[Music]
they may be awesome heroes but the way
they became heroes not so much welcome
to watchmojo.com is superhero origins
for this list we’re looking at superhero
origins which are strange bizarre or
just plain dumb we’re also focusing on
the origins as they appeared in the
comics not other media and we’re looking
at heroes and not villains although you
may still find some anti heroes here
also many superhero origins get updated
and retconned over the years but we’re
looking at those origins as they first
appeared in their original comics as
well as any updates that made him even
worse we ruled this land with fairness
and compassion and the people loved us
but there were factions that resented
these two gods from another world
number 10 the Golden Age Adam it’s like
the writer for this one took those
Charles Atlas ads from the comic books
way too seriously
okay so you got Al Pratt this short guy
who’s in love with this girl named Mary
and emasculate Sal for not being able to
punch out a crook who mugs them
fortunately al meets a bum who just so
happens to be a former trainer for
famous prize fighters one year later al
so muscle-bound that doorknobs break off
in his hand he manages to save Mary from
kidnappers but she doesn’t know it’s him
who saved her which was kind of the
whole point of Al’s transformation the
atom may have gotten stronger since he
last saw Mary but he’s also still dumb
as a doorknob and all that’s basically
just ignoring the fact that he’s still
just a short guy who got really strong
number 9 puck the Golden Age Adam isn’t
alone in the short of stature hero
Department alpha flights punk is a
little person with great acrobatic
skills but when his origin was revealed
things got unnecessarily goofy you see
puck was originally a very tall and
striking guy he was also a bit of a
mercenary and one day he was hired to
steal a mystical sword mystical how you
ask well it kind of contained the spirit
of an ancient wizard remember this is
still technically a superhero comic and
not a Dungeons & Dragons module anyway
the evil wizard escapes from the sword
and puck had to give up some of his
height to defeat the mage and ended up
with immortality in the process but
seriously was it so wrong to have him
just be born a little person number 8
Valkyrie
warriors your seats in Valhalla are
promised protect Odin with your lives
there’s unnecessarily convoluted origins
and then there’s Marvel’s Valkyrie
Brunhilde the Valkyrie was originally a
warrior goddess who took the souls of
Fallen Heroes to Valhalla
but then the villain enchantress took
possession of her soul and used it to
give other people the Valkyries powers
starting with herself
eventually Valkyries body and powers
were controlled by a woman whose own
body contained Valerie’s mind and by
pure coincidence the two looked so alike
that not even brynhilda could tell them
apart
oh and that woman’s body was also
trapped in another dimension eventually
all that mind and body swapping was
sorted out but that also involved a lot
of confusing deaths for everyone
involved
fun stuff number 7 black Condor
Valkyries origin is way too complicated
but black condors is just dumb and fine
dumb we mean set your suspension of
disbelief onto total overdrive even for
a comic book story basically this
archaeologist is traveling through
Mongolia with his wife and baby they get
set upon by bandits who kill the
archaeologists and his wife the baby is
saved by a condor who raises him as its
own and in the most amazing example of
nurture trumping nature the boy grows up
and gains the ability to fly just
because he was raised that way just like
that no wings no rocket pack not even a
propeller he eventually of course doles
out justice to his parents killers and
then goes to the United States and flies
around catching bad guys of course
number six Black Canary okay
you’re really gonna need to pay
attention for this one Black Canary was
originally a costumed hero married to a
detective named Larry Lance when he died
she left her earth and moved to another
earth in an alternate dimension where
she found not only her husband’s dead
body but also her own still following
okay because it turns out it wasn’t
technically her body it was her mother’s
body it turns out that Larry wasn’t her
husband no no he was her father it all
had to do with her mother’s memories
getting switched into her body and this
whole time she wasn’t the person she
thought she was this was all the result
of an Origin that totally got out of
hand and then another attempt to bring
all of these threads together which just
made everything much worse number five
Catwoman well then again there’s you but
you need therapy
Catwoman’s origen wasn’t revealed until
a decade after her debut and let’s just
