If your new hero likes to mind their own business, how do you force them to save the day? This is especially troublesome for superhero stories, because the hero’s special abilities are supposed to be, well, special. That means baby’s first antagonist should be non-magical and largely coincidental. But most of us don’t run into emergencies that often during our non-magical lives.
Unfortunately, storytellers often resolve this problem by punching down. In many cases, racial stereotypes about bad neighborhoods or gangs are employed to explain why people attack without motivation. Even when antagonists are white, these stories rely on racist tropes to explain wanton violence.
In many other cases, heroes go after people committing property crimes that are often motivated by poverty. Exaggerating how often property crimes occur and demonizing poverty-motivated criminals encourages a punitive, “tough on crime” mindset. That enables cruelty at all levels of the justice system.
So let’s look at seven better ways for heroes to run into trouble when they aren’t looking for it.
1. Sports Brawls
Sports fans are perfectly capable of getting in big, and even deadly, fights. This goes double for team rivalries that are particularly heated and weekend evenings when fans have been drinking a lot. A surprise loss that ruins a team’s chances at the finals could be particularly upsetting, making fights more likely.
Some brawls are also more like beatings, with several fans on one side relentlessly attacking a single fan of the other team. This can give a hero a great opportunity to rescue someone and take on several opponents.
While fights often happen right on the sports stands, they might also occur in parking lots or other public areas shortly after the game gets out. In that case, game security is less likely to be present. A hero walking by wearing the wrong color might even get caught up in a sports brawl by accident.
2. Vehicular Accidents
Car crashes are the leading cause of death globally for people ages 5–29. That’s not great, but it means a sudden accident is less likely to feel contrived. While an accident may not provide an opportunity to fight (unless you’re including some serious road rage), it provides lots of opportunity for impressive physical abilities. That semi-truck isn’t going to lift itself.
It’s also easy to make accidents more epic; just put the road in a dangerous environment. It could be on a tall bridge, a steep mountain slope, or near a rushing river. Your hero might also have to deal with a possible pileup. Once a vehicle is stuck on the road, another might come whipping around the corner to hit it.
3. Protest Fights
If your story takes place in the current day or close to it, no one will be surprised to see some protests. Most protests are peaceful, so don’t show a protest turn into a mob just because. However, violence can still occur at protests for several reasons.
The first is the police. Even when protests are peaceful, the police may choose to treat it like a mob, especially when protesters are people of color. The police are known to surround and bottle up protesters, to use tear gas on them, to pepper spray the faces of people just standing there, and to shoot less-lethal rounds at them. In many cases, reporters on the scene are also targeted by police.
There might also be counterprotesters. If two opposing groups are both protesting in the same time and place, tensions will be high, and fights could break out. White supremacist counterprotesters, sometimes even encouraged by the police, have been known to attack racial-justice protesters.
If you want a violent mob, you can feature the type of election deniers who storm the capitol hoping to hang the vice president. Maybe next time, they’ll attack polling places without as much security.
4. Severe Weather Events
Dangerous weather may seem coincidental, but it won’t be soon. Our climate is changing, and that is making severe weather events all too common. In particular, wildfires and floods have already become more frequent.
In the United States, wildfires burn western states every summer. While natural wildfires are usually caused by lightning, these days about 84 percent of them are because of people. In many cases, a campfire spreads. If your protagonist is out in a wooded area, camping, or near a campground, a wildfire could spring up to threaten people, homes, and wildlife.
Flooding is more likely to happen in the eastern US after a heavy rainfall. Besides threatening people with drowning directly, heavy rains can also cause landslides. Consider sending your hero to rescue people who are trapped in their vehicles.
5. Creepy Dudes
If you need sudden antagonists on the street, look no further than dudes. Men regularly harass women, and they can get violent when women reject them. However, this can be sensitive for women, so let me give you guidelines on escalating the situation without featuring sexual assault. You’ll also want to use a heroine for this one, rather than using a woman as a damsel.
