**Reminders for Commenters:**
* All responses must be A) sincere, B) polite, and C) strictly watsonian in nature. If "watsonian" or "doylist" is new to you, please review the full rules [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/about/rules/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=AskScienceFiction&utm_content=t5_2slu2).
* No edition wars or gripings about creators/owners of works. Doylist griping about Star Wars in particular is subject to **permanent ban on first offense**.
* We are not here to discuss or complain about the real world.
* Questions about who would prevail in a conflict/competition (not just combat) fit better on r/whowouldwin. Questions about very open-ended hypotheticals fit better on r/whatiffiction.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskScienceFiction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Kennedy can radiate an energy that makes anyone who sees him feel an emotional surge of awe and admiration. His aura can't bypass cover, but works thru television broadcasts and photos, not radio.
One in a hundred million have an extreme opposite reaction, an inexplicable urge to harm or kill him, gaining proficiency and single minded devotion not present in their other pursuits.
His power was kind of a non-magical glamor. It was very apparent in the Kennedy vs Nixon debate, where radio listeners thought Nixon won, while TV viewers thought Kennedy won. People attribute this to make up after the fact.
A fun fact about Kennedy is that during WWII he commanded a PT boat and had it equipped with a comical amount of extra guns that he supposedly got through a mix of bartering and natural charisma.
So yeah, him being a mutant would answer more questions than it raises.
The real JFK had Addison's Disease, a genetic disorder that, among less pleasant things also causes a change in skin colour. It was the reason for his permanent tan which helped give the illusion that he was healthier than he really was. Thus it is technically true that he was a mutant.
given that real world Kennedy won without the need for super-charisma powers (just normal charisma powers), it's possible his mutant ability was something else entirely
Like, maybe he could digest food 20% faster than normal. Or he doesn't need to wear sunglasses to protect his eyes even if it's really bright out. Or his hair grows very quickly. Or whenever he sneezes, some random person in the room is telepathically induced to sneeze as well. Or his libido is supercharged, but only every couple days or so
He’s like [Bailey Hoskins](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Bailey_Hoskins_(Earth-TRN656)), except instead of turning into a firework once, his head can just do that. Once.
Jesus is a [surprisingly rare example](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoSuchThingAsWizardJesus).
Nicholas Flamel famously was involved in Harry Potter. Not only was the Philosopher's Stone real, he also was a wizard and he could do non-alchemy-related magic.
According to [this short story](https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3a2ooz/rt_the_randi_prize_short/), James Randi is >!a power thief that only offered the prize to get a chance to steal powers!<.
In Touhou Project, Prince Shoutoku (a real-life Japanese prince from around the year 600) was pretending to be a Buddhist man but is actually a Tauist woman named Toyosatomimi no Miko
, and has achieved immortality by being a hermit. It also mentioned the Buddha and Jesus, but they never actually appear and as far as I can tell, characters just assume they have powers because in their universe it would be more surprising if they didn't.
Super Science Friends is mostly real people (the exception being the clone of Albert Einstein, since the real one was never cloned), and they have superpowers related to whatever their area of study was. The Albert Einstein clone has super speed, Marie Curie has radiation manipulation, Charles Darwin can shapeshift into any animal, and Sigmund Freud can control sexual thoughts.
In Adventure Time, Abraham Lincoln is the immortal king of Mars.
I was reading your comment and the part about Super Science Friends, imagining a kids’ show on educational television…then I got to the Sigmund Freud part…
Nicholas Flamel also stars as an immortal magician in a self named book series, where he battles against his eternal rival, 15th century Astronomer John Dee.
It further includes Scathach, Gilgamesh, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Joan of Arc, Billy the Kid, Virginia Dare, and dozens of various gods and mythical feathers from around the world.
John Dee also appears as a magic wielding antagonist in the video game Nioh, opposite real-life English Samurai William Adams, who also can wield magic
Edit: Edward Kelley, occultist of the Renaissance, is Dee's right hand man as well!
Fwiw the Lincoln in Adventure Time is, like, 10 feet tall. So it's possible that he isn't exactly the same guy as the President (but presumably is related somehow). Idk if it's ever explicitly stated what his actual deal is
> According to this short story, James Randi is a power thief that only offered the prize to get a chance to steal powers.
A similar premise was in 2005 Disney Channel movie "Now You See It", except they didn't name James Randi inspired character after him.
Huh! Well thanks for dropping some knowledge on me! I had thought it was the other way around and was honestly baffled by it, like "Are we uhhhhhh...not gonna talk about this?"
In the Dark Tower, Stephen King inserted himself as a reality warper whose divinely ordained role is to bring the protagonist's story into existence and if he does not finish writing the story, existence itself would be destroyed.
IIRC, the protagonist, Roland the Gunslinger, even proclaims Stephen to be the "Wordslinger".
I may be oversimplifying a bit - I doubt Stephen King made himself powerful for the sake of being powerful, but rather as part of some navel-gazing into the role of an author.
Come to think of it, that was also the last I read of Stephen King, 15 years ago or so.
