Before They Were Superheroes: Your Favorite Stars, Spandex Optional

Is this the face of a brooding, mysterious superhero-to-be? You're darn right it is. The Welsh-born Bale's first appearance as an actor was at age 8, and his breakout role was soon after, in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun (1987). Unlike some of his fellow superheroes, Bale had quite the unconventional childhood: His mother Jenny was in the circus and they lived a nomadic life. Still, after Empire, Bale was in demand, appearing in Henry V (1989), Swing Kids (1993), Little Women (1994), and more—all by the age of 20.

Despite the happy-go-lucky grin of his youth, Bale has a dark side—both on-screen and off. His serious demeanor has served him well as the latest incarnation of Bruce “Batman” Wayne, starting with Batman Begins (2005), which launched Christopher Nolan’s much-lauded reboot of the famous franchise and marked the advent of its new and grittier era. Bale again appeared as Batman in The Dark Knight in 2008 and returned for the last installment, The Dark Knight Rises. Nolan (and Batman) will next take on a Justice League movie, in which the caped crusader is rumored to be the focal point.

Even as a suburban kid at Millburn High School in New Jersey, Anne Hathaway had a smile the size of Brooklyn. While the New York native wasn’t yet a household name—or a Disney princess—she was already winning critical acclaim for her role in a school play and moonlighting in community theater.

A decade later, Hathaway's career is revved up and action packed. From her first television role in the short-lived drama Get Real (1999) to her big-screen breakout as the star of The Princess Diaries (2001) and later The Devil Wears Prada (2006), the wide-eyed actress has taken her high school hobby all the way to the Oscars, as both a cohost and eventually a winner. She finally arrived superhero-style, working the one-piece leather as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, the third installment of Christopher Nolan's dark and sexy brand of Batman movies.

Who would have guessed that this baby-faced teen from the suburbs of Boston would become a heroic stud? Evans grew up in the affluent Sudbury, Massachusetts, where he attended Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School. His mother and one of his sisters are also involved in acting, but so far, Chris has been the only member of the family lucky enough to have superpowers.

It was only a matter of time before Chris Evans and his abdominals became the embodiment of superhero brawn. The buff specimen of body-building first bore his rippling chest and arms as Johnny Storm (a.k.a. The Human Torch) in The Fantastic Four (2005) and again in The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). He lost the spandex for a few years, but last summer fans got him and his bulging pecs back in Captain America: The First Avenger, which arrived to mixed reviews. The silver lining? He reprised his role for The Avengers and did again for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Jennifer Lawrence might have been the second-youngest actress to be nominated for an Oscar (for her role in Ozark indie Winter’s Bone), but that doesn’t mean that she’s exempt from embarrassing pictures. A Kentucky native, Lawrence left high school two years early to pursue acting, and, with no formal training, began landing roles on television shows like The Bill Engvall Show (2007) and indie films The Burning Plain (2008) and The Beaver (2011).

Like the rest of the Hollywood cognoscenti, Lawrence knows that there's no stardom quite like becoming a superhero. Last summer, she took her breakout streak straight to blockbuster central as the blue-faced Mystique in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class. The origins tale is the fifth in the X-Men series of the last decade, and scored rave reviews from critics like The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy, who called it a “first-class production that excitingly reenergizes a flagging franchise.” Still, the debut was also the lowest-earning of the franchise, but didn't derail the upcoming sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past. Meanwhile, though technically not a superhero, Lawrence's portrayal as The Hunger Games heroine Katniss Everdeen has become her signature role. Fans can look forward to seeing her in three additional Games films.

When some kids graduate from high school, they get watches, money, or a shiny new laptop. When Lucas Till graduated from Kell High School in Marietta, Georgia, he got the male lead in Hannah Montana: The Movie.

Only a few years after he played the pretty country boy who wins Miley's heart, Till took on superhuman powers to play Havok, the plasma firebomb-throwing orphan of X-Men: First Class. Till already has three more films in the works, including reprising his X-Men role—which suggests his burgeoning star power, above all else.

Behind those impish eyes is a quick wit, a future as a Hollywood heavyweight, and, yes, untapped superpowers strong enough to tame fickle adolescent tastes and appease a movie-going public for several summers in a row. But before Robert Downey Jr. got his Iron on, he was a precocious adolescent at Santa Monica High.

Iron Man arrived in summer 2008 to lavish praise from everyone from Joe Morgenstern to Roger Ebert, who kvelled over everything from the gee-whiz gadgetry to the sardonic wit of its star. The movie’s box-office success propelled it to the top of the superhero heap and blasted the way for 2010's Iron Man 2, which was more blingy but less focused, and still raked in a respectable $312 million. Iron Man cracked more jokes earlier this summer in The Avengers and is ready for still more screen time: Downey Jr. reprised the role for ——Iron Man 3, and the upcoming The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Sigh. It's possible that ScarJo has never had an awkward picture. But at least she was ready for red-carpet prime time at an early age. The double-threat starlet (remember that album?) got an early start, attending the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan, a prep school that got her ready for the big screen—and little snapshots.

Nothing says summer like a skintight leather bodysuit (see: Anne Hathaway), and Johansson is more than ready with her second-skin costume for her role as Black Widow. Iron Man 2 fans got a mouth-watering taste of the actress’s prowess as a butt-kicking hero, but the real dose wasn't until she arrived in The Avengers. She'll reprise her role as Black Widow in The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.