Most superheroes have a variety of powers they can rely on when they find themselves
in the midst of combat.
But not all of a heroes abilities will constantly be taken advantage of; some characters in
the past have altogether stopped using abilities that they’ve been depicted as having over
the years, whether because that ability no longer makes any sense to their publishers,
or because it’s something that only comes in handy sporadically.
So today, we’re taking a closer look at exactly that, with our list of the top 10
superheroes with super powers they never use.
Let’s get to it.
10 Superman – Phase Through Objects There’s a lot of tricks up Superman’s
blue spandex sleeves, many of which have fallen into obscurity, or tend to be busted out every
now and then when it’s convenient.
Case in point: his phasing ability, which we’ve seen in use a handful of times.
The first was in 1958 in an episode of The Adventures of Superman titled The Mysterious
Cube.
Superman found himself at the mercy of a criminal named Paul Barton who had hidden himself inside
of a cube of super strong metal in an attempt to be declared legally dead so he would be
absolved of his crimes.
Not a terrible plan, at least, until Superman got involved, and he vibrated his molecules
to allow him to phase through the cube and get to Barton.
But here’s the real kicker.
In the comics, Superman used his phasing abilities during Superman issue 175 in 2001 when he
fought against Doomsday in a rematch.
You know, the villain from the Death of Superman who had a punching match with the man of steel
until they both punched each other to death but not actually?
Well, this time, Superman ain’t screwing around.
He decides that he should just phase through Doomsday’s punches, to avoid being seemingly
killed and falling into a Kryptonian coma again.
Because we all know how well THAT turned out the first time.
9 Iron Man – Jet Powered Roller Blades While Tony Stark does not inherently have
super powers, his Iron Man suit is capable of a whole lot, and only gets better the more
Tony improves upon it.
But some of the stunts he pulled off in the 80s with his suit were a little questionable
at best, and, for obvious reasons, have faded into obscurity.
Borrowing a page out of Batman’s silver age era, here we have Iron Man’s jet powered
roller skates.
Tony was capable of having wheels come out of his suit by rotating his ear discs one
quarter turn, which were powered by built in motors, which Tony enthusiastically declared
was the perfect gift for the man who’s got everything!
Apparently they were more fun to use than flying.
Also, we feel it’s pressing to mention the iron nipples on his suit that vary in position
and height.
Yep.
You can’t un-see them now, can you?
8 Hulk – See Astral Projection Prior to Bruce’s astral projection conversation
in Avengers Endgame, not a whole lot of people would have believed it’s something that
the Hulk was capable of.
Sure, in the film, that’s all chalked up to the Chosen One, technically speaking, but
in the comics, the Hulk has the ability to see those on the astral plane, which we’ve
seen him do on multiple occasions.
Not only can he see those who astral project, and he can also see dead people with this
sixth sense, but he can also take a more interactive role, like in The Incredible Hulk issue 370,
where he helps Doctor Strange evade a demon from another dimension.
For obvious reasons, it’s definitely not his go to ability, but he has encountered
a handful of instances in the past where it’s been an aid to him.
7 Thor – All-Tongue All-Tongue, also known as all-speak, is an
ability that allows one to understand and speak all languages.
It’s an ability that all Asgardians have, as well as other deities in the Marvel universe,
and allows an individual to understand what any species is saying in their own native
language.
It’s an ability that we see Thro flex every now and then, but rarely in comparison to
his other powers.
While this is the ability that Thor possesses, there’s actually a similar ability kicking
around the marvel universe called X’zelzi’ohr (get it), that Man Thing has depicted; it’s
the universal language, and anyone who hears it will hear it in their own native tongue.
6 Spider-Man – Talks to spiders Spider-Man has the ability to communicate
with spiders.
This became a thing primarily in his The Queen story arc, Peter’s powers were amplified,
and he could communicate with spiders, and were further increased after his encounter
with the giant Spider god, the great weaver.
But after the One More Day story arc where Peter finds himself making a deal with Mephisto
in order to save Aunt May, many of those powers he gained were lost, or returned to their
original strength.
There was also a time during Donny Cates’ run on Doctor Strange, in Doctor Strange issue
390, where Strange creates a separate realm for Spider-Man where he and a man-sized spider
walk around, have a chat, and skip stones on the water.
