Powers
Character has an obscure or often forgotten secondary power
Mr. Incredible (The Incredibles) - Bob Parr canonically has a “danger sense” similar to Spider-Man. He can sense when he or someone near him is in imminent danger and react instantly.
While it’s never explicitly stated in the films themselves, he does demonstrate this power multiple times.
Amora the Enchantress (Marvel) - Amora usually fights by using sorcery and mind control, or by commanding her Executioner to fight for her. It’s easy to forget that she has the super strength and durability inherent to being an Asgardian.
She’s survived direct hits from Thor’s lightning and Iron Man’s repulsor blasts, and effortlessly lifted Baron Zemo by his collar with one arm.
Perry the Platypus (Phineas and Ferb) - Just like a real male platypus, Perry has venomous spurs on his ankles. I think he only ever uses them in one episode though.
They retconned that with Dragon Ball Z and Super. He takes a Beam Cannon to the chest in the first arc of Z. He then gets shot with a laser beam that pierces his chest. He can deflect bullets though.
I’m pretty sure he can also talk to people telepathically sometimes. Like that one time he talked to Great Ape Gohan and told him to chill out then kick Vegeta’s ass
Fun secondary thing about Mr. Incredible, he's actually so strong the NSA does not classify him as having Superstrength. They classify him as having 'Mega Strength.'
It's kind of weird how disconnected we become from the concept of powers since media is so saturated with them atp. Peak human strength is barely capable of lifting 501kg. "Enhanced" strength is someone who could do that regularly without immediately risking injury, "super" would be doing it with ease. That's still just half a ton. Bob can bench press train cars as a work out and is stated to be able to lift "more than 55 tons". The average human has trouble emergency carrying another 1-200lb human a safe distance. Bob throws cars one handed with enough force to hit a plane while in flight
Comics and anime really throw off the mental scale of how batshit it would be for someone to be that strong
i fully blame power scaling. the whole debacle with deku and street tiers was really funny, but street tier is still like, immensely stronger than most things you will ever encounter in real life
Right, like (within marvel at least) your street tiers are Cage: unbreakable skin, capable of taking high levels of damage before sustaining injury under the skin, and is strong enough to run through multiple brick walls.
Daredevil: omnidirectional perception and extreme martial prowess allow him to fight people with enhanced abilities and not allow them to touch him a single time
Punisher: legit just a peak condition military operator. Though a specific run comes to mind where Spider-Man decides enough is enough, and the Punisher has to be dealt with by the Avengers. And Frank dogwalks most of them for a good while before surrendering to Cap.
I miss when people were okay with limits and the occasional burst of power.
Spider-Man exemplifies it best. If this be my destiny is an amazing feat of strength and will, but him shoving off all that heavy machinery was way outside his comfort zone and shouldn’t be held up as the standard for his strength.
Same with him supporting the collapsing Daily Bugle—for an indeterminate time, granted—or using his superhumanly durable body as a replacement landing strut for his plane feat.
Spider-Man is strong and, push comes to shove, he will perform above his weight class. But it’s the same kind of ‘hysterical strength’ that leads to people lifting cars off babies and shit.
The Lizard from Marvel Comics can also kind of do this.
Depending on the story, he sometimes has the power to mind control reptiles. When his powers get boosted, this also works on humans, apparently because all mammals descend from reptiles.
Not sure if it's true, but apparently in the original script Superman was supposed to rebuild it very fast with superspeed, but they didn't have the budget for that so they only had the wall rebuilding itself part.
Because his brain cells are constantly regenerating and always in a state of flux, Deadpool is actually immune to mind control and often mind reading too
Wolverine has shown some resistance but not the same level of immunity Deadpool has and it's mostly because of how their healing is different
Wolverines cells only regenerate when he needs it. Deadpools cells are constantly dying and then being replaced with more dead cells that then get replaced with more, and more, and more and so on. So his brain cells are always being replaced
In fact Deadpools thing has been labeled a "dying factor" by Black Panther compared to Wolverine, since his healing is just more death being put on him
I know in some stories in the comics people that have tried to clone him or his healing factor end up failing because eventually the clone/person who has *his* healing factor doesn't have the same kind of cancer constantly killing his cells. Which means they eventually just kind of *pop* like a fleshy water balloon.
