Comic Book Origins

It is often said - quite correctly - that a good superhero needs a snappy origin.

The most popular of superheroes have origins that can be relayed in one or two snappy sentences. It keeps them accessible. It distils the essence of the character so a new reader can pick up a book and go with a good idea on who they're reading about.

Comic book stories never end. Much like soap operas they go on indefinately, adding more and more stories until no-one could conceivably know everything a character has ever done, let alone relay it to someone else. With this in mind, the snappy origin is a much-needed touchstone.

For example, here's a snappy origin:

Bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker gained fantastic powers. When his thoughtless inaction led to the death of his uncle Ben, he learned that great power came with great responsibility, and vowed to fight crime as Spiderman.

There may be more behind Spiderman's enduring appeal - his everyman status for example - but the origin above gives readers enough to get started. It grounds the character. You remember where he came from.

Here's an origin that is .... less than snappy.

Nathan Christopher Charles Summers was sent to live in the future by his parents, the leaders of X-Factor, when as a baby he was infected by a techno-organic virus by the immortal villain Apocalypse. Raised in the future under the name Nathan Dayspring by his time-displaced sister and later his time-travelling father and the woman his mother was cloned from, he fought Apocolypse, who had grown into a tyrant. When he travelled back to the present to defeat his own clone Stryfe, he struggled to defeat Apocoalype and prevent his rise to power. With that done, he works to fight evil and prevent the bleak future he was raised in from coming to pass. He is Cable.

While continuity-loving comic fans would love an origin like that, it's impossible to relate to someone unfamiliar with the character.

It's too convoluted. While Cable is a popular character, he'll never be a Spiderman. There'll never be a Cable movie that can connect with the masses. Of course, with Spidey 3 out there gumming up the universe, that may be a secret blessing.

Here's some other superhero origins done right:

When Bruce Wayne's parents are gunned down by a mugger, he vows to use turn fear into a weapon and clean up Gotham city as Batman.

Born into a world that hates and fears them for their genetic birthright, the X-Men fight for a world of peaceful co-existence between humans and super-powered mutants.

As the last son of the planet Krypton, Clark Kent has fantastic powers which he uses to defend the people of his new home, the planet earth. He is Superman.

Scientist Bruce Banner was changed forever when he was caught in a Gamma bomb explosion while saving an innocent man. Now, whenever he gets angry, he changes into the The Incredible Hulk, a gigantic, green monster whose super strength is limited only by his rage!

I've always thought the concept of the X-Men was a great antidote for writers unable to come up with a constant stream of interesting origins. Mutants pop-up as the next stage in evolution, allowing a steady stream of superpowered beings with no need for explanation. Elegant.

Of course, it means that many of the X-Men, while interesting characters, are robbed of the interesting origin.

When Scott Summers was born he could shoot lasers from his eyes. He wears red glasses and is called Cyclops.

Oh well.