say that that time was not well spent in
Batman Volume one number 62 Catwoman
gets hit on the head by falling debris
and forgets the last few years of her
life with Batman’s help Selina Kyle
pieces together the story of how she
became Catwoman it turns out that she
was once an airline stewardess who kind
of fell out of a plane as it crashed
this gave her amnesia and because she
didn’t know who she was she decided to
become a criminal because shut up that’s
why few poor guys Oh is confusing your
pistols make you what about the cat
persona well her father owned a pet
store and all those felines must have
made an impression on her even with all
that amnesia it’s that simple really
meow number four Hawkman and Hawk woman
you and I are the reincarnation of
lovers who died here thousands of years
my real name’s Kate our home
[Music]
but you can call me puck on the surface
the origin of the original Hawkman and
Hawk woman doesn’t seem that stupid
wealthy scientist Carter Hall discovers
an ancient Egyptian dagger and goes into
a trance where’d you get this in Egypt
during an archaeological dig it’s not
from the invasion it’s been on earth for
over eight thousand years he realizes
that he is the reincarnation of an
Egyptian Prince Khufu using a mysterious
inth metal that defies gravity
he and shiera become crime fighters
we’re not sure why the gravity defying
metal is necessary since they both seem
to have wings but whatever it’s comic
book stuff anyway we later find out that
they are actually both aliens who came
to earth as part of a galactic police
force but they look like Egyptians in
order to combine two very different and
conflicting origins into one absurd mess
DC Comics does this all the time by the
way in 6600 b.c two thanagarian law
officers were sucked through a war room
into an uncharted sector of space they
landed here when their ship ran out of
fuel number three psylocke
[Music]
here’s an origin that’s so dumb it seems
like Marvel just kept throwing things
against the wall to see what would stick
while her first origin is pretty
straightforward
Psylocke shows up here on this list
because of how long and convoluted it
took for her to become the psylocke that
we know and love today but Disqus from
the first Olympic Games should be worth
a few pennies a ninja sports fan I keep
my baseball cards in my book readers
first met her as Betsy Braddock the
sister of the hero Captain Britain Betsy
was a pilot model and did a little
espionage on the side when she became
blinded by one villain and kidnapped by
another her mind is swapped into another
body
she turns evil for a while and
ultimately becomes the psylocke most
fans recognize it was such a drastic
change to every aspect of her persona
Marvel should have just made her into an
entirely new character
number two Golden Age flash Jay Garrick
Barry Allen became the flash when
lightning struck him and a bunch of
chemicals at the same time
[Music]
not a hundred percent scientifically
sound but still way better than the
story of his predecessor Jay Garrick a
college student Jay is conducting
experiments involving M hard water
during a and I’m not making this up I
swear smoke break in the lab Garrick
knocks one of the beakers over and uh
the water fumes give him SuperSpeed
yes hard water which by the way is
nothing more than mineral water with
calcium and magnesium in it that’s what
turned him into the fastest man alive
while the origin of Barry Allen’s flash
is definitely better kid flashes isn’t
as they just copy-pasted Barry’s origin
onto a new character still it’s better
than a smoke break and some Merrill
water right valve down kid oh please
before we reveal our top pick here are a
few honorable mentions number one Shazam
[Music]
see if you can spot the bad ideas here
when a mysterious stranger meet two
young boy selling papers and finds out
that he has no parents he beckoned that
young boy to follow him into a dark
deserted subway station before you can
say stranger danger he abandons the boy
in a hallway lined with creepy statues
the kid walks alone down this bizarre
hallway and meets a weird old man
sitting underneath a huge block of
granite held up by a mere threat
the old man is like hey kid you want
some superpowers and boom kid turns into
Shazam so remember kids if an old man
that consumed down a dark alley well
he’s probably a kidnapper but maybe just
maybe he will give you some really sweet
superpowers so why not roll the dice
seriously oh please kids don’t talk to
strangers be nice to your parents so do
you agree with our choices what other
laughably ridiculous superhero origins
should we’ve included on our list for
more marvelous Tom 10s published every
day be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com yeah baby
clap it up
[Music]
they may be awesome heroes but the way
