What makes a hero and hero?
Their abilities, their powers?
No, it's not who they are but they do.
Being a hero is about overcoming adversity to do what's right.
Today that it exactly what we are going to talk about as we look at the top 10 superheroes
with disabilities.
These are the heroes who have not let their disabilities hold them back from being a superhero,
in fact many of these disabilities are actually assets to the superheroes that have them.
Through ingenuity, they use their disabilities as though they were just another awesome super
power.
See if you can guess who will make our cut by plugging your picks into the comments below
before we get started.
Alright, let's power up and get counting.
10 Agent Venom
Flash Thompson is often known as Peter Parker's school friend and former bully.
He loses his legs while serving in the Iraq War.
The story of how he lost them is a noble one.
After taking multiple bullet wounds to the legs, Flash continues to push on to help out
and save the rest of his squad, despite being severely wounded.
He rationalizes that it is what Spider-Man would do so puts his mind to it.
This choice causes his legs to become further damaged and results in him needing to have
the amputated just below the knee.
The great thing about the way this was depicted in the comics is that we also get to watch
as Flash has to deal with this mourn the loss of his legs but ultimately not let it defeat
him, but coming to terms with his new body and accepting it.
He later goes on to become Agent Venom after bonding with the symbiote.
9 Cable
So there's a really long version of this story and a much shorter version as everything it
pretty complex when it comes to Cable.
Time travel in general makes everything complicated.
Timey wimey stuff and such.
The shorter version is that Nathan has robotic parts.
He is missing and eye and arm and instead has cyborg tech to replace them.
The interesting this is that he also has a sort of techno-virus which affects the efficiency
of his prosthetic parts.
So while his prosthetics give him an edge in most cases, they don't all the time.
I just hope that when we get to this level of prosthetics in terms of what we can make
we don't end up developing anything like a techno-virus.
A phone or computer that glitches is bad enough.
Having a glitchy eye doesn't sound as fun.
8 Winter Soldier
Since the 1960s in the comics, we were lead to believe that Captain America's best friend
Bucky Barnes was dead, but it turned out, he wasn't.
In 2005 he returned as the Winter Soldier.
He had survived the explosion that we thought had killed him but he had lost an arm in the
process.
Fortunately after being revived from a cryostasis, he was given a bionic arm by the Russians
who also used him for their own means, in a sense brainwashing him.
This bionic arm actually turns his disability into a literal superpower.
It grants him superhuman strength, pinpoint accuracy, and he can even still control it
if it's detached.
Pretty impressive.
He ends up turning superhero after he the Cosmic Cube helps him to regain his memories.
7 Daredevil
Matt Murdock's disability is also his superpower.
He is blind but it is actually in his blindness that he is able to see better than even you
or I.
He possesses a radar-like sense which allows him to see through sound and his other senses
are heightened.
Combine this with the training that he was provided by Stick and you have yourself a
next level fighter which is just what Matt is.
While operating as a lawyer and civilian his powers have also been used to help him get
an indication of when someone is lying or not.
Which is impressive, though he often uses his blindness as a front and to sometimes
make himself appear weaker than he is.
It's also a great way to mask his identity as many people do not often think Daredevil
is blind upon fighting him due to the fact that Matt can see so well through sound.
6 Oracle
Barbara Gordon was Batgirl until the non-continuity comic, the Killing Joke paralyzed her and
somehow that was the only thing that really became part of the continuity.
She has since recovered but for a long while she was a parapalegic.
Her disability did not stop her from helping you as Batman while playing the Arkham video
games.
She may have no longer been Batgirl but her insight as Oracle was mega useful.
In the comics, Barbara did not let her paralysis get her down either.
She went to work creating her own superhero team with her at the centre, the Birds of
Prey.
In fact she was the leader of the superhero team.
I actually miss Barbara in her Oracle alias.
I personally think it's unfortunate that DC felt they needed Barbara to one heal in order
to resume being Batgirl and two to even leave her Oracle identity behind.
5 Professor X
One of the most famous disabled superheroes we have Professor X.
With the help of cerebro, Professor Charles Xavier can tap into the minds of almost anyone
around the world, however he has never been able to regain the ability to walk.
I say really because there have been times when Professor X has regained the ability
to walk again and heal himself BUT he pretty much always goes back to being a parapelgic
shortly after.
Honestly Professor X is iconic in his wheelchair and his disability almost never seems to hinder
him in the comics.
