Grrl Power #884 – Wham, Smash, to the Scaffolding
Today is just not going according to anyone’s plans it seems.
I’m pretty sure panel 1 is the best boot I’ve ever drawn. I know that’s a weird thing to fixate on, but between Maxima’s collection and the uniform boots, I draw a lot of them.
Fun fact. Alf is short for Alien Life Form. I assume most of you know that. I don’t know why I assume that, beyond you guys being generally pop-culture savvy. And by pop-culture, I mean a TV show from 1986. But that’s fine, pop-culture has a long tail. I’m not sure what the cutoff is. OG Star Trek and Doctor Who are still fair game, but the Frank Nelson reference from a few pages back is probably borderline. Presumably references from the court of Louie the 14th is too old to count as pop-culture… but that’s a bad example because that stuff wasn’t broadcast to the masses anyway.
I’m not sure where “pop-culture” starts actually. The original comic strips in newspapers? The first movies? Maybe the first plays? Even if those were super popular, they’d ultimately have a limited audience due to physical considerations of attendance. I think mass literacy is a requirement before you can have broadly consumed “culture” as it were. A quick googling shows that England passed the Forster’s Education Act in 1870, which, after a few tweaks, led to mandatory primary education by 1891. So, I guess pop-culture could have started to exist any time after that, at least in the English speaking world.
Then again, stuff like Beowulf has been around since 975 AD, so who can really say.
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On the pop culture discussion. While the term is young, the concept is old; and is actually a point of aggravation for historians; as a great deal of the popular common culture is so internally well known that is was seldom written down in full or there were so many variations going around that so long as one or more aspects were done everyone in that culture pretty much knew what you were talking about.
Robin Hood is a prime example, this was a popular cultural character, but also a generic fill in one, so everyone knew who this was, but could write their own versions, tell their own versions, so by the time we had written versions they were an odd ball mix of the most popular traits plus the author’s version.
Same with sports, and to be honest that kind of what folklore was prior to major entertainment industries. Characters and creatures that weren’t worshipped but were popular in the culture, a folk hero, a trickster, something to tell stories about that you could go to just about any town or village and sing about and people would have some idea what you are talking about.
King Arthur is the one that amuses me the most. Simply because the usual way these things work is to start with a small incident and it then snowballs with each subsequent retelling, as each author adds the embellishments you mentioned. For instance Launcelot was a creation of a French writer, seeking to spice up the existing Arthurian tales, with chivalric traditions (which post dated the original folk tales).
And this continues into the modern day, with Hollywood giving all the Knights of the Round Table shiny full plate armour that wasn’t even invented until many centuries after King Arthurs time. Likewise with them giving the full action hero treatment to all warrior heroes.
Yet the FIRST written account of King Arthur was WAY more over the top than even the top Hollywood action hero kill count. With it recording that Arthur wiped out an entire army single-handed.
Couple that historical fact (the written account, that is) with the Grrlverse setting, and it is clear that King Arthur was a pretty powerful super. One who is due to return when his country most needs him!
Ooh do you know more grrlverse Maxima level supers.
I can produce Moses.
In the grrlverse he would probably be a Maxima level enhancer with a tendency toward telikinesis or a servant of a god.
Thor.
Have you seen any giants wandering around?
I appreciate this reference.
How does Excalibur get woven into it as well, not to mention the lady of fhe lake or the sward in the stone.
Merlin? Was the lady of the lake a deity/god?
Who/what crafted the sword?
the lady of the lake is a welsh water fairy and the sword is elf steel *never rusts, never dulls*; everything else is embellishment.
Well the original text does not mention any of those, so all could be embellishment. Put yourself into the shoes of a dark ages peasant listening to an eye-witness account of one man beating up an entire army, and killing soldiers in the hundreds.
“What did he look like?”
“Pretty normal. Fit, strong, tall quite handsome.”
“So not a giant?”
“Nope”
“So how did one guy kill all those soldiers?”
“Just whacked them with his sword mostly.”
“So it must be a magical sword then”
“Dunno, it wasn’t glowing or anything. Bit hard to tell under all the blood mind.”
