The superhero stories of the modern age have been likened to mythology of ancient times. And at its peak, that is exactly what comic books are; modern mythology. This lends itself to huge wonderful dynamic characters, each with a compelling back story and unique origin. The problem here is that is no longer what we are getting.
Too many Hulks on the dancefloor
In recent comic books it is all the rage to change the identity of a character. Marvel giving someone other than Steve Rodgers the mantle of Captain America is a good example of the way you can do that right. Another character with a unique origin can be used to good effect to temporarily replace an original character. The problem is when the writers start to get lazy. Take the Hulk family for example. She-Hulk is the way she is because of Bruce's blood transfusion contained gamma. General Ross is a Hulk because of gamma, Rick Jones A-Bomb because of gamma. This is just lazyness, especially considering it was said multiple times that Bruce Banner should have died when exposed to gamma. Now though, gamma has gone from a lethal substance to being portrayed as an equal opportunity powers source. Anybody who feels like it can just grab some gamma and become pretty much the Hulk. What does this mean for Bruce Banner Hulk? It means he is not special. A completely duplicate-able phenomenon that anybody with access to gamma could recreate. This is just wrong.
Gamma the new party drug, warning: may cause wavy lines around head.
The reason it is wrong to make a unique character's origin so available is that the original character stops being interesting. This is a problem I have with “super heroes” that are really just aliens from another planet. They are not, by definition, “super” or at least not in the sense of the word that I think of it. In the same way that Batman is just a normal hero because he is a normal man, alien heroes are just normal for their particular species and thus are not special in any way, making them imo completely uninteresting. Even the last son of a dying planet thing is just dull, it is probably the laziest origin for any hero (where do they get their powers? From space! Why aren't there just a bunch of him? The planet exploded!!) as well as making the power seem un-earned.
Don't worry baby Kal, you will be the most OP person in the universe because... space!
Characters like Captain America who were transformed by chemicals etc always have the source of their origin removed from the world as soon as they enter it. The exact formula that gave Cap his powers is unknown and to this point un-replicatable. This, as well as Cap being chosen for his strength of will, are what makes his origin interesting and unique. Although it is impossible to simply become a Kryptonian as far as we know, the thing that gives Supes his powers is not mysterious or unique at all. He was simply born with it. As was every member of his species.
The way they are treating gamma completely contrary to the cap model and is making hulk lose his interesting original origin.
Spider-man is one of my favorite heroes, due to his relatability, but also due to the circumstances of his origin. Peter just happened to be there when that spider became irradiated and then proceeded to bite him. It is like a one in a million chance he gets those powers and not some other guy, or potentially even nobody. And the aftermath of him using his powers the wrong way kills his Uncle and spurs him into being a hero instead of just some guy with powers.
Why is Superman a hero instead of just some alien? With alien heroes the best you can get is that they protect Earth because they live there. This is why I prefer Shazaam to Superman. The wizard chose Billy Batson to have powers because of the Billy's moral character. Billy Batson is a classic archetype seen in media over and over in films like The Matrix and Seventh son just to name two there are literally thousands. Billy Batson, like Neo, is "the one", similar to how Bruce Banner was "the one" when it seemed he had survived the unsurvivable (gamma exposure) and was, seemingly, the only one who could have survived.
Nobody chose Clark Kent to be Superman (just for example), and if not for the Kents he wouldn't have his own moral compass, at least in the same way we see it. Its just a different kind of story from a "the one" story. It is shown in elseworlds tales what may have happened if Supes had landed with another family and not the Kents and it always turns out bad. Usually with Superman being a villain and abusing his powers. So really the only “super” (meaning beyond ordinary) thing about Superman is the Kents. And now the only super thing about Bruce Banner is that he did something a whole bunch of other people did a little better for no apparent reason.
The Super Kents and thier completely normal alien child
The biggest issue I have with alien characters though, is the same as the issue I have with Amadeus Cho Hulk. Lazyness. Why not make Cho have different powers? You could still call him the Hulk if you wanted, he would just be a different kind of Hulk with a unique origin story and powerset. It is just lazy to make Cho a carbon copy of the Bruce Banner Hulk, as well as it not making any sense. Why is General Ross red and Cho is the same hue as original Hulk? Is Banner Hulk stronger? If so why? If not is there some sort of baseline strength you get from gamma which by now should just be called powertonium or some equally absurd name?
Any of this getting through to you Marvel? We want original characters to have unique origins, we don't want anymore of this guess who is going to be Thor this week crap. Thanks for reading, sound off below.