20 Interesting Real-Life Superheroes with Incredible Abilities

Dede Koswara, The Tree Man

Here’s an awful ability that was brought on by a weakened immune system. Indonesian man Dede Koswara was just a boy when the condition that would come to define his life first entered his body. At the age of ten, he cut his knee on a root in the jungle, and shortly after discovered the wound was ringed by warts. They soon spread to his hands and feet, growing into massive tree-like protrusions that made him look like Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. Those warts were caused by human papillomavirus, the same bug responsible for genital warts. They didn’t hurt or itch, and Koswara eventually took a job with an Indonesian circus.