Superhero Episode: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Fry''': When you were a kid, what was your greatest fantasy?<br />

'''Leela''': [[Myth Arc|To have parents]].<br />

 

An episode of a non-superhero show in which the characters temporarily gain [[Stock Super Powers|superpowers]] and/or the urge to dress up and fight crime.

Depending on the nature of the show's [[The Verse|universe]], this may occur "for real," as a [[All Just a Dream|dream or fantasy]], or completely out-of-continuity, but in any case it involves familiar characters wearing capes, kicking ass, and going by (possibly parodic) [[Something Person]] names.

 

 

A subtrope of [[Something Completely Different]].

* ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'' had one as part of a Disney "make a wish" event.

* ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' had Harvey become Ultra-Teen or somesuch as result of a spell, though this wasn't the focus of the episode.

* Soap opera ''[[Guiding Light]]'' of all things. There was even a corresponding comic book tie-in!

* ''[[Dexter]]'' had an episode in which Dexter imagined his life as a super hero (or super villain, he wasn't quite sure). As one would imagine, it was done in the same horrifyingly psychotic way as everything else in the show.

* ''[[Sanctuary]]'' did it twice, in ''Hero'' and ''Hero 2'', with a living suit which gives people superpowers but makes them unstable.

* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' did it in the episode ''Mild Mannered''; given the show's premise it was easy for an artifact to give someone super-powers.

* ''[[The Monkees]]'' turn into "Monkeemen" in a few episodes. While they can fly, the rest of their powers consist of exchanging insults to bruise someone's ego.

* While ''[[Lois and Clark]]'' '''was''' a superhero series, Lois Lane was most definitely not a superhero -- except for one episode where she got Superman's powers and became ''Ultra Woman''.

** They did not have [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|the power to command crustaceans]], though (one of the potential side effects of Miracle Cream).

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' had Bart and Lisa (as Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl) attempting to foil the Villain Comic Book Guy (the Collector) during one of their [[A Day At the Bizarro]] Halloween episodes.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' had the family mutated by a crashed toxic waste truck. Most of their powers were "[[Stock Super Powers|normal]]", but [[Butt Monkey|Meg]]'s power was [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|super amazing fingernail growth]].

* ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]''' Big Superhero Wish episode turned ''everyone'' in the world into a superhero/villan.

** Also from ''[[Looney Tunes]]'', we have [[Daffy Duck]] as "Stuperduck".

* An episode of ''[[Felix the Cat]]'' had this. Apparently, his "Magic Bag" wasn't super enough on its own to count as making him a superhero, but it ''could'' just give him tights, super-powers, and a big beefy physique.

* The ''[[Duck Dodgers]]'' episode "The Green Loontern", where Dodgers accidentally gets [[Green Lantern]]'s uniform and ring from the dry cleaners.

* ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' featured an episode in the first season wherein the main characters became Power Squid and Spaghetti Beezy, though unlike the typical formula for this trope, the powers were [[Stock Super Powers|incredibly]] [[Averted Trope|unorthodox]] and season 2 would [[Continuity Nod|occasionally]] have the characters become their superhero forms again if the need arose.

* Interestingly, ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' had one of these despite the main characters already being superheroes- after reading comic books, the girls decide to copy their favorite heroines in order to become better heroes, with Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles taking on new heroic identities as Liberty Belle (notably the actual name of a [[Legacy Hero|Legacy Heroine]] in the [[Justice Society of America]]), Spore (a [[Spawn]] [[Expy]]), and an [[Animesque]] cute rabbit character along the lines of [[Hello Kitty]]. It doesn't go well.

** The 2003 series has several, as a Justice League type team actually exists in this world, and Michelangelo occasionally dips into his persona as "The Turtle Titan". Then there's the [[Alternate Reality Episode]] where he encounters the main cast in a world where they are ALL superheroes and {{spoiler|Splinter is their archenemy.}}

* The 1987 has several more Superhero Episodes: "Raphael Vs. The Volcano," "Night of the Dark Turtle," and "Super Hero For a Day."

* In ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'', Orson's Farm occasionally featured Orson becoming "Power Pig" In both "reality" and dream sequences. In reality, his only powers seemed to be having a stupid costume (in his debut episode, he was used to distract the villain (a fox) with his appearance, which caused the fox to fall down laughing); in dream sequences, his powers consisted of something along the lines of Superman's (super strength and flying). In dream sequences, which usually consisted of a jazzed up version of the problem of the episode being solved, he was used as an inspiration for what Orson did in "real life".

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'': ''The Beak''.

* An episode of ''[[Men in Black The Series]]'' had an alien immigrant decide to become a superhero, so MIB HQ decides to make Agent J into a supervillain to stop him, and all the attention he's getting.

* ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'' had the N-Men episode, where in an homage to the ''[[Fantastic Four]]'', the kids are on their way back to Earth in their space ship (won on a game show in a previous episode) and accidentally get superpowers while passing through the Van Allen belt, each powers coming from what they were doing at the point.

** Jimmy was drinking OJ (becoming orange and going into a Hulk-like state), Cindy was armwrestling (becoming Wonder Woman, essentially), Libby was putting on vanishing cream (gaining invisibility and force field abilities), Sheen was on a massaging chair (becoming the Flash... his bladder suffered) and Carl belching while drinking soda (gaining super sonic belching abilities).

 

{{reflist}}