Characters that should be weakened

[Crimz]

The opposite of the 'who should be more powerful' thread. Who do you think has gotten a bit ridiculous in power and that it should be reduced?


I'd say Reed Richards' intelligence should be reduced so that it's not used as a deus ex machina all the time. He will still be the smartest man, but being the smartest should no longer mean being able to do everything and anything. Too often Reed is the only one of the Fantastic Four that can save the day to the detriment of the others.

I'd also say Franklin Richards' powers should never be on the God-like level until he is an adult. He's also used too often as a deus ex machina.

[oldscottsummers]

fish
black bolt
jean grey
iceman
hulk
wanda
rachel grey

[CaptCleghorn]

Batroc "ze Leaper"
Turk (from Daredevil)

Those two are practically omnipotent.

[kilderkin]

Any of the reality warpers

Franklin until an adult should be held as a deux ex

Wanda more than anyone imo

[Likewater]

there needs to be a large scale commonsense nerf universe wide.

its should not be easy to fly into orbit,
238,000 miles to the moon, and you spend a good deal of it fighting the earths gravity, Ironman should not be able to reach the moon on a whim. Nor should a single armor achieve FTL speeds.
Frankly the characters who can achieve orbital flight/escape velocity should be counted on one hand and it should be an time consuming/ arduous thing to do.

Next time a character tries to lift 100 tons or more they should be driven into the ground/soil or though the floor.

[Sutekh]

Blue Marvel seemed too big for the room, back in Mighty Avengers. (He works better on a team like the Ultimates, dealing with cosmic threats, IMO.) It felt like he was rarely being used to even a fraction of his full potential, on that team, and him being 'too powerful' seemed part of the problem. He either could solve any problem they had, and didn't, and therefore looked ineffective or like he didn't even care, or he got jobbed hard to make the situation look dire, despite people with far more linear powersets like Luke Cage or White Tiger being able to contribute.

Monica Rambeau, who had a *great* powerset and visual back when she could just turn into electromagnetic energy (light, X-rays, gamma rays, radio waves, etc.) and travel at lightspeed and shoot force beams, has turned into a shapechanger who can turn into 'hardlight' and do pretty much *anything* as long as the writer uses a word like 'ultraviolet' or 'microwave' in there somewhere. I don't feel like all the extra power has made her a better character. And, given what happened to Jean Grey and Wanda Maximoff when they went past ludicrous speed straight to plaid, I'm not entirely comfortable with it, 'cause I like Monica, and am not looking forward to the (seemingly) inevitable 'Women can't handle power! Monica's gone cray and must be killed!' storyline. She's managed to avoid that sort of nonsense thus far, but I feel like the more powerful she gets, the more likely she is to be killed off (like Frankie Ray/Supernova), go mad with power and need to be shown her place and shackled by a man (like Moondragon) or quietly ushered off-stage and never mentioned again (like Sersi).

Pretty much any characters whose super-power is 'whatever the heck the writer wants,' ranging from Sentry to Gabriel Summers to Exodus to Mikhail Rasputin. I'm not a fan when a character has one power, and it just sort of branches out to let them do anything, even if it has *nothing* to do with their original power. (Looking at you, Owen Reece, whose power to control molecules has ballooned up to allow him to do things that have nothing to do with molecules, like control energy, or create pocket dimensions...)

[gurkle]

The Scarlet Witch, Jean Grey and Invisible Woman. Three similar characters whose powers have been hyped well beyond what they should be.

Wanda is the biggest problem because most writers think she's overpowered and therefore find excuses to leave her out of stories (like having her possessed throughout Secret Empire). Writers need to get it into their heads that House of M is the outlier and tell readers that.

But more than that I think talking about how powerful these characters are takes away what's interesting about their powers, which is that they require a lot of creativity to use and that when used creatively they can take down much more powerful opponents. It's why Spider-Man is so much more versatile than more powerful heroes.

Some heroes really do have to be incredibly powerful, like Thor or Superman, but unless being all-powerful is that big a part of who a character is, I usually prefer the less powerful version, because otherwise we get the worst of all possible worlds: a character who is constantly talked about as being incredibly powerful but never gets to do anything interesting with their powers.

[Crimz]

The Scarlet Witch, Jean Grey and Invisible Woman. Three similar characters whose powers have been hyped well beyond what they should be.

Wanda is the biggest problem because most writers think she's overpowered and therefore find excuses to leave her out of stories (like having her possessed throughout Secret Empire). Writers need to get it into their heads that House of M is the outlier and tell readers that.

But more than that I think talking about how powerful these characters are takes away what's interesting about their powers, which is that they require a lot of creativity to use and that when used creatively they can take down much more powerful opponents. It's why Spider-Man is so much more versatile than more powerful heroes.

