History BlessedWithSuck / ComicBooks

* ComicBook/{{Taskmaster}} can perfectly memorize and copy the movements of other people. Fighting styles, sports, the works. Permanently. This comes with a heavy trade-off: All of the information that is involved with perfectly imitating so many people is too much for Taskmaster's brain. As a result, he constantly forgets things that aren't combat-related: people, places, even a conversation from last Monday. He reveals all of this to Avengers Academy member Finesse, who has similar abilities [[spoiler: because she might be his daughter]] and might have the same problem down the road. [[{{Tearjerker}} He wants to fight her because memorizing her movements is the only way he won't forget her.]] FromBadToWorse in a mini that reveals just how much of his life he's forgotten. He used to be known as Tony Masters, a married S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and he forgot about his former vocation and his wife, who was also a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He forgets all of this again at the end of the mini when he copies the skills of his attacker in order to save his wife. His wife is determined to keep reminding him though.

** {{Defied|Trope}} by Magica: she's trying to achieve Mida's Touch, the TropeCodifier of this (in fact it's even the trope image)... But it would come from ''an easily removed necklace'', allowing her to deactivate it at will. Then played ''painfully'' straight in the imaginary stories where she succeeds and becomes richer than Scrooge... Only to find out she's just not cut to deal with the downsides of being a billionaire.

* The Boulder (better known by others as Butterball), who made one appearance in ''[[Comicbook/AvengersTheInitiative Avengers: The Initiative]]'' (which, again, is a Marvel Comic, demonstrating just how much they are in love with this trope), has the superpower of total [[NighInvulnerability Invulnerability]]. He's impervious to harm, can't be worn out, and is otherwise invincible. Sounds great, until you realize he's forever stuck in the body of a slow, weak, overweight teen who's incapable of losing weight or getting any stronger, making him worthless as a superhero.
** Oh, it gets worse. When one of his teammates offers to have sex with him, he tells her that there's no point - his invulnerability not only prevents him from feeling pain, but from feeling pleasure, too. Pretty damn rough when you consider that he's going to remain a teenager ''forever''... To be fair, he's since landed a job with the Shadow Initiative and has a bright future ahead of him in search and rescue. And, come on. This is the guy who broke the Taskmaster.
*** An extra down side is that while nothing can hurt him, he's still vulnerable to all forms of telepathy, including mind control. But an extra bright side to him, when in fights, he's the perfect shield for his teammates.
*** So get the guy a telepathic girlfriend and set him up with gadgets, like a jetpack or a tazer-suit.
** Another character in ''Avengers: The Initiative'' who fits this trope is Trauma, who possesses both [[{{telepathy}} telepathic]] and [[VoluntaryShapeshifting metamorphic]] powers, and can therefore transform into whatever a person is most afraid of. Often, he will give this attack a nightmarish twist; if you're afraid of death, he'll morph into a mutilated corpse, if you're afraid of spiders, he'll turn into a spider about the size of a ''T. rex'', and so forth. He started off with a horrible case of PowerIncontinence, as his powers are triggered by strong emotion. If someone near him was upset or scared, he would spontaneously transform into something horrible. Unlike most people on this list, Trauma ''did'' eventually learn to control his powers -- but the damage, sadly, had been done. One issue revealed that his family does not want anything to do with him. Even worse, in the very first issue, we're told that his mother is in a mental institution...
*** During ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'', the guys with which he was fighting Skrulls with were so afraid that one of them could be Skrull, that their fear made him change into one. While his buddies beat on him, ''real'' Skrulls caught them. He's no teamplayer at all.
*** Trauma was later revealed to be the son of a dream manipulating demon named ''Nightmare'', thus explaining why he has his powers and why they suck so much.
*** His powers started to suck much more when he really wanted to scare someone who really pissed him off. Unlucky for him, it was [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere a badass magician]].

* From ''ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers'', Mister Immortal alias Craig Hollis. His one and only power: he can't ever stay dead. He discovered it by trying to commit suicide when his girlfriend did the same. And while all the loved ones around him died. And continued to die. [[WhoWantsToLiveForever He will, according to reliable sources, outlive things like stars, planets, and Galactus.]]
** Considering ComicBook/{{Galactus}} is a being which used to be mortal and was born in the universe that existed previous to the current Marvel universe (and gained his powers through surviving the death of his universe and the big bang that created the current one), it [[FridgeLogic stands to reason that Mr. Immortal would be a strong contender]] for becoming the [[TimeAbyss Galactus]] of the universe that follows the eventual death of the current Marvel universe.
** On the upside, the guy who was killing his friends was fired by Death. Now the guy in charge of the whole "prepare you for an eternity alone" bit is one of his closest friends. Yay?
*** One panel of him standing alone in a ruined landscape, surrounded by silhouettes of the corpses of his friends, is unusually bleak in a series that tends to play death for black humor.
** Another GLA member, Ashley Crawford, has the power to [[TemporaryBulkChange swell her body mass]] to become a BigBeautifulWoman (aptly named "Big Bertha") with superhuman strength and durability. The "suck" part comes in that order to ''displace'' all of that mass, Big Bertha is forced to regurgitate by vomiting all of the fat out in a process that she's jokingly dubbed "power puking." She's also stuck literally footing the bill for the rest of the group, since she uses her non-powered body to work as a supermodel and make the money the GLA needs to stay afloat.
* The newish mutants from the Marvel Universe, ''ComicBook/GenerationHope'', all have powers like this, or at least linked to this. You have Velocidad, who's a super-speedster who ages up with each use of his power as it just makes time move slower/faster/whichever would be relevant for him, Sadie (Transonic) who's trapped forever in some blue alien-looking body, some guy who got super-animal strength and senses... and the mind to go with them. Another one of them's walking BodyHorror. Being one of the new generation of mutants sucks.
** Idie is the one exception. Too bad her upbringing convinced her that just being a mutant was bad enough.