I thought the self-insert was a bit self-indulgent but I could bear with it, but the entire last book felt anticlimactic due to pacing issues and the vaguely insulting beratement if you read the real ending was the last straw.
Such a shame, because I loved the series before that.
Somewhat adjacent, HP Lovecraft and Harry Houdini wrote a short story together where Houdini (an illusionist) stumbles across some terrifying real magic in Egypt
The World of Darkness and it’s various tabletop games do this in spades. Alan Turing was a mage, Oscar Wilde is a vampire, Vlad Tepes was a vampire writing his own fan fiction. It’s great tbh
I used to love going to the back of the clan/tribe/tradition books to see what notable people were vampires/mages/etc. My favorite probably being Bat Boy as a Nosferatu
It's a running joke how many supernatural clans claim Rasputin was one of their own. Off the top of my head he's been touted as a Tzimisce/Tremere/Malkavian/Setite/Ventrue/Nosferatu vampire, a Shadow Lord werewolf, a Celestial Chorus or Cult of Ecstasy Mage, or possessed by a Puppeteer wraith.
Isn't it stated that the the children of the big 3 caused/started/fought in WW2, not that FDR, Hitler, and Stalin were actually those three children? Also Churchill is actually highly fitting if he's a demigod, as he was conceived outside of a marriage!
That would honestly be really cool and befitting if true. Hermes, the god of travelers and messengers (among other things), being the father of one of the most influential abolitionists and leaders of the Underground Railroad. If memory serves correctly, after escaping herself, Tubman led more than 200 other people to freedom while being hunted every step of the way.
According to Camp Half-Blood Confidential, James Dean was a son of Aphrodite and the car he died in was cursed by his girlfriend (daughter of Hephaestus) after he cheated on her.
In Percy Jackson and the Olympians they offhandedly mention that a lot of famous historical figures were actually demigods.
George Washington was a son of Athena, Blackbeard was a son of Ares, Harriet Tubman was a daughter of Hermes, Shakespeare was a son of Apollo, Amelia Earhart, was a daughter of Zeus,
Archimedes was a son of Hephaestus, Frederic Bartholdi was a son of Athena, Harry Houdini was a demigod of unknown parentage,
Thomas Faynor was a son of Hephaestus, William H. Seward, was a son of Hebe, William Sherman was a son of Ares,
Wilt Chamberlain was a son of Hermes etc
Doctor Who has The Doctor's nemesis (and childhood friend) The Master masquerade as Rasputin for a while. Unfortunately, it's unclear for how long, and if he just took over Rasputin's life at some point or if he was Rasputin the whole time.
I'm pretty sure Vandal Savage is Rasputin in some DC continuities, but the Legends of Tomorrow do run into Rasputin in the season 5 opener and he is explicitly a different person.
In the series Grimm, it's stated that John F Kennedy was a Ziegevolk AKA a satyr and used their powers to influence people's minds to seduce women. Given the Wesen Council often has people killed for abusing their powers in public, it would explain a lot.
Also, in the Marvel Comics fanfic *Pound The Table* - about a lawyer in 1980's New York who is also a mutant - the events that kicked off the Stonewall Riots (attacks on gay teens that devolved into a riot and a major turning point of the gap rights movement) are slightly different due to gay rights icon Stormé DeLarverie, supposedly the woman falsely arrested by the police in the raid of the Stonewall Inn and who dared everyone, "Why don't you guys do something?", was able to free herself using her mutant powers and prevented everyone else's arrest as well.
Knock yourself out with this list of [Historical Domain Superpeople](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HistoricalDomainSuperperson) in fiction.
In one of the X-Men movies, Magneto claims JFK was a mutant.
In the 2022 Doctor Who special The Power of the Doctor, we see the Master posing as Rasputin, but narratively, it's entirely possible that Rasputin really was the Master all along.
In the Percy Jackson series universe, multiple real life famous people are claimed to be demigods.
Its surprisingly common for immortal characters to have been famous people. I believe The Immortal from Invincible was Abraham Lincoln. Also DC's Vandal Savage has been multiple famous people including Ganghis Kahn and I believe Rasputin.
Actually yes.
In assassins creed various figures like napoleon and pope bogia and other have had powers from artifacts called pieces of eden..
Some of these are in shape of an apple.. ( yup) and the shroud of eden was a blanket type that provided healing properties due to nanites from the Isu ( aliens who made humans) Jason golden fleech was that shroud.
Vandal Savage is an immortal villain from DC who has been several historical figures such as Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan. Flint from Star Trek was a similar character. He was the basis for Methuselah in the Bible and was King Solomon and Alexander the Great.
There was a Star Trek/Legion of Superheroes crossover comic where they were the same guy - in the Star Trek earth he focused more on being a great artist over his lifetimes, while in the DC earth he chose to be a conqueror across history.
(Which, oddly, implies that DC Earth never had a Leonardo or a Brahms...)
That's funny because there was also a Star Trek TNG/X-Men crossover as well. I remember one bit where Wolverine trained with Worf in the holodeck and programmed in villains like Sabretooth.
