Stories being too similiar
Question: I have an idea for a story about people with powers and the government rounds them up and throws them in these special prisons and kills them. What I can't decide is how the people get their powers. Every idea I come up with seems to familiar to something else they all either seem like they're a copy of the darkest minds or x-men.
Idea 1:
The government was designing a super soldier serum but everyone they tested it one they end up dying. There's an accident at the lab and the serum gets released in the world and infect millions most of which end up dying but the ones that survive develop these powers. There's something inside them that caused them to survive and for the rest to die.
Idea 2:
They're the next step in human evolution. These people develop there powers at all different times but usually around the age of 13 but some aren't until much later or some have them their whole life. Well they're exposed and the government rounds them up.
I want the main character to be one of the strongest ones and her father to be the head scientist that's studying the superhumans and trying to find a cure and a bunch of other stuff. Can you help me in anyway? Is there an idea you like the best? I can't come up with
Answer: Writers certainly have used these gimmicks and others to explain superpowers (alien DNA is another example). Historically, when people believed in "a better future through chemistry," it gave rise to superheroes who got their powers from consuming special formulae. When the world was interested in esotericism, superpowers came from Eastern religious disciplines. When we were worried about nuclear war, mutation seemed a good candidate. When the internet age was being born, The Matrix gave us a hero who controlled the online world.
In other words, the gimmick can come from what is on people's mind at the moment. If you're tuned in to what people are worried about today, that may give you an idea.
(See, I can't give you a solution, just point you in a direction.)
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