What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Difference between revisions
What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway? (view source)
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** 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 world of ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'' where the focus is on corporate sponsorship and crowd-pleasing masked heroics, Origami Cyclone's ability to copy other people's appearances—which would be great for undercover police work or espionage—is unfortunately not very marketable and therefore almost useless to him. And he's still got it better than some of the other students at the Hero Academy, whose powers include being able to stretch their skin or sweat a lot.
* ''[[One Piece]]'':
**
** The assassin Killer fared even worse. He ate a SMILE, an experimental artificial Devil Fruit created by the Punk Hazard during the arc of the same name. This was a failed experiment, and the only "power" it gave him was the inability to show any facial feature other than a hideous grin. (He ate it as part of [[An Offer You Can't Refuse]] with the lives of his crewmates at stake.) He has worn a mask since then, and much like any Devil Fruit user, he can no longer swim. Of course, he may have been lucky; [[Word of God|according to Oda]], had the SMILE worked as intended, he would have become an elephant with his human head jutting from trunk and limbs jutting from random parts of the animal's body.
* Bossun's Concentrations Mode when he puts on his goggles in [[Sket Dance]]. While admittedly very useful in solving problems and aiding his aiming skills with the slingshot, its often called out for not being very cool for the main hero.
* In ''[[My Hero Academia]]'', 80% of humans have Quirks, but only a small subset of them have Quirks suited for professional Heroics. For example, Inko Midoriya ([[The Hero| Izuku's]] mother) has a very limited telekinetic (or maybe gravity manipulation) power, where she can draw small objects towards her within a limited range; useful for picking up something she drops under a table maybe, but not much else.
== Comic Books ==
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** Ultimate later upped the ante, having Kitty specifically train herself (off panel) to control her phasing ability; her theory that, if she can make her atoms ''separate'' enough to phase through things then she could ''condense'' them to gain invulnerability and super strength.
* 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.
** Fire Lad was another member of the Substitute Heroes with the same problem as Polar Boy, his powers to create and control fire were not lame, they were ''dangerous'', and like Polar Lad, he had a hard time controlling them. True to the fears of the bona-fide Legionnaires who rejected his membership, he caused almost as many disasters as he prevented.
** Matter-Eater Lad is one of the ones who sounds useless in theory, but in practice... well, if there's anything you need to break into, or any dangerous item you need to dispose of, the guy who can eat his way through, and digest, ''anything''... he's your man, er, lad. Another problem he had was that his powers have a very limited range, and when you're in a team where ''every'' member can fly (via their standard team issue flight rings), this is a handicap.
*** 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.
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** The Blue Raja throws forks. He doesn't throw knives because it wouldn't be sporting.
{{quote|'''Blue Raja:''' "I'm not 'Stab Man', I'm not 'Knifey Boy', I'm the Blue Raja!"}}
▲** Invisible Boy, who can turn invisible ''only when nobody is watching him''. And he has to be naked for it to have any real effect. As unlikely as it might seem, he and the team actually find themselves in [[This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman|a situation where this power is useful]]. {{spoiler|Automated turrets, it transpires, do not count as somebody watching}}.
▲** The Spleen... Three words: "[[Fartillery|Pull my finger]]". The Spleen is also an example of a particularly lame [[backstory]]—a [[Gypsy Curse]]d him to forever be he who "dealt it".
▲** The Bowler is the only member of the team with a ''genuine'' useful power—a magic flying bowling ball.
▲*** Don't forget the Sphynx... he can cut guns in half with his mind.
▲** Then there are the folks who were ''rejected'' by the Mystery Men for being even ''more'' useless:
▲*** The Waffler, who carries a bunch of waffle irons around with him and also boasts a personal [[Theme Tune]].
▲*** Ballerinaman, who pirouettes in a tutu.
▲*** The PMS Avenger, whose powers only works for five days out of the month.
{{quote|"You got a problem with that?!"}}
* ''[[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.
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{{quote|'''Adam:''' I'm a frog.
'''Dulcea:''' Yes, a frog! Like the one you kiss ''*kisses Adam*'' and get a handsome prince. }}
* Deconstructed in ''[[Sky High]]'', where the [[Start of Darkness]] for the [[Big Bad]] was that she was a Technopath before that became a well respected superpower, so she was relegated to sidekick, unable to show how powerful she really was. The deciding factor for whether one is a Hero or sidekick? The coach, based on his first and only impression. More generally, the sidekicks' powers tend to fall under this, with plenty of "heroes" who contribute little.
* In 2006 Israeli movie ''Giborim Ktanim'' (''Little Heroes''), one girl is blessed with the power of being able to hear people from a distance. Sweet.
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== 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.
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* 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.
* Almost the entire cast of ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131210154107/http://superslackers.com/2007/superslackers-45/ Superslackers]''. For example, Invisible Right Leg Lad's power is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|having an invisible right leg]]. One of the few characters with a useful power [[Death by Irony|dies in a somewhat ironic manner]] exactly two panels after his first appearance.
* ''Fletcher Apts.'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20110101161635/http://www.fletcherapts.com/archive/20070521.html In here], Ma-Ti gets an upgrade to his Heart powers. A giant monkeywrench to smash people in the face with.
* 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.
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