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{{trope}}
{{cleanup|The examples section is too long. If you find an example discussing only one of the powers listed here, move it to the examples section of that power's corresponding page, if it isn't there already.}}
[[File:Required Secondary Powers 1502.jpg|frame|link=League Of Super Redundant Heroes|"You’re only as strong as the surface you’re standing on."]]
{{quote|
|'''Lore Sjöberg'''|''The Book of Ratings'', "[http://web.archive.org/web/20100810180456/http://www.bookofratings.com/superpowersrating.html Superman's Powers]"}}
Okay, so you've got [[Differently-Powered Individual|one of those people]] who's got a "[[Stock Super Powers|Special Power]]". But even if you supposedly only have the one ability, if you're going to actually ''use'' it for anything, [[Fridge Logic]] demands that you have myriad other passive powers in order to make it work the way it usually does. This is sometimes directly referred to and explained, and sometimes not.
Most portrayed uses of super-powers have [[No Conservation of Energy]]; whether strength, speed, energy blasts, etc., supers tend to use ''far'' more energy than the human body actually contains, let alone can spare and still live. To use any physical power at anything above a moderate level (think [[Buffy]], not [[Incredible Hulk|Hulk]]), there needs to be not only access to some source of energy ([[Another Dimension]] being the common [[Hand Wave]]), but also some means of channeling it through the body's fragile systems safely. Otherwise your characters will be limited to only-slightly-greater-abilities-than-the-best-humans superheroics.
Related to [[Fan Wank]], this encompasses all of the powers that aren't explicitly stated that would make a power function like it does in the work in question. Often, these powers would be useless outside of allowing the main power to work, but some could have use beyond that.
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This only covers if the power in question is not explicitly defined. While Cyclops from the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' doesn't hurt his own eyelids with his [[Eye Beams]] every time he shuts his eyes, this is defined as an explicit ability of his (and his brother).
'''[[Super Strength]]'''
::''Read more at [[Super Strength/Analysis]]''
To use super strength effectively also requires the ability to strengthen objects by touching them (Unless the object is made of some advanced material, of course). Otherwise, holding up (for example) an airplane with one hand would simply result in a hand-shaped hole in the still-plummeting airplane. This was addressed in the second episode of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', as the characters discuss a scene from the original Christopher Reeve ''[[Superman]]'' movie:
{{quote|
'''[[Nigh Invulnerability]]'''
Other than folks who fall under the [[Made of Air]] version of this trope, these characters also frequently exhibit the ability to anchor themselves. Even if they don't take damage from a heavy blow, it should still send them flying if they can't diffuse that much force. This one is more frequently subverted, with characters who resist damage but get knocked around quite easily, which makes for good [[No One Could Survive That]] moments. If they have superstrength, [[Justified Trope|they could conceivably be bracing themselves for the blow]], but those invulnerable characters ''without'' super-strength have no such excuse; this only works up to a point, however, as no amount of strength can defy the laws of motion. Strike someone with enough force, and they ''will'' move. ([[Superman]] and [[Flying Brick|others of his ilk]] get a pass again because they can hold themselves in place with their flying powers.) Also, see the page opener quote for more downsides. Again, may be excused if the invulnerability in question is essentially due to [[Inertial Dampening]].
'''[[Healing Factor]]'''
::''Read more at [[Healing Factor/Analysis]]''
Any character with a healing factor presumably also requires superhuman pain tolerance, to avoid falling unconscious from the crippling pain and then waking up ten minutes later good as new. Still would be useful, but not so much in a combat situation (where being unconscious makes you useless at best, and makes you a liability or opens you up to a [[Coup De Grace]] at worst.)
More importantly, they'd burn up a lot of energy accelerating the healing process that fast, and so would need super-stamina and more efficient internal energy use than normal (or an [[No Conservation of Energy|alternate energy source]]) or their own power could kill them by draining their body's resources too fast.
Finally, bodies with Healing Factor may heal things that are wrong with you body as they were. [[Deadpool]] gives us a pretty bad look at what happens when your [[Body Horror|healing factor heals cancerous cells]] or brain abnormalities as if they were normal healthy cells.
'''[[Super Speed]]'''
::''Read more at [[Super Speed/Analysis]]''
These characters are somehow immune to the effects of friction - specifically, the chafing that would naturally occur from using extremely rapid speed for extended periods of time, especially while wearing spandex. And they face a problem the other direction, of having too little friction. Feet coming down at superspeed would presumably have super impact, and push them off the ground and at least a few feet in the air. Even once that's explained, someone going at superspeed over the slightest hill, or up stairs, or just random dips in the ground, would lose contact with the ground, they would keep going in the 'same direction' as before, into the air.
They would also need some type of super-concentration. Given that they must have some form of [[Super Reflexes]] so they can react normally to things at super-speed, they should perceive normal speed to be horrifyingly slow. Imagine trying to hold a conversation with people who take several hours to speak a single word. Similarly, if a speedster does something like typing millions of password combinations into a computer, he must somehow avoid getting bored after the first few hundred.
'''[[Flight]]'''
::''Read more at [[Flight/Analysis]]''
Other than those with obvious mechanical assistance (either [[Winged Humanoid|wings]] or rockets), flying characters possess the ability to propel themselves through no effort of their own. This might be due to some inherent [[Mind Over Matter|telekinetic]] ability, or perhaps it might be due to the ability to manipulate their own personal gravity. [[Winged Humanoid|Winged flyers]] don't have it much better; they need some way to offset the [[Square-Cube Law|mass and awkward shape]] of the human body, whether it be super-powerful wing muscles (and more importantly very large wing surface area, about that of a hang glider would do), a bird-like hollow bone structure (which would only save a few pounds for something with the body mass of a human - some engineering doesn't scale up well, as the ostrich can attest), or perhaps even a method of non-powered flight or levitation that is merely augmented by the wings (or some combination of the three).
'''[[Shapeshifting]]'''
::''Read more at [[Shapeshifting/Analysis]]''
Characters that shift into other objects also have the ability to ignore how said objects would ordinarily hurt people. For example, someone who could become living flame is also immune to being burned (either by their own flame or that of others). Someone who can turn into water often gains the ability to breathe in water (or has no need to breathe at all).
There's also the issue of surviving while transforming and in the transformed state (altering one's body structure even a little is usually fatal in the real world, let alone having your flesh turned into another substance or turning into something with no internal organs) and keeping the ability to shape shift rather than transforming into something cursed with permanent [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock]]... This one could fill a page on its own.
'''[[Rubber Man]]'''
Flexing yourself into cartoonish shapes would be great fun, provided you were strong enough to support yourself enough to stand up. There's also the issue of organs and blood. Aside from the obvious repercussions of flattening yourself against a wall, the human heart isn't designed to pump blood into an arm that just grew one hundred feet. [[My Suit Is Also Super|This power would also have to extend to their clothes]], otherwise it'd be very uncomfortable (or publicly embarrassing).
'''[[Time Stands Still|Time Freezing]]'''
::''Read more at [[Time Stands Still/Analysis]]''
Those that stop time should be blinded. If time were stopped, everything else stops too, including light. And air, which would hold them in place because the air they displace when they move can't get out of the way. In fact, those that stop time should be frozen along with everything else by the mere nature of the ability.
One explanation for this is a Time Bubble, where the character stays in bubble of sped up time, thus avoiding many of the problems that speedsters would face (and the bubble must move with you or you're stuck in one spot). Of course, while this solves some of the problems, it merely displaces others; for example, you'd still be unable to see outside the bubble.
'''[[Time Travel]]'''
::''Read more at [[Time Travel/Analysis]]''
Most time-traveling heroes have the benefit of being immune to [[Temporal Paradox]] and the physical effects of [[The Time Traveller's Dilemma]]. Even if they do accidentally erase their own parents from history or create an even worse [[Crapsack World]] by [[Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act|killing Hitler only to have someone worse take over]], the hero will remain unchanged and still be capable of trying to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]].
There's also the problem of traveling ''only'' through time and ending up floating in space because [[Time and Relative Dimensions In Space|surprise, surprise, planets, star systems, and even galaxies happen to move around]]. Most time travel stories will completely ignore this problem, but some have the heroes teleport to a different place on Earth relative to their starting point, which [[Traveling At the Speed of Plot|just happens to be the perfect spot to set the plot rolling]].
There is also the issue of traveling too long. If you're gone for six years, you can't come home on the day you left and expect that nobody notices that you're six years older (you can always tell them you [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|went to California to have your face lowered]]).
'''[[Deflector Shields|Force Fields]]'''
::''Read more at [[Deflector Shields/Analysis]]''
Force fields are often air-permeable, which not only allows people to speak and listen through the field, but it also allows oxygen to filter in through the force field and thus allow breathing. However when a force field is used to keep water out while underwater, the force field often appears to have the power to actually extract breathable oxygen from the water around it and remove carbon dioxide from within it.
Similarly, they are usually invisible (or at least translucent) until [[Some Kind of Force Field|something pushes against them]], which means they let at least one wavelength of light (if not the whole spectrum) pass through unimpeded while still keeping lasers or any other emission that the force field's generator considers "harmful" outside.
'''[[Invisibility]]'''
::''Read more at [[Invisibility/Analysis]]''
Applies not just to you, but to things you are carrying, or wearing. Any dirt on you becomes invisible, and either you get clothes made of some [[My Suit Is Also Super|suitable material]], or provide some [[Fan Service]]. Also, your light distortion fits that of your surroundings, and food remains invisible through the digestive process.
Also, to work properly an eye normally must at least have a lens bending the light (thus being visible at least as glass-like objects), pigments in sensitive cells absorbing the light (as opposed to passing right through just like, say, x-rays) and something preventing the retina from blanket exposure by light not focused with the lens, that is, blocking all the rays not coming in via the pupil, including those from ''behind'' the retina. Oh, wait, doesn't that add up to almost a complete eyeball?
'''[[Intangible Man|Intangibility]]'''
::''Read more at [[Intangible Man/Analysis]]''
You are immune to gravity or gain some kind of buoyancy, hence not plummeting through the ground. You also gain some self locomotion, so as not to worry about friction, (though many intangibles can float or [[Not Quite Flight|explicitly fly]]). You can still interact with air normally allowing you to breathe (if you need to breathe), hear and speak.
Furthermore, an [[Intangible Man]] is still anchored relative to the Earth. Remembering that Earth whizzes around the Sun at a frankly irresponsible speed, anyone who can walk-through-anything should find themselves suspended in space a few seconds after their powers manifest, [[Nightmare Fuel|watching the Earth slowly but surely arcing away from them...]]
Alternatively, you remain affected by gravity but your intangibility makes an inexplicable exception with the ground so you can just walk on it normally instead of falling through.
'''[[Super Senses]]'''
Clearly, a lot of potential downsides to this one. The ability to selectively screen your input is an absolute necessity unless you want your hero to be called "Captain Migraine", "The Squinter" or "Curled-Up-In-The-Fetal-Position-On-The-Floor-Man," and let's not even go over issues with sensitivity in the nether regions. Likewise, being able to [[X-Ray Vision|see through things]] is only good if you can also see the ''outsides'' of them when necessary.
Heroes with this power also seem to automatically gain the skills needed to properly interpret the new sensory input. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150322235506/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/man-blind-for-40-years-tells-of-struggle-to-adapt-537009.html In reality] people tend to struggle when they suddenly gain a new sense, and it can take years to adjust to it.
'''[[Immortality]]/[[The Ageless|Agelessness]] in its various forms'''
::''Read more at [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]] and [[Immortality/Analysis]]''
As an immortal, you are in some way exempt from being tied to the normal mortal coil. You're either fully immortal, reincarnated immortal, or ageless but vulnerable. The latter type requires a lot of intelligence and careful planning if you don't want to be discovered. You should ideally have a lot of resources financially, and certain contacts, like people who can change your identity. Also it helps to be VERY mentally resilient, because [[We Are as Mayflies]] and so forth. There's an [[Age Without Youth|eternal life that does not include eternal youth]], leaving you in worse shape every year but knowing that your condition has nowhere to go but down.
'''[[Teleporters and Transporters|Teleportation]]'''
::''Read more at [[Teleporters and Transporters/Analysis]]''
Teleportation-users would need to have some way of extending their teleportation to their clothes and items if they do not wish to reach their destination naked. Clothes are one thing but dental fillings, bone pins, pacemakers, etc would be unpleasant to suddenly be without. Ignoring the ludicrousness of trying to extend quantum-scale barrier tunneling to the classical scale (assuming that's how matter teleportation works in your particular [[The Verse|'Verse]], or that the [[Real Life]] rules of quantum physics even apply at all), such motion usually needs large amounts of energy as well.
'''[[An Ice Person|Cryokinesis]]/[[Playing with Fire|Pyrokinesis]]'''
By the same token, psychic powers may theoretically be turning mental energy into other types of energy. Not that that makes any more sense...
'''[[Shock and Awe|Lightning]]'''
::''Read more at [[Shock and Awe/Analysis]]''
Electricity has a tendency to take not only the path of least resistance, but to a lesser degree all other possible paths as well. Hitting your target without inundating everything around it with current would require a great deal of setup, meticulous planning, prior knowledge of electrodynamics, and the resulting hours of linear algebra to ensure that all other available paths are sufficiently resistive enough not to cause collateral damage. Here's hoping you're ''really'' [[Good with Numbers]].
Lightning generates a lot of heat even in a quick flash, enough to fuse surrounding soil into glass. Sustained arcs are terrifyingly hot. Unless you want to melt your own flesh to gory slag, you had best pick up a fireproof perk as well. Even then, you'll want to turn off the juice before you kill everyone in the room via heat exhaustion. Lightning is also extremely bright, as anyone who's used an arc welder can tell you. Unless you want to reduce your retinas to gory slag, this is another good part to reinforce.
'''[[Make Me Wanna Shout|Sonic Powers]]'''
'''[[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|Size Changing]]'''
::''Read more at [[Square-Cube Law]] and [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever/Analysis]]''
The ability to shift one's size would require the following abilities:
* Control over one's mass and density so that one does not blow away or sink into the earth (due to the shift in surface area and pressure).
* [[Super Strength]] to be able to support the increased weight, as well as the increase in pressure on the body.
* Control over one's internal body temperature to avoid freezing to death at small sizes, or dying of heatstroke at large sizes.
* Control over the performance of your vital organs to accommodate your body.
----
...
All these tropes are especially good targets for subversion or aversion, because the absence or malfunction of a superhero's
'''Warning: Exploration of this Trope may result in brain breakage.''' But you [[My Brain Is Big|probably have]] [[Super Intelligence|something to]] [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|counter that]],
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Momo from ''[[My Hero Academia]]'' quirk (super power) requires her to know the atomic structure of the objects she is making. If she wasn't a genius, she'd probably be able to only make rather simple substances. Even so she still needs to study. But it is easy to think about how much less useful her power would be in the hands of someone less smart (there are quirks that steal or copy other quirks). Momo can make painted ''wooden'' Russian nesting dolls!