“Well it MUST have been magic or a gift of god/the gods or the faeries or he must have been under a magic spell. There is no other possible explanation!”
To heck with Arthur, if you want a real tough guy then you need the one that shoved the damned sword through the anvil and stone in the first place. That guy must have been a real badass.
Isn’t that Merlin in some versions.
Is that velmence
No, but it might be another vehemic energy user like Vehemence, just from an alien planet rather than from Earth.
It is plausible for there to be another super with a similar or the same power. Although I doubt it, as Dave is far too creative to recycle ideas. Plus it was an unheard of power, which caught them all by surprise. Strongly implying that it is either unique or very rare.
What is very common though is bruiser power sets. Tough thugs with super strength. Which he very much fits the bill visually and in what he did. Motivation wise vehemic energy itself would explain WHY this attack was being made. However the super genre provides many reasons for whacking heroes, so it is not the only option out there.
As for it being alien, yes there are some races with superpower-like abilities (such as Succubus illusions). However see the point about the rarity of the power. If there was an entire race with that ability, it is likely Dabbler would have heard of it (although I do concede that she is not the most studious of students, however that is a fairly basic fact, well within her remit of having a broad knowledge base, even if she is lacking in depth). And Earth is the only planet in the galaxy to have individuals with super powers (i.e. not being racial powers), so if he is a super, he is human.
Of course it could have been a magical spell or other effect. If so though again I think Dabbler would have heard of it. Unless it is a unique, secret spell. Which is just waaaay too much of a coincidence for it to have independently been developed and then be deployed against Max again.
A couple of key pointers away from him being an alien are firstly that the guy looks like a super human thug, including his clothing, and secondly that he made a human pop culture reference denigrating Torchy as being an alien (see the author’s blog above). Whilst it could be a bluff by an alien, it is seriously obscure, so would seem to be a very poor choice, given that it is unlikely to be picked up on by any given individual listening to it (and does not seem to have much point to doing so, in any event).
In full agreement that it is definitely not Kevin though.
The only way that I see he could plausibly be a vehemic energy user is if somebody has managed to replicate his power. Unless Deus has been visiting Kevin in prison that too seems unlikely. And as he is the only person who has even hinted that he can replicate super powers, I think it highly unlikely that he would authorise the use of such against Maxima. Both because he likes her and because it would heavily implicate him.
I do not think the Vehemic power was necessary rare or unique, but that is is rare or unique in Humans. Dabbler clearly had an idea what it was, and I believe even mentioned that such individuals could turn the tide of an entire war, implying she’s run across and possibly even fought some before.
One sec, seeing if I can find a page referencing such…
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-266-schooling-before-the-schooling/
Alright, so correction, Dabbler mentions such powers are very rare even among demons, and seemingly unheard of among humans.
His ‘power’ could come from his knuckle dusters, ala Juggernaut and his crimson knuckle dusters
We’ve no reason to assume Dabbler never heard of him.
Just read the final part of Tsapki‘s comment. Dabbler said that human vehemic users are unheard of, so this is explicitly stated.
Who says they’re human. Humans tend to have non-glowing eyes even in the grrlverse.
Except with supers, pretty much everything goes out the window.
I already stated the key points for why he is likely to be super human. And Narf gives the reason why glowing eyes does not contradict that. Sometimes if it looks like a duck (or a superhuman bruiser) and quacks like a duck (or uses human pop culture references, to denigrate aliens) it is a duck (just making it clear that in this case I am saying it is likely to be a super human, rather than a duck).
However it is not my aim to dismiss alternatives. This is the super genre, where anything is possible. So here are ways that the attacker could be something other than I suggested:
1. He is, like Cora, an off-Earth human (i.e. born or otherwise living elsewhere in the galaxy). In which case he could be using technology/magic (similar to that used by Ray Cosmos) to gain the bulging form, and glowing eyes.
One thing which would support this is by using the term “Alf” (Alien Life Form). Whilst this is a very obscure pop-culture reference, it may actually be commonly used by the human ex-pat community, off-Earth. We can assume that they would have gone to lengths to keep up with Earth news and culture. And a segment of the community might enjoy following Earth cultural speculation about alien life and depictions of it (likewise amongst any aliens who get their kicks following backwater planet entertainment).
