Some super powers are just too much for some to handle.
The full potential of some super powered individuals threatens to be earth shattering, and, could
have massive implications on humanity and beyond if they were to let their powers reign
free.
So today, we’re taking a look at some of the superheroes who use their better judgement
on that front, or, simply, have been hindered in a way that prevents them from using their
full potential, with our list of the top 10 superheroes who hold back their powers.
10 Franklin Richards Franklin richards is an omega level mutant
who has depicted vast reality manipulation abilities, capable of manipulating matter
and energy, projecting energy, creating incredibly detailed pocket universes, and a whole array
of psionic abilities.
For his age, the kid is wickedly strong, and he’s potentially the most powerful being
in existence.
The reason Franklin Richards doesn’t rank higher on our list though is because of his
inexperience, which arguably is a factor holding him back as well, if you’re looking at the
main 616 version of the character.
Looking to his older self from Earth 4280, we know that his vast powers only continue
to excel with his age; he literally destroys two celestials, then hangs out with Galactus,
noting that the two of them will witness the beginning of a new universe together billions
of years from now.
Meaning, kid is immortal.
9 Iceman Iceman Bobby Drake is a curious case.
For starters, this early initial member of the X-Men had a much more limited range of
powers back when he was first introduced.
For the most part, it consisted of him being able to turn his body into an ice form, and
freeze the air around him in order to make ice constructs.
But, in the following years, he got a serious power upgrade.
Emma Frost would take over his body briefly, unlocking a variety of different skills his
powers entailed, all ones that Bobby had never pulled off himself, dropping him into Omega
Level territory.
He would ask Emma to train him, but she refused.
Over all, he’s a case of a character who hasn’t really applied himself, and has held
himself back because of other insecurities, too, including his sexuality.
8 Gladiator Gladiator’s breadth of abilities is dictated
by his levels of confidence.
So, let’s backtrack for a sec here.
Gladiator, aka Kallark, first appeared in the comics in X-Men issue 107, from 1977,
an analogue to Super Boy, and a homage to the Phillip Wylie novel Gladiator written
in 1930 that DC’s Superman was partially based off of . Kallark is actually a combination
of Kal-El and Clark Kent.
And his powers?
Well, get ready for an impressive list here.
He has superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, and durability, flight,
and psionic abilities.
He is strong enough to shatter a planet, capable of withstanding heat emitted from the Phoenix
Force, has heat vision hotter than a star, and his warp speed flight allows him to move
a hundred times the speed of light, moving across galaxies before Heimdall could blink
in Mighty Thor issue 15 from 2016.
But all of that is moot depending on his confidence levels.
His powers decrease or increase based on his confidence and self-esteem, meaning
7 Zatanna Zatanna is yet another character held back
by her confidence levels.
The difference between her and Gladiator though is that her lack of self esteem has actually
caused the character to completely depowered herself in the past, and plays out as much
more of an ongoing struggle in the comics.
Zatanna is a magical superhero, who inherited her gifts from her father, allowing her to
not only cast spells, but manipulate magic as well.
But if her self-confidence is weakened, her abilities become hindered; in the past, due
to a series of mistakes she had made, she became completely powerless.
6 Captain Atom Captain Atom is a case of a hero who already
is quite powerful, but is limited by his own fears that if he were to fulfill his full
potential, he may lose his humanity.
So Captain Atom, in theory, has no limit to his powers.
His abilities come from his atoms continuously splitting and reforming, which gives him an
infinite amount of power, limited only by willpower and his imagination.
He can manipulate energy, is self sustaining, has super strength that matches that of Superman’s,
and can travel faster than the speed of sound.
If he absorbs too much energy at once, he can be transported through time uncontrollably.
His power source is linked to something called Strong Nuclear Force, which binds protons
to the nucleus; his atoms can lose coherence if he uses too much power in a short space
of time, but it’s speculated that he’ll be able to overcome this, meaning only his
own will power to retain his humanity is what prevents him from further excelling.
5 Doctor Strange Doctor Strange generally has a very strong
sense of what’s right and wrong, and what he should meddle within and what he shouldn’t,
and often, he finds himself practicing restraint in situations he’d dominate and solve much
quicker if he were to intervene.