* ComicBook/BlackBolt, king of ComicBook/TheInhumans. This guy can produce a destructive force with his voice. If he so much as whispers, he'll destroy the landscape around him. Black Bolt has a bad case of PowerIncontinence -- and the only way he can avoid destroying everything around him is by not vocalizing (talking, laughing, crying, etc.). An old ''Fantastic Four'' comic revealed that Black Bolt had spent his childhood in an isolation chamber until he had learned the discipline to stay forever silent. And he ''killed his parents'' with an ill-timed utterance.
** Also, the reason why Bolt's brother Maximus is an insane supervillain is that BB used his vocal powers too close to him once, and that shattered his sanity.
*** That is to say, it's the reason why he's an ''insane'' supervillain, and not the reason for the villainy itself. Maximus was already a dick. Incidentally, the aforementioned incident was Maximus collaborating with the Kree - the very aliens who were responsible for their existence - to attack Attilan, in a scheme to get Black Bolt in trouble, and for him to step out of his shadow. Black Bolt used his hyper-sonic scream to down their flagship, and Maximus just happened to be nearby when it happened. BB may feel guilt about it, especially because their parents were caught when the ship crashed into the parliament building [[LaserGuidedKarma but for Maximus, it really was just desserts]].

** Unus the Untouchable, a villain in the ''X-Men'' books, could repel objects. Beast built a gun to amplify it in order to defeat him, in an example similar to Midas. His powers eventually grew so strong they repelled ''air'' and he suffocated to death. Yet somehow he managed to father a child with similar powers beforehand...
*** Beast built the device so that its effects could be reversed -- he was using it to blackmail Unus into surrendering in order to save his own life. Henry [=McCoy=] is fricking hardcore.
*** Unus is so BlessedWithSuck, his powers manage to kill him ''twice''. In the ''Son of M'' mini-series, starring ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}}, Unus showed up alive without explanation, but depowered. He & several other depowered mutants are exposed to the [[GreenRocks terrigen mists]] by the titular character, despite ComicBook/TheInhumans' warnings that exposing any non-Inhuman will end in tragedy. Everyone exposed has their powers returned, but to extreme levels, leading to madness, misery and (in Unus' case) death. Again.
** There is a character in volume 2 of ''ComicBook/NewMutants'' called Wither. [[TouchOfDeath Guess what his power is?]]
*** And when his power manifested, he happened to be touching his father at the time, thus killing Dad and turning Wither permanently into an EmoTeen who tends to {{Wangst}} quite a lot.

* The adamantium that makes Franchise/{{Wolverine}}'s skeleton unbreakable and makes his claws even deadlier is also toxic. Wolverine would never have survived the adamantium infusion if it weren't for his HealingFactor. Another drawback is that his HealingFactor is weakened due to needing to work overtime to compensate for the adamantium poisoning. Having a metal skeleton also makes him a pretty poor opponent against on and off BigBad ComicBook/{{Magneto}}. This was graphically demonstrated in the ''ComicBook/FatalAttractions'' arc (specifically ''X-Men'' vol. 2 #25) when Magneto ''ripped off the adamantium'' from Wolverine's bones, nearly killing him. [[spoiler: In ComicBook/UltimateMarvel, Magneto ''did'' kill Wolverine this way in ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}''.]]
** The adamantium poisoning thing is a {{Retcon}}, and leaves a significant PlotHole in the form of Lady Deathstrike and ComicBook/{{Bullseye|MarvelComics}}, both of whom have adamantium skeletons and lack Wolverine's healing factor. Earlier the problem was stated to be that as the metal covers his bones entirely, it interferes with the production of red blood cells in the bone marrow, and Wolverine's healing factor is constantly under stress compensating for that.
*** One could justify it in Deathstrike's case since she is also a full on cyborg with systems that could deal with the poisoning. As for Bullseye... And it's even worse in the case of Wolverine's old drill instructor Cyber. His original body did have a HealingFactor, but his [[GrandTheftMe new one]] doesn't and he still doesn't seem to have any issues with adamantium poisoning after lacing his skin with it. This happened long ''after'' the {{Retcon}} too.
*** Bullseye takes pills for it, when writers remember that property. Presumably, the other adamantium users that lack a healing factor do the same. It helps that Bullseye only has an adamantium ''reinforced'', not coated, spine.
*** Not to mention the PlotHole that an unbreakable metal wouldn't be giving off atoms for him to be poisoned by.
** It also makes him much slower (as far as combat speed, reaction time and running speed) than he would otherwise be, due to its not-so-light weight. He tends to have difficulties going through airports and any other facility with metal detectors. And (theoretically speaking), it makes him easy to track for any being with sensitivities to metal (obvious candidates being Magneto & ComicBook/{{Polaris|MarvelComics}}) and he is much more susceptible to attack via electricity. The additional weight would make swimming a bit more of a chore than it would be otherwise.
*** It wouldn't make him more susceptible to electricity. the electricity would travel along the easy metal path, keeping his heart and organs and tissue safe from the damage it could cause.
*** The metal would still attract the electricity far more easily (especially with claws out); with claws in, it would have to get through the natural barrier of the skin. Plus, the electricity would fry anything in direct contact with the metal-laced bone, ''including'' one or more of the dura membranes surrounding the brain [[note]]the brain itself has no pain receptors[[/note]]; healing all that would still ''hurt''.
** A less severe case of BlessedWithSuck is the combination of a HealingFactor and retractable claws. Whenever Wolverine pops out the claws, he cuts open his hands. The HealingFactor keeps him from bleeding out, but also guarantees that he'll cut himself open again the next time. He's done it so often by now that he's probably used to it ([[GoodThingYouCanHeal and it's far from the worst pain he's ever suffered]]), but when they first came out, chances are it hurt.
*** His reaction and expression in the ''Origin'' mini-series says it all...
*** [[Film/XMen1 The first movie]] made this explicit: Rogue saw the claws pop out, and asked Wolverine if it hurt. His response: "Every time".
*** Parodied by Greg and Lou in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vQ2RVqJCNM Wolverine's Claws Suck]].
*** Also a retcon; originally, his claws had sheaths - back when they were artificial. Now that they're retconned as natural, they don't. Um, stop me if this starts to make sense... the first time he leaves them out for a few minutes, given his healing factor, they should form those sheaths anyway - like a pierced ear.
*** Shortly after Wolverine had his adamantium stolen, ComicBook/{{Jubilee}} asked if he still bleeds when he uses his claws. His reply is that he pops them in and out a few times every day, forming holes like pierced ears. But they still hurt.