they became heroes not so much welcome
to watchmojo.com is superhero origins
for this list we’re looking at superhero
origins which are strange bizarre or
just plain dumb we’re also focusing on
the origins as they appeared in the
comics not other media and we’re looking
at heroes and not villains although you
may still find some anti heroes here
also many superhero origins get updated
and retconned over the years but we’re
looking at those origins as they first
appeared in their original comics as
well as any updates that made him even
worse we ruled this land with fairness
and compassion and the people loved us
but there were factions that resented
these two gods from another world
number 10 the Golden Age Adam it’s like
the writer for this one took those
Charles Atlas ads from the comic books
way too seriously
okay so you got Al Pratt this short guy
who’s in love with this girl named Mary
and emasculate Sal for not being able to
punch out a crook who mugs them
fortunately al meets a bum who just so
happens to be a former trainer for
famous prize fighters one year later al
so muscle-bound that doorknobs break off
in his hand he manages to save Mary from
kidnappers but she doesn’t know it’s him
who saved her which was kind of the
whole point of Al’s transformation the
atom may have gotten stronger since he
last saw Mary but he’s also still dumb
as a doorknob and all that’s basically
just ignoring the fact that he’s still
just a short guy who got really strong
number 9 puck the Golden Age Adam isn’t
alone in the short of stature hero
Department alpha flights punk is a
little person with great acrobatic
skills but when his origin was revealed
things got unnecessarily goofy you see
puck was originally a very tall and
striking guy he was also a bit of a
mercenary and one day he was hired to
steal a mystical sword mystical how you
ask well it kind of contained the spirit
of an ancient wizard remember this is
still technically a superhero comic and
not a Dungeons & Dragons module anyway
the evil wizard escapes from the sword
and puck had to give up some of his
height to defeat the mage and ended up
with immortality in the process but
seriously was it so wrong to have him
just be born a little person number 8
Valkyrie
warriors your seats in Valhalla are
promised protect Odin with your lives
there’s unnecessarily convoluted origins
and then there’s Marvel’s Valkyrie
Brunhilde the Valkyrie was originally a
warrior goddess who took the souls of
Fallen Heroes to Valhalla
but then the villain enchantress took
possession of her soul and used it to
give other people the Valkyries powers
starting with herself
eventually Valkyries body and powers
were controlled by a woman whose own
body contained Valerie’s mind and by
pure coincidence the two looked so alike
that not even brynhilda could tell them
apart
oh and that woman’s body was also
trapped in another dimension eventually
all that mind and body swapping was
sorted out but that also involved a lot
of confusing deaths for everyone
involved
fun stuff number 7 black Condor
Valkyries origin is way too complicated
but black condors is just dumb and fine
dumb we mean set your suspension of
disbelief onto total overdrive even for
a comic book story basically this
archaeologist is traveling through
Mongolia with his wife and baby they get
set upon by bandits who kill the
archaeologists and his wife the baby is
saved by a condor who raises him as its
own and in the most amazing example of
nurture trumping nature the boy grows up
and gains the ability to fly just
because he was raised that way just like
that no wings no rocket pack not even a
propeller he eventually of course doles
out justice to his parents killers and
then goes to the United States and flies
around catching bad guys of course
number six Black Canary okay
you’re really gonna need to pay
attention for this one Black Canary was
originally a costumed hero married to a
detective named Larry Lance when he died
she left her earth and moved to another
earth in an alternate dimension where
she found not only her husband’s dead
body but also her own still following
okay because it turns out it wasn’t
technically her body it was her mother’s
body it turns out that Larry wasn’t her
husband no no he was her father it all
had to do with her mother’s memories
getting switched into her body and this
whole time she wasn’t the person she
thought she was this was all the result
of an Origin that totally got out of
hand and then another attempt to bring
all of these threads together which just
made everything much worse number five
Catwoman well then again there’s you but
you need therapy
Catwoman’s origen wasn’t revealed until
a decade after her debut and let’s just
say that that time was not well spent in
