History Main / MugglePower

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': The second season of ''Unlimited'' deals with the US government's efforts to build a force capable of stopping the JLU in the event they go rogue. Naturally, they end up going the route of the WellIntentionedExtremist and a bit of JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope when their efforts includes such things as creating TykeBomb SuperSoldier {{clon|ingBlues}}es with a shelf life shorter than a decade, trusting Lex Luthor and other super criminals, as well as turning JLU member Captain Atom against Superman. The pilot of JLU specifically says that the non-super Green Arrow is a member specifically to call them on abuses of power.

* Creator/PhilipKDick wrote the short story "The Golden Man" as a reaction to editor Creator/JohnWCampbell's preference for stories in which superpowered mutants were also [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility morally superior]] to ordinary people. In it, humans [[BewareTheSuperman are afraid of being replaced by "mutants"]] and try to hunt them down and kill them in the name of [[FantasticRacism racial purity]]. The thing is, though, they're not wrong to be afraid. The "golden man" in the title is a superpowered mutant, but not one that can co-exist with human civilization for long. The parts of his brain responsible for language and conscious thought are missing, so he acts purely on instinct, but they've been replaced by an organ that's capable of seeing the future results of every course of action he could possibly take (up to an unknown length of time in the future). If there is ''any possible way'' for him to get what he wants (within the amount of time he can forsee), he will know what it is. Eventually the human protagonist manages to capture the golden man by setting up a situation that he cannot possibly escape from, and take him into custody. It then turns out that the golden man has a second superpower that his captors didn't know about: he's superhumanly handsome, to the point where women find him irresistible. After surrendering to the protagonist, the golden man seduces and impregnates the protagonist's fianceé, and she helps him escape his captors.

* Creator/PhilipKDick wrote the short story "The Golden Man" as a reaction to editor Creator/JohnWCampbell's preference for stories in which superpowered mutants were also [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility morally superior]] to ordinary people. In it, humans [[BewareTheSuperman are afraid of being replaced by "mutants"]] and try to hunt them down and kill them in the name of [[FantasticRacism racial purity]]. The thing is, though, they're not wrong to be afraid. The "golden man" in the title is a superpowered mutant, but not one that can co-exist with human civilization for long: he can predict possible futures perfectly (up to a certain length of time in the future) and instinctively chooses the actions that lead to the "best" future for himself, but he lacks the parts of the brain responsible for language and conscious thought, making him more like an animal than a person.

* Creator/PhilipKDick wrote the short story "The Golden Man" as a reaction to editor Creator/JohnWCampbell's preference for stories in which superpowered mutants were also [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility morally superior]] to ordinary people. In it, humans [[BewareTheSuperman are afraid of being replaced by "mutants"]] and try to hunt them down and kill them in the name of [[FantasticRacism racial purity]]. The thing is, they're not wrong to be afraid. The "golden man" in the title is a superpowered mutant, but not one that can co-exist with human civilization for long. The parts of his brain responsible for language and conscious thought are missing, so he acts purely on instinct, but they've been replaced by an organ that's capable of seeing the future results of every course of action he could possibly take (up to an unknown length of time in the future). If there is ''any possible way'' for him to get what he wants (within the amount of time he can forsee), he will know what it is. Eventually the human protagonist manages to capture the golden man by setting up a situation that he cannot possibly escape from - except that the golden man has a second superpower that they didn't know about: he's superhumanly handsome, to the point where women find him irresistible. After surrendering to the protagonist, the golden man seduces and impregnates the protagonist's fianceé, and she helps him escape his captors.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'': The second season deals with the US government's efforts to build a force capable of stopping the JLU in the event they go rogue. Naturally, they end up going the route of the WellIntentionedExtremist and a bit of JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope when their efforts includes such things as creating TykeBomb SuperSoldier {{clon|ingBlues}}es with a shelf life shorter than a decade, trusting Comicbook/LexLuthor and other super criminals, as well as turning JLU member ComicBook/CaptainAtom against Franchise/{{Superman}}. The pilot of JLU specifically says that the non-super ComicBook/GreenArrow is a member specifically to call them on abuses of power.

Compare WhatMeasureIsAMook, ApeShallNeverKillApe and ProHumanTranshuman. Contrast SuperSupremacist. A SubTrope of FantasticRacism.

** Zigzagged in general canon: because Quirked individuals make up 80% of the population, and it's implied those numbers are rising, having powers or mutations ''in general'' is not seen as anything special or negative. That said, there ''is'' FantasticRacism against the more extreme Heteromorphic (physical mutation) Quirks, especially those that leave their owners looking animalistic, and likewise against Quirks that [[BadPowersBadPeople immediately suggest villainous desires]], such as CharmPerson abilities.