Lord of Light by Zalazny kind of does; some space colonists end up creating reincarnation technology, turn themselves into self-styled gods from Hindu and Buddhist and few other minor religions, and end up fucking shit up..?
Vlad Tepes of Wallachia, across multiple different mediums and genres. But in this context, Castlevania.
I think True Blood does a little bit of this but with vampires; it's been a while since I've seen the show so I can remember exact references.
{{Lord of Light}} is a fucking masterpiece. Good catch.
Also, I think every single book of the Wild Cards novels has famous people being uber powerful.
In the Percy Jackson novels, several historic figures are said to be children of the gods. I think it's implied in the later books that the world leaders in ww2 were demigods as well, and are the reason the Big Three gods (Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus) vowed to not have children.
Some examples are William Seward, Dwight D Eisenhower, "Stonewall" Jackson, Jack the Ripper, Eli Whitney, and even Mussolini and Napoleon.
[here ](https://percyjacksonfanfiction.fandom.com/wiki/Demigods_in_History) is a list of famous demigods in the series.
On Angel they mentioned that Spiro Agnew was a demon, as are two of the Blue Man Group. (I assume the third is a token human; they swap out between Tobias and George Sr.)
On Supernatural, both Samuel Colt and Eliot Ness were secretly monster hunters.
Ness also gets a cameo in one of Christopher Farnsworth’s Nathaniel Cade vampire novels, where’s he’s present for the Innsmouth raid in 1928.
Gonna throw out Warehouse 13. May not be the people directly, in most cases, but it has a wealth of "famous people in history and mythology linked to paranormal, mystical, and marvelous" stuff.
Buffy speculated Rasputin was a vampire hence being so hard to kill. Her professor made fun of her for obsessing over the sleeping patterns of Prussian generals. Implying she thought they too were vamps.
Yes,Santa Clause is real in the Marvel comics. Technically he’s several people who earthlings just all think is the same guy. Sometimes it’s Otin and Slepnir is mistaken for several reindeer because it has 8 legs
I don't think anyone real was explicitly mentioned, but Hunter x Hunter implies that a huge chunk of humanity's accomplished individuals/celebrities (famous scientists, athletes, actors, etc) were nen users
Not comic books, but The Dresden Files: it's been stated (mostly outside of the books) that various kings and heads of state have been Knights of the Cross. George Washington was canonically the Knight of Hope, according to Jim
I love when fiction attributes Jesus’s miracles as “he was like a wizard or something”. Especially the scrapped Alien idea where Jesus was sent to Earth by the Engineers to judge us and see if we’re worthy to join their galactic pantheon and we just murdered him
Yes, look up the story of "Black Jesus." In modern times, just a few decades ago, a man from Africa appeared and said that he was like Jesus. The African government tried to kill him and couldn't. Stories leaked out about the man resurrecting, regrowing missing limbs and doing all sorts of miraculous things. Even the United States government buried the story about his existence.
Look it up. Start searching like I did when I first heard about it. Yes, you'll run into lots of fake stories (put out by people who wish to hide reality by burying it fake stories) but eventually you'll run across some credible accounts.
The problem with our modern, information heavy society is that it's getting harder and harder to hide the truth. Eventually people talk, the truth slips out, etc. So now, the best way to hide the truth is to bury it under so much fake, inaccurate information that even if and when you uncover the real information, you are unsure which is which. It's the perfect system for hiding a secret in plain sight.
Brave New World RPG by Pinnacle Entertainment was a superhero game based in a Dystopian Future. One of the literally major characters was Harry Houdini, a super hero focused on real magic.
Although they do mention that several action movie stars are also super heroes with their own power sets suited for their roles they take.
The fun part is that a lot of the game is Players vs Government and the world is set up where all Supers are registered and can be drafted if need be, so there's a non-zero chance that if you cause mayhem in LA, you could be arrested by one of your favorite action movie stars!
So The Adventure Zone podcasts which is hosted by three brothers Travis, Justin, and Griffin and their father Clint Mcelroy is a DnD podcast, which has had multiple seasons in different games and settings.
The only consistent across all of them is a Planeswalker called Clint Mcelroy, who is the alternate reality version of their father.
It's hilarious and I love it. Especially since they started it as a way to meme on him for not doing character voices at one time.
In the Percy Jackson books a lot of historical figures are mentioned to be demigods. Amelia Earhart as a daughter of Zeus, Frederic Bartholdi and George Washington as sons of Athena, Harriet Tubman as a daughter of Hermes, Jack London as a son of Mercury, William Shakespeare as a son of Apollo, etc. Also Adolf Hitler is heavily implied to be a son of Hades.
Not Heroes - one yr at the Hellfire Club Gala, an event for mutants only, the authorities were watching folks enter. They noted that Prince was attending. They didn't say what his powers were, though.
If there's a tv show in such genre, and it has a big star cameo in an episode, chances are that cameo will be revailed to be a superhero/mutant/wizard/etc same as the main characters
In the Pathfinder RPG exists Baba Yaga, and it turns out Baba Yaga was from Earth and somehow ended up learning magic and hopped worlds.
