Superhero Cliches

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LOTLOF

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My first self published novel was a parody of the fantasy hero's journey. It has done pretty well and so I am trying to write a parody of superheroes. I would like a list of cliches that I can skewer.

So far I have:

Hero with a tragic background.
Hero who is innocent and wide eyed.
Hero who seems invincible except for one weakness.
Hero who will obviously end up as a villain.
Anti-hero who doesn't like to follow the rules.
Hero whose powers come from a magical object.
Side kick who has no super powers and is more or less useless.
Hero who gets killed but won't stay dead.
Hero who works for a corporation or government.
Hero whose battles always cause far more damage than the villain's actions alone.
Hero with a paper thin disguise that even his closest friends can't see through.

Please give me as many more as you can think of.
 

areteus

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If you can find it, check out the superhero chapter in The Munchkin's Guide to Power Gaming as it full of such clichés...

I would add the superhero whose intelligence reduces the higher his strength goes...
 

Waldo

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Cale

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Here are some more:

Magical ability to make awesome costumes out of household objects
Falling into a vat of chemicals to obtain powers
Rich, white male protag who is a playboy when not in costume

That was fun! I hope it helps.
 

AllyKitten

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Hero is the school nerd everyone likes to bully.
Hero is an ex-labrat .
Hero is a poor orphan .
The hero always gets the girl.

Sorry if I'm just repeating what you already know. Are you just doing a superhero parody or are you doing supervillains as well?
 

Wilde_at_heart

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Hero that owns a Corporation - or has some means of (very large) passive income
If he does have to work, Hero has a job that enables him to get out of the office a lot (journalist, anyone?)
On top of that, Hero with a boss who despises him, but never really winds up firing him.
Hero who resists making what for the rest of us would be an obvious choice based on some arbitrarily superior moral outlook.
 

Clifforis

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you forgot to mention radiation.
Apparently it does magical wonderful things to people on a regular basis in superhero world.
Perhaps you could put it on its head and have your character exposed to a high dose of unusual radiation, only to come out with third degree burns and a tumour in every orifice
 
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GradyHendrix

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A few that come to mind:

General
Form fitting costumes that show every pec and ab for men, that show too much skin for women.

Secret headquarters. Everyone has a secret headquarter. I can barely afford a one bedroom apartment.

Everyone always rushes into battle in a group. Has no superhero ever heard of strategy or tactics? They all just bash through a wall and start fighting in a big mob, all the time.

Gloves, gauntlets, mittens - everyone wears them.

Boots. Who wears boots in real life? Have you ever tried to run in boots? (On that same subject: superheroines in high heels. Really?)

Capes are the genre's greatest affectation. The only time I've ever seen a cape is at the opera and the guy wearing it was 80 years old and had on eye shadow and mascara.

Everyone always seems to be able to get exactly where they need to be with little to no effort or travel time.

Types of Heroes and Villains

Armored Guy - always a genius, always a billionaire.

Underwater Guy - there's always an underwater guy. He's usually a king.

Arrows Guy - there's always an arrows guy. If not, there's a sword guy. Why this fondness for outdated weapons? Why doesn't anyone ever had, say, a gun?

Magician Guy - always sexually ambiguous, always doing whatever needs to be done for the plot to move forward.

Big Strong Guy - there's always a big strong guy. He's always salt of the earth with blue collar roots.

Growing Guy - not to be confused with Big Strong Guy. He's often a scientist.

Shrinking Guy or Girl - useless, useless superpower, and yet scientists and their girlfriends often go for shrinking.

Space Cop - there is often a space cop (Captain Marvel for Marvel Comis, Green Lantern for DC).

Telepath - the creepiest superpower and people usually act like they're okay with it. I wouldn't want to be within 10,000 miles of a telepath. Gross.
 

veinglory

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Female hero fights in high heels and flies without five foot long untied hair getting in the way. Also has levitating boobies despite clearly not wearing a bra given how much is revealed by the costume.

Hero becomes unrecognizable by putting on glasses.
 

GradyHendrix

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The hair. The HAIR!?!??! You're 100% right! I think anyone fighting crime would want short, practical hair that can't be grabbed, pulled, twisted, or block their vision. But even the superheroes favor floppy bangs and strange bits that stick out. And the women seem to all use the same superstrong volumizer/mousse shampoo in their do's.
 

NateSean

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The group of super heroes that are initially reluctant to work together, even going so far as to fight one another, eventually coming together in the nick of time.

The school for children with super powers that "mundane" parents are oblivious about. Alternatively, what kind of basic security exists in these schools? There's not even one night awake counselor to make sure some kid doesn't wake up in the middle of the night and wind up falling down a set of stairs on his way to the bathroom?
 

Toimu

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Immortal guy that fights in a lot of wars.

Runs very fast person.
 

SampleGuy

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I noticed that super hero movies always start with the characters' origin and how they develop their powers. The Second movie deals with how they manage their new life, and the third ends with their death or renewal. Check out Spider Man, Iron Man, and the first three X-Men movies then you can understand. If I would write a parody about this typical formula, my hero would die for real and people will expect he will return.
 

dantefrizzoli

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That point in every hero movie, midway through, where it looks as if the hero is going to die from some unfortunate tragic event.
 

Ride the Pen

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Hero who drives an incredibly useful vehicle even able to bake him pancakes, which he can transform out of one of his shoelaces at will.

Hero who has a butler or other help who is his helper and only confidant who will never talk about his true identity.

Hero who has a red telephone with a direct line to the major or most important person in the city.
 

Once!

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Magic eye make-up. When the hero is wearing a black mask, the skin around his eyes is blackened so that you don't get the (sadly inevitable) white skin showing through the mask.

When he takes his mask off, this black eye make-up magically disappears. Otherwise he would be walking around with two black circles around his eyes like a giant panda.

Tell-tale signs that someone is a superhero - they have pockets full of wet wipes.
 

Night_Writer

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There's always (or sometimes anyway) one special person who knows the superhero's secret identity. And they never tell.
 
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