Opposite of ComesGreatResponsibility and MugglesDoItBetter. Supertrope to MutantDraftBoard and SuperhumanTrafficking ("If you can't join them, enslave 'em!")

The AntiMagicalFaction is a variant of this trope that focuses exclusively on magic and those who can use it. This trope is very often a feature of CapePunk stories. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] some sort of special capability that non-magic users may have.

* [[ComicBook/MarvelComics2 American Dream]] idolized Captain America and decided to ask superheroes for training to become one (of the BadassNormal type). It worked.

* In Creator/AlanMoore's Comicbook/{{Miracleman}}[=/=]Marvelman, the government-created supers turn out to be too powerful for the government's liking, so it tries to kill them all. [[spoiler:It doesn't work, and the supers and aliens take over the world for its own good. Eventually, everyone is offered the chance to become superhuman. There is some musing on some fundamental humanity that they have lost in becoming superhuman.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** It's become fairly common for Superman's {{archenemy}}, ComicBook/LexLuthor, to be portrayed as a pro-human/anti-alien extremist who sees himself as enabling humanity to stand on its own two feet. While his position is ultimately self-serving, Luthor's argument that superhumans hold humanity back from truly excelling is one that resonates with some people in-universe and out.

** ''ComicBook/NewKrypton'' saw Luthor join forces with General Sam Lane, a paranoid GeneralRipper (and father of ComicBook/LoisLane) who believes that all heroes -- and aliens in particular -- are bound to turn on humanity. Lane proceeds to recruit Metallo and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} adversary Reactron, as well as "Superwoman" (really his daughter Lucy) and Codename:Assassin to form the core of his Human Defense Corps and wage war against Superman and New Krypton.
* ''Comicbook/TopTen'' takes a rather unique approach to this problem. The {{Prequel}} ''The Forty-Niners'' explain that after the allies won UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, they build a city and relocated all the Superhumans, {{Badass Normal}}s and {{Mad Scientist}}s who survived the war there.

** Before Comicbook/HouseOfM, there was a movement among humans calling themselves the U-Men who believed they could become greater than mutants by harvesting and grafting mutant body parts onto themselves. Among the list of parts taken are the eyes of a kid with X-ray vision, the wings off a flying mutant girl, and even keeping a kid with electric powers imprisoned to use blood transfusions from him to gain powers. As for their effectiveness, they use PowersAsPrograms and have military-application superpowers to counter stock superpowers... but they can't hold a candle to a pissed off Phoenix protecting her students and academy from shock troopers enjoying their scalpel guns.

---> ''Some Bigot in House of M'': The reason why nobody likes you is because ''trouble follows you wherever you go''!

* [[Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon AbraxasVerse]]: Monarch seek to achieve a completely-benevolent Option I in regards to the [[{{Kaiju}} Titans]], by building [[spoiler:Kiryu MK I]] as a human-piloted artificial Titan so they can contribute meaningfully to Godzilla and the benevolent Titans' future {{Behemoth Battle}}s. However, [[spoiler:Monarch's collaborators, [[EvilInc Apex Cybernetics]]]], are implicitly interested in a much more sinister form of this trope.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'':

** The original conception for the film would have been even worse, as seen in the rejected opening, where Syndrome makes the blood-chilling comment to Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl about how they know "supers aren't supposed to breed". Very deliberately choosing the term "breed". As if supers are no more than ''animals''.

* While the setting of ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' and ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains'' holds enough HeroicWillpower for even the most ridiculous {{Charles Atlas Superpower}}s to work, there are still a lot of {{Muggles}}. Reactions vary from essentially worshipping Heroes like the Paragon City Civilians do, putting on the kevlar and facing down the super-powered villains like the Paragon City Police, living in terror like Rogue Island civilians, putting on the kevlar and facing down the super-powered heroes for later brainwashing like Malta, or joining the various villain groups for PsychoSerum or protection.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' SuperheroEpisode, the Griffins abuse their powers to exploit the general populace, inspiring a comically poor attempt by Mayor Adam West to get his [[RadiationInducedSuperpowers own powers by replicating their nuclear origin]]. It just ends up giving him lymphoma. The crazy part is this actually ''succeeds'' at stopping the Griffins, because seeing how desperate they made him causes a HeelRealization.

