Superpower (ability)

Superpower is a popular culture term for a fictional superhuman ability. When a character possesses multiple such abilities, the terms super powers or simply powers are used. It is most frequently used in pulp magazines, comic books, science fiction, television programs and film as the key attribute of a superhero.

The concept originated in pulp magazines and comic books of the 1930s and 1940s, and has gradually worked its way into other genres and media.

There is no rigid definition of a "superpower". In popular culture, it may be used to describe anything from minimal exaggeration of normal human traits, magic, to near-godlike abilities including flight, superstrength, projection of destructive energy beams and force fields, invulnerability, telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, super-speed or control of the weather.

Generally speaking, exceptional-but-not-superhuman fictional characters like Batman, Iron Man, Green Arrow and The Punisher may be classified as superheroes although they do not have any actual superpowers.

Similarly, characters who derive their abilities from artificial, external sources—the Six Million Dollar Man and his bionic limbs, Green Lantern and his power ring, and Tony Stark and his Iron Man armor may be fairly described as having superpowers, but are not necessarily superhuman.

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