10 Awesome Comic Book Movie Moments When Characters Received Power-Ups

Even our greatest heroes need a little push sometimes...

It is an unspoken rule that in times of despair and desperation the hero in a comic book movie will receive some form of boost; this can be the initial receiving of superpowers, or a power-up to enhance the ones they already possess. What makes comic book movies so magical is that sense of fallibility; the hero is in real danger of losing, and all of a sudden a majestic feat of ingenuity and luck endows the hero with the means to defeat the tyrannical or deluded delinquent who is threatening global security. These moments have given us some of the greatest comic book movie events of our age; others have simply made mediocre films memorable-in a good way and in a bad way. Power-ups are not a necessarily good thing about comic films, but they are intriguing to say the least; even if the plot is weak, the characters are underdeveloped, or the special effects are almost nonexistent, you are still engaged enough to want to know how the heroic figure will come back from almost certain annihilation. It helps to define €˜power-ups€™ in this context; it can mean an already powerful character being radically strengthened in some by outside means; it can be the means by which a character goes from a scrawny little kid to a powerful superhero. The examples of this kind are almost limitless, but they are essentially the premise of most films in the genre; what would Spider-Man be without that radioactive spider giving him the ability to do whatever a spider can? The persistent power-ups of comic book movies have managed to avoid becoming dull, repetitive and obvious through the sheer variety of the types of power-ups; science, pseudo science, folklore, or magic. This variety keeps the stories fresh, and it prevents the boost from being clearly a device to add some form of speed to a slow storyline.
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Contributor

A 21 year old History graduate looking for someone to listen to his ramblings. Lover of comic books, movies and all other superhero related things. Published in The Independent, always looking for interesting things to write about...Follow me on Twitter at @samclements1993, and check out my blog: http://samuelclements.wordpress.com/