super hero - Any Superheros by Choice?

It seems like most superheros are either born that way (Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Ancient Mariner, for example), or are made into a superhero without their consent (Fantastic Four, Hulk, Green Lantern and Spiderman, for example). Many of the born superheros are outsiders living in human society and trying to make good (like the X-Men and the others I listed earlier).

I've found five exceptions, but, except for one, those seem created by outside influences:

Batman (but he has serious issues and it springs from the trauma of his parents' murder)

Ironman (but he had no choice to have to put the power source in his chest and it seems circumstances kept him going as a superhero)

M.A.N.T.I.S (from the TV series) (He makes the exo-skeleton on his own, but is still driven by a need for revenge on the bad guys)

Captain America (he volunteered for the experiment, but had no idea what it would do to him)

Green Arrow (who seems the only superhero by choice that I can find)

Other than the Green Arrow, are there any superheros that basically looked around, decided, "I want to do something to help, and I have the money or ability to do it!" ? Even the ones I listed above who made a choice to be a superhero seem to have been driving.

Are there any others besides Green Arrow who are superheros by choice?

(I'm not asking for a long list, so please don't get upset and say it's a list question. Just an example or two will prove to me Green Arrow isn't a fluke.)

Answer

How about the heros in Watchmen? Doctor Manhattan is a traditional superhero, and I guess he falls into the "forced on them" category, but most of the heros are just normal humans.

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harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.

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