The "human" side of "super human"
You’ve heard this one before: the world as you know it suddenly has superheroes. This presents a crossroads at which a book can either examine the wide-scale effect of these people, or the people of this wide-scale effect. Rising Stars #4 is an example of the latter turn.
An asteroid strikes the North America. Nine months later, 100 or so children have been born in an unimportant USA locale. Some years later, some of these children exhibit what comic-book fans would call “superhuman abilities”. You’ve already read about a handful of these superior outsiders, but what you may not know is that some of those thought to be in utero at the time of the asteroid’s impact are not so special.
Cathy keeps a scrapook from her childhood with “The Specials”. Years later, she still counts herself part of the human race -- not a super human. Cathy was a physically inferior insider born at the right time, yet no different from you or me. She didn’t find any powers, and now she works at an office with the speccy everyman she narrates this issue to.
She saw Specials consumed by their powers (like David, now in a coma after failing to stop a suicide by possessing the victim), or carried away by their success (like Jason, who forgot about her when he found stardom). If she had powers, do you think she’d reveal them? Wouldn’t it be easier to live as a normal human?