History Main / ReedRichardsIsUseless

** Yet another example of Reed Richards NOT being useless is the fact that he endows a bankrupt Reed Richards with the $600,000 needed to start the previously mentioned company.

* Naturally, all of Marvel's brains turn up useless if the plotline calls for it. In ''OneMoreDay'', none of Marvel's brains were able to prevent Aunt May's death (or remember the things which have healed much worse injuries). Including Comicbook/DoctorStrange, who (in addition being Sorcerer Supreme), was a ''neurosurgeon.'' Enter [[DealWithTheDevil Mephisto.]] And at the end of JossWhedon's run on ''[[ComicBook/{{X-Men}} Astonishing X-Men]]'', Cyclops said that he had contacted Reed, Hank Pym and the other brain trust members, who were unable to rescue Kitty from the giant bullet. In both cases, the writer wanted to set up a specific plot resolution which wouldn't have been possible if Reed Richards (and the other brains) weren't useless.

* Usually played straight in ''AstroCity'', as the author believes that it's important that the stories take place in our world, but the superhero Samaritan was able to stop the Challenger disaster, and there's a story dealing with a lawyer who attempts to defend his client in a mundane case by citing superhuman events - he argues that yes, forty witnesses say that they saw his client commit the murder, but there was once a bank robbery seemingly committed by celebrities who turned out to be shapeshifters, the superheroes First Family were suspected of selling defense secrets, but it was their Alternate Universe counterparts, etc. It ends up actually getting his client off the hook.

* Justfied in ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'', where futuristic giant robots exist but most civilian technology isn't terribly more advanced than what we have in the real world. It's noted that the Evangelions are so expensive to produce that some countries can barely feed their citizens, much less create innovative new technologies.

* The ''{{Tortall|Universe}}'' series, where it is noted that, should Numair want to put out a candle, he would have to do so with his fingers or a snuffer because using his Gift would cause it to explode, making his range of use slightly limited.

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* A side-story of ''Webcomic/PS238'' explores the logical extension of this trope, with NASA outsourcing the design of their new space rocket to Herschel Clay, a metahuman GadgeteerGenius with a love of tinkering. Problem is, by the time their own engineers have had a chance to try to comprehend his designs Clay has already found a way to improve it. In other words, they get a new design in the mail that becomes obsolete by the time they're ready to take that one off the drawing board, and so on: They simply can't keep up with his constant improvements.
** PS238 also averts this trope with the Rainmaker Project, a section of the school where students with powers that don't lend themselves well to combat are trained on how to use them in civilian life, like a kid with the ability to turn anything into food was trained to turn things like rocks into nutritious but low calorie diet foods that tasted like high quality chocolate. It's also shown that many superhumans use their powers in a variety of ways for the civilian sector; the previously mentioned Herschel, for example, has his own company that apparently produces a large number of superscience inventions for everyday life.

* In sadly missing HarryPotter fanfic "Disillusion, by Hermione Granger", Hermione tells, in an essay format, how Harry, after being artificially grown older to kill Voldemort when he is six years old, decides to, essentially, "give magic to {{Muggles}}" by developing feasible {{Magitek}} and discovering the physics behind magic, while selling technology in the magical world. This causes job losses, riots, deaths, and could have easily started a war if it weren't for the very hard work of many people.

*** This one is at least partly justified. Memories can be altered by the person who has it, and we only see a person take out their own memories, never forcibly taken from them.

** This [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/30/worst-comics-2010-superman-grounded/ review]] of the ''Grounded'' story arc makes a good case [[TropesAreNotBad why this trope exists in the first place]]. ''This is the problem with trying to tackle "real world" problems in a "serious" way with a character like Superman. He's basically God. He can walk into a neighborhood full of drug dealers and just magically destroy all their drugs and drive them off. In order to explain why he doesn't just do this all the time, or any number of other things that he could do with minimal effort that would drastically change the lives of every single person in the country, if not the world, writers like Straczynski resort to utter inanity. "Over there has to stand for itself, has to speak for itself, because it's only when over there becomes here that we can stop this once and for all." Read that sentence again. It means [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords nothing]].''

* This trope was used to justify Barbara "Batgirl/Oracle" Gordon remaining wheelchair-bound despite the ready availability of possible cures in TheDCU: she doesn't want to receive special treatment and therefore dishonor public servants who were disabled in the line of duty; either a cure becomes available for everyone, or she stays in the chair. Of course, that raises the question of why can't the numerous DC Universe cures be made available to the public. The reboot has changed this (see below)

** In a 1982 issue of ''Comicbook/SwampThing'', ThePhantomStranger makes opposing sides' ammo wet and unusable. The solution? Bludgeon each other with the guns, of course.

