Too many people with the same powers

[Ra-El]

Well Goldballs have one of the most original powers in decades.

I don't see a problem with multiple characters having similar powers, the problem is how generic is their use of it. Telepaths are the worst offenders, writers just use them to do whatever is needed with no distinction between, the only exception are Jean and Emma, the writers are always pointing out the differences between them.

What I really think they should do, is giving characters more narrow powers like energy daggers, or shooting lasers from their mouths, or eletricity from their eyes, the trouble is some writers will just declare all those powers are energy manipulation and instead of three characters with distinct power sets we would have three characters with basically the same powers.

[Del torro]

Imo, I like it a lot.

There's millions of mutants, it'd be nice if we could have sub groups

Energy manipulators
Elementals
Metamorphs/trans morphs
Reality warpers
Angel types
Beast types
Demon types
Teleporters
Telepaths
Precogs
Energy boosters
Power mimics
Telekinetics
Healers/Bio manipulators (like, does Tarn have the potential to heal? What makes white sword different from Triage, Healer and Elixir)

I think it's cool that we have these classifications, would be nice if we got some data pages or hand books on them. Then sub classes in them also.

Like cyclops is a specialized energy manipulator but can only absorb some specific kinds of energy and discharge only one kinf energy.
Would Scott also be a portal manipulator, since his eyes are gateways to another dimension.

Armor and Cecilia reyes and Skids and unuscione and unus are all forcefields generators. But what are the source or nature of their forcefields. Like I know unuscione and armors are psionic in nature, so would they be classified with psychics and telepaths and tk users.

Would people like magneto and Jean have to be classified as force field generators even though it's a secondary use of a primary power.

Would Prodigy be classified as a low level telepath or a form of mimic

[Npresh24]

I PERSONALLY am OVER THE FIRESTARTERS/PYROMANIACS and Telepaths

[danielsan52]

Marvel should bring in existing characters that have mutant powers unlike others. Like Derrick Beacon, who Generates "biocentric energy gel" from his body, often in the form of small energy globules that could imprison others. He can generate small to large spheres.

[Del torro]

Marvel should bring in existing characters that have mutant powers unlike others. Like Derrick Beacon, who Generates "biocentric energy gel" from his body, often in the form of small energy globules that could imprison others. He can generate small to large spheres.

Pff, golf balls 2.0 pro max

[Baron of Faltine]

This age of xmen sucks to be honest. Everyone is creating psychic weapons. Multiple power copiers like hope, synch,mimic. Multiple telepaths! What happened to attempting originality?

Originality died when it became apparent(expecially if you play rpg) that 90% of powers are just fx variants of same effect.
So it all rely on artist skill to make a blaster different from another.
Or a move stuff at distance power of very specific conjure stuff power different from another

[Frobisher]

Power mimics just bore me because it just means that instead of one person on the team having an ability, at least two of them have that same ability. Rogue is usually really interesting though because of her flying brick role and the weird kinks in how her power works (including, of course, that she can’t turn it off).

[Jackraow21]

Originality died when it became apparent(expecially if you play rpg) that 90% of powers are just fx variants of same effect.
So it all rely on artist skill to make a blaster different from another.
Or a move stuff at distance power of very specific conjure stuff power different from another

Agreed. I maintain that it’s not the power set, but how the character uses it (as well as the character itself obviously) that makes one interesting. To me at least. My two favorites have spawned lots of copycats, and especially in the 90s amongst the Image characters where claws/healing factors and cybernetic arms/eyes were abundant. But they are the OGs so f@$% the imitators.

[Starfish]

Can't say I'm a fan of power theft/mimicry, especially not in team based books. Usually all it does is sideline other characters without adding anything unique by itself.

For example, I'm still annoyed about the New X-Men getting cheated out of getting their revenge on a Predator X.



Instead of an awesome fight scene in which all these characters get to demonstrate their abilities, we got more pages of Rogue showing off the powers of characters who barely get to appear anyway.

[marhawkman]

Yeah you're right, they just had Grey, Xavier and Psylocke, who has the specific psychic weapon thing that Quentin stole plus Karma and Mirage in New Mutants before that, but even they're use of their power was vastly different. Honestly the biggest redudancy is the white queen and the 5in1, at least visually, and if they had to keep one concept, the Cuckoos have a basically more interesting power.

I'd say the most redudant are the feral characters and the strong guys, but this has been a really old problem.

Yeah, it's more about unique designs than unique powers.

[ChronoRogue]

Can't say I'm a fan of power theft/mimicry, especially not in team based books. Usually all it does is sideline other characters without adding anything unique by itself.

For example, I'm still annoyed about the New X-Men getting cheated out of getting their revenge on a Predator X.

Instead of an awesome fight scene in which all these characters get to demonstrate their abilities, we got more pages of Rogue showing off the powers of characters who barely get to appear anyway.

I'm biased but I don't think this is true. Mimcry usually involves combining at least two powers, which can result in unique effects, even outside of the use of mutant circuits. Heck that image you posted is a good example.



Using Mercury and Dust's powers here to create superdense sand-like projectiles out of her own body.



That super-dense material then transforms into psionic projectiles courtesy of Armor. On their own, I don't think could have created this as it requires warping their bodies and powers in ways that might hurt them but doesn't with Rogue because she's a mutant blender.

I get what you mean about feeling robbed of a cool scene, which I agree in terms of pathos it would've fit better if the Academy X kids had fought against that Predator X. That said, that's more on the writer not using them than the power mimcry not being interesting in itself.

