Media featuring normal people with superpowers?
June 27, 2021 12:35 PM   Subscribe

I'm looking for movies/shows/books that center around a protagonist who has superpowers but still lives a relatively normal life (no fighting supervillains, etc, superpowers used mainly for the hassles of everyday life). Particularly looking for psychics/people with telepathy because that tends to not be a great power for fighting evil, anyway. Also partial to workplace comedies because of how regular/normal they tend to be.

The example I've found that has fit best for me is The Disastrous Life of Saiki Kusuo, which hits all of my criteria pretty neatly. The only other two I've really found are Smallville (which does, unfortunately, have a significant level of fighting evil involved) and Cherry Magic (which was a manga and focused too much on the romance part). I have read a handful of books that sort of do a telepathy thing at some point in the past, but they were all also mainly romance, which was fine, but I really do want the superpower aspect to be a little more central.

I know this isn't a real thing that exists, but what I would like the most is something that centers around Clark Kent as an alien, but instead of moonlighting as Superman, he's just a journalist. That is the ideal for me. But anything that comes anywhere close to anything I've said above would be much appreciated. Not too picky when it comes to quality anymore because I understand the trope I want is pretty specific.
posted by mnc to Media & Arts (38 answers total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
Hancock?
posted by rhizome at 12:40 PM on June 27, 2021


The Rivers of London series might do what you want. Police procedurals, basically, but some of the cops have magic powers.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:07 PM on June 27, 2021 [2 favorites]


There's a book called Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask about two multicultural Toronto activists who discover they're mutant superheroes, and how they fit the consequences of their powers into their day-to-day lives as broke young people with kids, roommates and jobs.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:12 PM on June 27, 2021 [3 favorites]


Bewitched.
posted by jonathanhughes at 1:15 PM on June 27, 2021 [5 favorites]


There was a whole genre of this in the 60, including Bewitched, as mentioned above, but also My Favorite Martian, I Dream of Jeannie, and My Living Doll (in which the character is a robot). In all of these, many plots centered around the necessity of hiding the character's powers.
posted by FencingGal at 1:22 PM on June 27, 2021 [3 favorites]


Misfits UK TV series from the 90s. Brilliant casting.
posted by runincircles at 1:28 PM on June 27, 2021 [6 favorites]


The Secret World of Alex Mac

I haven't seen this literally since the 90's, but it may fit.
posted by Armed Only With Hubris at 1:33 PM on June 27, 2021 [2 favorites]


Kimagure Orange Road! One of my old favorites. It does focus on romance, because it’s arguably the defining anime about love triangles. The main character has psychic powers and it impacts the plot but mostly he is just trying to navigate friendship and love and growing up. The manga is also good, incredible art and more nuanced content due to pacing, but the music and voice acting in the anime makes that my preferred format.

You might cast your eye on the comic series Rising Stars, which does focus on superhero action stuff, but in a very atypical way. It’s a complete contained story so you don’t need to like, know about some character’s sixty year backstory or anything. It doesn’t have much of what you’re looking for but it’s a unique take on super powers and even the comic format so I think it might interest you.

Similarly you might check out the comic Powers, which is a police procedural in a world where folks have powers. It’s very cool and plays around with a lot of tropes, and is from the perspective of law enforcement having to deal with powered shenanigans.

You might like the outstanding comic series Fables, which is about fairy tale characters who have immigrated to the real world. They have to get jobs and pay rent and deal with discrimination and cultural appropriation and all sorts of interesting things. Some of them have more magical powers than others. It’s long running and the art is beautiful.
posted by Mizu at 1:35 PM on June 27, 2021 [2 favorites]


Matt Fraction's run on Hawkeye specifically focused on what Hawkeye does when he's not being an Avenger. It's really very good.
posted by parm at 1:37 PM on June 27, 2021 [1 favorite]


Ah! My Goddess! does occasionally have forays into combating cosmic monsters (The Lord of Terror, the Angel Eater, et al). But mostly it's small stories about small triumphs. (Keiichi's mini-kart race against Hasagawa is a favorite. Bell and Urd trying to "prove" that they're magic to Sayoko Mishima, who remains steadfastly skeptical, demons notwithstanding, is another. Yet another favorite is nothing more than Bell, Keiichi and Chihiro on a road trip, with all the trials and joys of driving in Japan.)

