History Main / LamarckWasRight

* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' Galatea's [[ArtificialFamilyMember "parentage"]] of [[MechanicalAbomination Gosh]] didn't amount to much more than hitting a button on a machine to generate him. None the less, he is super-intelligent, deeply angst-ridden, and a grandeloquent LargeHam just like his mother, if not moreso.

* ''Literature/TolkiensLegendarium'':
** The version of the Orcs' origin that made it into the published ''[[Literature/TheSilmarillion Silmarillion]]'', wherein they're descended from Elves whom Morgoth tortured and corrupted, is very Lamarckian. On the other hand, the story is presented as something the Elves ''believe'' to be true, not necessarily something that ''is'' true, they were created from whole cloth rather than an evolved species, and ''The Silmarillion'' is written as a mythological epic anyway, so Lamarckism fits the setting. And then there's the race of Petty-Dwarves, who've grown stunted and hunched from generations of suspicious, secretive lifestyle.

** Siamese cats supposedly have kinked tails because their ancestors used to hold the rings of their ancient Siamese princess owners on their tails while the women would bathe, and the cats would then helpfully curve the tails to hold the jewellery better.

** Then there's the story of the House Drake. Lore about the frontier city of Korvosa has a rivalry between the native [[ShoulderDragon Pseudodragons]] and the Imps that often escape from or are released by the failed students of the city's Magic Academy. When looking back over the setting for the UpdatedRerelease of an Aventure Path set in that city, they decided to buff up the Pseudodragons to give them a fighting chance against Imps. The Korvosan Pseudodragons chewed on silver coins to coat their teeth, and hunted Dream Spiders until their natural BreathWeapon changed into a form that could harm Imps.

* One of the sources for many bloodlines for the Sorcerer character class in ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', aside from [[HalfHumanHybrid the old-fashioned way]]. This is the explanation for the Arcane (standard) and [[MagicMusic Maestro]] bloodlines, among others. Also makes the ''Undead'' bloodline a lot less {{Squick}}y. {{Enforced}} as the usual source for draconic bloodlines: Paizo's designers reportedly didn't like the proliferation of HalfHumanHybrid creature templates in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition'', so they established that in Golarion, sorcerers with draconic bloodlines are usually descended from people who were closely associated with dragons rather than from dragons themselves.

* ComicBook/AvengersAcademy character Finesse has the same powers as ComicBook/{{Taskmaster}}, who gained them by special serum, and it's implied she might be his daughter. When the two of them meet, she directly asks him about it, only for it to turn out that a drawback of his powers is the loss of his non-combat-related memories, so he has no damn idea.
* Cassandra Cain, [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 the second Batgirl]], is the daughter of ComicBook/LadyShiva (the world's deadliest martial artist) and David Cain (one of the world's greatest assassins). Accordingly, Cassandra is an unbelievable martial arts prodigy even by comic book standards. ''Some'' of this can be attributed to the TrainingFromHell Cain put her through, but prior to TheReveal about Shiva, he notes that he put other kids through the same regimen and it didn't take. She was the only success. "[[{{Foreshadowing}} Not surprising, really...]]"
* Man-Bat gained bat-themed powers artificially but his daughter inherited them. When consulted about this, Franchise/{{Batman}} was skeptical, and explicitly said that acquired characteristics can't be inherited (despite the number of times that exactly that has happened in the DCU).
** The "Battle For The Cowl" miniseries/crossover began to fix that. Another villain points out to Langstrom that it's ''impossible'' for a mix of common chemicals to have that effect, that the formula was a psychological crutch for the activation of Langstrom's innate superpowers. Indeed, in that same issue, he transforms ''without the formula'' and kept control (to a degree). Apparently it [[DependingOnTheWriter depends on the writer]]; [[DaddysLittleVillain Talia al-Ghul]] steals the formula a year later and uses it [[ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison create an army of ninja Man-Bats]].
* In the second ''Batman'' / ''Film/{{Alien}}'' crossover, a MadScientist creates hybrids between the xenomorphs and Batman's RoguesGallery. The hybrids somehow contrive to still look like their human counterparts despite it making no sense whatsoever, like the Two-Face one having half its skull damaged, the Joker one's skin looking like clown makeup, and the Scarecrow's face looking like his mask. The only one who doesn't look human at all is the Killer Croc hybrid ([[spoiler:and this turns out to be the scientist's downfall because where the other hybrids had some of her (and her dormant queen chestburster's) DNA and thus didn't attack her, the Croc hybrid didn't and ate her on sight]]).
* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica received his powers (physical attributes at the absolute peak of human perfection) from a shot of the SuperSoldier Serum; after that, the serum was tested on black soldiers, and of the initial test subjects, only Isiah Bradley survived, gaining the peak physicality. Bradley's son, Josiah, inherited the Super Soldier Serum effects from his father. He uses the name Josiah X in his hero career. Bradley's grandson, [[ComicBook/YoungAvengers Elijah Bradley]], gets seriously injured when the Skrulls attack New York, and after a blood transfusion from his grandfather, gained the traits of Captain America. This is somewhat better than the standard explanation.

