Characters with incomprehensible powers

[danielsan52]

There are a few characters whose powers are very confusing.

The Thunder Riders for example.

I have no idea what their powers are supposed to do.

[Chris0013]

There are a few characters whose powers are very confusing.

The Thunder Riders for example.

I have no idea what their powers are supposed to do.

The Thunderriders basically project their consciousnesses onto a single body with the 'host' taking on all the abilities of all the team members.

[Grunty]

I feel one of the problems with calling powers "incomprehensible" is that as mostly "nerds" most fans/readers of these comics have the habbit of trying to figure out how powers could be explained, similar to how Trekkies love to do with technology and phenomena in their favorit shows.

That being said, yes there are powers which were clearly designed without attempts at making them explainable or understandable for the various reasons. Like thinking they are clever and therefor more memorable. Needing something for a plot regardless of how internaly logical it looks. Or just plain being out of ideas and throwing stuff at the walls.

Of course most of the time the simpler the base powers are (functional or thematically), the more beneficial it is for a character in the long run, which is what we can see on most of the popular ones

It's better to start of simply and become more elaborate from there, than to start out overly complicated to the point where nobody knows what to do with the character...

[Exodus]

Scarlet Witch. No idea what her mutant powers are. Still hate her guts though.......

[norj]

Scarlet Witch. No idea what her mutant powers are. Still hate her guts though.......

Probability manipulation

[Daedra]

this is an old one, Vargas from x-treme x-men, I never understood what his powers were or how he was able to kill a tk powered psylocke and pose such a terrible threat against a wounded but juiced up Rogue on steroids.

[Exodus]

this is an old one, Vargas from x-treme x-men, I never understood what his powers were or how he was able to kill a tk powered psylocke and pose such a terrible threat against a wounded but juiced up Rogue on steroids.

I agree. He came across so boring power wise but what supposed to be uber-powerful.

I remember a comicbook where Jean speaks to Storm and speculates that Vargas is the physical equivalent of Cassandra Nova's mental capabilities. So basically, indestructible and powerful...he was really powerful. Honestly, I think he was something like Sebastian Shaw on steroids.

[BobbysWorld]

I remember that they also said that he was 'the Xavier Protocols made flesh' - whatever that meant (though the Xavier Protocols themselves are a reference to Xavier's contingency plans he crafted for how to kill each X-Man if they ever went bad), and it was also heavily emphasized that Vargas was not actually a mutant himself, so there was this vague impression that he was somewhat engineered, or at least his powers originally resulted from external, artificial source? It was all very vague and somewhat contradictory at times, but I honestly had the takeaway that I'm not even sure Claremont knew what he wanted Vargas or his origin to be.

[davetvs]

Escapade. I read the scene that explained her powers multiple times and didn't get it.

[Uncanny X-Man]

Escapade. I read the scene that explained her powers multiple times and didn't get it.

Agreed about Escapade. I fear they were trying to be a bit too original with her powers and ended up making it all very confusing.

Sage has also gone through a number of retcons that make her powers extremely vague. First she could analyse data and figure out winning strategies for a problem. Then she became a telepath. Then she could manipulate people's genetics but she was also a telepath, with her psychic powers used for defense only. Skipping over the mess Claremont made with her over on Exiles... she's currently back to her original make-up of being vaguely super smart, only now computers are mostly her area of expertise because they didn't have as many around in the 80s when she was created. No wonder she took up drinking.

[Grunty]

What about Mikhail Rasputin?

According to uncannyxmen his powers are:
"- Energy manipulation powers enable him to warp existing energy signatures to his benefit, divert hazardous energies away from his position, or sample and recreate the same kind of energy with his own powers, including overriding another mutant's control of their energy-based abilities or duplicating those power signatures for himself for feats such as telekinesis, concussive blasts, inter- and intra-dimensional teleportation, etc."
"- Matter manipulation powers allow him to alter the state of matter between solid, liquid, and gas, transpose the molecules of one object into another, animate and reshape raw materials into simple or complex forms, even creating mobile constructs that resemble independent living beings"

Which sounds headache inducing. But from what i recall he can also teleport himself and others across time and space into other dimensions and had at least two or three more feats absolutely not in line with those horrible vague defined powers.

It seems at some point they just went "Ah screw it. He is a reality warper.", which is another way of saying "can do what ever the plot demands".

And all that while his brother has the power to turn his skin/body into steel and his sister can create teleportation discs. Which are far more easy to understand and apply powers.

Btw. What is it with evil brothers of X-men having absurdly more stronger powers than their heroic siblings *cough* Vulcan *cough*?

this is an old one, Vargas from x-treme x-men, I never understood what his powers were or how he was able to kill a tk powered psylocke and pose such a terrible threat against a wounded but juiced up Rogue on steroids.

Sounds like an example of a character designed to be a powerfull foe who can defeat the by now highly experienced and powerfull heros first and to be reasonably explained why he can do so later.

Only the later never happend or the writer couldn't come up with a satisfying answer in time.

Those also tend to later show up again and be quickly defeated either by more respected characters or villains who the writers to prop up by defeating them.

[useridgoeshere]

Scarlet Witch. No idea what her mutant powers are. Still hate her guts though.......

She’s not a Mutant, so she has no Mutant powers, right?

I think she was simple at the start. Although it was often weird, like when she turned Pyro’s fire into rock. When they decided she should be a witch, she got all the plot-driven abilities that magic entails.

[Agent Grayson]

Escapade. I read the scene that explained her powers multiple times and didn't get it.

I haven't read anything with her in it, but I read an interview with her creator saying something about her swapping places with Iron Man and eating a sandwich...and was just confused.

Isca's powers don't really make sense to me, particularly when they come into play and when they don't. Why can she abstain from a vote on the Great Ring but had to accept Roberto's challenge in Magneto's fight with Tarn? Are they preocgnition, probability manipulation, or a combination of both?

[Exodus]

I haven't read anything with her in it, but I read an interview with her creator saying something about her swapping places with Iron Man and eating a sandwich...and was just confused.

Isca's powers don't really make sense to me, particularly when they come into play and when they don't. Why can she abstain from a vote on the Great Ring but had to accept Roberto's challenge in Magneto's fight with Tarn? Are they preocgnition, probability manipulation, or a combination of both?

Maybe she has indeed the precognitive ability to know the outcome of a battle and is forced to follow this future outcome in the present no matter what? That would mean that she is enslaved by this precognition without her own agency, always forced to side with the "winning situation". Still, I doubt her powers make a lot of sense.

I also still do not really understand Moira's new powers. Her timetravel abilities do not really make sense. Is her death always spark a new parallel universe and the current timeline is erased?

[Uncanny X-Man]

Scarlet Witch. No idea what her mutant powers are. Still hate her guts though.......

I love Wanda but agree that her powers have gone through a number of changes over the years.

I think Kurt Busiek's explanation of her (then-mutant) abilities was the classiest, simplest and truer to her roots:

Busiek clarifies her true mutant power is to tap into magical energy fields and manipulate them, just as Magneto taps into and manipulates electromagnetic fields.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scar...etic%20fields.