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{{quote|''"It's ''useless,'' that's what it is! Ma-Ti is the weakest one of all! Haw haw haw!"''|'''Wheeler''' answering himself [[Lampshade Hanging|asking the trope name]] in issue #3 of the ''[[Captain Planet]]'' [[Comic Book]]}}
 
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 Withwith Suck|seem useless in most situations]].
 
Good writers can make this [[Inverse Law of Utility and Lethality|work for a character]]. They may have a power (such as it is), but it's not the ''real'' reason they're in the group. Some characters end up being [[The Heart]] (the social and moral compass), [[The Face]] (diplomat and spokesperson), [[The Smart Guy]] or the [[Badass Normal]]. Often said character is [[The Captain]] -- superpowers would be just a tiny bonus to his real ability: [[Magnetic Hero|leadership]]. [[The Captain]] tends to be specifically written to have ''no'' superpowers, in fact.
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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]].
 
There are a number of ways to fix this. If the character [[Joke Character|still seems ridiculously underpowered]], they can still be [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap]] by [[Re-Power|giving them additional powers]] or responsibilities. A common method is to have the [[Magikarp Power|the character suddenly "evolve" to a higher power level]]. [[Weak but Skilled]] characters might take advantage of the [[Required Secondary Powers]]. [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|Maybe there ARE more potential uses for this power]], it's just that the writers have somehow ignored them this far. Sometimes the character will uncover a devastating new use and become the dreaded [[Lethal Joke Character]]. Maybe there's a trade off; for instance, powerful beings tend to look freaky, while those with more subtle powers look normal and are better able to deal with mundane society. The easiest device is to just crank out a good old [[Plot Tailored to Thethe Party]], so that the character can make his seemingly useless superpower seem useful. In fact, characters who do nothing but gripe about their uselessness in battle might be a sign of bad writing. Couldn't they just carry a gun?
 
Named for an [[Memetic Mutation|Internet meme]], itself referring to Ma-Ti's ring power in ''[[Captain Planet and Thethe 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].
 
Often the result of overdoing [[Cast Speciation]]. Easier to take in a [[Heroes Unlimited]] series, where not every character has to be in every episode. For Video Games, compare [[Spoony Bard]] and [[Power-Up Letdown]]; see also [[Crippling Overspecialization]].
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* 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.
* ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]]''
** In the first season, [[Teen Genius|Sailor Mercury]] was the only team member without an offensive power. Her first power was essentially a cloud of bubbles that drastically reduced visibility (apparently only for the enemy) and lowered the temperature by a few degrees. She received her first offensive power in the middle of the second season, but in the meantime she stayed in the background with her visor and computer, [[The Smart Guy|providing useful analysis and strategy]]. In the third season, Sailor Chibi-Moon assumed the "useless member" role; as a Senshi in training her "Pink Sugar Heart Attack" was shown to be so weak and pointless that it mostly only annoyed the villain (it also occasionally just didn't do anything period, and on at least one occasion backfired on her). She got upgraded in the fourth season, by tying Sailor Moon's powers to hers.
** 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.
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* From the ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' manga and anime, we have the alien girls Sugar, Ginger and Pepper. Sugar has the power to blend with the background like a chameleon; Ginger can [[Faux Death|feign death]] at will; Pepper can shed her whole skin (while still wearing a set of cloth underneath) to escape grapples. Said capabilities could sometimes be handy, but the trio has a much-inflated opinion of their usefulness. Especially compared to the powers of those they consider their "rivals": Lum (a [[Tsundere]] who can [[Flight|fly]] and shoot [[Shock and Awe|lightning bolts]]), Oyuki ([[An Ice Person|an Ice Maiden]]) and Benten (a [[Super Strength|Super Strong]] [[Hot Amazon]] fond of [[BFG|BFGs]]). The fact that Sugar, Ginger and Pepper are morons doesn't help.
* 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 Onon the Tin|whose powers are self-explanatory]]. Her greatest power was chopping her "boing" to distract the enemy.
* The ''[[Bleach (Manga)|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.
* The comedy manga, ''[[Banana no Nana]]'', takes place in a world where everyone has superpowers, which range from the typical but powerful, like water manipulation, to the situational but useful, like superhuman leg strength. The title character has the power to manipulate... bananas. If you look at [[Heart Is Awesome Power]], you'll this her power is actually the most useful.
* Subverted to hell and back in ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]''. No matter how stupid or ridiculously limiting a Stand power seems, the user will find a way to make it an advantage.
* 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 world of ''[[Tiger and Bunny (Anime)|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 (Manga)|One Piece]]'' filler character Apis ate a Devil Fruit that gave her the ability to telepathically talk to animals. While this does have its uses, it's probably the only Devil Fruit in the entire series that has absolutely no combat ability and does not fit into Paramecia, Logia or Zoan types. Her power is made especially useless when Luffy spontaneously gains the ability to do the exact same thing in that arc. The next member to join the crew, Chopper, also has this ability because he happens to be an animal and his Human Human Fruit ability enables him to speak human languages.
* 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.
 
 
== Card Games ==
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'' has an assortment of cards like this too. A prime example is "Anti-Raigeki", a trap card designed to counter one particular magic card that ended up being Forbidden anyway.
* Similarly a number of ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering]]'' cards are so situational as to be useless. One of the best examples of this is the [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1615 Great Wall] enchantment. Landwalk is an ability that renders a creature unblockable if it's attacking an opponent who has the correct type of land (swamps for swampwalk, forests for forestwalk and so on). It's usually not that useful itself, since much of the time your opponent won't be playing the right kind of land so the ability does nothing-- unless it targets a whole subgroup of lands, like, say, [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=96848 Dryad Sophisticate] and her nonbasic landwalk<ref>which means as long as your opponent has a land that isn't one of the basics, she's unblockable</ref>. The rarest of the basic landwalks is plainswalk, mostly due to [[Fridge Logic]] over how you stealthily move through a wide open plain anyway. Not a single card with this ability has ever been considered a threat in any known ''Magic'' [[Metagame]]. The Great Wall enchantment's sole effect is that it allows creatures with plainswalk to be blocked.
 
 
== Comics ==
* In the comics, Aqualad developed concerns similar to [[Aquaman (Comic Book)|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.
** He later got a costume change, a power upgrade and [[Took a Level In Badass|took a level in badass]], becoming "Tempest". Then he died.