In adds to the fact that his power is his mind, and that there are many different ways
to be strong.
Professor X is a fantastically strong telepath and that is enough for our hero.
He doesn't need to be able to walk to prove anything.
4 Cyborg
After being caught in an explosion, Vic Stone's father worked hard to save his son by using
experimental tech and nanites to turn him into a cyborg.
Like many on our list with robotic prosthetics, his disability is his superpower.
Without this accident, he would just be an average guy.
Well an average guy with a genius intellect but still.
His cybernetic enhancements grant him the ability to interface with other computers
or tech, he possesses the ability of techorganic regeneration which allows him to regen when
injured, he super strong and super durable.
Even when he has been torn apart, he was able to repair himself when a program kicked in
that was in charge of basically resurrecting him.
3 Echo
Maya Lopez was born deaf but possesses the power of photographic reflexes.
So despite not being able to hear she can accurately is a concert level pianist.
She garnered this skill from watching other famed pianists play and mirroring them.
After the death of her father who was working for the Kingpin, Fisk saw her potential and
took her in.
He raised her and sent her to all the best schools.
He convinced her that Daredevil was responsible for her father's death and sent Echo after
him.
The two fought and Echo actually would have defeated him, having his studied his fighting
style based on tapes Fisk provided her, but he revealed himself to be Matt Murdock and
was able to convince Echo that he was not behind her father's death.
She then became an ally and hero, using her abilities to attack Fisk and even managing
to temporarily blind him.
2 Doctor Mid-Nite
This mantle actually is a legacy name as there have been two Doctor Mid-Nites and the original
inspired his successor to take up the mantle.
But for our purposes we'll be focusing on the original Doctor Mid-Nite, Charles McNider.
I really love his name.
McNider was a Doctor who has helping to save a witness set to testify in a case against
a crime lord after an attempted hit had left them in critical condition.
Unfortunately the mob boss got word of the attempt to save the witnesses life and sent
a message to McNider while he was operating in the form of a grenade.
The grenade killed everyone in the room except McNider who instead was blinded, as shards
of glass had been lodged in his eyes.
While healing he noticed he felt as though he made more energy at night and began to
work out more regularly in the evenings, giving up being a doctor and instead focusing on
writing exposes to try and take down the crime boss who had blinded him.
When an owl crashed through his window, he instinctively removed his blindfold and noticed
he could see perfectly in the dark.
He thought he was cured but when he turned on the light, found himself blind again.
He adopted the owl who he named Hooty and the mantle Doctor Mid-Nite, fighting justice
in the black of night.
Pretty neat.
And fun fact, Doctor Mid-Nite actually debuted in DC comics in 1941, years before Marvel's
Daredevil was introduced.
1 Silver Scorpion
Get ready for the disabled hero who will inspire you beyond just the story of their disability.
Silver Scorpion comes to us from Liquid Comics and the Open Hands Initiative and tells the
story of Bashir Bari who is from a fictional Arab city.
He loses his legs in a gang related accident.
Dealing with the grief and anger surrounding the loss of his legs, he witnesses the death
of a metal worker and becomes chosen by a guardian of ancient power, granted the ability
to manipulate metal with his mind.
The character and storyline was created by kids from the Open Hands Initiative which
works to provide cross-cultural engagement in communities around the world.
Based in the states this group of kids were mainly from Syria and the USA originally and
came together to create a superhero that they hoped would help break down barriers between
the Western and Eastern cultures and be a hero for everyone.
As such Silver Scorpion doesn't just work toward vigilante justice but often works towards
loftier goals like achieving world peace.
The kids also spoke up saying they wanted him to be a hero who fully accepts his disability
and doesn't try to move away from or heal it.
Which I love as many writers and editors often try to use abilities or storylines that lead
to "fixing" their disabled heroes, when those heroes don't need to be fixed as there was
really nothing wrong with them.
Thank you so much for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list.
What do you think about disabled heroes in comics?
Who are your favourites?
And who did I leave out that you think should have made the cut?
Let me know in the comments below.
I personally really love Silver Scorpion and Echo so I hope there are some fellow fans
of them out there that appreciated them being on our list.
While you are on your way down to the comments be sure to click that like, smash that sub
and ring our bell so you never miss any of our nerdy notifications.
This is top 10 nerd and I'm your host Amanda McKnight.
Till next time, you stay nerdy, YouTube.