What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Difference between revisions

[[File:ColorKid.jpg|link=Legion of Super-Heroes|frame|[[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|He could make a fortune]] just by changing the color of people's clothes, but if his outfit is anything to go by...]]

 

 

This refers to a special ability of someone on a team such as a [[Five-Man Band]] who is [[Cast Speciation|so specialized]] as to [[Blessed with Suck|seem useless in most situations]].

 

 

Not every character is this lucky. It is a fact of life that leadership tends to favor the [[Badass]], [[What Measure Is a Non-Badass?|even if their level difference has been no fault of the weaker character himself]]. [[Can't Catch Up|Soon they will be ignored in favor of other, more interesting characters]] and eventually [[The Load|people will even question why they are still on the team at all]]. They may even turn into [[The Scrappy]].

 

 

Named for an [[Memetic Mutation|Internet meme]], itself referring to Ma-Ti's ring power in ''[[Captain Planet and the Planeteers]]''. While the other team members could control the raw elements with visually impressive feats, he could just [[Speaks Fluent Animal|talk to animals]] with a [[Spider Sense]]. No doubt it was useful - his telepathy bailed them out a lot, as did the ability to get nearby animals to help, and it seemed to ward off the [[Idiot Ball]] - but it lacked the total [[Elemental Powers|elemental]] "badass" quality of the others. Then there was the fact that their current [[Big Bad]] was invulnerable to its powers because "You have no heart!", and [[Mind Over Manners|he never bothered to use it on the other villains]]. Ironically, since his power involved a form of limited mind-control, he probably could have been the [[Game Breaker|most devastatingly powerful]] [[Story-Breaker Power|of all the Planeteers]] if he weren't a pacifist. Plus it's hard ([[Code Geass|but not impossible]]) to have dramatic tension when the hero can just command the bad guys to shoot themselves in the head. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JeLcP7Xa5o Inspired this video].

 

 

If they won the [[Superpower Lottery]] and still have one of these powers, it's [[Flight, Strength, Heart]]. If he's suddenly in a situation where the power is useful all by itself, it's [[This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman]]. If he's able to hold his own in a fight through good old training and determination, he [[Fights Like a Normal]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* Almost all of the Aasu sisters in ''[[Puni Puni Poemi]]'' are victims of this trope, which wouldn't be so bad if they didn't make up the ''entire team''. "Super breakfall" (the power to never be injured if you're knocked off your feet), anyone? [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] during a fight scene when they realize they can't fight the bad guy since they only have defensive powers.

* Played straight and subverted in ''[[Zettai Karen Children]]'': Kaoru (the telekinetic) is by far the most powerful of the trio, so Shiho (the mind-reader) DOES carry around a gun to make up for the non-lethality of her ability, leaving Aoi (the teleporter) as the weakest member who constantly worries that her only use is transporting the others to the scene.

** The writers at least made sure Mercury was involved in each fight, though. Nearly every fight begins with her firing off her bubble attack, which seems to genuinely confuse the monster...[[The Worf Barrage|for about five seconds before she shakes it off]]. It seems almost obligatory after awhile, and the other Sailors rarely do anything to take advantage of the enemy's moment of weakness. Her data visor, on the other hand, can be a lifesaver.

** In regards to Chibi-moon, it should be noted that this was [[Adaptation Decay|only something in the anime]]. In the manga, her "Pink Sugar Heart Attack" was fairly powerful, along the lines of a standard soldier attack.

* ''[[Cyborg 009]]'''s [[The Chick|female member, Francoise aka 003]] had non-offensive, surveillance-oriented powers (though she could still use a laser gun).

* ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' has Gomamon, whose rookie "attack" is basically to control fish and is only seen actually battling ''twice'' over the entire series. Yet this becomes an inversion when you realise that it works in other situations while the Rookie attacks are only effective one time in the entire series (and Gomamon was helping out for that one too, tripping the monster)

** Also, at the end, after the complete monster reduces the digi destined to ones and zeros...Yeah. The power of heart, or more accurately, the crests in their hearts.

* In ''[[Project ARMS]]'', three of the four ARMS protagonists are fitted with incredible bionic limbs in either their arms or legs, letting them fight bad guys effortlessly. The fourth member is fitted with bionic eyes which lets her forsee events and analyze battles to figure out strategies, but is mostly useless in actual combat (a fact she laments). She is later revealed though to have the incredible power to {{spoiler|kill all ARMS born of Alice (as well as Alice), including herself, though she is unable to go through with it)}}.

* ''[[Seikon no Qwaser]]'': The title qwasars have the ability to control a single element. Joshua ended up with element number 111, roentgenium. To put it in perspective, roentgenium does not exist naturally on Earth, and even if it did, its very short half-life would quickly render it not roentgenium (and therefore useless).

* In ''[[Canaan]]'', Yunyun revealed that her superpower was having two appendices. In fairness, she is more of a comic-relief character.

* ''[[Gash Bell]]'' had the Majestic Twelve, an American team of superheroes who seemed to really have super powers, but were comically inept at using them. The only one who demonstrated any prowess in battle was Big Boing, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|whose powers are self-explanatory]]. Her greatest power was chopping her "boing" to distract the enemy.

* The ''[[Bleach]]'' filler villain Koga's power is to control the Zanpakuto of other [[Shinigami]]. Now, this in itself is an [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|incredibly powerful ability]]. The problem is that Koga is a [[Shinigami]] himself, and is part of a larger [[Shinigami]] military force. Therefore, his ability would only be useful against his allies, and when fighting [[The Heartless|Hollows]], he would be forced to rely solely on [[Functional Magic|Kido]] and his own [[Implausible Fencing Powers|basic swordsmanship skills]]. On the flip side, this power came in very handy when he took part in a Shinigami civil war and later decided to [[Fallen Hero|rebel against the Shinigami himself]].

** The fact that there was a civil war going on could mean that Koga's Zanpakuto got that ability ''because'' of the war, as the details of the war are incredibly vague, although this is obviously WMG. To a more canonical extent, Muramasa does seem to be able to do things beyond manipulating Zanpakuto, for instance, manipulating emotions (which some argue is how he controls the Zanpakuto in the first place) and a form of illusion-based [[Mind Rape]] that he uses later in the arc.

* Completely averted in ''The Fantastic Adventures of [[Unico]]'', as the [[Power of Love]] enables Unico {{spoiler|to turn into a full-grown unicorn and kill a 50-story tall demon by charging through its torso}}. A rare instance where it doubles as a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

** Unico's power to stop all wars is nothing to laugh at either. This power forces the gods to get rid of him because it seriously messes with their plans.