** The second Aqualad was given the ability to create hard-water weapons and generate electrical blasts because the creators of ''[[Young Justice (Animationanimation)|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.
** Subverted with Cypher/Doug Ramsey, whose power is to understand ''ANY'' language, even body language, or code, making him now quite the [[Badass]] as he can even foresee his oponents movements (as long as he can "read" a pattern), or find the weak point of architectural structures.
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** 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.
** This is completely [[Averted Trope|averted]] in the ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Animation)|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'' cartoon, where she is capable of taking down villains by herself.
** And in The Ultimates reboot, where she her neurological knowledge means that she can attack people's brains. In addition, in Ultimate Canon, {{spoiler|she is a mutant}} and can do the "Wasp Stings" innately at full size, where they are painful and cause nerves to go numb. Unfortunately, her power {{spoiler|and her intellect intimidates her her husband [[Ant-Man|Hank]]}}, who {{spoiler|physically abuses her and attempts to kill her}}.
* 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.
*** Starting with Alan Davis' run on ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur]]'', she developed the ability to phase through one opponent while striking another.
** 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 ''seperate'' enough to phase through things then she could ''condense'' them to gain invulnerability and super strength.
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** 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.
** Stone Boy has also shown that he ''can'' fight reasonably well. It helps that all Legion members get a membership ring that allows them to fly--he can get right above a foe, turn to stone, and drop down on them.
** [[Fridge Logic]] enters the equation with Color Kid. He poses a major threat to the [[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|Green Lantern Corps]]! They should have recruited him--if not to bear a ring, then as a supporting player who could nullify the color yellow whenever necessary.
*** ''Just'' the Green Lanterns? Properly used, [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|his power could blind people by turning their eyes white]].
*** 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.
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** 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.
** His appearance in ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' ([[World of Ham|the only show a villain like this could appear on]]) is one big lampshading of how ridiculous the character is and [[Weaksauce Weakness|how easy it is to defeat him]]. We see Batman following him only for Bat-Mite to show up, start reciting Ten-Eyed Man's origin story, express [[Leaning Onon the Fourth Wall|his appreciation for obscure characters getting the occasional nod]] and throw a cactus at him which he grabs rendering him completely helpless. Total time: about 3 minutes.
* 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]].
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* 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!!
* Angelo "Skin" Espinoza from the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] comic ''[[Generation X]]'', whose power was... extra skin. He wasn't much of a [[Rubber Man]] because his bones and organs didn't stretch with it, and it couldn't change color either, so he couldn't really shapeshift. On top of ''that,'' having extra skin hanging off of him made him none-too-pretty, and if he stretched it too far or otherwise overtaxed it, he could be in agonizing pain for a considerable amount of time after. He made a few creative uses of his power in combat, but still got the short end of the [[Superpower Lottery]] compared to his teammates.
** One of his teammates was Synch, whose 'synchronistic aura' let him [[Powers Asas Programs|borrow other people's powers]]. However, proximity was needed, so he basically has [[Department of Redundancy Department|exactly the same power as the guy next to him]]. Sometimes it was more useful for ''finding'' certain mutants by using his aura as a sort of power detector. He once was put in critical condition by being beaten up by ''non-powered mundane thugs'' when not accompanied by superhumans. However, he could sometimes use the powers in ways the original users hadn't worked their way up to yet, and it was ''theorized'' that he'd eventually learn to retain powers, but that never happened before he died (as in [[Killed Off for Real|dead-dead]], not [[Death Is Cheap|comicbook-dead]].)
* 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.
* Parodied in one arc of ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'', where the [[The Ditz|crocodiles]] form a "[[Fantastic Four]]" out of three crocs (since they're bad at math), which consisted of Paper Jam Boy, Stapler Head, and Doorstoppo; their powers are [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Exactly What They Say On The Tin]]. Paper Jam Boy then proceeds to be "defeated" by a printer that was out of ink.
* ''[[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 (Comic Book)|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.
* Averted in Archie Comics' ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures (Comic Book)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures]]'' series with the ally Man Ray and villain Armaggon, a mutant manta ray and shark, respectively. Despite being fish, they were fully capable fighters with super-strength on land in addition to being superior swimmers who can breathe underwater. In fact, Man Ray was the leader of the [[Spin-Off|Mutanimals]].
* In the ''[[Doom Patrol (Comic Book)|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.
* The old ''[[What's New With Phil and Dixie (Comic Strip)|What's New Withwith Phil and Dixie]]'' comic strip from [[Dragon Magazine(magazine)]] once had an episode about superheroes, which included a panel about the need to have powers that are actually useful: "Gazebo Boy finds his singular power of metamorphosis useless against the evil Termite!"
* ''[[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 Onon 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.
* In ''Avengers: The Initiative'', Dragon Lord's power of conjuring and controlling dragons by mixing potions in his cauldron is derided by the Taskmaster as "not a superpower, son, that's ''home economics''", and the fact that his teammates have to provide cover for him while he prepares for summoning is cited as one of the reasons his squad of trainees is ineffective. After his death, the Irredeemable Ant-Man is amused that the cremated Dragon Lord is "mixed up in a little jar" because "he'd like that."
* The original Eel in [[Marvel Comics]]' sole gimmick in his early career was being really slippery. Eventually this was deemed too low-key to make him a believable danger to guys like Captain America and Daredevil, so he was given electric powers as well.
** Similarly, C-tier [[Spider -Man (Comic Book)|Spider Man]] villain Slyde wore a full-body suit that made him super-slippery and allowed him to run at up to 30 MPH. Unlike the Eel, he's never been augmented or redeemed in any way.
* ''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.
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* 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 Onon 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.
* Alex Power, from Marvel's [[Power Pack]] thought his ability to turn into gas was this at first. Later, he decided it wasn't, so it got subverted.
* 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.
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{{quote| '''Dumbledore''': ... The spell we know as love.<br />
'''Harry''': ''Lame!'' }}
* Marik from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series (Web Video)|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.
** Although having people's names legally changed makes them susceptible as Joey and Tea finds out.
** He also pointed out that, if he felt like it, he could have [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] kick your ass.
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*** Though to be honest, a shovel does make a pretty handy weapon.
** 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|backstory]] -- a [[Gypsy Curse|Gypsy Cursed]] him to forever be he who "dealt it".
