The crazy this to me about heroes is when it comes to the efficiency of their powers,
a lot of them are useless.
If you don't believe me you should check out the web serial novel called Worm by John C
McCrae which explores this idea.
But at the end of the day, superheroes do what they do to give us a story, to create
a page turning fight.
In today's list we explore the idea of what would happen if they fight was a little shorter
than one or three comic book issues and take a look at some of the most, sometimes conditionally,
useless superheroes in a fight.
This list a part 2 to Sasha's part 1 so strap in and get ready to hear about some more useless
instances of superheroes.
Here we go.
10 Maggott
You might be thinking, Amanda stop picking on Maggott, Japeth has got it hard enough.
And I feel you.
Dude, has to live with two maggots in his intestine that burrow in and out of him which
depicted as being crazy painful.
That's how he gains power and sustenance.
But the crazy thing about his abilities is that rely solely on his connection to his
maggots.
If you take Maggott's maggots away---hold on, if you take Japeth's maggots away, he's
useless.
Sure he has a little psychometric ability which allows him to see glimpses into the
past or future of a location that he is in, but that is a very minute ability for him.
And definitely not enough to carry him to victory or survival in a fight.
It seems to me that it's a bit of a flaw that your power source can leave you, leaving both
you and them vulnerable.
In other words, if you're in a fight with Japeth just keep him from his maggots.
9 Almighty Dollar
This hero comes to us from the NFL SuperPro comic series, published by Marvel.
Yeah, that's right, even the NFL has a league of superheroes, everyone is doing it.
The league of heroes was called the Happy Campers, so named because they got their powers
at a self-esteem camp which was actually a front for mad scientist who just wanted to
dole out superpowers for some reason.
The power that the Almighty Dollar received?
Can you guess it?
Yes, he is able to shoot change from his wrist.
And if you ever been hit by a pocketful of change, you might think, "oww that doesn't
feel great."
But you're not going to die or anything from it.
In other words, not gonna be great in a fight.
Almighty Dollar up against any supervillain and the supervillain would win hands down.
Hands down.
8 Cypher
So in the comment of for part one of this list many of you expressed surprise that Cypher
was not on this list.
Shock, awe.
Why would we have left him out?
Well I know a bunch of you loyal Cypher fans may be watching, but I agreed with the people
in the last video's comments and so I brought him forth for you to flaunt as useless.
Your welcome.
Useless in a fight of course and only really in a fight that can't be avoided by resolving
miscommunications.
But if we are already in the midst and the reasons we're fighting feel very clear, Cypher
would not be much help there.
His powers are based around understanding and communication using a variety of different
languages, including alien and technological languages as well.
But in a situation where we are just two people who don't see eye to eye, all the languages
in the world cannot help you take a hit or dodge a fist.
Unfortunately.
7 Bailey Hoskins
Coming to us from the comic series, and I'm not making this up, X-Men: Worst X-Man Ever,
we have Bailey Hoskins.
He has powers that are similar to Marvel villain, Nitro, which is that he can self detonate.
The difference is Nitro can reform where Bailey can't, which means in any fight all he has
in one shot.
In the comic story where he is presented he is used in more a fight of politics to turn
the tides against corrupt mutants.
But in any other fight, that ability means that he would die.
And as much as I wanna say you don't have to survive a fight to be considered a victor--which
granted, you don't--it's really hard to continue fighting if you're dead.
So in any greater story arc where have a fight that is spanning over a few comics, his power
would be pretty useless.
And if his explosion ended up missing his target.
Like for example, if the person he's fighting has super speed or teleportation abilities.
Or magic abilities obviously.
But when are magic abilities not a problem in the world of comics?
6 Captain Ultra
Sure Captain Ultra has a ton of powers, especially for playing such a small role in the Marvel
universe, but he also has one very large weakness.
His powers including flight, super strength, speed, stamina and even breath as well as
penetrating vision.
If you're wondering what penetrating vision is, it's basically x-ray vision, he can see
through solid matter.
And I really don't like the term penetrating vision so for those of you who a terminology
triggered, just imagine that when I say, x-ray vision, I'm saying... the other one.
Anyways, even with all these abilities, Captain Ultra is still not infallible and I'd even
go so far as to categorize him as yes, being useless in a fight.
Why?
Because he has an extreme phobia, an intense fear of fire to the point that he is show
fainting in the comics simply when someone lights a match.
And he's super embarrassed about it.
Given that some of the supervillain community know about this, it would make him super easy
to defeat in a fight.
Little fire in his face and watch him faint.