* Pointed out by the author in the manga version of ''[[Ghost in
** To clarify, the manga points out that if someone were to get, for example, his arm replaced with a prosthetic, his biological body would still be subject to the strain of muscle fibers tearing where the arm is connected if they lift too much weight. Full-body prosthetics on the other hand, have theoretically limitless strength (since it's now all a matter of technology), enabling them to jump huge distances (like how [[The Incredible Hulk]] does) and survive the impact of the landing (albiet the ground will take damage.)
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' acknowledges some of the
** Alphonse, as a [[Soul Jar|soul inhabiting a suit of metal armor]], has the advantages of [[Nigh Invulnerability]], but also the drawbacks. His great weight serves to anchor him, but also hinders him. He is unable to eat or sleep... but also has no need to. He cannot feel pain... [[Blessed
*** The speaking part is actually lampshaded a bit, in that Al's voice has not changed since the incident. In the anime movie ''Conqueror of Shamballa, {{spoiler|where Al has gotten his body back, and grown up to the age he was in the series, his voice is deeper. Oddly, when he gets his soul temporarily shifted to an identical suit of armor on Earth, he sounds like a nine-year-old again.}}
*** The manga does explain why he can still remember things without a brain {{spoiler|his soul is still "connected" to his body and mind which is on the other side of the Gate (and still aging).}}
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**** Similarly, when Barry the Chopper's armor is destroyed, the piece with the blood seal on it can still talk, hear, see, and move (he can't move a lot, but he can move), but the rest of the armor can't.
*** Although, it is shown that somebody in Al's situation will feel it if you touch the blood seal. At one point in the anime, Lust scratches Al's blood seal and he seemed to be in pain.
** Alchemy outwardly seems to change objects from one state to another, but the process is basically breaking things down and rebuilding them, not outright changing them as-is. This is why Scar can only destroy things with his "alchemy": He does not know how to rebuild things once he "breaks them down".
* Brook from ''[[One Piece]]'' is basically ''made'' out of these. In life, he ate a fruit that allowed him to return to life once after he died, aside from this he only had the powers of a human. When he died, the ship he was on was in a dense fog and it took him a year for his soul to locate his body and revive. Because of the time, his body decomposed until all that was left was a skeleton with an afro ([[It Runs
** It turns out that all of his secondary powers are a result of a special energy given off by his soul. Post [[Time Skip]] he's learned to channel this energy for [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|all sorts of supernatural effects]], from [[Astral Projection]] to [[Mass Hypnosis]] to a ''[[An Ice Person|weaponized]]'' [[Ghostly Chill]].
** Luffy can bleed so much without dying because one of his secondary powers is a circulatory system that can make extra blood instantaneously to pump into his stretched out limbs. In fact, his rubberized organs, bones, and indeed every single vital part of his anatomy is the only reason he is able to withstand the stresses inherent in his Gear Second [[Super Mode]]. According to Rob Lucci, if anyone but Luffy were to use something like Gear Second, their heart would ''explode''.
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* In ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', the weakest member of the Ginyu Force has the power to [[Time Stands Still|stop time]]. However, he can't maintain it indefinitely and can only do so for as long as he can hold his breath and maintains the proper concentration. Considering how out of shape he is, this isn't long.
** [[Fridge Logic]] dictates this is why Oozaru form increases a Saiyan's strength and chi ten-fold. Growing to giant proportions allows them to access additional strength and chi, which would be needed to prevent their body collapsing under its own weight.
** Many characters of [[
* The manga series ''[[Cannon God Exaxxion]]'' goes into some considerable detail about what a 500+ ft. [[Humongous Mecha]] would need to be able to move around. The mechs use [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]] gravity/inertial control devices to prevent them from collapsing under their own weight & allow their limbs to move at a reasonable speed, instead of feet they have invisible forcefields to distribute their weight to prevent them from crashing through the ground, because having actual feet big enough to accomplish this herculean task would look insanely silly (the fields are described as "invisible snowshoes" at one point), although at least that way bystanders would see them coming rather than being crushed underfoot by a robot that appears to be safely dozens of feet away. Aside from this, they're otherwise portrayed realistically & thus cause massive property damage to anything they get anywhere near simply by walking around.
* ''[[Darker than Black]]'' plays with this all the time:
** One of the Contractors in can teleport with "passengers", but cannot transport non-living matter... [[Innocent Fanservice Girl|it's not much of an issue]] when teleporting ''away'', but as [[Naked on Arrival]], she tend to stand out. And she cannot steal any [[MacGuffin|inanimate objects]].
** With Hei's electric powers, most of the issues listed above are addressed simply by requiring something to conduct electricity. Plus, that's the only way he can control the path at all; shocking someone through a puddle of water on the road also blew out a nearby streetlight, for example. {{spoiler|The finale addresses the manipulate electrons = manipulate matter issue, too. Turns out that [[Eldritch Location|in the right place]], BK-201 is an outright [[Reality Warper]]}}.
*** There's also an episode where Hei faces down another Contractor with [[Shock and Awe|powers like his]]. When they grab each other, they form a complete circuit, knocking each other back but not producing a lethal shock.
** In ''Darker Than Black: Shikkoku no Hana'' Hei tested the idea that a Contractor who can disintegrate matter does something close enough to negate with his electron control, as he tried to go hand-to-hand with a guy who disperses bullets so fast they can't harm him. {{spoiler|He's kind of right. They both even survived it. But it ''was'' nasty.}}
* Nancy Makuhari (a.k.a. "Miss Deep") of ''[[Read or Die]]'' possesses the power of [[Intangible Man|intangibility]], but is unable to breathe while using her powers, as air passes through her lungs while she is intangible. This presents the very real danger of drowning while using her powers underwater.
* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', Rolo the [[Tyke Bomb]] is a subversion because he doesn't stop time, he puts your brain ({{spoiler|and his own heart}}) on pause so you ''think'' he stopped time.
* This is referenced in ''[[Psycho Busters]]'' when lead Kakeru wonders whether [[Playing with Fire|Kaito]] ever gets burned by his own flames. He then answers himself saying "Nah! He must have the impervious-to-fire power!". Kakeru later sees Kaito turning down a coffee saying his tongue is sensitive to heat.
* Accelerator in ''[[A Certain Magical Index]]'' has a rather interesting required secondary power: [[Good with Numbers|mathematics]] and spatial relations. Yes, without them he could probably deflect anything anyone sent at him, but he couldn't really aim. Vector control requires him to be able to figure out what to actually do to get the result he wants. {{spoiler|Post [[Heel Face Turn]] he's [[Good Is Dumb|notably weaker]] because of some brain damage}}.
** In fact, it's mentioned that most powers, if not all, are based on this, revealing the reason why the ability users have to study extensively to be able to get more powerful.
** Some of the others are brought up in the ''[[
** Shizuri Mugino, the Meltdowner, can fire laser beams and create energy constructs like shields, but is not immune to them, leading to
* According the the backstory of ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'', [[Transforming Mecha]] are only possible, or at least practical, due to a revolutionary variable-friction magnetic coating on their joints that was first used by the original RX-78 series Gundams. This allows them to change in a snap. Without it, their joints would either be too rigid & their [[Transformation Sequence]] would take hours, or else their limbs & other moving parts would constantly be flopping around & falling out from under them.
* Similar to the above, the various signature [[Transforming Mecha]] of ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' and its sequels employ 'Energy Conversion Armor' which uses metals and technologies reverse engineered from the eponymous Macross itself (termed 'Overtechnology'). This armor can absorb energy and use that energy to reinforce it's own structural integrity. According to the various supplementary materials of the series, this is what the energy output of the Reaction Engines is used for when not being 100% committed to thrust. Thus when in Battroid (giant robot) mode, standing on the ground, with 0 thrust, 100% of the engine output is going towards telling the [[Square-Cube Law]] to take a hike.
* In ''[[Naruto]]'' the Fourth Hokage's "Flying Thunder God" technique lets him teleport to within a certain distance of a [[Hermetic Magic|seal]] which he puts on weapons and enemies, thus avoiding [[Tele Frag
** It's stated that the [[Super Speed]] charge the [[Shock and Awe|
*** The sharingan itself has a similar problem, it grants the user superhuman perception but not superhuman agility. Sometimes a sharingan user can predict an attack and see exactly where it's coming from, but if their body can't keep up with their opponent they still won't be able to dodge/block in time.
** Another example is Naruto's Rasenshuriken jutsu. At first his own arm would get busted up due to recoil damage, since it's a Rasengan-based technique and sits on the palm of his hand. After he gained [[Super Mode|Sage mode]], the enhanced chakra gave Naruto the extra powers he needed to be able to throw the damn thing.
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** [[All There in the Manual|The databooks]] state that the [[Dishing Out Dirt|Earth]] technique to [[Tunnel King|burrow underground]] has the user act as a human compass to keep track of their location and sense what's above so they know where to attack when coming up.
** Mabui's ability to move a target from one location to another at the speed of light is largely limited to inanimate objects. For a living being to survive, they either need advanced self-healing, like Tsunade, or to be [[Made of Iron]], like the Raikages.
* In ''[[Claymore]]'', when {{spoiler|Clare awakens}} while fighting Rigaldo, she cannot control her speed and winds up running into more than a couple buildings.
** Those Claymores who are known by the Organization to have shape-altering abilities are issued special uniforms that can stretch to accommodate the changes.
* ''[[Durarara!!]]'''s Shizuo acquired [[Super Strength]] pretty early on in life, but not the physical resistance that usually goes with it. The end result was that he spent as much time tossing cars as he did in the hospital from the resulting fractures until around high school.
* Liaoyuan Huo of ''[[Ravages of Time]]'' seems to have a [[Healing Factor]] as a required secondary power, because being [[Nigh Invulnerable]] as a result of not being able to feel pain is a pretty terrible "superpower" in real life; just ask any person with leprosy: they can't tell if they've been injured and lose limbs to infection.
* Subverted with Zelgadiss in ''[[The Slayers]]'', a human/demon/rock golem chimera whose [[Nigh Invulnerable|Nigh Invulnerability]] comes from him having skin made of ''stone'' (and hair that resembles steel wire.) Due to his "monstruous" (in his opinion) appearance, he's willing to lose his supernatural powers as long as he can become fully human again.
* The various physical laws that ''[[Digimon]]'' break (size-shifting, thermodynamics, etc.) can be explained by the fact that their world is a big computer program. How they do it in the ''real'' world, however...
* It is assumed that the superstrength of the vampires in ''[[Hellsing]]'' comes with a limited form of telekinesis to deal with recoil. It's the only way that Seras could fire a gun that weighs three times as much as she does on full auto without bracing against anything without going flying.
* The fact that one enemy's force field was ''not'' air-permeable was the key to her defeat in ''[[Dragon Half]]''. Mink breathed fire at her until all the air in the bubble ran out.
* Being omnipotent without the omniscience to deduce how your changes will play out is a significant plot point in ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]''.
* Chirico from ''[[Armored Trooper VOTOMS]]'' has a powerful [[Healing Factor]] but still feels pain the way a normal person would. As he result he has serious psychological problems due to suffering through the agony of countless things that should have killed him, like being cut into pieces or burned alive with high octane fuel.
* In ''[[
* Several of the heroes in ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]''. The strong, and/or fast ones (Kotetsu, Barnaby, Antonio) are durable enough to use those skills without injuring themselves. [[An Ice Person|Karina]] and [[Playing
* In ''[[High School
* It's eventually explained that the whole reason [[Squid Girl]] can pick up people and other heavy objects with her tentacles without losing her balance is that she can alter her weight with her bracelets, becoming heavy enough to anchor herself.
* At first one might think that the armors in Saint Seiya protect the users from the oponents attacks, in fact the armor's main function is to protect the user's body from his own powers since a normal human body isn't able to resist such ammounts of power, of course [[Fridge Logic]] kicks in most fights since more often than not the characters end up half-naked.
== Comic Books ==
* Implicitly [[Deconstruction|acknowledged]] with the [[Marvel Comics]] "Decimation" arc, where several mutants keep their primary powers but lose the secondaries. Mutants with fire abilities are no longer immune to their own flames and incinerate themselves, a dragon-like mutant falls out of the sky because his mass can't stay airborne under normal physics even with the wings, a fishlike mutant drowns because his gills can't extract enough oxygen from the water to support a human body, and so forth.
* After ''[[Crisis
* [[The Flash]]'s powers are an all inclusive package called [[A Wizard Did It|the Speed Force]] but parts of it come and go for the purposes of a given story. For example, his seeming ability to slow down his required super-perception has been pointed out a few times. In the ''[[Justice League]]'' episode "Only a Dream", for instance, the villain Doctor Destiny tormented superheroes with various nightmares; the Flash dreamt that he was unable to slow down, and perceived everything around him as motionless. The idea of a Flash unable to slow down his perception was also eloquently expanded upon by Jim's Big Ego in [http://www.bigego.com/index.php?page=video&category=02--Video_Remixes&display=863 this song].
** [[Alternate Company Equivalent]] ''[[Quicksilver]]'' explicitly ''doesn't'' have this: while he can slow down his perception as he speeds up, his default is still faster than human normal. It's described as the reason that he's so cranky: everyone else is moving at a snail's pace.
** Flash doesn't always have this ability. In one comic he spent a subjective week watching a movie with his wife.
*** This would be really painful, given that persistence of vision wouldn't work, and so you wouldn't even be able to perceive the motion in the movie properly. It would be like watching a slideshow of someone's vacation pictures.
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* In one of the Impulse comics where he's fighting against his evil twin/arch rival, the narration [[Lampshade Hanging|goes into a loving description of all the Required Secondary Powers that speedsters must apply to keep from destroying the landscape everywhere they go.]] Of course, the evil twin in question is taking no such precautions, so their super-sonic battle is marked by a trail of broke pavement, shattered buildings, and general total devastation.
* In one of the ''[[Superman]]'' annuals (as part of the "Legends of the Dead Earth" motif), there was a team of heroes, each of which having one of Superman's powers, but the powers were either [[Power Incontinence|stuck "on"]] or coupled with potentially-hazardous side effects, even when those were powers granted by a "supersuit" rather than bio-modification. The speedster's suit had to keep her blood sugar levels up and the super-breath guy's collar worked both ways, so he could have ruptured his lungs if he breathed in too suddenly. Of the bio-modified heroes the super-strong one couldn't even feed himself because he would crush the spoon and the food, the X-ray eyes hero saw everything in X-ray eyes and had to wear special lead glasses, the flier had to be tethered to something because if he wasn't deliberately moving towards something he could drift away, the heat-vision guy had to discharge the energy from his eyes every so often to prevent a fatal buildup, and the invulnerable one had no sense of touch.
