Superheroes Needing Training

Many times in Western superhero comics, someone gets powers and somehow understands how to use them immediately and can do so with little effort.

At some point, it came into vogue that a training period was needed to fully understand using these extra human abilities, or that the character would be able to use them but with little precision. I would say the X-men with their danger room would be a good example of something like that. 

To be clear, I'm referring to superheroes with actual super powers, not martial arts types. 

Any thoughts on when this sort of thing started? Was it the X-men? The Legion? Supergirl? Superboy? Someone else? 

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  • I don't remember any team doing much training before the X-Men. 

  • Probably the X-Men. Even when Superman took in Supergirl and dropped her off at the Midvale Orphanage (something that would never fly today, and shouldn't have back then), he didn't spend much time teaching her anything.

    It became a thing in the '80s for Hal Jordan and the other Green Lanterns to be trained, and writers built up a whole bureaucracy around that notion. Before then, it was just, "Here's the ring, pal -- go to work!" Which actually doesn't bother me a whole lot.

  • IIRC, wasn't that Sinestro's job to train Hal? 

    ClarkKent_DC said:

    It became a thing in the '80s for Hal Jordan and the other Green Lanterns to be trained, and writers built up a whole bureaucracy around that notion. Before then, it was just, "Here's the ring, pal -- go to work!" Which actually doesn't bother me a whole lot.

  • ClarkKent_DC said:

    It became a thing in the '80s for Hal Jordan and the other Green Lanterns to be trained, and writers built up a whole bureaucracy around that notion. Before then, it was just, "Here's the ring, pal -- go to work!" Which actually doesn't bother me a whole lot.

    Randy Jackson said:

    IIRC, wasn't that Sinestro's job to train Hal? 

    And when did Sinestro first show up? In Green Lantern #7. Before that, Hal was on his own.

  • Randy Jackson said:

    IIRC, wasn't that Sinestro's job to train Hal?

    That was a retcon.

  • Wouldn't the subs count?

    01330238504.311.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x

  • To my knowledge, the Subs had complete control over their powers. I believe they banded together to help out when the Legion couldn't. 

    I think the idea of the Subs as a potential training team was a ret on. 

    Jeff of Earth-J said:

    Wouldn't the subs count?

    01330238504.311.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x

  • The Legion has an academy - and, more to the point, it and Superboy largely trained each other from the very earliest appearances of the team back in 1958.  The sense of ongoing comraderie was a new element to Superboy stories and I would guess that it was a big factor in its success and staying power.

    The Kupperberg 1980s Doom Patrol had a similar function. Firestorm joined the JL of A arguably for that purpose, although I think that moral support played a larger role.  But all of those are later developments.

    But the earliest example that comes to mind is the original Human Torch mentoring Toro.  You could perhaps make a case for Namor and Namora, but that is fuzzier and I think that it also comes considerably later.

  • I've only read a small handful of Golden Age Human Torch stories. I'm not sure if I remember him showing Toro how to use his powers. 

    Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas said:

    The Legion has an academy - and, more to the point, it and Superboy largely trained each other from the very earliest appearances of the team back in 1958.  The sense of ongoing comraderie was a new element to Superboy stories and I would guess that it was a big factor in its success and staying power.

    The Kupperberg 1980s Doom Patrol had a similar function. Firestorm joined the JL of A arguably for that purpose, although I think that moral support played a larger role.  But all of those are later developments.

    But the earliest example that comes to mind is the original Human Torch mentoring Toro.  You could perhaps make a case for Namor and Namora, but that is fuzzier and I think that it also comes considerably later.

  • "The Subs had complete control over their powers..."

    "The Legion has an academy..."

    I think I was conflating the subs with academy (well post-X-Men).

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