Over the years, a great number of characters have started out with one power set, then received "upgrades" as time went by. Superman could fly, Black Canary could summon birds and then received sonic powers, the Beast mutated, Emma Frost mutated, Sue Storm could use force fields, etc. Of the various and sundry abilities that characters have developed over the years, which have made the most sense, and which seemed to come out of left field?
As an example, Captain Marvel's ability to fly made sense to me, as his powers are magic-based, so the upgrade isn't that farfetched. The ability of Swamp Thing to control vegetation also works for me, as why wouldn't a plant monster have that ability? Also, the Falcon's recent ability to communicate with all birds makes sense, although I do sort of miss Redwing.
On the other hand, while I'm willing to give Sue Storm the benefit of being in the "throw it at the wall and see if it sticks" Marvel tradition, I'm less willing to give Superman's ability to fly a pass, as there was little to suggest he could negate gravity when he was introduced. The less said about Emma's "Diamond Form" the better, and really, Dinah didn't need super powers, did she?
I'd like to hear some other takes. What power upgrades worked for you, and which ones didn't?
Replies
Without doing a lot of research, the Silver Age Flash comes to mind. As time went along he discovered he had total control over his molecules. Vibrating his molecules allowed him to pass through walls and visit other dimensions, such as Earth-2. To me it worked and seemed like a natural outgrowth of his powers. OTOH, I was pretty young at the time.
I love to talk about early Martian Manhunter, because it was hilarious how he'd develop a new super-power just about every issue. And, frankly, none of them made any sense. (He had "see-around-corners vision." I wish I was making that up.) Eventually, though, they dropped most of that, and he settled into Superman Lite powers, plus shapechanging and telepathy. For my money, they could drop the standard Kryptonian power-set (which themselves are only marginally explainable) and just say he can make himself really hard sometimes (super-strength/invulnerability) because he's a shape-changer. That and telepathy can be written off to his being a Martian, so that makes sense. I don't see any reason to this day that he can fly or use heat vision, or why the Justice League would really need him to.
Recently we've all been reminded on the Thor Re-Read thread how Mjolnir seemed to develop a new ability every issue before Stan & Jack (tm) came back to Journey into Mystery with issue #100 and standardized Thor's powers. I can accept a few powers for Thor's hammer -- hey, it's magic -- but not too many, and not those goofy ones. I mean, when Odin enchanted the hammer did he decide that using "magnetic lines of power" would come in handy someday? Of course not! The standard power set the hammer has now seems sufficient.
Captain Comics said:
.... he settled into Superman Lite powers, plus shapechanging and telepathy. For my money, they could drop the standard Kryptonian power-set (which themselves are only marginally explainable) and just say he can make himself really hard sometimes (super-strength/invulnerability) because he's a shape-changer. That and telepathy can be written off to his being a Martian, so that makes sense. I don't see any reason to this day that he can fly or use heat vision, or why the Justice League would really need him to.
It was unfortunate that they emphasized the 'Superman Lite' powers in the JLA comics. And picking fire as his weakness wasn't a good idea as it made him too easy to defeat. Why not make him vulnerable to a glass of water? Because they didn't use his shape-shifting and telepathy (which were more interesting) in JLA he became redundant when they started using Superman. Kryptonite was almost as common as fire and water, but not quite.
Not only was fire a stupid weakness, but it varied in strength depending on the story. Sometimes J'onn would just get a little weak around a flame-thrower or flame creature, but in one of the later stories in House of Mystery he passed out because a guy lit a match nearby. His "weakness" was as strong or weak as the plot required, evidently.
I still don't get why Hal Jordan couldn't use his ring to dump red paint on somebody dressed in yellow, or, if it was a yellow monster or robot, drop a rock on its head.
Sue's forcefields seemed to me to be a natural extension of her powers and personality. She had the inner strength but kept it hidden.
I recall that the late '50s--early '60s DC writers seemed to revel in sense-of-wonder stuff. Superman can shift planets and stars around: how about that! The Flash is not only faster than light, but faster than the last issue: how about that! It's great for eight or nine-year-olds, I'll concede.
I can't believe that the writers didn't argue for less power, just so that they could create interesting challenges and imaginative strategies for the heroes. Too often they had to resort to Lois or Jimmy or the Earth as hostages. They had to waste their imaginations explaining why Flash didn't just disarm the bad guys, stick 'em in jail, take his friends back home safely and file the police reports all before the next panel.
I suppose that the artists would rather draw star-shifting than depict nervous people in complicated situations, easier and more fun.
The Spectre was doing even crazier things in 1940, only back then they seemed to realize it and seriously powered him down. But in the 60s and 70s they boosted him right back to impossible to challenge him levels.
Don Mankowski said:
Ron M. said:
I still don't get why Hal Jordan couldn't use his ring to dump red paint on somebody dressed in yellow, or, if it was a yellow monster or robot, drop a rock on its head.
That would have been fun to see. I remember the time there was an "invisible yellow" force field on somebody/something. How can something be both yellow and invisible?
It was crazy that the heroes (Superman, GL, MM) would seemingly own up to their weaknesses to the point where everyone knew them. It's one thing if something HAPPENS to be yellow but it seemed like the bad guys knew his weakness and dressed accordingly.
The power upgrades that really get me are the ones where established non-powered or minimally powered heroes just happen to be exposed to something that by purely random chance gives them a genuine super-power that goes with the costumed identity they're already using. Why should Dinah Lance get the sonic blast power while Greer Nelson gets the were-tiger power (admittedly, Greer didn't keep her "Cat" identity when she became Tigra, but she could have) when there was no logical reason (other than editorial fiat) for things to not go the other way around?
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
of 4 Next