Poll of the Day > Super strength and firing laser beams are such boring powers

(+) Yeah! (+)

So why do comic book writers keep making characters like these? You know who has a genuinely interesting power set? Gambit. But I never see him around nearly as much as he deserves.

I mean... he can make things explode because of kinetic energy. He can see the future sometimes, sorta. He can charm people. He can make things into poison. On the surface, his power set is everything wrong and nonsensical about comic books. But it... works? Like, I'm willing to believe that he can suddenly see the future after going blind because I already like him a ton and will believe anything they throw at me outside of bullshit like "can win almost every fight because *stupid power*"

I dunno, I always get really upset when I see that the extent of a person's powers in comic book media are limited to lame stuff like "Can hit really hard and take a beating without dying." Maybe it's because I'm writing my own superhero parody. I'd hate to see the media oversaturated with milquetoast shows about people with superpowers before I can get my thing on the air.
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They aren't laser beams they're repulsor blasts
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Mead posted...

They aren't laser beams they're repulsor blasts

Or physical embodiments of alien emotions
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Boku no hero, does it well.

A guy has a navel laser and it's great
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And he's been in, what, like 10 panels for the whole series?
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Doesn't change that it's still great.
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i'd say the power of flight. too many characters have it even when it makes no sense for them. like aquaman at one time could fly.... i'll accept him being able to jump really long distances (due to him living at the bottom of the ocean where water pressure is very great, so on land must make him feel very weightless)
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We need more love stories, ok?
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You're right, but I wonder characters with simpler/more generic powers might be considered more marketable especially for casual readers even if they're less interesting? Superhero parody sounds interesting
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GhostGiblet posted...

You're right, but I wonder characters with simpler/more generic powers might be considered more marketable especially for casual readers even if they're less interesting? Superhero parody sounds interesting

superhero parody already exists. the tick was and still is a thing.

question though, superman has super breath. (hell in one comic long ago he wiped out a galaxy with a sneeze) so how dangerous can his farts be? wonder if bizzaro has at least done anything with that.
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the thing is these "powers" are rarely actual powers. iron man has a suit and superman/girl is an alien.

tbh i think DC hit the nail on the head with their "powers". or lack thereof. most if not all non aliens in DC are either powerless with gadgets or incredible intellect. or they have some kind of magic artifact at their disposal, flash and aquaman being the only exceptions i can think of and aquaman might as well be "alien"

marvel on the other hand, nothing against them. likes to throw overpoweredness to basically everyone because that's the only way to keep them equal. look at basically every mutant ever, or deadpool. especially deadpool.
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mooreandrew58 posted...

GhostGiblet posted...

You're right, but I wonder characters with simpler/more generic powers might be considered more marketable especially for casual readers even if they're less interesting? Superhero parody sounds interesting

superhero parody already exists. the tick was and still is a thing.

question though, superman has super breath. (hell in one comic long ago he wiped out a galaxy with a sneeze) so how dangerous can his farts be? wonder if bizzaro has at least done anything with that.

I'm not saying it's the first time I've ever heard of it but just saying, sounds cool
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zeldamasterkid0 posted...

the thing is these "powers" are rarely actual powers. iron man has a suit and superman/girl is an alien.

tbh i think DC hit the nail on the head with their "powers". or lack thereof. most if not all non aliens in DC are either powerless with gadgets or incredible intellect. or they have some kind of magic artifact at their disposal, flash and aquaman being the only exceptions i can think of and aquaman might as well be "alien"

marvel on the other hand, nothing against them. likes to throw overpoweredness to basically everyone because that's the only way to keep them equal. look at basically every mutant ever, or deadpool. especially deadpool.

deadpool was a scientific thing. so he was created through science using the mutant genes or whatever

but I wouldn't say aquaman might as well be an alien, atlanteans are basically humans that evolved to live at the bottom of the ocean. i'm going out on a limb here and say perhaps poseidon had a hand in helping them along that path of evolution. much like the amazons benefit from the helping hands of greek gods.
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If you want more interesting powers, you usually need to go watch an anime or something with enough continuity that you are expected to watch it/read it in order.

Standard western heroes, partly by design, partly by tradition, need to usually be accessable to people who don't just pick up the first book/episode and read/watch it all in sequential order from there.

So you either need a fairly simple power. Or you need to re-explain its intricacies every single time it comes up. Or you need to make something that isn't a DC-comic style super hero series and thus is intended to be viewed in order, so that you don't need to re-explain it all over again each time.
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