[Dementia5]

Often characters that seem to have very similar powers at first glance prove to have very different abilities when you take a closer look. The upcoming X-terminators mini is a good example of this. On the face of it three of the four ladies involved would seem to have similar abilities, but even minimal investigation will tell you that’s not true. Dazzler has the ability to transform sonic vibrations into powerful light energy that she can direct and manipulate. Tabitha creates powerful energy time bombs whose intensity and detonation delay she can control. Jubilee can use plasmoid energy to detonate matter at a sub-atomic level, basically making her a walking nuke (although she’s usually very careful with the intensity in a team environment).

But there’s much more to this type of storytelling than just powers. The major draw for fans of these characters is personality and character interaction. That’s where the heart of a story is, and what truly makes them the X-men, much more so than just making stuff go bang. I’d be far more bothered if everyone shared the same personality than similar powers. There’s very little story in something like that.

[sunofdarkchild]

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'd say the show definitively proved she was always just Superman in a skirt. Pretty much everything about her character was stolen from Superman, his day job, his disguise, even his supporting cast. If Kara had been a distinctive character in her own right there would have been no need for all those elements that were carbon copies of Superman or so many of Superman's supporting characters. I do have the show to thank for leading to my discovering the excellent PAD Supergirl series from the 90s and becoming a fan of that version of Supergirl, but that's its only redeeming quality.


O-T. Having multiple people with the same powers doesn't have to be bad. While every team seems to need at least one person with super-strength, having multiple people with that power has never been a problem for any team. And the various Spider-men and women can somehow coexist while having almost identical powers.

Where I think the problem comes is when you get to certain powersets that have specific uses. Teleportation, for instance, is primarily a transportation power. While it can have greater utility in a fight than mere transportation, it doesn't make sense for most teams to have multiple people with just that power, and it's enough to get creative with the abilities of one teleporter.

The bigger problem is when people have similar personalities. The Cerebro podcast recently pointed out that Magma had this problem, in that she was immediately upstaged by two character who joined the New Mutants right after her who did the 'fish out of water not understanding how to live in the modern world' shtick better than her in Magik and Warlock, who had more to their personalities as well. Magma had as distinct a powerset as anyone at the time, but her lack of a distinctive personality is what doomed her as a character. This is why so many characters whose only power is being big and strong can still coexist. Their personalities are distinct enough. This is also the primary reason so many psychics can coexist. They usually have distinct personalities that often clash.

[Sutekh]

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.

I am a big fan of several characters who are essentially just a small subset of what the 'generic telepath' can do. Cypher, able to translate languages, which any telepath can not only do, but download entire languages into people's brains with a boop to the noggin. Dani Moonstar, able to make you see your greatest fear. Lady Mastermind, able to generate psychic illusions. Prodigy, able to draw upon the skills and knowledge of people around him. Karma, mind control. Empath, emotion control. Scanner, astral projection. All stuff your bargain-basement telepath can do, and they manage to function just fine using only a teensy fraction of that potential.

It would make sense to me that different telepaths would have different specializations. That Emma would be better at mind control and surreptitiously nabbing secrets out of people's heads and rearranging memories, because of her sketchy past, while Jean might be far better at shielding her mind, as she's always been more sensitive, and better at deep intimate connections due to her more trusting (and less calculating or reserved) nature and her years of being constantly mind-linked to her boyfriend. Similarly, I'd expect Betsy to be better at tapping other people's senses and 'riding along' and spying on them from within, since she spent years doing that when she was blind, and I'd also expect her to have less range, since she has generally used her powers at close range, or even, through her psychic knife, at *touch* range (while someone like Jean and Charles would be more likely to mind-blast someone many yards, or even miles!, away).

These sorts of differences would be cool, and both inform and be informed by the individual character of the telepath, instead of everyone just arbitrarily doing whatever Charles or Jean was shown doing last week.

[Grunty]

Well Goldballs have one of the most original powers in decades.

I assume this is a joke, though just in case.

His powers are a simple form of matter replication/projecting and we had characters capable of that in regards to various substances for decades.

Tar, bone, crystal/diamond, metal, flesh, acid, molten rock, chitin, water, wax, the list goes on.

So not really that original beyond being a lame pun.

I don't see a problem with multiple characters having similar powers, the problem is how generic is their use of it. Telepaths are the worst offenders, writers just use them to do whatever is needed with no distinction between, the only exception are Jean and Emma, the writers are always pointing out the differences between them.

What I really think they should do, is giving characters more narrow powers like energy daggers, or shooting lasers from their mouths, or eletricity from their eyes, the trouble is some writers will just declare all those powers are energy manipulation and instead of three characters with distinct power sets we would have three characters with basically the same powers.

Thinking about this, i wonder if meta-physical super powers like psy abilities and energy manipulation are actualy much more difficult to keep appart or limit in their bandwith of use, than purely physical super powers?

With physical super powers the readers can simply relate real world mechanisms to how these fictional powers work and understand why "A can do A but not B" or why "A can do A but also B" based on what their powers imply.

Basicly even though these powers break the laws of physics aswell, they are still understandable in how they can work under these super natural circumstances. These limitations can even convince writers to bother with explaining the functionality of their powers based on understanding of real world science and biology, which gives them both much more clear limitations but also a greater potential for distinction.

This also seems to apply to powers related to specific matter or physical states.

Meanwhile with meta-physical powers like energy manipulation and psy abilities, there are no clear boundaries based on the real world mechanisms or material, which can used to clearly explain why Power A can only do A but not B.

So these might have a greater chance of becoming muddled in what they can and can't do compared to powers clearly limited by mechanism or material the reader understands.