I think that a human can only gain powers through genetic testing of some kind; Either directly to the person, or the person can be born with powers due to genetic experimentation on one or both of the parents, or bitten by an animal that was experimented on, and the cells from that animal attack the body and add information to the DNA, thus giving them powers. (Yeah, kinda like the Spiderman effect. XD)

Thoughts, or things to add?

Also, in my book, my 5 main chars each have a superpower:

-Superhuman speed

-invisibility

-magnification

-dematerialization

-healing

I have some idea of how these powers would work, but what are you guys' thoughts on it?

That is a possible cause, definitely. Healing could definitely be caused by genetic manipulation. Speed could as well. I'm not sure about the others though.

Generally, superpowers aren't terribly realistic, but that's not really the point, anyway. It's certainly an explanation that's fairly standard and you could probably get away with.

Yeah, pretty much. Just say it was part of genetic manipulations and then leave it there, I think. It doesn't need to be explained much beyond that.

Yay! Finally, an HWer writing about superpowers! *bounces up and down excitedly*

I've been doing some of that for quite a while.

That's definitely true. It would be rather difficult to explain much past that.

It's real fun writing about people with superpowers! Especially then they're teens! XDDD @Mimetes

Yeah, it would be.

It probably is, yeah. I've not really ever tried it though.

Several of us are doing it now.

MANY of us are doing it now.

Okay, so I typed up a reply to this and it seems my computer deleted it instead of posting it. Grr. So now this post will be far less clever and clear and helpful than it was before.

Anywho.

I've got a story world where the characters get their abilities from science. From learning. You've heard people saying how our brains have far more capacity than what we use them for? And you've heard stories about things like amnesia where the brain sort of shuts down a part of itself, only to maybe reopen it later? Well, I took those two concepts and molded them together. I imagined that there are areas in the brain virtually unexplored and unused. I proposed that someone (select people) with great diligence in a particular area of science could "open the door" that led to that area, and that the door and the new area of the brain allowed them to have physical power over elements/objects/etc. Now, I knew that it couldn't be as simple as just that, so I added the idea that this door could be opened only in the event of a particular trauma or adrenaline. Now, this whole idea plays out very big in the story, because the story is about how/why these people got their abilities. So someone studying fire, for example, gets caught in a wildfire (or something) and in the panic and chaos of the moment, all their learning bursts against that door and floods into this new, unexplored area where the brain can physically affect the world around it.

It's a fairly unique concept (I won't go as far as saying it's original) and I'm rather proud of it. But sometimes the regular old spider's bite does the trick just as well, or even better. This particular method that I describe comes into play in the story a great deal. It's a big part of the background and the plot.

Now. That's not very practical or realistic, is it? But it's super powers, and they don't really need to be. I think they need to have a reason--just like all characters need to have a reason--but how much you need to actually explain how/why they have powers depends on the story and the characters.

Nope.

There's a difference between a person and powers.

A superpower is a tool by any other name. A person can use that tool any way they wish.

We can use a fork to eat, or we can throw it at our friend, or we could you were expecting something involving gore here, weren't you

most of My Super powered characters will use their powers for good some will use them for evil and some will need convincing of the point you just made . thanks for the reply