Plus, once a prerogative term has been spread, it tends to persist in the language, so this guy need not even be a geek, just someone using common ex-pat slang.
2. He is an off-Earth super human. Which we have no evidence of even being possible. We know that only humans have natural super powers (as opposed to those granted by technomagic, like Cora). If it turns out that only Earth born humans can be supers, then this option is off the cards. However if it something specific to humanity, but not Earth, then it does not matter if a human was born on Mars or Fracture they might grow up to be a super human.
However we do know that supers are very rare. Likewise that the ex-pat human community, whilst possibly in millions, is still far far less than the billions on Earth. So, even if they are possible, there are not likely to be many non-Earth superhumans (DaveB did give us figures for how common supers are in populations and I would guestimate that only 1 or 2 may be supers).
However that could be offset by the fact that supers tend to be more common in industrialised nations. So even though we do not know what causes super powers to emerge, if it turns out to be something associated with the presence of higher technology (pollution, power lines, magnetic fields, gremlins etc) then the ultra technology and dense populations present in places like Fracture might actually make them much more likely.
3. He could be a werewolf or golem or treant or any other big bruiser-like monster. Which the Veil is disguising as a super-human bruiser. Previously this would not be possible, as supers were not known to human populations, so the Veil’s program would not have listed them as being acceptable images to cover up supernatural activity. However that aspect of the Veil could have been updated, since humanity publically found out about aliens.
This is less likely, as it has only been a couple of months, and that is a short amount of time to program in such a complex aspect to the Veil. However the Twilight Council does have numerous extraordinary individuals within its ranks, including Krona. So we should not dismiss that option, just because it would have been hard to do.
And there would be a strong incentive to take advantage of the opportunity. We have already seen some attempts to deliberately unmask the Veil. And with some of the key pillars destroyed, the Veil is weaker in places, which may encourage other attempts unrelated to the original plot. So rampaging werewolves or other monster attacks may have become more common, as discontent spreads.
Which would be a lot easier to cover up if the werewolf (etc) could be disguised as a common form of superhuman thug. Not many people would be convinced that a human could pick up a car and throw it, but if they look like a superhuman thug, it would be readily accepted, now that people are used to seeing supers on their TVs and at public events.
Further the supernatural population, on Earth, is inundated with human pop-culture, so the term “Alf” might be in common slang usage, to refer to members of the alien faction, within the supernatural population.
Which could also provide a motive for this very public attack on Maxima. If that is a werewolf (/golem/elemental/etc) trying to stress the Veil and reveal the supernatural, we could see the conspirators deploying other individuals, of more diverse types, to make it harder and harder for the Veil’s program to cover them up.
Good point.
One other thing, in support of point 3. is that New York is where the Twilight Council is situated. So there is a large supernatural population in residence, and would therefore be easier to gather the numbers necessary to overstress the Veil.
A alien would have not been able to make the “ALF” reference.
It is the kind of specific where you do not know if the other person even understands it.
Maybe it is the one guy that could match maxima and was presumed dead?
Maybe some other nations super?
Mmm, generally, yes, if the alien is not familiar with Earth culture. However we have been transmitting our radio and TV shows out into space for 80 years or so. Meaning that any aliens who pick up the broadcasts, as they approach through the nearest 80 light years to us, would be able to familiarise themselves with our languages, culture and pop references.
More than that, amongst the other supernaturals living on Earth, there are aliens. And the Twilight Council (and likely the alien faction) have been in operation for about 3,000 years. So any aliens who can draw upon that knowledge (for example all races who have representatives on Earth), will actually have very deep knowledge about humanity and human culture. Perhaps more than we know, given knowledge lost from pre-history and in the dark ages.
However not all aliens will necessarily have access to either or both of those knowledge pools (for instance if their means of star travel do not allow casual monitoring of radio broadcasts). So your point remains valid. Likewise the others that you raised.
