Why Superpowers can be...

one of the worst things you can ever give a character.

At its most basic level, your normal three-act cliche storyline consists of:
"Hey, let's say things we'd never say in real life, so any possibe audience can get to know us!"
"Oh you crazy German immigrant with an ex-wife and two children!"

"Oh no, things are going bad, in a way any possible audience would be rooting for us to win, still affected by suspension of disbelief!"
"Good lord, there's no way we can win this, we're all going to die!"

"Hooray we won!"
"And only a couple of us died in dramatic ways! Oddly enough only the black cast members died."


Most superpowers, at their basic level at least, can add to the story. It can seem so much more dramatic and awesome when they have superstrong hero and superstrong henchvillain are smacking on each other in mid-air, only to have 'control of magnetism/gravity/rubber duckies' pick up a car WITH HIS/HER MIND and fling it at them both.

The main trouble is that so often comic book writers feel the need to 'extend' a characters powers. This can be good for when a character needs to 'power up' to beat the main badguy, or the occasional use for dramatic license. The only way to avoid it later on though is to completely ignore that, and we all saw how well that worked with Neo in the Matrix.

"Wait, why doesn't he just jump into the agents and explode them all?"

But in general, once a comic book character is absurdly powerful, the only options are to either depower him somehow (which gets boring the fourth time it's done) or write around that power. Let's consider a few comic characters that are so overpowered that you have to constantly write around their extreme abilities.

Wolverine: I'm sorry fanboys, but fuck off. Wolverine as a concept is amusing (ruggard exterior containing a heart of gold, mixed with some regenerative abilities and unbreakable claws coming from his knuckles? Yeah, I don't mind that), but his abilities are just fucking ridiculous now. He can apparently regenerate from like a tiny clump of living tissue. Glad to hear every cell in his body contains an IMPRINT OF HIS BRAINWAVES. Even if he did come back from that, chances are he would be a blank slate, personality wise. Not to mention... Where the HELL did those cells get the energy and mass required for all that exponential growth. Yes, I know it's a comic, I know it's not based on reality, but Wolverine in general is currently just a shitty narrative device because nothing can kill him. Turn him into a Herald of Galactus and send him out into space and be done with it. Have the occasional one-shot about him saving the fuzzy wuzzy people of the Forest moon of Rodne, and ignore him.

Magneto: It's a bit more understandable when the overpowered character is the villain, then it's a proper challenge for the heros to beat him. But Magnetos powers are just... Using power over magnetism to affect the iron in the blood so he can control someone's mind... Read up again for 'suspension of disbelief'. Yes, I know, it's a comic, so you can get away with alot more, but in general we assume people can't turn 'manipulation of metal' superpowers into 'mind control'. That's like the Hulk learning to punch someone JUST RIGHT so they get a concussion in a specific way that makes them friendly to him.

Superman: When the whole point behind your character is that he's Superman, in general the only thing that can be done to provide him with a challenge is create an entire universe full of superman powered things. When the uberpowered becomes blase... then there's something wrong. A character with the power to destroy a planet shouldn't be something your hero deals with on a regular basis, because then there is NO room for him to lose. Daredevil is allowed to lose occasionally, since all it results in is someone getting away with bank money, or at worst a death. Superman loses and a world dies (unless it's just some literary wank like "I challenge you to combat, Superman!", which usually has the condition "You refuse, and this world dies!" anyway)


Anyway, long story short: Superpowers are awesome. Some supercharacters need nerfing, though.