View source for Freak Lab Accident

{{trope}}
[[File:Barry Flash Origin Recap 1287.jpg|link=The Flash|frame|[[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|Remember kids: if you douse yourself in chemicals in a lightning storm enough times, you too may become a superhero!]]]]

{{quote|''"Bitten by radioactive beebles in a freak algebra accident, young Ricky Robertson discovered he'd gained the ability to harness the awesome power of fractions!"''
|''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' Flavor Text for ''[http://ww2.wizards.com/Gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name{{=}}Fraction%20Jackson Fraction Jackson]''}}

An opportune, unplanned and unrepeatable (hence "Accident") event that gives a character their [[Superhero|superpowers]]. Similar to [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]], only for people instead of machines and technologies. Opinions on this are extremely subjective, and this origin isn't used as much nowadays.

Common subtypes include:
* [[Playing with Syringes|Lab Accidents]], especially involving chemicals
* [[I Love Nuclear Power|Being blasted by radiation, especially from weapon fallout]] (this is usually a [[Cold War]] thing)
* [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum|Aliens leaving their Phlebotinum around]]
* [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke]]

[[Grandfather Clause|More tolerated in superheroes created decades ago]]. Remakes tend to either avoid these random-chance [[Super-Hero Origin|origins]] or [[Meta Origin|eventually tie them into a grander mythos]] (or at least a [[Story Arc]] of some kind).

Can also be used to create a [[Monster of the Week]], with the same caveats. This can be used to create a [[Science Is Bad]] plot if wanted when things [[Go Horribly Wrong]]. See also [[Disposable Superhero Maker]], [[Miraculous Malfunction]]. Contrast [[Mass Super-Empowering Event]].

{{examples}}

== [[Multiple Media]] ==
* In most versions of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', the mutagen (or "ooze", which turned the eponymous characters from common pet turtles into the Heroes in a Half Shell) is a waste byproduct of some unrelated experiment. Exactly what this experiement was and who was behind it differs by continuity. 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* It is during one of her father's lab-experiments that Kurau in ''[[Kurau Phantom Memory]]'' gets merged with an [[Energy Beings]] called "Rynax".
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' ''might'' count, what with the contact experiments infusing the test pilot's soul into the Eva's core. This happened twice with different circumstances: first, Yui was completely swallowed by Unit 01 and gained [[Empathic Weapon|limited control]] in the form of [[Unstoppable Rage|going berserk]]; second, Kyoko's transition was incomplete and a clinically insane body was left behind that eventually killed herself, making Unit 02 the most stable one. [[The Plan|Subverted in that Yui '''knew''' what's going to happen but did it anyway]]; unfortunately, it just made things even worse as she hadn't bothered to tell anyone and when her peers tried to extract her, she resisted and made it look like the operation failed (when the same happened to her son, everyone believed the same because Yui was holding them back until Shinji left on his own). Considering the fans' habit of deifying Yui-sama, it's a definite subversion.

== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The classic [[Super-Hero Origin]] of [[The Flash]] involved [[Lightning Can Do Anything]] and a shelf full of chemicals in a police lab.
** But, as mentioned above, this was eventually tied into [[Story Arc|the "Speed Force"]].
** The origin of [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]] Flash involved Jay Garrick being exposed to ''hard water vapors.'' Apparently, there was a rumor at the time the comic was written that the chemicals typically found in hard water could increase the metabolic speed of animals who ingested or inhaled them.
** In ''[[Flashpoint (comics)|Flashpoint]]'', Barry recreates the accident in an attempt to regain his powers. {{spoiler|It didn't work and Barry instead suffered the [[Real Life]] consequences of being struck by a bolt of lightning while being doused with dangerous chemicals. He has to fry himself ''two more times'' before it works.}}
** That origin was so good, DC recycled it exactly for Kid Flash.
* ''[[Spider-Man]]'' was given powers by a radioactive spider bite, the spider itself being a result of the lab accident. In [[Spider-Man (film)|the movie]], this was [[retool]]ed into a [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|genetically-engineered]] spider's bite to reflect the [[Discredited Trope|discrediting]] of [[I Love Nuclear Power]]. The comic, on the other hand, retooled this by saying that the spider which bit him transferred some form of totemistic power on him, which in turn explained his many animal-themed enemies.
** Marvel Comics in general (due to copious amounts of "[[Stan Lee]] Science") and Spider-Man in particular loves this trope. Many of Spidey's big foes (Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Lizard, Molten Man, etc) were created by some sort of lab accident or experiment gone wrong.
*** And ludicrous ones. Like "[https://web.archive.org/web/20181216181457/http://www.superdickery.com/no-one-can-stop-the-wall/ The Wall]". Though [[No OSHA Compliance|disregarding safety]] rather than mad science, since he got turned into a walking lump of bricks from an explosion in a laboratory where he was fixing a wall — after, obviously, the ''previous'' explosion, with all the not-yet-exploded stuff still on the tables.
*** Retooled again and made more plausible in the modern re-imagining, ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]''. It was a genetically altered spider instead of a radioactive one.
* The initial origin-story for [[Swamp Thing]] followed this trope. Subverted when [[Alan Moore]] got ahold of the character and revised him from a formula-altered scientist to a plant elemental who ''thought'' he was a formula-altered scientist.
* [[Man-Thing]] was also the result of a botched experiment, also [[retcon]]ned by the series' most notable author, [[Steve Gerber]].
* This works for villains as well. In [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]], it was shown that [[Lex Luthor]] turned villainous after [[Superboy]]'s "interference" in a Freak Lab Accident resulted in his life being saved, his experiments being destroyed, and his hair loss. Furthermore, when Luthor tried to retaliate with grandiose tech projects to show up Superboy, they went wrong disastrously enough to force the superhero to intervene, embarrassing Luthor enough to hate him even more.
* This somewhat applies to the Joker of ''[[Batman]]'' fame, who gained not superpowers but his clownish appearance and [[Slasher Smile]] from falling into a vat of chemicals. Even the "no-superpowers-gained" thing is debatable, as some speculate [[Hollywood Psych|that the Joker's insanity is actually a form of Fourth Wall breaking "super-sanity"]] gained at the same time.