 

* In the comics, Aqualad developed concerns similar to [[Aquaman]]'s (see [[Western Animation]] below) about feeling useless as a member of the [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]], which became so severe that he later developed a psychosomatic illness. Once the cause of his problem was realized, Aqualad decided to relegate himself as a Titans reservist, who participated with the team only when they had a mission in the sea.

** The second Aqualad was given the ability to create hard-water weapons and generate electrical blasts because the creators of ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' wanted to have an Aqualad who had powers that, ya know, would be of use when NOT in the ocean.

* Angel at [[Marvel Comics]] has similar problems to Hawkman and Aquaman. His power to fly is fairly useless in a superhero context. He was variously given razor-sharp metal wings, the ability to shoot poisoned metal pieces from his wings, and a healing factor to make him more powerful. The current version is physically powerful for a similar reason as Aquaman: to actually fly with his wings and survive hundreds of miles per hour winds, he [[Required Secondary Powers|must be very strong and resistant to damage]]. Angel was largely rescued by Marvel in an issue of ''[[Thunderbolts]]'' where he literally flies rings around them in their own comic in an awesome "Taking them back to school" moment. Angel also has a little-remembered ability of extraordinarily keen eyesight, comparable to a hawk's. That may not sound like much, but being able to spot movement from a rabbit when you're flying half a mile up is no mean feat.

** For that matter, Reed's stretching powers can seem a tad useless in a lot of situations (he's never displayed the kind of limitless shapeshifting abilities of, say, [[Plastic Man]]). But Reed's ''real'' super-power is being [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|the most brilliant scientist on Earth]].

* Every [[Silver Age]] team had a token female that was as useless as they could possibly make her, it seemed, and [[The Wasp]], of [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] fame, takes the cake. Her power was to become very small. She had wings in her small form, and stingers that, well, stung, but didn't really stop the enemy. She was about as useless fighting villains as her namesake insect, and spent most of the time begging for help, needing rescue more often than civilians. Her tendency to go small right away means she can't even qualify for [[Badass Normal]]. Worse still, she was always right alongside her boyfriend [[Ant-Man|Hank]], who also could become small, and more usefully, ''large,'' going from Ant-Man to Giant Man and swatting villains like bugs. His intelligence means bug-size was ''useful'' for him, as he knew how to sabotage villainous weaponry, and he had his bug-control helmet. Hitching a ride on bug-back means he can ''pretty'' much fly, too. This made Wasp's uselessness even more glaring. Wasp's being good at unarmed combat and deductive reasoning came later, and she's ''still'' more remembered for her many costumes than for actually ''doing'' anything. However, like many on this list, she was made non-useless decades later: She eventually became a great fighter in her own right and she even lead The Avengers for a time. She also gained the ability to grow.

* For a ''lesser'' example (which just goes to show how bad these situations ''could'' be), when we first met [[X-Men|Jean Grey]], her powers were only good for levitating as much as she could physically carry. She was considerably more useful than day-one Sue and Wasp, but compared to Beast, Cyclops, and Iceman, her powers weren't so great. Even Angel ''made'' more of a non-combat power (having flight alone ''should'' make you a bullet sponge, but with incredible agility, high flying speeds, and super-strong wings, he could kick some ''serious'' evil mutant posterior even pre-Archangel.) to the degree that Jean fell behind. However, she had incredible precision with her powers, and the 'school' theme means, like her teammates, she became stronger and more skilled with her powers as time went.

** Kitty Pryde takes this role later. Having the ability to walk through walls is great and all, but she lacked any offensive capabilities. At one point, she joined the rest of the [[X-Men]] to save the Morlocks from the Marauders, and realised that while her powers meant that the Marauders couldn't hurt her physically, they still seemed to be able to hurt her by taking out her friends. Of course, she would [[Take a Level In Badass]] as well, adding swords, guns and a dragon to her arsenal.

* The Legion of Substitute Heroes is composed of rejected applicants to ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes|The Legion of Super-Heroes]]'', who banded together in an effort to show their powers were not useless. Some members included Chlorophyll Kid, who has the power to make plants grow super fast (he also says he can communicate with plants; he can't, but that doesn't stop him from talking to them); Color Kid, who can change the color of objects; Infectious Lass, who spontaneously generates infectious diseases; and Stone Boy, who has power to turn into stone (at which point he becomes completely immobile.) Surprisingly, several members managed to prove their point and "graduate" into the LSH proper. Of course, considering some of the heroes the Legion ''did'' admit, like "Bouncing Boy" and "Matter-Eater Lad", you have to wonder just how ''bad'' your powers had to be for them to actually ''reject'' you.

*** Likewise, Bouncing Boy is extremely useful because of one of his [[Required Secondary Powers]]; dude's good enough at physics and trig to ricochet off walls and into bad guys, which is pretty damn hard to do quickly.

** Some of the applicants were written so obviously planned-to-fail that it boggles the mind what made them think they'd be a contributing member in the first place. Double Header opened with the remark "Two heads are better than one!"... and immediately started bickering with himself. And Arms-Fall-Off-Lad could detach his arm and use as a club, apparently not considering that blunt instruments aren't that difficult to obtain.

** One of the Substitute Heroes eventually ended up as ''leader'' of the Legion of Super Heroes. That would be Polar Boy, whose powers (control over ice and temperature) were always pretty useful; he just sucked at controlling them. After training for a few years and mastering his powers, he became a powerful and respected hero.

*** In one story, Color Kid's power actually proved vitally useful. He saved Superboy's life by turning a chunk of deadly green Kryptonite into harmless blue Kryptonite ... which, by the way, was a completely nonsensical plot development. There is no logical reason why changing the color of a radioactive substance would alter the type of radiation it was emitting. Nevertheless, it happened.

* The Top Cow Productions comic book series ''Freshmen'' has an entire team full of this. Each character's ability is based on what they were thinking of when a Mad Scientist's machine blew up. While some powers are more traditionally useful (the ability to control other people's minds, the ability to cause earthquakes) some are hard to use particularly well (for instance, the Drama Twins: Renee can telekinetically pull stuff and Brady can telekinetically push stuff; to actually use telekinesis effectively requires them to be touching each other and coordinate), or have disastrous side effects (the Intoxicator can cause everyone around him to be as high or drunk as he is). Then there are things like the ability to understand and talk to plants (while being a vegan), the power to make someone fall in love with you, the powers of a squirrel (a weird haircut, a constant desire to hoard nuts, and a limited ability to glide), having an incredibly sticky body, having a 15-foot-long indestructible penis, and an incredible ability to build dams and having super-intelligence... while being a beaver. However, the team's "leader", an incredibly nerdy comic book fan named Norrin, has no abilities (except for a fairly useless utility belt): he was out getting a pizza when the machine exploded. Surprisingly, at least once in the first story arc everyone's power is put to use. Except the [[Gag Penis]]. And we can all be thankful for that.