Your other speculation is fair
No, he’s not an alien. An alien would not reference ALF, because they too would be ALF. It’s the pot calling kettle black. It’s more likely a super of some sort. ALF is basically being used here like “off worlder”. So even if he is an alien by species, he’s from Earth, or identifies as being from Earth.
I dont’ think so, but if it is, this comic is going to take a very violent and dark turn.
Well, if you are talking about earliest media with the widest audience Architecture might be the oldest form of pop culuture with the longest staying power. Pyramids, and other Wonders of the World would be pop culture reference points, or allusions …in print there is religious texts. The Bible and its peers certainly form the spine of the popular identity. Even if you want to restrict the idea of pop culture to entertainment and prurient pass-times I would say my examples still hold up from a big picture secular humanist perspective.
For a long time, the common people did not have access to the Bible, because the common people simply couldn’t read (and the Church didn’t want them to be able t read the Bible and find what a load of monkey balls it was, or at least, what they were telling people it said)
And when they could read, they couldn’t often read Latin or Greek (the two languages Bibles were mostly printed in until quite recently).
Yups
Obviously oral traditions would be oldest, but might not be as wide spread and consistent unless you want to get into Joseph Campbell’s comparative religion/storytelling tropes.
Aboriginal Australian oral traditions have been shown to have sufficient consistency to have recorded meteorite impacts as far back as when writing was invented!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/find-meteorites-listen-legends-australian-aborigines-180952941/
I think that Maxima should just like Sydney still has her rebreather invest in insulated clothing to enforce the idea of being vulnerable to electricity.
Anvil should lube her hair and hide it in a helmet, so if some attacker grabs her by her hair his hand will slide through, but he will not be able to see it coming.
Or Anvil could cut her hair shorter.
https://media.vogue.com/r/pass/2017/08/23/army-hair-social….jpg
Quite a clever bluff you suggest for Maxima. Although for it to be ‘effective’ it would need to be made of rubber, or something equally convincing. And I don’t see Max being tempted to walk around wearing a rubber outfit.
It doesn’t need to be skintight to work. Just use PVC and polyethine instead of latex. It would immediately allow her to hide real protection behind it(heath isolation, radiation shielding, etc.)
I didn’t dare to suggest snipping her hair for comparable reasons I wouldn’t suggest latex to Max.
Fixed link for hair image.
I am baffled that anyone thinks this bruiser is Vehemence. Dave’s art style may have changed substantially over the years, but this guy bears basically no resemblance to Vehemence. Head shape, face, body, everything’s different. He’s got big, beefy arms, but that’s about the only similarity.
Also, he has a line of dialogue, but he’s not in the “Who’s Who?”, and would be if he’d shown up before.
Yea, clearly not him.
If this was Kevin Dave would have posted his Who’s Who. I suspect that since Dave didn’t bother to create a Who’s Who for Knuckles here he is meant to be a short lived piece of Maxima fodder.
Possibly, for your conclusion.
As regards the Who’s Who though, there are requirements in order for somebody to be listed. Firstly a speaking part, which this guy qualifies for, but he has not had the second part, namely an introduction. Even principle characters follow these rules, so its lack is not conclusive evidence, one way or the other.
Yes, but that is exactly why he’s not Kevin
Principle characters only need an introduction once, any other time they are not included after is when there is either too many to be listed or they don’t have a featured part (like last page when we saw Brooke, Les and Morph fighting in the background)
yeah that keeps coming up, like they’ve never seen other comics or super hero media having these big muscle guys. So many keep thinking its him or that this guy has to have the same power. Its like seeing Strong Guy from X-Factor and mistaking him for the Hulk or Juggernaut; or thinking all three must have the same exact power.
A lot of people have an annoying tendency to want everything to be related. Every new thing is assumed to be connected in some way to everything that’s already been introduced.
Sure, a work should generally be coherent, and something that’s introduced should be used more than once, rather than the work being an endless chain of completely unrelated events. But some people’s personal capacity for novelty seems awfully low.
I find it interesting that this alien seems to think she knows exactly how fast Maxima can move.