** In a 1989 ''[[Batman]]'' storyline, a mad Joker-wannabe hurls himself into a chemical vat in an attempt to replicate the transformation. However, as Batman unsuccessfully warns him, the industrial acids therein are much stronger than the ones that disfigured the Joker years ago, and the wannabe simply disintegrates.
** Mr. Freeze is a more conventional playing of his trope. In the current past of the character, the attempts of his heartless bosses to get rid of him and his work to save his cryogenically frozen wife caused his equipment to go haywire, drastically altering him.
* The monstrous villain Chemo was created this way. Originally it was a plastic vessel used by scientist Ramsey Norton to dispose of the chemical by-products from his failed experiments, built in the shape of a man to remind him of his failures. One day (ironically, the day he planned to empty it) he dumped the remnants of a failed growth formula in the vessel, accidentally causing it to double in size and coming to life. After killing Norton and destroying the lab, it lumbered forth with no purpose but to destroy, fighting numerous heroes, including the [[Metal Men]] and [[Superman]].
* The post-''Zero Hour'' ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' hangs a lampshade on the trope when Spark, in an effort to regain her super-power, attempts to recreate the circumstances of her freak origin—and gets herself killed as a result. (However, the rest of the Legion [[Only Mostly Dead|manages to revive her]], and afterwards she does indeed have her powers back.)
** Pre-''Zero-Hour'', there was Comet Queen (who is also known for speaking [[Totally Radical]] [[Recycled in Space|In Space]]). She had heard that Star Boy got his powers by flying through a comet, so she intentionally flew through one despite everyone telling her how stupid it was, especially since Star Boy did it ''in a spaceship''. It worked anyway.
* Although it actually took place on a testing range, the original origin of the ''[[Incredible Hulk]]'' is for all practical purposes a Freak Lab Accident. Later versions—most notably the TV series and the two motion-picture adaptations—make it a more literal lab accident.
** A number of the classic Hulk's foes had Freak Lab Accident origins involving nuclear power and nuclear radiation (originally, anyway). One of them was a janitor exposed to nuclear waste.
* In ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'', the apparatus that created Dr. Manhattan by "removing his intrinsic field", i.e. disintegrating his body, is for some unspecified reason impossible to use to repeat the process. It's not so much the effect of the device that gave Dr. Manhattan his powers, but the force of his will and mind maintaining their integrity afterwards and subsequently learning how to reassemble himself. That's an individual, possibly unique, factor that renders the result possibly irreproducible. And who ''wants'' to try to create a new Manhattan. One alone messes up the geopolitical situation seriously. What if the new guy would be even less stable and more detached from the human condition? The risks are way too great, even for the USSR to try to replicate.
* One of the versions of [[Donald Duck]]'s superhero identity Paperinik (though not the one in [[Paperinik New Adventures]]) faces a parody of Spiderman villain Sandman called Sand''ham'' (as he's a pig, natch). Sandham was a janitor in an oatmeal porridge factory who gained his powers when he was accidentally exposed to a procedure to "remove those nasty lumps from oatmeal porridge". Donald ends up having to dissolve him with it, and finally [[Nightmare Fuel|tosses his head, the only thing left of him, into a vat of porridge]].
* Inverted with Superboy (Kon-El). He was being grown and programmed in a lab to be a replacement for Superman, but a freak lab accident interrupted his maturity leaving him as Superboy.
* Parodied in the [[The Simpsons (Comic Book)|Bongo Comics]] crossover, "When Bongos Collide!", when a nuclear plant meltdown (caused by Itchy and Scratchy) grants superpowers to nearly everyone in Springfield (and somehow automatically gives most of them costumes), whereupon everyone starts pummeling each other.
* [[Spider-Girl]]'s foe Mr. Abnormal is both an [[Expy]] of [[Plastic Man]] and a parody of this. His origin is that "he had an improbable accident with a chemical at a toy factory that had a unique effect with his body chemistry", as quoted from [[New Warriors|Speedball]].

== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Darkman]]'' was hideously scarred and became unable to feel pain in such an accident (caused by [[The Mafia]], no less). However, his ability to disguise himself came afterward, through more proper applications of the lab in question.
* Less heroically, ''[[The Fly]]''.
* Quite a few [[B-Movie]] monsters, most notably ''[[Tarantula]]''. And that's not counting all the ones created by [[I Love Nuclear Power|The Bomb]].
* ''[[Howard the Duck (film)|Howard the Duck]]'' pulled this one twice: the first Freak Lab Accident dragged Howard to Earth; the second pulled down the alien demon that possessed Dr. Jenning.

== [[Literature]] ==
* Parodied in [[Douglas Adams]]'s ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (novel)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' series. At the beginning of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/Life, The Universe And Everything|Life The Universe And Everything]]'', we are introduced briefly to Wowbagger the Infinitely-Prolonged, an alien who was granted immortality in a freak ''office'' accident with "[[Noodle Implements|an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair of rubber bands]]". All attempts to recreate it "have left people looking very silly, dead, or both". Wowbagger deals with [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|the growing tedium of immortality]] by seeking to insult everyone in the Universe—individually, personally, and in alphabetical order.
* A variation appears in the [[Isaac Asimov]] short story "Lenny". A small child (lost on a guided tour) plays around on an unlocked keyboard in a robot factory. This results in a robot which has no superpowers—indeed, it has roughly the intelligence of a human infant—but is a scientific gold-mine, functioning without the Three Laws and having the ability to learn rather than simply be programmed.
** Lenny still has the Three Laws, it just doesn't have the knowledge to apply them properly. It acts on a Third Law imperative to protect itself due to a blow aimed at it (Not understanding that the blow aimed at it couldn't actually hurt it), and injures a human by accident in the process (Not understanding how relatively fragile a human is).
* Austin Grossman's ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'': CoreFire and Dr. Impossible got their respective superpowers in separate lab accidents, though both accidents involved Dr. Impossible's research.
** So did  {{spoiler|1=Erica Lowenstein, the [[Lois Lane]]}} to CoreFire's [[Superman]] and Dr. Impossible's [[Lex Luthor]], who followed a lead}} on some villains and ended up falling into a vat of chemicals and becoming virtually indestructible and transparent.
* [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Tommyknockers]]'': a ''town'' of people is slowly turning into new versions of the aliens in a buried, crashed alien ship, including making such fun devices a telepathic typewriter and Lethal Lipstick Lasers. Let's not mention that they all turn into a telepathic hive-mind, unless you have some kind of metal in your body (one of the main characters has a metal plate in his head following a skiing accident).
* In ''Dream Park'' (by [[Larry Niven]] and Steven Barnes), a small girl who'd accidentally wandered into the theme park's R&D division managed to combine an anatomical model with pieces of model roller coaster, and the result so intrigued the staff that it spawned a "Mr. Digestion" themed attraction. The kid got a spanking and a college scholarship.
* Kilowatt of the ''[[Seekers of Truth]]'' got her start this way. Her end would have closely followed her start if not for the intervention of the Wizard.
* Carl Castanaveras in ''Emerald Eyes'' by [[Daniel Keys Moran]], was the first in a series of telepaths created by Project Superman by gene manipulation. Played straight because at the time he was created, the scientists admitted that the technology to create him didn't work yet, and only the inexplicable (at least to the scientists working on him) radiation at the moment of his conception, made the fetus viable. Averted because the source of the radiation was the time traveller Named Storyteller deliberately showing up at that moment to perform the gene manipulation that the scientists were incapable of performing, in order to make sure that Carl (his distant ancestor) existed at all.
* Not a superhero, but Cheery Littlebottom's career change from alchemist to forensics officer with the [[Discworld|Ankh-Morpork City Watch]] took place after she left her previous workplace through the roof. Explosions at the Alchemists' Guild are hardly freakish; blowing up the entire Guild council, however, causes comment.
* In Kathy Reichs' ''Virals'' series, a spinoff to the Temperance Brennan novels, Temperance's niece Tory is a teenage girl who, along with her friends, accidentally contracts a genetically engineered parvovirus (a virus that normally only affects dogs) and is turned into a sort of hairless [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf.]]

== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Peter Brady, (no, not [[The Brady Bunch|THAT]] one)''The Invisible Man'' from the 1958 TV series, fits this trope ''and'' subverts it: While ''he'' became [[Invisibility|invisible]] in a lab accident, he is perfectly able to reproduce it and make anyone invisible. At one point, he was even able to detect when a rabbit had been invisible for a short period of time.
* Referenced jokingly in ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' to warn one character away from [[Cycle of Revenge|escalating vengeance]] against a [[Jerkass|misanthropic]] [[TV Genius|genius]]:
** '''Leonard:''' "Penny, you don't want to get into it with Sheldon. The guy is one lab accident away from becoming a [[Super Villain]]."
** In another episode, a rat injected with radioactive isotopes bit a lab tech. Raj became incredibly disappointed to find that the lab tech didn't get superpowers.
* Subverted, along with [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]] in the 1970s version of ''[[The Incredible Hulk (TV series)|The Incredible Hulk]].'' In principle, anyone could recreate the experiment that changed Dr. Banner, it's just that nobody has any reason to. One of the two-part episodes revolves entirely around a much earlier experiment in another part of the country that had turned another man into a Hulk, and the discovery of a cure, [[Failure Is the Only Option|which Dr. Banner cannot use]] {{spoiler|because the former Hulk has re-exposed himself, become a murderous Hulk, and there's not enough of the needed compounds for two treatments.}}

== Music ==
* ''[[Daft Punk]]'' claims that their onstage robot personae were created in "an accident in our studio. We were working on our sampler, and at exactly 9:09 a.m. on September 9, 1999, it exploded."

