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In The Incredibles, Buddy develops an unhealthy fascination with Mr. Incredible, up to and including trying to be his sidekick and turning to a life of crime when Mr. Incredible turned him down.

Since there are dozens of super heroes and super villains in The Incredibles, was there any hint as to what caused Buddy to latch onto Mr. Incredible specifically?

GGMG-he-him
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    Ever been to a con (almost any kind of con!)? There are rabid fans for absolutely every character out there. If you listen to their stories you'll hear a particular tale reasonably often. They encountered the right fragment of story at nadir or some crisis in their life, took a lesson from it and were empowered in some way. And they credit the character with everything positive that has come from the experience. Different strokes and all that. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Jul 10 '16 at 23:03
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    because if he had latched onto another superhero, he would have been in a different movie? – KutuluMike Jul 10 '16 at 23:08
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    @dmckee But how often do we hear a tale that's particularly reasonable? ;) – Major Stackings Jul 11 '16 at 02:28
  • @dmckee Constantine showed me how to be a total git and be alright with myself. – Integration Feb 17 '17 at 15:15
  • Also, even if there's only a one-in-a-million that a given kid would become some a huge Mr. Incredible fan, in 1960 there were 8,658,730 white boys aged 5-14, so the real question is why there aren't more Buddies. – MissMonicaE Feb 17 '17 at 15:16

2 Answers2

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Mr Incredible was an obvious target for Buddy's fan-affection for two key reasons.

Visibility / Merchandising

He was the most visible and celebrated of the Supers. He was both Time and Life's "Super of the Year" and repeatedly saved the city, earning the 'Key to the City', numerous awards for gallantry as well as the 'Civilian Medal of Honor'.

Unlike other Supers he seems more than happy to endorse pretty much anything, including crappy dolls, crappy spoken-word albums and even crappier animated features, not to mention branded cereals and costumes.

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Fan-club

Mr Incredible seems to have taken particular pride in interacting with his fanbase. In addition to attending fan-events, he's done photo-ops, interviews, autograph signings and seems more than happy to bask in the publicity that comes with his achievements. He even has his own "Mr. Incredible Cadets", a group that presumably emulates the scouting movement.

For someone starting to take an interest in Supers in general, he would be the obvious choice if you wanted to get 'up close and personal' with a real live one.

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BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE): Look, I've been nice, I've stood for photos, signed every scrap of paper you pushed at me but this is...

BUDDY (INCREDIBOY): No, you don't have to worry about training me. I know all your moves, your crime fighting style, favorite catch phrases, everything! I'm your number one fan!

Valorum
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We in the real world admire superheroes as children and sometimes beyond. It makes sense that that admiration would increase when the superheroes were actually real. Mr. Incredible seems to be the face of the supers, in his office we see a poster with him in the foreground and many of the other supers in the background.

Seen Here http://www.pixartalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/mrincredible.jpg

Therefore if buddy were to idolise a single superhero over others, it would make sense that that one superhero be Mr. Incredible.

Another thing is that Mr. Incredible says to a police officer. "Make sure his mom knows what he's been doing." This line (though Mr. Incredible probably wouldn't know) amongst other pieces of evidence, leads me to believe that Buddy doesn't have a father.

Even if he did have a father he seems to have adopted Mr. Incredible as a sort of father figure. He begs to be his sidekick, meaning they would have had a similar relationship to Batman and Robin, remembering that Bruce Wayne was Robin's adoptive father (or biological father in Damian Wayne's case).

So in summing up, it is normal to idolise superheroes at Buddy's age, especially if those superheroes were real and Buddy seems to see Mr. Incredible as sort of a father figure.

Matthew Stevenson
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    Although there's no evidence to suggest that Buddy Pine comes from a broken home / dead dad, if you want to head down this tack, you might also want to point out that his villainous scheme is called Project Kronos. Kronos was the father of the Greek Gods and was overthrown by his son, Zeus. For Buddy to have used the Supers (and ultimately Mr Incredible himself) to create Kronos, which he (Syndrome/Zeus) would then overthrow could suggest some real 'daddy issues'. – Valorum Jul 11 '16 at 00:01