Too many people with the same powers

[Odd Rödney]

I think it’s okay to have lots of characters with similar powers. After all, there are millions of mutants again. Expecting every mutant to have a unique power is a bit unrealistic… if not impossible.

Yeah, this is exactly what I was trying to say. It'd be more unrealistic if there were no similarities.

[Jackraow21]

I think about ways to differentiate characters. Like how Logan used to be different from all the other feral, healing power mutants because of his adamantium skeleton and razor-sharp claws. Now Laura has the same, but at least the rest of them don’t.

Or in the case of Cable, it’s the fact that he can’t really use much of his powers due to his techno-organics and has to instead rely on his training and weaponry (along with the enhancements inherent in his techno-organics). In fact, it was kind of cool during Mike Carey’s run when he didn’t really have his powers at all and instead used technology to simulate them with a flexible force shield (The Cone of Silence) replicating his TK and his internal A.I. system (Infonet) kind of simulating TP. Made him very different from all the rest of the psychics in that he really didn’t even use his powers but rather used tech.

[Confuzzled]

What's the problem? There's popular fiction like Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Grishaverse (Shadow & Bone) where many people have the same powersets. I do feel like any real world community and culture, like-powered mutants can form sub-communities of their own.

Also, multiple telepaths is not only cool (as it allows for battles on astral planes) but also a necessity when it comes to comms and handling Cerebro.

A poster with an Emma avi complaining about multiple telepaths when she appeared decades after Jean and Charles?

[jwatson]

What's the problem? There's popular fiction like Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Grishaverse (Shadow & Bone) where many people have the same powersets. I do feel like any real world community and culture, like-powered mutants can form sub-communities of their own.

Also, multiple telepaths is not only cool (as it allows for battles on astral planes) but also a necessity when it comes to comms and handling Cerebro.

A poster with an Emma avi complaining about multiple telepaths when she appeared decades after Jean and Charles?

haha this post was brilliant. that was literally my first actual thought. lol

[salarta]

What's the problem? There's popular fiction like Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Grishaverse (Shadow & Bone) where many people have the same powersets. I do feel like any real world community and culture, like-powered mutants can form sub-communities of their own.

Calling to order this meeting of the Society of Geologically Powered Mutants.

[Grunty]

I think multiple people with the same powers is fine. It's not whether or not you have the power, it's what you do with it and how you express it.

The core issue, I think, is that writers need to do more work to make it clear how characters differ. When they don't do that is when you get people thinking they're just copies of each other.

As I'm writing this, I remember how Supergirl was killed off in the 80s comics purely because an editor thought she "didn't add anything to the Superman mythos." But last decade, she got a TV show that lasted several seasons. Because they made it clear she's not just Superman with boobs, she's her own character who happens to have the same power set.

I have to agree on this and i feel the problem is not characters with similar powers existing, but that the current status quo makes them both too readily aviable and easily discardable for the current writers.

It made a lot more sense to have multiple characters with similar or the same powers around when they weren't readily aviable at all times, were dead, or on opposing sides.

"I need a teleporter! Hmm. This one is allready on another team, can't interrupt their story, this ones taken aswell, taken, dead, dead, dead, in space, villain, in prison... ah screw it i make a new one. Can't create a new one? Okay time to dust off this obscure character from that one-shot. Time to come up with an explanation where they had been and why they are joining in."

But now instead of actualy having to provide a reason for why a certain character gets recruited on a team or appears in a story, which also means having to provide introduction and continuity for them, the writers can just pull these characters out of a hat, use their powers for quick resolutions or victories and then throw them back into the hat often without even allowing them to utter a sentence.

Because practically everyone who doesn't belong to the same handfull of popular characters, who had been getting attention and character reinforcement for 20+ years allready, is now more than ever reduced to a "function" via their powers.

[ChronoRogue]

There being overlap between characters with the same powers is fine, but I do think writers need to do a better job showing how those characters use them differently.

