Playing Non-Supers in a Superhero Setting

 

(This article was originally posted in the Atomic Think Tank on October 22, 2025) 

   In the never-ending playground battle of Marvel vs DC, I tend to come down on the side of DC most of the time. There are a number of reasons for this, but one of the primary ones is Genre.  As a rule, superheroes tend to treat genre with a kind of cheerful disregard. Most superheroes draw from multiple genres (Superman, as an example, pulls together elements of John Carter-style Planetary Romance, Doc Savage-style Hero Pulps and Mythological Strongmen like Herakles and Samson), but in addition to that, superheroes have often shared space with characters from other genres. 

    Golden Age comics pretty much drew inspiration from the old Pulp Magazines, and while some were genre-specific (Westerns, War Stories, Romances), others were much more of a mixed bag. As a result, early comics would feature superheroes alongside crusading reporters, two-fisted cops, cowboy sheriffs, South Seas adventurers, soldiers, aviators, detectives and all manner of others. As all these diverse characters slowly began to meet one another, these worlds and their different genres, would begin to bleed together. 

    By the Silver Age, this was even more pronounced, with Marvel characters like the Hulk and the Fantastic Four being obvious evolutions of the monster comics the company was publishing before, and DC characters like Captain Comet and the Martian Manhunter emerging from that company's science fiction titles. And alongside a new generation of superheroes, you still had all those old genre standouts - Cowboys like The Trigger Twins or The Rawhide Kid, Romance stories like Millie the Model or Patsy Walker, or Adventure Stories featuring deep-sea divers like The Sea Devils, war heroes like Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandos, space adventurers like Adam Strange or high-tech secret agents like Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. And this would only get wilder as the 1970's and 80's rolled around, drawing everything from Jonah Hex, Tomb of Dracula, Skull the Slayer, Swamp Thing, Kamandi, Ka-Zar the Savage, The Haunted Tank, The Master of Kung-Fu and Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld into the mix.

    For mine, while Marvel had some standouts (Man-Thing, Tomb of Dracula and Master of Kung-Fu are particular favourites of mine), DC's offerings tended to be more distinctive, flavourful and diverse, from the Hollow Earth swords and sorcery of The Warlord to the quirky science fiction of Space Cabbie and the gritty, nihilistic Western tales of Jonah Hex. And yet, for all this crazy distinctiveness and wild variations in tone and presentation, there was still the implication that all of this was happening in the same world as The Justice League, Jack Kirby's Fourth World Saga and The Metal Men. 

    And then there are those characters like Jason Bard, Amanda Waller, Sarge Steel, King Faraday, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, Commissioner James Gordon, Harvey Bullock, Jenet Klyburn, Inspector Henderson, the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City, and countless others who are constantly rubbing shoulders with superheroes and having adventures of their own without strange powers or colourful costumes.

    So what does this mean for your Mutants & Masterminds game?

    Characters like the ones mentioned above have their analogues in the core M&M setting, including Western heroes like The Pale Rider, Swashbuckling pirates like The Crimson Corsair, Jungle adventurers like Zandar the Jungle Lord and countless others, and while there's considerable value in having your masked men of mystery or superpowered heroes team up with them via time travel or interdimensional portal or whatnot, there's also the possibility of using Mutants & Masterminds to play a Western, a Swashbuckling Pirate Adventure or a Lost World Jungle Tale in a world of Superheroes and Villains.

    The most common version of this is the 'Agent' game, where the PCs play Agents of AEGIS, UNISON or officers in Freedom City's STAR Squad, ordinary people using teamwork and technology to take down super-powered opponents. The Second Ed. supplement Agents of Freedom has a lot of information on how to run that sort of game. 

    There's also the flip-side, where the PCs take on the role of henchmen and women for some of Freedom City or Emerald City's colourful rogues, trying to get the job done with guile, good luck and teamwork while avoiding getting clobbered by some overdeveloped yahoo in a cape, or attracting the attention of your boss on a day where he's feeling more than usually stabby.

    Similarly, PCs could play a Golden Age game where they take on the role of an elite unit like Sergeant Fury's Howling Commandos, Sergeant Rock's Easy Company or The Blackhawks. 

    Depending on the type of characters you're playing, PCs could be built on PL6 or lower (Sgt Rock's Easy Company, Gotham Central's Detectives, the various hunters from 'Tomb of Dracula'), PL8 (The Challengers of the Unknown, Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD, Ka-Zar the Savage) or even PL10 (Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu or Adam Strange).