** Logan's daughter/OppositeSexClone Laura Kinney AKA ComicBook/{{X 23}} shares much of this, but unlike Logan is also burdened with ''remembering everything that's ever happened to her''. [[DarkAndTroubledPast And everything that's ever happened to her has really]], ''[[BrokenBird really]]'' [[TheWoobie sucked.]] Additionally, ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'' makes it clear that the second Laura steps into a room she has already analyzed everyone in it for threat assessment and calculated the best plan of attack for ''killing them all''. Sure, that sounds pretty useful if you're walking into a BadGuyBar or another situation with EverythingTryingToKillYou, but ''she can't turn it off''. Laura formulates a plan to kill her ''friends and loved ones'' every time she meets up with them.

** Gladstone Gander occasionally gets this treatment: one story dealt with him trying to solve the problem of his home being cluttered by all the things he's won, a few stories have other people showing disdain for him for being effectively a cheater or a freeloader who has everything fall into his lap without having to make any effort, and in ''ComicBook/{{Ultraheroes}}'' his superhero alter ego is ''massively'' unpopular, both with the fans of the team and his own teammates. It has long since been established that Scrooge has struck Gladstone from his will because he has zero respect for someone who avoids doing any real work at every possibility.
*** Since in the vast majority of stories he appears in he's not only a lazy freeloader, but also insufferably ''smug'' about it, most readers can care less.
** {{Defied|Trope}} by Magica: she's trying to achieve Mida's Touch, the TropeCodifier of this (in fact it's even the trope image)... But it would come from ''an easily removed necklace'', allowing her to deactivate it at will.
*** Then played ''painfully'' straight in the imaginary stories where she succeeds and becomes richer than Scrooge... Only to find out she's just not cut to deal with the downsides of being a billionaire.

* In ''ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfBarryWeenBoyGenius'' the titular character is a ChildProdigy with an ImpossiblyHighIQ of 350. As a result his brain is constantly firing on all cylinders, leaving him physically unable to relax [[SleepDeprivationPunishment or even sleep]]. He predicts that he'll be driven mad by the time he turns 21 and only attends school in the hopes that regular human interaction will prevent it.

* SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}} had terminal cancer so he turned to the Canadian government's Weapon X program for help. The good: He won't die of cancer. The bad: His cancer is now supercharged on HealingFactor and constantly destroys and rebuilds his ''entire body'', including his brain, leaving him with a face that... has the consistency and appearance of a hamburger patty, and made him just plain crazy, and very, very funny. At least his fans love him. Moral of the story? Canadian healthcare ain't all it's made out to be.

* Jhiaxus in IDW's ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW Transformers]]'' comics [[spoiler: gains immortality as a result of being on the border between two universes, and so cannot die. This would be fine if it weren't for the hyperviolent Arcee using this to take her revenge against him. So she kills him again, and again, and again, and again..]].