Telepaths have a huge umbrella of psionic powers
- telepathy
- empathy
- mind control
- astral projection
- illusions
- telepathic defense
- mind bolts

An easy way to differentiate telepaths is showing different skills and prowess in these different power sub-sets. Like Kwannon being good at illusions because it helps her archetype in being a more stealthy and ninja-like telepath but weaker communicating over large distances with telepathy because she's offensively focused, while Emma being good at mind-control compared to most telepaths because she's less ethically bothered about asserting control over others and weaker at empathy because... she's Emma and is barely comfortable expressing her own.

Power Mimics also should have differences in
- range or distance they can mimic
- length of time they are able to mimic
- number of abilities stored at one time
- differences in skill depending on the power type (mental vs physical vs energy vs familiarity), not all mimics should be great or good at each power type equally and could show better control in different specific power types

Synch has shown great proficiency in being able to mimic across great distances as well as recall powers but I think he should have weaknesses in number of abilities storied in one time as a consequence, while Hope as the omega mimic should be able to store the largest amount of different powers and at their fullest potential but might not be the best at keeping those powers for very long periods, lastly Rogue seems to be able to keep powers stored for years at time but obviously has difficulty with range and is mostly limited by touch most of the time.

It really doesn't take much thought to have characters show skill in different areas or express powers differently if the writers actually tries. The problem is them not trying to show specializations outside of like CC, like usual lol.

[Harasar]

I think it not so much a problem with too many characters with similar powers as it is with writers/artists not using powers creatively. Pretty much every battle nowadays fills the same, regardless of participating characters and characters are depicted the same way. Like, for example, Storm flies around and throw lightnings, Wolverine and Magik rush ahead with claws/sword, etc. In events and other "big battles" with multiple characters they not so much fighting as just posing and flexing at each other.

And there is also inconsistence in power levels and generalization, like, in the past there was a difference in strength of various telepaths, now they are kind of all the same. I remember in PAD's X-Factor Monet said what she is a weak telepath and only could do some small things, but later in all-female X-Men she was suddenly as good as Rachel and Psylocke. Karma, Mirage, Chamber had very specific powers, but now could use generic telepathy as well. Various "energy" manipulators now just use generic energy beams, with no clear difference, like Pyro, Sunfire, Firestar, Magma, all have different powers but depicted pretty much the same way. Would not be surprised if sooner or later Pyro would learn to generate his own fire and start to fly around in a generic full-body fire form.

[jwatson]

There being overlap between characters with the same powers is fine, but I do think writers need to do a better job showing how those characters use them differently.

Telepaths have a huge umbrella of psionic powers
- telepathy
- empathy
- mind control
- astral projection
- illusions
- telepathic defense
- mind bolts

An easy way to differentiate telepaths is showing different skills and prowess in these different power sub-sets. Like Kwannon being good at illusions because it helps her archetype in being a more stealthy and ninja-like telepath but weaker communicating over large distances with telepathy because she's offensively focused, while Emma being good at mind-control compared to most telepaths because she's less ethically bothered about asserting control over others and weaker at empathy because... she's Emma and is barely comfortable expressing her own.

Power Mimics also should have differences in
- range or distance they can mimic
- length of time they are able to mimic
- number of abilities stored at one time
- differences in skill depending on the power type (mental vs physical vs energy vs familiarity), not all mimics should be great or good at each power type equally and could show better control in different specific power types

Synch has shown great proficiency in being able to mimic across great distances as well as recall powers but I think he should have weaknesses in number of abilities storied in one time as a consequence, while Hope as the omega mimic should be able to store the largest amount of different powers and at their fullest potential but might not be the best at keeping those powers for very long periods, lastly Rogue seems to be able to keep powers stored for years at time but obviously has difficulty with range and is mostly limited by touch most of the time.

