History Main / BroughtDownToBadass

* MarvelComics: HankPym and [[TheHulk Bruce Banner]] have on various occasions throughout their careers gone from Ant-Man and Hulk (respectively) to "genius scientist" as their "superpower," arguably making them even more dangerous.

* In UminekoNoNakuKoroNi, Dlanor gets brought back to normal by a goat whose powers negate her Knox Commandments, and finds herself unable to fight back. Will on the other hand, gets BroughtDownToBadass as he proceeds to [[spoiler:HEADBUTT THE GOAT TO DEATH]] because he insulted the mystery genre. [[BerserkButton Do not. Insult. The mystery genre. In front of Will.]]

The opposite of BadassAbnormal, though as mentioned above this can be a result of such a thing being reversed.

* He may have gotten the cool PowerWalk scene in Volume 2, but [[{{Series/Heroes}} Peter Petrelli]] certainly turned up the heat on his awesomeness during his S3 BroughtDownToNormal phase, thinking situations through, teaming up with the Haitian to take down [[BigBad Arthur]], basically being a much better, smarter person than his [[IdiotHero V2 persona]]. Luckily, he retained these qualities [[spoiler: even after he regained powers, mainly because he was no longer a GodModeSue]].

* {{Superman}} lost his powers and just intimidated criminals by, y'know, ''being Superman'' at them. This was in the same arc where he became Electric Blue Superman.

* One [[{{DCU}} Elseworlds]] story had the premise that every super-powered person on Earth one day lost their powers. Most of the JusticeLeague retrained, re-equipped, and went back into action watched over by their new mentors: the BadassNormal heroes of Batman, Robin, Huntress, and Nightwing.

* In ''{{Bleach}}'', Captain Yamamoto is attacked by a hollow custom-designed to permanently seal his devastating fire magic. Deprived of his famous ability he gives the hollow a DeathGlare... and promptly frags him with his bare fists.

* [[Series/MegaMan Pharaohman.]] Megaman steals the powers of a couple of Robot Masters, and they don't do much of anything. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7dSJN5LgsE Not Pharaohman.]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome DECISIVELY not Pharaohman.]]

* In ''OnePiece'', Blackbeard attacks Newgate with his darkness power, gloating about how it will nullify his earthquake ability... quite forgetting that he is facing a 9 feet tall man with a halberd.
** Actually, considering Blackbeard is ''11 feet tall'', this would make Whitebeard around ''18 feet tall''.

* For a while in the 70s, WonderWoman had to give up her magical powers and learned kung fu to keep on fighting crime.

* In Timothy Zahn's ''Thrawn'' trilogy of StarWars novels, there is a creature called an Ysalamiri that "pushes back" TheForce. A Jedi's powers don't work within 4 meters of an Ysalamiri, or anywhere at all in a forest crowded with enough of them. Luke Skywalker finds himself in such a forest, completely cut off from the Force, and yet he's still able to take down a base full of Imperial stormtroopers with nothing but a good blaster at his side and a basic knowledge of structural engineering.

* {{Captain America}}: Stever Rogers, most commonly known as Captain America until recently, in his own mini-series got exposed to vita-rays that deactivated his Super serum reducing him to a scrawny 100lb weakling. When half a dozen goons enhanced with the same serum came to execute him, he easily dealt with everyone of them. The man fought in WW2 and is one of the best trained soldiers on the planet, muscles only account for so much...

* {{Captain America}}: Stever Rogers, most commonly known as Captain America until recently, in his own mini-series got exposed to vita-rays that deactivated his Super serum reducing him to a scrawny 100lb weakling. When half a dozen goons enhanced with the same serum came to execute him, he easily dealt with everyone of them. The man fought in WW2 and is one of the best fighters on the planet, muscles only account for so much...

* One [[{{DCU}} Elseworlds]] story had the premise that every super-powered person on Earth one day lost their powers. Most of the JusticeLeague retrained, re-equipped, and went back into action watched over by their new mentors: the BadassNormal heroes of Batman, Robin, Huntress, and Nightwing.

* One [[{{DCU}} Elseworlds]] story had the premise that every super-powered person on Earth one day lost their powers. Most of the JusticeLeague retrained, re-equipped, and went back into action watched over by their new mentors: the BadassNormal [[{{Batman}}Batman family]].

* Wrath in ''FullmetalAlchemist'' always seemed to rely on his CharlesAtlasSuperpower more than his EvilEye, so when he loses that and is badly wounded, he's still a terrifying threat to the protagonists- even the ones who have superpowers.

* ''DarkerThanBlack'' (second season): Even after [[DePowered losing]] his [[ShockAndAwe electricity-based]] superpowers, Hei still [[MookHorrorShow kicks serious ass]]. Which is hardly surprising, given the fact that he earned his [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast nickname]] "Black [[{{Shinigami}} Reaper]]" due to how good he was at killing contractors [[BadassNormal before he got his powers]].

* ''DarkerThanBlack'' (second season): Even after [[{{Depowered}} losing]] his [[ShockAndAwe electricity-based]] superpowers, Hei still [[MookHorrorShow kicks serious ass]]. Which is hardly surprising, given the fact that he earned his [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast nickname]] "Black [[{{Shinigami}} Reaper]]" due to how good he was at killing contractors [[BadassNormal before he got his powers]].

* ''DarkerThanBlack'' (second season): Even after losing his electricity-based superpowers, Hei still kicks serious ass. Which is hardly surprising, given the fact that he earned his [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast nickname]] "Black [[{{Shinigami}} Reaper]]" due to how good he was at killing contractors [[BadassNormal before he got his powers]].

* ''DarkerThanBlack'' (second season): Even after losing his powers, Hei still kicks serious ass. Which is hardly surprising, given [[BadassAbnormal his history]].

** Don't worry [[SealedEvilInACan Evangeline]] is still sealed by the School Curse, she can't be a threat... barring the century of martial arts practice she's had and the ruthless effectiveness of her puppet strings.

** In the 52 arc, he lost his powers again for just about exactly one year. He ''did'' retire from crime fighting, but instead spent the time pulling off IntrepidReporter tricks that even gave ''Lois herself'' gray hairs.

** At the end of ''TheDeathOfSuperman'', when he '''really''' comes back, he has no powers, just his good ol' fists, and a bunch of automatic machineguns. He storms the Cyborg Superman's/Mongul's base just with that, keeping up with ''Steel'', a genius creator of some superweapons which had been being used by criminals, and who made himself a PowerSuit capable of keeping up with said superweapons. He does get his powers back at the end of the arc, of course ([[PowerIncontinence and more]]), but he '''was''' pretty badass in the meanwhile.