* [[Chris Claremont]] usually averted this, giving the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] their
** Also, though it may not have had anything to do with Claremont's work, some of Wolverine's secondary "powers" have been indicated: When Rogue got a full taste of his [[Super Senses]] she was overwhelmed by the sensory input (and in intense pain, as the tactile sense was in overload as well; his use of meditation apparently helps him deal with it, along with constant exposure to mild-to-excessive pain giving him a very high threshold for pain, and it may also explain why he always seems to be in a bad mood and how, though he can survive it, he doesn't collapse from pain whenever he takes a few hundred rounds to the chest and face). The problem of why the backs of his hands, where the claws come out, don't each have three holes is explained by his claws actually punching a hole through his flesh every time he extends them, at which point his [[Healing Factor]] closes the wounds before he bleeds all over the place. Just where all the [[Shapeshifter Baggage|mass of his body comes from]] when he heals from [[Good Thing You Can Heal|massive injury]] (for instance, ''[[From a Single Cell|all of his organs and flesh tissue, aside from his brain and skeleton]]'', more than once), however, is completely ignored. As is why his bones don't fall apart when everything that's not bonded with [[Unobtainium|adamantium]] is completely destroyed. He does tend (recently, anyway) to wind up [[Scenery Censor|naked]] when that happens, though, at least.
*** It isn't COMPLETELY ignored actually...it probably wasn't Claremont's, but there was a short arc in which Logan, while travelling through a desert, catches and eats raw a crow (he feigned fainting to let the birds approach) after a hallucination he was having (long story) reminded him that his healing factor needed proteins in order to regenerate tissues. For regeneration of far more severe injuries, another explanation has been given in a more recent comic: Logan had...ahem...defeated the Angel of Death in a duel (he didn't know who the guy was though) and had since then been granted a sort of "immortality" (his healing factor was able to heal him from ANY injury). At the end of the arc, Logan had his "pact" with the Angel canceled and was informed that, from that moment on, his healing factor was going to be far less effective.
*** He's got to have superhuman strength (or close to it) to be able to be agile at all while carrying around a skeleton that weighs around a hundred pounds, [[Depending
*** One description of his healing factor indicates that he has unlimited stamina - due to constant regeneration, his muscles never tire from overuse. Thus Wolverine is granted a degree of superhuman strength from constantly training and fighting with 100 extra pounds of adamantium to haul around. Also, human muscle is much stronger than one might think, but using it to its full potential would result in muscle damage and liquefaction. Wolverine's healing factor means he can use his maximum theoretical strength all the time. Combined with unbreakable bones, this means Wolverine can also lift objects much heavier which a normal human otherwise could with their own muscle strength at peak athletic levels, but cannot in reality due to their bones snapping from the pressure.
*** Wolverine's healing factor even extends to his ''mind''. As stated in the trope description, super healing doesn't account for a mind being overloaded with pain. Wolverine's healing factor, however, compensates for this by cutting out the most traumatizing memories (both emotionally and physically). This can be interpreted as meaning that the reason Wolverine is able to withstand such devastating injuries because his brain cuts out all trace of the trauma, much the way the brain in [[Real Life]] averts [[Dizzy Cam]] by inducing temporarily blindness whenever the eyes move.
** Banshee's hearing is extremely powerful. According to him, with powers like his ([[Make Me Wanna Shout|sonic powers]]), the alternative would be being deaf.
* After the 1986 revamp, [[
** This was tacitly acknowledged to be true when he was cloned, resulting in Superboy. Superboy's ''only'' power was tactile telekinesis, which he used to "fake" stuff like flight, invulnerability, and super strength, until [[Retcon|eventually]] his Kryptonian genetics kicked in and he got them for real.
** Superman's heat vision started out as a seeming Required Secondary Power of his X-ray vision. It was originally assumed that his X-ray vision worked by projecting X-rays and that he could focus this to generate heat. Now it seems that they are separate powers and his X-ray vision works by attuning his eyes to perceive X-rays (this in turn was extended to allow him to see an increasingly broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum).
** John Byrne, who revamped Superman, had previously used the explanation for Gladiator over at Marvel, who was a Superman-[[Captain Ersatz|ersatz]] from the Imperial Guard, themselves an [[Alternate Company Equivalent]] of the [[Legion of Super-Heroes]]. In Gladiator's case his power level is explicitly affected by his state of
** This was parodied in ''[[Wild Cards]]'' by Golden Boy, who when rounding up Nazi war criminals attempted to do things like stop cars, bend tank turrets into knots or lift a tank up by the turret, but invariably the gun barrel would rip off or he wouldn't have the leverage, and cars just sent him flying. Eventually, he gave up and resumed just knocking them over or tearing them apart from below.
** The "using-telekinesis-to-fake-strength" power is common enough in the [[Whateley Universe]] to have a name, "TK Brick". Hank (aka Lancer), one of the main characters, is one.
** In one Silver Age story, a villain removes Superman's powers one at a time. At one point, he is about to land, but loses his strength at that very moment, and as a result plows into the ground (he was still invulnerable). He points out that even though he still has the ability to fly, he needs the super-strength to coordinate his flying and landing.
* ''[[Ultimate Fantastic Four]]'':
** Ultimate Sue Storm [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] the impossibility of her powers, pointing out that there's no conceivable reason why she should be able to see things while invisible. Luckily, she's a bio-geneticist and thinks the mystery is fascinating.
** Even in Marvel Classic, Sue's [[Force Field]] isn't permeable to air, and the limited air supply is used both offensively and as a limitation when she's using it for protection. Like nearly everything, this is [[Depending on the Writer]].
** Sue's invisibility is explained in the Main [[Marvel Universe]]. She extends a a light-bending field around herself and her immediate area, which is what renders her body and clothing invisible, and she can extend this to other people or objects if she wishes. As for her vision, remember that she can see other things that are invisible - whether it's under her power or not. Her eyes can percieve wavelengths of light that normal humans can't, and it's through these wavelengths that she can see while invisible. Again, [[Depending on the Writer]].
*** Warren Ellis pointed this out in ''[[Planetary]]'' with Kim Suskind, the [[Captain Ersatz|evil version of Sue Storm]]. She has to wear [[Goggles Do Something Unusual|special goggles]] directly wired into her nervous system whenever she turns invisible. Without them, she's blind. Presumably the goggles interact with nonvisible radiation - UV or infrared - while still magically being totally transparent to visible wavelengths.
** When [[Stan Lee|Stan the Man]] created her, he might have remembered that Marvel had already done [http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/konakkarlostta.htm this] story in ''Tales To Astonish'' earlier the same year, [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] this problem with invisibility. Maybe if he had we wouldn't have all these [[Flame War
*** In fact, the original letter that detailed the Fantastic Four and their powers was reprinted some years back in a special issue. Sue's eyesight is not mentioned, but she was permanently invisible and unable to make anything else invisible, [[Invisible Streaker|even clothes]]. This was nixed because [[Fan Service|Sue taking off her clothes on-panel]] was deemed too sexy.
* [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Human Torch]] not only has the fireproof skin secondary power, but he also has the power to absorb energy to a degree, converting it to flame. He can also suck up heat from things, and once froze up Hydroman this way.
** However, he doesn't seem to hold much knowledge as of how fire itself works. There was one instance (in the animated version, admitedly) where Mr Fantastic gave him a watch which was in fact a special torch capable of lighting underwater (which actually exists in real life, the olympic torches of 2008 were known for that). He then uses such fire to light himself while underwater, which he ought to be able to do anyways without the watch, or not do at all. Unless it was [[A Wizard Did It|magic fire]].
** Not necessary for being the Human Torch per se, but certainly necessary for doing many of the things Johnny does, is magic fire. He creates specific shapes from fire that maintain their shape (and of course keep burning, as do his own flames, with no perceivable fuel). He creates cages of fire that are hot but do not burn, and in fact can keep fire from burning things. I guess it might be an example of [[Convection, Schmonvection]].
* In [[Ultimate Marvel|The Ultimates]], mutant [[Super Speed|Quicksilver]] had a
* Sometimes, the
** Technically, Aquaman always ''had'' superstrength and durability, at least in his first [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] appearances, that were forgotten during the [[Dork Age|Superfriends era]]. On the splash page of his very first appearance, ''More Fun Comics'' #73, he's shown deflecting an artillery shell with his hand.
** [[Grant Morrison]] also gave him the ability to essentially induce seizures by telepathically touching the part of the brain that humans share with fish. It's a shame that he doesn't do that more often.
*** During the "Justice League Detroit" days, he was shown being able to influence people's actions through the same "fish portion of the brain" excuse. How little sense this makes is the least part of why many people [[Fanon Discontinuity|deny the JLD ever happened]].
* Archangel of the [[X
** His actual wing surface area isn't nearly large enough to lift a human-sized body using real-world
* Cyclops of the ''X-Men'' is probably one of the best billiard players ''in the world.'' Why? Well, eventually somebody realized that the absurdly complex ricochet effects he pulls off with a moment's thought using his eye-beams ''must'' mean he has some kind of sixth sense for angles and geometry. So now he does. Not necessary, but necessary for him to be able to [[Rule of Cool|use his powers the way he does]].
** According to ''The Physics of Superheroes'' (by [[Shown Their Work|real-world physicist]] and comic book fan James Kaklios) Cyclops must also have super strong neck muscles, as the beams are described as concussive force - without such musculature, Newton's 3rd law says his neck ought to be snapped every time he uses his powers. Not sure how accurate this logic is, though.
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** Something similar happened with Bouncing Boy from ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'', a rare case where the required secondary powers actually became more prominent than the primary one. Because of the impressive ricocheting moves he pulls off, the writers reasoned he must have an innate knowledge of geometry & mathematics, so he became one of the Legion's main science guys & rarely used his [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|primary power]]. [[Dork Age|Thankfully]].
*** And he was a great billards player- he knocked three balls into the nets with one strike!
* Colossus in ''[[
** The ''Ultimate Galactus'' trilogy also has a bit where [[The Falcon
*** Ultimate Hawkeye makes this observation and it was utterly idiotic because I could use the same reasoning to deny any of Colossus' powers (solid steel muscles would be immobile, steel tendons could not stretch, steel blood could not flow, steel hearts can't beat, etcetera). The arrow should have just smashed uselessly against Colossus' eyeball and Hawkeye should have been severely pummeled.
** Ultimate Pyro is able to generate flames, but he is not immune and is covered with gruesome scar tissue as a result.
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* Marvel's Taskmaster can achieve limited [[Super Speed|superspeed]] if he [[Awesomeness By Analysis|copies the moves]] from fast-forwarded video, but he can only use it in limit, since he does not have secondary powers to compensate for the fact that it strains his body.
** He also lacks certain required secondary ''skills'' - for instance, when he was young, he copied a professional diver's dive. But neglected to learn how to swim first.
*** Taskmaster is a bit of an odd case; he supposedly has no superhuman powers beyond his signature "photographic reflexes", yet is not only able to pull off the aforementioned feats, but also [[Spider
*** Recently, it was shown that every time Taskmaster memorizes a new set of moves, he loses a bit of memory, including things like his real name. While this [[Did Not Do the Research|isn't how memory works]], it may explain why he's able to do Spidey's moves. If his brain is constantly compartmentalizing, it may be able to shut off the parts of the nervous system that would cry out in pain when attempting a crazy maneuver, while increasing adrenaline output (á la mothers lifting cars off of their children, also an [[Urban Legend]]).
* [[Ultimate Marvel]]'s version of [[Fantastic Four|Reed Richards]] has his body transformed into an undifferentiated "bacterial stack" with no internal organs or tissues, so he has no need to worry about, for example, his stretched arms going numb because his heart had to try to pump blood the length of a football field. How he [[No Conservation of Energy|gets energy without eating]] is [[Hand Wave|glossed over]].
** Note that this is roughly the power of Plastic Man. Nothing new under the sun.
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** Another was Rubberband Man who once turned into a vacuum cleaner to avoid being caught by Static's sister. When Static's sister tried to wheel him out of the room, she found it rather difficult because A. he still weighed the same, and B., as he put it, "Wheels are hard."
* One character in ''[[Global Frequency]]'' has a cybernetic arm with superhuman strength, and goes into detail about all the secondary modifications that had to be made to her body so she could use it without ripping it out of its socket or breaking her own back.
{{quote|
* Durlans, a shape-shifting species in the DCU, were eventually revealed to have an extra sense that allows them to scan all the cellular and anatomic details of a new being they encounter, as well as perfect memory for same. For which their antennae are the sensory organs.
* John Byrne's ''[[Next Men]]'' series has a super-speedster who runs
** Did she develop Vitamin D deficiencies as well?
* In the [[Valiant Comics]] ''Solar, Man Of The Atom'' - Solar encounters various empowered people, some with no secondary ability to compensate. One petite woman has super strength, and a level of invulnerability, but no anchoring ability. So if she threw a punch foward, the reaction would in turn throw her body backwards. She fixed this by wearing a vest weighted down with depleted uranium. This also kept her from hitting the ceiling every time she took a careless step.
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** Another New Universe character, D.P.7's Jeff Walters (aka Blur) was a super-speedster who did [[Big Eater|require large amounts of food]] every day. He was also obese before his power manifested via the "[[Meta Origin|White Event]]."
*** Food was the lesser problem. Apparently, his body is potentially much faster than his mind, so he can't get a restful sleep if not under tranquilizer (or a teammate's energy draining power). And the constant vibration caused by lesser muscular movements cause him to be mildly distructive when touching things. Or opening Coke cans.
* ''[[
{{quote|
** Then she figured out that ''driving'' [[Car Fu|a car]] into her enemies is easier and has more force to it.
* [[Deadpool]]'s [[Healing Factor]] only works because he has such severe cancer that his body is constantly regenerating lost cells. He just makes it regenerate more when he takes damage. He actually weaponizes this when the Skrulls want to make an army of clones with him, and gives them the healing factor, but not the cancer, causing them to mutate and die.
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*** Similarly, Carnifex (''[[Wild Cards]]'' Wolverine expy; his backstory included time on the [[Stealth Pun|University of Michigan's football team]]) made a habit of having his face redone by plastic surgeons every couple years thanks to the scars and similar healing mishaps he inevitably accumulated as a [[Blood Knight]].
* Strangely both averted and used in ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' V2. Supergirl is trying to move a planet. She has the strength, but attempting to do so just ends up digging a hole through the planet because she can't move it as a single object by touching a small part of it. However, the "solution" used is to have her bounce into the planet, which really should fail for the same reason.
