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Overly powerful villains.

edited 2011-06-09 01:09:34 in General
Tableflipper
I'm not talking about supermen. I'm not talking about teleporters. I'm not talking about emperors with Authority Equals Asskicking on their side.

I'm talking about those world destroyers, universe owners, high deities, etc.

It particularly bothers me when the guys opposing them are, at least at first, ordinary humans. They don't get their magic swords of plot advancement for quite a while. A lot of the time they don't even know how to use the weapons properly because they trained for it or whatever, either it's depicted as being too easy to wield without an in-verse excuse or they just give you the skills with em. It's even worse when they use non-magical weapons made by man, even if they are like giant robots or something. It doesn't bother me when the guys opposing them are also world destroyers/universe owners/high deities/etc. though.

Now to be honest I haven't actually seen many works that do this, but I was reading some trope pages and I was going all like "...there's this many examples of this shit?"

Comments

  • You can change. You can.
    But...but...it is awesome! Galactus being taken down by the Fantastic Four! Barry Allen becoming the very lightning that created the Flash in the first place! Darkseid becoming the one voice in the whole Earth! 

    This is the stuff that makes comics beautiful! 
  • Darkseid is overpowered, TBH. A physical god who can just take over peoples' bodies when his own isn't available? That is practically the definition of overpowered.
  • One foot in front of the other, every day.
    I guess the idea is to provide tension by having such a power discrepancy between the protagonists and antagonists. A lot of J-RPGs are based on this in particular.
  • You can change. You can.
    Darkseid is overpowered, TBH. A physical god who can just take over peoples' bodies when his own isn't available? That is practically the definition of overpowered.

    He's the GOD OF EVIL! He's supposed to be overpowered. Comes with the name.
  • Yeah it took a literal deus ex machina to bring them down.

    Though I do enjoy seeing heroes gradually get stupidly powerful and awesome with the proper pacing.  There's gotta be some kind of control valve on the awesome, you know?
  • edited 2011-06-09 01:31:47
    You can change. You can.
    ^^ Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa...

    You mean to tell me you like something that isn't anime? /JK


    ^ Yup, me too.

    Anyway, way I see it, I like incredibly powerful enemies, as long as I can see them being defeated. (Darkseid being defeated at the end of Final Crisis was feasible. You had heroes from thousands of ages, chronicles fortelling that, Metron's plan, et al)
  • It can work depending on the story and the setting. Crisis on Infinite Earth's needed something that was MUCH stronger than hundreds of Superman, Green Lanterns, Wonder Women, Batmen and Flashes combined to even make sense.
  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.
    MUCH stronger than hundreds of Flashes 

    wut
  • The Flash is pretty strong. I mean, without trying he can run as fast as a car. Imagine being hit with something traveling at the speed of a car.
  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.
    The Flash can run near the speed of light.

    Force is mass times acceleration.

    Consider that for a sec.
  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!
    If physics apply to the Flash, he should have died the instant he discovered his powers.
  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.
    Physic only applies when he wants them to.
  • edited 2011-06-09 01:57:23
    You can change. You can.
    His powers come from the speed force. Just read Barry Allen's page in wikipedia.

    To wit:

    Barry Allen is capable of running faster than the speed of light and, at times during the Silver Age, described as faster than the speed of thought. In Flash #150, "straining every muscle," he ran at ten times the speed of light.[35] However, when he pushed himself further (during the Crisis on Infinite Earths) he appeared to waste away as he was converted into pure energy, traveled back in time, and was revealed in Secret Origins Annual #2 to be the very bolt of lightning that gave him his powers.[36] This was later retconned in The Flash: Rebirth #1, where Barry stated that he "ran into the Speed Force," and that, "When [he] stopped the Anti-Monitor, when [he] ran into the 'Speed Force' and joined it, it was like shedding [his] identity."[16]


    Barry Allen possesses abilities that Jay Garrick has not always been able to duplicate, most notably the ability to "vibrate" in such a way as to pass through solid matter. Allen has regularly engaged in time travel using the Cosmic Treadmill device (he no longer needs this to conduct this feat), and is able to "vibrate" between dimensions. Barry is unique among Flashes and most characters in the DC Universe in that he has complete control over every molecule in his body.[37] In Grant Morrison's Final Crisis, using the Speed Force, Allen was able to undo the effects of the Anti-Life Equation upon an individual: an ability he used on his wife Iris to free her from the bondage of Darkseid's mind control.[14] He has recently been revealed to not only be connected to the Speed Force, but is the very source of it, generating it with every step he takes. As such, he presumably has some of the Speed Force-related abilities other speedsters have demonstrated (such as lending and stealing speed), though he has yet to demonstrate such abilities. This alone is enough to make him one of the most powerful beings on Earth, and perhaps in existence. He is also immune to telepathic attacks and control, as he can shift his thoughts at a speed faster than normal thought. He used this tactic against Black Lantern Martian Manhunter in Blackest Night. Through "speed-reading" Barry can absorb large amounts of information into his short-term memory, which remain in his mind just long enough for him to make use of it. Using this technique, Barry was able to learn enough about building work to rebuild a destroyed apartment building.[38]

  • In Flashpoint #2, he tried to recreate the accident that gave him his powers.

    Didn't end well.
  • You can change. You can.
    I thought the end of Crisis on Inifinite Earths was him recreating the accident that gave him his powers.
  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.
    Barry Allen is capable of running faster than the speed of light and, at times during the Silver Age, described as faster than the speed of thought. In Flash #150, "straining every muscle," he ran at ten times the speed of light.
  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.
    holy shit
  • Are you referring to when he turned into a lightning bolt and traveled back in time to strike himself?

    Well in Flashpoint, he douses himself in the same chemicals he was working with during the accident and strapped himself to an electric chair.

    Ended up very red. And bloody.
  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.
    Thought:

    When he did it in Crisis on Infinite Earths, he was attuned to the Speed Force. He recreated his Speed Force powers. When he did it in Flashpoint, he was not. He did not.
  • edited 2011-06-09 02:01:22
    You can change. You can.
     Barry is unique among Flashes and most characters in the DC Universe in that he has complete control over every molecule in his body.[37] In Grant Morrison's Final Crisis, using the Speed Force, Allen was able to undo the effects of the Anti-Life Equation upon an individual: an ability he used on his wife Iris to free her from the bondage of Darkseid's mind control.

    This is the bit I always quote when people go all "LOL Superman is overpowered"

    This is a guy who can run faster, go through dimensions at will and destroy the mind control of one of the most powerful beings in the universe. 

    @Conductor: Sorry, can't remember which series is Flashpoint...

    ^ My bet is more along the lines of "Needed moar running"
  • I'm looking at you, Red Hulk.
  • Flashpoint is the latest crossover by DC.
  • I agree, Edmania. This has always bothered me.

    It's why I prefer to have objectives that don't have a villainous variety (lets get to point A guys!) and meet the super powered people along the way.

    /one piece plagiarizer.
  • I'm pretty sure One Piece never got farther than Whitebeard power level wise though.
  • AHRAHR
    edited 2011-06-09 13:14:20
    Yep. I see that as a good thing.

    Well, ok, no, Blackbeard is the new big man on campus, but that's because HE'S the one who received a power up.
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