Super Zeroes: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"Faster than a doughnut! Stronger than cardboard!"''|'''Description for Wario-Man''', ''[[Wario Ware (Video Game)|Wario Ware]] Touched''.}}
 
Many people feel that the [[Superhero]] is an inherently silly concept. And certainly, many of the genre's conventions -- such as the use of strange, skintight costumes -- might look silly in [[Real Life]]. However, within their own setting, superheroes are usually accepted and admired.
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Not to be confused with [[My Hero Zero]].
 
Compare [[Blessed Withwith Suck]]. Contrast [[Super Loser]], who are characters who gain superpowers... but none of the cool you'd expect comes with the package.
{{examples}}
 
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* The Fabulous Frog-Man, sometime-ally of Spider-Man. A pudgy, idealistic young man wearing the super frog suit that originally belonged to his father (the villainous Leap-Frog), he has yet to succeed in his mission to stop crime... on purpose, at least.
** In the same vein, there was the Spectacular Spider-Kid (now the Steel Spider), a pudgy preteen genius who wears a Spider-Man costume under his (functional) Dr. Octopus work-a-like tentacles.
** In ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #247, The Toad, Frog-Man, and The Spectacular Spider-Kid were all vying to become [[Spider -Man]]'s partner, much to his consternation. In the end the three [[Super Zeroes]] form their own super-team, the Misfits.
* The Killer Moth was defeated by Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) on her first outing.
* The First American, a notably useless and stupid costumed hero created by [[Alan Moore]] for his America's Best Comics imprint. As [[The Other Wiki]] [[wikipedia:First American (comics)|says]], "Given his incompetence, he demonstrates below average physical abilities."
** Which is to say, he can perform multiple backflips in rapid succession and knows how to pop a bad guy in the face -- he's just really ''bad'' at it.
* The bumbling idiot Bob Phantom from DC's short lived Impact Comics line.
* Section 8 from ''[[Hitman (Comic Book)|Hitman]]''. The names say it all: [[The Alcoholic|Sixpack]], [[Black Comedy Rape|Bueno Excellente]], [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|the Defenestrator, Dogwelder, Friendly Fire]], [[Captain Ethnic|Jean de Baton-Baton]], [[Nausea Fuel|Phlegmgem]] and [[Convulsive Seizures|Shakes]]. There's a reason their team is named after the clause for leaving the Army due to insanity.
** Dogwelder deserves special mention. Garth Ennis and his friends were in a bar one night and decided to come up with the worst possible superhero. Dogwelder was the first suggestion, and nobody could top it.
** Well, Bueno Excellente (whose name was inspired by the Spanish subtitles in a PORN FILM, I kid you not) and who owns the "power of perversion" can be pretty scary in fact. [[Noodle Incident|Given]] [[Lobo|The Main Man]] himself once was the victim of his indignities, and chose to leave rather than kill him...
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* Most of the "Hero Support" students in ''[[Sky High]]''.
* ''[[Defendor]]''
* ''[[Super (Film)|Super]]''
* Rod Rescueman, the bungling novice superhero from the animated film ''[[Twice Upon a Time]]''.
* [[Kick-Ass (Filmfilm)|Kick-Ass]] starts off as this, being some overly idealistic teen with a stupid costume who managed to gain fame via in-universe [[Memetic Mutation]]. However, he eventually is able to [[Took a Level In Badass|Take a Level in Badass]] with the help of [[Little Miss Badass|Hit-Girl]] and ends up a true hero by the end.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Making up such superheroes is a regular game on the American version of ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]''.
* The old Mexican series ''[[El Chapulin Colorado]]''. With his honking horn of justice.
* Many of the characters on ''[[No Heroics]]'', but especially Alex.
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== [[New Media]] ==
* ''Zeroes'', NBC's parody of its own ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' show, is all about hero wannabes with utterly useless talents, who manage only to creep each other out.
 