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* [[Zig Zagged Trope|Zig-zagged]] in [[Mortasheen]]. If this ends up happening when you create a monster, most likely you'll end up with a mindless, pointless Garbage monster. But, in rare occurrences, it might either start out with insanely strong [[Psychic Powers]] or end up as one of the intensely powerful [[Magikarp Power|Garbage Beasts]].

== [[Urban Legends]] ==
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatman_%28Maryland%29 The Goatman] is a cryptid who, according to local legends in Maryland, was once a scientist working at  the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center until one of his experiments backfired and turned him into a malevolent killer. 

== [[Video Games]] ==
* Every other [[Hollywood Science|Science origin]] NPC or [[Player Character]] in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' gains their powers this way (the rest are unwilling test subjects). This game [[Troperiffic|loves its tropes and knows it]]. For Professor Backfire, gaining superpowers was an inevitability.
* Most of the evil creations of the [[Mega Corp| Umbrella Corporation]] in [[Resident Evil]] either start out this way or end up this way.
* Probably how [[Earthworm Jim]]'s enemy [[Mad Scientist| Professor]] [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin| Monkey-for-a-Head]] got the way he is. It's kind of hard to believe he actually did it on purpose, even though ''[[Earthworm Jim|Earthworm Jim 3D]]'' suggests this sort of thing runs in his family.

== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Parodied by [https://web.archive.org/web/20050422072346/http://www.man-man.org/?comic=&date=20030710 Man-Man] who was bitten by a radioactive man, and so gains the powers of ... a man. Apart from a mutant head on top of his own, these "powers" merely make him invisible to women.
* In ''[[Second League]]'' a rat gains superpowers from being bitten by a mutant superhero.
* [http://www.terrorisland.net/strips/319.html Parodied] in ''[[Terror Island]]'', where Ned Sorcerer, DDS got his superpower (which is causing everyone around him to know he's a dentist) from a freak ''[[wikipedia:Epistemology|epistemological]]'' lab accident.
* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' Molly the Peanut Butter Monster is described as a fuzzy pink lab accident.
* Parodied in ''[[Antihero for Hire]]'', where one character got super-powers in a freak ''skateboard'' accident.
* It's implied that ''some'' sort of lab accident caused Othar, of ''[[Girl Genius]]'', to come to his "Great Truth" that all Sparks have to die (or to become suicidally insane, as anyone else who knows about this "Truth" would consider it). The exact details are left as a [[Noodle Incident]] for the readers, but it may have involved the Great Wall of Oslo. (It's also all but stated by [[Word of God]] in the first adventure on Othar's Twitter that  {{spoiler|Othar was always just one freak accident away from becoming a suicidal maniac ''anyways'' -- every single version of himself had realized this "truth" through various accidents. One involved waffles.}} It's unknown right now, however, how canon the Twitter is.) The man is also surprisingly resilient, even for a Spark; this may be a side-effect of the accident.
** The world of ''[[Girl Genius]]'' is populated by [[Mad Scientist]]s. If your lab work doesn't involve freak accidents of some kind (most likely deadly instead of empowering, but still), you're probably doing it wrong.
* Heather Brown in ''[[Spinnerette]]'' gains spider-powers in a freak genetic engineering accident in a more or less [[Affectionate Parody]] of [[The Spectacular Spider-Man|Spiderman]].
** The reader is even led to believe that she'd obtained her powers from a spider-bite, just like Spiderman. However, she only developed her [[Multi-Armed and Dangerous|extra limbs]] after falling into a vat of chemicals.
* [[Ruby's World|Rubys World]]'s heroine Ruby gains her enhanced size, strength, and power from a freak lab accident  {{spoiler|that was actually engineered post-mortem by her late mother, as a means to give her the capabilities to fight the [[Big Bad]]}}
* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', this is what the Goo originally was before a [[Cerebus Retcon]] turned it into an attempt by Lord Tedd to kill this universe's Tedd.