* Played straight in ''[[Normalman]]''. Everyone on the planet [[Sdrawkcab Name|Levram]] has superpowers, but not only do some of them never figure out just what their power ''are'', some people can, for example, turn toast green.

** In keeping with his "let's be nostalgic for 1901!" gimmick, Turner rode a flying bicycle ''built for two.'' But he had no one to ride with, so the second seat was occupied by a life-size doll dressed like a woman. Is being pathetic a super power? It is when you are ''this pathetic''.

* The Ten-Eyed Man. With the amazing ability of having eyes in his fingertips.

* Mr. Immortal, whose ''only'' power is to come back to life. Something Deadpool takes advantage of, to the extreme, whenever the two are together.

* And while we're at it let's just add all of the [[Great Lakes Avengers|Great Lakes Initiative]].

** Doorman: The power to become a portal, but only into the next room. (He's also a psychopomp with vaguely described powers.)

** Big Bertha: with the power to become really, really fat. (With accompanying strength and durability à la Blob.)

** Tippy Toe: Squirrel Girl's sidekick squirrel, and a full member of the team.

* In the Howard the Duck section from ''Civil War: Choosing Sides #0'' we have the man that can grow a full beard in a minute!!

* Played with by the villains in Mark Gruenwald's ''[[Squadron Supreme]]''. Some, like Pinball (can inflate his jumpsuit into a ball and roll into people) and Remnant (generate flying fabric from thin air) were pretty useless. On the other hand, Inertia, whose only ability was to transfer momentum from one place to the next, facilitates the epic beatdown of the [[Captain Ersatz]] equivalents of Superman, Flash, ''and'' Wonder Woman at the same time.

* The ''Zoom Academy for Superheroes'' graphic novel has this.

* ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]: Year One'' has this as a frequent point of contention between Aqualad and Kid Flash, both of whom think the other's powers aren't up to snuff. "Go talk to a fish!" "Oh, like running fast is really all that!"

* This is also a bit of an issue in ''[[Invincible]]'', where Shrinking Ray feels he is often neglected by his teammates in the Guardians of the Globe because of his powers seeming less than formidable. This isn't exactly helped by the fact that he barely ever gets any lines or character development beyond this frustration.

* In the ''[[Doom Patrol]]'' Doom Force Special, a parody of ''X-Force'', Shasta the Living Mountain agonizes over the fact that his power, turning into a mountain, has ridiculously limited application. This is probably also a parody of how in team books at least one member tends to have a complex about the perceived poorness of their powers. Since he's the [[Sacrificial Lamb]], he dies, but since his teammates are [[Darker and Edgier]], they not only don't mourn, they're actually ''happy'' he's dead because of his stupid powers.

* Independent character Dishman has the power to telekinetically clean dishes. He has yet to find a practical use for this beyond impressing women with the fact that he actually does household chores, but still seems to think it's interesting enough to base his hero identity around it.

* ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' features an in-universe example of this when the Knights play a variant of their usual superhero-based tabletop game that focuses on this trope. In the first session, Dave's Pot-Lid Boy (power: creative use of kitchen utensils; his lid armor was as strong as Kevlar) and Bob's The Screecher (power: cripplingly-strong nails-on-a-chalkboard power, plus an inability to be touched by human flesh) were soundly defeated by Shrink-Wrap Man, Edward Tire-Iron-Fingers, and the Human Sprinkler ([[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]).

* The entire team of the Red Shadows of the USSR in ''[[Suicide Squad]]'' is treated as a joke - for good reason. The most prominent and ridiculous member is called ''Bolshoi'' - a ''failed'' dancer who couldn't make it into the Bolshoi ballet and instead tried to become a [[Badass Normal]] in the Cold War superhuman scene. Since he got horribly maimed and nearly killed by ''[[Butt Monkey|Captain Boomerang]]'' of all people, you could say Bolshoi pretty much failed epically in his quest.

* ''Pantheon High'' is about the sons and daughters of deities attending high school. The main character has the power of luck. But he is also a typical teenage male, so this translates into sexual situations (i.e. seeing boobs). In one instance, two of his female allies were pondering whether the luck powers would allow them to put the smackdown on the baddies or he would end up "somehow making out with both of us at once".

* In ''[[Wildguard]]: Casting Call'', some of the first round auditionees were... not very impressive. Adhesor sticks to things, for instance. Toughlon, while strong and durable, also has the useless ability of being non-stick like teflon (hence the name). The dolphin-like Dorsal Head complains about being pigeonholed as "only useful in a 'water' situation" despite this not being the case. Little Miss Sunshine can emit rays of light that aren't harmful to anything but vampires.

* The Blimp of the ''[[Inferior Five]]'' has the ability to fly...very, very slowly.

** Actually, he can only float in midair. He needs a stiff breeze to push him in any kind of direction. [[The Woobie|Just redefines the concept of "useless", doesn't it?]]

* In ''[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Sergio Aragones destroys the DC universe]]'' we are introduced to a lineup of would-be super heroes with useless powers, such as [[Deja Vu]] Lad, who has the power to make events repeat themselves. He gets to do his intro six times before they throw him out.

* Obscure Golden Age Marvel hero the Witness, best known as one of ''The Twelve'', has the ability to always remember every evil act he sees. This is his only power. True, it's useful when reaping revenge for those evil acts, but the guy's lucky he's a [[Badass Normal]] besides, because seriously.

* Marvel's very own [[Fad Super]] Dazzler has the ability to absorb sound and convert it into light. This may not sound like much at first glace, but she can do things like blinding people with bright flashes(duh),create a strobe effect that upsets equilibrium, create holograms, and even [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]. She's also immune to sound based attacks, because they just make her stronger. This ability is shown to be obscenely powerful, as Galactus once recruited her to retrieve one of his Heralds and exposed her to unimaginable sounds, including the explosion of an entire galaxy(yeah yeah, [[Space Does Not Work That Way|no sound in space]]. He's [[Green Lantern Ring|Galactus]], he has no care for your paltry human physics), to boost her to sufficient levels.

* In ''Mad House Comics Digest'' #5, there's a story where intellect-challenged superhero Captain Sprocket decided to get some respect by forming his own team. Unfortunately, all he could get were grade-Z superheroes like Roller Surfboard Man, who could do any roller surfboard trick in existence, and Super Pizza Pie Man, who could hit his target with a pizza of any size at a 50-foot distance.