** The Plutonian himself from the same pair of series (he's the central character in ''Irredeemable'') is a human-in-appearance alien who started off as a hero and snapped one day because the Lois Lane expy was emphatically ''not'' okay with being lied to all those years and outed his secret identity. Also, his foster parents had all been abusive and/or terrified and dumped him back at the orphanage when his powers started to develop. So ... basically Superman (see above for ''his'' problems), minus the emotional support of Lois and the Kents.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Sleeper}}'', the main character's power is kind of this way; he "absorbs" his pain without experiencing it, but also has most physical pleasures muted to little or nothing (I don't recall the details). However, the real Suck Stick Hammering got applied to his off-again love interest, Miss Misery. She gets physically ill from engaging in virtuous acts, and can only relieve her condition through sadism and sociopathy. She can't even get {{Wangst}}y about it; she has to be genuinely evil or she'll wither and die with no upside to the power.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Sleeper}}'', the main character's power is kind of this way; he "absorbs" his pain without experiencing it, but also has most physical pleasures muted to little or nothing (I don't recall the details). However, the real Suck Stick Hammering got applied to his off-again love interest, Miss Misery. She gets physically ill from engaging in virtuous acts, and can only relieve her condition through sadism and sociopathy! Talk about being trapped in the villain role! She can't even get Wangsty about it; she has to be genuinely evil or she'll WITHER AND DIE. And as far as I know, there's no upside to this "power". So glad am I not to live in THAT universe....

!!!DC

** Rita "Elasti-girl" Farr can grow or shrink to any size, and grow her limbs to be different sizes... but had zero control over it, wrecking her movie career.
*** Though, given that Rita had gained control of her powers by the time she joined up with the team, she doesn't really fit this. This is the most commonly cited reason for why she was never [[BackFromTheDead revived]] until long after her teammates were; her status as a "freak" is incredibly dubious in comparison to what Cliff and Larry have to go through. More recent incarnations of the character, however, firmly turn her into this: [[spoiler: Rita is revealed to essentially be a BlobMonster in human form who has to constantly maintain her concentration or else she'll start to [[BodyHorror break down and melt]]. This has the side effect of making her walk around with [[StepfordSmiler a perpetual]] [[SlasherSmile creepy smile]] on her face.]]

** Cliff "Robotman" Steele was an extreme sports athlete, adventurer, and race car driver who got himself into a fatal car accident. His brain was put in a robot body which is stronger, faster, and tougher than any human one... but it locked him out of doing the things he loved because his new body disqualifies him from competition. Worse, he outlives all of his teammates several times over... the poor bastard frequently wonders if it would have been more merciful for him to die in the wreck.
*** It gets worse in the current continuity. [[spoiler: Why is he a robot? A group of scientists (including Caulder) gave him an injection of nanites to protect his life, when they hired him to drive for them. When the superbike he was testing went out of control, the only thing they could think of to do to save him was to consume his still completely conscious body, and convert it into an indestructible robot.]]

* The interpretation of Comicbook/TheFlash given by the song ''The Ballad of Barry Allen'', by Jim's Big Ego. In the song, it is explained that because The Flash's perception is so much faster than normal, he is isolated from the rest of humanity, unable to form true connections with other people and tormented by the continual boredom of the rest of the world being so slow. As the lyrics say, "And I'll be there before you know it, I'll be gone before you see me, And do you think you can imagine, Anything so lonely?"

** Wally West has often expressed similar sentiments, and Bart Allen's hyperaccelerated childhood made the "slow" world almost unbearable for him for years.

* Power Ring of the Crime Syndicate has all of the powers of ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' thanks to the Ring of Volthoom, which is not only verbally abusive towards him but is [[BodyHorror fusing to his hand]] and basically [[ArtifactOfDeath eating him alive]].

* Multi-Man has two super powers. One is a relatively normal super power like flight, or x-ray vision or what have you, but temporary and based around his second power. The other super power is of the suck variety: any time he [[strike:dies]] is killed, he comes back to life with a new super power. This leads to him being [[ButtMonkey killed repeatedly]] by both villains ''and'' "heroes" until he has a super power that fits their current needs. What makes it worse for him is that he's not really a supervillain, he's only being held in Arkham because of the potential of his BlessedWithSuck and is considered a "model prisoner".
** Played to comical effect in ''ComicBook/JokersLastLaugh''. Multi-Man is an integral part of the Joker's mass prison break scheme. There are almost two whole pages of the Joker's playing cards and engaging in other mundane activities while asking "Now?" over and over again, while various other henchmen murder Multi in the background, punctuated by an announcement of his new powers.
* Another DC example, though not canon, was Creator/LarryNiven's essay, [[http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex"]], in which he makes an argument that pre-crisis Franchise/{{Superman}} can never make love to Lois Lane (or any human, for that matter.)
** Post-Crisis, this is actually Superman's ''own'' viewpoint on his powers. Firstly, he's so immensely powerful that he has to constantly restrain himself, because he lives in fear of the massive death and destruction he could cause if he lost control. Secondly, as powerful as he is, he is ''not'' as god-like as many people believe him to be InUniverse, which means he lives with the constant guilt of not being able to help everyone as much as his help is wanted -- his ClarkKenting, in fact, is actually to give himself a legitimate excuse to "be selfish" and take some private time, lest he undergo a mental breakdown from overwork and exhaustion. Finally, his [[SuperSenses Super Hearing]] means he's constantly able to hear people begging for his help... and even he ''cannot'' answer all of them.

* DC's Metamorpho the Element Man was a normal guy (Rex Mason) who got into a chemical accident that gave him the ability to turn his body into any element or substance, like iron or diamond, by concentrating on the element he wants to be. It also made him a colorist's nightmare, with differently colored (and oddly textured) arms and legs and a chalk-white head. (See also "Element Girl" below in the Vertigo section, as she's a female version of Rex.)