* It's possible that [[Spider
** Spiders, like ants and many other insects, have a muscular system that is actually built on the same principles as hydraulics. How Spidey pulls off hydraulic-based strength without massive physical mutation, however, is anyone's guess.
** Lampshaded on at least one occasion when Spidey loses his powers but still has his web shooters; he tries to swing away but lacks the strength to hold onto his own web!
*** Most comics allow normal-strength people to hold their own weight on one arm for some reason, it's interesting that writer remembered. Another didn't, and had him able to web-swing fine with his powers gone, except without his spider-sense he had to actually ''concentrate'' on things like aiming.
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* In issue 75 of ''[[Justice Society of America|JSA]]'', Atom Smasher explicitly mentions breaking and regrowing his bones and muscles as he grows. While it has never been done, this would theoretically allow him to heal bone and muscle damage by simply shifting height again. He also has a specific height (around 50 feet) wherein his powers start to malfunction and the [[Square-Cube Law]] starts paying attention to him again.
** Subverted in a ''JLA'' story where Superman encounters a new superhero while rescuing some firemen from a collapsing building. The newbie has super strength and is able to hold up the falling ceiling long enough for Superman to evacuate the firemen. Unfortunately he discovers that he does not possess invulnerability and is killed when a gas main blows up in his face.
* The [[Eternals]] are powered by cosmic energy flowing through every cell in their bodies. This makes them able to do things like fire [[Eye Beams]] and use [[Super Strength]], as well as powering their [[Psychic Powers]], but dispersing all the resulting waste heat is quite a
* Chamber from ''[[Generation X]]'' is a [[Zig
* [[Irredeemable|Plutonian]], being a [[Flying Brick]], should need several of those to be able to use his super stengh the way he does, like lifting ships without them breaking apart, but {{spoiler|he doesn't, because he doesn't have primary powers either - he is a [[Reality Warper]] who subconciously alters the fabric of spacetime around him. When he punches something, he changes the density of his fist and the objects he punches and breaks Newton's laws to not outright kill his opponents. He isn't even aware of it, he just thinks he is very strong.}}
** Max Damage, from [[Irredeemable]]'s sister title, has super strength and invulnerability which proportionally increase the longer he's been awake. Unfortunately, a side-effect of the latter is that he loses all sense of touch, taste and smell after a couple of hours - he describes it as being numb instead of being tough, like God didn't know when to stop with the Novacaine. He also suffers from the normal effects of sleep deprivation, which is sometimes necessary to get his powers up to a certain level, so the stronger his body becomes the weaker his mind gets.
* Minor character from [[Rising Stars]] was [[Nigh Invulnerable]], but doesn't have several secondary powers that usually come with it - he has no enchanced senses so his powers block his sense of touch, pain and temperature and he has no super strength so he is rather useless in a fight, being beaten like anybody else, just without feeling anything. And he needed air just like anybody else, so he was suffocated to death with a plastic bag. In fact, lack of enhanced senses was what killed him - without his powers he didn't feel it when the murderer tied him up and put the bag on his head.
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* [[The Savage Dragon]] averts the typical [[Healing Factor]] trope of bones automatically resetting themselves as they heal. A foe once beat Dragon until nearly every bone in his body was broken, then stuffed him down an industrial chimney, forcing Dragon's healing factor to repair all those bones (and, presumably, whatever muscle and other tissues damaged along with them) in the wrong positions. Despite this, Dragon managed to climb out of the chimney and even (briefly) get into another fight before being discovered by allies and receiving medical treatment. The worst part? One of Dragon's super-strong friends had to ''re-break'' all the misaligned bones so that doctors could re-set them properly.
* The secondary power of "can tolerate cold temperatures" is memorably played up for three X-Men at once in an issue of ''X-Men Unlimited,'' while a team of Storm, Iceman, Colossus, and Angel are on a mission in Antarctica:
{{quote|
Angel: "I'm '''very cold,''' thank you for asking!" }}
* Mystique, an ''X-Men'' villain shapeshifter, can copy the appearance of other people down to fingerprints, voice and retina patterns closely enough to pass biometric scanners. In addition to the [[Photographic Memory]] required to remember all this perfectly, she must have some kind of ESP to detect such things in the first place just from a brief encounter. She's certainly never shown scanning and studying the retinas of people she is going to copy.
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* ''[[Marvel 2099|Punisher 2099]]'' once tracked down a techno-shaman who had encased himself in an impenetrable force field to protect himself. Punisher figured out that it still had to be able to exchange heat through the field, and fried the guy inside the force field by showering it with hot plasma.
* [[Red Hulk]] becomes hotter the madder he gets, allowing him to burn and melt things just by touching them. He suffers his first defeat when he becomes so mad that his own heat hurts him.
* In the first issue of [[Dial H for Hero
* Deconstructed in a [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Donald Duck comic]] by [[Don Rosa]]. Donald briefly becomes a [[Flying Brick]] after chugging down some [[Applied Phlebotinum]], and makes several attempts to impress his nephews with his new powers. He tries to travel around the world in an instant, but realizes that he still perceives the passage of time normally despite everyone else effectively being frozen in time while he's moving around at superspeed, so the task could take him several months or even ''years'' to complete, and nobody would notice anyway. He also tries to use his superstrength to lift both a mountain and a sunken cruise ship, but the mountain starts falling apart at the base and the ship breaks in two due to years of rust decay to the hull.
* Brainiac Five of the [[Legion of Super
== Fan Works ==
* A problem with regeneration was mentioned at least once in [[Fanfic]]:
{{quote|
* In ''[[
** To be specific, he was immune to "It's a Small World". The [[
* A Fantastic Four 2099 fanfic series occasionally explored the limitations of the characters' abilities in this way:
** Johnny Storm (or rather, his
** On the other end of the spectrum, the clone of Ben Grimm has the same rocklike epidermal layer as his
** In Minsinoo's
* From [[Sleeping
** {{spoiler|[[Tenchi Muyo!|Washuu]]}} restores {{spoiler|[[Sailor Moon|Luna's]]}} ability to turn into human form. Later we learn {{spoiler|she}} also retained cat's muscle density, which makes {{spoiler|her}} really strong and agile but also uses proportionally more energy. So {{spoiler|she}} either has to [[Big Eater|eat a lot]] in human form or stay most of the time as a cat to save energy.
** The protagonist receives a [[Super Strength|strength multiplying]] bodysuit, and learns the hard way it lacks any kind of reinforcement (he forgot to read the manual, then punched a wooden pillar breaking his wrist). Fortunetly he sill has [[Healing Factor|medical nanites]], but those too use a lot of fuel while healing major injuries.
* At the very end of ''[[
** Also, Jeft talks to himself about all the stuff he had to build into Paul to get him to work properly:
{{quote|
* ''[[
* [[The Teraverse]] superheroine Sister Marie has an almost-total immunity to the effects of fire, heat, and smoke. It ''does'' usually come in handy for her, as she often associates with her local fire departments in the course of her heroism. She once got a large chunk of her habit scorched off and only had a 'mild sunburn' underneath, and in the same incident, discarded a self-contained breathing unit after discovering that she's immune to the effects of smoke inhalation. She also frequently handles things in the kitchen (such as cookie sheets or paper coffee cups) without protective insulation. Unfortunately, she actually can't tell how much hotter something is if it's above room temperature, and finds it necessary to ask someone else to check the water temperature when giving her infant godson a bath.
** The topic of Required Secondary Powers is discussed -- and invoked by name -- in a lecture Hermione Granger gives during the course of the Inter-School Tournament in [https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-33141-52/DianeCastle+Hermione+Granger+and+the+Swiss+Tournament.htm chapter 52] of another Teraverse story, ''[[Hermione Granger and the Swiss Tournament]]''
== Films -- Animated ==
* ''[[
** An aversion of one of the problems with force fields from the same film. At the final battle, the Omnibot is attempting to crush Violet and Dash, who are inside one of Violet's spherical force fields. When it lifts right after Violet is knocked temporarily unconscious, we can see that an indentation in the street has been made in the shape of the force field, suggesting that the force field was acting as an indestructible sphere, transferring the force of the Omnibot to the street below.
*** However, this view presents several problems, which, because not all of them directly relate to this trope, are listed under the [[The Incredibles
*** Earlier in the film, when she is first using her powers in combat, her force field "ripples" when hit by machine gun bullets, implying some elasticity as well as an efficient enough redistribution of energy to resist the impacts for a sustained period of time without any reduced functionality. If anything, it implies that there is simply an upper limit as to how much energy her fields can absorb and redistribute in a single collision. At the same time, the key point of her invisible shields is that they ''are''
** Also, it deconstructs Mr. Incredible's [[Super Strength]] + [[Nigh Invulnerability]] combo. He can't magically anchor himself and when he uses his strength on normal objects, they're visibly warped (grabbing his car to stop from falling, he bends the roof badly enough the door won't close). [[Rule of Funny]], however, when he lifts his car without damaging it further. When he stops a train, he does so by bracing himself and relying on friction; also, he visibly winces just before impact. Finally, when fighting the Omnidroid, it smacks him all over the place because he can't just [[The Blob|plant himself]] at will. Really, the movie is a Deconstruction + Reconstruction of the superhero genre.
*** And that train? The people on board were all injured by coming to such a quick stop. As was the suicidal guy he tackled in midair, though not as badly as you might expect. Frozone also can't just ''make'' ice because there needs to be at least some water around. On the other hand, he can make a lot more ice than the air should be able to hold as water vapor.
* In Disney's ''[[
** Perhaps she's just using massive amounts of conditioner?
** Wait, doesn't her hair have healing powers?
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* Another take on invisibility would be ''[[Hollow Man]]''. The character Sebastian Caine gained invisibility powers that made all of his organs invisible. The problem was outlined when he screams that he can't block the strong ambient lights, since, well... if your organs are invisible, then so are your eyelids and your arms; nothing will block the light from you.
** On the other hand, as explained by a [[Captain Ersatz]] of [[
* Consider the physics of the American ''[[Godzilla]]''. In order to not tear itself apart every time it took a step, the Godzilla would need hyper durable muscle and bone tissue. A body composed of this kind of material would undoubtedly be extremely resistant to even heavy artillery fire. Yet somehow this Godzilla seems to be very susceptible to military weapons and survives mainly by evading the enemies attacks.
* ''[[Superman Returns]]'' seems to have used this, though inconsistently, in the early "falling plane" scene. Previous incarnations would've just grabbed the plane anywhere and guided it gently to the ground. Here it rips apart repeatedly and nearly crashes despite his best efforts. Though once he got it down, he did ''hold the entire plane up by the nose;'' it scrunched the outer skin a little, but did not collapse on itself realistically.
** Lifting the entire island at escape velocity, though, was pure Tactile Telekinesis.
** They also show one of the downsides to [[Nigh Invulnerability]] when, {{spoiler|after being killed by the fall from space due to Kryptonite temporarily taking away his powers, medical staff attempt to revive Superman with defibrilators, only to find that his powers have returned, and the electricity can't get through his skin to reach his heart.}}
* One of the more amusing scenes in ''[[Iron Man 2]]'' is watching military scientists around the world try to kit-bash their own homemade [[Power Armor]], but being completely unable to figure out the Required Secondary powers.
** Tony chides the captured Anton Vanko about his failed attempt to kill him, implying that although he figured out the arc reactor technology, he screwed up on some other details, which allowed Stark to defeat him. Vanko implies that [[Xanatos Gambit|that was the plan all along....]]
** The first film features this as well. Tony initially discovers the problems of flying without stabilizers, and didn't forsee the problem with his equipment icing up at high altitudes. The "Icing problem" becomes a [[Chekhov's Gun]] near then end when it turns out that Obadiah and his team didn't consider it either.
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* The invulnerable ''[[Hancock]]'' is shown to shave with his own fingernails. [[Fridge Logic|One wonders how he clips his fingernails, though; possibly with his teeth.]] He also has to focus in order to ''not'' leave a huge crater every time he lands. He leaves a ''small'' crater instead.
* ''[[Superhero Movie]]'': lampshades this as a spoof of the superhero-genre. In a brief scene, Rick Riker meets another hero who has the power to become living flame like the Fantastic Four's Human Torch, but is not immune to being burned. Thus as soon as he transforms, he immediately experiences extreme pain and begs Rick to put out the fire.
* In the ''[[X-Men (
** Although she fails to mimic Storm's scent to Wolverine's satisfaction. Somehow, this isn't a factor in the sequel though.
*** That's explainable as something she didn't think of. Having that flaw in her power pointed out in the first movie, she likely would have rectified that in her future encounters with mutants that have heightened senses like Wolverine's. That or Wolverine was simply too distracted to notice the difference in scent that time around.
** The novelization of ''X-Men 2'' implies that most of the time many of her disguises are purely cosmetic, as actually replicating the textures of clothing and other materials put a strain on her abilities.
** In ''[[X Men Origins: Wolverine]]'', it is shown that Fred J. Dukes has super strength and invulnerability eenough to stop a tank round by ''punching it.'' However, when shown later in the film, he's become morbidly obese, because he ''doesn't'' have a heightened metabolism to burn through all the pounds he's packed on due to his eating disorder. He's shown trying to work out in a boxing ring, because presumably lifting regular weights wasn't working.
*** [[Fridge Brilliance|Which explains why]] [[The Incredibles|Mr. Incredible]] [[Fridge Brilliance|was working out by pressing trains.]]
* In ''[[The One (
** There is also the fact that Gabe seems to instinctively know how hard to hit, even though his strength and speed have been rapidly increasing for the past several months. Granted, his constant martial arts training could have something to do with this, but he seems to be genuinly surprised every time he does something superhuman.
* In ''[[Stardust (
== [[Literature]] ==
* The dragons from ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' generally range from 20 to 42
** Also, their bones aren't of the same material as Terran animals' bones: lifeforms of Pern have some chemical differences (notably being high-boron), and dragons were engineered from native creatures.
*** Though the native creatures were far smaller, throwing the [[Square-Cube Law]] right out the window. Though since Kit Ping Yung, the creator of the dragons, was stated in the book to be the only geneticist smart enough to be taught the Eridani secrets of gene manipulation, it's entirely possible she enhanced the telekinetic properties of the fire-lizards to make up for this.
** Important plot points in some books rely on the fact that teleportation is a dangerous business; as suggested in the article it is possible to accidentally arrive underground and be entombed in stone.
* Similar to Pern, the [[Voluntary Shapeshifter|Eleint Soletaken]] of the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' are able to transform into massive dragons. However, the sheer size of their new forms means that half of their flight relies on sorcery and if their wings are damaged they need to rely almost solely on it to stay airborne.