* The beginning of the animated movie ''SupermanDoomsday'' lampshades this, as it shows Supes unsuccessfully trying to cure cancer; he comments how odd it is that, even with all of Kryptonian technology at his disposal and all of the unbelievable things he's done, he's never been able to help Earth beyond "being its resident strong man". Of course, his immediate reaction to every threat the movie throws at him after that is "hit it with my fists until it stops moving", so maybe that's his own fault. Contrast with LexLuthor in the film, who is shown having completed a one-dose cure for any type of disease... then starts working on a way to make it a life-long treatment for a specific disease so he can get more money for each dose.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' has the seemingly retired, former Blue Beetle convincing the current Blue Beetle to help put the alien technology that gives him his powers to greater use via a fleet of perpetual-energy machines and robots that'll irrigate the Sahara, end world hunger and turn the world into a paradise. Of course it doesn't work out that way, but neither Batman nor the Blue Beetle stops to wonder if such a plan really wouldn't be better than just using it to beat up crooks. [[spoiler:Note that the former Blue Beetle was actually dead, this guy was an impostor, and he planned to use the robots to conquer the world.]]

*** A flashback in issue 244 shows that when he first returned to America after building his original armor, Stark planned to market his new invention, and even held a public demonstration, only for some thugs to break in backstage and try to steal the armor. It was enough to convince him not to go forward. Then came the Armor Wars, when Tony [[{{Understatement}} reacted rather badly]] to the discovery that armored villains were using his stolen tech...
*** In Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca's run of Invincible Iron Man, Stark dissolved Stark Industries and instead formed Stark Resilient (later just Resilient), a company dedicated to making consumer-grade repulsor technology to power everything from mobile phones to toasters to clean electric cars, thus making this something of an inversion of the trope. This is, of course, ignoring the events of shortly after Siege where he rebuilds Broxton as a super-futuristic wonder city. Also an inversion.

* Both used and averted in ''TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'': by 1958, Earth has been invaded by Martians, there was a huge scale Air-War in Europe prior to World War I, and Britain was controlled by [=IngSoc=] from 1945 through 1953, yet absolutely none of this has had any effect on the Cold War, World War II, or, in fact, anything regarding the general course of history. Of course, this is what happens when you combine all of fiction into one universe.
* In ''TheBoys'' the superheroes, for the most part, really are useless. When The Seven try to avert the comics' version of 9/11, they fuck it up catastrophically [[spoiler: with the Brooklyn Bridge being destroyed instead of the south World Trade Tower]]. The message, of course, being that the military and other trained rescue organisations are the real heroes [[spoiler: who in The Boys, the US military had shot down the airplanes heading for the Pentagon and North World Trade Center Tower, thus reducing the 9/11 death toll from over 3000 to around 1000]].

* Gyro Gearloose from the ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse. Over the course of time, [[DependingOnTheWriter the many different writers]] did let him invent just about ''anything'', from simple mechanical contraptions which could theoretically also work in RealLife, to [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness ultra-soft science fiction stuff]] like e.g. {{Time Machine}}s. In spite of all this, Duckburg does always stay at the contemporary tech level. Same thing applies to his ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse {{Expy}}, Doc Static.
* In ''Sultry Teenage Super-Foxes'', the US military develops an "alchemy ray", which they test by turning dog poop into gold...and then the head scientist remarks that it's considered "too theoretical" for them to get more funding. [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] flips out at this, pointing out that such a device is '''infinitely''' useful since it could be used to safely dispose of nuclear waste (among other uses). Of course, the machine is destroyed in the accident that creates the titular heroes, rendering the whole debate moot.
* Interestingly averted with DonaldDuck and Scrooge [=McDuck=], whose discoveries were later discovered in the real world. Donald Duck discovered a carbene called methylene (along with a particular reaction it caused) 20 years before scientists in the real world did. Scrooge [=McDuck=] also created a method of retrieving sunken ships that was later duplicated in the real world. Furthermore, Scrooge [=McDuck=] served as a major inspiration for Osamu Tekuza's (father of anime and manga) art style. [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19021_5-amazing-things-invented-by-donald-duck-seriously.html Heck, see this article.]]