 

== Fan Works ==

* ''[[Potter Puppet Pals]]'' in the live show at least. Dumbledore describes the awesome power of:

'''Harry''': ''Lame!'' }}

* Marik from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'' can use his [[Artifact of Doom|Millennium Rod]] to control minds. Unfortunately, it only works on people named Steve.

 

 

* The team in ''[[Mystery Men]]'' is all about this trope<ref>It's based on a spinoff from the ''Flaming Carrot'' [[Comic Book]]</ref>

** Mr. Furious, who gets angry without actually getting stronger.

*** [[Alternate Character Interpretation]]: He does get stronger when he gets mad, but he's a pretty mellow person, so while he gets annoyed frequently, he rarely gets truly angry.

** The Blue Raja throws forks. He doesn't throw knives because it wouldn't be sporting.

* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X3]]'' takes this to new heights with Kid Omega, whose abilities are... retractable inch-long spines. Apparently inspired by comic character Quill. But while Quill can usually shoot these spines, these just... stay there. While this could be a devastating power if you were intent on killing everyone at a chronic cuddler retreat, in combat with people with guns, psionic powers, and various other super-abilities, it's kinda weak. Despite this, he acts as though he is an impressive mutant, using his quills for intimidation purposes on multiple occasions. (Not a bad idea, but useless in the circles he travels in.) It's made worse by the fact that his only on-screen kill is a defenseless, crying woman whom he comforts with a hug then impales on his spines. Some sources describe the spines as poisonous, but still not all that interesting.

** The comic version is decidedly more interesting but just as useless: he has a "transparent mind" that makes all of his thoughts visible to passersby. When amped up by performance-enhancing drugs, however, he reveals himself to be an incredibly powerful psychic.

* ''[[The Specials]]'' features [[Jordan Ladd|Night Bird]]. Even though she's applying for a middle-rung superhero team, she's bashful about her own power, which turns out to be laying eggs (and good hearing). She can't talk to birds, either, though they do "have an understanding." At the end of the film she discusses her role in the team's first battle - she hid in a dumpster. She commiserates with Minute Man (pronounced my-noot), who can make himself "minute" in size.

* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the Movie]]'': When the Rangers get their new [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja|ninja]] [[Animal Motifs]] Tommy gets Falcon, Rocky gets Ape, Billy gets Wolf, Aisha gets Bear, and Kimberly gets Crane. But what does Adam get?

'''Dulcea:''' Yes, a frog! Like the one you kiss ''*kisses Adam*'' and get a handsome prince. }}

 

== Literature ==

* [[Averted]] in the ''[[Circle of Magic]]'' series. What kind of lame power is "thread-magic?" While it's not quite as spectacular as, say, Tris' [[Shock and Awe|lightning magic]], Sandry still uses it to tear several villains apart, {{spoiler|escape a kidnapping}}, and [[Boring but Practical|make really durable clothes]].

* Some of the magical talents in [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[Xanth]]'' are so widely useful and powerful that their possessors are known as Magicians and eligible to rule the magical land. And on the other hand are those with the power to make a small colored spot appear on the wall, play a magic flute, or make people in the vicinity age slightly faster. Much is made in the series out of finding real uses for even the feeblest talents, and a lot of crappy powers turn out to be surprisingly powerful, at least when facing [[Plot Tailored to the Party|the right plots]]. The spot-on-the-wall talent, for instance, can be used multiple times in order to make pictures, often quite convincing ones.

* Tim Burton's ''Oyster Boy and Other Stories'' features a whole array of kid heroes with this trope, one being Stain Boy whose only power is to make nasty stains.

* The ''[[Fingerprints]]'' series features characters with a variety of [[Psychic Powers]]: some awesome, some... less so. Lampshaded when the main character Rae, who has the ability to read thoughts from fingerprints, tries to fight a villain with a much stronger psychic power, who laughs at the uselessness of Rae's ability.

* In ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]: Suffer the Children'' Freddy gives several teenagers powers, with his plan being to manipulate them into being his servants in the real world. [[Final Girl]] Alex gets empathy. She even states near the end of the book that this "power" just sucks compared to the ones her friends got, which included the likes of pyrokinesis, telekinesis and mind control.

** She tries to find a silver lining by thinking it could at least help her sense Freddy's presence. Reading her mind, his disembodied voice responds with "Don't count on it, bitch."

* In ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'', some vampires gain genuine supernatural powers, while others just have a natural trait magnified. The latter circumstance tends to suck. Carlisle got stuck with compassion, Esme with [[The Power of Love]], and Rosalie with beauty. Which in some worlds would be at least unusual traits for vampires to possess at all, but here just makes them...nicer. Then there's Victoria, who had her self-preservation instinct enhanced. Yes, some vampires gain the ability to cause pain at will, read minds, create illusions, while she gets not wanting to die slightly more than people already don't want to die. It's not as though her power even stopped her from embarking on incredibly dangerous tasks, like the one that, say, got her killed.

**Marcus, anyone? The guy has the power TO SEE RELATIONSHIPS. I know it is intended to be more like a "relation-meter", but still...NO.

** Subverted when it turns out that the Steel Ministry is highly interested in recruiting Seekers, since {{spoiler|Hemalurgy can make them strong enough to pierce copperclouds, something the rest of the world thinks is impossible}}.

* In ''[[Maximum Ride]]'', while everyone is developing awesome super powers such as super speed, invisibility, and mind control, Iggy gets the ability to... feel color and see if everything is white. Whee.

** Slightly averted in that Iggy was blind to begin with.

* In [[The Pale King]], Claude Sylvanshine has Random Fact Intuition, which is basically ESP with nothing but useless facts.

* In ''[[The Hunger Games]]'', Peeta jokes that the only thing he's really great at is icing cakes; Katniss, understandably, doesn't think that's likely to help him in the arena. {{spoiler|[[Heart Is an Awesome Power|In fact it makes him freaking boss at camouflage, which is great news for the NonActionGuy.]]}}

* In the web-novel ''[[Domina]]'', some of the superpowers are [[Super Speed]], [[Barrier Warrior|force fields]], [[Dishing Out Dirt|the ability to manipulate rock and stone]], [[Playing with Fire|pyrokinesis]], and...[[Living Lie Detector|lie detection]]. Not even particularly ''good'' lie detection, either; [[From a Certain Point of View|half-truths]] slip right by.