*** In the Gypsy's defense, {{spoiler|he ''did'' rip one and blame it on her.}}
** The Bowler is the only member of the team with a ''genuine'' useful power -- a magic flying bowling ball.
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{{quote| '''Adam:''' I'm a frog.<br />
'''Dulcea:''' Yes, a frog! Like the one you kiss ''*kisses Adam*'' and get a handsome prince. }}
** Something of a case of [[Lost in Translation]]. Frog/toad powers would have been considerably more [[Badass]] (even expected) to the Japanese audience of the original ''[[Ninja Sentai Kakuranger]]'', where the guy getting them was named ''[[wikipedia:Jiraiya|Jiraiya]]''. (No, not [[Naruto (Manga)|that Jiraiya]])
** In the series, Adam certainly doesn't fall behind the others, though. In fact, the Frog Zord's ability to breathe fire and release dozens of mini-Frog Zords that surround and shock your opponent make it a ''lot'' more powerful than the ones that are reduced to biting, despite being based on cooler animals. All that ''and'' getting to kiss [[Ms. Fanservice|Dulcea]]? Adam got a hell of a deal.
* Deconstructed in [[Sky High]], where the [[Start Of Evil]] 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.
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* [[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]].
* ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince|Harry Potter]]'' reveals that Harry's special power is [[The Power of Love|his capacity to love]]. Dumbledore's explanations aside, Harry's immediate reaction -- "So what?" -- seems a bit on-the-mark. Taking into account Dumbledore's explanations, though, it's the most [[Badass]] power of love ever. Just to drive this home, in ''Order of the Phoenix'', the essence of love can melt metal on contact. Further, just being capable of love can banish Lord Voldemort from you if he possesses your body. As well, when Voldemort, in book 4, uses blood from Harry to resurrect himself, he becomes more powerful due to stealing Harry's mother's protection... but in book 7, we learn this {{spoiler|[[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|protects Harry from Voldemort's killing curse, which gets the bit of Voldemort's soul in Harry's body instead. Harry's self-sacrifice in this instance also protected the inhabitants of Hogwarts from Voldemort]].}}
* Some of the magical talents in [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[Xanth (Literature)|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 Thethe 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.
* Played with by Brandon Sanderson in ''[[Alcatraz Series (Literature)|Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians]]''. Most of the main characters have magical "talents" that seem useless, even laughable at first, but turn out to be very useful. For example, one character's talent is arriving late to everything--which includes stepping into a certain spot ''just too late'' for a bullet to hit him.
* 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 the ''[[Apprentice Adept]]'' series, the Tan Adept has the totem of the Evil Eye, granting him (later ''her'') the power of mind control -- much the same as [[Code Geass|Lelouch's Geass power]], with similar limits (only targets one person at a time, only if they make eye contact, and only works once on the same person). Still sort of nifty, until you realize several of the other Adepts (Blue, Yellow, and Red in particular) could work spells to achieve much the same effect. Along with about a thousand other things which Tan ''can't'' do. It should be noted that in Tan's first appearance (''Juxtaposition'' -- the last book of the first trilogy), Tan had all the versatility of the other Adepts, limited only by line of sight. Piers Anthony apparently [[Did Not Do the Research]] on his own creations.
* In ''[[A Nightmare Onon 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 (Literaturenovel)|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.
* In [[Lawrence Watt Evans]]' ''With a Single Spell'', the orphaned apprentice's eponymous lone firestarting spell is pretty much useless and laughable the entire book, until it plays a deadly role in the end. Also, when the protagonist is trapped in a dead mage's extraplanar castle and is going through all the spellbooks for a means of escape, he casts the [[Badass]] but extremely lame spell "Jalger's Jar Opener". This spell summons a 9-foot silvery spike-covered demonic entity. To open a jar for you. After which it disappears...
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** Slightly averted in that Iggy was blind to begin with.
** And also in that Iggy had night vision before the White Coats operated on him to "enhance" it.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by Thom Creed and his teammates in [[Perry Moore]]'s ''[[Hero (Literaturenovel)|Hero]]''. Thom's powers of healing may be cool, but team medic doesn't appear to be the most glamorous role for an aspiring teenage superhero.
* ''[[The Long Dark Tea -Time of the Soul]]'' has a brief appearance by a girl with supernatural knowledge of stock prices... by the time they've already appeared in the newspapers. Since she's reduced to perpetually mumbling stock prices and is confined to a mental institution, this could count as [[Blessed Withwith Suck]].
* In J.R.R. Tolkien's [[The Silmarillion]], the Powers of the World have different spheres of influence. One has mastery over the sky, one over metals, one over the ocean, etc. Some of the female Vala are lame, though. Nessa is "The Dancer," Vairë weaves, and Vána is the ever young, whose power is the ability to make birds chirp and flowers bloom by her presence. Even one of the Aratar (the most powerful of the Valar) Nienna, is the Valar of Grief and Mourning.
* Deuces in ''[[Wild Cards]]'' are all about this trope. There's Mr. Rainbow, who can change the color of his skin to any pastel shade; a woman who can levitate, but only when she's sleeping; and a man who can stick his hand into a tub of water and make it boil in just under 8 minutes.
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* 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.]]}}
* The ''Sidekicks'' series by Dan Danko and Tom Mason parodied this a ''lot'', having such superheroes as Pumpkin Pete (his head is a pumpkin), Exact Change Kid, Spice Girl (she smells nice), Boom Boy (he can blow up...but only once), and Haiku Boy. In fact, when Speedy jokingly asks, "Where's Bar-of-Soap Boy when you really need him?" [[Rule of Funny|it turns out]] [[Contrived Coincidence|there ''was'' a Bar-of-Soap Boy on the team]], but he moved away to a place "where it didn't rain so much".
* In the web-novel ''[[Domina (Literature)|Domina]]'', some of the superpowers are [[Super Speed]], [[Barrier Warrior|force fields]], [[Dishing Out Dirt|the ability to manipulate rock and stone]], [[Playing Withwith 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.
* In Kristin Cashore's novels ''Graceling'', ''Fire'', and ''Bitterblue'', a "Graceling" (an individual gifted, or cursed, with an unusual/superhuman ability) doesn't automatically know ''what'' their Grace is, and has to discover it through experience. Some of these Graces, once identified, turn out to be pretty useless. Among the examples given are the Grace to eat rocks and not get sick, the Grace to open your mouth so wide your face gets turned inside out -- good only for grossing people out (Beetlejuice-inspired, perhaps?) and various nice but limited Graces such as knowing exactly what food will satisfy someone at the moment (Here I see Vincent from Syfy's ''Eureka'').