And, yes, I'm going to cite My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Sure, Equestria sometimes faces extinction-level threats. And yes, Twilight has, on occasion, been punched through a mountain. But the best stories are about things like Twilight trying to figure out how to divide 2 tickets among 5 friends, or Rainbow Dash coming to terms with Tank hibernating through the winter.
posted by SPrintF at 1:38 PM on June 27, 2021 [2 favorites]


Robert Silverberg's classic 1972 novel Dying Inside is worth tracking down.

"The novel's main character, David Selig, is an undistinguished man living in New York City. David was born with a telepathic gift allowing him to read minds. Rather than use his ability for any greater good, however, Selig squanders his power, using it only for his own convenience."
posted by monotreme at 1:52 PM on June 27, 2021 [1 favorite]


Out of This World would fit the bill. Sitcom about half-alien teenage girl who has time-stopping powers.
posted by subocoyne at 2:21 PM on June 27, 2021 [1 favorite]


Kurt Busiek's comic series Astro City might fill the bill here.
posted by humbug at 2:30 PM on June 27, 2021 [1 favorite]


Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks. Teenager develops teleportation powers. Most of the book is about his day-to-day troubles, the remainder is him trying to escape from the "you aren't using your teleportation wisely" police.
posted by brook horse at 2:31 PM on June 27, 2021


This was the plot of the short lived but as I remember it pretty ok tv show No Ordinary Family.

Seconding the recommendation for the show Misfits, but imo I recall a lot of the charm from when I watched it the first time came from a perfectly synched soundtrack. The show that's on Hulu right now has had a lot of the music swapped out, presumably for licensing reasons.
posted by phunniemee at 2:36 PM on June 27, 2021


Not an exact match to your question, but I enjoyed Super-Folks, a 1977 satirical novel by Robert Mayer, when it first came out. It was a very 70's-era, orange-shag-carpet and olive-colored-kitchen of a book and I haven't re-read it since, so I won't speculate on whether it would play well given current sensibilities.
posted by zaixfeep at 3:06 PM on June 27, 2021


Another couple of anime series that might fit what you're looking for: Hinamatsuri and/or Flying Witch.
posted by teraflop at 3:16 PM on June 27, 2021


I Am Not Okay with This might fit the bill. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt9446688/
posted by aka burlap at 3:27 PM on June 27, 2021


Have you seen The Greatest American Hero?
posted by heatherlogan at 4:19 PM on June 27, 2021 [4 favorites]


Kiki's Delivery Service is an outstanding example of what you're looking for.
posted by SPrintF at 5:26 PM on June 27, 2021 [2 favorites]


Not a protagonist with superpowers, but "Powerless" is a great superhero comedy from the perspective of non-powered people.
posted by jgreco at 5:28 PM on June 27, 2021


Jumper is a mediocre movie, but it's also a pretty interesting book about how a guy who can teleport lives his mostly very boring life.
posted by gideonfrog at 5:31 PM on June 27, 2021 [1 favorite]


There's a movie called Dakota Skye, who has the superpower of being able to tell whether or not the people around her are telling the truth, but her life is pretty much normal in all other respects.
posted by foxfirefey at 5:45 PM on June 27, 2021


The 90’s version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch might fit the bill. And you might enjoy What We Do in the Shadows.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:27 PM on June 27, 2021 [1 favorite]


The X-Files episode Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose concerns the story of a man who can see how people die and it does him absolutely no good at all.
posted by Mitheral at 9:10 PM on June 27, 2021 [2 favorites]


ALF, Mork and Mindy, My Hero
posted by divinitys.mortal.flesh at 1:09 AM on June 28, 2021 [1 favorite]


The TV series Medium centers around a psychic who works for the police, but a lot of it is about the daily lives of her and her family.
posted by rjs at 1:27 AM on June 28, 2021


Misfits UK TV series from the 90s.

