Why the freakout due to having special abilities

[Kitsune]

There is a common theme that people find that they have special abilities and they freak out about them.
If you are an Olympic athlete, some of that is most likely inborn.

Thinking about this watching Painkiller Jane. She falls 44 stories and survives, healing all of her injuries.
If she did not have the ability, she would be dead. I might be curious about the ability but would consider it a great gift.

Fantastic Four movie. . .Alright, being a living rock monster might be hard buy why would being able to become invisible be something you want to get rid of? Why would you not want to be super stretchy?

[Zixinus]

There is a common theme that people find that they have special abilities and they freak out about them.

Short version: Partly because finding out by accident is usually a good kick into one's self-image, and partly because of an adage I heard before: special people want to be normal and normal people want to be special.

Longer version: It depends on the circumstance, specifics of discovery and the ability. Finding out that you are psychokinetic by burning down your house with your parents inside tends to make one feel that nothing that the ability would grant was worth it. Finding it out while you are tested for special abilities or when you really wished you had one (say, the cliché of using it against bullies) is a different story.

When you are suddenly pushed into a situation where your normalcy (which is usually at least comfortable to most people) is gone and you are in a radically new situation (and your possibilities may extend to places you long-ago considered ones you didn't want anyway), people's first reflex might be wanting their normalcy back.
Of course, once they have time to adjust, they might change their minds and like their new life. If you happen to be someone who was dissatisfied with their previous life, yeah, the discovery may be great. If your new life seems worse however, or just incredibly uncertain, your previous life's problems may not seem so bad.

If you are an Olympic athlete, some of that is most likely inborn.

Yes, but it comes as little surprise or even within expectations when Olympic athletes become Olympic athletes. They either wanted to become that or were told to become that. And even with a lot of inborn abilities, you still have to work your ass off to be an Olympic athlete.
And I'm talking about just qualifying. To win gold (or even silver or bronze), how many athletes have found that their inborn abilities and hard work are not enough and resorted to drugs/performance enhancers?

Thinking about this watching Painkiller Jane. She falls 44 stories and survives, healing all of her injuries.
If she did not have the ability, she would be dead. I might be curious about the ability but would consider it a great gift.

I don't know about the movie, but I am guessing that she found out that she's semi-invulnerable/semi-immortal by accident or after she did something she expected to die in.
In either case, learning that you have such an ability can shift your world-view rather violently and after falling through 44 floors, you might not be in the right mood to be appreciative.

Alright, being a living rock monster might be hard buy why would being able to become invisible be something you want to get rid of?

For one, just what the fuck happened to your body for it to be able to do that? Sudden, unexpected and unasked-for body changes are not welcome, even if they are not obvious as having a body composed mostly of rock. Also, what are the long-term effects of this? Can you have a child? Can you have even normal relationships? Will you live for ten year or a hundred years with this change? You don't know and nobody likely has any idea. If you are a normal, healthy person who does not have self-worth issues or self-image problems, these questions are rather unwelcome.

Two, that ability may be on file and in the latter case, you might be in a situation where you are vulnerable for your new ability to be simply exploited. Read Prachett's Maskerade for an example on how that is something you may not want to happen or may not happen as you'd like. Unique talents are exploited all the time.

Three, often these are super-abilities that carry the implications that you should use them somehow.

[Simon_Jester]

Zixinus nailed it. Also, if a superpower activates by accident, you might be wondering other things too. "Gee, I just turned invisible. Will I be able to turn back? Will I randomly turn invisible all the time from now on? Am I going to have to go around in public looking like a hollow suit of clothes or be naked all the time, like the Invisible Man from Wells?"

I mean, being invisible sounds cool, but if you can't control your invisibility it would kind of suck. The same goes for superhuman strength (look forward to life in a world made of cardboard), telepathy ("STOP THINKING AT ME!"), and so on.

[Lord Revan]

Then we got something like Savage Hulk, sure near total invunerbility, massive healing factor and super strength might sound sweet but when combined with constant roid rage and having the mind set of a 4 year old (at best) it doesn't sound so great after all, even if there's some control over the powers even if limited, Bruce Banner can for example only try to avoid turning his powers on but has no control after he hulks out (generally speaking).