* The Franchise/DCUniverse character Doomsday was created deliberately through a brutal process of Lamarckian evolution, which entailed being stranded on the DeathWorld of ancient [[ComicBook/SuperMan Krypton]], as shown in ''ComicBook/SupermanDoomsdayHunterPrey''. When the baby Doomsday was inevitably killed, DNA from the corpse was harvested and used to engineer a clone. This was repeated over and over, until GeneticMemory made Doomsday increasingly powerful, resulting in the UltimateLifeform... which has been [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds traumatized into being a fear-inspired]] OmnicidalManiac, causing it to [[GoneHorriblyRight destroy first its creator, then countless other civilizations afterwards]].
* Two [[Franchise/TheFlash Flashes]] -- ComicBook/WallyWest and Barry Allen -- have had children, and in both cases, the children have inherited the speed powers. It's a Speed Force thing or something. It's even bred true to both of Barry's grandkids.

*** On the other hand, Owen and Bart's mother, Meloni Thawne, is a descendant of Barry's twin brother, Malcolm Thawne, as was Eobard Thawne, AKA Professor Zoom, which suggests that the Barry Allen bloodline has a genetic predisposition toward speed, rather than a Lamarkian outgrowth from Barry's.

* Subverted in the Creator/DynamiteComics published ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' series. [[spoiler: Genetically modified mutates Derek and Maggie have a baby together. But when the child is born, it's revealed that none of the alterations to his parents' DNA passed on to him, leaving him as a completely ordinary human.]]
* Alan Scott, the original Franchise/GreenLantern, had a daughter called Jade, who naturally had all the powers of his ring, and occasionally her mother's plant powers as well. He also has a son who has darkness-related powers, which are explained as Alan having been exposed to "Shadowlands energy" during a fight with a demon. This was later {{retcon}}ned to being derived from the part of Alan's mystical power source that consists of dark magic. Oh, and they have a SiblingYinYang situation from a combination of this and their mother having an evil split personality, with each one taking after one of her personalities.
* From '' ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'', Dr. Banner had three children post-Hulk. His daughter Lyra has green skin and some super-strength but averts the trope because she was created via genetic engineering. His son Skaar is able to become a Hulk himself, while his twin Hiro-Kala appears to have inherited nothing of the Hulk (implying they're likely fraternal twins).
* While not really offspring, ComicBook/TheJoker "Jokerizes" scores of supervillains in [[ComicBook/JokersLastLaugh The Last Laugh]] storyline. He does this via an EvilPlan that infuses everyone with his DNA, turning their skin white, hair green and giving them Joker's sense of humor and making them loyal to him. How this works when the Joker's skin and hair color is not due to any sort of genetics but his skin and hair being permanently bleached from (in the usual backstories) falling into a vat of chemicals is not explained.
** For that matter, how does being "loyal to him" qualify as one of the traits in Joker's DNA? He's chaos embodied, the polar opposite of loyalty.
** Similarly, a Franchise/{{Batman}} vs Franchise/{{Alien}}s comic featured a mad scientist infusing xenomorphs with the DNA of Batman's villains. Not only did one of them develop white skin and red lips, another developed scarring on the left side of its head (as per Two-Face, caused by acid burns and thus even less plausible; Joker's traits could at least be handwaved as saying the unspecified chemicals mutated him) and a third somehow acquired the colouring of Scarecrow's costume.
