This crazy assassin character, who doesn't know what shampoo is, somehow would bother shaving her armpits

[u/esli-]

Bart from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

EDIT: I will no longer read and respond to comments, I think I've read pretty much all the arguments people (mostly men) give me against my post, so feel free to scroll down to check my responses before commenting, kay bye :]

[u/abouttogivebirth]

At least Batman is rich and you could argue that hes on super high tech steroids or something, Reacher is straight up homeless. I know Batman isn't on HGH, but he does fight aliens and Reacher is in the 'real' world

[u/GodOfDarkLaughter → u/abouttogivebirth]

There's a theory that DC baseline-humans are stronger, faster, smarter, and more durable than we are in the real world. And "peak humans," like Batman, regularly perform feats of strength, acrobatics, and just pure impossible durability, that they can't really be considered "normal" humans.

And the Earth in DC has such a long history of being visited by gods, beings of cosmic power, time travelers, literally whatever you can think of, MANY of whom had children who may be demigods themselves but who will over time just genetically dilute into the general population. So unlike us real world folk who are mostly descended from shit farmers with the occasional raping noble thrown in, they get that AND gods and wiziards and shit, and occasionally things will combine in ways where even if they're not explicitly "powered" they're obviously beyond what a normal person could do. Because they're .68% god and 1.3% wizard and apparently that combo makes you real good at acrobatics.

[u/MaritMonkey → u/GodOfDarkLaughter]

As a former kid who grew up not enjoying a lot of the "superhero" stories (loved Batman and most "mutants" though), I really wish my brain had been clever enough to come up with this because I love it.

[u/MaritMonkey → u/[deleted]]

I don't think I've ever gotten to employ "you must be fun at parties" more aptly.

[u/animedeathspiral → u/MaritMonkey]

i think you and the other guy probably go to very different types of parties

[u/ChilternRailways → u/[deleted]]

Wow, what a boring thing to say.

[u/animedeathspiral → u/ChilternRailways]

idk, powerscaling and "could superman outrun the flash" shit have always been a bit cringe. The "why and how" of a characters powers have never been the thing that makes them interesting, its how they use the powers and how theyre written that make the character interesting

[u/ChilternRailways → u/animedeathspiral]

have always been a bit cringe

It's just people using their imaginations. It's not at all cringe to do that. Children do it a lot, but that's because they're good at having fun.

The why and how has never been the thing that makes them interesting

Just like with magic, some people find the process fascinating, others the outcome. To put one over the over is the only wrong answer.

[u/Lemixer → u/animedeathspiral]

Have you ever read web serial "Worm"?

Its can be considered a "parody" of a typical superhero world but most super powers are explained and more grounded.

Like a Flash equivalent in Worm sacrifices power for speed so in order to move fast he has to be practically naked and he can't do much harm while he moves fast, so the most OP power in DC is one of the weakest in the setting, i feel like stuff like that can be pretty cool.

You can make "how and why" interesting if you want, but ofc its not for everyone.

[u/animedeathspiral → u/Lemixer]

the only time i have found the minutiae of how powers work to be interesting is in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, because the powers are often hyper specific nonsense and when the author explains them in detail the explanations are also just nonsense that boils down to the author saying "i thought it would be cool if this guy could turn people into snails with rain" and then working backwards from there to justify it.

[u/WHATAREWEYELINGABOUT → u/abouttogivebirth]

In one of the books I’m pretty sure Reacher’s pecs are so dense they stop a bullet. Safe to say the guy isn’t human