You don’t need super powers to save the world.
That’s a sentiment that a handful of heroes in comics have taught their readers; just
because you aren’t the man of steel who can leap tall buildings in a single bound,
doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference.
And in the spirit of that, we’re counting down a list of the top 10 powerless superheroes
who have saved the world.
To be fair, many of these heroes have had the advantage of a genius level intellect
and a lofty bank account, but hey, the ideology is a nice one, so let’s not ruin that.
10 Green Arrow Oliver Queen was initially criticized as being
a rip off of Batman, ironically, by the same publisher behind the dark knight.
Ollie first appeared in 1941’s More Fun Comics issue 73, existing as a caped crusader
carbon copy, even having a clown themed foe who went by the name of Bull’s Eye.
But, in 1969, he got an update thanks to Neal Adams and Dennis O’Neil, with Ollie getting
his trademark Van Dyke beard and a new ideology in which he was an outspoken advocate of the
under privileged and the political left wing.
He also lost his fortune.
While Oliver Queen has arguably saved a lot of people before, one of the times he’s
made a real big impact was in an alternate universe, specifically, Frank Miller’s The
Dark Knight Returns.
While he does not appear in the comic at length, he plays one of the most important roles in
the story.
Despite missing an arm, he shoots Superman with a Kryptonite arrow, giving Batman an
opportunity to fight the arguably corrupted Man of Steel in his crusade for a better tomorrow.
9 Hindsight Lad Hindsight Lad, aka Carlton LaFroyge, is a
character who often gets ripped on a whole lot.
He initially became a ‘superhero’ after blackmailing his neighbor Robbie Baldwin,
the hero Speedball, with revealing his secret identity if he wasn’t allowed on the New
Warriors team.
Robbie gave in, and Carlton donned the persona Hindsight Lad, which, yes, doesn’t make
a whole lot of sense for someone who fights crime.
But despite this, when he was on the New Warriors, he actually proved incredibly helpful, not
only saving the team on several occasions, but also doing the world some good; he broke
into a secret HYDRA base, outsmarted the Pearl Sect and then aided the New Warriors in defeating
them.
8 Adam Strange Adam Strange is a fun character, and while
he may not have saved the world we call home, he’s definitely saved the planet he calls
home many a time.
And that still counts, right?
He first appeared in Showcase issue 17 in 1958, an archeologist who is suddenly transported
from Peru to a completely different planet called Rann.
Here, he becomes the hero of Rann, using the planet’s technology to protect it from extraterrestrial
threats.
He’s very much a product of the silver age and the explosion of science fiction stories
appearing in comics at that time.
He wears a jet pack spacesuit that lets him fly and travel through space.
He carries energy blast guns, can generate solid light equipment from his suit, and was
given a pair of cloned eyes that allow him to see into the whole electromagnetic spectrum.
Quite the upgrade.
7 Nightwing Aside from being born with a beautiful butt,
Dick Grayson does not have super powers.
(Sorry, firm buttocks do not technically count).
The OG Robin, Dick was trained by Bruce Wayne, learning from him not only how to kick some
serious butt, but how to use his mind to do it too; he may not be Bruce, but Bruce did
teach him well.
Aside from all of his adventures with the caped crusader where he actively participated
in keeping the world safe, his solo efforts are not to be forgotten.
From stepping in to occupy the cowl after Bane had broken Batman’s back (cause the
world and Gotham are screwed without Bruce, let’s be honest), to tracking down bio-weapons
as an Agent of Spyral, Dick is one of the most noble and good hearted individuals in
DC’s roster of heroes, always doing what he can to help make the world a better place.
6 Black Widow Jumping into the MCU for this number – let’s
talk about Black Widow, and SPOILER ALERT – what she did in Avengers Endgame.
I mean, you probably should have seen it by now.
Anywho, you’ve been warned.
So in the latter half of the film, we see all of our beloved un-dusted heroes time travel
to different time periods and places in order to collect the Infinity Stones as a means
to reverse Thanos’ snap and return the half of all living things that he obliterated.
Natasha and Clint, aka Hawkeye, find themselves on Vormir, where the Soul Stone is being kept.
But unknown to them, as we learned in Infinity War, in order to collect the Soul Stone, you
need to sacrifice someone you love.
Both of them duke it out to determine who will be the one to sacrifice themselves, all
to save the world and bring back everyone who had been killed.
