Now that we have a superhero ready in terms of superpowers and looks, we will think about how he gained powers.

Do you think a random backstory will work? Will it convince people to accept the superhero? A good backstory will make or break the deal for you.

The making of Ironman

Anthony Edward Stark (Tony Stark) is the son of wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, and Maria Stark. He is a genius and obtains many degrees by the time he is 15. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company.

Knowing about the genius nature of Tony Stark, enemy army led by Wong-Chu captures him and orders him to build weapons for them. He secretly makes an armoured suit which is capable of warfare and can fly through the air. He uses the suit to destroy Wong-Chu’s military base and escape from there.

He then modifies and adds more weapons and features to his suit which is the one that is seen today as the gold and red suit.

Batman -Origins

This is about a 6-year-old falling into darkness and meeting a nightmare

Bruce was a happy child leading a happy life. He was on a picnic with his parents one day, chasing a rabbit, when he fell through a hole he hadn’t seen.

He knew his father would come for him, but it was dark, and he was hurt, and the cave was very big. Then he was afraid. He tried to tell himself that it was okay because his father was coming, but it was coming closer and his father was taking so long…

He was not prepared for what came out of the darkness. A bat! There was only him and this thing in front of him. He was very afraid and helpless. Bruce’s father did come for him, of course. Bruce was okay. His parents cleaned his knee and put a bandage on it, and everything was okay again.

Two years later, his parents took him to the movies. He wanted to see The Mark of Zorro, because he liked the dashing hero with his smile and his cape. While they were walking, a street thug came and shot his parents.

That day, young Bruce Wayne decided to fight crime once he grew up and kept on learning about crime fighting techniques till the day he was ready. He did fight a few criminals in normal clothes but he wanted to scare his enemies and dominate them. Then he remembered that one creature that scared him in the dark- a bat!.

"I must have a disguise. Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible...a...a...a bat!"
– Bruce Wayne – Detective Comics #33 (Nov. 1939)

From that day, he became batman.

The above were the origin stories of two of the most famous superheroes. Which one did you like?

Let us see what goes into making a good backstory.

1. Let the hero earn the the superpower for himself: It is always better to let the superhero work hard for the superpowers than earning it by luck or by birth. This will put some value into the character’s superpower while the reader reads it.

People are more likely to respect a poor man who became a millionaire by his hard work than a millionaire who was born as one. The same applies to superpowers as well.

2. Make the character’s origin story as human as possible: Your superhero may or may not be a human but writing an origin story with human emotions like love and care will certainly help. People tend to sympathise with superheroes who love and care for their family. So if the superhero gains power due to some scenario involving his loved ones then it will likely become relatable with most readers.

3. Give provision for more: Leave some opportunity for new superheroes or villains to originate from the same source. For example, we see multiple Kryptonians appearing in the Superman series and having the same power as Superman and becoming both a challenge and help for him. General Zod was an evil Kryptonian who wanted to turn Earth into Krypton by terraforming it which would have killed all people on Earth. We see Superman’s cousin, Supergirl arriving later in order to help him and other people on Earth. Imagine that the radioactive spider bit an evil guy before it landed on Peter Parker. You will have an evil version of Spiderman. You can create some really good villains and companions if you have some openings like these.

4. The most important of all - think of new ideas. Avoid mutations or alien spaceships carrying babies or self-trained warrior. Use them if you can think of any way to present them as a fresh idea. Most of the superhero origin stories are so repetitive and common that they can be grouped into different types.

Right now there are three different types of stories of origin of superheroes.

1. Human effort

This is when a normal human being achieves unmatched martial skills due to his own hard work. It is already known that human body can do wonderful things when trained. Gymnasts, weightlifters and wrestlers are an example. Our body can achieve great speed and strength when put through extreme training. This fact was exploited to a great extent by superheroes like Zorro and Batman.

The Zorro

2. Science fiction

These kinds of Superheroes got their powers from the so-called “scientific” sources. Some of them are robots, some are modified genetically while some others are aliens. Some use powered suits or superior mechanical body parts. Most of the famous superheroes fall in this category.

3. Fantasy

This is the category of superheroes which are based on magic or gods or something which is not defined by “science” or is not a part of the real world. They are small in number but are still present. Characters like Zeus and Wonder woman fall in this category.

You can find a list of superhero origin stories in the wikipedia link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_story#Critical_explorations_of_the_origin_story