* The Boulder (better known by others as Butterball), who made one appearance in ''[[Comicbook/AvengersTheInitiative Avengers: The Initiative]]'' (which, again, is a Marvel Comic, demonstrating just how much they are in love with this trope), has the superpower of total [[NighInvulnerable Invulnerability]]. He's impervious to harm, can't be worn out, and is otherwise invincible. Sounds great, until you realize he's forever stuck in the body of a slow, weak, overweight teen who's incapable of losing weight or getting any stronger, making him worthless as a superhero.

** Another character in ''Avengers: The Initiative'' who fits this trope is Trauma, who possesses both [[{{telepathy}} telepathic]] and [[VoluntaryShapeshifting metamorphic]] powers, and can therefore transform into whatever a person is most afraid of. Often, he will give this attack a nightmarish twist; if you're afraid of death, he'll morph into a mutilated corpse, if you're afraid of spiders, he'll turn into a spider about the size of a ''T. rex'', and so forth. He started off with a horrible case of PowerIncontinence, as his powers are triggered by strong emotion. If someone near him was upset or scared, he would spontaneously transform into something horrible. Unlike most people on this list, Trauma ''did'' eventually learn to control his powers -- but the damage, sadly, had been done. A recent issue of ''Avengers: The Initiative'' revealed that his family does not want anything to do with him. Even worse, in the very first issue, we're told that his mother is in a mental institution...

*** Trauma was recently revealed to be the son of a dream manipulating demon named ''Nightmare'', thus explaining why he has his powers and why they suck so much.

* [[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avenger]] Black Knight had this in his magic sword, the Ebony Blade. On one hand, [[AbsurdlySharpBlade it could cut through nearly anything]]. On the other hand, it had a curse that took effect if it ever drew blood, which would do things like paralyze him, turn him into a statue, or drive him insane. These curses were generally pretty permanent, to the point even Comicbook/DoctorStrange had trouble removing them. Worse, even if someone else used the blade to draw blood, the curse would still affect Black Knight. It was no surprise when he eventually stopped using the damn thing.
** More recently, it's just resorted to trying to drive him and turn him into a literal BloodKnight. As an expert on the Ebony Blade remarks, every single previous Black Knight has gone mad. Except him. So far...

** As Reed said once, "He has his good days and his bad." Ben will never really be at peace with his monstrous form. For every writer who gives him a break from the angst, there's one who brings it back because it's so central to his character. Mark Waid's recent run is a good example of the latter.

** On the bright side, if the one shot "Isla De Muerte" is to be believed, [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Puerto Ricans love Ben Grimm]]. This is not a mere funny element in a comic, [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Puerto Ricans seriously do love Ben Grimm]] and call him La Mole.

---> '''John:''' ''No fuckin' way! Who knows what makes that shit work, Parker. Those things'll probably steal your soul or? or give you nut cancer.''

* Black Bolt, king of ComicBook/TheInhumans. This guy can produce a destructive force with his voice. If he so much as whispers, he'll destroy the landscape around him. Black Bolt has a bad case of PowerIncontinence -- and the only way he can avoid destroying everything around him is by not vocalizing (talking, laughing, crying, etc.). An old ''Fantastic Four'' comic revealed that Black Bolt had spent his childhood in an isolation chamber until he had learned the discipline to stay forever silent. And he ''killed his parents'' with an ill-timed utterance.

* ComicBook/IronMan built his first armor to keep himself alive -- the powers were just a bonus to help him escape his captors. Ever since, his dependence on the suit has been a recurring plot element. For a long time, it kept his heart running (he could never take off the chestplate, and running out of power was a deadly problem); then that was fixed, but Tony was shot and paralyzed below the waist, unable to walk without his armor; still later, the chip that cured Tony's paralysis went on to sabotage his nervous system, and he couldn't control his body at ''all'' without a special Iron Man suit. Most recently, Tony was nearly killed gaining the power of Extremis, which lets him control machines -- this too is a power with serious downsides, as it makes him feel detached from humanity and allows smart enough enemies to attack his vital systems ''electronically.'' And now Extremis has been removed (or at least shut down) thanks to Skrulls, meaning his current armor can't be used anymore because it's far too complex for a normal human brain to use.
** ComicBook/{{Ultimate Marvel}}'s version is arguably worse off. On the one hand, he doesn't need the armor to support his heart like the mainstream Tony Stark does, and he has genuine SuperIntelligence plus a HealingFactor because of having "undifferentiated neural tissue" scattered throughout his body. The downside of this? ''Pain''. He's in perpetual agony; even when hovering on a blood alcohol level that would leave an ordinary man insensible ''and'' wearing a special bio-suit that was created to block out the pain, he's still constantly suffering.

* [[ComicBook/LukeCageHeroForHire Luke Cage]] is NighInvulnerable to the point that bullets can't pierce his skin. Which is pretty awesome until something manages to injure him badly enough that he needs intensive medical care. Then it becomes a problem that needles can't pierce his skin.
* A interpretation similar to the Flash example in the DC section is given for ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}}, who once told a psychiatrist they would be short-tempered too if everyone else was like that one slow person in the checkout line.
** The "jerk speedster" attitude has become common enough that it's even been [[FanNickname named]] after Quicksilver. [[IncrediblyLamePun PMS: Pietro Maximoff Syndrome]].