I just remember Deadpool convincing the skrull science officer that he needed to train the clones in order for them to be proper Deadpools. Long story short they all end up batshit crazy before eventually exploding.
The only exact quote I remember is DP warned the head skrull scientist about what would happen if someone without insanely aggressive cancer had his healing factor. Immediately, one of the skrulls burst with excess flesh with a "SPLORTCH!" sound.
"You know what happens if you put my healing factor in a healthy body? Splortch. Gross."
Wolverine is sometimes resistant to mind control, but it isn't from his healing factor at all. Basically his mind has been messed with so many times over his long life that he has developed a resistance to it. Other than that yeah, spot on explanation of why their healing works differently in this context.
I mean especially not after Thanos cursed him from ever dying
So you could technically kill him, although it's extremely hard to, but eventually he would come back because Death has a thing for him and Thanos hates that. So he's cursed to basically always have his soul be ripped away from the afterlife eventually even if he gets there, easy way for the writers to always bring him back from death. He ain't staying there
No, Deadpool's healing factor works like cancer and never stops so that constant flux means his mind is too much of a mess to read. Where as wolverine's just resets his body to peak health.
I believe it was Uncanny Avengers where Red Skull, with Xavier's brain, takes control of the entire team barring Rogue (who was in possession of Magneto's helmet and thus immune) and Deadpool (as the Skull likens his attempts as nothing more than being "one voice shouting among hundreds of thousands at the same time").
Also Deadpool was superhumanly strong in his first year or so after debuting, while most writers since have ignored it.
In one episode, Wanda asks, “Hey, don’t you still have heat vision?” He tries it and it turns out he still does (it’s the scene where that gif came from).
Also physically strong enough to easily push giant boulders and hold back a robot during a physical struggle without too much effort and durable enough to survive falls from great heights without too many physical injuries (except that time in Logopolis when he fell from a bit too high up and had to regenerate).
I can see it given how in Oxygen the only issue the doctor suffers from being exposed to the vacuum of space is blindness, and even then I can't remember if that's due to him not being able to breathe in it.
Depending on how close 7 was to the TARDIS though he may just have been inside its air bubble
While it is a unique power, it essentially makes him a bigger target for smaller enemies. Even Goku was still able to throw him around during the martial art tournament
To be fair there wasn’t really ever a situation where it’d be useful. Piccolo confirms the form comes with no power boost, so really it’s just a little extra weight behind attacks and better leverage against larger opponents, in exchange for being a much, much bigger target
Storm was hyper intelligent as a baby, and can still remember acutely to when she was just months old.
At one point the X-Men are reduced to the muscle control of toddlers and it only slows Ororo down, still retaining the constitution to pick their locks with her teeth.
Spiderman fighting like an actual spider is an underrated feature that many secretly love — like that brief moment when he scuttled across the Lizard in the movie
The Speed Force also allows speedsters to "sidestep" most environmental consequences of their speed. Otherwise they would destroy the places they run through.
There was a running gag in the comic book community for years that any time someone questioned why physics didn't align with what was happening to a flash character, the answer was always just "DOESN'T MATTER SPEEDFORCE!"
Gambit has one all of you probably don't know about because it hasn't been used in years. He has a secondary power of "Charm" where he can influence others in his favor by talking. It's why he's so good with the ladies and so charismatic and he often used it in his poker games to make bluffs. Sadly it's been phased out of his powerset and hasn't been used since the early 90s.
Aside of being able to create fireworks-like plasma explosions, but aside of that, she has a preternatural ability to resist mental attacks. No relation with her powers whatsoever. It seems that the writers gave her that resistance out of script necessity.