Granted he has worked through therapy to overcome his phobia and has had some success but even
after all these years in the comics, his phobia is still sort of an issue.
5 Professor Xavier
Come on!
How could Professor X be useless in a fight, right?
He's one of the strongest telepaths in the world!
He can influence people's thoughts, change their minds, inception, jedi mind tricks,
the whole nine yards!
But what if he was fighting robots?
It he was fighting any army of creatures without a mind but simply circuiting and programming
what could he do.
He doesn't have influence over beings without consciousness.
He doesn't have the telekinetic abilities of Jean Grey.
Professor X would be screwed and possibly wind up dead all over again.
Face it.
Robots vs Professor X equals his doom.
4 Martian Manhunter
Martian Manhunter is one of the founding members of the Justice League, an alien who has the
powers to shapeshift and manipulate minds he is an opponent you normally wouldn't want
to go up against.
He was even able to cure Joker's insanity for a brief moment in the comics.
But he was one insane weakness, his love for oreos!
Naww, I'm just kidding.
His fear of fire.
That's right, Manhunter has a next level fear of fire.
Batman's contingency plan for him in the Tower of Babel even prays on this fear.
Bruce's plan if Martian Manhunter goes off the rails is to cover him in nannites which
make him feel the fire more intensely as well as make him way more flammable.
Granted Martian Manhunter has worked hard to combat his deep-seated phobia--even more
deep-seated than Captain Ultra, I would say--but still the fact remains, if you set him on
fire, he would instantly start freaking out and become completely useless in a fight.
Though granted, so would I.
3 Color Kid
First appearing in DC's Adventure Comics #342, Color Kid has some pretty useless superpowers.
He can change the colour of things.
I mean this is a power that can be used to ... I don't know.
It's neat but not particularly useful.
He could try to confuse someone or maybe try to create some camouflage.
Even then it seem like he is better suited to helping avoid fights rather than participate
in them.
What is it with characters with rainbow related powers?
Rainbow Girl and Rainbow Kid are just both heroes that aren't really useful.
Like DC, just no more rainbow supers, okay?
Let's leave them back in the 1960s where they were conceived and try to forget that you
were still trying to make Rainbow Girl a thing in 2008.
2 Superman
I know Superman was already one part one.
But we have more to talk about when it comes to Superman being sometimes so useless.
This time I want to remind you all about the red sun issue.
And no not the Superman comic where we explore an alternate world where Superman is raised
in communist Russia entitled Red Son by Mark Millar, which you should read by the way.
Check it out.
We are talking about the sun in the sky.
Superman's abilities become so powerful as a result of our sun, fun fact.
But it takes a specific kind of sun to power his abilities.
A yellow one.
While the red sun appears to drain or cancel out his super abilities.
This hasn't been the most consistent depicted weakness of Superman, in terms of how long
it takes him to get weak but the fact remains that if he under a red sun's rays, he loses
his powers.This has to do with the fact that he isn't receiving energy from the red sun
to keep him powered up.
Meaning that he might have his powers for a split second after but as soon as his yellow
sun solar energy stores are used up, he's just a normal guy.
And normal guys are pretty easy for someone super to beat in a fight.
1 Tony Stark
Ooooo.
Yeah, we're going there.
Iron Man is obviously a super op hero.
He was the golden boy of the MCU up until recently.
RIP, Tony.
And he was on the original Avengers in the comics.
He's a brilliant guy with an insane number of tech gadgets and Iron Man suits to prove
it.
So how could he be useless in a fight.
Tony Stark was at one time an alcoholic, which as we have seen when they delved into these
issues with his character in the MCU and in the comics in the story entitled Demon in
a Bottle which explores Stark's addiction and resolution to get help at the end.
Involving a storyline where he has some drinks, dons his Iron Man suit and goes to meet an
ambassador whose a serious fan boy, and then kills him.
Granted this was not Iron Man's fault as he was being controlled by nemesis, Justin Hammer
the CEO of a rival company.
But if Hammer was able to get the best of him while he was drinking, who knows how easy
he'd be to defeat in a fight.
I mean Rhodey definitely proved how useless he could be.
The moral don't drink and get into a superfight.
Thanks for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list.
Are there conditions where you have found other heroes to be even more useless than
those listed here?
If so be sure to spark a debate in the comments below.
Maybe we'll give you a part four.
And while you are on your way down there, don't forget to like, subscribe, share and
ring that bell so you get those nerdy notifications.
Till next time, this is top 10 nerd and I'm your host Amanda McKnight, reminding you to
stay nerdy, YouTube.