Start with a dude walking up to the heroine and saying something that is technically a solicitation, but an extremely rude one. He might call her a “bitch,” for instance. Understandably, she swears at him or gives him the finger. This injures his man-pride, and he responds by grabbing her wrist, elbow, or shoulder. If they’re in a bar, he can instead block her from leaving. She responds by putting him in an arm lock or shoving him out of the way.
From there, he or his friends get mad and throw a punch. This allows the heroine to proceed with general ass-kicking.
6. Structural Collapse
It’s another Tuesday in superhero town, so naturally some building is getting smashed to smithereens. This gives your hero the opportunity to save the people inside or keep the debris from crushing anyone nearby.
The great thing about collapsing buildings is that they can be either natural or caused by destructive magic. Maybe the hero damaged the building while experimenting with their new powers. Alternately, a secret villain could have been there, but the hero doesn’t find that out until later. Before then, the cause of the collapse could be mysterious.
For a more natural collapse, use a derelict building that people are supposed to stay away from. Either reckless teens or homeless people looking for shelter could go inside. That gives your hero some people to save.
7. Repossession Violence
When creditors send agents to repossess cars, violence often results. In the US, a repossession agent is not allowed to repossess a car if the buyer is in the car or physically blocking them from taking it. If they have to use force or threats of force to repossess the car, they aren’t allowed to do it. Theoretically, the buyer doesn’t have a reason to use violence either, because they can just put themself in the way.
Of course, in practice it often doesn’t work that way. The buyer could get violent and hurt the repossession agent. The agent could use violence and intimidation to try to force a repossession even when the buyer is present. To make things more complicated, the police sometimes accompany the agent. They are supposed to be a neutral party there to prevent violence, but they sometimes use force to ensure a repossession. This is also illegal.
Needless to say, there’s plenty of room for your hero to come in and either stop the attacker or just defuse the situation. It’ll be hard to repossess a car when it’s hovering fifty feet in the air.
If you want your hero to run into antagonists on the street, punching up becomes more difficult. Powerful people don’t need to commit crimes in public. If they can’t get what they want from a legal system that’s stacked in their favor, they’ll hire more vulnerable people to do violence on their behalf. But we still have opportunities, and targeting the powerful is more satisfying than beating up yet another purse snatcher.
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My first reaction to #2 was remembering the first season of “Smallville” – the first suggestion Clark gets that he’s not ‘normal’ is when the Porsche hits him and he’s fine afterwards.
A tangent on #1 which probably counts as ‘the more you know:’ I got a lot of extra fun out of the Elementary storyline about the (not quite) serial killer ‘M’ when learning that the actor playing Moran was a professional soccer player for England in real life – as his character’s alibi for the murder of ‘Irene Adler’ was that he was in jail after having been caught in a hooligan fight after a soccer match.
Number five sounds like it works best when the superheroine is still figuring out her powers. I can’t really think of stories that actually go that route.
Something similar happens in “Captain Marvel” and had a lot of guys froathing at the mouth because a woman dared to just break a man’s arm for making a move on her…
That’s not in Captain Marvel. (They filmed a scene like it, but ultimately went with one where she just ignores the guy until he calls her a freak and leaves – though she does steal his motorbike once he has done).
Well, a lot of people still claim the scene is in it. Perhaps they have it from the extras on home-video release?
I don’t know, but it’s reached Mandela effect levels.
I think most of these are great suggestions, but no 5 is already used a lot in TV and movies. I’d personally rather see/read about a heroine who stops a sports brawl or saves someone from a car crash than have her beat up a creepy dude.
Related to the “should my hero fight animals?” question that recently came up – suppose someone encounters an angry moose. Like they’re walking their dog in the forest, and suddenly there’s this angry moose staring them down, like a moose cow with a calf nearby, and they’re afraid to even move because they don’t want to provoke the moose into kicking them and their dog. Or they’re just driving on a country road, when this moose steps in their way, and stares at them, and they can’t drive on, they also don’t want to provoke the moose into kicking and destorying their car, so they just sit there. If they’re in a hurry to go somewhere, this can be a serious problem!
