Attack of the bummer Superpowers

[screwintuna]

Feel free to add more options, I'm really interested.

[Navarre]

I chose x-ray vision because it would seem to do little other than give you visual information of what is behind/within something, which is only useful if you can't see it normally but otherwise helps you little. However, heroes such as Mr. Fantastic, Elastic Man, Plastic Man, Flatman, Elasti-Girl, et al have shown a variety of creative ways to utilize super-elasticity.

But it mostly depends on how the writer writes the ability. Look at Cypher from the New Mutants. What once seemed like a nearly useless mutant ability was reinterpreted into something quite powerful.

Even Color Kid of the Legion of Substitute Heroes has managed to pull off a few clever tricks. But, yeah, can't imagine the power to change the color of something stands up much to most powers so I'll add that to the "lame list".

[Beta Ray Bill Cosby]

Wait! Super-Elasticity is a LAME superpower!? Superstretchy characters are (usually) practically invulnerable by default, not to mention that it's an incredibly versatile power. Have you seen the incredibles? If not I strongly recommend you check it out, the scenes with Elastigirl are awesome!

[Slappy]

the scenes with Elastigirl are awesome!

I bet they make you feel like you are climbing the rope in Gym class.

Lame super power = the ability to become flat as a piece of paper.
Having two heads
Ability to pull your arm off and use it as a club.
Super stregnth and invulnerability only at night.

[StellarLeader]

I would say that there's no lame superpowers, only people with poor imagination. Aquaman and Color Boy can become very dangerous with a bit of creativity. Granted, the power to become two dimensional may not allow you to defeat Galactus on your own, but not everything is about raw power, is it?

[Navarre]

It does have a lot to do with the creativity of the wielder, which in turn has a lot to do with the writer.

But, just for the sake of fun, most powers without a subset has serious limitations.

For example, I'd be the first to say that the ability to fly is awesome. But if you aren't impervious to cold and wind and can't breathe at high altitudes/velocities, not only could you only fly low and slowly, but you're mostly the equivalent of a goose.

[The Mighty King Cobra]

Agreed.  Even the lamest stretchy guy (for the record, that's Static's supporting villain, Rubber-Band Man) doesn't do too bad in the greatest scheme of things...  Certainly better than the worst super-power ever, which is Captain Marvel's ability to split his body at any of the joints and have 'em fly around individually.

[Beta Ray Bill Cosby]

Agreed.  Even the lamest stretchy guy (for the record, that's Static's supporting villain, Rubber-Band Man) doesn't do too bad in the greatest scheme of things...  Certainly better than the worst super-power ever, which is Captain Marvel's ability to split his body at any of the joints and have 'em fly around individually.

See, again, that SOUNDS bad, but would actually be extremely useful. It's basically telekinesis.

[StellarLeader]

OK, let'see... 'bad' superpowers...

- "Green Boy" a LoSH reject... he can turn things green... This sounds lame but it could be awesome for camouflage... if you are in a jungle I guess. Or maybe you could make your entire team look like Hulk or Beast Boy! wouldn't it be awesome?
- Guy from Final Fantasy II has the awesome ability to talk with beavers... Get yourself an army of beavers and you're ready to go. Even better if you get an army of Bibarel!
- Moleculad from Teen Force could... do something. I think he was able to slip through very small gaps... ok I don't know what to do with this

[Otter Disaster]

Elasticity is a great power!  I've always liked those stretchy guys.  Plastic Man was my favorite Leaguer from the Grant Morrison JLA from 1997.  X-Ray vision is OK, but not that great visually.  Any superpower can be interesting in the hands of a creative writer of course, so 'lame' powers are partly the fault of the writer/artist. 

I've found the 'healing factor' to be kind of lame, as it tends to reduce the tension of any physical conflict. Wolverine's healing factor early on made him heal faster than regular people but he could still be hurt, and need time to recover. Power creep, as happens with most characters, turned it into instant healing of any injury, no matter how severe and it became a ridiculous crutch making the character much less interesting to me.

[Navarre]

That does seem to happen a lot with characters. Invisible Girl comes readily to mind.

In some regards it makes sense that a character would develop their powers over time. Jean Grey becoming more power (not as Phoenix but for her own natural abilities) makes sense.

Sometimes writers seem to want to escalate powers just for the sake of the story though. They even add powers that weren't there before.

For example, as powerful of a telepath as Emma Frost is, why did she need a secondary mutation of turning into diamond?

[The Mighty King Cobra]

For example, as powerful of a telepath as Emma Frost is, why did she need a secondary mutation of turning into diamond?

Colossus was dead and Morrison wanted a tank.

[Navarre]

Could be, although even that becomes unnecessary after Joss brought Colossus back, leaving Colossus and Emma on the same team. But it is indicative of how all of this is at the mercy of the writer.

How any power works and/or what powers a character has can be changed in a single issue. So it is difficult to consider any power too lame.

Some character should have the superpower to be lame. No matter what he does, things just never go right and those repercussions only cause negative effects for him and those he loves.

... I think we call that character Peter Parker.

[Damascus]

Hey, Squirrel Girl used her ability to talk to squirrels to take down Doctor Doom one time, so yeah, even lame powers can work out if the writer wants them to. 

The super-strength and invulnerability at night wouldn't be so bad really, you'd just have to tailor your crime fighting activities to the nighttime, much like Batman.  A fairly useless power was had by Boulder of the Initiative.  He had invulnerability and super endurance, but not super strength and his endurance was locked in at his ability level before his powers kicked in.  So, he could run forever at the same pace, but it was a slow trot.

[Navarre]

his endurance was locked in at his ability level before his powers kicked in.  So, he could run forever at the same pace, but it was a slow trot.

That's actually kind of a clever twist on a standard ability. I like it.