It is very good, but there’s also a lot of fighting the baddies.

(Pedantically: also it started in 2009!)
posted by fabius at 5:56 AM on June 28, 2021


The Korean drama My Love From Another Star has a protagonist who passes as human but is an alien hanging around waiting to go back to his planet and specifically not trying to use his powers for good. There is a bad guy antagonist, but he doesn't have any powers or anything and is kind of a side plot; powers are mostly used for convenience and, eventually, romance.
In some robot-centric shows, like I Am Not a Robot and Are You Human Too?, the robots use their abilities for daily stuff. In Hwayugi/Korean Odyssey the main female character originally uses her abilities to do real estate work (she can tell if a place is haunted), some characters who are gods use their powers to run a talent agency and attract worshipers fans, and a winter god runs an ice cream shop. There's also a bunch of fighting against demons and so forth, though, so it probably doesn't fit the bill.
posted by trig at 6:00 AM on June 28, 2021


Dead Like Me follows a girl who has joined a team of grim reapers, and is fundamentally a workplace comedy/drama.
posted by AndrewInDC at 6:13 AM on June 28, 2021 [3 favorites]


One of my favorite novels is The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender. The protagonist's super power is that when she eats something, she can sense the emotions of whoever baked it.
posted by Troupe of trained rats at 9:19 AM on June 28, 2021 [1 favorite]


I started watching Jessica Jones without realizing it was a marvel thing, and I didn't catch on for a *really* long time, so it might suit you.
posted by dbx at 9:35 AM on June 28, 2021 [1 favorite]


There used to be a show called Early Edition with Kyle Chandler, where every morning he opened his door to get the next day's paper a day ahead. It was charming, I think he had a friend who kept wanting him to gamble since he knew who won everything, and he felt kind of put-upon because he'd go around trying to prevent that day's crimes or accidents and nobody would believe him.
posted by headnsouth at 11:39 AM on June 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


There's an older manga series called Land of the Blindfolded with protagonists which can see forward or backward into a person's life when they touch. They do occasionally try to right a wrong or something of that sort, but mostly just deal with teenager-y stuff complicated by the their powers. There is a romance, however!

Along the lines of Alex Mack, there was a late 80s tv show called Out of this World. The protagonist was a teen girl with an alien for a father, which gave her powers. Stopping time was the first one, and I think others were added later. It was fun, but very 80s sitcom-ish. Again, she sometimes used her powers for good, but nothing like saving the world, mostly normal teenage things. In terms of romance, I think there is some, but I can't really remember.
posted by clerestory at 2:33 PM on June 28, 2021


To expand on the Astro City reference above, here are a few storylines from the series that might fit your parameters:

Astra Furst's story arc, where she yearns to be a normal second grader in contrast to her family life in a group of scientific adventurers. (featured in Astro City Vol. 3 Family Album) She continues on through high school, college and her first job over several other volumes.

Steeljack just got out of prison and is trying to go straight as an aged supercriminal with a steel-hard skin. (featured in Astro City Vol. 4 The Tarnished Angel)

Astro City Vol. 11 (Private Lives) features several stories of that type: the workday of a personal assistant for a powerful sorcerer, a low-level themed criminal tries to leave his life of crime and tailored outfits behind and a robotics genius tries to forget her past by creating a roadside robot museum out of superheroic battle salvage.
posted by JDC8 at 2:35 PM on June 28, 2021 [1 favorite]


The French movie Vincent (2014)
(AKA Vincent Has No Scales).

Vincent is a quiet unremarkable young man who is looking for a job, gets romantically involved, but wants to keep his natural yet unusual power hidden.
He can literally swim like a dolphin.
Pretty cool movie.
posted by artdrectr at 4:54 PM on June 28, 2021


Unbreakable? He's just a dad who's also a security guard. Some fighting evil but it's pretty understated.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 8:06 PM on June 28, 2021


Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist - half family drama, half workplace comedy. Her superpower is that people sing their feelings to her - and she's the only one that can hear them.
posted by soelo at 12:39 PM on July 2, 2021


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