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* Parodied in a recurring sketch in ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'', which features the exploits of the crime-fighting duo BMX Bandit (who can ride a BMX bike really well) and The Angel Summoner (who can summon a horde of celestial superbeings to do his bidding); each adventure would begin with BMX Bandit suggesting an over-complicated primarily BMX-based strategy to deal with the threat they were facing (kidnappers, drug-runners, terrorists), only for Angel Summoner to reluctantly point out that it'd be a lot easier if ''he'' just summoned a horde of angels to do it instead. Needless to say, the latter usually proves a lot more useful... which gives Bandit a severe inferiority complex. Finally, BMX Bandit does get to use his skills, prompted by Angel Summoner who's eager to make him feel an equal part of the team, despite the utter unsuitability of the situation -- and dies in the process.
** 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]]'':
** The graphic novels had a Company agent whose passive ability was absorbing sound, rendering him deaf and mute as well as useless unless up against someone with a sonic power (who could still theoretically take him down through conventional means).
** The web-show spin-off ''Zeroes'' was about characters from the ''Heroes'' universe with incredibly lame powers. This includes a man who paints the future as stick-figures, rendering them indecipherable, and a girl who could fit her whole fist into her mouth, which is pointed out to be "just slutty".
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** Arguably, Ando's initial power. He can't do anything himself, but can supercharge others with abilities. Later on, he discovers he can fire energy beams out of his hands.
* Parodied in ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' in which Crow creates a superhero identity for himself. While he concedes that his super power is completely useless, he jumps into the role of superhero wholeheartedly, even creating a super costume and announcing himself in a deep booming voice. His name? Turkey Volume Guessing Man. His power? To estimate how many turkeys could conceivably fill any given space. Of course, Mike then immediately takes the wind out of his sails by demonstrating that he has the same power.
* 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]].
*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29uxLWUOwEw Nope.] It just took a true crisis-- [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|dry skin]]-- for them to call out the big guns.
{{quote| '''Drew''': Hey, who ever thought that the world famous [[Captain Obvious]] was really mild mannered {{spoiler|Colin Mochrie}}?}}
** A special mention must go to [[Makes Just Asas Much Sense in Context|'Panicky-Ski-Jump-Puppet-Man']], Delayed Reaction Man and, of course, Slappy-- [[Action League NowNOW|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).
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** Oh, come on. Number 3 sounds awesome unless you actually plan on fighting crime.
** Depends. Do you also get the [[Required Secondary Powers|necessary powers]] to survive the revenge of the superpowered cuckold?
* One of the players on ''[[Survivor]]: Samoa'' made a direct and detailed reference to the original ''[[Captain Planet and Thethe 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..."
* The BBC character profiles for ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' lists [[Faux Action Girl|Kate]]'s specialized weapon as [http://www.bbc.co.uk/robinhood/characters/kate.shtml "her imagination"]. In the eleven episodes in which she appeared, the most imaginative thing she ever did was to use a sword to drag a key toward her whilst she was locked in a cell. So not only is it a Lame Power, but it's an [[Informed Ability]] as well. In case you were wondering, she was indeed the [[The Scrappy]].
* Stringfellow Hawke from ''[[Airwolf]]'' has super-hearing (possibly equal to or greater than his dog), which only comes in useful in that no-one can sneak up on him.
* Subverted in an episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''; a patient who at first appears to have the amazingly useful power of perfect memory recall is later discovered to suffer from OCD and is actually incapable of forgetting bad memories and grudges.
** [[Truth in Television]]. It's called [[wikipedia:Hyperthymesia|hyperthymesia]], and one of the only 20 documented cases is that of actress Marilu Henner of ''[[Taxi]]''. Yes, it's believed to be a form of OCD. Yes, it includes the inability to forget bad memories or to push out "bad thoughts" (which is what OCD actually is compared [[Super OCD|to the version you generally see in fiction]]).
* ''[[Misfits]]'' likes this, although several of them prove to be much more useful once they get used to them. But Alisha's power is to [[Power Incontinence|uncontrollably]] make any guy who touches her try to have sex with her. {{spoiler|Nikki's}} ability to teleport would be good if she could control when it happened or where she went, but as is, is nothing but a liability. The girl who can make people go bald. Still, all of them pale beside the guy whose "power" is to mentally become a dog. This brings no enhanced abilities at all, and is basically just an especially embarassing form of sleepwalking (ie naked and impersonating a dog whilst running around the streets of London).
* Played with in ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' with Morgana's [[Dreaming of Things to Come|precognitive dreams]]. For a long time she doesn't understand them, and it's up to Merlin and Gaius to heed their warnings, whilst everyone else treats her as [[The Cassandra]]. In later episodes she understands them, but can't do anything to prevent them from unfolding (as in her [[Flash Forward]] dream to Guinevere being crowned Queen). If she ''does'' take action, they usually turn into a [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]].
* ''[[Stan Lee]]'s Superhumans'', a program on the History Channel (US) is all about this trope, including your basic human calculators and the like, along with a Discovery Channel documentary entitled ''The Real Superhumans'' which featured, among others, a man whose heightened core metabolism has left him nearly impervious to cold, which he sought to prove by running a half-marathon nearly naked barefoot in the Arctic. {{spoiler|He made it}}. It also featured a man born with skin so smooth and sleek that objects can be stuck to it as if his belly was a suction cup.
* ''[[Mutant X]]'', a (Canadian?) action show that obviously was based on X-Men, had a guy who could shoot [[Shock and Awe|lightning from his hands]], a girl who was [[Animal Powered Superbeing|crazy cat-like]], a dude who could either [[Intangible Man|ghost himself]] or make himself [[Taken for Granite|as hard as a statue]] and a girl who... had weak [[The Empath|telepath powers.]] The last was often kept back at base.
** 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 Onon Him|bridge to be dropped]].
 
 
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* Comedian David O'Doherty has a song called "Very Mild Superpowers".