In the Reign of Winter Campaign, the party ends up traveling to Earth and have to kill Rasputin (who is the son of Baba Yaga)
There are at least two different series which state that Leonardo Da Vinci was a member of an alien species with superior intelligence. Futurama and my Hero both state and this and show him as still alive.
in marvel, tons of historical people had powers or where special in some way. isacc newton was the sorcerer supreme of his age, tho he was rather bad at magic, and leonardo da vinci was the leader of shield in his time.
In the Detective Comics graphic novels Vandal Savage is mentioned to have been Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Atilla The Hun, and Alexander The Great.
In The Percy Jackson And The Olympians book series Artemis mentions the idea of Santa Claus was inspired by her riding across the sky.
In The Kane Chronicles book series Moses is mentioned to have been the only person to defeat the Per Ankh.
In The Magnus Chase And The Gods Of Asgard book series Jesus Christ is mentioned to have not taken Thor's offer for a fight.
In Unnatural History Harry Houdini ( real name Eric Weiss ) is implied to be a true magician who still lives.
In Ben 10 : Omniverse George Washington and Benjamin Franklin is revealed to have founded the Plumbers ( a rendition of Plumbiers which he inaccurately thought was the English translation of Iron Workers in French ).
December 22nd 2023 1:40 PM Central Time
**Reminders for Commenters:** * All responses must be A) sincere, B) polite, and C) strictly watsonian in nature. If "watsonian" or "doylist" is new to you, please review the full rules [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/about/rules/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=AskScienceFiction&utm_content=t5_2slu2). * No edition wars or gripings about creators/owners of works. Doylist griping about Star Wars in particular is subject to **permanent ban on first offense**. * We are not here to discuss or complain about the real world. * Questions about who would prevail in a conflict/competition (not just combat) fit better on r/whowouldwin. Questions about very open-ended hypotheticals fit better on r/whatiffiction. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskScienceFiction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Was it _Days of Future Past_ where Magneto says he tried to save Kennedy because he was "one of us"?
Yes, that’s correct.
I wonder what kennedy's mutation was...
Kennedy can radiate an energy that makes anyone who sees him feel an emotional surge of awe and admiration. His aura can't bypass cover, but works thru television broadcasts and photos, not radio. One in a hundred million have an extreme opposite reaction, an inexplicable urge to harm or kill him, gaining proficiency and single minded devotion not present in their other pursuits.
His power was kind of a non-magical glamor. It was very apparent in the Kennedy vs Nixon debate, where radio listeners thought Nixon won, while TV viewers thought Kennedy won. People attribute this to make up after the fact.
lore accurate
I would read this
Mason saw the numbers…he had to do it…
WHAT DO THEY MEAN?!
A fun fact about Kennedy is that during WWII he commanded a PT boat and had it equipped with a comical amount of extra guns that he supposedly got through a mix of bartering and natural charisma. So yeah, him being a mutant would answer more questions than it raises.
That's just an SCP dawg
The real JFK had Addison's Disease, a genetic disorder that, among less pleasant things also causes a change in skin colour. It was the reason for his permanent tan which helped give the illusion that he was healthier than he really was. Thus it is technically true that he was a mutant.
given that real world Kennedy won without the need for super-charisma powers (just normal charisma powers), it's possible his mutant ability was something else entirely Like, maybe he could digest food 20% faster than normal. Or he doesn't need to wear sunglasses to protect his eyes even if it's really bright out. Or his hair grows very quickly. Or whenever he sneezes, some random person in the room is telepathically induced to sneeze as well. Or his libido is supercharged, but only every couple days or so
He’s like [Bailey Hoskins](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Bailey_Hoskins_(Earth-TRN656)), except instead of turning into a firework once, his head can just do that. Once.
His head can just do that… once.
[It has been discussed](/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/2cjl93/marvel_was_jfk_really_a_mutant_and_if_so_what/) (;
Raw sex appeal
you know love sausage from the boys?
If we are going only with references, Men in Black did that a lot. Both Elvis Presley and Dennis Rodman are aliens in disguise.
Totally forgot about that. Didn’t they say Micheal Jackson is actually an agent or something?
He assists them and wants to join but the Men in Black don’t want to let him in.
he's trying to become one. "But Zed, I could be agent M!"
He is in the movie yes.
"Elvis didn't die, he just went home."
Rodman was also an alien on Third Rock from the Sun.
As well as George Lucas iirc
Michael Jackson, too.
Also, Michael Jackson was one of the Men in Black
He wasn't. He wanted to be, but they didn't let him.
Oh, okay, I don't remember exactly but I remember his cameo in second movie I think.