* Despite the perks of his powers, ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' has always viewed them as a burden and [[ComesGreatResponsibility responsibility]], rather than a blessing, because of the bad guys who've been pulled toward his family and friends because of them, and the problems that have cropped up when he chooses ''not'' to use them. This only got worse when Spidey briefly had cosmic powers. The responsibility that comes with his ''normal'' powers is bad enough; the responsibility he felt when he had ''cosmic-level'' powers was [[{{Wangst}} crushing]].

* ComicBook/{{Taskmaster}} can perfectly memorize and copy the movements of other people. Fighting styles, sports, the works. Permanently. This comes with a heavy trade-off: All of the information that is involved with perfectly imitating so many people is too much for Taskmaster's brain. As a result, he constantly forgets things that aren't combat-related: people, places, even a conversation from last Monday. He reveals all of this to Avengers Academy member Finesse, who has similar abilities [[spoiler: because she might be his daughter]] and might have the same problem down the road. [[{{Tearjerker}} He wants to fight her because memorizing her movements is the only way he won't forget her.]] FromBadToWorse in a recent mini that reveals just how much of his life he's forgotten. He used to be known as Tony Masters, a married S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and he forgot about his former vocation and his wife, who was also a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He forgets all of this again at the end of the mini when he copies the skills of his attacker in order to save his wife. His wife is determined to keep reminding him though.
** Note that everything above is a fairly recent and incredibly unpopular {{Retcon}}, that causes more problems than it solves. Before this, however, he did have to deal with the issue that his photographic reflexes did not include RequiredSecondaryPowers - for example, as a young boy, he copied an Olympic diver... only to realize after he hit the water that he didn't know how to swim.

** Prodigy of the possessed the ability to absorb the knowledge of those around him. After he lost his powers to ComicBook/ScarletWitch after the ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'', the Stepford Cuckoos were able to help him compensate by unlocking the accumulated knowledge of everyone he'd ever been in contact with. While this makes him one of the smartest teens in the MarvelUniverse, it also means he ended up with a ton of awkward, intimate stuff like {{Wolverine}}'s bathroom habits or Comicbook/{{Cyclops}} and ComicBook/EmmaFrost's sex life.
** William "Billy" Kaplan essentially won the SuperpowerLottery and has power potentially on par with the gods. Great! Unfortunately, he doesn't have all that much ''control'' over his immense power. This means that when he screws up, the consequences are usually disastrous and potentially world-ending. That is not hyperbole. He also might be ''accidentally'' warping reality just by existing and wanting things, although considering [[ConsummateLiar the]] [[MagnificentBastard source]] [[BigBadFriend of]] [[EvilAllAlong that]] information, it's likely a lie. Billy's still worried about it, though. There's also the part where his power scares the crap out of some people -- including his heroes, the Avengers, and ''himself'' -- and he's viewed as TooPowerfulToLive by Wolverine, leading to two attempts on his life. And there was an EldritchAbomination that wanted to eat him to gain his power. ''And'' Loki tried to [[DrivenToSuicide drive Billy to suicide]] to steal his power, which would have worked if Loki hadn't [[ConscienceMakesYouGoBack changed his mind]] and [[InterruptedSuicide stopped Billy from pulling the trigger]] at the last possible second. After that, Loki ''still'' tried to manipulate Billy so that Loki could control said power by proxy. In short, Billy was a lot happier back when he thought his powers consisted of nothing but flight, electricity, and basic magic.
** It's not difficult to imagine that Tommy "Speed" Shepherd of the ''ComicBook/YoungAvengers'' has the same problem of his uncleQuicksilver because he shares the same powers. It's incredibly easy to imagine, therefore, why he did the things that landed him in juvie in the first place, and why he's so distraught when [[spoiler: the Young Avengers split up at the end of Children's Crusade]] - he's literally incapable of fitting into normal society because of his time perception.
*** The Comicbook/MarvelNOW ''Young Avengers'' volume makes it even worse. It's established that when his body moves at super-speed, all of his forms of perception do as well. So while using his speed to assemble some cellphones at his civilian job, he claims that he essentially just wasted a week of his life in the span of a few seconds.

** Likewise, mutants are BlessedWithSuck, thanks to the [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman outcast status]] that their power brings, even if they look and act completely normal. Besides the social issues, many mutants have [[PowerIncontinence little or no control over their powers]], especially right after they first manifest. Force-fields that don't turn off, energy powers that lash out randomly, involuntary telepathy, etc.
** ComicBook/{{Rogue}} ''is'' blessed with suck. Yes, technically the ability to [[MegaManning copy other mutants' powers]] by touching them makes her very adaptable, but ''draining people's life energy whenever she touches them'' is about as sucky as it gets. And absorbing '''everything else'' about that person, including memories and personality traits. And she ''can't not do so'', rendering her incapable of having any sort of intimate relationship. At the extreme end, she can essentially steal people's souls and hold on to them forever (happened with Ms. Marvel, but not quite intentionally and Ms. Marvel survived it). [[spoiler:She recently got over this problem, though, so now she can copy other mutant powers without causing them harm and freely touch others with no drawback. It only took about 30 years. [[StatusQuoIsGod Let's see if it sticks.]]]]

** ComicBook/IllyanaRasputin (Sister of Colossus) has a true double set. She was dreamed up as a mutant and a sorceress, specifically a ''demon sorceress''. As a direct result of her plotlines, she was raised under and by a corruptive heartless bastard from age six to sixteen, at least one alternate team of X-Men has DIED trying to help her, she's blessed with dimension-spanning powers that threaten to erase her soul and let the Elder Gods loose, and she's already died twice.

