How defined do you like your heroes powers to be?

[Star_Jammer]

I like consistency, with the assumption that a hero (especially ones with newly discovered powers) can find new applications or ways to enhance their power, or just natural growth in power due.

Like...freshly-bitten Spider-Man should have grown stronger over his years. But seeing him struggle with lesser feats after we've seen him tackle bigger ones is a bit silly.

[GrandEleven]

I love my powers to be framed and consistent. It makes it easier to define drama when it's established something is beyond a character. Makes it less necessary to use "power yardsticks" in the story as well (omg he beat Galactus!) I'm also not a huge fan of powers getting "beyond x", though that's way harder to define for me.

The best way I can define "beyond x" is usually a blend of what their daily concern is vs how their power scales. Perfect example would be Ghost Rider. Typically in his own comics he's always taking on a group that heavily overlaps the Punisher domain: which is pretty street level. Yet he's the embodiment of unlimited vengeance power and can fight gods when the time needs him to ... and that is just too much for me. If he's the embodiment of a force of nature, he should be working at a cosmic level, not just hanging out on earth except for the occasional team arc. I like the powers to be framed around where the character thrives.

In contrast I'd say Spiderman has a GREAT power set. Largely well defined/understood. Practically tailor made for New York and it's tall buildings. He's the gold standard of character powers in Marvel for me.

[pageturner]

I don't mind some progression. Younger heros who over time develop their powers to a stronger use is ok by me. When spider developed organic webs for a time or when he is shown using the spider sense for more than just an alarm. Cage got much stronger than he started out in part it was because of a 2nd dose but since then he is 3x as strong and it really was never explained.

Certainlu Sue Storm getting the force field was a game changer.

[CaptCleghorn]

"Defining" can be a very slippery slope. Back when John Byrne gave Frankie raye flame powers he specified relative heat and length of time that she and Johnny could flame on and burn. Pretty cool (for flame powers anyway) but once we start dealing with how strong and how long someone can operate at peak capacity and other factors which can effect a character's ability to utilize their powers. a strict definition starts becoming a multi-page legal document.

Standards like Spidey can throw a car but only lift a bus work well enough. The strength metrics of can lift X tons give us a means of comparing, but rarely are we going to see that X+1 limit reached. Have a rough idea, stretch it either way if needed for the story, but don't start having Cap lift mountains or Thor unable to break a standard chain.

[JudicatorPrime]

It really depends on the character and the powerset.

On the one hand, characters with powerful cosmic or high level magic powers are going to have more room to expand and expound on their abilities. Ditto with characters who have artifacts like Infinity Stones, the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, a Starbrand, Cosmic Cube, or similarly items which grant nigh-limitless anything are going to be less defined in their parameters. Lastly, this philosophy applies to anyone that taps into nigh-infinite sources of power, like Jean Grey/Phoenix, Captain Universe, Monica Rambeau, the Aquarian, etc.

However, someone like Spider Man, Archangel, Mystique, Vision, Quicksilver, Power Man, and many others like them are going to have clearly defined powers and limitations. That's not to say that I'm against a character's powerset evolving, but evolution by definition is more like a plateau than an unbounded horizon. For the most part I'm sticking to precedent with these characters. You'll never see me write a Power Man who was barely able to lift a VW Beetle at one point going toe to toe with someone like a Power Cosmic empowered Terrax, who is strong enough to bend Luke backwards into a metal pretzel. I'm not saying Luke can't win the fight, but he's not going to do it standing center ring, toe to toe in a slugfest. As a writer I would simply accept the challenge of presenting a battle that Luke can win, if that's possible, or one where he loses but nevertheless keeps the moral high ground.

[Mike_Murdock]

I like consistency, I hate mathematical exactitude. There's nothing worse than an argument that a writer got Spider-Man wrong because he couldn't lift the exact tonnage he'd been previously established to be able to lift in a prior story.

On the other hand, I dislike when Daredevil's radar sense starts doing new or weird things because the plot demands it.