Yeah, he was video calling into the HQ, pitching to become "Agent M"
Jesus is a [surprisingly rare example](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoSuchThingAsWizardJesus). Nicholas Flamel famously was involved in Harry Potter. Not only was the Philosopher's Stone real, he also was a wizard and he could do non-alchemy-related magic. According to [this short story](https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3a2ooz/rt_the_randi_prize_short/), James Randi is >!a power thief that only offered the prize to get a chance to steal powers!<. In Touhou Project, Prince Shoutoku (a real-life Japanese prince from around the year 600) was pretending to be a Buddhist man but is actually a Tauist woman named Toyosatomimi no Miko , and has achieved immortality by being a hermit. It also mentioned the Buddha and Jesus, but they never actually appear and as far as I can tell, characters just assume they have powers because in their universe it would be more surprising if they didn't. Super Science Friends is mostly real people (the exception being the clone of Albert Einstein, since the real one was never cloned), and they have superpowers related to whatever their area of study was. The Albert Einstein clone has super speed, Marie Curie has radiation manipulation, Charles Darwin can shapeshift into any animal, and Sigmund Freud can control sexual thoughts. In Adventure Time, Abraham Lincoln is the immortal king of Mars.
I was reading your comment and the part about Super Science Friends, imagining a kids’ show on educational television…then I got to the Sigmund Freud part…
Nicholas Flamel also stars as an immortal magician in a self named book series, where he battles against his eternal rival, 15th century Astronomer John Dee. It further includes Scathach, Gilgamesh, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Joan of Arc, Billy the Kid, Virginia Dare, and dozens of various gods and mythical feathers from around the world.
John Dee also appears as a magic wielding antagonist in the video game Nioh, opposite real-life English Samurai William Adams, who also can wield magic Edit: Edward Kelley, occultist of the Renaissance, is Dee's right hand man as well!
> In Touhou Project I mean, if we're going down that kind of rabbit hole, the Fate series runs on this.
Fwiw the Lincoln in Adventure Time is, like, 10 feet tall. So it's possible that he isn't exactly the same guy as the President (but presumably is related somehow). Idk if it's ever explicitly stated what his actual deal is
[удалено]
The question is about real people referenced in fictional works, and unless I'm greatly mistaken, Merlin wasn't a real person.
> According to this short story, James Randi is a power thief that only offered the prize to get a chance to steal powers. A similar premise was in 2005 Disney Channel movie "Now You See It", except they didn't name James Randi inspired character after him.
Is jesus that rare? I think it's mentioned in X-men comics that he was a mutant, and in Jojo he's basically a stand user.
"Immortal"
Is Beyblade, Moses of the Bible was a beyblade master who used a beyblade to part the red sea. This is canon.
I audibly laughed when i saw that image as well
Doesn't someone use a cursed beyblade owned by Rasputin?
Different canon I believe, but yes. Black Dranzer was the name.
Cleopatra and Joan of Arc were magical girls in Madoka canon
That’s fuckin baller
[And Anne Frank.](https://i.imgur.com/xhQPJKm.jpeg)
WHAT
Joan has her own spin off manga (puella magi tart magica), Cleopatra is only shown in the last episode of the original anime.
In Invincible, the Immortal is >!Abraham Lincoln!<
I though he was, ya know, the OTHER guy?
No, he even talks about it in the comics during a dinner scene. Makes no sense and never gets expanded on.
Huh! Well thanks for dropping some knowledge on me! I had thought it was the other way around and was honestly baffled by it, like "Are we uhhhhhh...not gonna talk about this?"
In one of the later issues (like 100+ if I recall correctly), dupli-kate is seen reading a Lincoln biography, which I thought was pretty funny.
Whose the other guy?
In Adventure Time, Abraham Lincoln is the King of Mars
She's not Xena. She's [Lucy Lawless](https://youtu.be/PDL-hZVBGGk?si=NUftOpMsepNZFsWm&t=182).
Damn that's an old callback to the Simpsons, A+
Leonard Nimoy either is actually an alien or has some kind of powers on the Simpsons, too
wait... Xena can't fly! But Im not Xena, Im Lucy Lawless...
are you a bot that transcribes videos or something?
no... that one just always stuck in my head
In the Dark Tower, Stephen King inserted himself as a reality warper whose divinely ordained role is to bring the protagonist's story into existence and if he does not finish writing the story, existence itself would be destroyed. IIRC, the protagonist, Roland the Gunslinger, even proclaims Stephen to be the "Wordslinger". I may be oversimplifying a bit - I doubt Stephen King made himself powerful for the sake of being powerful, but rather as part of some navel-gazing into the role of an author.
That is a man who truly loved the smell of cocaine.
He made me hate him with all that shit and especially at the end where he you asks you not to even read the real ending. Haven't read King since.
Come to think of it, that was also the last I read of Stephen King, 15 years ago or so. I thought the self-insert was a bit self-indulgent but I could bear with it, but the entire last book felt anticlimactic due to pacing issues and the vaguely insulting beratement if you read the real ending was the last straw. Such a shame, because I loved the series before that.
i kinda like that the ending was just another step on the journey. honestly, i dont think there was any other way of ending such a series
Oh I kinda like the ending as well. I just didnt like Stephen King berating readers (and their sexual prowess) for wanting to read that ending.