{{quote| '''O'Doherty''': Sometimes when I'm cycling with my headphones on, I know exactly where I'll be at the end of a song.}}
* [[They Might Be Giants]] did an album for children called "No." One song is titled "John Lee, Supertaster." It is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]].
 
== Mythology ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
* In the tongue-in-cheek roleplaying game ''[[In Nomine Satanis /Magna Veritas (Tabletop Game)|In Nomine Satanis Magna Veritas]]'' (American Tropers might better know its [[Darker and Edgier]] remake, ''[[In Nomine (Tabletop Game)|In Nomine]]''), character powers are assigned at random from a rather long list. If you're lucky, you can wind up with lightning bolts, holy dancing swords, mind control or even limited time travel. If you're ''not'' lucky, you're going to be the guy on the team who can control molluscs, or whose "power" is to have materialized on Earth in the body of a famous rock star (considering most scenarios involve [[The Masquerade|discreet investigations among Muggles]], this is all kinds of [[Blessed Withwith Suck]]). There's also the unbalance of domain powers, granted by the Archangel/Demon Prince you serve (and by extension, the virtue/sin they embody). Again, some of those are powerful - petrification, turning people into pillars of salt, nightmare curses... but lust demons get [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Deadly Orgasm]], which while [[Rule of Cool|somewhat awesome]] ([[Squick|YMMV]]) is not exactly useful in a fight. Meanwhile, sloth demons get a power which makes any physical exertion impossible to anyone in a 100m radius...demon included. Not to be outdone in the lameness department, some angels get the power to ''speed up crop growth''.
** How large a [[wikipedia:Giant squid|mollusc]]?
** At least now we have an explaination for that [[Ghostbusters|sponge migration]].
* In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', the School of Divination gets this treatment sometimes. After all, knowing about stuff doesn't seem to be as cool as throwing fireballs. More experienced players are all too happy to demonstrate how the ability to [[Genre Savvy|legitimately metagame]] beats the ability to set stuff on fire 9 times out of 10.
** [[Forgotten Realms]] canon admitted that knowledge is power: diviners firmly stood on top of very competitive and unforgiving hierarchies -- Gromph Baenre, the Archmage of [[Gambit Pileup|Menzoberranzan]] and Zalathorm, king of [[The Magocracy|Halruaa]]. Melegaunt Tanthul, prince of Shade, was bold and [[Magnificent Bastard|sneaky enough]] to go study [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]] from inside its can and succeed.
*** Realms also has Gayrlana "Lady Bloodsword". A female human fighter with topped out Charisma (traditional [[Dump Stat]]) and Mindlink (ability to ''talk'' directly) as a psionic wild talent. The result: a great [[Lethal Joke Character]], because she [[We Could Have Avoided All This|used these advantages]], and what started as a simple dungeon crawl ended with her as the head of Mindulgulph Mercenary Company<ref>it's also in [http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13961 available for download] "Gold & Glory" [[Sourcebook]]</ref>, and continued along this line. Whatever the task is, they probably have creatures well-suited to it and humans or humanoids who can play intermediary.
* In the post-modern horror game ''[[Unknown Armies (Tabletop 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 (Tabletop Game)|Gamma World]]''. Giant Clown Feet anybody?
 
 
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* 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.
* [[Captain Novolin (Video Game)|Captain Novolin]]'s "superpower" is diabetes. No, he doesn't cure diabetes. No, he can't ''give people'' diabetes either. He ''has'' diabetes, and dies instantly when he touches junk food. Suddenly Ma-Ti and Aquaman don't seem all that bad.
* The game ''[[Superhero League of Hoboken]]'' is built on the subversion of this trope. Set in postapocalyptic Hoboken and surroundings, the protagonists are superheroes with... really weird powers. And names. And backgrounds. Such as Captain Excitement, so boring that he can cause animals to fall asleep at will. Treader Man, half man, half boat, who is really good at treading water. Breadbuster, able to vanquish any baked goods. Madame Pepperoni, able to instinctively know the content of any pizza box without looking. (Only pizza boxes, though.) The list goes on. Yet, almost all of them make use of their powers one way or another, either to solve a quest (a hostel is swamped with unfolded road maps; fortunately, Princess Glovebox's power is specifically the ability to handle this), or to assist in combat (causing animals to fall asleep is REALLY useful when you're attacked by Albino Rhinos). In fact, the only hero whose power is NOT useful in some way is {{spoiler|Crimson Tape, the main character... and the only one you can't remove from the party}}. Fortunately, you can give heroes secondary powers to round out the group.
* In ''[[Okami]]'', the various deities you get your powers from are the gods of things like fire, restoration, water, etc. The cat, Kabegami, however, is the God of ''Walls'', and while being able to walk up vertical surfaces may seem pretty handy, in practice it's limited to a few very specific paths marked by Kabegami statues and pawprints. Oh well.
** This might be the case for only Ammy, though, because she gets the distilled versions of the powers at first (for example, she cannot shoot lightnings like Raigami before the power gets upgraded) and we never see what the "upgraded" version of Kabegami's power is like.
* In ''[[The Last Remnant]]'', most (if not all) of the characters that can be recruited into your party have, in addition to their usual complement of standard "RPG Attributes", a single seemingly-useless attribute which can also increase through combat along with everything else. Some seem as if they may be useful, such as Management, Leadership, and the like. But others, such as Gluttony, or Trivia seem... not so useful. I've yet to have an enemy challenge me to a pie-eating contest or round of ''[[Star Trek]]'' trivia questions, but when they ''do'', I'll be ready! (And what kind of lame attribute is "Crybaby", anyway?)
** Subverted in ''[[Trinity Universe (Videovideo Gamegame)|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]]''.
* The [[Interactive Fiction]] series ''The Frenetic Five'' features a group of superheroes in a world where not all powers are awesome. The player character, Improv, has the power of "thinking ''[[MacGyver]]'' was a rank amateur," (a power which doesn't actually have any effect on the game -- the player himself is expected to provide that power in the form of solving puzzles through improvization). His teammates are:
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** 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.
*** Also it must be noted that Shaman PVE DPS has been consistently high since TBC for both Elemental and Enhancement specs (ranged caster and melee, respectively), bordering on the unreal in WOTLK when Enh shammies were easily topping the charts; and Restoration Shamans (healing spec) have likewise been consistently jaw-droppingly effective. Just because their buffs are no longer unique does ''not'' mean their actual prowess has ever been in question.
