Hmm. I think Scott McCloud's "Zot!" featured an alternate world with "superheroes" where technology did indeed "leak out" into the greater world. It ended up being sort of a retro-sci-fi setting. It was largely treated as a sort of amusing, not-quite serious thing, except for occasionally surprisingly dark turns.
Anyway, I suppose that deviating from the norm on this would give you one of a couple of things:
1) You could have a story following our brilliant inventor as he shakes up the world. I'm of the opinion, however, that if treated realistically, he might maintain a considerable amount of celebrity, and still churn out a number of impressive things as he gets more resources thanks to funding and/or profits drawn in as a result of his inventions ... but sufficiently world-shaking inventions should be spurring other inventors to be spring-boarding off of his designs, rather than EVERY new advance just coming from one place.
2) Or, you could just have a futuristic or alternate-timeline sci-fi setting, where it just so happens that you have a celebrity inventor who's credited with many of the amazing world-changing inventions that differentiate this world from our own.
The bottom line is, I think, that the typical "invention as incidental super-power and plot convenience" mechanic of comic books just doesn't hold up to scrutiny very well if you put much thought into it, especially when the sorts of technologies required to MacGyver together a device to defeat the Planetary Threat of the Week are almost certain to have remarkable alternative uses.
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Anyway, I suppose that deviating from the norm on this would give you one of a couple of things:
1) You could have a story following our brilliant inventor as he shakes up the world. I'm of the opinion, however, that if treated realistically, he might maintain a considerable amount of celebrity, and still churn out a number of impressive things as he gets more resources thanks to funding and/or profits drawn in as a result of his inventions ... but sufficiently world-shaking inventions should be spurring other inventors to be spring-boarding off of his designs, rather than EVERY new advance just coming from one place.
2) Or, you could just have a futuristic or alternate-timeline sci-fi setting, where it just so happens that you have a celebrity inventor who's credited with many of the amazing world-changing inventions that differentiate this world from our own.
The bottom line is, I think, that the typical "invention as incidental super-power and plot convenience" mechanic of comic books just doesn't hold up to scrutiny very well if you put much thought into it, especially when the sorts of technologies required to MacGyver together a device to defeat the Planetary Threat of the Week are almost certain to have remarkable alternative uses.