* [[
** Note that the nudity requirement wasn't actually necessary, as Griffin's process worked on white fabric as well as living creatures. He just [[Idiot Ball|didn't think to create some invisible clothes]] for himself before smashing his equipment and becoming a fugitive.
** Lampshaded in the Chevy Chase movie, ''Memoirs of an Invisible Man'', wherein the main character sees his own stomach activity in the mirror and is so disgusted that he throws up. He later is told by his love interest that she understands why he missed their dinner date. His response: "Trust me - the last thing you want to do is watch me eat." Also, smoking lends itself to some interesting effects, and he becomes semi-visible in the rain. However, the suit he was wearing during the industrial accident is also invisible, meaning he doesn't have to go naked as long as he keeps it clean. He later has said love interest teach him how to apply make-up so that he can interact with society in at least a semi-normal fashion.
*** Somehow, the question of whether his urine should also be visible never seems to rate a mention...
** In the H. G. Wells short story ''The New Accelerator'', which features a [[Super Serum|super-speed serum]] (probably marking its first use in its modern form), not only predicts today's doping scandal by mentioning that the stuff could be used to cheat in fencing, but also has the characters suffering vertigo while the serum takes effect, not being able to run without beginning to burn up, leaving footsteps of burnt whatever-they-step-on wherever they walk, and in one instance being unable to keep objects perfectly still, so that a little dog goes flying across a field. While talking about the serum (which is when the cheating was brought up), the characters talk about the consequences of using the serum over long periods of time, namely accelerated aging and appetite. The only thing it misses is they should be walking like they're on the moon.
* The
* Played straight in the [[BE Archive]] story ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120425070830/http://www.bearchive.com/~stories/stories/keepsautodoc.html Keeps The Autodoc Away]'', where a couple hack the eponymous AutoDoc to [[Be Careful What You Wish For|"cure" them of being out of shape]]. Al tells [[Literal Genie|the machine]] to, [[Biggus Dickus|among other things]], turn all his fat into a set of enormous, powerful muscles. Near the end, it is revealed, aside from his [[Gag Penis|seven-foot erection]] knocking him out from blood loss, that his enormous muscles had shattered almost every bone in his body. If it wasn't already obvious, this story [[Not Safe for Work|isn't exactly safe for work]].
* In the [[Midnighters]] series, one of the characters incredible leaping abilities in during the 'blue hour' translate to leParcour in normal time because of his innate sense of physics.
* In David Eddings's ''[[Belgariad]]'', when you use magic to move an object, the resulting force is the same as if you had physically touched the object - so you have to brace yourself with equal force, similar to tightening up your muscles, or some such. The main character learns this the hard way the first time he tries to move a giant stone, as he ends up buried up to his armpits in the ground (he tried to push it up instead of merely sideways).
** The protagonist's mentor scolds him and comments that if he HAD tried to push it sideways, he'd likely have been thrown across the continent by now.
* Something similar to ''Belgariad'' also holds for magic in ''[[Discworld]]''. A wizard who wants to move a large weight telekinetically needs to harness some secondary force to avoid being crushed by the mass he's lifting; e.g. in ''Light Fantastic'', a wizard levitates himself by dropping a weight off a roof and transferring the force to himself. This rule seems to be often ignored [[Rule of Cool|if it would get in the way of the story]], however.
** If attempting something like this without such an exchange, they have to use their own mental skills to do so, with a related physical cost... avoidance of which is described as (paraphrased) "preventing your brain being flicked out your ears". One example is in ''[[
*** The math for this infuriated the senior staff to no end in ''[[
** Not to mention Eskarina demonstrated teleportation without an "anchor". Part of the ''Discworld'' narrative causality is things can be possible as long as you aren't told they aren't.
* Directly stated in the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' series of novels with the beautiful (and [[Winged Humanoid|winged]]) character of Peregrine. When a boyfriend tells her he hates mutated "Jokers", she explains to him that she is one. After all, her wings are large deformities that are not the source of her [[Flight|flying ability]], she does that psychically.
** The ''[[Wild Cards]]'' criminal Fadeout bends light to become invisible, and is effectively blind while doing so. He can only see by making his eyes visible.
** There's also a [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|Deuce]] with the ability to produce flame from his hands. Normally this would make him an Ace... except for the fact that he's not immune to his own fire.
** And then there's [[Shape Shifter|Kid Dinosaur]], who can change into any dinosaur he wants...but he can't increase or decrease his body's mass. So he can become a T-Rex, but the T-Rez is only 4 feet tall.
* ''Heretics of [[Dune]]'' sees {{spoiler|Miles Teg}} gain [[Super Speed]], but needs to become a [[Big Eater]] to compensate (several characters lampshade his Big Eating). He also gets his hands badly bruised and torn from hitting his enemies at such speeds.
* In the ''[[
* On a similar note, in ''[[Harry Potter]]'' it is mentioned that people are (almost) weightless while flying a broom. Otherwise doing so would be [[Groin Attack|very unpleasant]].
** It's called a Cushioning Charm, and its pretty much spelled out in ''[[All There in the Manual|Quidditch Through The Ages]]'' that the first brooms were [[Groin Attack
* ''[[Tuck Everlasting]]'' is probably the first children's book to examine [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]] in detail. It's never explicitly stated that the characters can't die in ''any'' way (other than a brief anecdote of Jesse surviving a fatal fall), but this is implied to be the case, given the Tuck household's being located squarely on [[Dysfunction Junction]] and the fact that none of its inhabitants have [[Driven to Suicide|offed themselves]] in their roughly 100 years of immortal life thus far.
* In ''[[Maximum Ride]]'', the eponymous [[Winged Humanoid|winged girl]], and her friends, were genetically engineered so as to have these necessary powers, so to speak. They do have Birdlike bones, and are definitely [[Big Eater
** Probably because their wing muscles had to be built using a more efficient chemistry than human muscle to make them strong enough to lift a human-sized body without a heavy load of muscle mass, and as long as you're doing the wings, hey why not buff the whole body as well.
* ''Black and Blue Magic'' avoids most of the side effects of a human with wings because [[A Wizard Did It]], but the main character does wind up with extraordinarily well-defined chest muscles as a side effect of weeks of flying. [[Fridge Logic|Despite the human body not having muscles and bones in the right places for that to happen]].
* [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Corran Horn]] can manipulate energy in any way he desires, but he has to find some output for it. Interestingly, this is the only way he can perform psychokinesis, so Corran is one of the few Jedi who actually obeys the laws of thermodynamics.
* In [[Timothy Zahn]]'s ''[[The Cobra Trilogy|Cobra]]'' trilogy, the eponymous Cobras are commandos whose bones have been covered with a practically unbreakable ceramic laminae, whose joints have been augmented with servomotors, and who have been implanted with a power source, concealed energy weapon systems and a computer to help them control everything (which also provides a library of preprogrammed "combat reflexes", shortening training time). In the first book, the initial crop of training injuries are skin abrasions and subcutaneous bleeding caused by not possessing
* Jack Fleming in PN Elrod's ''[[The Vampire Files]]'' can turn invisible and (mostly) intangible, but he's unable to see in that form.
* [[The Dresden Files|Harry Dresden]] gets badly screwed when a vampiric sorceress works out that the force fields he uses so much block force, but not heat. Two of her goons break out the flamethrowers, and while the shields block the napalm itself, the heat roasts Harry's hand and renders it nigh-useless for several books. When he finally gets around to making a new shield bracelet, he hits the books with this trope. The new shield protects against ''everything'', even things like ''sound'' and ''electricity'', but this has the drawback of using more of his energy.
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* In ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'', Dr. Impossible, a [[Mad Scientist]], has superhuman strength and durability from a lab accident. However, he's not as strong as any of the superheroes who have superhuman strength as a power, and all his plans revolve around Mad Science rather than his own brawn. Considering that he's a [[Super Villain]] in a [[Comic Book]]-like world, [[Failure Is the Only Option]], so presumably he would have to have some degree of superhuman strength or toughness just to survive all the times he gets thrown around, beat up and concussed by heroes.
** The heroes get a good dose of this, too. Fatale is a [[We Can Rebuild Him|combat-ready cyborg]] who needs specially crafted furniture due to the weight of all her cybernetics. Feral is a Wolverine-style genetic mixture of an ordinary human and a Bengal tiger, but his frame is such that walking on fours isn't really possible and walking on just his feet hurts. And Damsel is a [[Half-Human Hybrid]] whose parents didn't really look into how well the two genomes mix; as a result, she's stricken with regular bouts of nausea, and throws up so much her teammates think she's bulimic.
* This can be an issue with the [[Elemental Powers]] in the ''[[Codex Alera]]''. A windcrafter can move with [[Super Speed]], but if they go too fast they risk breaking their own bones; a metalcrafter can block out huge amounts of pain, but may consequently ignore severe injuries that incapacitate them; a watercrafter can [[The Empath|feel the emotions of those around them]], but any especially strong emotion can have them [[Unhappy Medium|curled up in a ball and wimpering]]. Most of these weaknesses can be made up for with a talent for one or more of the other elements, but since very few people outside of the [[Authority Equals Asskicking|High]] [[Person of Mass Destruction|Lords]] can use all of them, [[Unhappy Medium
** Specifically addressed for flight though. "I know that you find it counterintuitive to project wind both ahead of you and behind...but you body was not designed for high speed flight... if you do not take measures to protect yourself, especially your eyes, even relatively minor amounts of particulate matter in the air could blind you or other bring your flight to a ... terminally instructive conclusion. Adept fliers accomplish it so naturally that they have no need to consciously think about creating the shield."
* Lampshaded as early as the first scene of ''[[The Runelords]]'' in which two men who each have multiple endowments of strength engage in a fight which the narrator explains is little more than "bone breaking contest" for though they both have super strength, that power does nothing to harden their bones. The books further illustrate the need to balance ones endowments such as balancing 'brawn' with 'grace', 'metabolism' 'stamina', and 'wit'.
** Unfortunately, this forms a minor plot hole - the strength of ten men would be more than enough to break the bones to which the muscles were attached, let alone the strength of hundreds or thousands. Runelords do, however, have major issues with things like leaning into turns when running at 60 miles per hour, healing correctly, living their lives at massive speed whilst everyone else is normal, aging at supernally fast rates because they've loaded up too much on metabolism, etc etc. In general, Farland deals with the lack of required secondary powers very effectively. Similarly, the difficulties which occur when one loses one's Dedicates are dealt with in detail.
* Addressed for [[Teleportation]] in the third ''[[Young Wizards]]'' novel, ''High Wizardry''. When Dairine first becomes a wizard [[Powers
* Not touched upon at all in [[Sergey Lukyanenko]]'s ''[[Rought Draft]]'' and its sequel ''Final Draft'', where the protagonist is erased from existence and becomes a "[[Differently-Powered Individual|functional]]", gaining various abilities specific to his "function", in this case that of an interdimentional customs official. He lives in a water tower that links to several parallel worlds. His job is to let other functionals and normal people through, provided they follow the rules and pay their customs duties. His powers include super-strength, super-speed, nigh-invulnerability, knowledge of advanced martial arts, knowledge of all contraband items and duties, and the ability to determine what a person is carrying at a glance. At one point, he is running away at super-speed from soldiers and helicopter gunships. Nobody mentions that he should be bouncing instead of running, but he is able to zig-zag, avoiding bullets. The soldiers then take a pill that temporarily allows them to move as fast as him. The second novel briefly touches upon the functionals using advanced quantum physics to do whatever they please (something about taking pieces of themselves from myriad other worlds, where their powers are the norm).
* In the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Fatal Terrain'', Jon Masters mentions that though the variable airframe on the Wolverine cruise missiles allows for incredible maneuverability, they have to be limited below what they can really do because pulling super high-G maneuvers causes the explosives to cook off or something and a super-maneuverable missile's a fat lot of good when it blows itself up before even reaching the target.
* [[
** Because the ability to eat all the food you want and not gain a pound is such a big downside. It's only a problem when she is given standard prisoner rations, which isnt enough for her to maintain her weight.
* In the novel [[Nuklear Age]], the villain Blazer can shoot lasers out of his eyes that obscure his vision and leave him unable to see, although he somehow manages to avoid permanent blindness. However, Nuklear Man gets some of the same powers as Superman with absolutely no implications; at one point, a scientist puts him in a chamber of heat that goes up to thousands of degrees to test his powers, and marvels at the fact that even his clothes were undamaged. Presumably the fact that he draws energy directly from the stars has something to do with it.
* In [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' series, humanity has developed teleportation technology that has distance and mass limits due to the Law of Conservation of Energy. Teleporting east-west doesn't generate many problems, but teleporting too far north-south generates problems because of the difference in orbital velocities between where you are and where you were. In short, teleport too far north or south, and you arrive at your destination as a human-shaped exploding nuclear weapon.
* In one ''[[Dragonlance]]'' story, a group of Gnomes fly a zeppelin to the moon of Lunitari, the god of neutral magic. The inherent magic gives them powers... but not secondary powers. At first the powers are very light; one can see slightly better, one can hear slightly better, one is stronger, one can cling to walls, etc... but with prolonged exposure the powers keep getting stronger and stronger. Eventually the one with sight starts seeing through the entire moon with covered eyes, the one with hearing has to stuff his ears lest the crawl of insects make them bleed, the strong one breaks everything he touches and the clingy one just gets stuck.
* Thanks to [[Brandon Sanderson|Brandon Sanderson's]] rather [[Functional Magic|scientific approach]] to [[Magic A Is Magic A|magic systems]] lots of his powers show the problems of missing Required Secondary Powers. For instance in the [[Mistborn]] trilogy, tineyes have heigtened hearing and sight, but can be very vulnerable to bright lights and loud noises while burning. Steelpushing and Ironpulling are not run-of-the-mill telekinesis, but are based around force, mass, and their interaction through Newton's Third Law. The Kandra are a race of shape shifters with a [[Healing Factor]] who can't actually be killed by wounding them, but wounds are still incredibly painful and regeneration takes time.
== [[Live
* The [[
* ''[[No Ordinary Family]]'' includes a few examples of imperfect powers. In one episode, Jim tries to stop a moving car, but his super strength and invulnerability are not enough to overcome a car's inertia. This results in him getting run over repeatedly. Stephanie is depicted as consuming huge amounts of food to fuel her super-speed. She also trips and tumbles for hundreds of meters when she tries reading a text message while super-running. There's also a bit of lampshading going on, with Stephenie's assistant spouting the number of laws of physics that are being broken (why doesn't the friction burn off her clothes? Shouldn't the sand destroy her corneas at that speed?).