* The first power Michael develops in the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]'' after getting magic are an ability to see magic in nature, while he could already sense it if he was close enough to the magical object, and he treats this like [[Wangst|the end of the world]]. He's even less pleased to discover his ability to make water wetter (let that one sink in) because of what it ''can'' do. He only calms down when Fisk points out that, actually, having water that's extra wet isn't really that useful.

 

== Live Action TV ==

** Also parodied in a sketch about a man with telekenesis - but it only works on biscuits. Downplayed by the fact that his companion thinks it is an ''awesome'' power (after all, ordinary humans ''can't'' cause biscuits to fly around with their mind), and that the man's problem with the power isn't that it is lame, but that he [[Deus Angst Machina|tends to inadvertently kill people when using it]].

* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'':

* This trope is the entire point of the ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' game "Superheroes". From just [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzt26K40JtY one playing]: Suicide Boy, Yodeling-Pogo-Stick Man, Captain Bloodloss, and Cowboy Stunt-Rider. Other examples include Caught-In-A-Wind-Tunnel Boy, The Jitterbug Kid and Run-Away-From-Danger Man.

** This list has so far failed to include fan-favorite [[Captain Obvious]].

** A special mention must go to [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|'Panicky-Ski-Jump-Puppet-Man']], Delayed Reaction Man and, of course, Slappy-- [[Action League NOW|with the power to... slap.]]

** A special-er mention goes to Captain Hair; the one [[Isn't It Ironic?|bald guy.]]

* In ''[[No Heroics]]'' we get Fuseboss whose power is fusing two things together. To make the matters worse, he also has a nervous tic that forces him to create new words by fusing two existing, hence we get jems like "bews" (bad news), "prules" (pub rules) and "blob" (...take a wild guess).

* Before achieving national fame as "the Science Guy", [[Bill Nye the Science Guy|Bill Nye]] was a member of the Seattle-based comedy-sketch show ''[[Almost Live]]!''. One of his reoccuring characters was a superhero named [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e6h4zLC5U8 Speed Walker] who fought crime "while maintaining strict adherence to the regulations of the International Speed-Walking Association!" (Heel toe! Heel toe!!)

* ''[[Kamen Rider Super-1]]'' subverts this and plays it straight at the same time: Gold Hand is a radar... yeah, not very useful until you get to the fact it can be used as a missile launcher.

* ''[[Friends]]'' had an episode where it was revealed that Ross, as a child, used to write comics about his own superhero, '''Science Boy!''' Blessed with the powers of... a super human thirst for knowledge.

** Mister Wonderful. He doesn't have any powers, he's just Mister Wonderful!

* [[David Letterman]] made a top 10 list about this trope:

1. Magnetic colon }}

** Oh, come on. Number 3 sounds awesome unless you actually plan on fighting crime.

* One of the players on ''[[Survivor]]: Samoa'' made a direct and detailed reference to the original ''[[Captain Planet and the Planeteers]]'' instance of this trope in describing his feelings of weakness and fatigue.

* ''[[Out of This World]]'': On her 16th birthday, Evie is told by her father Andross that she can gain a new power from ten different choices. One of the choices is the ability to change shoes quickly. Andross admits "We don't get a lot of requests for that one..."

** In later seasons they all got upgrades, and the telepath gained a weird "mental missile" attack that did manage to take out whoever it hit (but having no effect on the surrounding area); she still got left behind though.

** Emma's powers eventually grew to the point where she could erase memories with a thought and could keep an entire army from discovering a weird-looking jet in a jungle clearing. Of course, as she explains to Jesse, to do this she has to remove all safeguards from her mind, meaning she won't be blocking anybody's thoughts. While she's saying that, she's wearing an outfit with lots of cleavage, which Jesse just happens to look at. Her reaction to his thoughts shows that she's not pleased. Apparently, the writers thought this made her too powerful, requiring a [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|bridge to be dropped]].

 

== Music ==

* Comedian David O'Doherty has a song called "Very Mild Superpowers".

* [[They Might Be Giants]] did an album for children called "No." One song is titled "John Lee, Supertaster." It is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].

 

== Mythology ==

* The Titans of [[Classical Mythology]] included such forces as [[Father Time|Cronus]], and if they weren't in control of something, they were a parent of a god who was. Then there's Crius. He can make constellations...and can't do anything with those constellations. He was so useless that he never even fought in the war between the Titans and the gods.

 

== Radio ==

* BBC radio comedy show ''[[The Burkiss Way]]'' had a [[Legion of Super-Heroes]] sketch where the team were irritated by an applicant trying to claim the ability to stand up from a sitting position as a super-power. ("I can do it quite quickly...") When this fails to impress them, he claims to have the ability to move from place to place at will - by getting on the bus. They try and throw him out, so he reveals he has one last super-power: The ability to stop any comedy programme at will.

* Eighties radio comedy ''[[Son of Cliche]]'' featured ''The League Of Stupid Heroes'', principally Captain Invisible and his trusty sidekick the Seethru Kid. One episode began in the local barbers with a very careful hairdresser demonstrating one of the drawbacks of invisibility.. at the end, Captain Invisible and seethru are both wounded and immobile and trying desperately to get the local police and ambulance saervice to locate them...

** [[That Mitchell and Webb Sound]] - Angel Summoner and the BMX Bandit. One can summon hordes of immensely powerful angels. One rides a BMX. Any guess as to whose power tends to get used?

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** How large a [[wikipedia:Giant squid|mollusc]]?

** At least now we have an explaination for that [[Ghostbusters|sponge migration]].

* In the post-modern horror game ''[[Unknown Armies]]'', a Significant magical ritual (that is, an effect of Authentic Thaumaturgy usable only by Adepts, not by normal people unless they HAPPEN to know the incredibly rare and costly Harmonious Alignment minor-charging ritual) is called "Scurvy Livestock". This ultra-rare power, which can be cast ONLY on a full moon night and which requires yellow phlegm from a sick woman with a least one living child, mixed with wine and honey which must be boiled (while saying magic words) in your your opponent's field, causes livestock owned by the target to sicken: cows give sour milk, sheep get patchy, and piglets fail to thrive. Some, as the spell notes, will die. The book explains: "Sure, this doesn't seem particularly impressive today. But in the Middle Ages it was one of the all-time greats."

* This can happen if you get the wrong [[Superpower Lottery|randomly drawn]] Alpha Mutations in ''[[Gamma World]]''. Giant Clown Feet anybody?