* Averted to hell and back in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. The technological developments enabled by [[PhysicalGod Dr. Manhattan]] and refined by Adrian "Smartest Man in the World" Veidt (formerly the superhero Ozymandias) have irrevocably changed the course of their world's history for the better (including things like electric cars in ''1985''). [[spoiler:Veidt's grasp of genetic engineering even manages to- as far as we can see- eliminate the threat nuclear war, albeit at [[NecessarilyEvil a terrible cost]].]]

* Discussed in the ''IronMan'' [[Film/IronMan movie]]. Tony Stark's power cell is stated as being able to generate 3 gigajoules per second of energy -- which is, of course, 3 gigawatts of power generation. This is about as much power as produced by the largest man-made nuclear reactor and about 15 times the power of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier (and two and a half times the power required to [[Film/BackToTheFuture travel through time]]). The movie makes it clear that the Arc Reactor is incredibly valuable, and Obidiah Stane wants to use it for profit, but Tony is adamant that the technology stays in his hands and ''his alone'', because he's seen what happens when his technology ends up in unsupervised hands.

* In ''BruceAlmighty'', not only is Bruce [[TooDumbToLive incredibly stupid]] but he seems to have no desire to use God's power to make this a better world. His only attempt at this really involved more of "how can I get people to quit bothering me" and even that was [[IdiotBall handled so stupidly]] it defies belief. However, the whole ''point'' of the movie is that Bruce is essentially not cut out to be God in the first place.
** A deleted scene would have justified this somewhat, with God showing Bruce the results of his reckless "grant everyone's prayers" policy. Some of the people Bruce "helped" would have been better off without it. For example, he made one kid who was bullied grow bigger, but had he remained small he would have grown up and used his experiences to become a poet whose work would inspire millions. Of course, this just kind of makes God look like a {{jerkass}}, since he gave Bruce the power to answer prayers, but not the omniscience to know the consequences. So maybe the film was better off without this.

* In ''Film/StarTrek'', Scotty (with a little help from the future) quickly modifies a transporter so it can send people across vast interstellar distances. This is used, of course, to get Scotty and Kirk onto the Enterprise (which has been travelling away from their starting point for hours at [[FasterThanLightTravel high warp speeds]]). So the transporter modification is used to resolve a dramatic point in the plot, but no-one seems to realise it could also be used for [[CasualInterstellarTravel mundane travel between star systems]]. Of course, the transport doesn't have the necessary accuracy yet; it nearly got Scotty killed when they used it, and is presumably being studied by Starfleet's "[[IndianaJones top...men]]".

* ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'': Willy Wonka can make an entire meal come out of gum, an ice cream that stays cold and doesn't melt in the sun, build a chocolate palace without a metal framework, teleport things into TV screens, and has anti-gravity technology - yet he only applies his know-how to candy. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Mike Teavee in the 2005 movie: "Don't you realize what you've invented? It's a teleporter! It's the most important invention in the world! And all you think about is ''chocolate''!"

* ''GoodWillHunting'' has a variation at the level of an individual life. The titular character (played by Matt Damon) is a mathematical genius who would rather remain a janitor and frequently gets into trouble with the law. One college professor makes a deal with the judge that if Will can make use of his mathematical talents, and stay out of further legal trouble, then Will can stay out of prison. At the end of the movie, [[spoiler: Will turns down job offers from numerous universities, and even the National Security Administration, to pursue his LoveInterest. Presumably he'll have to go back to dead-end menial jobs.]]

* In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' novels, the Ministry of Magic keeps the existence of wizards secret from {{Muggles}} because, as Hagrid puts it, "They might want magical solutions to their problems." It never seems to occur to any wizard to ask, "Well, why not?" In the Muggle world, wizards could become simply one more category of useful, respected, highly-paid professionals... Of course, it could go horribly wrong. The prejudice against so-called "witches" is implied but never reinforced by anything worse than domestic abuse the protagonist suffers from his relatives.

* In ''[[Literature/NightWatch The Watch]]'' books, the Others do interfere with human affairs, but an elaborate system of mutual sanctions makes sure that interference isn't overt. The sanctions were set up to preserve the Balance, which, in turn, was established because open warfare between the Light Others and Dark Others left catastrophic casualties on both sides (not to mention untold collateral damage). Of course, this doesn't stop each side from trying to find an advantage that would allow them to win without triggering MutuallyAssuredDestruction.

