Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1298029-20150510203331

In a recent discussion with Alexj98, I came across a question I find interesting. Maybe it's been discussed before, or it's defined in the comics, but as far as I know, there is no formal definition in the MCU of what constitutes a "superpower". I have two sub-points to this:

1) In relation to what standard are superpowers defined? Is it something like sufficient (or normally impossible) deviation from the human physiological norm, or is it such a deviation, but from the individual's species norm? (I am taking the "sufficient/impossible deviation" part as an assumption, but feel free to challenge it as well if you would define it differently.) Continuing now to assume the deviation part as a given, then the two different postulates (human vs. own species norm) would lead to demostrably different classification of "powered/non-powered" for the same individuals.

For example, consider the stock Asgardian (say, a soldier mook like there's hundreds of in the Thor movies). By his own species' norm, he almost certainly has no sufficient/impossible deviations (none have been shown for these characters, at least). But using the human norm, he's extremely long-lived (Loki says on the order of 5,000 years for what he implies to be the average Asgardian specimen), super-strong (all Asgardians shown fighting or manhandling humans or performing other recognizable (from real world) feats so far have demonstrated several times normal human strength, at least a match for Captain America, if he does his push-ups and eats his cereal), and very durable (can take super-strong blows from other Asgardians that would send a human flying, the way a human would take a regular push, for example).

2) What nature must the source of the deviation from the norm (again assuming that part of the definition as a given) have for the result to be considered a superpower? For example, does Iron Man have superpowers? We know he's a regular human without his suit, and said suit is an advanced but perfectly comprehensible piece of technology that anyone could use and, with the proper knowledge, replicate.

By the same token, does Thor have superpowers? If the definition is the human norm, then his Asgardian physiology gives him superpowers by default, of course. But if own-species norm is the definition, then what if (assumption 1) all Thor's feats above and beyond the Asgardian norm are due to his wielding Mjolnir, and (assumption 2) Mjolnir is a purely technological device that any Asgardian can use (disregarding the "worthiness enchantment" security measure, which by the same assumption can also be technological, and thus resettable, like a biometric scanner or a PIN) and, using science at the level available to Asgardians in general, replicate? Because given these assumptions, Thor's situation vis-a-vis the average Asgardian would be exactly the same as that of Tony Stark vis-a-vis the average human. Of course, here the caveat is we don't have the information to decide about assumptions 1 and 2, as that information was never clearly given in the MCU (unless what we do know can be used to credibly imply either? I'm not aware that it can, but maybe some of you think differently...).

Does Captain America have superpowers, or could a human conceivably be born with his level of physical ability? More contentious, does the Hulk have superpowers, or does the fact that his mutation essentially temporarily turns him into a non-human lifeform (while he's normal as Banner) disqualify his abilities from being "impossible relative to own-species norm" (this being the more restrictive of the two norms offered for discussion in Point 1; obviously by the human norm his abilities are impossible)? Of course, by continuing in this fashion, you'd eventually eliminate practically everyone with superpowers, as you could probably apply the Banner argument above to anyone whose superpowers are based in non-standard genetics, by saying that if their genes are not possible in the human norm, then they're no longer human biologically, and thus their powers are not "super" relative to own-species norm, as for "their species" they're fairly normal. This would do for all the X-Men (naturally evolved away from human norm), Inhumans (engineered away from norm & born with said differences, even if latent until transformation), as well as Spider-Man (man-spider hybrid).

Interestingly, the Maximoffs' superpowers are probably the most resilient against this line of argumentation. In particular, there are two possibilities that I find likely: a) the sceptre gem changed their genetics so as to give them their powers -- then they're functionally like the X-Men and are covered by the previous argument, but in b) the gem trasferred some sort of "power", "energy", (whatever) into their bodies which generates their powers, but does not affect their genetics. If also any human can become host to this mojo in a similar fashion (the effect is universally replicable within the human norm; if it weren't, then latent genetic potential has to be present that sceptre activates and the argument proceeds as for the Inhumans) then the sceptre is enhancing a human, without fundamentally changing their human biology, to a level of ability normally impossible for humans sharing the same biology. That's about as close to "normally impossible deviation from own-species norm" as I'm able to get using the characters I know of. 