Over the years comic book (and other medium) characters have gained their powers through any number of sources. This is something that gets a lot of looking at in RPG books but is often glossed over in the source material. Generally a character's origin doesn't have a strong impact on who they hang out with except in certain cases. Magic seems to be the exception in that magic using characters often hang out together and there is a conceit that only magicians can properly battle magic threats.

Over the years the sorts of sources has evolved. Back in the golden age magic and alterna-science ruled the landscape. Exposure to weird chemicals or irradiated something or other often gave individuals unique abilities. My favorite modern take on this was psychic powers gained through radioactive bread mold. Sometime in the 70s or 80s it became easy just to make the individual a 'mutant' so that the character was "just born that way". It was a good way to get around putting together a rather strained set of circumstances. These days, newer technologies and metaphysical theories give us individuals who gain their abilities from strange dimensions or things like nanites.

When sitting down to start work on creating a world, I wanted to create a structure of powers that could include most of the tropes found in the source material but at the same time give them a distinct feel that would add a feel to the world. The first step I took was to co-opt the root 'dyna' (as in Dynamic, Dynamite, and Dynamo) meaning 'power' and corrupt it to serve as a suffix for power source. With that in mind the terms 'Hyperdyn' (Over power) and 'Metadyn' (beyond power) would serve as generic terms of any superhero. I like the idea that Metadyn is the term used in the scientific community but HYPERDYN! is what you see on TV and in pop-culture.

Underneath the main term are a number of sub categories that define what the source of the power is as opposed to the manifestation of the power. The general public is actually pretty confused about the difference between a source and a manifestation however and so there are a lot of sub terms that aren't really 'official'. I do want this to represent universal ideals so many of these actually merge old and new concepts into a single 'source'.

• Cryptodyn - Just flat Unknown. This is a fun classification in that it serves as a catchall. It covers 'special cases', people with undetectable powers, and otherwise Normal types who work on a superhuman level.
• Dracodyn - Powered by Dragons. Its poetic but covers Magic and Cosmic type powers as well as Quantum as used in the Aberrant game. It is almost always genetically passed from Parent to child, sometimes skipping generations. The suffix -theurge may be used or -mancy.
• Psychodyn - Powered by the Mind/Soul. Old School this is Faith as in turning vampires/miracles faith. In modern terms you get mind readers and martial artists as well. Often times the suffix -kinetic is used. Psychodyn are most often activated by extreme tragedy.
• Xenodyn - 'Otherly' Powered. There are no real 'aliens' in my world but there are a heck of a lot of weird mutating bacteria from space. In older times this got us Werewolves and Vampires who are now well established. Any sort of biological mutation is common. The suffix -ate is often for those who are infected.
• Technodyn - Powered by Technology. There is still some arguement if this should count but as Cybernetics and nanotech become more common it is clear that this counts for something. The suffix -etic is sometimes applied though rarely.

Technodyn straddles the line here of being a category. Still, all sorts of other terms have been thrown around by the media. For instance the media may use the terms photodyn and necrodyn to describe supers with light and death powers respectively. That said however, the undead indivdual could be a a necromancer (magic control over the dead), necrokinetic (mental control over the dead), a necrate (mutated living dead), or a necretic (dead animated by technology).