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Power Loss Makes You Strong: Difference between revisions

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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In the [[Justice League of America]] ''[[Elseworlds]]'' series ''[[JLA: Act of God (Comic Book)|JLA Act of God]]'', a [[Diabolus Ex Machina|mysterious event]] wipes out all superpowers. [[Supergirl]], [[Aquaman (Comic Book)|Aquaman]], the [[Martian Manhunter]] and [[The Flash]] re-train themselves to become [[Badass Normal|Badass Normals]] like [[Batman]].
* [[Storm]] spent 3 real-world years powerless after accidentally getting shot by Forge with a power-neutralizing gun. However, she continued to lead the X-Men as a [[Badass Normal]].
** Literally, for Polaris when she lost her magnetic powers and gained super-strength for no clear reason.
* The "Green Sun" story in ''[[Superman]]'' #155 (August 1962). Superman is not only rendered non-superpowered, but blind. He still manages to overcome the [[Big Bad]] using ingenuity and gumption.
* The miniseries ''The Last Days of [[Animal Man (Comic Book)|Animal Man]]'' depicts a [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|near future]] where the middle-aged titular character, now a full time member of the [[Comicbook/Justice League|Justice League]], sees his powers slowly fade out to nothing. Nearly powerless, he finds a way to defeat two extremely [[Ax Crazy]] supervillains with sheer guts, resourcefulness, and the very last, tiny drop of superpowers he has left.
* [[Blue Devil]] in the final arc of ''[[Shadowpact (Comic Book)|Shadowpact]]'' ... almost. He defeats a powerful demon without his own demon powers, but he ''does'' still have his original [[Powered Armor]].
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Peter Petrelli from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' during the Villians Arc, and later after the [[Discard and Draw]].
* As often as Clark loses his powers on ''[[Smallville (TV)|Smallville]]'', this happens quite a bit, most notable being taking a bullet for Lois while weakened by kryptonite.
** In the Season Nine opener "Savior", Clark is threatened by a woman with a katana while he is powerless, ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|and he kicks her ass]]''. In that season's finale, he does a fair job of holding his own against Zod himself in a brawl between the two where both are powerless. But he ultimately must make a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] in order to "win."
** In the episode "Mortal", he takes out ''three'' baddies who had superpowers, albeit with the help of a flashbang and a sledgehammer.
* Done on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' when she turned 18 to see if she could function without powers, in the charming Watcher tradition known as the Cruciamentum. It was supposed to involve locking her in a house with an insane vampire. [[It Got Worse|Then he broke free]]. Astonishing really, that most Slayers die young with that kind of a support system.
** Actually somewhat of an [[Invoked Trope]] on the part of the Watcher's Council - if the Slayer could kill a vampire ''without'' her powers, then she would probably do a good job saving the world ''with'' them. If she ''couldn't'', well... a new Slayer would be Called.
** Fans have suggested an alternate explanation: slayers are called where they are most needed, and the Cruciamentum makes sure a slayer isn't only keeping one corner of the globe safe while allowing threats to grow elsewhere. Which leads to some [[Unfortunate Implications]] about the duties of a Watcher.
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== Literature ==
* In [[The Dresden Files (Literature)|Ghost Story]], Harry is this. {{spoiler|Because he's "dead". But he gets better.}}
* In the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'', Richard has one of these in the finale arc. It's just one of the countless call-backs to the first books.
 
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** [[Superman]] in ''Hereafter,'' as he lands in a [[Earth All Along|world with a red sun.]]
** [[Green Lantern]] in ''The Savage Time.'' His ring runs out, there's no battery around, he becomes a rugged infantryman. To be fair, John is a [[Semper Fi|US Marine]] veteran as well, so this is not exactly new.
* One episode of ''[[Superman: The Animated Series (Animation)|Superman the Animated Series]]'' involved [[Canon Foreigner]] Luminus filtering out all but red sunlight from Metropolis. He proceeded to taunt, harass and play with Superman, knowing he was rapidly losing his strength. Oh, and he also mastered [[Hard Light]] by this episode, trapping Superman in a Western setting, Pirate setting and trying to run him over with a train. Superman manages to overcome this with good timing and playing off of Luminus's arrogance (seriously, [[Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him]]?) until he can destroy the filtering device.
* Ginormica in ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'' after Gallaxhar strips her (no, [[Double Entendre|not that]]) of her [[Applied Phlebotinum]].
* In the "Day of Black Sun" arc of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', the [[Playing Withwith Fire|firebenders]] lost all their powers. Princess Azula, being a very nimble individual, was still very effective. And having those Dai Li Earthbenders helped.
** Her brother Zuko takes advantage the power loss to initiate his rebellion against their father, the Fire Lord. The Fire Lord, [[Authority Equals Asskicking|as is to be expected]], is normally more powerful than Zuko, but he's no good at fighting ''without'' his powers. Zuko, on the other hand, is a [[Dual-Wielding|master swordsman.]]
** In the third season, Zuko experiences a hefty power loss once he begins to train Aang and figures out that his letting go of his anger and [["Well Done, Son" Guy]] tendencies (and the frustration that brought him) has prevented him from using the [[The Dark Side]] version of Firebending the Fire Nation believes in. After a "life-changing field trip" with Aang he learns the "pure" form of Firebending and gets a dramatic enough increase in his abilities to successfully fight Azula one on one in the finale. Until she cheats, anyway.
* The [[Sonic Sat AM (Animation)|Sonic Sat AM]] episode ''Super Sonic'' involved Sonic losing his speed and saving the day without it.
* Disney's version of [[Hercules (Disney film)|Hercules]]. He killed a Cyclops without his [[Super Strength]].
* An episode of ''[[Batman Beyond (Animation)|Batman Beyond]]'' featured Terry not only losing his technologically advanced batsuit, but having to face off ''against'' it when it's taken over by a [[AI Is a Crapshoot|rogue A.I.]]
** He even lampshades the moment as defining character growth for himself, admitting to Bruce before the showdown that he needed to know whether he really had what it takes to be Batman personally, or if it was just the powers the suit gave him that made him a hero.
* In ''[[The Longest Journey]]'', April Ryan is able to slip between the worlds whenever she is threatened. By the time of ''[[Dreamfall]]'', she has lost that power (due to fear, ironically) and had to become good at fighting to compensate. She partially gets her powers back, but not enough to use them reliably.
* After ''[[Danny Phantom (Animation)|Danny Phantom]]'' willingly gets rid of his powers [[I Just Want to Be Normal|to have a normal life again]] [[Always Need What You Gave Up|just when a giant asteroid threatens to smash the planet]], he manages to come up with a way to save the world as well as comes up with a means to do it. Aside from that, he shows just how badass he can be without his powers, right before he gets them back.
* Parodied, played with, subverted, and played STRAIGHT to Hell and back with [[Captain Atom]] in ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' episode "Powerless".
 
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