We all know that accidents happen. In comic books, a lot of those accidents have the decidedly-not-adverse-effect of granting a person powers. Unless you’re blessed by being an alien who draws power from Earth’s yellow sun or you’re carrying the X-Gene, suffer some sort of tragedy and use your wealth to overcome it, or you’re part of a government experiment, there just aren’t a lot of easy ways to become a superhero.
Media is often a product of its time, and a lot of Marvel superheroes experienced impossible amounts of radiation and survived to tell their tale and save the day. A lot of DC’s, meanwhile, either came from other worlds or hidden kingdoms in our own. Later day superheroes made deals with the devil to save the ones they loved or see them again. All of our favorite heroes and villains got their powers somehow, and here are some of the freakiest ways they've done so.
10 Daredevil
Matt Murdock was the son of a sub-par boxer and an absentee mother (who he'd eventually learn was a nun). Being cut from good cloth (no pun intended), Matt pushes an elderly man out of the way one day and gets nailed by a truck carrying a radioactive substance. In the Marvel world, as we know, radioactive anything will produce some sort of superpower.
For Matt, it blinded him, but heightened all of his other senses. He can still even “see” with a sort of echolocation that bats and dolphins use. Taught how to hone his skills and fight by stick, Matt eventually becomes Daredevil.
9 Dr. Manhattan
It is one of the most harrowing moments in all of Alan Moore’s Watchmen. Dr. Jon Osterman is disintegrated in an intrinsic field. Not killed, not bombarded with rays, but completely vaporized. “I feel fear for the last time,” John says ominously, right before the accident.
Thanks to his skills as an engineer and watchmaker, he is eventually able to put himself completely back together and thanks to the intrinsic field, he radiates an ultraviolet hue. He’s also completely unstoppable - “the Superman is here, and his American.”
8 The Spectre
Jim Corrigan had to die to get his superpowers. Unfortunately, he stays mostly dead too. Before getting killed, Corrigan was a detective investigating a case. He was put into cement and heaved into the water. His soul refused to pass willingly, which is when the Archangel Michael heard Corrigan’s cries and bonded with his spirit to become God’s vengeance - The Spectre!
This ethereal pairing pretty much gives The Spectre any power he wants to have, which is... you know, a darn handy thing to have up your sleeve.
7 The Incredible Hulk
It’s Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde time, Marvel style. Meek and mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner, who is an expert on gamma radiation, gets caught in a gamma explosion and now exists as himself and the gigantic green goliath, the Incredible Hulk.
Gamma rays, in reality, are present during nuclear fission in atomic explosions. The explosion that occurred was due to an “experimental bomb.” How Bruce survived any of this, let alone came out with a second, snarling green self, is the kind of stuff that can only happen in comic books.
6 Captain Marvel
Carol Danvers wasn’t a super-powerful and nigh-unstoppable alien (that would be Kara Danvers), but there’s plenty of alien pseudoscience involved in the origin of Captain Marvel. Carol was an air force pilot working with a Kree, Mar-Vell.
Another Kree attacked and in the ensuing brawl, Mar-Vell’s cells bonded with Carol’s. She became a Kree warrior/human hybrid and dubbed herself Captain Marvel to honor her friend’s sacrifice.
5 Cyborg
Even though his parents weren’t true supervillains, Victor Stone’s folks weren’t the nicest of people. In pursuit of science, Silas and Elinore Stone conducted all sorts of tests on their son to heighten his intelligence. The tests worked, but Victor ends up not being a fan of his parents.
Their relationship was further complicated when, after trying to save his mother from some sort of alien creature, she died. Victor’s injuries were too great, and he would have died too, if not for Silas using experimental prosthetic research to save his son’s life, turning him into Cyborg.
4 Poison Ivy
Plenty of supervillains were also involved in tragic accidents that granted them superpowers. Sometimes, the accident was dating the wrong person (something plenty of us can understand).
Pamela Isley had fallen for her botany professor, Jason Woodrue. Unbeknownst to her, Woodrue was the Floronic Man. He subjected her to all sorts of tests, experiments, and toxins. She nearly dies from these experiments, twice. The events warp her mind and leave her with the ability to “speak” to plants, as Poison Ivy.
3 Dr. Octopus
Being a mad scientist usually means you’re going to become a crazed supervillain. It happened to Doc Ock. Now redeemed to an extent, Otto Octavius just wanted to eventually be remembered for his contributions for good, instead of his days as the evil Doc Ock.
After years of villainy, Dr. Octopus was suffering from the effects of being a human who happened to have been telepathically bonded to his mechanical arms. He used his own Octobots to help prolong his life and actually switch bodies with Peter Parker, to show that he’d be a much better hero as the Superior Spider-Man.
2 Olivia Moore
The CW adaptation of iZombie doesn’t have anything to do with the Arrowverse, and it bears little resemblance to the comic book. But that doesn’t mean that the circumstance aroun Olivia Moore gaining her powers aren’t completely crazy.
She was turned into a zombie while attending a party. Instead of becoming like every other zombie we’ve seen on TV, Olivia only will turn into that stereotypical mindless zombie if she STOPS eating brains. So, she takes a job at the morgue, only to find out she inherits the personalities and occasionally some flashbacks. She uses these abilities to help Seattle’s finest in their cases.
1 Spider-Man
The toast of the Marvel world also has one of the stranger origin stories. Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gains most of the abilities of an arachnid.
That origin gets expanded on in later years, when some of his biggest foes come after him, because of the “spider-side” of Spider-Man. In one story, he was able to survive being essentially killed, all because some species of spiders can wrap themselves up in a cocoon to be born again.