Footage of the 61-year-old man flying and lifting a car was posted on YouTube.
Another video featured two men in a fender bender. At first, they just yelled at each other. Then the one guy, sporting long blond hair like Thor, shot ice out of his hands. The other guy, who looked more like Tony Stark, shot out cold breath.
Since the two guys eventually calmed down and cooled down, and no one really got hurt, the video was considered just a hoot and safe for all-ages viewing.
Later videos would be more serious.
Some events that never made it to You Tube were events that reporter Luke Garrett became involved in. He tried to keep up on the world of superheroes as much as he could but that world was becoming increasingly complex.
While Luke did his work, the Internet lit up with comments about super-people.
"Yo! Did you see that recent video with the guys with powers?"
"Which one?"
"It's the one with the two guys, one shots out ice from his hands and the other guy shoots out fire," Toby, the enthusiastic narrator, gestured with his hands. "The fire and the ice piles up in the middle, in between the two of them, and neither one of them is able to make progress and blast the other one."
Toby's friend Chris, barely looking up from his phone, made a face.
"That's kind of lame."
"Yeah. I'm not even sure it was real. I think somebody probably faked the whole thing."
"No doubt." Chris pushed buttons on his phone. "Anything good on TikTok?"
"This awesome brunette talks about what it's like to work at Hooters while she does some crazy incredible dance moves."
"Cool!"
Some time later a You Tube video featured a more violent road rage incident. After a collision, two guys started yelling at each other. The one with long red hair and bushy beard fired lasers from his eyes. The other, with long brown hair and a long wild beard, shot out balls of fire from his hands. The red-haired man dodged the attack but a car went flying and twirled around in the air.
One man commented that each bearded man looked like a Marvel superhero.
Another person said the whole thing looked fake.
Someone else lamented that it was callous to post a video where civilians were in danger and a police officer died later.
A video memorial was created for Officer Ronald Monroe; the memorial featured photos of his wife Donna and their kids Matthew and Roy.
The different versions of the Powers Formula that were out there resulted in people with more and more unusual powers and more and more erratic behavior.
What lay in the future was increasingly unpredictable.