Batman Volume one number 62 Catwoman
gets hit on the head by falling debris
and forgets the last few years of her
life with Batman’s help Selina Kyle
pieces together the story of how she
became Catwoman it turns out that she
was once an airline stewardess who kind
of fell out of a plane as it crashed
this gave her amnesia and because she
didn’t know who she was she decided to
become a criminal because shut up that’s
why few poor guys Oh is confusing your
pistols make you what about the cat
persona well her father owned a pet
store and all those felines must have
made an impression on her even with all
that amnesia it’s that simple really
meow number four Hawkman and Hawk woman
you and I are the reincarnation of
lovers who died here thousands of years
my real name’s Kate our home
[Music]
but you can call me puck on the surface
the origin of the original Hawkman and
Hawk woman doesn’t seem that stupid
wealthy scientist Carter Hall discovers
an ancient Egyptian dagger and goes into
a trance where’d you get this in Egypt
during an archaeological dig it’s not
from the invasion it’s been on earth for
over eight thousand years he realizes
that he is the reincarnation of an
Egyptian Prince Khufu using a mysterious
inth metal that defies gravity
he and shiera become crime fighters
we’re not sure why the gravity defying
metal is necessary since they both seem
to have wings but whatever it’s comic
book stuff anyway we later find out that
they are actually both aliens who came
to earth as part of a galactic police
force but they look like Egyptians in
order to combine two very different and
conflicting origins into one absurd mess
DC Comics does this all the time by the
way in 6600 b.c two thanagarian law
officers were sucked through a war room
into an uncharted sector of space they
landed here when their ship ran out of
fuel number three psylocke
[Music]
here’s an origin that’s so dumb it seems
like Marvel just kept throwing things
against the wall to see what would stick
while her first origin is pretty
straightforward
Psylocke shows up here on this list
because of how long and convoluted it
took for her to become the psylocke that
we know and love today but Disqus from
the first Olympic Games should be worth
a few pennies a ninja sports fan I keep
my baseball cards in my book readers
first met her as Betsy Braddock the
sister of the hero Captain Britain Betsy
was a pilot model and did a little
espionage on the side when she became
blinded by one villain and kidnapped by
another her mind is swapped into another
body
she turns evil for a while and
ultimately becomes the psylocke most
fans recognize it was such a drastic
change to every aspect of her persona
Marvel should have just made her into an
entirely new character
number two Golden Age flash Jay Garrick
Barry Allen became the flash when
lightning struck him and a bunch of
chemicals at the same time
[Music]
not a hundred percent scientifically
sound but still way better than the
story of his predecessor Jay Garrick a
college student Jay is conducting
experiments involving M hard water
during a and I’m not making this up I
swear smoke break in the lab Garrick
knocks one of the beakers over and uh
the water fumes give him SuperSpeed
yes hard water which by the way is
nothing more than mineral water with
calcium and magnesium in it that’s what
turned him into the fastest man alive
while the origin of Barry Allen’s flash
is definitely better kid flashes isn’t
as they just copy-pasted Barry’s origin
onto a new character still it’s better
than a smoke break and some Merrill
water right valve down kid oh please
before we reveal our top pick here are a
few honorable mentions number one Shazam
[Music]
see if you can spot the bad ideas here
when a mysterious stranger meet two
young boy selling papers and finds out
that he has no parents he beckoned that
young boy to follow him into a dark
deserted subway station before you can
say stranger danger he abandons the boy
in a hallway lined with creepy statues
the kid walks alone down this bizarre
hallway and meets a weird old man
sitting underneath a huge block of
granite held up by a mere threat
the old man is like hey kid you want
some superpowers and boom kid turns into
Shazam so remember kids if an old man
that consumed down a dark alley well
he’s probably a kidnapper but maybe just
maybe he will give you some really sweet
superpowers so why not roll the dice
seriously oh please kids don’t talk to
strangers be nice to your parents so do
you agree with our choices what other
laughably ridiculous superhero origins
should we’ve included on our list for
more marvelous Tom 10s published every
day be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com yeah baby
clap it up
[Music]
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