[Simon_Jester]

Well, that's the extreme limiting case.

The question here is- if a more or less normal person discovers they have some hidden power, but are otherwise normal, why would they freak out? It's obvious why someone who turns into a living rock or a giant green ragemonster freaks out, but why would a woman who learns that she is invisible, or a man who discovers that he is invulnerable, be distressed?

[Zixinus]

The question here is- if a more or less normal person discovers they have some hidden power, but are otherwise normal, why would they freak out? It's obvious why someone who turns into a living rock or a giant green ragemonster freaks out, but why would a woman who learns that she is invisible, or a man who discovers that he is invulnerable, be distressed?

Consider it being like you discover you're homosexual in a pre-gay rights/pre-gay pride world. The thing in of within itself may not bad, but it may still be overall bad thing for you. Every person has to live in a society and greater society may not be easy to hide from or hide in.

I have heard that that X-men's mutations are a metaphor for being of non-standard sexuality. You then might get an idea of societal expectations are important for a person and why a sudden self-discovery might be a kick-in-the-balls.

[Zixinus]

A small elaboration, written outside the edit limit, please merge with previous post:

Or, possibly worse, consider that you have such a discovery in a world that has completely misguided ideas about you. In the x-men world, learning that you have a benifit-only superpower might have people around you asking: so, have you thought of about your costume?

And that's not going to go away, unless you make yourself disappear and try to have a new life where people don't know you have superpowers. You'll have the idea of having superpowers suggested to you every time you watch the news and see any incident where your superpowers would have saved lives. Or where your superpower might invite a visit from either a giant almost-invincible robot or men in black who can legally coerce you as they please . Or where you have to worry about being dragged into a war or conflict because of your superpowers, a conflict you cannot declare yourself out of without endangering your loved ones.

[Ahriman238]

There is a common theme that people find that they have special abilities and they freak out about them.
If you are an Olympic athlete, some of that is most likely inborn.

Thinking about this watching Painkiller Jane. She falls 44 stories and survives, healing all of her injuries.
If she did not have the ability, she would be dead. I might be curious about the ability but would consider it a great gift.

Fantastic Four movie. . .Alright, being a living rock monster might be hard buy why would being able to become invisible be something you want to get rid of? Why would you not want to be super stretchy?

Have you ever seen what happens to a rubber band on a cold morning? Picture that as your arm.

But hey, if you one day find out you have secret powers (assuming you weren't exposed to weird serums, cosmic radiation or too much TV) you get to deal with everything you thought you knew about yourself being a lie, right down to your identity and biology. Is there something wrong with you? Are you dying? Can you control this? Are you the only person like this? Are you, in fact, alone? Are you going to wind up getting vivisected in a hidden lab somewhere? Lynched by neighbors, firends and family who revert to a superstitious mob? Is there anywhere you can go, anyone you could talk to that might offer some hope of someday answering these questions?

Are you going to have to hide this from everyone, forever?

Oh hey, and any number of things you'd dismissed might be real now, mutants, aliens, magic, touch of God, these abilities had to come from somewhere, right? Well finding out any of these things are real is going to be an adjustment, now imagine the weirdness is inside you, a part of you and there's nowhere you can go to get away from it. There is no break to experience normalcy, because you are abnormal and now you carry that everywhere with you.

Not even getting into whatever disadvantages your abilities may come with. I was being glib earlier, but Reed Richards has to carefully avoid temperature extremes. Super-hearing? Good luck ever visiting a city. Maybe you find you can teleport, but there are range limits you have to find out about the hard way and sooner or later you telefrag yourself by appearing someplace you weren't meant to. Cause whatever limits you have, whatever dangers other people aren't exposed to, you'll have to figure them all out on your own. Trial and error, where an error might seriously injure or kill you.

Under the circumstances, a little freaking out is a healthy reaction.