“She’s nearly moving at full speed now!” Um.. Not sure that’s the case. She might understand the others are in full fight mode and she doesn’t -need- to be at full speed. Max does like to cut loose, but she also really likes to have people consistently assuming they know her full power, only for her to one-up that limit with an evil grin on her face.
I think that is a subjective reference – Maxima is actually moving super fast but the alien is referencing her moving at full (human) speed as Maxima’s fast speed while under the stasis effect is translating to normal human speed.
yeah – I think I would say it this way: Torchy is indicating that the stasis field is becoming less effective as it runs out of power, so that Maxima is moving closer to normal “full speed”. The way I read it, she’s basically saying that Maxima is getting closer and closer to moving as though she was a normal-speed being that was not under the effect of a stasis field.
My thought on this was more along the lines of, “If Max is moving that fast to counteract the field, she’s gotta have some significant momentum going as well. The idea of her moving in one direction with that momentum (assuming that the field does not negate momentum thus when it fades Max is going to need ALL of her control to pull back and stop before decapitating “Torchy”) makes it interesting that the Super that punched her was able to straight up negate her forward momentup and reverse it into the other direction wihtout using circular redirection to bleed off the forces that would have been part of the impact on his hand, arm, shoulder, and body.”
No, it’s simply, Maxi is about to be moving at full speed because the stasis beam is about to stop working, which was forcing Maxi to be moving slower
‘Normal speed’ as opposed to ‘half speed (or slower)’, not Mach 16
This bruiser had better enjoy that one punch, since now that she’s out of the stasis field, there’s no way he’s gonna land another.
He’s clearly an Earth Super, or an alien who is a fan of 1980s Earth Sitcoms. Maybe he knows some Melmakians?
Considering how long the Council has been around, there is a non-Zero chance Melmakians are a real alien species. And ALF was actually one of them, rather then a midget in a constume.
MIB in the animated series did that for an episode. Also the Xenomorph and Carebears (expies of them) were aliens in that same episode.
Pop culture references are assumed to be “What would the average person who is of X age recognize”. (The cut-off depends on the age set.) Generally, it’s “20s” or so. “Currently airing television that is generally popular” is another way to put it.
…Now, CLASSIC culture is any culture that was popular BEFORE said age group, that was popular beforehand.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FandomLifeCycle
INformation.
For example Reading rainbow is on the edge of not being known anymore. Which is disappointing because I can no longer use it as a stand-in for Read The F****** Manual.
And then we ztarted putting it up on the web, where we have multiple genrations of people and culture going into one gigantic melting pot. Soon ir will very difficult to distinguish such vagaries and distictions.
It took like what 25 years to go from personal computers that did not even have the disk space to hold one song to being able to pick and choose photos, music and movies at a whim.
Whoops too late. ;)
Nice keming on “Flicker”. ;)
well, started to read this yesterday/two days ago
and now that i reached this
the craving begins
“One of us! One of us!”
“Come with us, join us.” Dabbler has cookies!
Cookies!!! Yum!
Another, slightly slower archive re-read will slate your thirst. A second will be nice but the high will wear off. Eventually the cravings diminish enough that the weekly doses will tide you over.
In the meantime, the cookies are pretty good. Yorp shares his snax sometimes too.
THANKS FOR THE COOKIES, started to reread the story from there and Sidney put a point in the Middle whuch now has 3 lights, so can she use 3 orbs at once?
Nobody knows what the middle does.
the general theory from what Sydney observed is it may increase her understanding of the orbs as she has become a little more intuitive about them and more glyphs appearing on them *which is something she really should have told Dabbler about as originally there were none apparently; and Sydney should write out the glyphs and what she figured out what certain ones do just in case Dabbler has seen any marking similar…like on an obelisk floating in the nether realms between dimensions or the bottom of a dark sea in an ancient hell or something. Possible clues*
Thank you for that reference/link.
It only now hit me how *SELF-AWARE* having Maxima wearing a shirt that says, “STOP STARING,” would have to be. A shirt like that inherently CAUSES some staring, as people read it.
So, Max can apparently make jokes at her own expense now and then, but they’re subtle.