* The main character of ''TheWitchesOfBailiwick'' controls weather, noted as a perfect example of ReedRichardsIsUseless at the top of this page. Even stranger, the protagonist's weather control ability is ''always'' treated as mundane and relatively useless.

** In ''JurassicPark'', In-Gen has perfected ancient DNA extraction and cloning technology enough to resurrect species that have been extinct for dozens of millions of years. All they want to do with it is a zoo/theme park hybrid with living dinosaurs, and little is said about actual scienstific study done with the animals. Some characters do point out that they can't be sure that these animals are correct recreations of the dinosaurs of old, and it is explicitely stated that 1) the dinosaurs have behavioral problems derived from being brought into a world where they don't have parental guidance (and humans have no way of replicating or suplanting it) and there is not an ecosystem they can be successfully introduced to since many other organisms their specieses evolved with are not available and 2) escaped dinosaurs might become invasive species in modern ecosystems that aren't prepared to regulate their numbers. Of course, none of these problems would exist if In-Gen just plain forgot about the dinosaurs and directed their efforts into resurrecting species that have been driven to extinction in recent times, whose original ecosystems continue to exist, just with their place in them currently vacant, and that could be raised in captivity by similar living species; not to mention that by being much more recent there would be more uncorrupted genetic material available and they could be cloned more easily and successfully. The first novel goes as far as saying that In-Gen's first success was cloning a quagga in the early 80s, but we never get word that quaggas were returned to the wild in their native South Africa.

* The StargateVerse is full of this. While the series begins with 1995 people using 1995 technology, and the SGC really hadn't managed to collect much alien tech (let alone understand it), the end of the series has them in the possession of the full library of knowledge of two distinct intergalactic cultures, one of whom left ''detailed replication instructions for everything'', not to mention a bunch of alien allies and enough offworld colonies to solve pretty much every population problem (living space, famine, etc.) on Earth five times over. Getting public support would probably allow Earth to expand across the entire galaxy in the span of a few decades. While the later episodes indicate some of this tech is beginning to filter down (a prototype energy weapon, medical nanites in development, etc.), for the most part the government is unwilling to break the ruse since other groups consistently misuse the technology. It also helps that they're constantly in the middle of secret wars and probably don't want to reveal themselves at a "low point".

*** In early Season 1, NASA saved SG-1 and Bratac in the shuttle ''Atlantis'', which seems to be the SGC's in-orbit rescue craft in the pre-''Prometheus'' era. It's heavily implied that NASA scientists are the "civilian" scientists around the SGC and Area 51 R&D departments, astronauts are probably the EVA technicians on the ''Daedalus''-class cruisers, and NASA is known to be involved in the construction of F-302s and ''Daedalus''-class starships. Luckily, NASA's current goals relating to the study of the Solar system aren't really in Homeworld Security's jurisdiction, so they do launch all those shuttles and probes to do research because the SG-teams are dealing with diplomatic problems in 2 galaxies and the occasional rogue asteroid. So, in short, NASA gets a good deal, doing all the research and advanced tech without paying for it. Of course getting transferred from the SGC to NASA in Houston is considered a bad thing for obvious reasons.

* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', the HealingFactor is so powerful and so intrinsic to an individual's cells that a single blood transfusion is shown to be able to cure a ''bullet wound to the head''. There are currently three main characters possessing this power (although admittedly one of them is a sociopath), yet neither them nor anyone else has even considered that they could literally save thousands of lives ''every single day'' with nothing more than a needle, a tube, and a constant supply of plastic bags.

** In literally dozens of episodes over the course of the many series, there have been face-to-face hostage situations with the good guys carrying sidearms that will [[StunGuns safely and (mostly) reliably (almost) instantly render unconscious any number of targets]]. Yet the option of simply hosing down the entire situation, victim and aggressor together, and sorting it out when everything's safe isn't even discussed. ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' thankfully averted this by having Reed just shoot T'Pol and the guy holding her hostage in one episode.
*** Phaser technology regresses considerably over the course of the various ''Star Trek'' series. In the original series it was shown that a handheld phaser could be used to flood an entire room with a stun field. The ship could even stun an entire city block from orbit. In later series the phasers gradually seemed to first become limited to absolutely specific narrow beams that had to hit individual targets, and then further on large phaser rifles appeared to be only capable of firing little bursts of energy. They only seem to remember wide beams when they want to tunnel through rock.