[The tall man]

I think there should be hard limits on powers. When you get characters with godlike abilities who can seemingly do anything it becomes almost too goofy. Every character should have a limit to what they can and cannot do. One of my pet peeves is human superheroes who can defeat cosmic beings, or heroes who can affect the entire world with their abilities. There should be a tier or scale in which powers fall and earth bound characters should not be above cosmic ones. I always get annoyed when Galactus gets beat or hurt or frightened by earth heroes, or by characters who can warp reality on a grand scale. Reality warping should be reserved for cosmic entities, no telepath should be able to read every mind on earth at once, no telekinetic should be able to operate on a molecular level, no energy manipulator should be able to absorb unlimited amounts of energy, no one should be totally invulnerable to physical harm, no one should have supreme intelligence to solve any problem or invent any device and so forth. Most fans want their personal fave to be the most powerful, almost every X-fan wants their fave to be an omega level mutant. As if the more powerful a character is the better or more interesting they will be. So yes have limts on powers and stick to them.

[JudicatorPrime]

I think there should be hard limits on powers. When you get characters with godlike abilities who can seemingly do anything it becomes almost too goofy. Every character should have a limit to what they can and cannot do. One of my pet peeves is human superheroes who can defeat cosmic beings, or heroes who can affect the entire world with their abilities. There should be a tier or scale in which powers fall and earth bound characters should not be above cosmic ones. I always get annoyed when Galactus gets beat or hurt or frightened by earth heroes, or by characters who can warp reality on a grand scale. Reality warping should be reserved for cosmic entities, no telepath should be able to read every mind on earth at once, no telekinetic should be able to operate on a molecular level, no energy manipulator should be able to absorb unlimited amounts of energy, no one should be totally invulnerable to physical harm, no one should have supreme intelligence to solve any problem or invent any device and so forth. Most fans want their personal fave to be the most powerful, almost every X-fan wants their fave to be an omega level mutant. As if the more powerful a character is the better or more interesting they will be. So yes have limts on powers and stick to them.

You make some good points.

I think we reached the point where comics became comical a long time ago. Whether we're talking about the supremely powerful, or just the non-powered, heroes are often seen doing things well beyond what we're willing to accept for even a fantasy world.

That was something that you'd usually only see in DC. But now Marvel has to have its Batman-like feats, too. Batman, a character who seems to know everything, but isn't cosmically aware in the least. A character who somehow found a way to rig the moon with explosives just in time to deal with a cosmic existential threat.

You never saw that sort of thing with Marvel back in the day without some serious consequences, but now you do. Often. I mean even the idea of Reed, Franklin and the Molecule Man having the ability and wherewithal to not only spare an omniversal iteration, but create a new instance seemed implausible back then. But now? It's fine and comic readers eat it up. Man has become his own Creator. So long as that's the case, anything goes.

Much to my chagrin.

Don't get me wrong, I love OP characters. But not without context and consequence. Not without logically sound explanations behind abilities and feats. Not without some kind of foundation and structure.

For example, it's fine to have a mind that can warp reality, but where does the energy come from to do that on a massive scale? We never get those explanations. The brain that could do that would need to be cosmic in nature, or somehow directly pipelined to the astral plane. And if it is pulling that much energy from the astral plane, well, there should be a rule that says that doing that sort of thing too often to a finite source endangers the source that is being tapped.

Little zero sum features like that I don't mind seeing. The only thing in the universe that should truly be limitless, infinite, parameter-defying, etc., is TOAA. Short of that, everything else should have a limit.

I think that limit for OP characters should still give them ample room to do incredible things, but things well short of a TOAA feat. I would even go as far as saying that no manner of human feat should even approach Living Tribunal level. The whole purpose of the LT was to ensure that magical thresholds didn't get out of hand. I would extend that to scientific thresholds as well. If Franklin Richards is sufficiently powerful to raise Galactus from the dead, then the LT isn't doing its job. Galactus is one of the fundamental pillars of the omniverse. No mortal being should be able to re-create that. Marvel does need to put the genie back in the bottle a bit.