* Both ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'' and ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'' would rip their bionic arms right off when trying to lift a big enough weight, unless their entire skeletal structure were augmented to support the stress of heavy lifting, not to mention their running speeds. Acknowledged and gently [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] away in the 1987 TV movie ''The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman'', where Rudy Wells mentions adding such augmentation "just as we did for you and Jaime" to Steve's now-bionic son.
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** Averted in [[Martin Caidin|Martin Caidin's]] original novel, ''Cyborg'', upon which ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'' was based. Caidin expressly states the limitations of Steve Austin's bionics: he can't lift a car, but he has a grip with incredible crush strength. He can't outrun a car, but he can run at a sprinter's pace indefinitely, since he's not building up fatigue poisons.
** Subverted in Warren Ellis' ''Global Frequency'', when a bionic man has to go through several alterations just to use his super strength, making him a hideous, misbegotten freak of nature. The process renders him so unstable that he basically amounts to a [[Laser Guided Tykebomb]] slash [[Super Soldier]]. [[Person of Mass Destruction|A nuke without the radiation]]. And then there's the other cyborg, who explains to the Global Frequency agents just ''how'' many augmentations she had to go through to make sure her bionic arm didn't rip itself from her shoulder every time she flexed it.
* On [[
** He was also cold due to much of the heat passing around him. Somehow, however, he was able to freeze a bomb in the second episode but doesn't turn into a [[Human Popsicle]] every time he goes invisible.
** In one episode, Darien is also able to see a ghost ({{spoiler|actually, the disembodied entity of a woman killed with a particle accelerator}}).
** In another, what would have been a permanently blinding attack is reduced to a temporary inconvenience because his eyes were coated in quicksilver at the time (and he was still able to see as usual if he quicksilvered them up again while they healed).
* One episode of ''[[Eureka]]'' dealt with a serum giving the user [[Super Speed]], but like the [[Darker
** The serum also, apparently, turned them stupid, as one of the scientists didn't think to look both ways when crossing the street at [[Super Speed]], resulting in him slamming into a car.
* In the ''[[Star Trek:
** Applies to Trek tech as well. The warp core and transporter have some sort of perfected radiation shield that doesn't kill the crew every time they're used. The Required Secondary Tech is touched upon, briefly, in the prequel series ''Enterprise''.
* The Founders, main villains of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', are shape shifters with more than necessary secondary powers. They possess heightened intelligence, eidetic memory and the attention to detail that allows them to analyze their photographic memory with frightening efficiency. {{spoiler|One Founder posed as chief medical officer Dr. Bashir for more than a month, successfully performing critical surgeries on main characters while mirroring his every nuance, while trying to destroy the Bajoran sector with an [[Earthshattering Kaboom|artificially induced super nova]] at the same time.}}
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has many examples of powers with and without Required Secondary Powers, some explicit and others implied.
** Dale Smither (the mechanic with super-hearing) had to listen to music constantly to block out distracting faraway sounds, and when Sylar stole her ability, he found the suddenly-loud sounds agonising.
** And in Series 2, Peter Petrelli's ability to heal caused his new tattoo to be rather less than permanent. The writers have yet to explain how Claire can have a tan and pierced ears, though. (Maybe the tan's fake.)
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*** Supported in season 3 when Hiro gets a rival who has [[Super Speed]]. He can slow time down to a "stop", but she's so fast that it merely brings her down to normal speed. She [[Lampshade Hanging|even says to him]] "You must not stop time completely, or we wouldn't be talking right now."
** Peter and Hiro, who both have time-travel powers, seem to be immune to the effects of [[Temporal Paradox]], their memories [[Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory|remaining exactly the same]] regardless of how they alter the past.
** Hiro avoids the "flung off the planet" side effect because his powers explicitly affect ''space''time, not just time. It also makes for handy
** DL, the [[Intangible Man]] of the show seems to affect the objects he phases through, rather than affecting himself, given the wavy effect of any object he goes through. His intangibility is also selective, apparently instinctively; he can reach through a door, then reach back with the same hand and unlock it from inside.
** Meredith the firestarter is not only unable to be burned, but also doesn't seem to need to breathe oxygen either (which makes sense, seeing as how fire eats up oxygen and would suffocate you if you needed it).
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* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]] has super strength and resilience, as do the vamps of her universe, but lack super anchoring. This results in them being thrown around a lot in fights without sustaining any significant injuries.
** The [[Healing Factor]] is also much slower than in most otherworks. Slayers and vampires heal at a rate faster than a human, but slow enough so as not to violate the laws of physics.
** In the episode ''Earshot'' Buffy kills a telepathic demon and accidentally gains the ability to hear other peoples thoughts. Unfortunately, the transfer of power did not include the ability to process all of the information it provides, nor the ability to 'tune out' the input. The lack of such
** Also frequently used [[In
* Possible subversion in ''[[Smallville]]'': in a cliffhanger where Clark loses his powers near the end, a doctor must save his life by injecting him with a substance via syringe. Clark's parents (unaware that he has lost his powers) are terrified that the doctor will discover their son's secret, as they expect him to be invulnerable to needles in much the same way that he is invulnerable to bullets. However, the needle goes in fine, because of the loss of his powers.
** The [[Monster of the Week]] is occasionally [[Hoist
* The ''lack'' of said required abilities - specifically, the ability to filter input from [[Super Senses]] - is a crippling problem for ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]'s'' [[The Woobie|River Tam]]. Since she cannot filter incoming stimuli due to her [[The Empath|empathic]] abilities, being in contact with the minds of other people is debilitating, and when others suffer sudden physical trauma it can render her catatonic.
* In something of an aversion of the pyrokinetic version, ''[[Charmed]]'' has offered any number of witches, demons and warlocks who are completely vulnerable to their own fire-based powers, most notably {{spoiler|Christy, who is burned to death by her own flame-throwing ability when she tries to use it against her telekinetic sister Billie.}}
* The [[Doctor Who|Time Lords]] must have spent millenia perfecting all the biological processes necessary with the act of a body undergoing DNA rewriting at the most basic cellular-level across every organ from bone to hair. And it happens in roughly a minute, and doesn't kill the person undergoing it.
** The energy is referred to multiple times by the Doctor as [[Light Is Good|''healing energy'']], rebuilding and restoring damaged cells as much as slightly rewriting their DNA to modify appearance and personality. They don't just call it [[Exactly What It Says
** Also understand that at least in the Doctor's case, it shouldn't take a massive rewrite of his DNA for his appearance to have varied to much. Remember the Doctor has always appeared externally as a caucasian male human would. Even his hair colour was only blonde in two regenerations out of the current eleven he has been through. The rest of the time he has had dark hair. His first had white hair due to physical age, but would otherwise have been dark in his youth (like William Hartnell's real hair colour was dark), and his third was probably forcefully made to look aged with white hair by decree of the time lords at his trial. The Doctor even joked many times about possibly regenerating into a truly bizarre appearance, perhaps with two heads - or maybe no head (and don't say that's an improvement). However apart from his disturbing dress sense, the Doctor has always looked like a dark haired caucasian male human.
*** [[Fridge Logic|So is that why the Doctor has never been a ginger?]]
*** Disturbing dress sense? Hey! [[Bow Ties Are Cool]]!
** In "The End of Time", the Master lacks a Required Secondary Power
{{quote|
** While Jack Harkness has a healing power,[[Nightmare Fuel|he doesn't have the resistance to pain secondary power.]]
*** Several other secondary powers (both mentioned above and not) are explained by the fact that his healing isn't so much restoring damaged tissue as it is reverting it. He is a "fixed point in time," however if this is explained as something like hitting the refresh button every so often, then how is able to retain memory?
*** Captain Jack remembers dying, so the fixed point aspect probably only retains physical attributes. His memory is unaffected.
* Averted in the ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'' television series. Immortals while not invulnerable, have an extremely fast healing factor provided that their heads remain attached to their bodies. However, they still need to breathe and eat as mortals do and can temporarily die of starvation, dehydration, suffocation or enough bodily damage from ordinary weapons. There is one episode centered around an immortal seeking revenge against Duncan Macleod for marooning him on an island without food or water. The vengeful immortal asks Duncan if he has ever had to endure constant recurring death, resurrection, then death again (happening every few minutes from the point of first death as his body was already so heavily weakened) from starvation and dehydration. This cycle was [[A Fate Worse Than Death|implied to have continued for two centuries]] before the other immortal escaped the island.
** Possibly even worse than this is the way immortals first have their immortality activated - at the moment of their first death. This means if an immortal dies before puberty, they will resurrect and remain at that age, being small and helpless and often easy prey for another immortal to take their head. Likewise if an immortal suffers their first death at a very old age, they will remain permanently old and infirm until death by beheading. As an immortal, you had better hope another immortal discovers you who is kind enough to kill you while you are a healthy adult so you can enjoy immortality [[Blessed
* In an episode of ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', one of the characters finds an ancient alien device which creates a forcefield around him, giving him invulnerability. Unfortunately, the forcefield also 'protects' him from food and drink. And it won't come off... (for some reason it still allows him to breathe, though.)
** And the others can hear him just fine.
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** A lot of time, he even ends up back in the hangar.
** Strangely, the scenes of time travel usually show him appearing in orbit and then falling to the surface, which would indicate that he appears "in front of" Earth, as the planet wasn't at the same location 7 days before. However, he seems to be too close for that.
* Subverted in ''[[Torchwood
* In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', Terminators don't need to breathe; that also means they can't take air into their lungs to float like humans can, and sink in deep water. Terminators that need to infiltrate human society also cannot weigh much more than humans, which is especially important for ones that have to pretend to be lightweight, small human women, like Cameron. That also makes them very easy for other Terminators to pick up and throw around and reduces their physical strength, meaning a Terminator like Cameron can't win a straight slugging match. A Terminator's mechanical nature means that it cannot heal physical damage like a human can and must keep a stockpile of parts to repair itself, and damage to its neural chip means that it cannot repair damage to its programming ''at all''.
* ''[[Painkiller Jane]]'' [[Averted Trope|averts]] the [[Healing Factor]] version: Jane can heal herself, but has no super tolerance for pain and has to endure every minute of the pain associated with the injury she receives.
== [[Music]] ==
* The song "[https://web.archive.org/web/20120621053545/http://www.lyricstime.com/jim-s-big-ego-the-ballad-of-barry-allen-lyrics.html The Ballad of Barry Allen]" by ''Jim's Big Ego'' goes into some detail of the loneliness it would impart to be living at super speed compared to the rest of the world.
{{quote|
I'll be gone before you see me
Do you think you can imagine anything so lonely?}}
== [[Myth and Legend]] ==
* The hero Ural in Bashkir legend definitely has both [[Super Strength]] and the requisite anchoring power. He managed to lift a great big stone (in the challenge to win a [[Princess]] and a [[Hellish Horse|demon-blooded winged steed]]... devised by said stallion himself), but his brother who tried before him hadn't these secondary powers and ended up buried waist-deep. Before this, a great bull buried himself knee-deep in a futile attempt to lift Ural while he was holding the bull's horns.
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: This trope shows up in [[Classical Mythology]] with Midas. Wishing that what one touches turns to gold certainly can have some [[Power Incontinence|horrible downsides]] (and [[Fridge Logic|economic consequences]]). The man lacked such necessary powers as "not turning food and water and people into gold." He didn't turn air into gold, though, nor the contents already in his digestive tract, so he survived just long enough to learn his lesson and beg for a wish reversal.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Alternity]]'' specifically limits the degree to which muscles can be augmented with cybernetics by specifcying required secondary cybersystems that need to be installed first. Want to get a single point of extra strength? You need a nanocomp installed to manage the synthetic myomer. 2 points? Need a nanocomp and you better have endo or exo skeleton to mount those hyperstrong muscle fibers. 3 points? Nanocomp, exo/endoskeleton, AND your limbs better be fully cyberized, because your poor meat self is going to pull itself apart otherwise.
* The ''[[Traveller]]'' system has a detailed set of rules about [[Psychic Powers|psychic]] [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleportation]], its energy limits, and how 'porting to different altitudes and different areas of planetary rotation can produce fever or hypothermia, depending on whether the jumper is gaining or losing energy.
* ''[[
** Notably in [[GURPS Supers]], there is a [[Magic Pants|Costume]] advantage, which must be purchased if you want your costume to automatically work with your powers. It isn't technically "required", but they note that many super powers would leave the user naked without it.
* In ''[[Trinity Universe (
* ''[[
** In both games, vampire characters can gain an ability called "Auspex", which at its lowest level grants heightened senses. Unfortunately, while the vampire in question is using the heightened senses, they can very easily be overwhelmed by all of the stimuli.
** The two games also have Celerity, which is super speed and it's stated that no matter how fast a vampire moves, he'll never catch fire and so on. So, basically [[A Wizard Did It|A Vampire Does It]]. They actually say this, very clearly. Celerity ''is'' a supernatural power. It doesn't make you faster by enhancing your reflexes or something, it actually is a magical manipulation of space and time.
** Likewise, use of the "Obfuscate" discipline functions more as a mind trick rather than true invisibility, so there's no need to worry about the Vampire being unable to see.
* In the spanish parody of ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Magic:
{{quote|
'''[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid{{=}}34400 Cunning Wish]:''' ''He wished for knowledge, but not for the will to apply it.''
'''[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid{{=}}34402 Death Wish]:''' ''He wished for power, but not for the longevity to abuse it.''
'''[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid{{=}}34403 Burning Wish]:''' ''She wished for a weapon, but not for the skill to wield it.''
'''[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid{{=}}34405 Living Wish]:''' ''He wished for growth, but not for a way to control it.''
'''[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid{{=}}136157 Glittering Wish]:''' ''She wished for gold, but not for the strength to carry it.'' }}
* In ''[[
** The books actually lampshade and handwave it with Epic Attributes, which allow supernatural and divine beings to be super-strong, super-fast, super-resilient etc. [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|Due to the way the Scion universe works]], and due to the fact that all supernatural beings are bound by Fate, which represents (to a point) the collective subconscious of humanity, beings with Epic Attributes physically act not like they scientifically should, but how ''the common person'' thinks they should. The common person doesn't know that it's impossible to lift a bus without breaking it no matter how strong you are- so a demigod with Epic Strength can do that.
* Part of the reason ''[[Warhammer
** This is a debatable point. It is true that Space Marines need to be modified in order to use their power armor, but unlike some settings, there is power armor available for normal humans. It's difficult to say whether Space Marines are modified to use their equipment or their equipment is specced for the modifications made to Space Marines. Almost every piece of equipment they use has a variant that can be used by normal humans.
** It can be argued that the augmentation is a required *tertiary* power, since without both the natural strength boost in conjunction with the power-armor's strength boost, they would be unable to carry and fire the unreasonably large guns they are issued. Man-portable Las-cannons and Multi-meltas, weapons that weigh 40+ kilos and are usually crew served or vehicle mounted weapons are carried around by Marines and fired from the shoulder.