* Shirou in ''[[Fate/stay Stay Night (Visual Novel)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|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 ''The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble'', after you go back in time and save an injured bazouk, a Chinese-stereotype "guru" (whose existence you've caused) will periodically show up and give you such powers as... the ability to control your hair growth. Subverted when Woodruff asks what use these powers are and is told, {{spoiler|"Individually, they are useless. But once you have mastered them all, you will gain the ability to leviatate!" And indeed, levitation is necessary to complete the game}}.
* ''[[Street Fighter]]'' series. In exchange for all of Dan Hibiki's inferiorities, he gains an ability unique to him that allows him to... taunt without limit. Other characters can only taunt once per round. Lucky bastard!
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'''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.
* Lampshaded in ''[[Dragon Quest VI (Video Game)|Dragon Quest VI]]'': after a nun states that Lord Zenith's power comes from the hearts of people, Amos wonders if he wouldn't be happier with the power of fire or wind.
* ''[[Touhou]]'' contains some of the [[Superpower Lottery|most horrifically powerful individuals]] in existence, [[Time Abyss|epic, ancient beings]] or [[Person of Mass Destruction|monumental powerhouses]] that could obliterate continents or subdue planets. And then there are the... others, such as Rumia, with the power to form a sphere of darkness around herself that [[Required Secondary Powers|she can't even see out of]], Lily White, with the power to announce the arrival of spring, [[The One Guy|Rinnosuke]], with the power to identify the name and purpose of any object, Parsee, with the power [[Green-Eyed Monster|to be jealous]], Kogasa, with the power to surprise people (though that one has been [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|rather useful]]), or Hatate, with the power of Google Image Search.
* In the first [[Commandos (Video Game)|Commandos]] game the Green Beret could perform silent kills, conceal himself, move bodies and use a radio box to distract enemies. The Marine could swim, fire silent harpoons and deploy an inflatable boat. The Spy could hide in plain sight and administer injections of poison, whilst the Sapper could set bombs, throw grenades, cut through barbed wire and plant bear traps. The Sniper could.. snipe. With a very limited number of bullets. That was it. The Driver was almost as bad since his special skill was, predictably, driving, something that was apparently beyond the other members of his unit, but at least he also had a moderately useful submachine gun as well. The problem was alleviated somewhat in the sequel where all squad members were a little more flexible in terms of who could do what.
 
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* 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 (Webcomic)|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].
* [http://www.man-man.org/?comic=&date=20050331 Basilica] in ''[http://www.man-man.org/ Man-Man]'' has possibly the most ludicrous power ever invented. He turns into a basilica, then the resident priest tells you to knock off what you were doing. Worse, ''other people'' can trigger the transformation.
* 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.
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''(passes out)''<br />
'''Jackson''': It's for the best. He was about thirty seconds from challenging you to a breath holding contest. }}
** Dead Cell also has "Old Boy", whose "power" is...being a 100+ year old former Nazi General. Why are these two even in the comic you ask? Because they were originally ''going to appear'' in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty]]'' before being axed and incorporated into other characters (The Chinaman's water running powers were given to Vamp and Old Boy was reworked into [[Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater|The End]]).
* Parodied in [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=164 this installment] of ''[[VG Cats]]''.
* A short arc in the ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' [[B Side Comics]] "Bikini Suicide Frisbee Days" dealt with the main characters getting powers like these. Riff gained the power to make sound effects, Torg gained the "power" of having his life narrated, and Zoe gained the ability/curse to speak a different language each time she opens her mouth (but never English). Gwynn's the only one who got a useful superpower: the power to create an anti-climactic ending, causing all the other useless superpowers to fade away.
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* This trope is the ''entire premise'' of the furry superhero comic ''Psychic Dyslexia Institute'' (PDI), where a "psychic dyslexia" is an exceptionally odd superpower; characters include, among many others: a girl who can create completely convincing illusions, but only of clothing; someone who has the power to tell whether or not a building contains cheese; a boy who subconsciously generates a field around him that makes anyone who enters it suddenly feel an irrational overriding hatred towards him, and an anthropomorphic chicken whose eggs glow in the dark. They actually find fairly creative ways to use these abilities, especially with the addition of a team member whose ability is to reverse the ability of any powered character he touches. Pathos, for example, generates a field that makes people become absolutely enraptured towards him while touching Reverso, generally used as an extremely effective distraction.
* ''[[Super Temps]]'' has this apply to the entire 'non-super' civilian populace. Everyone's got a power, just most suck -- although some 'non-supers' do have [[Lethal Harmless Powers]].
* Andrew "Smitty" Smith of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|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!"]
** Shame he only can do it subconsciously, if could use it at will he could make a killing cleaning people's houses. "Clean your house in 30 seconds with magical powers only $200".
** [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].
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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 ''[http://superslackers.com/ Superslackers]''. For example, Invisible Right Leg Lad's power is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|having an invisible right leg]]. One of the few characters with a useful power [[Death Byby Irony|dies in a somewhat ironic manner]] exactly two panels after his first appearance.
* ''Fletcher Apts.'' [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 (Webcomic)|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...
** Later [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] when the power of the Hero of Heart is elaborated upon by uranianUmbra, the Guardian's troll guide. Apparently Heart is effectively the same as Soul, which, combined with the powers of the Hero's class, makes Nepeta the [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Stealer of Souls]] and Dirk Strider, the Prince of Heart, the [[Awesome McCoolname|Destroyer of Souls]].
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* 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.
* Lampshaded in 'The Clone Wars' Online Web Comic 'The Valsedian Operation,' which features a scene where a washed-out ex-Jedi student (now part of the Agricultural Corps), with extremely limited Force abilities, is working with a competent Clone Captain to hunt an assassin through a city. When the Clone (who is used to working with full-fledged Jedi) asks her if she can sense anything, she replies all she can sense is that there are no plants around. The Clone confidently replies, "Well, think of it as a strength looking for a situation!"
* ''[[Terror Island]]'''s [http://www.terrorisland.net/strips/130.html Obvious Dentist]. His power is that [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|everybody knows he's a dentist.]]
