Superheroes
Superheroes is a short-form game in which performers play improvised comic book heroes assembling to address a world-threatening crisis. The first hero establishes the emergency and calls for help by naming the next hero's ridiculous or absurd power. That hero enters, applies their power, and calls the next, until a full team has assembled. The heroes then depart in reverse order, and the original hero resolves the crisis alone.
Structure
Setup
The audience suggests a crisis or catastrophe (or the host establishes one). One performer enters as the first superhero. The audience gives this hero a name. The format requires four to six performers.
Gameplay
The first hero surveys the crisis and attempts to address it alone, establishing the scope of the emergency. Finding the task beyond their power alone, they call for a partner: "I need help! Is there anyone out there with the power of..." The audience suggests the next hero's absurd ability. That performer enters, establishes their name and power, applies it to the crisis, then calls for the next hero in the same way.
This continues until all performers are onstage. At the peak of the assembled team, the heroes begin to leave in reverse order: the last hero to arrive exits first, having completed their task, followed by the second-to-last, and so on, until the first hero stands alone with the crisis.
The first hero, now alone with whatever has been established, resolves the situation using their own power. The resolution is typically absurd and brief.
Power Naming
The comic engine of the game is the absurd power application: a hero with the power of "excessive punctuality" or "the ability to speak only in questions" must find a way to apply that power to the crisis. The game rewards creative interpretation over literal execution: a hero does not need to solve the problem with their power so much as commit fully to using it.
How to Teach It
How to Explain It
"One person enters with a superhero name and a specific power. The next person enters, names the first hero's problem, and introduces their own power as the solution. We build a team one hero at a time. By the end, all heroes have been introduced and the world has been saved."
Objectives
Superheroes trains creative interpretation under constraint, commitment to absurd premises, and the structural skill of building to a full ensemble and returning to a solo. It also rewards physical and vocal specificity in character: each hero should have a distinct physicality that reflects their power.
Running the Game
Brief performers on the arc before the game starts. Players who don't know the structure will vary the departure sequence or attempt to resolve the crisis as a group rather than in reverse order. The game depends on everyone knowing the mechanic.
Coach the audience or host to offer powers that are specific and strange rather than generic. "Super strength" produces a dull hero; "the power of knowing exactly where everyone left their keys" produces a comic one.
Common Coaching Notes
- "Apply your power. Whatever it is, find a way to use it specifically."
- "Know why you're leaving before you leave."
- "First hero: you resolve this alone. Whatever the team built, it's yours to close."
- "Each hero's power should look different. Find the physical."
How to Perform It
The Absurd Power Principle
The game's comic engine is the gap between an absurd power and a genuine application of that power to the crisis. Heroes who ignore their power and simply help with the crisis directly abandon the game. Heroes who cannot find a way to apply their power and stand frozen have lost the game. The sweet spot is the creative, committed, specific application: how does excessive punctuality actually address the asteroid?
The application does not need to be logical. It needs to be committed. The audience accepts any application as long as the performer fully believes in it.
The Reverse Exit
The reverse exit sequence is often overlooked in training. Each exiting hero needs a reason to leave: they completed their task, they are needed elsewhere, their power is used up. The reason should be brief and specific, not vague. Heroes who drift off without a clear exit break the structure.
The Resolution
The first hero's solo resolution should be rapid and surprising. It has the most setup behind it and therefore the highest expectation. Short and committed beats long and explained.
Variations
Known variants of Superheroes with distinct rules or structure.
Super Heroes
Spacing variant of the Superheroes title.
History
Superheroes is associated with Whose Line Is It Anyway?, the British improvisational panel show (1988-1999) and its American adaptation (1998-2007), where it appeared frequently as an opening game. Judy Leep notes that on Whose Line the game operated as a joke format rather than a scene format.
Asaf Ronen attributes the exercise to Steve Wacker, documenting it as a structured activity used with school-age groups in which children name and then portray original superheroes. This pedagogical version emphasizes identity invention and confidence performance rather than the crisis-resolution arc of the short-form game.
Tom Salinsky documents the game's mechanic in The Improv Handbook as an audience-participation game structured around the escalation of arriving heroes and their reverse departure. The game also appears under alternate names: Bill Lynn references it as "Superheroes or Worst Nightmare" in Improvisation for Actors and Writers. Gay Grasberg documents a version called "Superheroes at the Gym" in Great Group Skits.
Worth Reading
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Experiential Learning Exercises to Train Employees
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Theatrical Improvisation
Short Form, Long Form, and Sketch-Based Improv
Jeanne Leep
The Improv Handbook
The Ultimate Guide to Improvising in Comedy, Theatre, and Beyond
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Improvised Theatre and the Autism Spectrum
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Improvisation for Actors and Writers
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Great Group Skits
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Lynn Grasberg; Gina Oldenburg
Related Games
Superhero Endowment
Superhero Endowment is a guessing game in which one performer must figure out their secretly assigned superhero power through the behavior of their scene partners. The other performers know the power and play scenes that make it relevant without naming it directly.
Helping Hands
Helping Hands is a short-form game in which one performer stands in front of another and extends their arms through the front performer's sleeves or from behind, so that the back performer's hands serve as the front performer's arms. The front performer speaks and reacts while the back performer's hands gesture, handle props, and physically enact whatever the scene requires. The dissonance between speech and gesture -- and the unpredictable behavior of the "helping hands" -- generates the game's comedy.
Asides
Asides is a scene technique game in which performers periodically break from the action to address the audience directly with their character's private thoughts. Borrowed from theatrical convention dating back to Shakespeare and the Restoration comedy tradition, the aside allows a character to reveal inner monologue, secret motives, or contradictory feelings while other characters on stage cannot hear what is said. In improv, the technique layers subtext over surface dialogue, creating dramatic irony and comedy through the gap between what characters say to each other and what they confide to the audience. The game trains performers to maintain dual awareness of both the scene and the audience, and to develop rich inner lives for their characters that extend beyond spoken dialogue.
Arms
Arms is a short-form game in which one player stands behind another, extending their arms through the front player's sleeves to serve as their hands. The front player speaks and reacts while the hidden player's arms create unpredictable physical business. It is one of the most recognized and widely performed short-form games.
Expert
Expert is a short-form game in which a performer plays a world-renowned authority on a topic suggested by the audience, fielding questions with total confidence regardless of actual knowledge. The comedy emerges from the contrast between the character's unwavering certainty and the absurdity of the claims. Scene partners or audience members ask questions, and the expert responds with authoritative detail, treating every answer as established fact. The game rewards commitment, verbal fluency, and the willingness to build elaborate fictions without hesitation.
The Lineage
Explore the schools and structures that influenced or evolved from Superheroes.
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Superheroes. Retrieved October 14, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/games/superheroes
The Improv Archive. "Superheroes." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/games/superheroes.
The Improv Archive. "Superheroes." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/games/superheroes. Accessed October 14, 2026.
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