*** Unus is so BlessedWithSuck, his powers manage to kill him ''twice''. In the ''Son of M'' mini-series, starring ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}}, Unus showed up alive without explanation, but depowered. He & several other depowered mutants are exposed to the [[GreenRock terrigen mists]] by the titular character, despite ComicBook/TheInhumans' warnings that exposing any non-Inhuman will end in tragedy. Everyone exposed has their powers returned, but to extreme levels, leading to madness, misery and (in Unus' case) death. Again.

** ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} is another classic case, with his destructive optic beams that, again, ''don't turn off'' without special glasses or shutting his eyes. His brother Havok has sometimes also needed special equipment to control his own powers.
*** An often overlooked aspect of Cyclops's condition is that due to having to wear ruby quartz glasses to control his powers, he can only see everything in shades of red (or, if you're GrantMorrison, yellow). In practice, he's completely colorblind.
** Chamber of ''ComicBook/GenerationX'' has energy powers allowing him to gank anyone this side of Juggernaut. The catch? His powers first manifested themselves so violently, they blew his upper torso and lower jaw off, leaving a glowing maw of energy and burnt flesh. He gets better for a while, working as an undercover agent in the Weapon X program - they can at least give him back his face, and install a device that lets him control his powers better. But naturally, he gets screwed again on M-Day when his powers get permanently turned off, as the regulator device now has nothing to regulate, and promptly explodes, destroying his face and chest again. He doesn't fare much better in alternate realities: In the ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse universe, he had a hole drilled into his chest to allow his power to vent.
*** He later gets new powers courtesy of a blood transfusion with Apocalypse, who it turns out is his ancestor.
*** Which makes him look sort of like Apocalypse, blue with funny lips. He also had tech installed, which gives him sound powers that work like a GreenLanternRing, which he's pleased with. So he finally lost the suck.

** ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' has a heart-breaking example: a child whose entire mutant power is the dissolution of all living tissue within a ridiculous distance of him. When he wakes up and discovers his power has activated, the first sight are the corpses of his family and friends. He kills 385 people the day he hits puberty. In order to prevent the spread of widescale panic and revelation of mutnats in such a way, Wolverine is sent to kill him. His regeneration powers protect him, but the whole ordeal is hreatbreaking as Wolverine is pretty much performing a MercyKill on him.
** There was a mutant whose power was to evaporate into air. Which is another way of saying to die instantly. Lucky for him, House of M happened.
*** One is left to wonder how he knew what his power was, if he can only do it once...

** The short time X-Man Marrow was born with (or at least has them since a very early age) the power to have [[LovecraftianSuperpower bone plates and blades painfully growing out of her body]]. So unlike most mutants she didn't get to have a normal life before becoming a mutant. Only thanks to a HealingFactor is she still alive nowadays. So it's somewhat understandable that she went AxeCrazy over that. Also, so much for "[[EvolutionaryLevels next step of evolution]]".

** Professor Xavier's son Legion has the ultimate example of ComboPlatterPowers, seemingly being capable of accessing every single super-power it's possible to have. The suck side is that he can't control them consciously; as his codename suggests, his mind has fragmented into a thousand or more separate personalities, each of which has command over one (or a small group of) his powers. Of course, the "core" Legion personality is pretty nasty in its own right, what with being an extremely powerful RealityWarper... luckily, he rarely gets to come out to "play".

* The adamantium that makes ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s skeleton unbreakable and makes his claws even deadlier is also toxic. Wolverine would never have survived the adamantium infusion if it weren't for his HealingFactor. Another drawback is that his HealingFactor is weakened due to needing to work overtime to compensate for the adamantium poisoning. Having a metal skeleton also makes him a pretty poor opponent against on and off BigBad Magneto. This was graphically demonstrated in the ''Fatal Attractions'' arc (specifically ''X-Men'' vol. 2 #25) when Magneto ''ripped off the adamantium'' from Wolverine's bones, nearly killing him. [[spoiler: In ComicBook/UltimateMarvel, Magneto ''did'' kill Wolverine this way in ''Ultimatum''.]]
** The adamantium poisoning thing is a recent {{Retcon}}, and leaves a significant PlotHole in the form of Lady Deathstrike and Bullseye, both of whom have admantinum skeletons and lack Wolverine's healing factor. Earlier the problem was stated to be that as the metal covers his bones entirely, it interferes with the production of red blood cells in the bone marrow, and Wolverine's healing factor is constantly under stress compensating for that.

** It also makes him much slower (as far as combat speed, reaction time and running speed) than he would otherwise be, due to its not-so-light weight. He tends to have difficulties going through airports and any other facility with metal detectors. And (theoretically speaking), it makes him easy to track for any being with sensitivities to metal (obvious candidates being Magneto & Polaris) and he is much more susceptible to attack via electricity. The additional weight would make swimming a bit more of a chore than it would be otherwise.

*** The first movie made this explicit: Rogue saw the claws pop out, and asked Wolverine if it hurt. His response: "Every time".