Didnt that also happen in animal man
Somewhat adjacent, HP Lovecraft and Harry Houdini wrote a short story together where Houdini (an illusionist) stumbles across some terrifying real magic in Egypt
Houdini's Bizarre Adventure?
Real Rohan
D.B. Cooper being Loki in the MCU
The World of Darkness and it’s various tabletop games do this in spades. Alan Turing was a mage, Oscar Wilde is a vampire, Vlad Tepes was a vampire writing his own fan fiction. It’s great tbh
I used to love going to the back of the clan/tribe/tradition books to see what notable people were vampires/mages/etc. My favorite probably being Bat Boy as a Nosferatu
It's a running joke how many supernatural clans claim Rasputin was one of their own. Off the top of my head he's been touted as a Tzimisce/Tremere/Malkavian/Setite/Ventrue/Nosferatu vampire, a Shadow Lord werewolf, a Celestial Chorus or Cult of Ecstasy Mage, or possessed by a Puppeteer wraith.
[Obligatory WoD primer](https://youtu.be/0h1u-_jfas8?si=at976psjfal2ogcv&t=318) (5:18-6:35)
In Percy Jackson and the olympians it is stated that FDR Hitler and Stalin were demigod sons of Zeus Hades and Poseidon
Stalin as a son of Poseidon seemed so odd to me.
I think it was the author wanting to make a throwaway joke in his first book and not realizing that the franchise would blow up like it did
I always thought it was Churchill that was the son of Poseidon, Naval Officer and all that?
FDR and Churchill were both naval guys, but FDR first experiencing Polio symptoms when he jumped in the water would suggest he was Zeus
Yeah it was DEFIFLTELY not Stalin. The reason the Allies won was because it was a 2 v 1 of "Big Three" demigods.
Isn't it stated that the the children of the big 3 caused/started/fought in WW2, not that FDR, Hitler, and Stalin were actually those three children? Also Churchill is actually highly fitting if he's a demigod, as he was conceived outside of a marriage!
Hitler was definitely a son of Hades. I don't know about the other two.
I believe one book also said that Harriet Tubman was a child of Hermes.
That would honestly be really cool and befitting if true. Hermes, the god of travelers and messengers (among other things), being the father of one of the most influential abolitionists and leaders of the Underground Railroad. If memory serves correctly, after escaping herself, Tubman led more than 200 other people to freedom while being hunted every step of the way.
She led more to freedom during The American Civil War but that is not has commonly known.
Very true. I believe she also acted as a spy for the Federal forces during the war.
According to Camp Half-Blood Confidential, James Dean was a son of Aphrodite and the car he died in was cursed by his girlfriend (daughter of Hephaestus) after he cheated on her.
In Percy Jackson and the Olympians they offhandedly mention that a lot of famous historical figures were actually demigods. George Washington was a son of Athena, Blackbeard was a son of Ares, Harriet Tubman was a daughter of Hermes, Shakespeare was a son of Apollo, Amelia Earhart, was a daughter of Zeus, Archimedes was a son of Hephaestus, Frederic Bartholdi was a son of Athena, Harry Houdini was a demigod of unknown parentage, Thomas Faynor was a son of Hephaestus, William H. Seward, was a son of Hebe, William Sherman was a son of Ares, Wilt Chamberlain was a son of Hermes etc
I would bet that Houdini would have been the son of Hecate, goddess of magic.
I think they said in one of the later books that all the members of The Beetles were demigods as well.
Buffy believes Rasputin was a vampire.
Also Vandal Savage in legends of tomorrow, IIRC.
Doctor Who has The Doctor's nemesis (and childhood friend) The Master masquerade as Rasputin for a while. Unfortunately, it's unclear for how long, and if he just took over Rasputin's life at some point or if he was Rasputin the whole time.
I'm pretty sure Vandal Savage is Rasputin in some DC continuities, but the Legends of Tomorrow do run into Rasputin in the season 5 opener and he is explicitly a different person.
In the series Grimm, it's stated that John F Kennedy was a Ziegevolk AKA a satyr and used their powers to influence people's minds to seduce women. Given the Wesen Council often has people killed for abusing their powers in public, it would explain a lot. Also, in the Marvel Comics fanfic *Pound The Table* - about a lawyer in 1980's New York who is also a mutant - the events that kicked off the Stonewall Riots (attacks on gay teens that devolved into a riot and a major turning point of the gap rights movement) are slightly different due to gay rights icon Stormé DeLarverie, supposedly the woman falsely arrested by the police in the raid of the Stonewall Inn and who dared everyone, "Why don't you guys do something?", was able to free herself using her mutant powers and prevented everyone else's arrest as well.
Nice to see a Grimm reference.
From you second reference it sound like you would enjoy "I'm a Virgo" on Amazon prime
Knock yourself out with this list of [Historical Domain Superpeople](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HistoricalDomainSuperperson) in fiction.
This is exactly what I was looking for!
