Beware The Superman / Literature

• This is explored with a science-fiction twist in the Beggars in Spain trilogy.
• In Carrie, it's implied that this is likely to happen in the future after the "Black Prom" made people aware of the existence of Psychic Powers. Government agents would be forced to round up and execute children the moment they display a hint of psychic ability, so as to eliminate the off chance that they may snap and use their powers to kill people and destroy towns like Carrie did. The possibility is also raised that some parents would resist having their children taken away, which, combined with the last page's discussion of little Annie Jenks, means that another disaster is still in the cards... It's also implied that Carrie might have had a happier ending if she'd had a more stable environment (her mother is certifiably insane), and that a child with her powers who is raised right might choose to be someone different.
• In The Dresden Files, most magical beings either ignore 'mortals', treat them with contempt/as play-things, or actively fear them (because whether or not they like to admit it, they know what the weight of numbers can do with just pitchforks and torches, let alone modern weaponry). The only regularly pro-human power is the White Council, and even that tends to be focused on maintaining the status quo and policing fellow Wizards, and others, like the Red Court of Vampires, have a massive influence on governments and criminal organisations worldwide. Even the very pro-human Harry Dresden is described even by his friends as being utterly terrifying on an evolutionary level when he cuts loose. This becomes a plot point at the end of Battle Ground (2020), after an ancient goddess has led a full-on invasion of Chicago, killing thousands of people — and while the truth is publicly denied, the supernaturally aware aspects of governments worldwide are suddenly paying attention, and the populace of Chicago is most definitely not going back into denial, with a picture being painted of likely witch-hunts by night. Dresden points out that the best way to defuse this is to show that not all supernatural beings are like that by helping with the clean-up, framing it as the equivalent of penance for having breached the rules of Sacred Hospitality (which the supernatural community takes extremely seriously).
• This is a major theme in the Dune novels; many of the protagonists are powerful God Emperors who act like genocidal tyrants for the good of mankind.
• The world as a whole having this reaction is what initiates the third act of Fine Structure. Powers are created when a random individual has a fraction of Oul's power earthed into them. It was occasionally stated that the US Military was hoping for a Power to eventually be created in the US, and eventually they discover how to earth parts of Xio's power, resulting in them becoming able to manufacture their own artificial Powers. The sheer potential for such power to be abused is demonstrated to horrifying effect when the newly formed United States Special Air Command (USSAC) is used to dominate the entire world and bring every other nation under the US' rule. After the New Cosmology is put in place and all the Powers are cut off from Oul and Xio, the rest of the world is so angry at the United States for the abuse and conquest the suffered that they retaliate with all the nuclear arsenals available to them, ushering in the Hot Wars.
• Philip K. Dick wrote his story The Golden Man as a reaction to stories such as Slan that starred superpowered and benevolent "mutants" who were often persecuted by the rest of humanity. In his own words:
  In the early Fifties much American science fiction dealt with human mutants and their glorious super-powers and super-faculties by which they would presently lead mankind to a higher state of existence, a sort of promised land. John W. Campbell. Jr., editor at Analog, demanded that the stories he bought dealt with such wonderful mutants, and he also insisted that the mutants always be shown as (1) good; and (2) firmly in charge. When I wrote "The Golden Man" I intended to show that (1) the mutant might not be good, at least good for the rest of mankind, for us ordinaries; and (2) not in charge but sniping at us as a bandit would, a feral mutant who potentially would do us more harm than good. This was specifically the view of psionic mutants that Campbell loathed, and the theme in fiction that he refused to publish... so my story appeared in If.
• The Grimnoir Chronicles: In Hard Magic, part of the Imperium's plan for taking over the world is to sow distrust of Actives in the United States, by framing them for a Peace Ray attack.
• In the Honor Harrington series, Earth's devastating Final War was fought by Super Soldiers with intelligence boosts that all too frequently had the side-effect of increased aggression and sociopathic tendencies. This is the main reason for Luddism and prejudice against genetic engineering. The Harrington family's Meyerdahl Beta line is one of the few successful lines to boost intelligence without creating amoral monsters, but even Honor is aware that her own killer instinct may be linked to it. It's worth noting also that the Winton family line are geniuses who probably have intelligence boosts, and Elizabeth is infamous for a volcanic and implacable temper. And it's continuing now with the Mesan Alignment, who believe in the superiority of those who have been genetically engineered over normals, and are trying to take over the galaxy. Oh, and the Harrington Line was originally one of theirs.
• Jurassic Park (1990) discusses this via Dr. Malcolm comparing genetic engineering to gaining the ability to kill someone with one's bare hands. He explains that one who trains for years to get that ability would, in the process, also gain the wisdom and discipline to know when it was necessary/unnecessary to use it. But the person who was simply given that ability without doing the study/hard work wouldn't have that discipline, and could potentially lead to this trope.