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* Wario-Man from ''[[Wario Ware (Video Game)|Wario Ware]]'' and ''[[Super Smash Bros]].'' Already [[Played for Laughs]] in all versions, it comes more under this in Touched where after a rather silly theme song, flying an inch off the ground and what not, he tries to stop a train and fails miserably ([[A Twinkle in Thethe Sky]]). Heck, it's even called "Super Zero" in game!
** And now the top example of this on the page, in DIY Showcase, he has to open jammed toilet doors for people and fly about an inch off the ground. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOIRExwW9dU see here]
** Though somewhat subverted/averted in [[Super Smash Bros]] Brawl where he is a legitimate [[Limit Break|Final]] [[One-Winged Angel|Smash]] for Wario, with massively increased power and speed, invulnerability, [[Elemental Powers]] and what have you.
* ''[[Superhero League of Hoboken]]'' uses this as a premise, featuring the likes of The Crimson Tape (power to create org charts), Tropical Oil Man (raises cholesterol of his opponents), Captain Excitement (puts enemies to sleep) and Mademoiselle Pepperoni (clairvoyance into closed pizza boxes).
** Subverted in that they actually put those powers to good use: several can be used in combat (putting enemies to sleep or raising their cholesterol levels into the health hazard range, for example) or have beneficial uses outside of combat (Mademoiselle Pepperoni can easily determine of the pizza box contains anything of value or if it's a trap, and Treader Man's ability to tread water really well will open up additional areas). Several quests can [[This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman|only be dealt with by a particular hero.]] ("A warehouse full of genetically engineered super-spicy jalapeño peppers? This looks like a job for The Iron Tummy!") In fact, there's only one hero whose power is completely useless. And that is {{spoiler|Crimson Tape, the main character.}}
* [[Fallout 3]] has The AntAgonizer and The Mechanist, two crazy losers who are constantly battling with each other. While the former is hardly anything to worry about since her power is the ability to control [[Goddamned Bats]] in a society where everyone is armed to some extent, the latter is a skilled engineer capable of making [[Mecha -Mooks]] that are a bit more troublesome to deal with.
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* Illumina of ''[[Sidekick Girl]]''. She can float and glow, but she looks the part and in her [[The Verse|Verse]], that's what matters. Her boyfriend, Malestrom, is just as bad.
** But when Val takes over her body via [[Freaky Friday Flip]], she shows what Illumina's powers can do in the hands of someone competent. (i.e. Use her floating powers as a "feather fall" spell and glow bright enough to stun a crowd of mooks into helplessness.)
* ''[[PS 238PS238]]'' is largely a subversion -- no matter what powers a meta-prodigy has, the school tries to find some useful way to employ those powers, and they largely succeed.
** A possible case of this trope being played straight appeared in an early strip, when a mother was trying to pick out a costume for her superpowered son, who turned out to have the ability to animate balloon animals.
* Literally, the ''[http://www.amazingsuperzeroes.com/index.php Amazing Super Zeroes]'' (unfortunately, no longer updating). A new team of second-rate superheroes is selected on a reality TV show.
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* Powdered Toast Man from ''[[Ren and Stimpy]]''
* Captain Hero from ''[[Drawn Together]]''
* Ratman, from one of the Justice Friends shorts on ''[[DextersDexter's Laboratory]]''.
* ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'': [[Adam West|Catman]]
* ''[[Darkwing Duck]]''. Both underpowered and underbrained ([[Let's Get Dangerous|most of the time)]]. Justified in that the cartoon is a parody of the superhero genre.
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* Syndrome, the villain in ''[[The Incredibles]]'' started as one, but [[Took a Level In Badass|became a]] [[Not So Harmless|dangerous villain]] later on.
* Voltar, Doktor Frogg and the Red Menace from The [[League of Super Evil]] are all villainous Super Zeroes.
* Killer Moth is a Super Zero villain in ''[[The Batman (Animation)|The Batman]]''.
* Likewise, the Toilenator from ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]''.
** Subverted a few times, when he snaps and makes it apparent that he can stomp colons just as well as wiping them.
* The Action League from the ''[[Action League NowNOW]]'' segments on ''[[Ka Blam!]]!''
* LeBlanc of ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' lasted all of five seconds. That certainly didn't stop his boasting in prison.
** In the same episode, Control Freak is angry at "not being on the list" of villains to watch out for (even the Puppet King got on it!) But he's most certainly not a super zero!
*** The Other Heroes Beast Boy managed to find in "Titans Together" seemed to be these, but they managed to win anyway.
* ''[[The Mighty Heroes]]'' all seem to fit this bill, always winding up tangled up in a big mess.
* The ''[[Wild CATS]]'' had a resident Super Zero in the form of Voodoo, whose ability to spot people possessed by the evil aliens was actually pretty useful, but countered by her lack of the most basic combat skills. She was such a load that she was briefly kicked off the team before a convenient [[Plot Tailored to Thethe Party]] reminded everyone that they needed her.
* [[Booster Gold]] was treated like one both in ''[[Justice League]]'' and ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]''.
** Though his [[Justice League Unlimited]] [[A Day in Thethe Limelight|spotlight episode]] showed that this was due mostly to his [[Glory Hound]] attitude rather than lack of skill. He manages to be heroic in his own right [[What You Are in Thethe Dark|when no one else in the league was there to see it.]]
* Arthur from ''[[The Tick]]'' seems to fit this trope, although this is more evident in the Live Action, as noted above. Also, there was a super team called the "Civic-Minded Five", who definitely fit, particularly The Carpeted Man, and another the "Decency Squad", especially Johnny Polite. Also: Caped Chameleon; Fishbor, Lost Prince of Atlantis; Human Bullet; Captain Lemming, and a number of others.
** The Decency Squad was apparently formidable...back in the 1940's. Now they're a bunch of mostly washed up [[Old Superhero|Old Superheroes]] stuck in a retirement home. It's a good thing their [[Arch Enemy]] has aged just as badly as them and is only ''slightly'' more effective.
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* On ''[[South Park]],'' [[Token Evil Teammate|Cartman]] as "the Coon." He is quickly showed up by [[Badass Abnormal|Mysterion]], and eventually becomes a much more effective villain, even though he still calls himself a hero as he does it.
** [[Making a Splash|Seaman]] is treated this way by the rest of the [[Crossover Cosmology|Super Best Friends]], though really his only flaw is an [[Unfortunate Names|Unfortunate Name]].
** Captain Hindsight is an [[Inversion]]. His power is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]--knowing how to avert a disaster ''after'' it already happens. Obviously this is pretty useless in stopping the current problems, but everyone somehow acts like he's going to save the day. (He can also fly, [[Forgot I Could Fly|but somehow that never comes up or is deemed useful]].)
 
{{reflist}}