** The "Mad Love" comic played with this trope when Harley Quinn had a number of {{Imagine Spot}}s about her and the Joker getting married and raising a family. Their two kids (a girl and a boy) have permanently whitened faces, though it is unclear if they were born this way or if their parents made them up to look like themselves (the latter of which is arguably just as creepy). One image showing Harley giving birth to the children implies that they are bleached coming out of the womb - but Harley herself, who has been stripped down to her bra, ''also'' has white skin by this point, suggesting that the Joker wants his entire family Jokerized and painted the babies as soon as they emerged from Harley's womb (though in the picture he's more concerned with [[TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether murdering the doctors and nurses by handing out exploding cigars to celebrate]]).
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' averts this. Joe and Rico Dredd were cloned from the original Chief Judge, Eustace Fargo, to be the ultimate law enforcers. While they succeeded with Joe Dredd himself, Rico ends up as a LawmanGoneBad, running his own criminal operations before Joe sends him to Titan. Dredd himself has been cloned and, aside from the second Rico, none of them have really worked out; Kraken ended up being manipulated into causing the Necropolis by the Dark Judges, Nimrod suffered from serious neurodegenerative issues caused by genetic modification and had to be put down, Dolman just upped and quit despite showing promise, and [[OppositeSexClone Paris]] ended up pregnant.

** The children of characters having similar powers are usually explained as "mutants" of some kind due to their progenitors' exposure to the weird. For example, Franklin Richards; both his parents were altered by cosmic rays and became empowered. However, taking the cake is probably Rachel Summers, daughter of Jean Grey, who was a mutant of impressive power and a wielder of the Phoenix Force. While it now makes sense, sort of, when she was first introduced, the Phoenix Force was a power that came to beings and could even leave them, as opposed to being a permanent change. Somehow, Rachel inherited that. Being the White Phoenix kind of was Jean Grey's mutation for a while, but not quite, so it almost makes sense, but somehow falls short. Apparently the Phoenix (which is a sentient entity in its own right) just likes fusing with members of the Grey-Summers lines.
** This actually became a plot point in the ''End of Greys'' arc in the mid-2000s, when the Shi'ar Death Commandos slaughtered the entire Grey family on the assumption that there was a predisposition to hosting the Phoenix in the family - something which came back during ''Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire'' and 2013's ''X-Men'' run, when Rachel met the Shi'ar responsible for the idea and pointed out how [[ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen the Phoenix Five (and for that matter, Hope Summers)]] demonstrated that that idea was rubbish.
*** However, it is worth noting that the Shi'ar did have some reason to believe that the Phoenix followed bloodlines. It did at least like the Grey bloodline, as it had fused long term with both Jean and Rachel, and their main prior experience with the Phoenix was the bloodline of Rookshir, whose descendants could all wield the Blade of the Phoenix (his BFS with the remnants of Phoenix fire from when he wielded it) - in fact, they were the ''only'' ones who could. Then the latest descendant, Korvus Rookshir, a reluctant BoxedCrook, got one hell of a surprise when Rachel performed a BarehandedBladeBlock and nicked an echo of the Phoenix. However, it isn't exactly ''unknown'' that the Phoenix doesn't just stick to one family.