** Geordi [=LaForge=]'s visor: Geordi claimed to have been blind since birth and everything including cloned implants has been a failure. He also claims that the VISOR causes intense pain but he will not take drugs to dull the pain because "It would affect how these work". However, the ''Star Trek'' Universe has proven able to cure just about every current illness, let alone alien diseases. This includes genetically correcting deformities prior to birth. This anomaly, of course, is retained so that Geordi can act as a role model for the physically challenged. Geordi did eventually get some nice robot eyes in the movies, though.

** In the much reviled ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' "Threshold", Tom Paris successfully creates a way to make vehicles reach Warp 10 which is explicitly described as ''infinite speed''. It is then completely scrapped because it causes the unfortunate effect of [[ItMakesAsMuchSenseInContext turning people into salamanders]]. No one points out the logical alternative of ''slowing down the vehicle'' before it reaches Warp 10, travel at the necessary speed to get back to the Alpha Quadrant and revolutionize galactic travel. And even if the salamander thing still maintains, they managed to successfully reverse it with no adverse effects!

** ''Aberrant'''s Player's Guide provides options for keeping "super-science" from changing things excessively; basically, provides those running games the means to enforce this trope as they see fit.

*** Averted with the Tau, who do innovate and have managed to get several worlds to peacefully join their empire/alliance by showing them all the benefits their more advanced technology would bring. Of course, the only reason they can innovate is because they are immune to demonic corruption.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'', Aperture Science developed several technologies that, with proper application, would have revolutionized the world. Just one, the portal gun, could have, in an instant, solved nearly every transportation and logistical problem on the planet, enabled CasualInterstellarTravel, and incidentally made the company trillions. They also developed BrainUploading, [[AIIsACrapshoot true AI]], HardLight, some really amazing hardware to prevent [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou injury from falling]], and a variety of other things. The only justification for why they did all this and still went bankrupt is that they were so into testing all their MadScience inventions that they utterly failed to market them properly -- or marketed them for entirely the wrong things. It also doesn't help that they ignored even the most basic of safety standards, to the point where their facilities would have given [[NoOSHACompliance OSHA inspectors]] a heart attack. And then, of course, they were all [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters killed by the AI]] that they put in charge of the facility, which happened around the same time as the [[HalfLife Combine invasion of Earth]].

* Justified in the WhateleyUniverse, where there are two types of inventor mutants. The first are Devisors, who warp reality slightly to allow for physically impossible inventions, which can then never be reproduced by anyone else (or sometimes even by them) and often don't even work for other people in the case of extremely impossible stuff. Some of them sell their tech, but since only a single person can produce it, it's generally extremely expensive and supply is very limited. The second are Gadgeteers, who have a variant of psionics that allow them to intuitively understand how to make things, but can't do anything that's literally impossible. Some of them have changed the world, but apparently being good at engineering leads to being incompetent at interpersonal relations, resulting in most of them getting ripped off by the companies they sell their inventions to and either not having the resources to do any inventing, being suppressed by people who don't want the world to change because a lack of that particular technology is profitable to them, or turning evil to get back at society.

** Of course, it was gloriously subverted when Dr. Blight managed to [[FreakyFridayFlip switch bodies with Gaia]]. While Dr. Blight began causing ecological disasters [[ForTheEvulz for shits and giggles]], Gaia fought back by using Dr. Blight's inventions to reverse the damage the not-so-good Doctor was causing (which had the added bonus of teaching Gaia AnAesop about how technology can be used for good in the right hands). Needless to say, Blight was not amused. Sadly, [[PlotTechnology Blight presumably got a hold of her technology by the next ep and Gaia didn't copy any details of her invention to help clean up any future oil spills]].

** The show's creators have stated that this is part of the central premise of "failure" that permeates [[CrapsackWorld the Ventures' world]]. Everything exists in a sort of "death of the jet-age" state where all the promises of technology have failed to deliver. Things like jet-packs, laser weapons, sentient AI, and even magic all exist, but have proven to be too expensive, impractical, or dangerous to ever see general use. So the world mostly resembles our own, except you have all these obsessive weirdos around who use this stuff for crime or crime fighting, and it never sees wider applications.

** Unlike Timmy, Chester tries doing this after he's granted Norm, the temporary ex-genie, as his fairy godparent. Of course having a JackassGenie as a fairy godparent predictably doesn't turn out well for him. When he wishes the deserts would have enough water for everyone to drink or make the ice-caps warmer to make the penguins less chilly, he ends up flooding the deserts and [[strike:creating boiling pools of water]] ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero causing global warming]]''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'', an item said to possess infinite power, and could solve pretty much any energy related problem, is used to power a time machine. So yeah.
** To be fair, [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong that could be an excellent use of the power source.]] [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast Or]] [[HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct not.]] [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight Depends on who got it.]]

