Intelligence is way overrated. The smartest villains haven't pulled off a successful scheme to save their lives.
"Lunacy" is way underrated. I'm using that to describe whatever you want to call the power that The Riddler, The Joker, Toyman, Mxyzptlk, etc. have. Those type of enemies generally do more to stump and frustrate superheroes than the Lex Luthors, Brainiacs, etc.
'Overrated' is flight, without a few other important powers like invulnerabilty, not needing oxygen for long periods of time, and telescopic vision flight would be very hard, but it seems like half the superheroes have it.
An 'overused' power is Invulnerability, seems like everybody has it, even normal humans who can fall from several stories and take punches from the Hulk and not splatter into paste.
'Underated' I would have to one up Guyver and say Density Manipulation like Vision and Will O' the Wisp has, so you can go from super heavy and dense to completely intangible.
I think a lot of people are confusing over-rated with over-used. Yeah, it's commonplace that everyone and their grandmother has some degree of super-strength or can fly by one means or another, but you can't tell me those abilities aren't useful as hell.
Chains said:
Intelligence is way overrated. The smartest villains haven't pulled off a successful scheme to save their lives.
I have to agree, and to further elaborate on that, the fact that the super-smart heroes like Batman are able to make themselves unbeatable by somehow finding the time in the day to sit around and daydream plans for every single possible scenario that will ever happen ever is pretty ridiculous. I mean really, it borders self-parody at times that they've just magically got all these schemes worked out, despite us never seeing them planning anything.
In terms of under-rated, any sort of manipulation powers (i.e. Green Lantern, Magneto, Mr. Mxyzptlk) are usually very underplayed. These guys can pretty much make the universe their sandbox as long as they've got the imagination to come up with the right stuff, yet the only one who ever gets mentioned as a major threat is Magneto.
Technically, do Killgrave's powers work with pheremones? He would be such an intimidating villain if he weren't so obvious about his goals. Selectively persuading people makes more sense than just zonking out everyone you see, just because you can.
Intelligence is way overrated. The smartest villains haven't pulled off a successful scheme to save their lives.
"Lunacy" is way underrated. I'm using that to describe whatever you want to call the power that The Riddler, The Joker, Toyman, Mxyzptlk, etc. have. Those type of enemies generally do more to stump and frustrate superheroes than the Lex Luthors, Brainiacs, etc.
The problem with writing a super intelligent character is that you would have to be super intelligent yourself in order to figure out what the character would do. Super intelligence would be the greatest of all powers short of reality alteration in the hands of a writer who was himself of very high overall intelligence.
The problem with writing a super intelligent character is that you would have to be super intelligent yourself in order to figure out what the character would do. Super intelligence would be the greatest of all powers short of reality alteration in the hands of a writer who was himself of very high overall intelligence.
I think there are lots of powers that are really underrated, especially if they aren't used to their full extent. The guy Klum in spider-mean/Black cat - the evil men do - had a pretty crappy power, yet because he used it in a very intelligent (though evil) way - it was a pretty effective.
Super strength these days seems all too common place as does a healing power - making them seem at least overrated
I would have to agree, Super strength definately seems to be the most overrated by far. I mean it is a great attribute, but not only is it highly overrated, but over used as well, making it a two times loser.
Telepathy I wouldn't say is overrated, but over simplistic. I mean I could understand Martian Manhunter being able to utilize it and comprehend it due to him being a being of seemingly higher evolution than that of humans. But for a normal human it would seem very disturbing to use the ability.
Super speed, depending on how fast is very underrated. Depending on the character, the situation and how fast super speed could be a bad thing or an extreme advantage. In the Flash's case not only does he move at super speeds, he can think, react, process and comprehend at super speeds.
So for someone like that his powers make him a huge powerhouse that is very often underrated. But for someone with just speeds of say 50 times that of a normal human, but lacking the ability to percieve things that fast it would seem it proves more of a detrement than an advantage to them.
Just a small example, not that this means anything. But Bruce Lee admitted himself that he relied on his speed more than anything, if he was in a fight with a much bigger stronger opponent he need to make sure he landed a good 3-4 punches to gain the upper hand and try to end the confrontation early. But if he didn't he knew he was in trouble.
Speed aside, I would also have to say the power of suggestion is vastly underrated as well as super intelligence (if used right which it seldom is) and matter or reality manipulation.
Well I wouldn't say reality manipulation is underrated, it is right about where it belongs.
As for super intelligence (or power of suggestion could be used the same way), I like how it was used in Superman Red Son. I think it is in issue 3 where
Lex Tells Superman that Brainiac would have talked him into committing suicide in less than 17 minutes if he had allowed the convorsation to continue.
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