And Natasha beats out Clint, sacrificing herself for the greater good.
It was tragic.
And an ending for the character that caused a bit of uproar among st devoted Black Widow
fans.
5 Iron Man Iron Man’s inclusion on this list kind of
feels like cheating.
Tony Stark, similar to a handful of other heroes we’ll be getting to later on, has
brains and money.
Lots of money.
The combination of these two assets allow him to continue to build stronger and stronger
versions of his Iron Man suit, his powered armour that gives him superhuman strength
and durability, supersonic flight, regenerative life support, an energy repulsor and missile
projector, and access to all of the other brilliant tech he’s crafted, including being
tuned into whatever AI system he’s currently running with.
And ever since his bleeding edge armour, Tony has had the ability to store his suit within
his bones, which can be assembled and controlled by his thoughts.
While he tends to use more conventional armours these days since Extremis was removed.
That being said, he has no innate super powers.
He wasn’t born with powers, nor did he accumulate them.
Rather, he created a suit that gave him those abilities.
Regardless, while it’s debatable if Tony should be on this list, he’s definitely
a superhero who has saved the world plenty of times, both in the comics and, recently,
up on the big screen in Avengers Endgame.
4 Hawkeye Hawkeye is yet another archer superhero on
our list.
Initially introduced as a reluctant villain in Tales of Suspense issue 57 in 1964, he
would soon become an Avenger a year later, joining the team in Avengers issue 16.
And while he’s saved many lives during his stint with the team, one of his most heroic
victories was when he saved the Avengers from the Collector single-handedly after they began
to mysteriously disappear in Avengers 174 in 1978, and then proceeds to work with them
to defeat Korvac and save the earth (despite Korvac kind of having humanity’s best interest
at heart the first time he shows up in Marvel’s panels).
But hey, that’s still saving the world!
3 Nick Fury Nick Fury may not have super powers, but dude
has been saving the world since World War 2.
His first appearance in the comics was courtesy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, a story called
Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos, in which we see a grenade cause him to lose his eye.
Eventually he was made a member of SHIELD, with him transitioning to more of a James
Bond-esque spy character in Strange Tales issue 135 in 1965.
Working with SHIELD, he did a lot for the planet, working to take down the international
terrorist group HYDRA, and forming strategic alliances with superheroes.
Eventually, after its revealed that SHIELD has been infiltrated by Life Model Decoys
called Deltites, he rebuilds SHIELD from the ground up.
And we’ll leave it at that because we really don’t want to get into Original Sin.
2 Ozymandias Okay, yes, Adrian Veidt from Watchmen is technically
a villain, although, you could merely argue he’s a hero who took extreme measures for
the greater good.
Much of the morality of the vigilantes in Watchmen is characterized by grey areas in
ethics; it’s one of the reasons why Watchmen was praised as subverting the comic book art
form, turning the graphic into thought provoking literature, according to some critics who
clearly could a history lesson or two pertaining to the medium.
Huffy puffy aside, Ozymandias is a character who manages to do what no one else could.
He ends the energy crisis.
He prevents nuclear war that could irrevocably damage the planet and humanity.
And he creates world peace.
All without taking any credit, minus to his fellow Crimebusters.
Rorschach can’t live with that, or the fact that his peers won’t expose Veidt after
realizing the extent of good that his crimes have caused, so Doctor Manhattan kills him.
Regardless, Veidt has no super powers, only a genius level intellect and a crap ton of
money that said smarts helped him acquire with his own business, Veidt Industries.
1 Batman Bruce Wayne has no super powers.
Much like our last number, dude is all smarts and cash dollars.
But unlike our last number, Batman has a code of honour that he follows religiously.
He doesn’t kill (we’ll let those early issues of Detective Comics slide.
It was the Golden Age after all).
This man, who rubs shoulders with the super powered members of the Justice League and
is arguably more competent than a handful of them combined, has managed to save the
world over and over and over again.
Even from some of those very Justice League members when they dabbled in villainy, often
unintentionally.
There’s a laundry list of times he’s done the deed; JLA New World Order, Crisis on Two
Earths, Kingdom Come, Flashpoint, and so many more, including times where he’s worked
as a team to save the world.
And the multiverse, too!
He is in the big leagues after all.
And that’s something pretty darn special.