    The possibilities are endless as your standard superhero world contains multitudes of heroic individuals who aren't superheroes - Intrepid reporters, cutting-edge scientists, occult investigators, starship crew members, and countless others. It might not be suitable for a whole campaign; maybe just a one-shot adventure or a 'Meanwhile...' but it can give your players a new viewpoint on their world and flesh out your setting from an all-new perspective.

A (Far From Complete) List of References:

* 'Adam Strange' (DC Comics, 1958-1965). A Planetary Romance-style science fiction series in which Earthborn archaeologist, Adam Strange is transported via 'Zeta Beam' to the distant planet Rann where, with the aid of the Scientist, Sardath and Sardath's daughter, Alanna, he battles a succession of deadly threats. After a certain period of time, the 'Zeta-Energy' wears off, returning Adam to Earth. Many of the adventures focus on trying to find ways to allow Adam to remain on Rann where he has fallen in love with Alanna.
Again, far from the only example of its kind, but Adam would frequently team up with Green Lantern, Hawkman and other members of the Justice League.

* 'Astro City' (Image Comics, 1995-present). Many of the stories in this series feature different perspectives on living in a world of superpowered heroes and villains.

* 'Challengers of the Unknown' (DC Comics, 1957-1971) and 'Sea Devils' (DC Comics, 1960-1967). These two are far from the only series which used this formula, but they do stand out as some of the best. These series about about teams of ordinary adventurers confronting extraordinary, supernatural and alien threats using nothing but their skills and resourcefulness. 
 The Challengers of the Unknown were a four-man group consisting of an Olympic Wrestler, a Stuntman, a Test-Pilot and an Oceanographer all of whom survived certain death in an air-crash. Seeing this as an omen, they decided they were "living on borrowed time" and threw themselves into the wildest and most dangerous situations they could.
 The Sea Devils, meanwhile, were a four-person group of SCUBA-diving aquatic adventurers who'd frequently run up against bizarre threats and strange phenomena in the vast, unexplored reaches of the deep.

* 'Chase' (DC Comics, 1998). This short-lived but acclaimed series features an intelligence operative named Cameron Chase tasked with investigating strange occurrences and monitoring superhuman activities on behalf of the DEO (Department of Extranormal Operations). 
 
 * 'Daily Bugle' (Marvel Comics, 1996-1997). A miniseries spotlighting the various reporters and staff working for the Daily Bugle newspaper in the Marvel Universe.

* 'Deadline' (Marvel Comics, 2002). A miniseries about a journalist working for the Daily Bugle who investigates a bizarre mystery. 

* 'Gotham Central' (DC Comics, 2002-2006), and 'Powers' (Various, 2000-2017). Two similar but very distinct police procedural series set in superhero universes with ordinary cops solving unusual crimes and confronting unusual criminals. 'Gotham Central' tends to be more low-powered and realistic, while 'Powers' embeds itself more in the overall superheroic context.

* 'Guns of The Dragon' (DC Comics, 1998-1999). A six-issue, genre-mashing adventure miniseries by Tim Truman featuring aging Western hero Bat Lash, WWI German Aviator Hans Von Hammer (a.k.a. The Enemy Ace) and two-fisted pulp private eye Biff Bradley (a version of 'Slam' Bradley). The series also features appearances by members of WWII aviator team The Blackhawks, Justice Society Villain Vandal Savage, and the dinosaur island setting from 'Weird War Tales' The War That Time Forgot.

* 'Master of Kung-Fu' (Marvel Comics, 1974-1983). Created to cash in on the Kung-Fu craze, this long-running series would combine a variety of elements and genres, drawing on Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu stories, but incorporating elements of 1970's Kung Fu films and James Bond-style spy movies, all set in the Marvel Universe.

* 'Starjammers' (Marvel Comics, 1995-1996). A colourful group of space pirates with ties to Marvel's X-Men characters.

* 'Starman' (DC Comics, 1994-2001). This series featured a great supporting cast of non-powered characters, most particularly the O'Dare Family and the fortune-teller Charity, as well as looping in other non-powered adventurers from DC Comics' long history including Wild West character Scalphunter, pirate adventurer Jon Valor (a.k.a. the Black Pirate) and others.

* 'Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen' (DC Comics, 1954-1974). Consistently one of the craziest and most amazing reads in DC Comics' history. By virtue of being Superman's pal, cub reporter Jimmy Olsen finds himself in one way-out and crazy predicament after another, whether it's being turned into a Human Porcupine or accidentally getting engaged to an Alien from Outer Space. 

* 'Warlord' (1975-1988). The adventures of Travis Morgan, a modern day soldier who finds himself in the lost world of Skartaris in the centre of the Hollow Earth. Inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar stories.