Some heroes really do have to be incredibly powerful, like Thor or Superman, but unless being all-powerful is that big a part of who a character is, I usually prefer the less powerful version, because otherwise we get the worst of all possible worlds: a character who is constantly talked about as being incredibly powerful but never gets to do anything interesting with their powers.

I get Wanda with the whole House of M thing and constantly being possessed, and I get Jean as the Phoenix is part of the reason why she's been dead so long. I also agree with prioritizing creativity with powers over making them stronger. But I don't get why Sue needs her powers weakened, she's not on that level.

[gurkle]

I get Wanda with the whole House of M thing and constantly being possessed, and I get Jean as the Phoenix is part of the reason why she's been dead so long. I also agree with prioritizing creativity with powers over making them stronger. But I don't get why Sue needs her powers weakened, she's not on that level.

It's just a matter of taste, but I don't like it when Sue is described as more powerful than the other three put together and so on. It seems like overcompensating and not giving her enough credit for her cleverness at making the most of her powers.

But I agree that Sue has suffered much less from over-hyping her powers than the other two. She's never gotten to that point where a writer just goes "screw it, she can do anything." Maybe because her powers are still a bit more defined and maybe because Franklin is around to be the resident "can do anything" person.

[XPac]

I honestly prefer the power levels of the MCU versions of the characters where the higher end characters (ie Hulk and Thor) are a little weaker while the more street level guys (ie Cap or Black Panther) are a little stronger. That makes the inevitable fights between characters of varying power levels a bit closer and more believable. A Cap to a DEGREE can duke it out more believably with an Iron Man.

The class 100 guys can still be strong, but we don't need to see them pushing planets or anything like that. The PC Superman-ish feats (which are more rare in marvel but still happen) probably overdo things a bit.

[Michael Watkins]

I don't like the limit they added to the Ant-Man/size-changing characters (in the MCU). I get the why of it. but they've limited themselves a bit if the full suit is essential for the powers to work. it's been carried over into the comics, too (although I think Nadia was spared from it).

[JudicatorPrime]

Weaker:

Molecule Man

Franklin Richards

Odin and really all of the Skyfathers...because pretty much all of them have some form of apocalyptic myth where they are challenged for power. Can't do that if everyone knows that they're too powerful to be usurped.

Beyonders and all cosmics (relative to the Living Tribunal)

All of the Hyperions, save King Hyperion (and KH should be on a madman's mission to kill every other Hyperion for fear of them learning his secret and rivaling him)

Thanos

Doctor Doom. The Living Tribunal should enact a law that prevents Doom from ever obtaining God-level powers of any kind ever again. Ever, ever, ever.

Hulk. It's complete and utter bollox for any otherwise mortal creature to become infinitely mad and therefore infinitely strong AND infinitely durable or self-regenerative. If it takes the Living Tribunal to impose a law, so be it.

Mjolnir. When they crack open the uru, they'll probably find a Beyonder resting at its core. There's nothing you can't do with that thing. Scale it back to manageable enchants and storm-based powers. I'm not saying make Thor weaker. I'm saying make Mjolnir dependent on Thor, not the other way around.

Iron Man. Seriously, I'm all for innovation, but has anyone else noticed that his technologies are sometimes more advanced than that created by the Watchers, Galactus and several other advanced alien civilizations? They need to rein that in a bit. These writers and their pet projects are really getting ridiculous.

Zarathos. Once upon a time vengeance was a bad thing. It's not divine justice, therefore, it should not be that powerful unless there is a steep price to pay. Like the saying goes, before you go after someone seeking vengeance, you better dig two graves. One for the person that you plan to exact vengeance on, and one for yourself. Take this demon down a few pegs.

Teen Jean Grey. I happened to like the fact that mainstream Jean went through an awkward period of growth and development where her powers are concerned. But instant gratification and shortcuts galore pretty much sums up this generation. All of the power and none of the maturation is where she's headed, which usually doesn't end well for X-characters. Either pump the brakes or send her to limbo.

[Michael Watkins]

Weaker:

Molecule Man

Franklin Richards

Odin and really all of the Skyfathers...because pretty much all of them have some form of apocalyptic myth where they are challenged for power. Can't do that if everyone knows that they're too powerful to be usurped.

Beyonders and all cosmics (relative to the Living Tribunal)

All of the Hyperions, save King Hyperion (and KH should be on a madman's mission to kill every other Hyperion for fear of them learning his secret and rivaling him)

Thanos

Doctor Doom. The Living Tribunal should enact a law that prevents Doom from ever obtaining God-level powers of any kind ever again. Ever, ever, ever.

they've already set it up so that every evil deed causes him to become more disfigured; as of Fraction's FF run.

[JudicatorPrime]

they've already set it up so that every evil deed causes him to become more disfigured; as of Fraction's FF run.

Disfigured? Not good enough. Plastic surgeons are way too good these days.

[Michael Watkins]

Disfigured? Not good enough. Plastic surgeons are way too good these days.

not for cosmic disfigurement.