* In ''ArchiesWeirdMysteries'', Dilton invents some rather...advanced things. Why the heck he's still in a public school is ''beyond'' anyone's guess.

* There's a commercial where a couple train their son to be able to dunk a basketball, in order to obtain scholarships later. The kid looks to be about five or six. The implication is that they trained the kid personally, not hired someone, in which case thousands of parents would give their eyeteeth to give ''their'' kid that kind of skill. If this ever occurs to the couple or gets out, they're likely set for life. If someone else did it, that person should be set for life. Heck, they might be able to revolutionize teen and adult training, fitness, and physical therapy.

* ''GoodWillHunting'' has a variation at the level of an individual life. The titular character (played by Matt Damon) is a mathematical genius who would rather remain a janitor and frequently gets into trouble with the law. One college professor makes a deal with the judge that if Will can make use of his mathematical talents, and stay out of further legal trouble, then Will can stay out of prison. At the end of the movie, [[spoiler: Will turns down job offers from numerous universities, and even the National Security Administration, to pursue his LiveInterest. Presumably he'll have to go back to dead-end menial jobs.]]

* To name just a few of a hundred examples from ''{{The 4400}}'':

[[PowerOfTheStorm A person who controls weather]] will never make it rain in drought-stricken areas, or stop the rain during terrible flooding, or stop a heatwave. A person who can control fire will never douse bush fires or burning buildings, or [[TheseLookLikeJobsForTheSuperman get a job at a power station.]] And a supergenius (such as [[TropeNamer Reed Richards]] of the Comicbook/FantasticFour) can save the life of starving demi-god being like {{Galactus}}, but will never take a weekend to duplicate and market DoctorDoom's burn-victim cure device (or even five minutes to find out [[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1044/what-causes-piss-shiver what causes piss shivers]]), or release his inventions that could solve a variety of real-world problems. All potential solutions to real-life problems will only be done in novel (fictional) situations -- useless. StatusQuoIsGod, and the status quo of the real world even more so. It's the same reason [[HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct you can't stop Hitler from starting World War II]].

** In ''{{Timeline}}'', a corporation has invented both time travel (which, unlike in TheMovieOfTheBook, can take you to any place and any time, not just to HundredYearsWar France) and a small, easily concealed universal translator headpiece. Their plan is to study life in past times and sell the information to theme parks trying to recreate them.

** Screw the production aspect, he has all year and armies of slave elves doing the "making". In order to deliver gifts all over the world in one night, he's obviously mastered either teleportation or time-travel. Or maybe the rumors of massive Santa-clone armies is true...

** A famous BronzeAge story by ElliotSMaggin, "Must There Be A Superman?" involves the [[GreenLantern Guardians of the Universe]] subtly hinting to Superman that there is a real danger of his doing too ''much'' for humanity, and stunting our society by making us too dependent on him; he sees the wisdom of it and reluctantly takes their advice to heart. The theme is revisted a few years later in the MarvWolfman story "Superman's Day Of Destiny," when [[{{Comicbook/Sandman}} Destiny]][[hottip:* :Yep, Destiny was a BronzeAge character long before he appeared in ''[[{{Comicbook/Sandman}} Sandman]] himself shows up to reiterate the point.

* With the new Spider-Man (Dr. Octopus/Peter Parker), one of the co-workers at Horizon labs, one of Spidey's co-workers is concerned about all the time being spent on developing new weapons. Spidey provides a list of all the revolutionary civilian applications his weapons offer, leaving the co-worker established.

* ComicBook/{{Superman}} in general has often wrestled with the fact that he can't use his superpowers to simply force away wide-ranged problems plaguing humanity. Attempts to bring about world peace by disposing of nuclear weapons didn't fare too well in ''SupermanIV'' or the premiere of ''JusticeLeague''. His attempt to cure starvation in third-world countries is detailed in the graphic novel "Peace On Earth". This results in AnAesop being that these are things that will only be solved when all of humanity chooses to solve them. There are often short-lived AlternateUniverse depictions of him going too far in forcing humanity to follow his ideals to solve these problems, thus becoming a KnightTemplar.