Super Serum: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|'''Victor Mancha''': ''Wait, Back up. Your secret origin is drugs? Doesn't that kinda set a bad example for little kids?''

 

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.

 

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 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.

* [[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]]."

 

== Film ==