Is that Vehemence?
It does look like him and “warming up” people for him makes sense. But he also had tatoos that were rather distinct. And unless they somehow removed his powers, he should still be in Weed-Jail.
In what way does he look like Vehemence? I’d say he looks absolutely nothing like Vehemence. He’s big, and has big arms, and that’s about it.
100% Guaranteed to NOT be Vehemence. Seriously why would anyone think that Dave is recycling that character!? There are more supers out there, we had the first show down, Vehemence, Death Toll et al. Now they are back for a second round. I read through most of the posts on here, certainly looks like the guy from the Russian Mob leaders crew. As for motive maybe they just saw an opportunity and decided to take it. Maybe they are after something other than Max, but tactically taking out the greatest potential threat while she is vulnerable makes sense. Maybe they are sadistic nut-jobs. Who knows! Looking forward to finding out though.
In another genre ALF stood for Artificial Life Form.
What was pop culture called before the pop music era?
folk culture / common culture / current trend
‘Pop’ music is not a distinct style of music, or at least it shouldn’t be
Iron fucking Maiden was on “Top Of The Pops”, and they have been a heavy metal band since at least their second or third album (they started kinda punkish, but became full metal with Brucie)
‘Metallica’ could be considered ‘pop’, and not even they know what sort of band they are, they keep changing to follow the cash
Hrm, looks like a human super-team has chosen their time to strike?
Vektor/Opal/Kevin’s posse was thrown together at the last minute, with barely any plan but “take them down hard and fast!”. This team has probably been carefully assembled, and preparing for a while, and will hopefully put up a better fight. They may even have an objective besides “HULK SMASH” – perhaps THEY’RE hoping to capture Maxima?
If you are a Mafia group, and you show that your supers can take out the established “best of the best” the authorities have to offer; you effectively own the town. Its an arms race in that case. Why guys like King Pin and Ruby made it a point to target street level heroes and recruit as many criminal super villains as they could.
Who was ‘Ruby’?
Ruby Thursday, she has a super computer grafted to her head, can shapeshift her head as a result and has super intelligence. Your basic mobster type villain most of the time, joined a few others with head themes, and her biggest thing was when she ran for president of the US, nearly won, and had intended to manipulate the public and government into boosting her and her fellow cronies bank account…..she even got a classic hero “Omega the Unknown” killed as when he tried to stop her robbing a casino the police on the scene saw a super human man beating a “frightened” human woman in her car and shot him to death.
in short she is generally a street level villain who uses her intelligence, money, and connections more often than her powers; and tends to fight characters like the Defenders more so than anyone else; occasionally clashing with Hulks and Spider-Woman.
https://comicvine1.cbsistatic.com/uploads/scale_small/11/117763/3274144-wolverine04311.jpg
On the subject of pop culture, it could be argued that vox pop was spread by trivia boards way back with the main eras of the Roman empire.
(Apologies if I missed someone else raising this)
Don’t know if this has been pointed out before. Reading the hundreds and hundreds of comments this comic generates with every panel is a rather daunting task I am not up to at this moment but…. Considering: A couple of people on this planet took out a Fel cruiser without breaking a sweat in front of the galactic police eyes. They are now going to be watching a full super hero / super villain battle after a armed, equipped and experienced kidnapping team failed to secure a single individual from this planet. The galactic higher ups cannot help but consider that if the human species can produce individuals of such power, there would definitely be a threat if they got off world. May be best to make sure they can never get off world. I’m sure that’s going to be discussed at the next emergency meeting being called pretty much right now. What happens during the upcoming hero/villain tussle may well sway what that vote may be.
and then the higher, higher, HIGHER ups; come in and say, “hey, that planet is OUR experiment/playground; how dare you interfere with their development” and proceed to plow through the galactic empires like a bulldozer through termite mounds. To prevent any further interference.
The Twilight Council have been on Earth, secretly observing humans, for 3,000 years. Having a very diverse variety of interested factions, including aliens (the Demon faction being one such), magical groups and gods (the Olympians for example). So, yes, there is a lot of interest in humanity and super humanity. And they do vote on how to deal with them, as evidenced by the Veil, which has been hiding ALL these factions from humanity for 3,000 years.
