New Meta-Rule: Heroic Sacrifice Mega-Overpower

[alexxkay]

I recently read the conclusion to Joss Whedon's X-Men run. It was a decent story, but I'm mostly writing about one trope he uses in it. It's one I know I've seen in other superhero fiction over the last few years, but I can't recall specific examples. Part of why I'm posting this is the hope that some of you will either jog my memory, or provide examples of your own.

As a long time gamer (and rules lawyer), I tend to see stories in terms of their underlying (if only implied) rules systems. In general, a given hero's powers will stay within fairly consistent bounds. Sometimes a hero can temporarily exceed these bounds when the plot really requires it. Many game systems allow this sort of thing through a 'Hero Point' mechanism, whereby you can essentially turbocharge a character briefly at the cost of a rare meta-game resource.

The 'Hero Point' concept generally covers relatively small degrees of overpowering, and can be done many times without significant repercussions. Lately, however, I've been seeing a new variant in the fiction: The Mega-Overpower Sacrifice.

Here's a stab at a definition. A character may, if the stakes are high enough (at least a city full of civilians; more typically, an entire planet), use their power at an *arbitrarily* high level -- once. This use is essentially guaranteed to succeed in averting the disaster, but at great personal cost. In order to prevent abuse of this mechanic (by authors or gamers), this has to have permanent repercussions. In the best case, the power is 'burnt out', and may never be used again (typically relegating the character to NPC status). More often, the character making this heroic effort dies as a direct result.

(Of course, since we're talking about superhero universes here, 'permanent' is really more of 'for at least a few publisher-time years', until someone decides to repower or resurrect the character. But the other characters/players are still obliged to treat the loss as permanent and roleplay as such.)

So, what's your favorite example of this mechanic?

Comments

[dariusk.livejournal.com]

Can't think of a favorite example, but I was just re-reading Ellis' The Authority and there's a scene where Apollo performs some kind of super-move and runs out of charge and faints. (Of course, Apollo is literally solar powered so he has an internal battery that runs out if he does too much. So the mechanic is pretty much built in to the character.)

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

X-men do that a lot. Phoenix, sort of also Wolverine/power-steal girl (whatever her name is).

B5 had one, right?

[jamey1138.livejournal.com]

B5 had two: first when Sheridan went to Zahadum, and later when Marcus saved Ivanova at the end of Season 4.

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

Excellent, yes! I was thinking of Marcus, but Sheridan sort of counts too, though its a strange one.

Of course neither of them had any innate super powers, but both were drawing on powers that were available to them.

[jducoeur]

sort of also Wolverine/power-steal girl (whatever her name is)

Rogue, but her best example of this trope is actually in her origin as a hero. If you think of her main power as temporarily stealing someone's powers, her Overpower was permanently stealing Ms. Marvel's -- at the price of permanently altering her own personality, poisoning relationships, and switching sides. Kind of a weak super-villain version of the idea: the price of the Overpower was ceasing to be a villain.

(Not really the kind of save-the-world Mega-Overpower Alexx is talking about, though.)

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's all over the comic book world.

But my mind is drawing real-world analogies. You know, like you have some scapegoat waiting in the wings to make a HUGE stink in the political arena by pinning something on the other guy just when your candidate needs a boost. But then that person is "burned out", and can no longer be used for day to day political maneuvering...

The idea that noble self-sacrifice should merit you results above and beyond what you could normally achieve is even more generalizable -- nearly every action movie has the sidekick who gives his all and achieves something extraordinary but dies as a result. Hell, that happens in Westerns... or the Iliad for that matter.

[laurion]

Joss has done it before too. Wash in Serenity.

[jducoeur]

Not coming up with good examples offhand (although I do think the Wash example is a fascinating one), but good observation, which I'll have to cogitate on. Yes, the end of Astonishing X-Men is a *great* example: a jaw-dropping Mega-Overpower (and rather brilliant solution to the problem that hadn't occurred to me) that left me certain they weren't getting out of it intact.

Without a doubt not permanent (this is the X-Men after all -- "Is there anybody in this room who *hasn't* been dead?"), but it'll probably take them a fair while to play it out...