 

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The first ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' game has an example with Decoy Octopus, who can imitate another person perfectly, even down to the blood. While it ''sounds'' good and is certainly useful, it just can't compare to the likes of the [[Fourth Wall]]-shattering Psychic, the hulking shaman wielding a [[BFG]] commonly found on ''fighter jets'', the [[Cold Sniper]] skilled enough to hit you in a ''blizzard'', and the clone of the greatest soldier ever who is [[Made of Iron|Made Of Frickin' Titanium]]. He only one-ups the sharpshooting [[Badass Normal]]... but who acts mostly [[Manipulative Bastard|behind]] [[The Chessmaster|the]] [[The Man Behind the Man|scenes]] instead of in the battlefield.

* The Eyeclops helmet in ''[[Kid Chameleon]]''; in an irritatingly [[Nintendo Hard]] game, its primary application is to... fire harmless green beams that reveal invisible blocks, which is useless most of the time (as power up blocks are either clearly seen or easily found without the helmet). Its ''attack'' function is its ''crystal power up'', which fires a brief white beam of kill energy that only takes off one hit from normal enemies, doesn't damage bosses ''at all'', yet eats gems like candy per use. The only real advantage it gives you over your normal, unpowered self is an extra hit point (which any of the other helmets can get you, themselves).

* The Sleep power up in the ''[[Kirby]]'' series; all you do with it activated is, well... sleep for a while, not healing or becoming invulnerable or anything, just... sleeping and being a sitting duck. Enemies or powerups that grant Sleep are actually used as obstacles later in the series for just that reason; likewise, it's a [[Zonk]] when two or more powers are absorbed at the same time ("Mix"). This was subverted in the latest game, where a treasure lets Kirby use Sleep to heal his health bar. In several games, Sleep ''does'' give you invulnerability; there was even a level in one game where you had to sleep through a conveyour belt filled with invulnerable spiky enemies to reach a secret door.

** Although, to be honest, even with the scroll to give it healing abilities, Sleep is still pretty much useless. You'd probably be better off with literally any other healing item.

** Subverted in ''[[Trinity Universe (video game)|Trinity Universe]]'' in which seemingly-useless attributes actually ARE useful. Consider Etna's passive skill; making fun of her chest size is actually responsible for improving the strength of her dark-elemental attacks.

* Averted in ''[[Trauma Center]]'', where Cardia (Greek for heart) covers your patient's heart with rapid-fire lacerations in between laying tumor bombs. Not that bad in the storyline missions, but X-Cardia will ''[[That One Boss|kill you dead]]''.

** "Pastiche", each of whose body parts has a different power (her hand, for example, can phase through solid matter, but her [[Kryptonite Factor]] is ''rope'' and anything wheat-based);

** "Lexicon" knows every word in the English language;

* Shaman in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' use elemental totems to grant a wide variety of buffs to their allies. As a drawback, these totems are stationary, have limited range, limited duration, and only 5 hit points (meaning a level 1 character's attack can kill a max level shaman's totem in one hit). This was fine in the original game and even through the first expansion, but ''WoW'''s second expansion brought a round of buff handouts and homogenization that turned all but one totem from powerful unique buffs into unwieldy versions of other classes' buffs.

** Yes, but the cool thing about Shamans is that you can have ''four'' of them up at a time. This is awesome for 5-person groups, or even solo. The fewer people in the group, the more useful the shaman is. A solo shaman can have 4 totems, a weapon buff (two if you're an enhancement shaman), and a Shield buff all at once. No other class gets that many buffs in that kind of variety. Anything from melee strength, to haste, to spell power, to increased HP or MP regeneration, to absorbing the enemy's next spell, the shaman has it. The only drawback is that most other classes have stronger versions of the same buffs, so once the Shaman gets into a 10+ player group, chances are, their buffs are now unnecessary.

* Shirou in ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'' is terrible at magic and has the super awesome ability to... use the least efficient style of magic better than anyone else naturally. Which he can do about six times before running out of prana. Oh, and he's really good at visualizing the internal structure of stuff and their history. {{spoiler|This is completely subverted due to his [[Field of Blades|Reality Marble]], which turns him from some kid with huge [[Determinator]] qualities, high physical strength and poor planning abilities into ''[[Future Badass|Archer]]''. And it's still only good on a battlefield because all he can make is weaponry, and -- if he struggles -- armor}}.

** Actually this would be more of a case of [[Heart Is an Awesome Power]] because the style of magic related to that (projecting) allows him to {{spoiler|copy and recreate any weapon he's already seen before. This includes all of the legendary weapons he sees during the Fifth Holy Grail War}}. Even without his {{spoiler|Reality Marble}} by the end of the three routes he's still pretty dangerous in a game filled with ancient heroes and demigods.

* In ''[[Comic Jumper]]'', Paper Lad from "The Improbable Paper Pals" has the ability to turn himself into different types of paper. Naturally, Smiley and Star mock him for this, and even Paper Lad admits he's useless without his partner, Origami Kid.

* Inverted in the first ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' game:

'''Riku''': ''Your heart''? What good will that weak little thing do for you? }}

** Turns out his heart is what won him back the Keyblade, which {{spoiler|Riku}} stole.

* Brilliantly subverted by [http://buttersafe.com/2007/09/27/the-power-of-love/ this] ''[[Buttersafe]]'' comic, in which love is {{spoiler|the source of energy which powers eye lasers}}.

* In ''[[The B-Movie Comic|The B Movie Comic]]'', Mopey hasn't been a [[Magical Girl]] for more than one minute, and [http://www.bmoviecomic.com/?cid=229 she already asks that very question].

* In the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' parody webcomic ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'', we have The Chinaman of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Dead Cell unit]]. In a team consisting of a giant explosives expert, a superb strategist, and a vampire who can see in the dark, run up walls, walk on water and pin people to the ground by their shadows, The Chinaman is... a special effects expert and a navy swimming champion. Who can also hold his breath for a really long time. Did I mention that he's currently stationed in a ''desert''? Because of all this, he ends up trying ''way'' too hard.

'''Jackson''': It's for the best. He was about thirty seconds from challenging you to a breath holding contest. }}

* Parodied in [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=164 this installment] of ''[[VG Cats]]''.

* Lampshaded in [http://www.leasticoulddo.com/comic/20080912 this] strip from ''[[Least I Could Do]]''.

* Subverted in [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=499 this] strip from ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]''.

* Apparently the entire point of ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'''s "Supers" theme. For ''both'' heroes and villains.

* Andrew "Smitty" Smith of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' has the power to subconsciously create order where there was none, or as Parley puts it [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=385 "his super power is to make everything boring!"]

** [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=766 It has] its uses, however. The most promising application so far was turning [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=769 inconvenient] [[Inconvenient Summons|spontaneous teleport]] into [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=790 precise eyeblink-fast teleport].

