Are Superheroes Overpowered?

[GuyGenesis]

I’m in the middle of trying to work out a powerscale and though comics aren’t meant to be taken literal, beyond a point the limits get beyond ridiculous. So this is my question to you; Are Superheroes Overpowered? What should be the upper limits of a super hero? a cosmic being? a divine? the absolute lows of said character?

liftin 100s of thousands of tons, running 4 to 5 times faster than light, destroying planets with a single punch, how can the powerless masked vigilante compete?

[FRM]

yeah, i hate how the comic creators dont think the heroes are powerful enough, so they elevate them to god-level. what will they come up with above that!?!?!? like you said, the masked vigilante cant compete, so their taken out of the comics. this destroys a great part of superhero stories. there has to be an awesome guy with no powers, who can compete with powered heroes. if comics lose that, then they become just a picture book of immortals exchanging bangs and metaphorical button mashing.
in answer to the name of the thread (which isnt phrased quite right): yes.

[CKnap]

I do agree some are overpowered. I like that Superman hasnt changed much hes been the same old basically maybe with a tweak here and there. And majority of our favorite heroes have but I do agree. On the other hand though, Batman has to be the only powerless hero who stands a chance against nearly anyone he comes up against.

[GuyGenesis]

I understand wanting multi-tier leveled characters, In fact I find them vital, but I also think that instead of powering a single hero to the point of breaking have them forge alliances in order to take down this villain. That’s not to say every now and then you can’t have a temporary increase in power by some means in a single hero elevating him to such a tier, but ordinarily I say forge alliances.

I’m thinking Peak Human is probably around 1000lbs comic wise, I think DC is something like 800lbs and marvel has Cap around the same, but these are military press lifts I think. An athlete would be about a little over half so about 600lbs I would think, I could see a strong super like powerman lifting a car or truck 2000 -7000lbs roughly, a colossus type an 18 wheeler truck about 21,000lbs, and a hulk like character could possibly lift a light to medium weight tank say 60,000lbs, but should they be able to lift 100,000lbs tanks and ships or aircraft?

edit*
Even with a hulk powerful enough to take out a mid sized tank, so can a non-powered human, with the right tools and so even though the deck is enormously stacked in the hulk’s favor and the task seems near impossible, there still exists that shred of hope to cling on to. Now a cosmic being with the ability to lift an aircraft carrier, a powerless masked vigilante doesn’t stand a chance, but team him with a tank throwing hulk, and a storm like character and their back in the running. Jumping ahead a bit even with an army of cosmics if a character can wipe out civilizations with but a thought, truthfully you can’t win, characters shouldn’t be this powerful unless in a universal non direct role.

[CKnap]

I think the only one who should be able to lift extremely great amounts are someone like magneto or even a character that can control gravity or has telekinesis and they hav amazing control over it. Otherwise i completely agree, form an alliance like the avengers did or even a superman batman duo.

[GuyGenesis]

Ok, I’ve got an actual chart worked out but I’ll just post the estimated basics.

Human 100lbs – 1,000lbs [basic humans]
Hero 500lbs – 75,000lbs [enhanced or powered beings]
Divine 15,000lbs – 100,000lbs [greek, norse, gods]
Cosmic 100lbs – 120,000lbs [aliens – cosmic entities]
Empyreal 20,000lbs – 225,000lbs [dimensional, demons & angels]

These classes cover large ranges of characters within my universe; humans are humans. Hero can be someone altered or enhanced, a demi-god, a mutant, or many other types. A divine is a higher race and not truly defined as a God though they are often worshipped and interpreted as such. A cosmic is any universal unknown, from martians to entities capable of handling a divine skyfather. Empyreal is beings from a higher plain usually just accepted as another plain in general, ranging from djinn to demons to angels.

In terms of comics the higher levels are among the lowest in publish, but this would drive more alliances in order to face the larger disasters without having to keep introducing beings that one-up each other to the point of, as stated before, ridiculousness. Do you think this is a good range or too low? Heroes like superman wouldn’t be able to carry a whole shuttle into space, but they would be able to surve as a bad booster, which seems more like an alliance garnering pride on both sides, than “I can do it for you.”

[Myro]

The scales look more or less right to me.
I kind of wish the editors of DC and Marvel had a glance through this thread. The ever escalating power levels regarding some of the characters is ridiculous. I remember reading the Dark Reign and Siege events when they were current, and saying to my other comic-nerd friends that Marvel was going to have to kill Sentry off by the end of Siege, because he was too powerful. And then Marvel thought Fear Itself was a good idea (hey, let’s give all the strongest characters Mjolnir-like weapons that corrupt them. That won’t throw the power balance out). I literally started thumping my head into the wall.
Anyway, good work GG, and thanks for allowing me to vent on your thread.

[spidercow2012]

I think it was during “Superman II” (the movie) that I watched him lift up the ice on top of a frozen-over lake (to put out a fire around Smallville, iirc), but he was holding it by ONE EDGE, and I thought to myself that the laws of physics (or something) dictate that the bulk of the ice-sheet would snap off by its own weight, leaving Superman with at best a large chunk of frozen lakeshore in his hands. Similarly, the Hulk picking up, say, an aircraft carrier would result in much of the vessel bending under its own weight and — well, I’m not sure what it would do, but it certainly wouldn’t be seaworthy afterwards.
Somehow, this is more bothersome to me than the way metahuman powers seem to keep increasing, which is, I suspect, inevitable when writers are trying to top themselves and continually raise the stakes, and part of the reason for the occasional reboot.
This is not to say I disagree with anyone’s comment; this is more like a “Yes, and–” comment.

[PetesWilly]

SuperMAN is overpowered. Its like playing videos games and your douche bag friend turns on godmode for just himself and snickers every time he kills you, wheres the fun in that?

[WillyPete]

I play a lot of SH RPGs, so I hear this a lot…
So many of them try to make every character the same, so that no character is ever overpowered compared to another.
Can you spell “Epic Fail”? It never, ever works!
On the other hand, witness poor, ‘underpowered’ Batman try to get along with the Justice League of America…
Oops! The villain has Kryptonite, Fire, and something colored Yellow? AND, he’s already tied Wonder Woman up with her own lasso? Gee, who does that leave to save the day?
There are no overpowered, or underpowered, characters…
There are only scriptwriters who don’t know what they’re doing!
The rest is a matter of personal preference!
Sorry, I DON’T like Batman, Daredevil, or any of that sort of Hero…
Yeah, they’re more ‘human’ (and, have you MET any Human Beings, latley?)
But, they wade through rooms full of goons firing guns like ammo was free, and somehow, despite being merely human, they don’t wind up a puddle of hamburger on the bar room floor… Huh?
At least Superman is SUPPOSED to be Bulletproof!

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