth, hoping to give it to good people to defend themselves and the others. The ship is shot down in orbit, and the canisters fall all over Patriot City and other parts of the world (Bullet is exposed all the way in Vietnam). Both good and bad people get hit with Energy X and transformed into superheroes and supervillains, respectively. Apparently, a super's blood can also act as super-serum, as Liberty Lad gets his powers from a transfusion of Minuteman's blood.
== Webcomics ==
* Most of the heroes from [[Heroes Inc]], a popular webcomic that makes use of public domain Golden Age characters, have taken serums that give them various powers and slow down their aging process.
* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', the
** The water of the river itself can also grant superhuman strength and stamina, but it's even more likely to kill anyone who bathes in it, let alone drinks it.
== [[Web Original]] ==
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* An explosion of "meta-gas" during a gang feud on ''[[Static Shock]]'' gave Static and a bunch of other troubled teenagers in Dakota different powers. One [[Teen Genius]] [[Monster of the Week]] learned how to control it, and could grant himself different short-term powers through short-term exposure.
* Parodied in the classic [[Looney Tunes|Bugs Bunny]] [[Wartime Cartoon]] "Super-Rabbit", among other places.
* It's not technically
** The movie implies that the ability to get super-strength from spinach was a family trait. In the original comics, the Sea Witch ''does'' try it on Alice the Goon. It's uncertain if it actually worked, partly because Popeye added milk to his spinach diet to make himself even stronger and {{spoiler|partly because the Goon [[Hilarity Ensues|fell in love with Wimpy]] shortly after, leading the way to her sympathizing with Popeye and the gang. The last fight she has with Popeye breaks up rather quickly, as he sees the Goon has a child and won't hit a mother.}}
** There actually was one episode where after Bluto starts sobbing about how he Popeye always beats him up, Popeye responds by feeding Bluto some of his spinach, causing Bluto to power up, and he immediately launches into a song about what a great guy Popeye is, while pausing to clobber him at every pause in the Melody.
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== Real Life ==
* In their origins, steroids were looked as if they were this: some magic serum that gave new soldiers muscles with no training whatsoever.
* During the [[War of the Pacific]] Chilean soldiers developed a toxic drink nicknamed "La Chupilca del Diablo" (The Devil's Booze), which consisted of a mix of strong Aguardiente and ''black gunpowder''. According to that era's records, the unholy mixture caused the Chilean soldiers to go absolutely ''berserker'' and able to ignore pain or fatigue, but because of the toxic nature of the drink, this
* Scientists have actually developed a reliable supersoldier serum. However, it [https://web.archive.org/web/20120430082909/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45890174/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/scientists-make-supersoldier-ants
* The [[Nazis With Gnarly Weapons|German military]] from 1938 throughout [[World War Two]] used liberally a compound of the dreaded methamphetamine (then known as [http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,354606,00.html Pervitin]), under the hope it would give the soldiers and most importantly airmen superhuman performance. While the effects of meth as an insanely strong stimulant are known, the mild concentration used back then led the troopers to stay awake for weeks, raise themselves from total exhaustion, [[Deconstructed Trope|but it did not grant]] ''super''human powers.
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[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]
[[Category:Artistic License Pharmacology]]
[[Category:Magic and Powers]]
[[Category:Transhuman Tropes]]
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[[Category:Super Title Index]]
[[Category:Power Source]]
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