* Noah of ''[[Path to Greater Good]]'' has, at the start of the series, the magical power to ''not see his own reflection''.

* [http://www.captainexcelsior.com/index.php?id=81 Average-Man] is the world's most average superhero. He's okay at flying.

* The premise of [http://www.optipess.com/2008/12/05/amazing-superpowers/ this] ''Optipess'' strip.

* Hamsterfall from ''[[Bob the Angry Flower]]''. When he wills it, hamsters drop from the sky.

** Also Plantae. He has the power to control plants. In comic books this is typically a reasonable power, but that's because it implicitly [[Required Secondary Powers|gives the plants the ability to move]]. The only plant that can move in this comic is Bob himself (and possibly Stumpy). Needless to say, the uses of commanding a flower with anger issues are limited.

* In the ''[[Homestuck]]'' Midnight Crew Intermission, The Felt are a gang of mobsters specializing in time-related magic. Most of the powers are pretty useful, but a few of them are rather pointless. Sawbuck's power is that whenever he gets hurt, he and everyone around him will jump to a random point in the timeline. Biscuits believes that his "magical" oven can teleport him into the future. He's technically correct, although it only moves at a rate of one second per second, so he's essentially hiding himself in a completely mundane box until the timer rings. Doze has the power to speed up time around him, giving himself super-slowness. It does have one use, in that it makes it practically impossible to interrogate him.

** Let's not forget about the lolcat and fangirl parody Nepeta Leijon, who actually is the Hero of Heart among the troll kids. Which may or may not be a reference to this trope...

* Bob's power in ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]]'' is to "fail at building demolition".

* In ''[[A Path to Greater Good]]'', Noah's power is ''the inability to see his own reflection''. It later gets upgraded to {{spoiler|travelling between two parallel worlds, but he often materialises dozens of feet in the air or surrounded by man-eating dinosaurs}}.

* ''Luke Surl Comics'' has [http://www.lukesurl.com/archives/1294 one more view] on Ma-Ti.

* Lampshaded in [http://survivingtheworld.net/Lesson237.html this] [[Surviving the World]] strip on superpowers.

* [http://woodsforthetrees.comicgenesis.com/d/20110214.html "Heart doesn't win any awards, Reuben, it just tastes of iron... or in Jess' case, cholesterol."]

* In ''[[Wright As Rayne]]'', Misty Smid's superpower is the ability to sense when people are looking at her and where they're standing. [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|This can make her a decent spy]], but it's totally useless in combat, especially when you consider her best friend is a witch.

* ''[[Terror Island]]'''s [http://www.terrorisland.net/strips/130.html Obvious Dentist]. His power is that [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|everybody knows he's a dentist.]]

** He's not, but everyone knows he is all the same.

 

 

* Dr. Horrible's roomie Moist from ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]'' apparently has the power to make things... moist. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] when he laments that at his most badass he can make people feel like they want to take a shower.

* [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] at considerable length in the "Aquatic Justice" episode of [[Kevin Smith]]'s podcast, which features much maligning of poor Aquaman.

* There's an [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14274590/ archived thread from /tg/ about this]. Although, some of the powers listed therein can also tend towards [[Heart Is an Awesome Power]]

* In the online novel ''[http://www.furaffinity.net/view/610837/ Dangerous Lunatics]'', Victor is a skunk boy who can control his flatulence to a musical degree, among his newfound friends with more traditional superpowers such as {{spoiler|super strength, bendiness, speaking to the dead, and immortality}}. However, {{spoiler|later on he finds out he can, in addition, actually blast a veritable tornado of force from his rear, and saves the rest of the team by doing so at a critical moment}}.

* ''[[The Spoony Experiment]]'' references this trope while decrying the weak plots of the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series. ''Final Fantasy I'''s plot, about the four elemental orbs: "The only way this plot could be gayer is if there was a fifth orb for Heart!" (Cue [[Stock Footage]] from ''[[Captain Planet]]''.)

** There's also [[Battlefield Earth|Terl]], who has the ability to intuitively know how high above sea level any location on earth is, and concludes that because of this, people should [[A God Am I|worship him as a god]]. When Spoony counters that you could just look it up on Wikipedia, Terl responds "Well, yes. But only a lowly man-animal would need to."

* In the ''[[League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions]]'' Mr. Obvious had the power to see the obvious!

* [http://superuseless.blogspot.com/ superuseless superpowers].

* In the [[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]], the ''Crimestoppers'' campaign was made of this trope. The team consisted of: Doctor Destiny, a sometime-clairvoyant who gets visions of the future with the aid of his magic 8-ball; Mister Excitement, a hero who gains his super-strength through adrenalin rushes, but who has no control over when those rushes occur; [[Talking Animal|Rex the Wonder Dog, a talking American Mastiff]] (that is his power, he's a dog that talks); Silly Putty, a shapechanger who has to be physically manipulated to change his shape, and cannot change his color; and The Tagger, who possesses the power to spray any color of paint he wishes from his fingertips.

** Also the mysterious Mister Easter (not a member of the Crimestoppers), who had the power to change water into wine, multiply a single fish and a single load of bread into many fishes and loaves of bread, walk on water, completely cure leprosy, blindness, and a very small range of disabilities that prevented people from walking. Plus, if he was killed, he rose from the dead after three days.

* Rambar in ''[[The Motley Two]]''. As a ''[[Homestuck]]'' troll, he's got [[Psychic Powers]], but rather than something useful, they just make him into a [[Fourth Wall Observer]] who can hear the mysterious voices that are the [[Interactive Comic|readers' suggestions]] and argue with them.

* On ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', in the Strong Bad Email "super powers", Strong Bad reveals his secret super-power: removing caps (bottle-caps, beanie caps, etc.) with the power of his mind.

* The flash animation by Egoraptor ''[[Girlchan in Paradise]]'' has Maytag, a woman with a price gun. Nobody seems to see this power as physically dangerous, yet everyone keeps reiterating they have no idea how to beat such a power, and The Green Guy comes to the conclusion {{spoiler|he has to use a suicide attack and blow himself up with her}}.

* Generator (Jade Sinclair) of the [[Whateley Universe]]. In a superhero universe, at a [[Super-Hero School]], Generator has the power to... animate a blanket or a toy for an hour or so. She eventually turns this into [[Heart Is an Awesome Power]].

** On the other hand, plenty of Whateley Academy kids stay lame. Lightweight has the ability to make an object weigh five pounds less. Glass has the ability to turn transparent. Not invisible, just transparent. Bluescreen has the ability to mess up some electronics. Hoarder has the powers of... the hamster!