== [[Web Original]] ==
* This is a common origin for both heroes and villains in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]''. Anole was bitten by a venomous snake that had been subjected to genetic experimentation, turning him into a reptile-man. Embrace was accidentally exposed to a mutagenic gas in a lab explosion. Koorogi was almost electrocuted when a gene sequencer shorted out while he was working with it. Polaris got caught in an overpoweringly powerful magnetic field when his lab equipment activated accidentally during an experiment. Aurora gained her powers when the experimental fusion reactor she was working on exploded. There are many more.
* Most of the supers in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'' are mutants, but Sam Everheart got his powers this way. It wouldn't have been a Freak Lab Accident if bad guys weren't trying to steal the nanotechnology that Sam was guarding. The resulting explosion ended up with Sam getting a body reconstructed by the nanites.
* There's "[//www.snorgtees.com/forget-lab-safety Forget lab safety. I want super powers]" T-shirt.

== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Parodied in ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]'' with the origin of The Crimson Chin (voiced by Jay Leno). Before he was a crime fighter, the Chin was a talk show host, much like the guy who voiced him. He got bit on the chin by a radioactive celebrity, and that is how he became The Crimson Chin!
* ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man|The Spectacular Spider Man]]'' is stuffed with these. There's Peter Parker's genetically-modified spider-bite, but [[Super Villain|supervillains]] have them too:
** While doing repair work at a genetics lab, electrician Max Dillon is first electrocuted by machinery, then by bioelectric shock from [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|genetically-modified]] eels swimming in extra-conductive [[Applied Phlebotinum]]. He becomes Electro, a [[Power Incontinence|Power Incontinent]] human generator of [[Psycho Electro|bioelectricity]], and subsequently [[Freak-Out|freaks out]] and goes [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|on a rampage]].
** Thief and low-level [[The Brute|thug]] Flint Marko is recruited as an [[Super Soldier|experimental subject]] for a procedure designed to give him subdermal silicon [[Made of Iron|armor]], but the machinery overloads and bombards him with silicon particles until he [[Body Horror|explodes]]. He then rematerializes as the Sandman, a being of [[Blob Monster|living sand]], and is unusually happy with the results.
** When reluctant [[Punch Clock Villain]] Doctor Otto Octavius is [[He Knows Too Much|deliberately trapped]] in the chamber where his experiment is running, he suffers traumatic and massive [[Lightning Can Do Anything|electromagnetic]] shock. This fuses his [[Artificial Limbs|harness]] to his spine, triggers a [[Freak-Out]] and an accompanying [[Not So Harmless|extreme]] [[Mad Scientist|personality change]], creating Doctor Octopus.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]''
** Danny got his powers from an ectoplasmic form of [[I Love Nuclear Power|the radiation blast]] which [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|altered his DNA]].
** Likewise, [[Big Bad|Vlad Plasmius]] got his powers from a college accident involving an early version of the Ghost Portal, by being ''blasted in the face''.
* ''[[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]'' tries to give himself super powers in one episode by deliberately standing in front of a [[Transformation Ray]], claiming that it works in [[Lampshade Hanging|the movies]] all the time. His [[Sidekick]] Launchpad doubts the plan, specifically pointing out that you can only gain superpowers from a lab ''accident'', and not on purpose. Darkwing brushes off the advice, fires the ray, and is reduced to cartoon ashes.
** Incidentally, many members of Darkwing's [[Rogues Gallery]] had their origins in a Freak Lab Accident; Megavolt, Bushroot, and the Liquidator are the most notable instances.
* ''[[Dexter's Laboratory|Dexters Laboratory]]''
