So, I watched season one of The Umbrella Academy. I’d never read the comics, and so went in pretty cold, aside from knowing that the lead singer of My Chemical Romance wrote the original comic stories. And it’s a pretty fun series if you’re into superhero stories!
It’s also a great place to discuss a specific writing challenge that comes with superheroes, which goes like this: Just as we’re all dying from the moment we’re born, every super-powered character has to be neutered at some point the moment you create them.
With Great Power Comes an Equal and Opposite Power
The problem is obvious, right? When you have a character who has an incredible power, they can slice through plot problems. In The Umbrella Academy, the kids all have powers, but one character is a cut above: Allison, who can make people do anything she wants by saying I heard a rumor. That’s a pretty potent power; after all, she can stop the villain at any time simply by whispering in their ear.
And so, the moment she’s created, she has to be smothered, or else nothing makes sense. When you create a hyper-powerful character you have two basic choices: One, you can neuter them somehow. Two, you can create a villain that is equally powerful. That’s it, and they both have problems.
In The Umbrella Academy, they chose option one. SPOILERS: They were clever about it in the bulk of the series; Allison is guilty about using her power throughout her life to get what she wants, and super guilty because she used it on her own daughter to get her to go to sleep. That’s a believable motivation for not using your godlike powers every five minutes. Later, when the true adversary is revealed and Allison must as a character start unleashing her power, however, they have to stop it or the story ends with one episode to go as Allison just says I heard a rumor you’re gonna take a five-year nap and that’s it. So they injure her vocal chords, essentially rendering her immaterial to the story, which kind of sucks.
Option two is also kind of boring, because when your villain has the same abilities and powers it turns into a slugfest. A boring trading of blows that amounts to two drunk guys having a fist fight in the parking lot of a 7-11.
So what’s the solution? Frankly, the solution is to not play the game. Don’t create a character whose powers are so incredible they can solve any plot problem you throw at them. Give their power a flaw, or a limitation, or a steep price to be paid. This way you can avoid having a mind-controller character who literally controls zero minds during the big final battle in your story.