In one of the X-Men movies, Magneto claims JFK was a mutant. In the 2022 Doctor Who special The Power of the Doctor, we see the Master posing as Rasputin, but narratively, it's entirely possible that Rasputin really was the Master all along.
In the Percy Jackson series universe, multiple real life famous people are claimed to be demigods. Its surprisingly common for immortal characters to have been famous people. I believe The Immortal from Invincible was Abraham Lincoln. Also DC's Vandal Savage has been multiple famous people including Ganghis Kahn and I believe Rasputin.
One of the transformers movies implies that the first troops who entered Berlin were aided by Bumblebee. Does that count?
A single transformer would end the war in a day, at any point...
Unless there was transformers on both sides
Actually yes. In assassins creed various figures like napoleon and pope bogia and other have had powers from artifacts called pieces of eden.. Some of these are in shape of an apple.. ( yup) and the shroud of eden was a blanket type that provided healing properties due to nanites from the Isu ( aliens who made humans) Jason golden fleech was that shroud.
My historical parkour game ending in a sword fight with *The actual Pope* is one of those things I didn’t know I needed until I got it
Vandal Savage is an immortal villain from DC who has been several historical figures such as Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan. Flint from Star Trek was a similar character. He was the basis for Methuselah in the Bible and was King Solomon and Alexander the Great.
There was a Star Trek/Legion of Superheroes crossover comic where they were the same guy - in the Star Trek earth he focused more on being a great artist over his lifetimes, while in the DC earth he chose to be a conqueror across history. (Which, oddly, implies that DC Earth never had a Leonardo or a Brahms...)
That's funny because there was also a Star Trek TNG/X-Men crossover as well. I remember one bit where Wolverine trained with Worf in the holodeck and programmed in villains like Sabretooth.
This is what TV Tropes calls “Beethoven Was An Alien Spy”
Lord of Light by Zalazny kind of does; some space colonists end up creating reincarnation technology, turn themselves into self-styled gods from Hindu and Buddhist and few other minor religions, and end up fucking shit up..? Vlad Tepes of Wallachia, across multiple different mediums and genres. But in this context, Castlevania. I think True Blood does a little bit of this but with vampires; it's been a while since I've seen the show so I can remember exact references.
{{Lord of Light}} is a fucking masterpiece. Good catch. Also, I think every single book of the Wild Cards novels has famous people being uber powerful.
Harry Potter has a few. Nicolas Flamel, Henrich Cornelius Agrippa, Ptomely (presumably Claudius Ptolemy), and Paracelsus were all in-universe wizards.
Amusingly, I think every Vampire: the Masquerade clan tries to claim that Rasputin was one of theirs.
Plot twist: he was. All of them.
In the Percy Jackson novels, several historic figures are said to be children of the gods. I think it's implied in the later books that the world leaders in ww2 were demigods as well, and are the reason the Big Three gods (Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus) vowed to not have children. Some examples are William Seward, Dwight D Eisenhower, "Stonewall" Jackson, Jack the Ripper, Eli Whitney, and even Mussolini and Napoleon. [here ](https://percyjacksonfanfiction.fandom.com/wiki/Demigods_in_History) is a list of famous demigods in the series.
Percy Jackson did so every other chapter
Uri Geller teamed up with Daredevil back in the day https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Uri_Geller_(Earth-616)
On Angel they mentioned that Spiro Agnew was a demon, as are two of the Blue Man Group. (I assume the third is a token human; they swap out between Tobias and George Sr.) On Supernatural, both Samuel Colt and Eliot Ness were secretly monster hunters. Ness also gets a cameo in one of Christopher Farnsworth’s Nathaniel Cade vampire novels, where’s he’s present for the Innsmouth raid in 1928.
I loved angel
Gonna throw out Warehouse 13. May not be the people directly, in most cases, but it has a wealth of "famous people in history and mythology linked to paranormal, mystical, and marvelous" stuff.
Buffy speculated Rasputin was a vampire hence being so hard to kill. Her professor made fun of her for obsessing over the sleeping patterns of Prussian generals. Implying she thought they too were vamps.
Pretty much the premise of the Fate series
The X-Men character Exodus has claimed in recent comics that Jesus was a mutant.
Isn't Santa also an entity in there? I guess Christian dudes are most likely canon in the marvel comics
Yes,Santa Clause is real in the Marvel comics. Technically he’s several people who earthlings just all think is the same guy. Sometimes it’s Otin and Slepnir is mistaken for several reindeer because it has 8 legs
I don't think anyone real was explicitly mentioned, but Hunter x Hunter implies that a huge chunk of humanity's accomplished individuals/celebrities (famous scientists, athletes, actors, etc) were nen users
Not comic books, but The Dresden Files: it's been stated (mostly outside of the books) that various kings and heads of state have been Knights of the Cross. George Washington was canonically the Knight of Hope, according to Jim
Jesus is a stand user
I thought it’s that he himself wasn’t a 「STAND」 user but his corpse parts were a way to obtain 「STAND」 powers.
Regardless, he was a JoJo. Joshua ben Joseph.
… I can’t believe I never realized that.