Case in point, in Civil War, the Watcher commented that Strange could have ended the conflict
with a mere thought, implying that the Sorcerer Supreme has a whole lot more power than he’s
letting on.
Instead, Strange went off to meditate in seclusion, letting Cap and Iron Man duke it out.
There have also been times when Strange’s hand was forced and he called upon powerful
dark magic, like when he battled the Hulk post Civil War, which caused him to lose the
title of Sorcerer Supreme briefly.
It just goes to show that Strange has the best interest of the Earth at heart, unwilling
to use riskier and deadlier forms of magic he has at his disposal in order to get what
needs to be done, done.
4 Doctor Fate Doctor Fate is not just one individual; the
character, who first debuted in More Fun Comics issue 55 back in 1940 is a long line of sorcerers,
each who had come upon Nabu the Wise, a god who granted them their power along with the
helmet of fate, a mystical artifact that transforms its host into a powerful master of magic.
Those donning the Doctor Fate mantle are capable of spellcasting, flight, telekinesis, telepathy,
pryokinesis, superhuman strength, invulnerability, and lightning manipulation.
But here’s the kicker.
Nabu calls the shots, to an extent.
If Nabu doesn’t agree with what that iteration of Fate is doing, Fate’s powers can be limited.
In the initial Doctor Fate’s case, Kent Nelson, if he was separated from the helm,
he is significantly weakened, but not entirely depowered.
In other words, if Doctor Fate were to go full blown homicidal, or use his near limitless
sorcery powers to wreck havoc, there’s a good chance that Nabu would prevent him from
causing too much damage.
3 Havok Havok is cyclops’ brother; a mutant with
cosmic energy absorption and plasma discharge abilities.
The waves of plasma energy can emanate from his body in all directions unless he channels
it purposefully in a single direction.
Generally he wears a special containment suit, often one with an indicator on his chest depicting
how much cosmic radiation he has absorbed, and has left within his cells.
The concentration that’s required of Havok in releasing his energy in focused beams can
be exhausting, especially over an extended period.
And that’s exactly why he’s on this list; if he weren’t focusing, and allowing his
plasmic energy to shoot out of his body without a direction, his impact would be much more
destructive; his plasma wave discharges can superheat and disintegrate objects or beings.
So really, it’s for the best that he holds back and concentrates so no one accidentally
ends up dead.
2 Professor X Professor Charles Xavier is one of the most
noble characters in Marvel’s roster.
First appearing in The X-Men issue 1 in 1963, this exceptionally powerful telepath is one
of the most powerful psychics in the Marvel universe.
He has often sacrificed his own desires for the betterment of mutant kind, constantly
striving for the greater good by promoting a peaceful co-existence between mutants and
humans.
But there have been a good number of times where Xavier’s more repressed, darker emotions
have been released from him, causing devastating effects.
Specifically, in 1996, the sentient psionic entity Onslaught was created from the merging
of a darker aspect of he and Magneto’s consciousness.
During a battle between the X-Men and Magneto and his Acolytes, Xavier used his telepathic
abilities to shut down Magneto’s mind, making him catatonic.
The darkest aspect of Magneto’s mind emerged, and escaped into Xavier’s subconscious,
taking hold of Xavier’s repressed darker nature until it grew into a persona of its
own.
1 Sentry Sentry aka Robert Reynolds, has a slew of
abilities that make him one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel universe.
This includes superhuman strength, speed and stamina, a regenerative healing ability, molecular
manipulation, matter manipulation, is invulnerable, telepathic, can bend time, shape shift, becoming
invisible, astral project, and is immortal.
And there’s more too that we’ve listed a zillion times on this channel.
While the source of his powers has changed over the years, initially, he got his abilities
from a super soldier-esque serum that moves his molecules an instant ahead of the current
timeline.
But here’s the kicker - because of his powers, he’s got an entity within him that’s a
dark side effect of his powers, the eroded humanity within Sentry known as the Void,
who has his own set of dark powers that include infini-tendrils that attack a victim’s mind,
impaling them with traumatic visions of the past, present and future.
But now we come to his restriction - in order to prevent the Void from causing catastrophic
damage, Sentry worked with Doctor Doom and Reed Richards to wipe out not only his own
memory, but the memory of the hero and his evil half from the entire Marvel universe
as a means of protecting it.
Those are some real drastic measures.