*** Likewise, Mimic was also once considered to be a non-X-gene mutant (at least in the main Reality-616-universe) due to getting his powers after exposure to an experimental bioweapon gas but was ultimately confirmed via datapage in ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen to indeed be a latent X-gene mutant.

** Darwin's mutant superpower is to [[InvincibleHero evolve whatever power or body change he needs to survive]] in a given situation.

* In ''ComicBook/{{PS238}},'' the CaptainErsatz version of ComicBook/GreenLantern, Emerald Gauntlet, has an [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin emerald gauntlet]] that inexplicably appeared on his arm during an experimental flight. He apparently never took it off, and it became part of his DNA, with his own son, Kevin, having one from birth. (The Gauntlets ''can'' be removed and put back on, but with about the same effect as tearing off a limb and reattaching it.)
* In ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'', Wolverine's son not only inherited his exact powerset but also the ability to coat his bones in metal in an apparent emulation of his father's artificial enhancement.
* ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' v2 #114 had the heroes getting trapped in Battleworld after the events of ''ComicBook/SecretWars1984'', settling down and having children. All the kids have combinations of their parents' powers ''and'' traits; ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and [[ComicBook/XMen Rogue]][[note]]With Ms. Marvel's personality having taken over[[/note]] have a daughter who has strength, flight, and is a natural leader, while [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Human Torch]] and [[ComicBook/TheWasp Wasp's]] son has HotWings and [[KillItWithFire fire projection]] (but only when he's shrunk) and is a smartass.
* DoubleSubversion with Wildcat II, the son of ComicBook/{{Wildcat}}. Wildcat is a [[BadassNormal superb fighter with no other powers]]. His son isn't so great at it. On the other hand, after the father spent a lifetime of dressing up in a catsuit, the son can turn into a [[CatGirl Catboy]]. As it turns out, his powers really are inherited - his ''mother'' was a werepanther, so it's just an amusing coincidence that his power connected with his old man's gimmick.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' villainess Circe once turned herself into a ManchurianAgent named Donna Milton to get past Wonder Woman's LivingLieDetector powers. In this identity, she got pregnant ([[UnholyMatrimony by Ares]]) and had a daughter named Lyta. When "Donna's" real identity finally came to light, Lyta's appearance actually changed to match Circe's, most obviously with the purple hair. She also inherited some of her mother's magical ability.
* The ''ComicBook/{{Zenith}}'' series in ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' relied on this. The main strand of superhumans in the story were able to pass on their superpowers to their offspring. Their powers originated in a wartime experiment where pregnant women were injected with ergot alkaloids. The resulting children's superpowers were mentally derived, you see, and kicked in when the children hit puberty.

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', Joseph was born with the ability to instinctively use the Hamon that his grandfather Jonathan had mastered, but without finesse or battle reliability of his ancestor. While Joseph's father George inherited no aptitude for the Hamon from Jonathan, [[spoiler:Joseph's mother was trained in its use.]]

* ''Film/{{Mermaids}}'': Kate's father was a champion swimmer. She herself has keen skill in swimming, so much that her teacher sees her as Olympic material, just like her father apparently was.

** Toph invented metalbending, something all her children and grandchildren (except Opal, an airbender) can do, though not as well as her. Then again, [[MemeticBadass no one's]] [[FamedInStory as good as Toph]]. The ability isn't limited to her bloodline though, as she'd taught other Earthbenders how to do so long before ever having children.

** Conina from ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}''. She is the daughter of Cohen the Barbarian -- and frustrated by her constant urges to dress in steal everything in sight and beat the crap out of everyone that looks at her the wrong way, as her real ambition is to be a hairdresser. She's also inherited his CharlesAtlasSuperpower. Like the above though, Cohen's status is mythical and that tends to overrule reality on the Disc.

* In ''VideoGame/{{APICO}}'', bees can be put in the Acclimatizer so you can pour water or apply snowballs on them to make them used to working in rain or snow, and these traits are still passed onto their young.