* ''[[Wild Talents]]'' Second Edition's One-Roll Talent Generator table gives a character with any level of Flight above the minimum Light Armor, "�cause honestly, at around 500 mph, you�re going to need to worry about skin abrasion if not an air supply."
* In ''[[Shadowrun]]'' super-strength cybernetic replacement limbs are specifically noted ''not'' to have
* In ''[[Rifts]]'' there's a class known as the Titan Juicer, chemically-enhanced humans who are much larger and stronger than is otherwise possible for a human. The class specifically mentions that the bones are made stronger so as to handle the increased weight and strength. Their punches are also so powerful they have to wear special gloves so that they don't break their hands when they take a swing at something.
* [[Dungeons & Dragons]] has some natural limitations on effects like scrying and translocation - one needs to have a good idea of the destination. . The caster of Teleport not knowing the destination ''very'' well risks to end up misplaced, which includes arrival in mid-air or into a wall. There's a more complex - of higher level - variant of Teleport spell with added safeguard, originally named simply "Teleport Without Error" (see 3.5 version - [http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/teleport.htm Teleport] vs. [http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/teleportGreater.htm Greater Teleport]).
== [[Toys]] ==
* ''[[Bionicle]]'': Matoran actually have
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' in general. A lot of them must have pocket dimensions inside them to hold all that water/rock/webbing/snow/acid/etc. And, of course, there's the logistics behind fire and electric Pokemon not hurting themselves...
* ''[[Super Mario Brothers|Mario]]'', when properly empowered, can throw fireballs (and [[New Super Mario Bros. Wii
** He also spends most of ''[[New Super Mario Bros
* The times in which a power ''[[Mega Man (
** This is also the case with ''[[
** Similarly, while [[Mega Man Zero
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' immunity to G-forces are a no-brainer, but he's also managed to fall from space at least twice without any significant injury. He can not only breathe at supersonic speeds, but also, again, in the total vacuum of space. [[Fridge Logic|Can't breathe underwater]], though, because... huh?
*** A random thought: In the 2D games, Sonic must have always had the subconscious ability to push himself downwards, so that he didn't go flying off every hill. The jump dash he gets in the 3D games is simply him learning to consciously use that ability in any horizontal direction.
** Originally he was affected by friction, as the original story stated he was a brown hedgehog and breaking the speed of sound changed his quills blue.
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** Canon said that at the end of ''Sonic 2'', when Sonic was re-entering on Earth, he was Super Sonic then. (The first seconds of ''Sonic 3'' show Sonic going Super... for a while.) Perhaps it was done to avoid [[Nightmare Fuel]] (Sorry, you saved the world, but because you didn't get the seven emeralds you're dead).
** Maybe only in the Archie comic, but the rings are supposed to provide energy. It could well be infered that Sonic offsetting his need to be a big eater by having a lot of rings. While this might mean he's also effectively an energy leech, most of his allies seem to be too. On at least the level needed to create a personal protection field.
* ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' lampshades this when the [[Space Pirates]] try to reverse engineer Samus Aran's powers. They manage to clone her basic weaponry but abandoned the Morph Ball research due to... let's just say "unknotting a pretzel" and move on.
** Certain depictions, ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'', the e-manga, and ''Prime'' for example, solve the problem of how Samus jumps with all that armor on by showing that she has jump-jet assistance.
** Rolling around in the Morph Ball also requires Samus to be immune to motion sickness, not to mention impact trauma when she lands, boosts into walls or is hit by enemies. Some depictions solve this by showing the interior of the Morph Ball as a ball of energy, implying it converts Samus to energy, but that raises many issues of its own.
** Recurring series villain Ridley is a [[Giant Flyer]], with all the logic problems that implies. ''Prime'' mitigated it somewhat by giving him forcefield wings, which would essentially be massless, aside from the physical parts by which they are generated.
* In ''[[Quake (
* In the ''[[Condemned]]'' games, protagonist Ethan Thomas has the primary superpower of [[Make Me Wanna Shout|super shouting]]. Sadly, he doesn't find out about it until two thirds of the way through the second game, and doesn't learn how to use it [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower|until the last level]]. Thankfully, the super-dense bone structure that allows him to produce the necessary sonic vibrations also gives [[Nigh Invulnerability]].
* ''[[Halo]]''... insofaras the [[Powered Armor|Mjolnir armor]] can be considered a "super power". It's mentioned in the books that the Spartans are the only human beings capable of wearing it, because their enhanced durability (particularly their harder bones) is what allows them to survive the armor's incredible strength. An ordinary human was killed when testing the armor because even the slightest movement shattered his bones.
** To go into detail, the "[[What Measure Is a Non Super|normey]]" tried to move, and broke something. He then spasmed due to the pain, and broke something else. This pretty much repeated until death. The liquid-crystal matrix that was used to enhance the strength of the user could not actually be scaled back for the existing models, and since the suits were being designed for the Spartans anyway, no one bothered re-engineering the suits for normal soldiers.
* The Pyro from ''[[
** Parodied with [[Urine Trouble|Jarate]]: the Sniper regularly takes medication that [[Rule of Funny|triples the size of his kidneys so he can piss a lot, and dulls pain, so he can't feel his organs shutting down]].
* Rumia, a darkness-generating character from ''[[Touhou]]'', cannot see through her own cloak of darkness, which results in her aimless wandering being constantly interrupted by collision with trees.
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** On the other hand, it's been theorized that this trope is the reason [[I Love Nuclear Power|Utsuho]], otherwise a huge birdbrain, [[Genius Ditz|is well-versed in nuclear physics]] in ''Hisoutensoku''.
** Mokou seems to be safe from her own flames, but her ''clothes'' apparently [[Clothing Damage|are not]]. That's the reason she has all those ''[[Ofuda]]'' attached to her clothes: they grant immunity to fire.
** ZUN himself points out that Sakuya's power to stop time would require her to be able to manipulate space as well, so she can do things like move or breathe in stopped time. This explains why the Scarlet Devil Mansion is so much [[Bigger
* Alex Mercer from ''[[Prototype (
** That last is explicitly shown - Mercer spends the first few minutes of the game with bloodsoaked clothing riddled with bullet holes. After you consume your first victim, and regenerate your first chunk of health, his clothing is repaired.
** Being a wad of nothing but biomass also explains how Mercer can hip-drop a tank from the top of a skyscraper and walk away uninjured - he had no bones to break or organs to rupture.
** Similarly, Mercer is a giant wad of biomass, and given some of the powers he can pull off (such as turning one of his arms into a gigantic blade or coating himself in thick armor), it's got to be dense. This is backed up by how glass cracks under his feet when he runs up the side of a building, and how he instantly sinks to the bottom of any body of water he falls in (only to leap back out when he touches the bottom).
* Some of this in ''[[
* This trope is what makes Shirou {{spoiler|and Archer}} from ''[[Fate/stay
** However, this trope is also one of the reasons magecraft and other special powers are so dangerous in the [[Nasuverse]]. [[Fate/stay
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', due to an inability to "turn off" his telepathic powers, Psycho Mantis wears a gas mask in order to block out the constant flood of thoughts he receives from others. How a gas mask keeps out people's thoughts is beyond me, but steel helmets worked for Magneto...
** [[Magic Feather|It's implied that the gas mask doesn't actually do anything, it's just a crutch Mantis, who has some serious mental issues, uses.]]
** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'', Volgin the [[Psycho Electro]] also has superhuman strength. The strength allows him to punch holes in solid concrete, but it's also required for another of his favorite moves: using his electricity to fire bullets held between his fingers. Without super-strong hands, the kickback would break his fingers.
* The [[Soul Series]] makes a case for a perfectly mundane character laking a Required Secondary Skill: while Cassandra is plenty proficient with the weapons she "borrows" from her sister, she doesn't know how to take care of them. [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|Not normally an issue]], [[Rule of Funny|except]] during her ending of ''Soul Calibur 3'' where {{spoiler|her sword breaks after being used to shatter Soul Edge, and Sophitia catches her trying to hide it after a bad patch job and sends her straight to the forge to fix it properly. Cut to Cassandra having a sobbing fit on the forge floor, sword still broken, wailing that she doesn't know how to fix it.}}
* In ''[[
** In the diary concerning the Telekinesis plasmid, Dr. Suchong mentions that it can't be used to do a [[Bullet Catch]] - not because of the plasmid's deficiency, mind, but the user's reaction time.
* ''[[Dark Forces Saga]] II: Jedi Knight'', there is a little of aversion of this in play when using the force speed and force jump powers. Using either at its highest setting causes a little damage to the player upon running into something or landing on a surface equal or lower than the one from which he or she jumped. If a player tweaks the powers outside the game (which is quite easy), force speed can easily mean death when running into stair steps at top speed, and force jump can be a great way to get higher, but the fall back down is a killer. The sequels apparently address this by increasing the distance characters can fall without taking damage as a side feature of their increasing Force Jump skill.
* ''[[Deus Ex
** The use of cybernetic implants in general is also explored. In real life, cybernetics that are married to biological tissue face issues of immune system rejection and the buildup of glial tissue that results in the device not working. As a result, anyone in the setting who uses augmentations must take regular doses of the drug Neuropozyne or their own bodies will reject their augs. The fact that Adam Jensen doesn't have this rejection issue is an important plot point; he is {{spoiler|the "Patient X" that Megan Reed was referencing as having the genetic ability to allow cheap and sustainable augmentations available for all of humanity}}, and the breakthrough was what triggered the {{spoiler|Illuminati's attack on Sarif Industries because of fears that human augmentation would go out of their control.}}
* The water breathing potion in ''[[Terraria]]'' makes it so that you drown in the air while it has it's effect. However, if you wear a fish bowl on your head, you can go in and out of water just fine.
* A lot of the flavor text in ''[[
** Viking pilots must be able to bend quickly or the machine will crush them during the air to ground transformation sequence, and most pilots die because of this during their first battle.
** Ghosts can read the minds of others, but can't block other ghosts from reading their thoughts.
** Almost all the Dominion's forces have been "neural resocialized" (read, brain washed) so they are suicidally complacent (most of the army is former criminals).
** The Hydralisk has several thousand mores muscles in it's large head than the entire human body. Each is needed to fire their spikes. which can pierce future tank armor.
* As well as being armed with a portal gun, Chell in ''[[Portal (
* In ''[[Command
* Discussed in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' with regard to biotics, who can manipulate mass effect fields to lift, throw, warp, or block things. This is done because they have nodes of element zero in their bodies that are activated by electricity from the nervous system and produce mass effect fields. The asari are the only species that can naturally do this on any significant scale
* ''[[Guild Wars 2]]'' features the springer, a mount with the special ability to make impressively high jumps. In order to be practical, it also has a high tolerance to fall damage that allows it to fall from lethally dangerous heights without suffering damage.
* Averted in ''[[Hatoful Boyfriend]]'' with {{spoiler|Anghel Higure}}, who has the ability of emit potent hallucinogenic pheromones with neurotransmitter properties but lacks himself the immunity to those. To most people he just looks like a ''[[I Just Want to Be Special|Chuunibyou]]'' who spends too much of his time in a fantasy world of his invention, but people who hang with him long enough can be dragged into his fantasy world via hallucination, and it's implied that his condition make him increasingly difficult to snap out of his delusions.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[
** A fight with an opponent with a laser eye {{spoiler|a cyborg Frans Rayner}} ended very quickly once the beam was fired and missed, leaving {{spoiler|Frans}} too weak to fight. Why? The good Doctor noted that the eye had no outside power source, and was never used earlier in the fight, meaning it burns up a ''lot'' of calories.
* ''[[Magellan]]'' - The level of secondary superpowers varies. One of the staff members has to wear an exoskeleton because she has super-strength but not super-durability. One of the early superheros, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120613174153/http://magellanverse.com/?p=141 The Streaker] suffers [[Clothing Damage]] when using his super-speed and resolves the problem by not wearing clothing. On the other hand, most of those with super-powers do sport
** Since most characters we see are superheros, or superheroes in training, perhaps those without the required secondary powers just didn't get past the strict selection process.
** There is also a kind of magic water that allows blades to cut superhuman skin and hair, without superheroes wouldn't be able to shave.
* ''[[
** Subverted horribly when a little girl with a very peculiar type of invulnerability has her powers temporarily disabled, she dies from opportunistic infections, the doctors are unable to treat her with antibiotics once her powers return.
** The teacher Miss Kyle has the ability to change her density. As her density increases her size ''decreases''. It was stated somewhere that she normally has a small amount of density increase at all times, converting a beautiful but petite woman into someone a little more than average.
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* Definitely a part of WLP Comics. While these are explicitely stated, this trope is responsible. Most of the big-breasted charactes, of which there are many, have super-strength. This is because if they didn't, they wouldn't be able to move!
* ''[[Another Gamic Comic]]'' crosses over into tabletop tropes with this: pyromaniac Nuclear Dan, whose catchphrase is "I cast Fireball centered on myself!", had his roleplaying character briefly lack full immunity to his fire. Not wise enough to just stop casting centered on himself, said character took a few hitpoints of damage from every blast, inciting Dan to rage.
* ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'' discusses this, when T-Rex designes a game much like [[Super Mario Bros.]], except that the player character can't shoot fireballs from his hands without burning them.
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick
== [[Web Original]] ==
* In the [[Whateley Universe]], this is usually an important part of the plot and/or the character. Telekinetic [[Flying Brick]] characters like Lancer get flight and anchoring and [[Nigh Invulnerability]] and such from their PK field around (and through) their body. Density changers like Phase, when completely light, also have gravity warping so they don't sink through the floor (Phase can now fly, but when she first got her power she did have trouble not sinking through the floor). Speedsters like Scrambler and Quickie are Energizers, need to eat a ''ton'', and ''do'' have to worry about things like chafing (Quickie also has breasts, and has to worry about bounce when she speeds.) Wallflower can go invisible and make things around her invisible: when doing powers testing they found that her 'sight' when invisible wasn't perceiving light, but was psychic.
** Frostbite really ''lacks'' the
** Phase may be an [[Intangible Man]], but he doesn't become intangible as much as he moves matter interdimensionally. So he has no trouble with breathing or keeping his blood inside his circulatory system: it's just that he's moving matter into another dimension. It turns out this means he can go to 'normal density' and 'disintegrate' whatever he is moving through.
* In the sixth Shadow Hawk story in ''[[Epic Tales]]'', Shadow Hawk's required secondary abilities are actually a major plot point, as there is a character who's presence negates them. Also interesting in that Shadow Hawk's powers are magical in nature, while the negation powers are scientific in nature, and result after a section of really bad technobabble.