** The backstory of the film is that everybody loved supers, at first, and then they [[HeroInsurance literally sued them out of existence]]; after Mr. Incredible was sued for his rough thwarting of a man's attempted suicide, it opened the gateways for a wave of such claims, until the government forced the supers to go underground. Making things worse, one could argue that this was ''all Buddy's fault''; things might have just stopped with that first {{Jerkass}} if not for the fact that, on the same night, his disastrously malfunctioning rocketboots smashed a train-tracked bridge, and the passengers from that train then sued Mr. Incredible for ''stopping them from crashing''.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'':

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': Izaya Orihara claims to love all humans and his hobby is to observe them. He will manipulate them and even give out information for free just to see what will happen as he believes his love justifies it. However, he doesn't care about anything he considers inhuman, and loathes Shizuo Heiwajima, despite being a human, as Shizuo has super strength and is nigh-invulnerable. He also detests Saika and goes so far as to declare war on [[spoiler:Anri]]. Izaya, despite this, repeatedly uses 'monsters' in his plans and even hires [[spoiler:Haruna]] and uses [[spoiler:Celty's head]] in attempt to avert the CessationOfExistence. Izaya will, on occasion, completely disregard any kind of etiquette towards 'monsters', such as when he decides to use Celty's head as a ball.

** In the backstory, the Eugenic Wars between genetically engineered and other humans lead to genetic augmentation becoming a forbidden technique. They apparently got over this in later years; genetic modification for mundane purposes (correcting congenital defects, for example) is perfectly okay, but physical and mental augmentation is still illegal. In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', we find out that part of the problem is that the Augment process seems to create musclebound sociopaths. We also discover that the Denobulans used the technology without problems. ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' portrays the one on-screen geneticist, Adam Soong, as an absolutely horrible person and implies that other geneticists were much the same, giving a reason such attitudes would survive to the days of the otherwise-progressive Federation[[note]]the only other mainstreamed bigotry is towards Romulans, who united the founding members of the Federation against them in a failed attempt to tear them apart[[/note]] and suggesting this is why it went so wrong for humanity but not the the Denobulans or [[Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds Illyrians]].

** In the backstory, the Eugenic Wars between genetically engineered and other humans lead to genetic augmentation becoming a forbidden technique. They apparently got over this in later years; genetic modification for mundane purposes (correcting congenital defects, for example) is perfectly okay, but physical and mental augmentation is still illegal. In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', we find out that part of the problem is that the Augment process seems to create musclebound sociopaths. We also discover that the Denobulans used the technology without problems. ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' portrays the one on-screen geneticist, Adam Soong, as an absolutely horrible person and implies that other geneticists were much the same, giving a reason such attitudes would survive to the days of the otherwise-tolerant Federation and suggesting this is why it went so wrong for humanity but not the the Denobulans or [[Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds Illyrians]].

** In the backstory, the Eugenic Wars between genetically engineered and other humans lead to genetic augmentation becoming a forbidden technique. They apparently got over this in later years; genetic modification for mundane purposes (correcting congenital defects, for example) is perfectly okay, but physical and mental augmentation is still illegal. In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', we find out that part of the problem is that the Augment process seems to create musclebound sociopaths. We also discover that the Denobulans used the technology without problems. ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' portrays the one on-screen geneticist, Adam Soong, as an absolutely horrible person and implies that other geneticists were much the same, suggesting this is why it went so wrong for humanity but not the the Denobulans or [[Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds Illyrians]].

** In the backstory, the Eugenic Wars between genetically engineered and other humans lead to genetic augmentation becoming a forbidden technique. They apparently got over this in later years; genetic modification for mundane purposes (correcting congenital defects, for example) is perfectly okay, but physical and mental augmentation is still illegal. In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', we find out that part of the problem is that the Augment process seems to create musclebound sociopaths. We also discover that the Denobulans used the technology without problems. ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' further implies that part of the problem is that the creators were horrible people who imprinted their [[AGodAmI self-deification]] onto their creations.

** In the backstory, the Eugenic Wars between genetically engineered and other humans lead to genetic augmentation becoming a forbidden technique. They apparently got over this in later years; genetic modification for mundane purposes (correcting congenital defects, for example) is perfectly okay, but physical and mental augmentation is still illegal. In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', we find out that part of the problem is that the Augment process seems to create musclebound sociopaths. We also discover that the Denobulans used the technology without problems.

** By contrast, Agent Liberty, the BigBad of Season 4, and his anti-alien [[FantasticRacism hate group]] take the Type 2 stance, seeing all aliens as dangerous invaders and seeking to expel them from Earth and/or exterminate them, in a fairly blatant [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything allegory]] to real-world xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment.