[Batman]

Then there's the little problem that typically, you don't get a 'these are the exact extents, limitations and drawbacks of your powers' manual when you get turned metahuman. Impenetrable skin sounds real nifty until they need to give you a shot or get something out of your body that shouldn't be there (a somewhat regular occurrence with Clark and kryptonite bullets, for example). Even completely passive powers like invulnerability can have massive drawbacks until/unless you manage to control them (presupposing you can control them to begin with) leave alone active powers like heat vision, flight or superstrength.
Yeah, I think waking up one morning with superpowers is definitely a cause for concern.

[Tsyroc]

Then there's the little problem that typically, you don't get a 'these are the exact extents, limitations and drawbacks of your powers' manual when you get turned metahuman. Impenetrable skin sounds real nifty until they need to give you a shot or get something out of your body that shouldn't be there (a somewhat regular occurrence with Clark and kryptonite bullets, for example). Even completely passive powers like invulnerability can have massive drawbacks until/unless you manage to control them (presupposing you can control them to begin with) leave alone active powers like heat vision, flight or superstrength.
Yeah, I think waking up one morning with superpowers is definitely a cause for concern.

My "favorite" is if you are invulnerable how will you cut your hair, your finger and toenails? John Byrne's Next Men had a character with those sorts of problems. The question even comes up in Superman comics, but luckily he has a piece of his space ship that he can bounce his heat vision off of to shave etc... It would really suck to be invulnerable but looking like a clawed ape-man.

[Simon_Jester]

Although they can sort of justify it if invulnerability does not extend to hair and fingernails. In which case, come to think of it, the impacts a typical invulnerable person in comics takes would probably destroy their hair and nails pretty quick and they'd be permanently in a state of having them half-regrown.

[Zwinmar]

I've seen people freak out because someone got punched and hit their head on a concrete sidewalk. The lost their minds over someone having a concussion. So yeah, it would not surprise me in the least that they lose it when change happens.
It is that whole fear of the unknown factor, I suppose.

[AniThyng]

I'm sure someone must have tackled the story where someone with powers gets slammed for not using them to save lives twenty four seven. Or imagine the Mr incredible scenario where a jackass sues for improper use of powers.

[Kitsune]

Have you ever seen what happens to a rubber band on a cold morning? Picture that as your arm.

The temperature extreme he got hit with using liquid nitrogen (think that is a good guess) would have killed a normal person.
On a normal person's limb, it would be frozen solid. Watch "Storms over Everest" and the interview with the Korean Taiwanese climber (Makalu Gau). Talks about how his limbs basically just clanged together like hitting two icicles.

[Ahriman238]

Have you ever seen what happens to a rubber band on a cold morning? Picture that as your arm.

The temperature extreme he got hit with using liquid nitrogen (think that is a good guess) would have killed a normal person.
On a normal person's limb, it would be frozen solid. Watch "Storms over Everest" and the interview with the Korean Taiwanese climber (Makalu Gau). Talks about how his limbs basically just clanged together like hitting two icicles.

In the film, sure. But it's still a very valid concern, particularly if you live in New England. For that matter, if I woke up one morning as stretch, my next fear would be that if I kept on doing it, I'd weaken myself every time until I wound up like, well, an old rubber band.

Not even getting into the "what the hell is going on with my body that this is even possible. What does this mean for me? Can my heart still pump blood into my hand at the end of a 50 ft. arm? What happens if my head, and brain, get stretched? Or we could go with Ultimate Reed Richards where all his bones and organs are gone except his brain and a tiny, hyper-efficient stomach/lung combo. Surely that won't require much adjustment.

[TOSDOC]

I thought the Fantastic Four films treated their reactions well, especially when they began switching powers. It's interesting how Johnny was elated that he could catch fire without being burned, which you expect would be tied as an alarming symptom with the Thing's appearance, while Sue had the perfectly reasonable freak-out when her powers and Johnny's were switched. It was Johnny's appearance as the Thing that he loathed more than his own powers as the Torch. Reed's intellect helps him cope, but he's still clearly worried about all four of them, considering the fact they might have an illness which could progress for the worse.

It's hardly a superhero story, but I find more inspiration for the OP subject matter in Cronenberg's The Fly. Jeff Goldblum's initial elation at his special abilities are rightly replaced by a super-freakout during his gradual transformation. Love that film.