This is something I’ve wondered about for a while.
All the heroes that we see (in particular, the Paars and Frozone) seem to have superpowers, and were presumably born with them.
Meanwhile, all three villains that we see are “non-supers” who use technology - Bomb Voyage, Syndrome and The Underminer. (Syndrome explicitly states he has no superpowers, the others never show any particular signs of having them).
I just wonder, in the filmmakers minds, if there are any “superheroes” in the world of The Incredibles who don’t technically have superpowers (like Batman), and if there are “supervillains” that do have powers? Or was the line purposely drawn that way - heroes = supers, people who use technology to be like supers = villains?
Note: I haven’t seen the DVD extra with the info about the other supers that is often spoken of on here.
Also, where do you draw the line on “super”? Could Syndrome’s intellect count as a superpower, even though he says he doesn’t have any?
Oooh, an excellent observation! I don’t think that it was intentional for the three Super Villains in the film that they didn’t have Super Powers. But lets understand that there were other villains in the past (the Glory Days). Some of them may also have Super Powers.
The definition of a “Super” is someone who who has special powers or abilities. They can be good or bad. The hero/villain title gives us that answer.
I don’t know what one would call a hero with out Super Powers though.
I had never noticed that before! I agree with TSS that anyone, be they good or evil, can be defined as a ‘Super’ as long as they have superpowers, and that it’s probably a coincidence that the villains we see in the movie don’t have superpowers.
As for Syndrome’s intellect being a possible superpower, perhaps it could be considered one…But thing is, an intellect such as his, though obviously not common in our ‘normal’ world, does occur sometimes. You never get anyone being able to fly or turn invisible or anything, but there are some people in real life who are very, very intelligent. So maybe Syndrome isn’t really a Super, because although he does have a special ability, it is one that is not entirely abnormal (at least, not to us).
huh. I never realized that before! Like what everyone else said, good observation. It is something to think about. Now that you point it out, I would like to see how they’d handle a villian that had super powers. Obviously the strategy would have to be different.
Thinking back to my childhood comic book collecting days however, many of the villians did not actually have any “super” powers & were frequently smart, crafty individuals with an axe to grind. I don’t know if it was intentional on Pixar’s part to play into that theme, or if just sort of happened that way.
There are of course many villians who DID have “super” powers in the old comics, but some of the biggest names I remember did not:
Lex Luthor
The Joker
Doctor Octopus
Green Goblin
Dr. Doom (contrary to the films, he did not actually have any powers)
Kingpin
Catwoman
The Penguin
It’s quite possible the lack of “Super” powers in The Incredibles’ villians was actually intentional and done to pay a sort of tribute to the genre that spawned the film in the first place.
I noticed it too. (The gadgets etc.) It kind of bugged me.
I kind of have a fancharacter in my head though who uses gadgets and is a hero- he’s Dash’s partner when he strikes out on his own. He’ sort of the ‘straight man’ (though he has temper issues) to Dash’s humour.
If they did a sequel I’d like it to be an issue brought up though. Like someone trying to strike it as a hero without superpowers and actually succeeding at it. You know actually WORKING to be special instead of being born with the abilities. (I mean we did get work outs and development of powers- but I think you know what I mean). Abd unlike Syndrome not doing it for glory.
And a ‘super’ who was fighting aganst them. A bitter ex-hero even who can’t believe that people are just pretending the whole banning of supers never happened.
(Probably indirectly perhaps even saying IT was why the whole Syndrome-killing-supers happened so EASILY because they drove them underground an he/she would have a point. I like that idea actually- a friend of one of those murdered or someone for whom it just really GRATES to think about what happened in general. )
It’s part of my ‘head canon’ however that there are more non-super heroes in their universes’ Europe and other areas- all the supers seem to be born or else travel to their version of America to ‘get names’-, because of this sometimes non-supers pick up the ‘slack’ in other countries, where there are less of the big time villains setting up base but they still exist. Maybe.
Of course a problem would be- what defines them from a mere vigilante to a hero? Is registering if you’re a super mandatory?
