Heroes and Demons OTD Thread.

Perhaps a politician who has had a hand in Vince's creation, and intends to make more beings like him, albeit more controllable. After receiving all the funding and time he needed, he begins work on creating an army of beings in an attempt to annex a small part of America for himself, and begin work on a larger army.

Define "controllable". Vince, as far I can gather, was a regular soldier with the exception of his superpowers. He got orders, and carried them out. I guess at some point Vince got tired of doing it and faked his own death. 

So, unless I'm missing something, these soldiers would have to be either extremely loyal to this politician or brainwashed. All Vince did to make him "uncontrollable" was exercise his free will as a person. Is that what you meant, or am I missing something?

So, if we do go with this, what does this say about our heroes (in universe)? They go in and meddle with the government's affairs, it'll raise a lot of questions from the general public.

Are they the kind to get involved with politics? If so, where do they draw the line? Have they taken it upon themselves to force the will of the UPNE on this new small nation? Do they take orders from the government? Are they a tool of oppression, used to smite down any who might oppose the UPNE government?

Getting involved with political things is always tricky for anybody, and I assume that'd involve heroes. Last time I checked, Superman wasn't out fighting the Taliban. Of course, that may be because DC wants to avoid political stuff. I personally think it'd be more interesting to explore, but I'd like to make the effort to at least try and replicate the "real world consequences" of our heroes getting involved in political stuff.

Kinda like how in Hancock they actually mention the economic damage done by his super powered feats.

Some terminology here, as I was wondering what the difference between meta-human and other "above" human terms meant. I've provided links, which I have highlighted in red.

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Metahuman: A term most popular within the DC universe, roughly analogous to "Mutant" in the Marvel Universe.

Mutant: The strict biological definition is "a mutant is an organism or a new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a base-pair sequence change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism". In terms of comic books, the X-men are the most obvious example.

Mutate: A term used in the Marvel Universe to define someone who was not born as a mutant, but mutated as a result of exposure to mutagenic stimuli. Prime examples are: Hulk, Spider-man, the Fantastic Four, etc.

Parahuman: A parahuman or para-human is a human-animal hybrid or chimera". 

No, this does not mean the kind seen in Greek mythology, where the being is physically part human and part animal. In modern times, it could mean a human being with another species' DNA implanted inside them. Basically, if you've ever heard of genetically modified crops, then you should know that we use fish genes in some of them so they better resist the cold. 

An example COULD be Kong, depending on his origin story. If he had gorilla DNA implanted in him (explaining his ape like appearance and size) then he would be a parahuman, rather than a metahuman.

Posthuman: In posthumanisn, the posthuman is not a singular, defined individual, but rather one who can "become" or embody different identities and understand the world from multiple, heterogeneous perspectives. This can be done through regular means, such an intellectual rigour (hard work). 

In transhumanisn, the situation is a little different. "According to transhumanist thinkers, a posthuman is a hypothetical future being "whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer unambiguously human by our current standards."

This usually heavily involves technology and is accomplished by either "raising the bar" of what a regular human can do (i.e. cyborgs) or bypassing them all together (i.e. Jonny Depp in the movie Transcendence).

To quote the wiki article, it is about "redesigning the human being" so that it appears and does things no longer human by modern day standards.

Subhuman: It means "less than human". Throughout history it has been used as a pretty powerful hate word; Hitler is probably the most famous example of somebody throwing that word around.

While not usually associated with superheroes, as they can clearly do things normal humans cannot, it is possible that this word could turn into a slur against all human beings with some kind of prefix in front.

Again, Kong could be an example here. He's big, brutish, and somewhat mentally slow. Some may refer to may as "subhuman" as a way to degrade him (assuming he's out of earshot).

Superhuman: A superhuman is a human with extraordinary and unusual capabilities enabling them to perform feats well beyond anything that an ordinary person could conceivably achieve, even through long-time training and development.

Superhuman is a very broad term, and can easily encompass the above definitions (except subhuman). Indeed, to be superhuman there is no set "path" and everything from mutations to technology to being part of a different species can set something up as superhuman.

For example, a tiger can be said to have superhuman strength solely because it above a normal human's strength.

Trasnhuman: Transhuman or trans-human is an intermediary form between human and posthuman.[1] In other words, a transhuman is a being that resembles a human in most respects but who has powers and abilities beyond those of standard humans.


Cyborgs are also an example, our very own Jordan and "Cyborg" from Teen Titans being good examples. Still recognizable as human, but beyond the limits of Humanity.

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So that's all I got, although I think it's a pretty extensive list. If all else fails, and you don't know what to call some super powered person, superhuman is always a safe bet.


It's like trying to guess someone's ethnicity, and then just choosing to call them a person. You're going to be right 10/10 times.