It really doesn't take much thought to have characters show skill in different areas or express powers differently if the writers actually tries. The problem is them not trying to show specializations outside of like CC, like usual lol.

hope is actually an omega in power manipulation and how she can amplify a mutant's power but not in power mimicry. there is no known omega for that though i guess the shape shifter from red that storm defeated for her seat would qualify. but then i guess that depends on if a distinction is made on becoming someone else to use their power vs using someone elses power as yourself

[ChronoRogue]

hope is actually an omega in power manipulation and how she can amplify a mutant's power but not in power mimicry. there is no known omega for that though i guess the shape shifter from red that storm defeated for her seat would qualify. but then i guess that depends on if a distinction is made on becoming someone else to use their power vs using someone elses power as yourself

Oh you're right, I had forgotten the wording on that. I would say Synch might be it but considering recent spoilers that spoilers:

certain uses of his powers are aging him at an accelerated rate

end of spoilers maybe not.

[jwatson]

Oh you're right, I had forgotten the wording on that. I would say Synch might be it but considering recent spoilers that spoilers:

certain uses of his powers are aging him at an accelerated rate

end of spoilers maybe not.

Exactly. And i am not trying to start no fan ware or will take part in one but just going to be honest as someone who loves rogue i feel Duggan concession to some over zealous responses was to add a limit to synch. Rogue limit has always been if she absorbs too much she could kill the person. Well here duggan decided ok, well rogue won't be used going forward, and this is just my opinion, so to minimize that i will give synch a limit where for him to do this it drains himself. So yes resurrections could take care of it and it's potentially not a real limit it feels more done for a reason than organic to the story as it was being presented. and as a side it just so happens which i don't think was the particular reason in this case but still exists as a byproduct that this sort of stuff does predominately happen to powerful characters of color that it can come off some kind of way even if not the intent

[ChronoRogue]

Exactly. And i am not trying to start no fan ware or will take part in one but just going to be honest as someone who loves rogue i feel Duggan concession to some over zealous responses was to add a limit to synch. Rogue limit has always been if she absorbs too much she could kill the person. Well here duggan decided ok, well rogue won't be used going forward, and this is just my opinion, so to minimize that i will give synch a limit where for him to do this it drains himself. So yes resurrections could take care of it and it's potentially not a real limit it feels more done for a reason than organic to the story as it was being presented. and as a side it just so happens which i don't think was the particular reason in this case but still exists as a byproduct that this sort of stuff does predominately happen to powerful characters of color that it can come off some kind of way even if not the intent

I'd be surprised if Duggan ever saw any of that discourse, I wouldn't want to visit the forums as a creator lol. (well unless I felt really confident!)

It did feel a bit tacked on as a power limit, yea. I was hoping for Duggan to establish on the onset strengths and weakness between the two, but it seems like he had his own plans in mind there. We'll see if the resurrection protocols can somehow play into this problem at a later time. But yea, I hear you on wanting more powerful POC characters; I know most people blow it off, but it's still annoying to me how Hickman thought that list of omegas was ok.

Buuut that's another topic lol. More creative uses of powers please, writers.

[Sin Nick]

I don't mind multiple characters have the same powers that much because power isn't what makes a character great. The great ones in the end always rise to the top. The mark of a great character IMO is what are they without their power. It's one of the main reasons why Wolverine and Storm are my favorite X-characters. We've seen them without their abilities and they're still capable and badass. Can't say that for a lot of others. It's why so many of these so-call powerful characters fizzle out and eventually land in the land of Limbo. All power, no characteristics.

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

I think it's fine if you have them on separate teams. I do hate dilution though. The only one, ok two, characters I want to see making psychic weapons are Psylocke.

[jwatson]

I'd be surprised if Duggan ever saw any of that discourse, I wouldn't want to visit the forums as a creator lol. (well unless I felt really confident!)

It did feel a bit tacked on as a power limit, yea. I was hoping for Duggan to establish on the onset strengths and weakness between the two, but it seems like he had his own plans in mind there. We'll see if the resurrection protocols can somehow play into this problem at a later time. But yea, I hear you on wanting more powerful POC characters; I know most people blow it off, but it's still annoying to me how Hickman thought that list of omegas was ok.

Buuut that's another topic lol. More creative uses of powers please, writers.

The only thing that makes me think he may have is so much of the writers view or twitter is brought over here that sometimes i feel like it's purposefully done to try to influence the reaction of people. Personally i don't care though. lol. I gleam what i gleam from the story.