Anyway, then our hero or heroine comes along and lifts them up and carry them away from this situation. Or maybe picks up the moose and runs off with him until he’s not in the way of traffic anymore.
I know I would have appreciated that, when I’ve been in the above situations.
Oh, yeah, moose sound scary!
You could also do that with a Bison, or a grizzly, or an elephant. And if the animal becomes a dangerous hazard where other people are around, like an elephant going berserk in town due to overheating or musth, someone with superpowers would be able to subdue it, rather than forcing the authorities to choose between accepting the property damage and hazards involved in evacuating the area and letting the animal wear itself out and just killing it.
Fleischer Studios did a Superman cartoon along those lines called “Terror on the Midway” where, among other things, the gorilla “Gigantic” puts up a surprisingly good fight against Superman.
Another instance of animal hazard: A loose dog runs into an enclosed field where horses graze, starts chasing them around, and all the horses panic. Or a big dog on the run chances upon some horse riders, and chase them. This situation could be really dangerous for the dog (who might get kicked), for the horses (who might get badly bitten), and for the humans (who might get thrown off with concussions or broken bones as a result, or in a worst case scenario first thrown off and then trampled by panicking horses).
A hero who’s both faster and more durable than a regular human might be able to catch the dog and carry him off, allowing the horses to calm down and the riders to regain control.
What if the dog is rabid?
I guess that would make the situation even worse? But then, the story should probably be set in a place where rabid dogs aren’t super rare, or it might come across as a bit contrived, maybe?
We’re fortunately still rabies free on the Scandinavian peninsula, but it’s my understanding that even in the US, where rabies exists, it’s a rare problem in dogs, right?
The kind of situation I describe could be very dangerous anyway.
In addition to what Jeppsson pointed out, I also think the idea of a rabid animal being aggressive has been overblown. Often infected animals present as sluggish and lethargic. The virus does cause a spike in anxiety, which frequently makes animals more prone to aggressive behavior, but this doesn’t mean that it is seeking confrontation. More often people get into conflict with rabid animals because they see a sluggish animal acting unwell, perhaps trying to hide in the corner of a shed, and when they seek to either get it help or simply relocate it, they end up getting bit. The animal did not come raging out of the bushes, foaming at the mouth, actively looking for something to bite.
I’ve seen enough mini documentaries about buildings collapsing to feel paranoid about going on rickety fair rides and multi-level shopping centers. Another good alternative is your superheroine encountering a crowd crush-it’s infinitely more terrifying, and more claustraphobia inducing.
A massive fire breaking out in somewhere with bad ventilation and lack of windows is also a good idea.
Sometimes human ignorance is more destructive than any kind of supervillain.
4. Also includes tornadoes and hurricanes, and even a thunderstorm can be destructive enough that adding a tornado to the mix will just stir up the debris. And earthquakes, volcanoes, and avalanches are usually lumped in with weather as well. Most of them are rare, of course, but tornadoes are distressingly common in central North America during the Spring. Of course, most super-powered beings aren’t going to stop these kinds of disasters, just rescue people and mitigate damage afterwards.
Using these too often, though, can seem contrived, especially if the hero is just boppin’ along when they run into one, virtually every time they leave their home
There is a possibility that one or more of these events are being orchestrated by the villain, for some reason, thus tying the event into the throughline
Just make sure the villain has a reason to do this
I think this is more about your hero discovering that they’re different and have powers which others don’t have. These ways can diversify the narrative for that part of a ‘new hero’ origin story.
Once they know they have special skills or powers, they can go forth and find a nemesis and become regular heroes.
Yeah, that and/or actively seek out calamities to help people.
One easier source of real world trouble: being robbed.
