Line #29 AwesomeButImpractical/ComicBooks


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7	"A flashy feature that has limited usability for victory."
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10	* In ''ComicBook/Aquaman1986'', Bres's magic is noted in-story as being stylish and flashy over substance, and she's only an effective tyrant because the other, more skilled mages of the conclave obey her and combine their energy with hers.
11	* In an ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' comic story, one day an elf-like wizard appears out of nowhere and bestow on Archie a gift of "magic sneakers" that enable him to run at lightning speed (think The Flash). Yet none of Archie's friends are impressed; Jughead says that he'll just have to wait for everyone else to catch up when he gets to places first, and Betty scoffs at the whole thing, that one shouldn't be in such a rush all the time and stop to smell the roses. But Archie decides he really has no use for the sneakers when his chief love-interest, Veronica, refuses to go out with him because the speed would cause windburn and mess up her hairdo.
12	* As was the case in real life, most of the [[StupidJetpackHitler Nazi superweapons]] from ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' fall under this. Many devices were incredibly powerful or hard to take down, but there were just too many that were left half-finished due to poor allocation of resources. As Robo puts it:
13	-->'''Robo:''' That's fritz for you. Why build one superweapon when you could underfund a dozen of them?
14	* ''ComicBook/DarthVaderDarkLordOfTheSith'': The lightsaber rifle is a {{BFG}} that uses lightsabers as a power source. Unfortunately, the rifle can only be used a few times before the lightsaber is damaged beyond repair and needs to be replaced. The only known lightsaber rifle is the one Jocasta Nu used as a last resort.
15	* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
16	** ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}, commander of the seas, king of Atlantis. He can summon whales, sharks, and the like to save the day. The problem is that most of the crime he fights is on land, so his only useful power is SuperStrength. Is it any wonder why most fans of DC often [[ButtMonkey mock him]]? Credit where credit is due, just his RequiredSecondaryPowers such as super strength and toughness are actually a pretty impressive package, if a little on the [[BoringButPractical flipside of this trope]]. DependingOnTheWriter he also may have access to impressive Atlantean magic or technology. A lot of the mockery for Aquaman is really a result of holdovers from early superhero cartoons such as ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' where he was a lot closer to this trope, as his SuperStrength was essentially ignored, relegating him to the unenviable status of "the guy who talks to fish", and some [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman really contrived situations]] were required to make any use of him at all.
17	** ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
18	*** Of all of the Batsuits made, [[ComicBook/{{Azrael}} Jean-Paul Valley]]'s suit during ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'' fits this, especially the final variation. Massively flared out armored cape segments, built-in flamethrower, armor from head to toe. Can't fit through small spaces, easily ignite yourself from leaking gas and you gotta be superhumanly strong just to move around in that thing like you were Bruce Wayne himself.
19	*** Ironically, Jean-Paul would discover this with Batman's cape -- long and billowy, but it has way too much drag. Dick Grayson, during his second tenure as Batman, would complain about the cape as well as it got in the way of his more acrobatic style.
20	*** Batgirl's costume in ''ComicBook/Batgirl2011'' has a cap-like cowl that just slips over her head. Nice, simple... easy to lose when you dive into the water. Even worse, it's 3D-printed, which means it also suffers from the same things printers does.
21	*** A few of Batman's Batmobiles can be noted here as well. One of the Batmobiles he used when teaming up with ComicBook/JudgeDredd had its nose so tall that you couldn't even drive it realistically.
22	*** Interestingly averted in the lead-up to ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'' -- it's revealed that Wayne Enterprises' buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes up to 8.5 on the Richter Scale. When many of the board members complain about the costs, Lucius Fox promptly fires them.
23	*** The Venom Serum that Bane used back in his early days. It buffs the user up to insane levels (well beyond what a normal human can exert), making you freakishly strong and fast. However, it's also basically a steroid cranked up to extremes, with all the nasty side effects that implies. It's beyond addictive, has debilitating mental and physical effects (Bane was the first person to take it and ''not'' die a horrible death), and needs to be constantly pumped through your system, meaning if you get cut off from the source, you'll lose all that strength in a minute. Bane eventually realized that the benefits weren't worth the trade-off and weaned himself off of Venom before building up bulk the old-fashioned way. He's not quite as physically powerful as he was on Venom, but he's much more effective now that he doesn't have to struggle with the crippling side effects.
24	** In ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperheroes'', there's the Miracle Machine, a device that warps reality based on the user's thoughts. It shouldn't take much to explain why this thing's so powerful, but it also happens to be uncontrollable; ''any'' thought from the user sets it off. Unless you have spectacularly good focus and a clear head, you'd probably end up turning the entire planet into peanut brittle.
25	** ComicBook/{{Superman}} has the Super-Flare, a massive explosion which jettisons all the solar energy in his body in a concentrated blast within a quarter-mile, what renders it impractical however is its drawback of depowering Clark down to human levels of strength for 24 hours.