[Raye]

I went for #2. I like there to be some consistency, I don't think they should be fluctuating all over the place or anything, but I don't feel it needs to be so rigid that nothing new can ever be done with the characters powers.

[JudicatorPrime]

Yeah, I'm going to double down on the "more like guidelines" option. There are a few great writers out there who know their stuff and get very creative with a character's abilities. I'd want them to be able to continue to wow us. I mean just think where we'd be if all Magneto could do was just affect magnetism in the beginning...as opposed to possibly being a living, breathing representation of the Grand Unified Theory. Or Scarlet Witch going from random and largely uncontrollable probability altering hex spheres to an outright Mistress of Chaos Magic. And then there's the potential for secondary mutations in mutants, which was all but unheard of when mutants were first introduced. I love innovations like that. Please don't fence me in.

[Knight27]

I think characters that use magic should have their powers clearly defined. Because most of the time their powers just do what the plot demands it to do.They even seem to have the same powers. Dr.voodoo magic should be extremely different from scarlet witches or strange but, Everytime they appear together they seem to be capable of doing the same spells

[DrNewGod]

I think characters that use magic should have their powers clearly defined. Because most of the time their powers just do what the plot demands it to do.They even seem to have the same powers. Dr.voodoo magic should be extremely different from scarlet witches or strange but, Everytime they appear together they seem to be capable of doing the same spells

Originally, Brother Voodoo and Dr. Strange were very different.

[Outburstz]

I want the powers to be very set in stone. If the powers happen to change or morph for any reason that needs to be stated and explained.

[JudicatorPrime]

I think characters that use magic should have their powers clearly defined. Because most of the time their powers just do what the plot demands it to do.They even seem to have the same powers. Dr.voodoo magic should be extremely different from scarlet witches or strange but, Everytime they appear together they seem to be capable of doing the same spells

Marvel's take on magic has always been a bit of a free-range with writers sometimes adhering to set guidelines and definitions, while other times paying absolutely no heed to the notion of magical types, disciplines, forms, attributes and elements at all. Strange and Voodoo are perhaps not the best examples, since both are Sorcerer Supreme level, which would indicate a level of mastery that would enable them to cross-utilize from a number of different magical forms. But I do agree in general that there should be set distinctions in magic and parameters for each type. For example, how a dark magic user conjures up a storm should be entirely different from the way a white magic user conjures a storm -- and the storms should have different properties -- even though to the untrained eye it looks all the same. And while there should be some common core spells that all magical forms share, the concepts of attribute and mastery should further differentiate what one type of magic practitioner can achieve from another. For example a necromancer should be able to do things with anti-life magic that your run of the mill elemental invoker simply cannot do, nor will ever be able to do. But maybe I've just read one too many magical fantasy novels growing up.

[davew128]

Marvel's take on magic has always been a bit of a free-range with writers sometimes adhering to set guidelines and definitions, while other times paying absolutely no heed to the notion of magical types, disciplines, forms, attributes and elements at all. Strange and Voodoo are perhaps not the best examples, since both are Sorcerer Supreme level, which would indicate a level of mastery that would enable them to cross-utilize from a number of different magical forms. But I do agree in general that there should be set distinctions in magic and parameters for each type. For example, how a dark magic user conjures up a storm should be entirely different from the way a white magic user conjures a storm -- and the storms should have different properties -- even though to the untrained eye it looks all the same. And while there should be some common core spells that all magical forms share, the concepts of attribute and mastery should further differentiate what one type of magic practitioner can achieve from another. For example a necromancer should be able to do things with anti-life magic that your run of the mill elemental invoker simply cannot do, nor will ever be able to do. But maybe I've just read one too many magical fantasy novels growing up.

Well also remember that except for inherently magical extra-dimensional beings, that magic is a learned trait, not physical. Case in point, being instances where versions of Stark and McCoy are shown casting magic simply by learning how to do it.