** He's not, but everyone knows he is all the same.
* When Ellen and Elliot start developing magic in ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' Ellen gets the variation of [[Transformation Ray]] turning the target into a [[Hello, Nurse!|very impressive]] human female, the first being a [[Transformation Ray]] turning ''her'' into the target's clone. Elliot starts off able to transform into a girl, and then develops the ability to turn into any girl and change outfits. The first "really useful" spell he eventually got was the one turning him into {{spoiler|a stock [[Flying Brick|superheroine]]}}. Granted, they both started off as students of "[[Supernatural Martial Arts|Anime Style Martial Arts]]", so can't really complain about wacky powers.
* Parodied in ''[[Xkcd (Webcomic)|Xkcd]]'': [http://xkcd.com/1010/ Etymology-Man.] It actually notes that, ironically, even Aquaman would be more useful in those circumstances.
 
 
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[Atop the Fourth Wall (Web Video)|Linkara]] deconstructed the Trope Namer himself in his review of the ''Captain Planet'' comic; said deconstruction can be found in the Western Animation section.
* Dr. Horrible's roomie Moist from ''[[Dr. HorriblesHorrible'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.
{{quote| "I mean, does anyone actually ''choose'' to be Aquaman? If you could be like, the ''Flash'', would anybody opt for ''Aquaman''?"}}
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* The web game ''[http://www.ftwgame.com/lite For The Win]'' lampshades this. The "Pantheon" figure "Heartia" (based on the lesser-known Greek goddess Hestia), pretends to be a [[Magical Girl]] with the power of heart. It's revealed at the end of her description that it's all a lie, but she goes along with it because, I quote, "what kind of power is 'Heart', anyway?!"
* 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 (Franchise)|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."
* Selan Pike's ''[[Evil FTW]]'' has a girl who is psychic, but only when it comes to vending machines; hell, pretty much all but Selanio, Xeno, Professor Pain, Reza, Damon Lords, and Apogee are [[Blessed Withwith Suck]] in some form in this series. One might try to argue that Selan is different -- right up until she faints from hypoglycemia. She can't use her powers while tired.
* In the ''[[League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions]]'' Mr. Obvious had the power to see the obvious!
* [http://superuseless.blogspot.com/ superuseless superpowers].
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** The setting also featured the Flower Lady could project a spray of rose petals from her fingers. Mr. Rainbow could change the color of his own skin, but only to one of the seven prismatic colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, or Violet). The Great and Powerful Oz could [[Shapeshifting|shape-shift]], but only into one of the characters from the 1939 musical version of "The Wizard of Oz", and Soundtrack had the power to cause any piece of music (be it a song or an orchestral piece) ever used in any film to play out of thin air around him.
* A good chunk of the superpowers in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' [[Alternate Universe|Evolution]], which include black-mould growing saliva, choking up smoke, transparent skin, regrowing lost teeth, and glow in the dark eyes.
* In the Brawl between [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]] and [[The Angry Video Game Nerd (Web Video)|The Angry Video Game Nerd]], resident [[Butt Monkey]] Ma-Ti gets his ass handed to him by everyone while shouting "Heart" as his battle cry, then subverted as it suddenly becomes more badass when he repeats while repeatedly firing a gun. "Look out, Ma-Ti is packing heat!"
** And then [[Up to Eleven|turned up to eleven]] in their three year anniversary, where heart {{spoiler|is the only thing that can beat the evil wizard.}}
* Rambar in ''[[The Motley Two (Fanfic)|The Motley Two]]''. As a ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|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 (Web Animation)|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 [[Animutation]] ''[[Colin Mochrie vs. Jesus H. Christ (Web Animation)|French Erotic Film]]'' by [[Andrew Kepple]], where various animutation characters contribute elements and finally "spleen!" -- with "What kind of lame-ass power is 'Heart' anyway?" written in the background.
* 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]].
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* Parodied and subverted in ''[[The Tick]]'', with the character of Sewer Urchin. Basically a useless comic relief hero most of the time, often seeming [[The Ditz|less than bright]] with Rain-Man-like speech patterns and frequently [[Butt Monkey|the butt of jokes]] about the way he smelled, one episode suddenly takes place in the sewers. All of a sudden, we learn about a huge subterranean ecosystem in which Sewer Urchin is an intelligent [[Badass]] and his aboveground friends are reduced to bumbling [[Fish Out of Water]]. By the end of the episode, the Tick and Arthur have even picked up Sewer Urchin's "normal" speech patterns of stuttering shy bewilderment and Sewer Urchin has begun referring to them with the benign condescension he receives on the surface.
** 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 ''[[Super FriendsSuperfriends]]'', 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 ''[[Super FriendsSuperfriends]]'', 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 (Comic Book)|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.
{{quote| '''Aquaman''': My ability to talk to fish is of no use here, Wonder Woman!<br />
'''Wonder Woman''': ''(rolls eyes)'' }}
** Lampshaded and Subverted on [[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]], where Aquaman's abilities have come been useful on some of their adventures on Land, Sea, bloodstreams, and on the jungle floor. One adventure had Aquaman [[Fantastic Voyage Plot|shrunk to the size of a single-celled organism and he used his "talk to fish" powers to befriend a lymphocyte]], while another had him stretching the definition of 'fish' with wrangling a pair of silverfish. No, really. And because he's a bit of a cheesy Silver Age superhero, he's also over the top in his [http://youtu.be/yE8C1WWixgc rousing songs of heroism].
{{quote| '''Aquaman''': I call it "Aquaman's Rousing Song of Heroism!!!" ... You don't look roused.}}
** Likewise, though not as widely bemoaned, the ''[[Super FriendsSuperfriends]]'' version of Hawkman was almost as useless. He could fly... and that's it. Almost every other hero on the show had this ability ''and'' their namesake superpower. To add insult to injury, his wings weren't even ''real''.
** Even Batman and Robin weren't immune, thanks to the no-violence stance of the ''[[Super FriendsSuperfriends]]''. While the comic versions could handle themselves quite well with or without Bat-gadgets, you take away the utility belts of the ''SF'' versions and they're less useful than Marvin or Wendy, it seems.
** The ''[[Super FriendsSuperfriends]]'' also had the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna. While Jayna could turn into any animal (including a few alien ones), Zan could only [[Elemental Shapeshifter|turn into some form of water]] (like a wave, or an ice sculpture). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iOcxSXiw7I This was spoofed in a CartoonNetwork] where Zan interrupted a mock-[[Public Service Announcement]] to complain about how lame his power was: "I could get beaten by a sponge! It wouldn't even have to be an evil sponge!" At the end of the promo, Zan is mopped up by a janitor, with an indignant "Hey!"