* In ''[[Cracked.com]]'':
** A [http://www.cracked.com/article_17185_7-awesome-super-powers-ruined-by-science.html a list] examining the necessity of such powers.
** Implied by [http://www.cracked.com/article_20241_6-awesome-superpowers-that-would-suck-in-real-life.html 6 Awesome Superpowers (That Would Suck in Real Life)]. For example, being able to throw lightning would require immunity to effects on sight and hearing similar to those of stun grenades, and force fields would need immunity to [[Not the Fall That Kills You]].
** Wolverine's required healing factor parodied in [http://www.cracked.com/video_17328_why-having-wolverines-claws-would-suck.html this video].
* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', it was generally assumed that all characters had these as a matter of course. Exceptions tended to make for interesting side-stories. For example, Silly Putty was a [[Rubber Man]], but he lacked the power to actually control his extended body when stretched; as a result, he had to be manually shaped by other people. The Shield was [[Nigh Invulnerable]], but wasn't anchored (or superhumanly strong), and as a result was regularly knocked ass-over-teakettle when he was hit with any significant force.
* In ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', it's explained that the Freelancers' AI granted them the
** This is actually averted in the [[Public Service Announcement|PSA]] [http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=1637 Upgrading]{{Dead link}}, when Caboose gets his armor stuck in invisibility mode.
{{quote|
'''Church''': Don't worry Caboose, I'm sure when [[Halo: Reach|the game]] comes out there'll be a way to shut it off.
'''
'''Sarge''': Sleep? When that game comes out, I won't sleep for a week!
'''Church''': Yeah, no, it's not that, it's just that he's having trouble sleeping because he can see through his eyelids now.
'''Sarge''': Oh. That's creepy.}}
* In ''[[Trinton Chronicles]]'' it would seem like everyone who has an ability that might normally kill them has an unmentioned secondary power.
** Best example of this is Dan who controls time, in order to move at hyper speeds when emulating [[Super Speed]] he would need a way to extract air with out burning his lungs and in order to see when he slows time to a crawl he would need a way to speed light up to his eyes while still perceiving slowed time.
* The demons in the ''[[The Salvation War]]'' all have giant back muscles that are very similar to the cells of the electric eels, which makes up for the needed energy a 20 foot tall man would need. The flying demons are filled with a light and highly flameable gas that allows them to fly and breath fire. However, the byproduct to the gas makes the demon's blood HIGHLY acidic, and while their insides are well protected from the acid, their skin bursts into flames if the blood touches it.
** Another example is the healing ability of the angels and daemons. One wounded angel noted he needed a lot more food and water when they were healing, and because of that his was slowed greatly. It is mentioned they have systems in their bodies that prevent such a fast healing rate from becoming cancerous. {{spoiler|When an angel army was Nuked, the radiation broke down the systems with horrible results.}} They, however, also fall to the problem of "healing fast
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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** Oh, it's worse than that: with nothing to oppose his inertia, he'd continue past the center of the earth, with gravity slowing him down, until he reached the other side - only to start falling again. Repeat forever... or at least until he suffocates, leaving us with an intangible dead body in the center of the Earth, unable to decay, burn, or compress.
*** He will never actually be at the center but will keep moving back and forth, as there is no friction to slow down his movement.
*** Not suffocating must be one of his other
*** Not really. Even if he can breath all that time, he'd still die in three days from lack of water.
** As seen in [[Batman Beyond]], and the DCAU in general, that a chemically induced transformation usually lacks the ability the control the new form and the long term effects on the body. Examples include Mister Freeze's body rotting away to his head because of his lowered temperature, likewise Clayface faced decomposition since his powers were granted by an overdose on a cosmetic product. Blight's radioactivity was growing in intensity and affecting his mind and Inque's liquid nature made her vulnerable to simple water attacks (which would dilute her to the point where she couldn't hold any form).
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** Of course, Superman wasn't actively trying to use his powers there. He has shown anchoring powers before and since, so it's probably something he has to consciously make happen, and Batman caught him by surprise (Superman's so used to people shooting him, the thought that an unpowered human would use a martial arts throw against him probably never even occurred to him).
*** Of course, [[Crazy Prepared|Batman already knew that.]] That's why he did that instead of punching him in the face with Kyrptonite right off the bat.
* Played for laughs in the ''[[
** Timmy Turner does the same thing in ''[[The Fairly
* Averted in ''[[
** [[Word of God]] has said that missing a day's worth of solar radiation for a Gargoyle is equivalent to skipping a meal. They'll have less energy, but it won't be very noticeable.
** To add credibility on the Dr. Sevarius theory, it is noted that in stone form they can heal better and often refer about it as "the sun will heal".
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*** Hey, ''real'' [[Magic Pants]]!
*** The spell that froze them must've also proofed them against the stone-destroying action of plants, lichens and weather for them to remain unharmed for a millennium.
** Their clawed hands are sort of required power in replacement of flying. They allow the Gargoyles to climb up to the high places needed to launch off from so they can glide for long periods of time..
* Bunnie Rabbot from Sat AM ''[[Sonic
** Some fanfic authors have used the idea that the build up of toxins from the robot parts could be fatal. The actual comics used a similar 'her stuff is killing her' at least once, which led to her getting a revamped look, and establishing she can't be 'cured' ever.
** Most versions of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' have him as a [[Big Eater]], and note that his sneakers are specially designed to reduce the problems with friction. Occasionally other secondary powers are alluded to, and on occasion he has learned to use them for other means (the Sonic the Comic version noted that part of the reason he was so tough was that he could vibrate the particles around him to provide a forcefield against air friction and direct damage).
** There was an advertisement/comic about Sonic that stated that his sneakers were, in fact, "frictionless". Which, while solving the problem of his shoes bursting into flames, creates the ''new'' problem of how he gains any traction, and thus is able to move at all... or stop, for that matter.
** The idea of the sneakers protecting Sonic from friction was a plot point in an episode of [[The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]. Robotnik's robots stole the shoes, leaving Sonic unable to use his speed.
*** Cross-county skis actually hold the answer to this: fish-scale skis, in which the bottom of the ski is like a ratchet, with the front edge of each "scale" being a shallow incline and the back being a sharp slope.
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[
** This seems to be a matter of control, however. Skilled Firebenders have been shown to be able to at least deflect or disperse fire thrown by an opponent if prepared for it; part of it comes from the bender's method of manipulating their element in unconventional ways ("bending" of plants, sand, metal, and even human bodies, or adapting principles like redirection from other bending disciples). It stands to reason that an unskilled or careless Firebender could hurt themselves, but it's likely that they're taught extreme control and discipline from an early age (after all, if your kid could breathe fire, the first thing you'd do would be to make sure he or she fully understood how dangerous it is).
*** If Aang's first Firebending teacher is anything to go by, the very first lesson a Firebender learns is iron control, and any Bender that can't or won't learn is probably going to get exiled because of the danger they pose to others (remember that Aang ended up burning Katara because he decided control was boring, and learned his lesson because of it; now, imagine someone who's screwed up once or twice and still doesn't get it).
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* Blastus in ''[[Robotomy]]'' has flame eyes, but not flame-''proof'' eyes, so when he tries to use them he accomplishes nothing but [[Eye Scream|setting his own eyes on fire.]]
* [[Jimmy Neutron]] used a superslick spray to give his shoes [[Super Speed]] while the effect of friction in the air is never discussed, he had horrible control of the friction on the ground and was unable to stop. He ended up as a pile of goo.
** A sentient pile of goo no less. Apparently it somehow separated his atomic structure and blended them together while still allowing his organs to function.
* An episode of [[Kim Possible]] had the title character (and [[Non-Human Sidekick|Rufus]]) don a pair of hi-tech shoes that allowed her to run incredibly fast, so that she could fight an army of super-sonic robots. She had all the secondary powers associated with super speed, apparently, except the ability to slow down. Even while not moving, everything around her moved so slowly it was almost stopped. By the end of the episode, she was mostly back to normal, but couldn't hit the brakes fast enough to stop in Middleton.
** This also brings up a few questions, regarding the time she spent apparently doing nothing for what was to her likely several hours, while those around her were shown to have moved.
* The titular character of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' has a bucketload of these. For example, he's clearly [[Nigh Invulnerable|very hard to injure]] considering the number of buildings he falls off of or is blasted through with minimal damage to himself [[My Suit Is Also Super|or his jumpsuit]]. This one is pretty reasonable, though, because the story wouldn't be very interesting if damage was realistically represented ''every time'' Danny gets blasted, punched, zapped or shot through a wall.
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*** Then again, the same must also apply to ''any'' speedster type.
** All standard secondary super strength powers also apply.
* A minority fan theory about cutie marks in [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** This is actually supported in an episode where {{spoiler|Apple Bloom}} made a potion that made her keep getting cutie marks. She was able to use all the skills like a master, with ranged from speaking French to taming lions to using a hulo hoop like a helicopter.
** This is actually explained quite handily by Twilight Sparkle. She says that all unicorns have a little magic that help them with whatever special talent they have, despite not being especially talented in magic. For instance, in Twilight's case, her special talent ''is'' magic, essentially giving her endless possibilities in using it.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[We Can Rebuild Him|Cybernetics]] will only reach full viability when they can be tied into the human nervous system. Replacement sensory organs are obvious, but a cybernetic limb will not have the same fluidity and grace of a natural limb until the brain can ''treat it'' like one. Some method of translating between electrochemical and digital transmission is needed.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20131119225510/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/31/60minutes/main4560940.shtml They're getting there.]
** Correspondingly, many attempts at power-multiplying exoskeletons have resulted in broken bones and strained muscles when the exoskeleton multiples the force and speed too far. There have been some recent{{when}} successes as designers learn to work around this.
*** At the other end of the scale, there's a robotic arm which has been made deliberately ''weak''. The fact that it is too weak to hurt anybody is a selling point.
** An issue of ''[[National Geographic]]'' included a story about a teacher who lost her arm in a car accident, and now has a highly-advanced prostetic replacement.
* Poisonous creatures (such as monarch butterflies) sometimes form an immunity against their own poison.
** Venomous creatures mostly aren't immune to their own venom though, so must isolate it from the rest of their body kind of like the same way we have hydrocholoric acid in our stomach (with a very complicated "support" system to neutralize it) but aren't by any means acid-proof.
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*** As medical science will attest, the human stomach is in a constant state of ''digesting itself'', the inner lining of the stomach reforming itself faster than the stomach acids can digest it. Stomach ulcers are what happens when the acid ''wins.''
** Scorpions are immune to the venom of their own species, and often their entire genus.
* The human body has a limit on the severity of the G-forces it can withstand before going into blackouts, physical injury and eventually death. Until this physiological limitation can be overcome
** Or just have the best of both and make it remote-piloted like the [[wikipedia:MQ-9 Reaper|Reaper UAV]].
***
* While it has been well documented that falls from heights of less than a few meters can result in severe injuries, the Required Secondary Powers of tumbling, falling properly and weight distribution is the basis for the sport of parkour.
* Wolff's Law states that after injury, the human body repairs itself so that it is stronger than before. This is how competitive board breakers can break concrete without injury: harder bones.
** And with time and lot of training, horrible deformity, bone pain and cumulative disability. [[Sarcasm Mode|Yes, it's a charm]].
** Don't forget the ballerinas. They basically break the bones in their feet and have them heal in an unnatural position. One reason why you might not want to give one a foot rub; black toes aren't exactly attractive.
* Wolff's Law seems to apply to athletic or physical training in general. It is generally known that one of the most sure-fire methods to slowing down aging is consistent physical and athletic activity. Such activity causes the body to draw a greater number of nutrients from food, forces the body to produce regenerative hormones, and even forces the brain to maintain higher cognitive abilities into old age (aka assists in preventing Alzeihmers) due to the fact that a body constantly in physical motion requires the nervous system to maintain constant contact with all the assorted muscles, tendons, and body parts et al.
* People who grow to heights of about 6'3" or above can often suffer chronic pain because bones, muscles and tendons don't develop sufficiently to deal with the attendant weight. People above ''7 feet'' can have real problems, as Andre the Giant (at 7'4" and 500 pounds) could attest. 7'5" was André René Roussimoff's kayfabe height, he actually topped out a 6'11" but his gigantism and massive daily beer consumption gave him the proportions of a much shorter man.
* One problem in the developed world is that, while advanced agriculture provides abundant food, our metabolic systems are still not that dissimilar from Stone Age hunter-gathers. This often leads to calorie intake outstripping energy needs, causing weight gain. It is not increased food consumption but decreases in physical activity and the reduced nutritional range of the foods we consume that is responsible for this change. Actual stone-age hunter gatherers had the best diet of any society humans have ever developed.
** Except before that our ancestors ate mostly fruits and nuts for millions of years, not meat. This is the reason we are among the rare animals that can get scurvy, a problem those hunters will have faced, especially during winter in colder area's. Our diet has in fact changed faster than our evolution can keep up with, and we currently are not adapted to deal with any of them perfectly.
** The high, year round calory intake is why Type II Diabetes, once rare and found only in the middle-aged, is becoming very common and is appearing even in children.
* The brain averts [[Dizzy Cam]] by inducing temporary blindness that exists for a fraction of a second. In other words, your brain averts Dizzycam by using [[Jittercam]].
* Human beings in general, actually. Water and oxygen are very corrosive. Their reactivity (separately and together) are the basis for all earth life, because they make biological reactions possible. Our bodies have to be built from the ground up to be immune, so that we can breathe air and drink water. (Consider that salt water and air can eat through an iron bar in a few weeks, but are harmless to human flesh).
* Bat echolocation is amazingly high-energy, loud enough that some species can use their calls to stun their insect prey. As the [[Make Me Wanna Shout]] page observes, their own calls should be loud enough to deafen
** Cicadas have an extremely loud call. In fact, they would make themselves deaf if they didn't have built-in earplugs.
*
** See for example #3 of ''[[Cracked.com]]'''s [http://www.cracked.com/article_19174_5-unexpected-downsides-high-intelligence.html
*** This isn't [[Psychopathic Manchild|always the]] [[Sociopathic Hero|case here.]] Most commonly manifests itself in [[Affably Evil|sarcastic or jokey misanthropy]] or [[Nietzsche Wannabe|angry philosophers/scientists]] and their disdain. However that doesn't mean they can't get along, just that one has to accept or work around their eccentricies and dislikes of 'normal' human behaviors. Many times they are even right, but [[Muggles|the norms]] are so browbeaten by tradition they keep on doing things the inefficient old fashioned way.
* This trope is technically a different way of saying "it's not the weapon that's deadly, but the man who uses it". You can own a gun and know how to shoot it. But even if you have a full-auto weapon, while it may give you an edge against someone with a weaker or slower weapon, having little to no marksmanship skills is a definite handicap in the least.
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