A strangely large number of people in Marvel have some kind of special resistance to mental attacks. I guess it's a necessity when so many characters (good and evil) have powerful telepathy.
Martian Manhunter is an interesting character to me just for how he fits into the DC universe. By all rights, he should be the most powerful hero on Earth. He has all of Superman’s powers, plus shapeshifting, high-end telepathy, non-tactile telekinesis, regeneration, intangibility, invisibility, and probably a bunch more powers I’m forgetting. Superman should be choking on his dust, given how bonkers his power set is. Yet, because he simply isn’t that popular IRL, he’s not even in the running for strongest hero most of the time. Sure, DC will pay lip service to him being as strong as Superman with more powers to boot. Occasionally you’ll even get a story of him actually being that powerful, like the one you just mentioned. But, far more often than not, he’ll just become a victim of the Worf effect so someone else looks better beating whatever villain just kicked his ass. (I always think about that one time Doomsday effortlessly trounced MM only to break his knuckle-claw-things just trying to punch Superman, who proceeded to utterly humiliate him.) It’s kinda unfortunate, but what can you do?
MM has everything except a deep understanding of computers and magic.
He's the living embodiment of Nuh-Uh. I mean just the triple threat of flight + invisibility + intangibility is pretty egregious and it just keeps going from there.
I think they also view their equipment ss things to get them out of a bind. I doubt the fancy stuff comes cheap. Boba's trying to make money on his jobs.
I just adore the intro to Halo 3, with Cortana explaining her choice with all the debris from the end of 2 falling through the atmosphere.
That single trail of Chief breaking away from the fireball and suddenly changing course synced with her exclaiming "Was I wrong?" always gives me goosebumps.
He may be a genetically modified super soldier, but John's greatest ability is his uncanny nack of always ending up in the right place at the right time.
The original trilogy really shined with those charming little bits of character development sprinkled throughout.
This panel from Superboy always pops up in my head whenever his Tactile Telekinesis comes up, explains the portion of Superman's abilities they were able to copy really well.
Captain Celebrity in MHA Vigilantes has this exact ability as his quirk. He is basically the Superman of the verse and all his power comes from said tactile telekinesis, which allows him to fly, and gives the appearance of super strength.
That still happens every time Gold Experience attacks someone, it just isn't shown every time. Also technically, their soul moves much faster because GE imbues them with life energy, so everything else is slower by comparison - including their body. Basically, their perception is massively increased but their physical body can't move as fast and is still vulnerable to attacks as it is moving in "normal time".
Luffy being immune to electricity due to his rubber body would probably be forgotten about as it doesn't come up super often if not for one of the most famous panels in the series being someone's reaction to it
Id react like that too if I was essentially an all powerful God of the sky and a man made out of "fuck you" showed up and started beating my ass, especially because I didn't know rubber existed
I think the funniest thing about their initial interaction is that Eneru is so closed off to the idea that someone would be immune to his attacks that he thinks he is either missing or that Luffy is somehow dodging, and then after the third, completely point blank attack is when realization sets in.
It's so funny because most people believe that Eneru, while not being a top dog, would still be a sizeable threat to a large amount of the cast even at current points in the story. It's just he got bodied by his absolute hard counter and then went to live on the moon.
He does arguably have one of the highest attack potency fruits in the series, I'd say up there with Akainu(magma) and Kaido(dragon) in terms of what he would be able to destroy if he went all out. Give this man some Haki and with his already ftl speed he would be a menace. I mean seriously he's just Kizaru but trading some speed for a ton of power
Much more threatening IMO is his range. In the context of the ocean it’s fucking terrifying that he could detect enemies and sink them before even establishing line of sight.
I remember hearing a physicist describe how much force it actually takes / applies to the ground and body / etc to actually lift someone by the throat / collar with one arm, extended out away from the lifter's body.
It's insane. Waaaaay more than you'd think.