• In the early stories based on Magic: The Gathering, the characters that you play the game as (powerful wizards and demigods who summon assorted fantasy creatures to fight for them in epic battles) are actively despised by the general populace. This is because they have the annoying tendency to summon people who are just sitting at home, minding their own business with their friends and family, into huge magical battles where they could easily be killed or crippled. Several stories detailed the suffering the family members of summoned creatures have to endure when their loved ones are returned dead or crippled. After the lore Revision following the start of the Weatherlight Saga, Summoning instead materializes an idealized image of whatever you are trying to summon, be it a soldier, a particular animal or even a specific person. A particular quote that sums it up after Freyalise has broken the Ice Age without concern for what the sudden climatic shift would do to the world at large:
  Archmage Jodah: [Sharing the world with planeswalkers] is like sharing your bed with a mammoth. Sure, it may be a nice mammoth, but when it rolls over, you'd still better get out of its way fast.
• Invoked in Murderess: the man in Lu's dreams quotes a prophecy saying that his and his wife's daughter will either save the world or destroy it. The daughter is actually Lu.
• The Power: The development of electricity powers in (cis) women and girls (plus a few intersex males) destroys civilization, with first many setting up oppressive matriarchies, then human society being blasted into the Stone Age again when men fight back.
• A central element of Epics in The Reckoners Trilogy. Every single person who develops superpowers becomes evil, basically losing any regard for the lives of those around them. Steelheart, a Superman Substitute, takes over Chicago and turns it into a totalitarian dictatorship where unpowered people live in constant fear, and most of the rest of the country (if not the world) is in a similar situation. Newcago is actually considered a relatively nice place to live, since it is fairly stable with food and electricity and other conveniences available. Ultimately turns out to be a subversion and even something of a deconstruction. The only reason the superhumans uniformly become evil is because the Mass Super-Empowering Event went horribly wrong — the Angelic Abomination that was supposed to bless humanity with superpowers and then leave them to continue developing on their own instead stuck around to observe the results of his work, unwittingly corrupting the process with his cynical views of humanity and causing the superpowers to drive their bearers insane. Towards the end, we see an Alternate Universe where the process was performed correctly, and it's a normal superhero universe where most Epics are perfectly good people who defend humanity, and the Steelheart of that reality is the greatest of them all.
• Ironically, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the men who would go on to create Superman himself, originally wrote and illustrated a short story titled "The Reign of the Super-Man" about an impoverished worker who gains superpowers and tries to take over the world, only to find that the powers were temporary. They wrote the story for a science fiction magazine and later retooled the character as a superhero.
• This is how most non-powered individuals think of "freaks" in the Soledad O'Roarke duology — whenever superpowered vigilantes appear, superpowered criminals try to earn prestige by killing them, and every couple week a few more innocent people get killed in the crossfire. After one villain blew up San Francisco, the USA forcibly expelled all known supers, regardless of whether or not they were actually vigilantes, and any new ones that are discovered are either slaughtered or experimented on. Beware the muggles, too!
• The genetically engineered superhumans in Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars are all ambitious, taking over territory and causing nothing but trouble. They're all willing to trade away innocent lives for whatever their goal is.
• This is what everyone thinks of the Lost Radiants in The Stormlight Archive. They were super-powered knights dedicated to protecting the world from demons who one day turned on humanity as a whole. The actual story is a little more complicated: they learned a dark secret and... left. Just dropped their weapons and armor and left. A religious dictatorship called the Hierarchy heavily altered most records of the time to fit with their version of history, which means most people have difficulty thinking of anyone with powers as anything but a danger, though we discover in the second book that it's a little more complicated than just "dropped their weapons and armor and left". Breaking their Oaths like that partially killed their Bond Creatures, leaving those creatures stuck in endless agony so severe that even a few seconds' exposure to the pain is enough to drive men crazy. Entire species were wiped out this way. In the fourth book, we learn that it's even more complicated than that: it was a willing sacrifice on the part of the Spren. They knew what would happen to them, and still went along with the Knights breaking their Oaths.
• Averted in most of Tolkien's Legendarium precisely because the good guys (the Valar, the loyalist Maiar, those Elves and Men who pay attention to them) recognize the fundamental truth that no matter how much power they might possess in their relative scale, they are not God. Thus, Gandalf and his fellow Wizards, angelic messengers sent by the Valar to contest Sauron, are specifically ordered to use persuasion and example — not force — to rally Elves and Men against the demonic Sauron. They use their vast powers only in extreme situations, where nothing else will do. Likewise, the Valar tend throughout history to leave Elves and Men to their own devices most of the time, since swaying them by force or fear does more harm than whatever harm they set out to prevent. Played straight by Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman, fallen angels who (in the first two cases) actually set themselves up as gods over people they rule. Not surprising, of course, as fallen angels are usually called demons, and in Morgoth's case, he was specifically modeled on Satan (or be him by another name).

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