*** Shortly after Wolverine had his adamantium stolen, Jubilee asked if he still bleeds when he uses his claws. His reply is that he pops them in and out a few times every day, forming holes like pierced ears. But they still hurt.
** Wolverine's SuperSenses have the drawback of always being active. It's a wonder he doesn't pass out from sheer agony given the horrific injuries he suffers so often. This is arguably the case for anyone with SuperSenses.
*** He has on occasion complained about being in public places such as airports due to the olfactory overload he receives from all the different kinds of b.o., deodorant, cologne, bad breath, etc.
** Wolverine's HealingFactor is pretty awesome, but prior to M-Day (which gave Wolverine all of his memories back), it apparently helped him get over ''mental'' trauma -- by giving him ''amnesia''. Whether or not this is still the case -- or indeed, if it ever really was -- has not been confirmed. And yes, this means that ''all'' of Wolverine's powers are cases of BlessedWithSuck.
*** The amnesia was recently revealed to be due to Weapon X "memory implants", which amount to nothing more than Weapon X doctors taking a cattle prod to his brain and allowing it to grow back, and then telling him some bullshit story about why he can't remember anything and who he "really" is.
** Logan's daughter/OppositeSexClone Laura Kinney AKA ComicBook/{{X 23}} shares much of this, but unlike Logan is also burdened with ''remembering everything that's ever happened to her''. [[DarkAndTroubledPast And everything that's ever happened to her has really]], ''[[BrokenBird really]]'' [[TheWoobie sucked.]] Additionally, ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'' makes it clear that the second Laura steps into a room she has already analyzed everyone in it for threat assessment and calculated the best plan of attack for ''killing them all''. Sure, that sounds pretty useful if you're walking into a BadGuyBar or another situation where EverythingIsTryingToKillYou, but ''she can't turn it off''. Laura formulates a plan to kill her ''friends and loved ones'' every time she meets up with them.

** Mortimer "Toad" Toynbee is generally regarded as ugly and deformed, in exchange for mutant powers. In one comic series, when Toad is stripped of his powers, [[spoiler: he is revealed as extremely handsome, and would have looked that way if he hadn't been born as a mutant.]] Toad is more than happy to make the trade-off.


!!! Vertigo

* Gwen Raiden (see ''Series/{{Angel}}'' below) gets a mega-massive dose of this in ''Angel: After the Fall'' when [[spoiler: having found a cure for her electrical...ness, she uses the opportunity to get close to another person for the first time. Then everything goes to Hell and the electrical doohickey keeping her powers suppressed breaks... and she [[{{Squick}} deep-fries her new friend]].]]

** {{Defied}} by Magica: she's trying to achieve Mida's Touch, the TropeCodifier of this (in fact it's even the trope image)... But it would come from ''an easily removed necklace'', allowing her to deactivate it at will.

*** In his final appearance, the Evronian scientist Zoster obtains the same powers as Xadhoom. [[spoiler: [[PhlebotinumOverload As he lacks the necessary self-control, the power]] ''[[DeaderThanDead reduces him to nothingness]]'']].

* Bunnie Rabbit from the ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' comic book series has a laser cannon and energy shield built into her bionic arm. Very useful, but completely drains her if overused.

* Jhiaxus in IDW's ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW Transformers]]'' comics [[spoiler: gains immortality as a result of being on the border between two universes, and so cannot die. This would be fine if it weren't for the hyperviolent Arcee using this to take her revenge against him. So she kills him again, and again, and again, and again...]]

*** Since in the vast majority of stories he appears in he's not only a lazy freeloader, but also insufferably ''smug'' about it, most readers aren't inclined to feel pity for him.

* Fred Stumbley a.k.a Mannequin from ''ComicBook/{{Henchgirl}}''. His power allows him to {{astral project|ion}} but turns his body into a very easily breakable mannequin when he does so. While it can be put back together, if he tries to go back into it before it's repaired, that damage will show up when he re-inhabits his body.

* Fred Stumbley a.k.a Mannequin's from ''ComicBook/{{Henchgirl}}''. His power allows him to {{astral project|ion}} but turns his body into a very easily breakable mannequin when he does so. While it can be put back together, if he tries to go back into it before it's repaired, that damage will show up when he re-inhabits his body.

* The ''Comicbook/IncredibleHulk''. Here is that it might be more justified as a lot of people do hate and hound him (especially the army), and having multiple personalities is never fun. All that, and his wives keep on dying.

** This is also upset by the fact that [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Ben Grimm]] is one of the most absolutely loved heroes in the Marvel Universe. No hero has as many friends and is as respected and genuinely loved by other heroes. Laying the smack down on Ben Grimm in front of the Avengers [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor is a wonderful way to get some Asgardian hammer driven repeatedly into your face.]]

** 'ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' has a heart-breaking example: a child whose entire mutant power is the dissolution of all living tissue within a ridiculous distance of him. When he wakes up and discovers his power has activated, the first sight are the corpses of his family and friends. He kills 385 people the day he hits puberty. In order to prevent the spread of widescale panic and revelation of mutnats in such a way, Wolverine is sent to kill him. His regeneration powers protect him, but the whole ordeal is hreatbreaking as Wolverine is pretty much performing a MercyKill on him.

** Skin's mutation is that he has six feet of extra skin. Sure, he can manipulate it and that does have its uses, but he's otherwise stuck looking like a mix between a melted candle and a bulldog.

* A similar interpretation to Flash example in Dc section is ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}}, who once told a psychiatrist they would be short-tempered too if everyone else was like that one slow person in the checkout line.