Metahuman

In the DC Universe, a metahuman is a human or humanoid with superpowers. In DC Comics, the term is used loosely in most instances to refer to any human-like individual with extraordinary, often paranormal abilities or other attributes, regardless of whether they are cosmic, mutant, scientific, supernatural, skill-based or technological in nature.

The term in comic books published by DC Comics is typically used as a loose government classification of powered people and not a descriptor of a character's specific origins. As such it is often applied readily to humanoid and human-looking characters such as Superman (an alien) and Wonder Woman (a near-goddess) just as it is to characters like Metamorpho (a mutated human) and Lilith Clay (a human born with psychic abilities).

Within the metahuman population is a segment of the human population born with a genetic variant called the "metagene". It is this variant that some human beings have to gain powers and other paranormal qualities during freak accidents, or to manifest powers during times of intense psychological distress, effectively making them a subspecies of superhumans living within the population. With the notable exception of its 1951 creation Captain Comet, DC has avoided using the term "mutant" to describe such characters, due to that term's association with the X-Men franchise published by Marvel Comics.

When adapting DC Comics stories for television, video games, and film, some adaptations have attempted to define metahuman more narrowly than the source material. In Birds of Prey and Young Justice, metahumans are treated as a distinct sub-race of humans (akin to mutants in Marvel's X-Men) while others such as the Arrowverse television franchise apply the term exclusively to humans who receive their powers in freak accidents. More recently, the DC Universe film and television franchise has applied the same loose definition as the original comics.