Comic companies love doing new origins for heroes so we need to get in on that cash cow by providing your whats ifs or elseswheres, free from copyright infringements.
Our first revamp starts on a far-off alien planet. One of their scientists and leaders says a calamity is coming and the planet is in danger, threatening their entire race. Everybody believes him and hops into their rockets to evacuate out into space. Unfortunately, due to an accident with his infant rocket pod, the scientist’s son never leaves the planet and is stuck behind.
Safe in his pod, the son survives the initial quakes but then it turns out the scientist was wrong and the planet will be fine. Once the danger has passed, the pod is opened by the planet’s AI system that was also left behind to run things until the end. The boy grows up under the care of the computer with the entire planet's education, tech, and medical abilities geared specifically for him, as he’s the only biological organism left. The medicine gives him beyond normal performance, augmented with tech so his body naturally produces bio-tech that gives him super powers. The planet’s tech combined with education gives him a genius intellect, and thanks to the AI’s teachings, he knows everything the society ever learned or studied about itself and other races.
After growing to an adult, the man starts to look out into the stars and the computer tells him all the last known trajectories of the planet’s people when they left in their rockets. The computer must stay behind, but the man thanks it for its help and says he will spread word that the planet is fine and has thrived until the computer’s care to get the people to return.
The man processes the data given to him and sees that the most likely candidate for his parents’ rocket is an alien planet called Earth and he sets out for it...
You could call the series “Green Son” and it would make a mint!
Green, “mint”, hilarity.
Our next revamped origin takes your standard billionaire flying rodent based vigilante and makes him a man of the middle-class people.
After a late night showing at a movie theater, a middle-class couple and their child start the walk back to their apartment in the city. Suddenly, a car turns the corner and ignores that the family is in the crosswalk. Pushing their son to safety just in time, the car runs down the parents before slamming into a light pole. City police rush to the scene and while they’re questioning the boy and checking him for injuries, he can hear the cops taking a gentle tone with the driver, even as he yells at them in a drunken slur. The cops call for an unmarked car to pick up the driver and a tow truck takes away the smashed car. Young “Billy” asks why the cops aren’t arresting the man and the medic tending to him just grits her teeth and says that some people have connections with the law.
Adopted by his Aunt Alice, an art teacher, Billy lives with her from now on. He spent the first days after the accident waiting by the radio, listening for reporting on his parents’ death but outside of a quick mention of an accident by the theater that never reported the driver’s name or that he was drunk, nothing comes of it. Billy decides to devote his life to justice.
Without the billionaire life, young Billy spends his time training at gyms and youth centers, throwing himself into school and every subject the library has books on, and teaching himself engineering with the few parts he can assemble. Ready to go out onto the street, Billy needs a symbol to strike fear into the cowardly hearts of criminals and the miserly that prey on the city. The rich and connected may not fear much, so he decides to tap into a Jungian fear that hits rich and poor alike, some kind of flying rodent that gets in your hair and carries weird diseases and sometimes draws blood.
We jump forward a few years after Billy has begun his quest for justice. Two criminals rush out of the midtown bank after a heist at night. They dash down an alley but are tripped by Billy’s grapnel. A costumed Billy glares at the crook, recognizing one of them and reminds him that he hit a bank too far downtown. The crook apologizes profusely and blames his partner, who is new in town. Billy explains the rules for the newcomer. You only hit the uptown banks, you only take insured money, and you NEVER hurt civilians. The men swear they didn’t hurt anybody, revealing their guns are just painted fakes. Billy grunts and drops them. The thief hands over a quarter of the loot to Billy and the newcomer laughs, calling Billy just as bent as the city’s cops. Billy replies that the money isn’t for him and then proceeds to break the newcomer’s nose. The older crook grabs his young and dumb partner, and the rest of the loot, and they limp off into the night.
Billy returns to the abandoned warehouse he uses as a hideout and starts doling out the money into envelopes. The next morning, the mid and downtown teachers wake up to their share of the loot to buy supplies for classes. Billy’s costumed alter-ego is a hero of the poor and middle-class and considered a dangerous vigilante by the rich, the cops, and the politically powerful.
I think it would be fun to have a hero that focuses more on white collar crime. It may not be as flashy as powered villain fights, but you could still write good detective stories about political and corporate stories. You’d still have your villains, but “Billy” would have completely different relationships with the city’s rogues. Angry scientist in a high tech ice suit? Sure, go wreck that corporation and rob the rich and indolent. Just keep your ice beams away from their employees and civilians! Nature-based villain attacking greedy developers and landlords? Amen, sister. Scarred lawyer turned mobster? You keep that business uptown and we’ll get along just fine. Insane guy indiscriminately blowing things up? Nope, you’re a danger to everybody so you’re getting face punches and your fingers broken. Do that again and we drown you in the river.