Elsa, Week 12 - Superpowers
One of my favorite Webtoons is this story called “Eleceed,” which tells the story of a young high schooler named Jiwoo Seo who learns that he has extremely fast reflexes and the ability to move at the speed of light. With his newly gained superpowers, he is flung into the “awakened world,” fighting various supervillains with his other superhero friends and secretly saving the lives of civilians. It’s such a good story—I love the plot, the art, and the characters—and I look forward to reading it every Tuesday when a new chapter uploads at 6 PM.
But to be honest, there’s also so many other stories that literally have the exact same plot. On just Webtoon’s platform, there is literally a whole genre dedicated to stories about people unexpectedly gaining powers and fighting to save the world—this week, five out of the ten new Webtoon Originals contain a main character with some sort of supernatural ability. And let’s not forget about all the comics, books, and movies that have been made about superpowers. The DC Universe, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and many many Disney movies are all about superheroes and people with exceptional abilities. Superman can fly, Spiderman can shoot webs out of his wrists, and Elsa from Frozen can create ice and snow out of thin air.
Yet have we ever considered what it actually means to have superpowers? What do all of these “superheroes” have in common? Why are these abilities only something that we dream of having but aren’t able to have right now? Actually, I believe that this last question is false. And although this definitely sounds extremely cliché, I genuinely believe that humans already have superpowers.
If you think about it, the two main criteria for something to be considered a superpower are: having an ability that surpasses the idea of what is considered possible for a human to do, and having it have the potential to impact the world. This definition is extremely general, but I think it’s impossible to create a more specific definition, given the vast variety of superheroes we have. For example, if only people who harness an exceptional ability themselves are called superheroes, then Ironman won’t be considered one because he’s literally just a regular man in an extremely powerful suit of armor. Given this, I think that we’re definitely closer to having superpowers than most people think.
Two hundred years ago, the idea of humans being able to fly was implausible—it was a dream that many had, but no one thought it to be possible for a person to stay in the air for long periods of time. But look at what we have now: flying has become a regular form of transportation, whether it’s by plane, helicopter, or rocket. So technically, this means that we’ve all gained the ability to fly, as long as we can afford it.
I think that ultimately, whether or not we have superpowers really depends on the way you define it. For me, I believe that we have the potential to achieve most of what we think is currently impossible, and personally, this is enough for me to say that we’re all capable of having any power we want.
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Good morning Elsa! Your Blog was really interesting and exciting to read, and I like how you incorporated one of my all-time favorite superheroes, Ironman, into your writing. The ability to have superpowers is an abstract concept that many individuals around the world interpret differently. To me, the fact that human beings can basically achieve (almost) everything they put their mind to is enough of a superpower. I also found your comparisons with the past and the present really interesting because it is absolutely true. There are many things that we have today that human beings centuries ago would have considered inconceivable. Some examples of these include the technological inventions we have today, such as Artificial Intelligence, electric cars, advanced telephones, and even advances in the medical industry.
ReplyDeleteHi Elsa, Eleceed is also one of my favorite Webtoons, so I’m glad to hear that you enjoy reading it too. Unfortunately, I haven’t read approximately one year of the last updated episodes (but I swear once the next school break starts, I’ll catch up), but I really admire your dedication to checking it every week at 6 p.m.; I relate to that so much because I also used to wait for my favorite Webtoons, like Purple Hyacinth, Sweet Home, and The Boxer, to update at the same time in the past. It was really funny to hear that you also noticed that there are hundreds of webcomics with the same plots. I think what makes each story so appealing nevertheless is how the authors approach character building and development in their own slightly different ways.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you proposed a lot of questions that came up but also recorded your ongoing thoughts modifying one of your questions, adding to the authenticity of your writing voice. I definitely agree with your point about how humans theoretically already have superpowers, even if we sometimes wish for generic ones, such as invisibility, teleportation, and/or mind reading. Like you implied, it’s actually pretty interesting how we admire all these superheroes in media for having powers like super speed and super strength from a metal suit but often lose focus of what I think really makes them superheroes: their self-awareness of their powers and how they approach using them towards their definition of the greater good. Adding on to your conclusion about how everyone is capable of attaining any power they want, I think if everyone was more aware of their own abilities and how these abilities undeniably contributed to a better world, we could all be superheroes as well.
By the way, this is kind of unrelated, but I think there was an older Webtoon with the same author as Eleceed; I forgot what it was called, but the characters are also really fun to follow, and I remember it was one of the first ones I read when I first started reading Webtoons. It’s really long, but I’d highly recommend reading it if you haven’t!
Hi Elsa! I also enjoy reading action Webtoons and while I haven't read Eleceed I have read others with a similar elements like Lookism, Tower of God, and Jungle Juice. I agree that so much of the action superhero genre in general revolves around the same concept and those unique abilities given to ordinary people is what captivates the audience. Seeing people train and improve their powers to contribute to a better world overall, but also endure challenges and hardships is what makes these stories so entertaining. I liked how you compared futuristic powers to the ability to fly, which was once implausible. I never realy thought about it this way, but your point makes sense and superpowers are a lot more attainable than we realize and due to all the things going on in our individual lives we may fail to notice how rapidly the world around us is changing. There are already so many advances in technology that would seem insane a couple years ago but are normalized to us. Overall I really liked the structre of your blog and how you talked about various types of superpowers. Thank you for sharing and great job!
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