To be clear, we specifically recommend against having the protagonist get robbed or otherwise encounter street crime for this kind of easy conflict generation. Chris talks about this in the post. The reason is that almost always plays into racial and class stereotypes about “bad neighborhoods,” even if the criminals are white. Portraying such crimes without falling into the stereotypes requires care and effort which is difficult to have when an author is just looking for a quick way to show off the hero’s powers.
I mean if it’s just some personal belonging that was stolen for personal reasons, would it still be stereotypical? I think it depends on how the theft is portrayed than the action itself like with most story ideas, execution is mostly important here.
I’m not sure what you mean by “personal belonging” and “personal reasons” here, but the specific trope we’re warning against is the one where a newly empowered hero will walk down the street and get randomly mugged or randomly witness a robbery, thus giving them justification to beat some people up with their new abilities. This trope relies on a number of harmful ideas of who commits crimes, for what reason, and what punishment they deserve. Since the premise of this post is specifically to create fast and easy ways for a new hero to demonstrate their powers, it assumes there isn’t time to get into the complexities of why someone might steal and what the consequences should be in a just society.
Sorry I meant personal belongings as in your private possessions such as your lighter, watch, plushie, phone, pendant, shiny rock or Album. I meant if someone steals something for its sentimental value and not monetary one. But I believe now it is something else from what you are discussing here, namely that thieves steal stuff because they are so evil and the heroes beats them senseless. I agree that people can get needlessly aggressive, but at the same time theft hurts people a lot and as someone who has been robbed of money and some other stuff, It’s very empowering to get back what was stolen and make it clear that you won’t allow something like that to happen.
Sorry, got a little carried away. I think it can work to have the thief explain their motives, and they could change, like with Iroh showing compassion for the thug who mugged him or Jonathan asking Speedwagon for aid and becoming a better person.
That’s my opinion it, hopefully I made it this time more clear.
You should make a part 2! Also, how is the bad neighborhood trope racist? I was always confused on the gang stuff since I know that gangs exist in real life, but they aren’t really hurting anybody.
I touched on this above, but the problem with “bad neighborhood” tropes is several fold
1: it encourages the idea that poor neighborhoods (usually with residents of color) are agro-zones, where everyone is hostile like it’s a PVE area of an MMO. In reality, even places with high crime rates don’t mean you’re gonna get jumped the moment you walk through.
2: It encourages the idea that such neighborhoods need more violent policing, when in reality, violent policing often encourages even more crime. It certainly doesn’t address the root causes like poverty and a lack of opportunity.
3: It often dehumanizes criminals, sorting them into the category of “okay to punch,” and not giving any thought to why they might be committing a crime or what the appropriate response is.
There are of course ways to portray crime without falling into those problems, but the kind of story we’re talking about here doesn’t usually have time for them.
Great article. Looking forward to a follow-up. : )
If I may offer a suggestion, how about animals being released from the zoo, or a lab? Happens relatively frequently in superhero settings. This can be played for laughs, since most unrestrained animals are silly pests rather than vicious beasts. Or drama as our hero(ine) tries to save a big softie from getting shot because it had the bad luck to be next to a kid.
And if you have to have a savage beast then you can’t go wrong with chimpanzees, because everything can go horribly wrong with them. I heard zoos have a kill-on-sight policy with them, and if you’ve seen Casual Geographic then you’ll know why.
I know it doesn’t work for 99% of stories, but the image of a new superhero walking up to an exploitative CEO on their way to starbucks and just punching them on the nose is pretty hilarious. Maybe the “street crime” that needs to be punched in this story is gentrification! Cause it’s a crime how that one person just buys an entire street and acts like its their property!
Would buildings catching on fire go under structural collapse?
They easily can, depending on the material. The most obvious reason would be if the supports were made of a flammable material. Besides that, supports made of metal are prone to expanding and becoming weaker during a fire, which can cause collapse if the supports weren’t designed for unusual loads.