Best and worst power changes?

[sunofdarkchild]

Linda Danvers going from a shape-shifting goop being to a human-angel hybrid with fire powers turned out to be a very good thing and allowed for very different stories.

[Güicho]

Vibe got one of the best, along with the name change from Paco to Francisco Ramon
Went from a somewhat generic sound/vibration manipulation, to not only sensing the vibrations between alt-dimension-time-lines and universes, but even being capable of breaching (opening vibrational portals) and traveling between them.
As well as (depicted in the CW) "vibing" residual traces of people, events throughout, and perusing them either (visually) with his minds-eye "vibing" them, or physically by following them with breach.

ie where Schrödinger's cat proposes a probability moment, where a cat in a box is both alive and dead at the same time, yet opening the door, to find out relegates the cat to only one determined of the two possibilities.
For Vibe it's more than merely a though experiment, he can not only literally sense "vibe" both possibilities, but actually open the door "breach" and experience both possibilities as having both actually occurred; physically jump into and pursue one time-line/universe where the cat continued to be alive, and the other time-line/universe where the cat died.
Then come back and tell you both, or infinite other variations.

Making things more complicated( potentially wonderful, or terrifying or maddening) choose to stay in one over another.

Sadly having got one of the most interesting and complicated power upgrades , the character has pretty much vanished from the comics.

[Zero Hunter]

Lightning Lass having her powers changed from lightning based to gravity based and changing her into Light Lass. It is shame her gravity powers were never really used that well because writers didn't seem to know hoe to write them. Gravity based powers are very powerful when written right.

[Sutekh]

As for Kon, I completely agree. I think that the TTK was a cool and unique element to his character, and I too am less interested in the 50% human Kon than in the "100% human but we tried to fake it" version. It's one of those things I just gotta get used to though, so I'm glad it doesn't bug me that much. I think every version of Kon to make it off the page has followed the "half-Luthor, half-Superman" trend, and so it's pretty ingrained into the character's DNA at this point - no pun intended.

I also feel like 'the Kid' with his tactile TK was way more interesting than yet another Supermanalogue. (And now, with Jon, someone new has come along to drink that milkshake all up, anyway, so he transitioned from 'unique new character with his own niche' to 'something that's going to get taken away from me anyway.' Just a terrible move.)

I'm okay with the idea of half-Kryptonian DNA finally being activated and giving him half-Superman powers *as well as* tactile TK, but it doesn't look like that's a thing either.

[caj]

Lightning Lass having her powers changed from lightning based to gravity based and changing her into Light Lass. It is shame her gravity powers were never really used that well because writers didn't seem to know hoe to write them. Gravity based powers are very powerful when written right.

Agree. I may be in the minority, but I hated when they turned her back into Lightning Lass. As you say, gravity based powers could've been great if they had figured out how to use them.

[Riv86672]

Wonder Woman becoming a kung fu diva....



How do you take your flagship female character, who stands shoulder to shoulder w. Supes, and make her a street level fashionista?

[The Darknight Detective]

Wonder Woman becoming a kung fu diva....



How do you take your flagship female character, who stands shoulder to shoulder w. Supes, and make her a street level fashionista?

I think we have a winner here. It's the worst power change so far, IMO.

[scary harpy]

Linda Danvers going from a shape-shifting goop being to a human-angel hybrid with fire powers turned out to be a very good thing and allowed for very different stories.

This was a very bad thing.

Matrix could have become DC's Invisible Woman. Her only problem was a writer's lack of imagination.

[mathew101281]

Best: Swamp Thing going from a man who turned into a monster. To a plant elemental that thought he was a man.

Worst: Electric Superman

[Sutekh]

Agree. I may be in the minority, but I hated when they turned her back into Lightning Lass. As you say, gravity based powers could've been great if they had figured out how to use them.

*If* she'd straight up had gravity powers, and not 'the power to make things super-lightweight', then yes, gravity control would have been vastly better. (Threeboot Light Lass had gravity powers, and Superboy's Legion had *light* powers, but classic Ayla, merely the 'make objects float' power, like the girl from My Hero Academia, which was, not as interesting, IMO.)

But I think she got way more dynamic use on the page as Blaster Lass (since, really, all Lightning Lad or Lightning Lass offer as Legionnaires is the same thing any schmoe with a space-gun can do...).

While I would have loved a better written / portrayed use of an Ayla with gravity control powers (which can be dynamic as all heck, see Marvel's Graviton for examples!), she didn't have effective powers like that, and the writers had shown for several decades by that point that they weren't up to the task of making what powers she did have effective or interesting, so, I kinda prefer Lightning Lass. I just would have liked it more if Lightning Lad had retired, and she (and Sun Boy) were the primary 'blasters' on the team, to give her more focus.

Some of the reboot/threeboot adaptations of Legionnaires stand out for me as 'worst changes.' Element Lad, in particular, goes from classic, turning a percentage of the atmosphere of the entire planet Earth into lead to drop tens of thousands of Superman-powered rampaging Daxamites from the skies, to the threeboot version who has to touch something to transmute it, and his changes only last 30 seconds. Wow! Classic Shadow Lass was able to make fields of darkness, in one case large enough to blot out a sun! Reboot Shady controls tangible darkforce, like Marvel's Darkstar (or cartoon Raven), which is a *much* more awesome power and a definite upgrade to 'Shadow Lantern' from 'Lights Out Lass,' but felt like a massive change to the character, and I was not fond of it.

[manwhohaseverything]

Superman becoming just another flying paragon.

[9th.]

Those stupid animal constructs they recently gave Vixen, it'd be a good powerset for a new character but Mari doesn't really need constructs. Her powers are much cooler without them.

[Agent Z]

While the fire coming out of her nose was indeed just awful, she could also breathe it out of her mouth, which looked far less silly, and as 'Green Fury' she could breathe hot flame, cold flame, create illusions, change her costume, or fly.

Then Giffen got his hands on her, changed her name to 'Fire' and she could create a six inch tongue of flame from her mouth.

Worst power change, ever.

After that, she got upgraded again, and turned into a green Human Torch. (Catch on fire, fly, shoot fire blasts.) So terribly unoriginal, and, IMO, a huge downgrade from where she started, all those years ago, in Super Friends.

You're forgetting her power to turn intangible, which most pyrokinetics can't do.

I wouldn't even say her original power set was original. Just a mish mash of unconnectd powers.

[hareluyafan1]

Is that a change when that guy used to have shark repellant for the right occasion?

Yes.

The shark repellent was in the Bat-copter on a mission that required they fly out over the ocean. It's not like he had it in his utility belt while he was in the middle of Gotham.

Is Batman has always been about prep time to some level. To not be would be asinine, IMO.

To some level yes, but it's ridiculous to have him always have exactly the right tool to deal with any problem anywhere. In the above example, bringing shark repellent while heading out to sea, sure that makes sense. Having it on his person while he's in the middle of Gotham does not.

like the girl from My Hero Academia,

Her name is Ochaco Uraraka.

[The Darknight Detective]

To some level yes, but it's ridiculous to have him always have exactly the right tool to deal with any problem anywhere. In the above example, bringing shark repellent while heading out to sea, sure that makes sense. Having it on his person while he's in the middle of Gotham does not.

I don't consider anything from the show's universe worth talking about in this context, since that was a de facto comedy (even nominated for an Emmy as such!)