** The Company, a group with the ostensibly good goal of keeping tabs on all super-powered individuals and helping them cope with their powers to [[TheWorldIsNotReady protect the general public]] and maintain a {{Masquerade}}... which, thanks to evil/incompetent bosses, has devolved to the point of doing Bag and Tag's of all heroes they can find with a complimentary [[LaserGuidedAmnesia mind wipe]], and killing those deemed "[[BadPowersBadPeople too dangerous to exist]]"... unless they're [[JokerImmunity Sylar]]. And all the villains they have in storage that got released in Season 3 as yet another IdiotPlot, despite Company's [[KnightTemplar willingness to kill much more decent people in the pursuit of stability]]. Granted, while they do have a lot of muggle members, they have plenty of superpowered members too, and are in fact ''run'' by a group of superhumans, several of whom are actually pretty sinister.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' SuperheroEpisode, the Griffins abuse their powers to exploit the general populace, inspiring a comically poor attempt by Mayor Adam West to get his own powers by replicating their [[ILoveNuclearPower nuclear origin]]. It just ends up giving him lymphoma. The crazy part is this actually ''succeeds'' at stopping the Griffins, because seeing how desperate they made him causes a HeelRealization.

** ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' fifth edition has brought this conflict to the forefront, with human intelligence agencies learning about vampires after discovering the Vampire internet network and starting the Second Inquisition to hunt down the creatures of the night in a secret war.

* There was a similar vein in the ''TabletopGame/WorldOfDarkness'', but as the setting developed it fell to the background as the masquerade became an ExtraStrengthMasquerade as each splat book kept upping the supernatural ante yet the muggles never caught on. Still, regardless of which game you played, your superiors have a healthy fear of muggle rage, and if that meant putting you in a body bag, so be it.

* [[RichBitch Princess]] from ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' [[TheTeamWannabe wanted to be a Powerpuff Girl]], but she didn't have any powers, so she gets technology that imitates their powers. Blossom outright tells her that her problem isn't lacking the ''powers'', it's that she's a spoiled, selfish brat who doesn't want to be a Powerpuff Girl because she wants to help people, but because she just wants to be one for the sake of wanting it.

[[folder:RealLife]]
* More than one non-fiction writer (and countless Sci-Fi writers) have warned this scenario could happen when gene and cyborg technology have GoneHorriblyRight and at the same time are so expensive that the super-rich effectively become a different species. For now it's just Sci-Fi, though.
[[/folder]]

Much like a [[IJustWantToBeSpecial super-power groupie]], these people will try to get super powers by mimicking their betters, often at great risk by trying to replicate how [[JustForFun/HowToGiveACharacterSuperpowers heroes get their powers]]. If enough people get this idea, or the government gets behind it, then it becomes a case of UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans. This can include OrganTheft, free SuperSerum, [[ArtificialLimbs cyber augmentations]] half off, and in general making {{Emergency Transformation}}s routine [[WeCanRebuildHim medical procedures]]. Interestingly, though this group means well, anyone aspiring to power (even if they want to share it) is inevitably [[AmbitionIsEvil misguided]] if not [[ScaleOfScientificSins outright evil,]] because a muggle should NeverBeAHero. The route of BadassNormal seems to have much better odds, on the other hand.

These people usually come to this conclusion by adding some paranoia ([[ProperlyParanoid justified]] or [[GeneralRipper not]]) to GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke and fear that [[SuperpowerfulGenetics naturally born supers]] will out-breed or replace baseline humanity. They interpret the "obsolescence" of baseline humans as an edict to kill all {{Mutants}}[=/=]{{psychic|Powers}}s[=/=]{{mag|eSpecies}}es in an [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer "Us or Them"]] fashion, fearing that supers will either forcibly take over or [[ViralTransformation replace all humans]]. These types are usually spurred on by the villains' attempts to do just that, and end up branding all supers as threats. Previously nice supers, in turn, will interpret this xenophobia as [[CycleOfRevenge cause to exterminate or enslave all humans...]] This is usually the fear behind any SuperRegistrationAct. Typically accomplished by calling the CapeBusters. See also TallPoppySyndrome.

Whether the story chooses to address the underlying insecurity or not [[DebateAndSwitch varies]]. When it does, it usually justifies baseline human's existence with a nice [[AnAesop aesop]] like: [[HumansAreSpecial our limitations drive us to excel]], only humans [[CreativeSterility can truly create]], a world of all supers would devolve into planetary [[LetsYouAndHimFight civil war]] (like [[SarcasmMode we normals have done such a good job keeping peace without supers]])... or, that we're so [[HumansAreBastards fundamentally bad]] that only a handful should have these powers, if at all. Since super-powered heroes are usually the focus of these stories, it's not rare to see a perfectly sensible initiative by the government to have [[SuperSoldier its own supers]], either to stop supervillains or to stop a hero if he should go rogue, turned into paranoid and militant [[SociopathicSoldier unit]] bent on killing all heroes on the off chance of a super powered [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist]] takeover.