*** Also parodied in ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'', when Timmy's parents get the same powers as The Wonder Twins, his mother turns into a shark, while his father turns into a bucket of water. He looks at the screen and says, "Uh...feel my wrath?"
** And on the villain side of the spectrum, we had Riddler and Scarecrow of the Legion of Doom. The former had "super riddles" (seriously) as his power. The latter was called the "sinister master of fear" but tended to only summon a couple crows to bother the Superfriends. Notably, Seanbaby actually gave the Riddler a "super rating" of ''-1'', reasoning that while it is impossible to "statistically suck more than Aquaman" (who has a super rating of 1), Riddler's constant revealing of the Legion's plans to the Superfriends meant that he scored two points for them as well.
* Superhero parodies may deliberately saddle their hero with a lame or useless power just for comedic effect. Meltman from ''[[Action League NowNOW]]!'' 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.
* In the ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' episode "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1", the Griffin family all get superpowers. As the [[Butt Monkey]] of the series, Meg is saddled with fingernail growth. ("Is that all you can do?")
* What about the original ''[[Transformers Generation 1|Transformers]]''? You'd think that the [[Big Bad]] would have the biggest, baddest vehicle mode, right? The Decepticons turn into jets for the most part, so the main villain should turn into the deadliest thing on wings, right? ''Wrong.'' The original Megatron's alternate mode was ''a gun that someone else had to fire.'' That someone was usually [[The Starscream|Starscream]], who is the ''namesake'' of the trope about ''wanting to betray/kill/usurp your leader''.
** Strangely, though, Starscream never did take advantage of this situation, and he often wasn't a bad shot.
** Luckily, the creators of ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' decided to give their Megatron (a descendant of the original) a much better alternate mode - a freaking T-rex.
* ''[[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.
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* Referenced and spoofed in an episode of ''[[Garfield and Friends]]''. [[Garfield]] and Odie end up in a superhero cartoon. The hero team includes [[Expy|Expys]] of Cyclops and Beast, a superstrong woman... and Curdman, who can manipulate cottage cheese ("all the good superpowers were already taken") and is "laughed every year at the superhero Christmas party." But he later earns self-confidence by discovering his powers work with yogurt.
* 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 ''[[DextersDexter'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.
* The rather obscure franchise ''[[Stone Protectors (Animation)|Stone Protectors]]'', about a group of very untalented musicians who gained super powers from a bunch of [[Mineral MacGuffin|Mineral MacGuffins]] has some examples. They all gained stronger bodies, but each also gained an additional special ability. One guy became a skilled samurai, one a wrestling expert with super strength, and one became a skilled soldier who could turn anything into a weapon. THEN we have the guy who gained skill at [[Rollerblade Good|using in-line skates]] and the guy who gained the ability to climb things. They also all gained actual musical talent, which, while helpful for a band of crappy musicians fighting music hating enemies is not the most awe inspiring power.
* ''[[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 (Animationanimation)|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.
** It's hardly unique to these two, either. Jim is the main hero in the universe because, honestly, most of the other superheroes available are pathetic. Jim may be a [[Cloudcuckoolander]], but he is [[Made of Iron]], has [[Super Strength]], and carries a ray-pistol with enough of a punch to destroy spaceships. The only other superheroes we've seen who approach him in competence are the [[Cute Monster Girl]] Princess Whats-Her-Name ([[Super Strength]], being an [[Action Girl]] and generally smarter and more levelheaded then Jim), the Mighty Hamsternator (who has [[Stomach of Holding|Cheeks of Holding]] and maybe [[Super Strength]]), and Peter Puppy (whose power is not having a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] that comes out whenever he's hurt, scared or angry, as it typically only wants to attack Jim, but being intelligent, rational and levelheaded). In contrast, the other heroes of the universe include the Space Crickets (actual insect-sized crickets that ride on space-bikes and carry laser pistols), Whooping Cough Boy (a permanently sickly teen whose coughs are gale-force blasts of wind), A Shadow (an elderly man with a preternatural knack for making shadow puppets), Mr. Forehead Being (a man with an oversized cranium and two ugly arms growing out of his head), Zantor (a normal-looking bald man who can make his toupee hover in the air by straining hard), and Johnny Dactyl (a nerdy man who dresses up like a humanoid pterodactyl and is such a momma's boy he still lives with her and does whatever she says).
* 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.
* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', unicorn ponies can use magic (most notably telekinesis) and pegasus ponies can fly and control weather (and walk on clouds and such). We need [[Word of God]] to even know that the "regular" ("earth") ponies also have some kind of a special power, some kind of connection with the land, meaning plants and animals and such. In case of the main characters, for Applejack this seems to involve being good at picking apples, and for Pinkie Pie it doesn't have any apparent manifestation, though she has her own set of what could be called powers derived from being weird. Applejack is far from useless in a dangerous situation, but it isn't because of the apples (though she ''can'' use them as [[Edible Ammunition|projectiles]], it's just never used for anything), it's just because [[Badass Normal|she's just that tough]]. Ironically, it's Fluttershy, a pegasus, who at least once makes good use of being a [[Friend to All Living Things]] (theoretically normally associated with Earth ponies) to calm a dangerous monster. This all said, it's obvious the situation came about when Pinkie Pie's and Fluttershy's original concepts were switched from Pinkie being the pegasus and Fluttershy the earth pony.<br /><br />These "earth powers" finally appear more impressive in "Hearth's Warming Eve", where a story from the past when the different types of ponies lived apart and grudgingly exchanged services reveals that the earth ponies, though appearing poorer and dirtier than the unicorns and pegasi, were the only ones who could grow food.<br /><br />Princess Cadence in spite of being a alicorn princes has amazingly specialized magic: Love magic (this is likely having to do with [[Executive Meddling|Lauren Faust having meant her to be a unicorn]]). Mostly used for mending broken hearts, she does however turn her talent into Heart Is an Awesome Power when she uses her love for Shining Armor to power up his bubble shield magic.<br /><br />Shining Armor on the other hand most likely can only use his aforementioned bubble shield magic. Likewise most unicorns likely can only use magic based on their special talent. Exceptions being Twilight Sparkle and Trixie, whose special talents are Magic itself, and copying other ponies' special talents and normal skills respectively.
 
 
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