Has there ever been a movie set in a superhero universe that is about a non-superhero character? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

114 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For example, I'd like to see a Lois Lane movie

Or maybe a tv series or comic book

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top new old

[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 50 points 2 months ago

Marves Agents of Shield? Season 1 specifically. Season 2 and on goes into metahuman territory

[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 months ago

I hadn't thought of that. I haven't gotten around to watching that series yet

[-] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

I remember enjoying it and I dont typically care for Marvel

[-] MimicJar@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

It's excellent, but weird.

The first season is monster of the week and fine but nothing amazing. Until it reaches the Captain America Winter Soldier crossover. In that film SHIELD is revealed to be HYDRA, so the same event unfolds in the show. It's awesome.

The second season is a bit directionless. It was supposed to link up with the new Marvel show Inhumans (who are kinda like X-Men, but legally distinct.)

But about halfway through that season and for the rest of the series they largely ignore the rest of the MCU and connected properties, which gives them a lot of freedom and the ability to tell their own stories.

I think a tightly connected TV series and films universe would have been great, as it was when they connected the SHIELD/HYDRA reveal. But since different people were in charge of movies versus TV, and the TV guy sucked, doing their own thing was the best option, and it worked well.

load more comments (2 replies)

[-] VivianRixia@piefed.social 8 points 2 months ago

But even when it does, you always have Ming-Na Wen as May kicking butt as a normal human.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 46 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Not a movie but The Boys is a show that largely follows a regular guy impacted by the fallout of living in a world with superpowered people. Solid show though!

Also The Watchmen show and movie are mostly regular people with no actual powers. The show is excellent, the movie is pretty decent.

There's other stuff out there (Agents of Shield, Gotham, Arrow, etc.), but most of it is not nearly as good as the above two shows IMO.

[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago

Those sound good. I like when the MCU kind of shows life in the MCU from the perspective of regular people. Like Spiderman Homecoming and Ms Marvel, even though they're about superpowered characters, we kind of get a glimpse at the MCU through the lens of everyday people

[-] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago

Yeah, Watchmen and The Boys are a little darker than the MCU but better IMO.

[-] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 11 points 1 month ago

The Boys... a little darker than the MCU

'Little' is doing a *lot *of work in that sentence. Episode 1 has a named character literally exploded into blood and chunks by a speedster supe running right through her.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] roger.wood@feddit.online 36 points 2 months ago

Extraordinary, was a British show about the only girl that didn't get a superpower, in a world where everyone does.

[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago

Sounds kind of like Encanto or Sky High before he gets his powers

load more comments (3 replies)

[-] Maestro@fedia.io 4 points 2 months ago

Ohhh, that was a fun one!

[-] Elextra@literature.cafe 28 points 2 months ago

Does Agent Carter count? I don't think she's a superhero?

[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I think that counts. I haven't gotten around to watching it yet

[-] homes@piefed.world 26 points 2 months ago

I’d say that the show Gotham is primarily about Jim Gordon and an adolescent Bruce Wayne dealing with all of the supervillains in Gotham City, but, drama queens that they all are, the show is a lot about them too

[-] Notyou@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The show is about Gordon walking in announcing GCPD and then punching someone in the face. Zsasz shows up every now and then and shoots up the police and then leaves.

But it's mainly Gordon punching people and yelling GCPD

load more comments (6 replies)

[-] mangaskahn@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago

Powerless is about unpowered characters in a super hero universe.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] wasabi_noir@lemmy.zip 19 points 2 months ago

There was a show called powerless. It was about employees at Wayne enterprises. It was a comedy. It didn’t last long.

load more comments (3 replies)

[-] IWW4@lemmy.zip 19 points 2 months ago

There was a TV show about Batman’s butler.

[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago

That sounds fun

[-] IWW4@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 months ago

I made two episodes in before I dumped it. I thought it was trash.

[-] homes@piefed.world 6 points 2 months ago

It was not

load more comments (2 replies)

[-] missingno@fedia.io 17 points 2 months ago

Would The Penguin count?

[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago

I guess so. I hadn't thought of that

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website 17 points 2 months ago

The Boys ?

[-] gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 months ago

Yes to a point, but consider…

Tap for spoiler

…Hughie and Butcher both take Compound V in the books and a temporary version in the show, which gives them powers, and the universe is set up so, theoretically, anyone who wants powers can get them.

[-] TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website 10 points 2 months ago

Yes but the driving force for the narration is « how people without powers will react to people with power » but yes it’s not all non-power characters

[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm not super familiar with that show but it is about superpowered characters isn't it?

Of course that brings up the question of what the definition of a superhero is. Technically Batman, Black Widow, and Hawkeye are non-superpowered characters

[-] TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website 8 points 2 months ago

The first season is more about the effects of super power on normal people lives and they react about it … after that there’s a lot of power that are thrown around

What you’re searching have been done in comics but not a lot in TV or movie IIRC

load more comments (2 replies)

[-] otherbarry@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 months ago

The Boys is about non-superhero characters in a superhero universe, pretty much matches your post question. The core group of people ("The Boys") start out as regular people living in a world being trashed by people with superpowers.

As the series progresses it does veer off from that but maybe the first season is closer to what you're looking for.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Breaking Bad actually happens in the Marvel universe. They just don't mention any of it because they are busy selling drugs and such.

load more comments (3 replies)

[-] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 months ago

Encanto.

[-] ptc075@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 month ago

You might check out Free Guy. It's about a video game NPC who comes to life in a Grand Theft Auto themed universe.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] pfuiting@feddit.org 12 points 2 months ago

What about kickass?

load more comments (3 replies)

[-] Widdershins@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Mystery Men is all about the B-Team superheroes who have to step up after Captain Amazing, super hero of Champion City, releases Casanova Frankenstein from the insane asylum in order to get better ratings and sponsorships but instead gets kidnapped and accidentally psycho-frakulated. Their powers are: get mad, throw forks, fart, bowling ball, shovel, and invisible when nobody is looking. Doug Jones shows up as Pencilhead and Dane Cook as The Waffler during tryouts. Tom Waits also shows up as basically Tom Waits.

load more comments (3 replies)

[-] Dry_Monk@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Andor, depending on whether you consider Jedi superheroes.

load more comments (2 replies)

[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Agents of Shield was about Shield: The Marvel universe non-superhero government agency made to... Uh... Keep superheroes in check? I don't even remember, lol.

But they're just regular ass people who are badasses without super powers.

[-] Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

They're far from regular ass people. Some are borderline geniuses, some are non-powered who can nearly go toe-to-toe with powered villains, artificially enhanced in some way, and are/become powered themselves.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Oh I have an old one: Norman Normal.
It's about a guy who's the only one in the family not developing super abilities.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Not a movie but There's been a lois lane cartoon show: My Adventures with Superman
Megamind, though he is a super-person, is unpowered and develops his tech in response to a superpowered person. Suoer interesting movie!!!

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] Okokimup@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Wonder Man has powers, but we see very little of them. It's mostly about a persecuted minority trying to get work as an actor. Ben Kingsley is fantastic in the show.

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments

this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2026

95 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

41408 readers

1448 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !uspolitics@lemmy.world

7) No Hit-and-Run questions.

Please don't delete your post for no apparent reason. If you plan on deleting a question later, say so in the post, or if you feel that you have a good reason to remove it, message a mod beforehand. It's not fair to the ones who took their time to answer, and it's not in the spirit of the community.

8) No Bots.

Posts or comments from bots, LLM's, AIs, Neural Networks, Transformers, or Marvin the Paranoid Android are not welcome in AskLemmy. Real humans only please.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.