This weeks poll position asks you which of the following SuperHero Archetype is your favorite?
The Brick: Characters whose primary power set is based on strength and endurance. Examples of a Brick character would be; The Hulk, Superman, and The Thing.
The Blaster: Characters whose primary power set is based on some form of long ranged energy blasts. Examples of a Blaster character would be; Cyclops, Havoc, and Wildfire.
The Gymnast: Characters whose primary power set is based on Agility and flexibility. Examples of The Gymnast character would be; Spiderman, Dare Devil, and Nightcrawler.
The Speedster: Characters whose primary power set is based on superhuman speed. Examples of The Speedster character would be; The Flash, Quicksilver and Max Mercury.
The Psionicist: Heroes whose primary power set is based on Psychic powers. Examples of the Psionicist character would be; Jean Grey, Professor X, and Emma Frost.
The Andriod/Robot: Characters who are in reality A Robot or Android. Examples of the Android/Robot characters would be; Vision, Red Tornado, The Original Human Torch.
The Gadgeteer: Characters who rely primarily on Machines, Weapons, and or Gadgets. Examples of the Gadgeteer character would be; Batman, Ironman, and Green Arrow.
The Transformative: Characters whose primary power set is based on changing his or her physical form in some manner. Examples of the Transformative character would be; The Wasp, Mystique, and Sandman
The Mystical: Characters whose primary power set are Magical in nature. Examples of The Mystical character would be; Doctor Fate, Raven, and Dr Strange.
Other: I am leaving the poll open for you to add your own Archetype to include any I may not have thought of .
I would have to say that my favorite would have to be the Mystical character, I am a Huge fan of Doctor Fate and also as a fan of Fantasy novels have always had an attraction to Magic. So what is your favorite ? Take a moment to vote and leave a message in the comments below to let us know!
I haven’t added it to the poll, since it’s less a superhero archetype and more a general archetype, but I kind of like “leaders.” You know, the sort of person that gives a group a cause to fight for, who can really inspire the group to do greater things through sheer force of will, etc. The only superhero I can think of who fits that (and I could be wrong, since I’m more into fantasy stories than superhero stories) is Captain America.
i like the idea of the Blaster, mostly the flying firepower type. The idea of being able to rain down beam/energy attacks from the air just sounds awesome.
I like whatever Dr. Doom is.
Well, I’ve now discovered I apparently like anti-hero type Gadgeteers. Foremost, The Punisher (I love the MAX version of him and Nick Fury), Jason Todd as Red Hood, V, etc. If you count adaptations from novels, Roland Deschain fits in there too. Of course I’m also a huge fan of Spider-Man, Thor and Red Sonja too.
Wow, I didn’t think that the Gymnast would be so popular. There’s something Freudian going on.
I would have thought Roland fit better with the blaster type, although I can see how some would say that using a gun falls specifically into the gadgeteer criteria.
So many characters overlap some of these archetypes, that I have a hard time classifying them. For example, Captain Marvel (DC) and Thor are both powerhouses along the lines of the ‘brick” type, but they also make significant use of magic. *shrug* Maybe I’m over-thinking this… lol
It is true that many Heroes fall into more then one Archetype. For example, Superman well undoubtedly is a Brick, he could also be considered to be a Blaster because of his heat vision and his super Freezing breath. When I categorize a character I try to focus on his or her most prominent Archetype, though if in doubt you can always combine archetypes and say for example that Thor is a Mystical Brick.
Trying to classify characters is over-thinking it. They overlap a lot. Superman is about as classic a “Brick” as you can get, but his eye blasts pack way more punch than Cyclopes.
Oops. Once again i demonstrate why you shoud read all of a page before replying. Well said Kaldath.
I don’t really have a favorite power archetype, I’m more interested in character personalities. Having said, I do find in my superhero RPG experience, I’m usually making mystical or psychic types to fill in the gaps in our team, with the occasional gadgeteer character from time to time.
Supervillain, Gadgeteer, Mystic, mostly…
I like Blasters, Gadgeteers, and Speedsters the most, with a slight nod to Gadgeteers (though I’m much more of an Iron Man fan. Batman is more of a Gymnast than a Gadgeteer…)
I’m sorry, but…
…it’s “whose”.
Okay, it has been corrected, however my spelling and grammar has and I am sure will always suck so get used to these errors! 😀
It’s funny that this topic came up, because I was recently running through my own head, trying to classify “supers” by the source of their powers. Needless to say, I had the same difficulty. lol
The same thought occurred to me, but this certainly isn’t the first time I’ve seen Batman singled out for his gadgets. While important for his crime-fighting, his gadgets really only serve to augment his extremely keen intellect, amazing martial prowess and impressive gymnastic acumen.
The two-type descriptor that
It’ll be a difficult task, I can tell XD
I even forgot to pick the archetype I like. If anyone’s interested, I favour Psionicist/Mystical.
What is with the Random capilization? I don’t Understand. You are writing on a blog on what Seem to be a Fairly regular Basis.
I like the mystical type best, not for the cheesy mumbo jumbo part, but for all of the unrealised possibilities. The mystic can do anything he/she sets his/her mind to, go anywhere, are always useful. That’s something that only gadgeteers besides them can achieve, although mystics do it a bit better. That kind of limitless potential appeals to me.
Well, I’m a huge fan of Bricks, Gymnasts, and Psionicists for heroes, but when it comes to villains, I have a bit of a weakness for Gadgeteers; I’ve got about four or five gadgeteer villains of my own.