Sydney is living in an interesting time.
Hm. Comic 888 fast approaching and be near Halloween.
Why do I get that hair tingle down me neck? Me senses Max’s nice boots be deep in alien zombie parts. And then , AND THEN … Aieeeeee! …sinister crunching
Um, just … WTH is Max?
Jump cut to; Vale making deadspace caramel apples …
*burns some joss sticks*
You are clearly channeling Sydney.
Om mani pani om
That is an excellent boot.
If Dave draws it again, would that be a reboot?
Need another PEW PEW gun
https://www.deviantart.com/adamwarren/art/Cover-art-for-Nov-25-s-EMPOWERED-PEW-PEW-PEW-561034914
We know that supers are more common in industrialised nations, even if we do not know why. If this is due to the presence of something technological inducing super powers, then how could there be super powers in antiquity? If the requisite technology is really primitive (say water wheels), to justify how that Canadian lumberjack could have been a super, then even agricultural economies should spawn a higher instance of supers, if they happened to use a higher proportion of these technologies.
Which, with 3,000 years worth of study by the Twilight Council, and other interested factions, such as national governments, should have been picked up by now.
So failing that, if it is a byproduct of some much more advanced technology, such as nuclear reactors*, how could there be ANY supers on Earth (running with that example), before WWII and the Manhattan project?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlgpxj8NgNs
* Perhaps in conjunction with something else unique to Earth, to explain why aliens do not have super powers.
There is the “Oklo Natural Nuclear Fission Reactor”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor
And that is after the natural radiation background, like the C-16 Isotope of Carbon, Tritium (the radioactive Isotope of Hydrogen) and Cosmc Background Radiation.
Also, just because it is more common in industrialized nations now, does not mean it was impossible in the past.
The chance might be 100 times higher now, but there is 100 times more years in the past then in today.
the triggering mechanism can differ from the amplification mechanism.
the actual mechanics that causes super powers could be around all the time but only activate in people under specific incidents that normally would be anomalous; like being struck by lightning carrying down cosmic radiation, or a some isotope specifically firing through just the right part of the brain, ect…
let’s say there is some mechanism in the planet’s core that radiates out into the magic field a code that binds to non-modified *no lycanthropes or vampires ect…* biology. However this is only a primer; certain other types of radiation, emotional states, exposures to certain types of electromagnetic radiation, ect…could be required to actually trigger the super powers. Something that isn’t impossible through history but very rare. As well as something any alien force behind it could control; go get some human or “chosen one” scan them for the type of primer they have, and use the right exposure to trigger it. Think Kree, Marvel’s Celestials, and Creators from Guver type of scenarios. Way back in the day Marvel said mutants were rare because the X-gene was normally dormant unless they had a powerful mutant ancestor or exposed to certain things; like radioactive fall out; and the material from the nuclear tests permeating the world caused a sudden explosion in mutants being born (I am sure they’ve retconned this at some point like the gamma gene that used to be explained why some people exposed to gamma radiation got powers instead of cancer or straight up death).
However with the advent of radio communication, constant exposure to radiowaves, electrical fields, infrasonic noise from machinery, ect…the primers inside more people are being struck and their potential powers activated.
A final thought before the new page comes up. I checked the comments and only one person mentioned this possibility; in passing (Yorp); that occurred to me.
the third option. Everyone is like aliens or supers; but we still have that lingering plot thread of some supernaturals wanting to go public. Supers have, aliens have; that just leaves the supernaturals. and while risky, one way to do it for the extremist ones is a big flashy fight in the middle of a street full of aliens so guaranteeing a lot of folks have their cameras out.
So this guy could be something big like a mini-kaiju, werebear, or other supernatural wanting to out themselves; hard for the veil to cover it up with so many seeing him use non-human appendages (tail, extra arms, wings, claws) and outing himself.
-I am leaning more to super with the local crime family; but this other possibility is out there and that plot thread is dangling there, tantalizing the kitten of story telling.