** Basically the entire school club The Underdogs is made of kids in this category. Kamuro can shoot sparks out of her hands. Not lightning blasts or anything dangerous. Just sparks. And don't ask about Miasma.

** 'Ability to turn pennies into sushi'

** 'Electric fan head'

* [[Freddie Wong]] brings us [http://youtube.com/watch?v=1eFDra1XimA Milk Man], whose superpower is vomiting milk. [[Lethal Harmless Powers|However...]]

 

== Western Animation ==

*** Well, Mati could use his Mind Control to forcefully take over the Heroes including Wheeler and become an Egoconscious Tyrant of the World.

** Most of the superheroes in the show (and the comics) were like this, with stars like Baby Boomerangutan (a man in a headless orangutan costume who threw exploding baby dolls), Captain Lemming (who liked to leap off of high things... without having [[Super Toughness]]) or Crime Cannibal (who had the power to [[I'm a Humanitarian|eat human bodies really quickly]]).

* The much-maligned Aquaman from ''[[Superfriends]]'', who often needed episodes [[This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman|specifically written to utilize his powers]] without the audience wondering why another character couldn't handle the situation just fine. A mantra of sorts that people use to describe Aquaman's powers is "Swim fast, talk to fish". As lame as his powers were, Aquaman's arch-nemesis on ''[[Superfriends]]'', The Black Manta, was even lamer. As [http://seanbaby.com/super.htm Seanbaby's article on The Superfriends] pointed out, his main power was that he ''owned a boat''. When you put them on a team with [[Green Lantern]] and [[Superman]], everyone looks pretty lame. Aquaman was just worse than the rest.

** Lampshaded in a Cartoon Network promo in which Aquaman and Wonder Woman are tied up over a vat of acid.

'''Wonder Woman''': ''(rolls eyes)'' }}

* Superhero parodies may deliberately saddle their hero with a lame or useless power just for comedic effect. Meltman from ''[[Action League NOW]]!'' had the utterly useless ability to melt himself; even ''he'' bemoaned its uselessness. In fact, the only time he's ever observed melting is during the intro, when he's clearly under a magnifying glass, suggesting he can't even melt himself as much as he can be willingly melted by ''others''. Or that his superpower is simply the fact that he's been melted.

** Strangely, though, Starscream never did take advantage of this situation, and he often wasn't a bad shot.

* ''[[Rugrats]]'' had an episode where the babies watched a superhero show called Mega Hyper Heroes and acted out an episode of it- Tommy playing the shapeshifting Changeling, Phil and Lil playing Spitball Boy and Dotted Line Girl, and Chuckie playing the part of Stinky (who smells as strong as two babies).

** Who turned this into [[Heart Is an Awesome Power]] by being able to beat the big bad just from his stench, when she had [[Villain Sue]]-d her way into taking out every other character's powers.

** Probably played straight for Dotted Line Girl.

'''Angelica''': Any idiot can [[Visible Invisibility|see a dotted line]]. }}

* Odd in ''[[Code Lyoko]]'' had a special power in the early part of the series in which he could see tiny snippets of future events. However, the power came at random, [[You Can't Fight Fate|functioned as an absolute vision]], and once resulted in him getting taken out by [[The Goomba|a Kankrelat]] immediately following a vision. While reprogramming the avatars of the Lyoko Warriors in the later season, Jérémie noticed the uselessness of this power and removed it, much to Odd's disappointment.

* In an episode of ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'', Dexter and his friends are playing a tabletop fantasy game of some kind, and Dexter is stuck with the least useful power: burrowing.

* An episode of ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' featured a number of mutants who gained their powers by being born and/or raised near an industrial site. Among the many varieties of mutant was an accountant born next to a banana plantation who could transform into a banana. That's pretty much it, he just turned into a banana. He wasn't proud of it either.

* In ''[[World of Quest]]'', the magician-in-training Anna specializes in bringing inanimate objects to life. In the beginning, no matter what spell she tries to do, she ends up bringing things to life by accident (lthough considering she brought AN ENTIRE MOUNTAIN to life and then it helped them in a fight, even though the fight was almost over, it might not be so lame). After a while, it seems she has started to be able to do other spells, but animating stuff is still about 80% of her powers. Although, being a parody of fantasy campaigns, most characters are pretty one-sided. Way just shows the way, Prince Nestor can only rarely shoot some energy balls but usually just sucks in a fight, Grair only flies... and most of the other characters only fight. But considering most of those can actually fight well, only Nestor would count as lame.

* ''[[Brother Bear]]'', actually. The older brothers are mocking main character for having "love" totem. It's hard to say if being changed into bear counts as superpower, but it's obviously not natural.

* The ''[[Earthworm Jim (animation)|Earthworm Jim]]'' cartoon had one episode with a new superhero auditioning for the Galatic League of Superheroes. Her power is to spotaneously combust whenever she sings. Sadly, she does not possess the ability to control or withstand her own flames. When one character asks what use that is, another simply replies, "Well, at least it's better than Lower Back Pain Man." The scene then cuts to Lower Back Pain Man himself, insisting that he'll be okay in a minute.

* Subverted in ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius]]'' when all the main cast get superpowers. At first, Jimmy seems to have no power at all aside from becoming orange, but then he basically turns into [[Incredible Hulk|The Hulk]], but colored like [[Fantastic Four|The Thing]].

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', the [[Superhero Episode]] had Heloise become [[Bubble Gun|Trouble Bubble Girl]]. Jimmy and Beezy laugh...until Heloise shows her powers off.

 

== Real Life ==

* Some people have more taste buds on their tongue than most people, making them "supertasters." Their power is disliking foods that are very sour or bitter.

* The Vice President of the United States of America is supposed to be the second most powerful job in the US government, right? But usually the only thing he does that isn't ceremonial is cast tiebreaking votes in the Senate. Unless the top spot suddenly becomes vacant, VP is a pretty powerless position.

** It's a case of [[Common Knowledge]]. The President was never intended to be the "most powerful job in the US government" nor the Vice President be the "second most powerful job." The executive branch was set up to be the ''weakest'' branch of the government. The purpose of the executive branch is to enforce the laws. However, Andrew Jackson realized the veto power given to the president when he believes a law is unenforceable was a valuable bargaining chip, which every president has since used to pass their own agendas. The only reason the Vice President's office exists is to create a clear line of succession to a person that has no major duties in the government.

*** That, and protect the space-time continuum. Read the Constitution.

[[Category:Stock Super Powers]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]