In Marvel and DC Comics, many heroes got their powers in traumatic ways, although that is usually thanks to a radioactive spider bite or a trip through cosmic rays. With that said, other heroes got their powers in even more damaging manners, with Blade as a perfect example since he got his powers when his mother died giving birth to him. There are so many bad events that give people powers, which happen in almost every Marvel and DC origin story, and there are other instances where the person gets their powers in a way that could have easily destroyed them, but they became a hero because of how they persevered.
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Here is a look at the worst ways that some heroes in Marvel and DC got their powers, and how these heroes used the trauma to become great.
10) Blade
Blade never had a chance because he got his powers when he was born, and it wasn’t a pleasant moment for anyone involved. Eric Brooks was born in London in 1929. His mother, Vanessa, lived in Soho and sought out a doctor during her troubled pregnancy. That doctor was Deacon Frost, a vampire who feasted on Vanessa while she gave birth. This meant his vampire enzymes went into the baby as he was born, turning Blade into a Dhampir. Frost was driven away before he could kill the baby, and Eric grew into the powerful vampire hunter Blade. Other than Dracula, this made Deacon Frost the vampire Blade wanted to slay more than any other.
9) Plastic Man
When most people look at Plastic Man, they see him as a jokester and a comedy hero. However, his origin story is a lesson in tragedy. Patrick O’Brian was a petty criminal who was hired to steal something from a chemical plant. However, a guard caught them, and during a shootout, a bullet hit a chemical container and the contents spilled on Patrick. This caused him to start to melt on their escape, so his friends threw him from their car and left him to die. He had to figure out what was happening to him and finally found a way to put himself back together. Before long, he settled on returning for revenge, all with a new sarcastic sense of humor, likely a response to the trauma he experienced when he got his powers.
8) Daredevil
Daredevil was someone with no actual superhuman powers, but he got his heightened senses thanks to an accident when he was a child. Matt Murdock’s dad, the boxer Battling Jack Murdock, raised him to have a good understanding of right and wrong, so he wouldn’t repeat the mistakes that he had made throughout his life and possibly become a better man. However, Matt’s life was turned upside down when he saved a blind man from an oncoming truck and ended up splashed with a radioactive isotope that fell from the vehicle, blinding him. Jack ended up refusing to throw a fight to set a good example for Matt, and that resulted in his murder. Matt, still a child, began to realize all his senses were heightened, and from this tragedy, he grew up to become Daredevil.
7) Jessica Jones
Jessica Jones is another character with a traumatic origin story, having gained her powers in an accident that killed her family and left her scarred. She was a teen when she and her family were traveling together, and their car collided with a military convoy transferring radioactive chemicals. Her family was killed, and Jessica spent months in a coma. When she came to, she ended up in an orphanage before being adopted, and learning that she had developed superhuman strength and durability caused by the chemicals in the accident.
6) Swamp Thing
Alec Holland’s transformation from a human into the Swamp Thing was a pure horror story. Alec was a scientist who had a breakthrough and developed a formula that would solve any nation’s food shortage problems. Unfortunately, when Alec refused to give the formula to the evil head of the Conclave, he ordered two men to kill Alec and his wife. They knocked out Alec and set a bomb in his facility. When the lab exploded, Alec woke up, raced out in flames, and leaped into the swamp. What happened next was that his formula helped the swamp soak in Alec’s memories and consciousness, creating the entity called Swamp Thing, who believed he was, in fact, Holland.
5) Drax the Destroyer
Drax the Destroyer has a complicated origin story. First, there is the story of Arthur Douglas. He was a human on Earth who was driving through the Mojave Desert when Thanos flew overhead in his spaceship on a surveillance mission on Earth. Wishing to keep his arrival a secret, Thanos blasted Arthur’s car, which killed him and his wife. His daughter lived, though, and Thanos’s father Mentor took her to be raised on Titan, where she grew up to become Moondragon. However, Arthur was resurrected and turned into Drax the Destroyer, but his memories of his family were stripped to make him a more ruthless warrior. However, this leads to his second identity, which is as an Avatar of Life, and while he lost everything, this means that he was turned into a weapon of destruction without understanding why.
4) Deadpool
Deadpool’s origin story is dark. This is why he likely developed his mouthy, wisecracking personality. Wade doesn’t have the best memories of his childhood, but when he was old enough, he did join the U.S. Army Special Forces, which led to him joining a CIA-sponsored military assassin team. However, during this time, he developed 34 inoperable cancerous tumors, broke up with his girlfriend so she wouldn’t have to go through the pain with him, and prepared to die. However, Department K in Canada offered a chance for a cure through the Weapon X program. They implanted the healing factor taken from Wolverine, and it seemed he was cured. When his cancer returned and caused deformities in his flesh, Department K kicked him out of the program and sent him to the Hospice for treatment. The head of the Hospice, Dr. Killebrew, tortured Wade nonstop, but soon his healing factor really kicked in, and while he was almost killed many times, he finally escaped and became the Merc with a Mouth, getting revenge on everyone.
3) X-23
X-23 has one of the most tragic backstories of any Marvel Comics hero. Laura Kinney is a clone of Wolverine, artificially created by the Facility to serve as an assassin. A scientist named Sarah Kinney, Laura’s surrogate mother, helped raise her. The head doctor of the facility, Dr. Zander Rice, subjected the young Laura to radiation poisoning to force her mutant gene to activate. He then felt she wasn’t cruel enough, so he released a chemical compound on her that caused her to lash out and kill everyone around her, including her sensei, Tanaka. Finally, seeing what they were doing to this girl, who was only 11 when she was sent out on her first assassination mission, Sarah helped Laura escape at the cost of her own life. After only 11 years, Laura went through more trauma than most superheroes in a lifetime.
2) Cyborg
Cyborg is typically shown in DC Comics to have a jovial sense of humor and is often lighthearted. While that somewhat changed after the New 52, he is still more positive-minded than his origin story would hint at. In the New 52, his origin was the same as it was in Zack Snyder’s DCEU. Stone was a high school football star whose father was the brilliant Silas Stone. However, when Darkseid tried to invade Earth, a Fatherbox exploded when Victor was in the lab, and he should have died. His father used technology to turn his son into a cyborg, which led Victor to not only know the pain of his origin but to realize his life would never be the same.
1) Rocket Raccoon
Rocket Raccoon has one of the most traumatic origin stories of anyone in Marvel or DC Comics, especially for animal lovers. Rocket was a young raccoon who was captured and used as a service animal for an inmate in the Halfworld Asylum for the Criminally Insane. While there, robots built to act as stewards gave intelligence and awareness to the animals through a traumatic and painful surgery. He was only one year old when this happened. Burying the trauma deep down, he imagined his new exoskeleton and clothing were gifts from friends, and he realized he had to use his new skills to protect the weaker animals on the planet. He was only six at that time. From the time that he was captured, everyone treated Rocket like an object, hurt and tortured him, and never relented. It is no wonder he has such hatred in his heart as a hero.
What hero do you think got their powers in the worst way? Let us know in the comics!
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