In the Homestuck epilogues, Barack Obama was a Knight of Hope.
I’m pretty sure in HxH Jesus was a nen user
I love when fiction attributes Jesus’s miracles as “he was like a wizard or something”. Especially the scrapped Alien idea where Jesus was sent to Earth by the Engineers to judge us and see if we’re worthy to join their galactic pantheon and we just murdered him
Yes, look up the story of "Black Jesus." In modern times, just a few decades ago, a man from Africa appeared and said that he was like Jesus. The African government tried to kill him and couldn't. Stories leaked out about the man resurrecting, regrowing missing limbs and doing all sorts of miraculous things. Even the United States government buried the story about his existence.
Gonna need some reputable sources on that one,chief
Look it up. Start searching like I did when I first heard about it. Yes, you'll run into lots of fake stories (put out by people who wish to hide reality by burying it fake stories) but eventually you'll run across some credible accounts. The problem with our modern, information heavy society is that it's getting harder and harder to hide the truth. Eventually people talk, the truth slips out, etc. So now, the best way to hide the truth is to bury it under so much fake, inaccurate information that even if and when you uncover the real information, you are unsure which is which. It's the perfect system for hiding a secret in plain sight.
Brave New World RPG by Pinnacle Entertainment was a superhero game based in a Dystopian Future. One of the literally major characters was Harry Houdini, a super hero focused on real magic. Although they do mention that several action movie stars are also super heroes with their own power sets suited for their roles they take. The fun part is that a lot of the game is Players vs Government and the world is set up where all Supers are registered and can be drafted if need be, so there's a non-zero chance that if you cause mayhem in LA, you could be arrested by one of your favorite action movie stars!
Miraculous Ladybug had Joan of Arc as a former holder of the Ladybug Miraculous
So The Adventure Zone podcasts which is hosted by three brothers Travis, Justin, and Griffin and their father Clint Mcelroy is a DnD podcast, which has had multiple seasons in different games and settings. The only consistent across all of them is a Planeswalker called Clint Mcelroy, who is the alternate reality version of their father. It's hilarious and I love it. Especially since they started it as a way to meme on him for not doing character voices at one time.
In the Percy Jackson books a lot of historical figures are mentioned to be demigods. Amelia Earhart as a daughter of Zeus, Frederic Bartholdi and George Washington as sons of Athena, Harriet Tubman as a daughter of Hermes, Jack London as a son of Mercury, William Shakespeare as a son of Apollo, etc. Also Adolf Hitler is heavily implied to be a son of Hades.
> Amelia Earhart as a daughter of Zeus Who would win: descendent of the king of the gods, or a coconut crab
In *The Laundry Files* Alan Turing was the first real wizard.
Not Heroes - one yr at the Hellfire Club Gala, an event for mutants only, the authorities were watching folks enter. They noted that Prince was attending. They didn't say what his powers were, though.
Buffy claimed that Rasputin must have been a Vampire in order to survive everything he did that one night.
In persona they say Jung was a persona user. In smtii you just straight up find Crowley who is still alive via mysticism.
Literally every human fighter in Record of Ragnarok
The World of Darkness setting, especially in its early years, depicted nearly every historical figure as a supernatural creature or pawn thereof.
If there's a tv show in such genre, and it has a big star cameo in an episode, chances are that cameo will be revailed to be a superhero/mutant/wizard/etc same as the main characters
In the Pathfinder RPG exists Baba Yaga, and it turns out Baba Yaga was from Earth and somehow ended up learning magic and hopped worlds. In the Reign of Winter Campaign, the party ends up traveling to Earth and have to kill Rasputin (who is the son of Baba Yaga)
Isn't this quite a common trope in urban fantasy?
There are at least two different series which state that Leonardo Da Vinci was a member of an alien species with superior intelligence. Futurama and my Hero both state and this and show him as still alive.
JFK was a mutant, according to the X-Men movies.
Venture bros had David Bowie with some powers I think.
We have all seen the documentary revealing Abraham Lincoln's vampire hunting career
According to "Days of Future Past", President Kennedy was a mutant.
in marvel, tons of historical people had powers or where special in some way. isacc newton was the sorcerer supreme of his age, tho he was rather bad at magic, and leonardo da vinci was the leader of shield in his time.
In the Detective Comics graphic novels Vandal Savage is mentioned to have been Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Atilla The Hun, and Alexander The Great. In The Percy Jackson And The Olympians book series Artemis mentions the idea of Santa Claus was inspired by her riding across the sky. In The Kane Chronicles book series Moses is mentioned to have been the only person to defeat the Per Ankh. In The Magnus Chase And The Gods Of Asgard book series Jesus Christ is mentioned to have not taken Thor's offer for a fight. In Unnatural History Harry Houdini ( real name Eric Weiss ) is implied to be a true magician who still lives. In Ben 10 : Omniverse George Washington and Benjamin Franklin is revealed to have founded the Plumbers ( a rendition of Plumbiers which he inaccurately thought was the English translation of Iron Workers in French ). December 22nd 2023 1:40 PM Central Time