Mass Super-Empowering Event/Playing With

Basic Trope: All superheros got their powers at the same time, from the same event.

• Straight: All superheroes and supervillains got their powers when an alien ship crashlanded in New York on April 30th, 1987.
• Exaggerated: Half the galaxy got superpowers when the entire constellation Orion goes supernova at the same time.
• Justified: Nanomachines quietly add metagenes to their subject's DNA but don't activate them until they receive a specific radio signal.
• Inverted: Everybody loses their superpowers during an eclipse.
• Subverted: The Large Hadron Collider goes online. Nothing happens.
• Double Subverted: ...Until the next generation is born.
• Parodied: In the year 2004, Janet Jackson experienced a Wardrobe Malfunction at the Super Bowl which was broadcast on live television. Most people watching at home are killed instantly by the sight of nipples, but some survived, gained powers, and became... THE BREASTFORCE!
• Deconstructed: Fantastic Racism and Bullying a Dragon against the superheros ensues, followed by a Mutant Draft Board and exploitation by Muggles.
  • The world struggles to slowly and soberly adjust to what is considered by most to be a radical and random change in society.
• Reconstructed: The poorly trained superheroes and even more poorly equipped mobs don't last long; a chagrined public repeals the laws and the standard Super Team structure reemerges.
  • After coming to grips with the changes to the world, society makes a few major changes before accepting the aftermath of the event as just another part of modern life.
• Zig Zagged: The Large Hadron Collider goes online. Nothing happens...until the next generation is born...at which point every woman who gives birth gets Flying Brick abilities and Most Common Superpowers.
• Averted: The Large Hadron Collider goes online, thanks to local superheroes protecting it from local supervillains. The idea that it could have resulted in Super Empowering is never suggested.
• Enforced: The event recurs every 7 months, 19 days, 22 hours 11.4 minutes. The network televison ad rates for "Power Day" are almost double those of the Super Bowl.
• Lampshaded: Every time there's an industrial accident, meteor shower, or uncommon event of any sort, casinos and heroes start taking bets on how many new supers will come out of it.
  • Established heroes / villains groan when the accidents happen because it means dozens of green new applicants will come knocking.
• Invoked: A scientist discovers a Super Empowering formula and decides to share it with the world...by turning it into an aerosol and flooding the atmosphere with it.
• Defied: The city is evacuated before the nuclear waste truck drives through, just on the off chance that some accident happens and everyone is affected.
• Discussed: "Y'know, considering how often these massive Freak Lab Accidents make a whole generation of supers, you'd think that there would be The Men in Black or Nebulous Evil Organization circling every disaster like vultures."
• Conversed: "Why is it no one in these shows thinks: "I just got powers after this weird event, maybe there's a connection", then they wouldn't act all surprised when they met other supers."

---

TV Tropes is a Mass Super-Empowering Event, burning away thousands of once-productive hours at an ever-increasing rate.