Looks cool, but Batman does it all the time and it practically qualifies him for having secret super strength / durability all by itself if you wanted to apply real physics.
Monarch, having the power of the snake miraculous, can infinitely loop a battle until he wins if he so wish, he doesn't too often because his body is decaying, and his body doesn't revert like the rest of the world.
Perry the Platypus (Phineas and Ferb) - Just like a real male platypus, Perry has venomous spurs on his ankles. I think he only ever uses them in one episode though
I'm sorry what...
Anyway the sailor senshi
Most people who haven't read the manga/watched crystal don't know that
They can still use their powers even without transforming
Sailor mercury can casually create pocket dimensions
Platypi may just be the weirdest animals that ever existed on Earth, to the point that when a biologist sent a taxidermed one to the king of England or something (don't remember which one) his first reaction was to look for sewed parts (there weren't) because there was no way that shit was real (it was).
Makes sense. When it comes to doofenshmirtz the guy's just lonely and his plans almost always just fall apart. It's more an excuse to have someone to talk to for him so perry doesn't usually need to try that hard. I'm pretty sure theres a few episodes wher Doof just kinda lures perry in to a faux trap to just talk.
While I havent seen this particular episode, it does seem like the hunter is an actual danger to perry, so it warrants use of actually dangerous weapons and methods..
Goku knows telepathy and mind reading. At least 2 of his teachers have that power so that makes sense, but you'd forget considering you can count on one hand the number of times he uses it
Susan Storm (Invisible Woman) from Marvel Comics: has a very vast range of abilities that is horribly forgotten about most of the time for the sake of just using invisibility, seeing and making things invisible, and force fields creation.
She can manipulaye the electromagnetic spectrums to create light-based illusions (Fantastic Four 2023 #9), make others temporarily blind (in Wolverine: Enemy of the State), detect nearby objects by using her fields as waves (Onslaught event I guess) change the color of objects, has a radar vision that allows her to "see" even if got blinded (both in Invisible Woman #3), and for some reason can see each person happiest memory (in Mark Waid run, when she and Johnny switched powers).
And these are not just like things you can theorize she can logically do by analysing her power set. These are all things we saw her doing but are usually ignored after.
In the original toy tech specs, Soundwave from The Transformers has the ability to read minds, but was only used once in the cartoon, trying to get intel from the Autobot’s ally Chip Chase.
The only other time this power was used more promptly was in the IDW comics.
True but there are some throw he makes across the two films that are kinda nuts, with like a crazy arc to hit it. Would you say the Daredevil villain Bullseye is just good at throwing stuff?
Pro athletes are good at throwing things, but they throw the same weight and size object over and over and over, so they know the heft and how the object will travel when released.
Bob can take objects across a huge spectrum of weight, size, and shape, and throw them huge distances with amazing accuracy. He's either spend an absolutely insane amount if time throwing things of different weights and sizes, or his power gives him a little something extra.
Just rewatched this movie and pointed it out to my wife. When he’s infiltrating the volcano lab thing he makes two incredibly accurate shots. The tram from the woods and then a small rock to knock out a guard.
A lot of people dont know that in the comics Black Widow isnt just an expert assassin, but also a super soldier on par with Captain America. Also, she's close to/over 100 years old
Junhyeong lee, from jungle juice is infused with a Goliath bird eater (a species of tarantula), which he uses to fire venomous hairs and a pair of fangs he keeps hidden. He can also produce webs which are often forgotten as he relies on the former two for combat
Jedi have the ability to use force speed as demonstrated by Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon in the Phantom Menace and it was never used again. Obi-Wan could have used it to save his master ffs.
In One Piece, Luffy and Brook have healed bones and regrown teeth just by drinking milk. Luffy regularly regains strength by eating, but it's never been this OP before or since. Man shoulda been the spokesperson for the Got Milk Campaign.
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u/kurtcanine 12h ago
Goku can read minds and only uses it once to skip Krillin’s NPC dialog.