Peter even gets an adorable yellow sweater to wear over his suit.
The spider asks him where he puts criminals bodies while their dissolving if he doesn’t
have a web, to which peter responds that he doesn’t eat them, and the spider doesn’t
seem overly impressed.
Also worth noting that Kaine got the ability to communicate with spiders in Scarlet Spider
issue 5.
5 Superman – Shape shift With a history as long as Superman’s, he’s
bound to have a slew of nifty abilities from the golden and silver ages that no one ever
addresses or uses in his stories anymore.
And Superman has A LOT of pre-crisis on infinite earth abilities that have never seen the light
of day since.
One such ability is his shape shifting power, hailing from a 1947 comic, Superman issue
44.
In the story, Superman finds himself needing to impersonate a famous stuntman, so he uses
his ‘super muscular control’ to essentially shape shift into said stuntman.
It’s also a trick he’s used to stop his heart from beating and fake his own death.
That would be taken to the next level though in the following issue, Superman 45, where
he shape shifted into an extraterrestrial called a Collector to fool them into returning
to their dimension.
The panel describes the process as Superman twisting and turning until he becomes the
form he wants.
Although he somehow manages to acquire a set of alien clothes to pull the whole impersonation
together.
4 Magneto – Magnetic personality Being an omega level mutant, Magneto’s capabilities
with his magnetism are exceptional and broad.
But there is one aspect of his powers that was brought up and all but forgotten shortly
afterwards; his magnetic personality, an ability he showed off in X-Men volume 1 issue 18.
It’s worth noting that this is something Stan Lee wrote, bless his soul.
In that issue, Magneto announces this new power by stating, “gaze into my eyes!
Now, you cannot turn away!
You are held my magnetic attraction!”
This was paired with one of his eyes glowing as he stared out at the readers in a panel
that consisted of just his face.
This magnetic attraction appeared to be a form of mind control, but it had its failings;
he was unable to use it on certain individuals, like the Blob, who apparently had a mental
block preventing Magneto from gaining control.
3 Wonder woman – Talking to animals There’s quite a few superheroes out there
who can communicate with animals, some to the extent of being able to carry on full
conversations with them.
Wonder Woman is one of those heroes.
While it’s not a power she really makes use of in battle, it’s often something that
has served her on missions or during investigations.
We’ve even seen the hero just casually chatting with animals before, which has always provided
a lovely insight to her personality.
I mean, hey, if you had that ability, wouldn’t you want to find out what’s really going
on in the minds of our mammal buddies?
I feel like my cat would have a lot to say.
2 Self-Immolation – Luke Cage This is both a really useful ability and an
AMAZING party trick.
Luke Cage, Power Man, the bulletproof fellow whose skin is unbreakable, can pull a johnny
storm and set himself on fire.
Sure, he can’t organically create that fire, but if using enough friction, or a catalyst
like gasoline and a match, theoretically, he could survive for a long time while burning,
and use that to his advantage in combat.
In Netflix’s Luke Cage series, we did get to see the hero walk away from a blaze covered
in flames, while it’s something we haven’t really seen in the comics, but would really,
really love to.
1 Superman – Miniature Superman This is perhaps the most absurd of the powers
on our list, hence why it wrangled the number one spot.
It’s an ability that Superman will likely NEVER EVER use again.
Superman can shoot a tiny version of himself out of his fingertips.
It first appeared in Superman issue 125 from 1958, in a story titled Superman’s New Power!
As the man of tomorrow himself describes it, I quote, “see—a tiny replica of myself!
The people who made that space ship were very advanced in science!
They must have develops a force that enabled them to project an image of themselves anywhere
they wanted!”
He goes on to say it’s like his telepathy, with his powers being embodied in that miniature
version of himself, minus his invulnerability.
But it has a down side; his powers are transferred to the replica of himself, so he just chills
and talks to reporters while the mini version of him goes around and kicks butt.
He then gets really jealous of his mini me, so much so that he actually tries to kill
it by sending it towards a meteor hurling towards earth that contains Kryptonite, saying,
I quote, “and if the Kryptonite should destroy him, well, that’s his tough luck!”
Savage.
After it disappears when coming into contact with the kryptonite, Superman gets all philosophical,
wondering if it had a life of its own.
And that’s where the story ends.