** Dexter spends an episode trying to gain superpowers through experimentation, and runs into the same it-doesn't-work-if-you-do-it-on-purpose problem. In the end, he gives up in frustration. Then Dee Dee waltzes into the lab, spills chemicals on herself, and gains super powers.
** Subverted by Monkey; Dexter deliberately experimented on him, which gave Monkey his superpowers. The subversion comes from Dexter never figuring out that he succeeded.
* The whole premise of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' revolves around a freak accident that occurred while the girls were being ''created'': Professor Utonium's pet chimp Jojo accidentally shoved the Professor, causing the spill that created the Powerpuff Girls (the blast from the spill also gave Jojo super-intelligence, and his jealousy of the girls eventually drove him to become their arch-enemy Mojo Jojo). Why the Professor had that Chemical X [[No OSHA Compliance|located where he could break it]] and cause it to spill inside the pot is anyone's guess.
** Hilariously [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] when, in an attempt to create a fourth Powerpuff Girl, the sisters re-create the circumstances of their origin by ''elaborately pretending'' that they're adding the Chemical X to the pot by sheer accident.
* Meltdown in ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' gets his powers by angrily knocking over the beakers of chemicals he was working on, after his funding gets cut.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in an episode of ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'' when Shake tries to gain superpowers using barrels of toxic waste. First he tries to get some worms to eat the waste before [[Spider-Man|biting him]]. This doesn't work, so he dumps a spoonful of the waste over his head, shouting, "Oh, no! A horrible accident!". [[Hilarity Ensues|This doesn't work either.]]
* In ''[[Spider-Man: The Animated Series|Spider-Man the Animated Series]]'', Tombstone had the very Jokeresque origin of falling into a vat of chemicals during a bungled factory robbery. Spider-Man even lampshades it later.
{{quote|'''Spider-Man:''' You better stay still, another swim in that chemical soup and your hair might turn green!}}
* Parodied on ''[[Family Guy]]''. After the entire Griffin family gain superpowers and start causing trouble, Mayor [[Adam West]] tries to give himself superpowers by rolling around in toxic waste. The result? [[Reality Ensues|He gives himself lymphoma]]. His doctor [[Lampshade Hanging|berates him for the stupidity of such an action.]]
** He just made the same mistake as [[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]. It has to be an ''accident''. Trying to give yourself superpowers leads to you becoming a super-villain, at best.
* The origin of Dr. Two Brains in ''[[Word Girl]]''. Obviously, you don't get a rat brain stuck to your head playing golf.
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "Three Men and a Comic Book" [[Affectionate Parody|affectionately parodies]] ''the [[Incredible Hulk]]'' with Radioactive Man's origin: he gains his powers when trapped at the site of a nuclear detonation.
{{quote|'''Martin:''' I would've thought that being hit by an atomic bomb would've killed him.
'''Bart:''' Now you know better. }}
** In the Bongo comic series a pre-nuclear [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] version of Radioactive Man, 'Radio Man' is hinted at, who looks a bit like Golden Age [[The Flash|Flash]]. God knows what his origin is.
* Stinkor, one of Skeletor's henchmen in ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe|He Man and The Masters of The Universe]]'', gains the power of stench after ruining one of Triclops' experiments in the 2002 cartoon series.
* Brain of ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' once had a plan than hinged on this concept. He posed as a human with a tiny mouse head; when challenged about this fact he claimed it was caused by a freak accident involving a microwave and powdered milk, reasoning that no one understands either well enough to argue against the claim.
* On ''[[South Park]]'', Jack Brolin was a former news reporter that gained the power of extraordinary hindsight through a freak accident involving a retroactive spider.

{{reflist}}
[[Category:Medical Horror]]
[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
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