OT: Do powers make a hero/villain more or less interesting?

[T-1000]

This is a dicussion thread open for debate. As a general rule, do you think that having super powers make characters less or more interesting? If a hero is Batman or Iron and has to rely soley on tech or his own wits as a person is that better from a story telling/narrative perspective or are you more into a Superman/Silver Surfer character with powers to spare?

[Jonathan]

It depends on the story your trying to tell.

As for my personal preferences though, I generally prefer heroes with no or limited powers. Batman and Captain America are easily my two favorite superheroes, and in that order.

[Harbinger19]

To me, powers provide opportunities for characters to express personality. It’s a lot of fun in battle manga because everyone tends to have a common source of power (chakra in Naruto or Nen in Hunter x Hunter, for instance) but the characters express themselves differently according to their personalities. Itachi’s abilities and fighting style tell you things about him that distinguish him from other ninja, same deal with a character like Hisoka.

Lelouch is a lot more interesting for having his Geass power. Batman is more interesting for his plethora of skills, not less.

Not every powered character is written in a compelling way but the power at least gives more opportunity.

[Dark Soul # 7]

It really depends on how the writer uses the abilities that a character has and the story that they're trying to tell.

With a character like Silver Surfer who has so many powers that can solve so many problems within no time at all, it might be a bit tricker to tell a compelling and character driven narrative with conflicts that he can't solve with just a wave of his hand. But it can and has been done several times throughout the decades.

And it's just as easy to make characters with no powers like Batman feel overpowered and less compelling than the Silver Surfer and Superman types. Just having Batman being able to beat anybody with prep or making his superpowered opponents into dumbasses to make it seem like his skills really makes up the difference can IMO take you right out of the story and instantly make it that much less interesting.

[k von doom]

I think godlike characters are less relatable than ones that exhibit realistic limitations, for example, Superman, Flash and Dr Strange are a little above us and it's difficult to put them in situations where you believe they're in actual peril. As opposed to, say, Batman or Daredevil or Spiderman. OTOH, if the writer is crafting an intergalactic tale spanning several star systems, it's less interesting reading about the street leveller as opposed to the Silver Surfer, who can make a greater impact on the story.

[T-1000]

See I like heroes with varying powers because that keeps things interesting.

In DC comics, the Resurrection Man dies and then comes back to life with a different power set each time. The spin-off of the popular indie comic Irredeemable, titled Incorruptible featured the character of Max Damage who got stronger the longer he was awake. This kind of stuff allows for a lot more potential for me with different stories. Letting you have powerful characters and weak characters at the same time makes it more interesting and opens up just endless possibilities for story telling. I kinda wish more characters had intentionally fluctuating powers instead of the kind that just vary depending on the writers.