26	** In the first issue of ''ComicBook/WesleyDoddsTheSandman'', Dodds tries to sell his sleeping gas to the United States Army, figuring that they'd pay good money for a weapon that would cause fewer casualties on all sides. The Colonel flatly turns him down, pointing out that the logistics of detaining and transporting an entire battlefield's worth of enemy soldiers would be beyond what the army is willing to expend, and that it's so much easier to just kill the enemy.
27	* In ''ComicBook/GastonLagaffe'', Gaston create a self-propelled suitcase-on-wheels which actually works as designed, but consumes so much power that the suitcase is almost entirely filled with batteries, leaving just enough place for a toothpaste tube, a toothbrush and a soap.
28	* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' gives us the Stub Gun, potentially the most devastating [[{{BFG}} handheld weapon ever made]]. This laser rifle is capable of cutting through almost anything; concrete, armoured vehicles, you name it. However, it has a tendency to overheat and explode if used in any kind of sustained engagement; in an average firefight, this can potentially happen after only a few shots. During the Apocalypse War, it's still officially classified as "Lethal To User" and Dredd has to determine whether the awesome outweighs the impractical given the desperate situation the Big Meg's judges are in.
29	* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
30	** Adamantium. Sure, it's indestructible, but it's incredibly rare, prohibitively expensive, and almost impossible to work. You can't recycle it, either: Once it's been worked and set into a particular shape it can't be reworked. Oh, and it's highly toxic, too. The only reason ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} can even live with his indestructible skeleton is because of his HealingFactor, and the very presence of the adamantium in his body greatly impairs his ability to heal. Oh, and it's magnetic, so indestructible or not, it's pretty much worthless if you're up against someone like Magneto. The toxicity thing only gets applied to Wolverine, though, as several other characters have been laced with Adamantium without the benefit of an advanced healing factor (Bullseye, Hammerhead, Lady Deathstrike) with no ill effects. Occasionally handwaved by them taking medication to counter the poisoning -- and in Deathstrike's case, the fact that she's not only a cyborg but one [[{{Magitek}} created at least partially by magic]].
31	** With the Cosmic Cube, you can do almost anything as long as you are thinking about it. Want D.C. to be a lake of fire? It will be, until you fall asleep. Then everything's back to normal and the heroes are kicking your teeth down your throat. In fact, anything you allow yourself to think about will take on some degree of reality, and if you dream, that becomes real too. Even Doctor Doom couldn't handle it for very long. {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d by the Falcon at one point when he notes that the damn thing never works right and almost always backfires on whoever is trying to use it. He goes on to suggest that there may be some ''[[Literature/TheMonkeysPaw Monkey's Paw]]''-style [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor karma]] involved. DependingOnTheWriter, the suckers aren't actually that hard for alien civilizations to make. The Skrulls had one. Even us humans have made a couple. It's just a matter of learning the hard way that the little suckers are [[Film/ForbiddenPlanet id monster]] factories, and then you don't make them anymore.
32	** If ComicBook/AntMan[=/=]Giant-Man/Goliath is any example, turning yourself into a giant seems to be a rather impractical power for a hero. You never have enough room to move around, you're always in danger of breaking stuff or hurting someone by accident, and you're a target the size of a barn. Then again, if you're a villain who just wants to randomly smash stuff, it's pretty awesome. Emphasized even further in ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'', in which it's shown that the very act of getting his costume on (which unlike his 616 counterpart, does not shrink or enlarge itself to accommodate his changes in size and thus must be stored in a nearby warehouse when not in use) requires several hours of preparation. If he wants to use his powers as a spur of the moment action, he has to do it in his birthday suit.
33	** The Quinjets used by ComicBook/TheAvengers and ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} are probably some of the most advanced aircraft in the Marvel Universe, and are miles ahead of any aviation technology used in the real world. In the first issue of ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaSamWilson'', we find out that they're also insanely expensive to maintain and refuel, meaning that when the Avengers end up falling on hard times, they have to be very selective about using the Quinjet. That last little bit is shown in ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentAvengers'' when Iron Man decides using the Quinjet just to get to Atlantic City is a waste when 4/5ths of the team (him, Sam!Cap, Female Thor, Vision and Nova) can fly and he tells them to just carry their non-flyers (Miles Morales Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel).
34	** The ComicBook/IronFist ability, at least initially. It was too powerful to use on a standard {{mook\|s}}, as it would kill him, and left Danny weakened after using his chi. He's gotten better that it doesn't drain him like it used to.
35	** In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', the Leapfrog is an incredibly advanced vehicle with cloaking, lasers, holographic projections, and an overdrive slot that can turn it into a time machine. It's also an incredibly distinctive vehicle, very difficult to repair, doesn't move very fast, and its leaping motions can be jarring to anyone who isn't used to it. The team ends up ditching the original for a modified Volkswagon.
36	** Marvel's premier CloakAndDagger organization, ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}, prefers to operate out of a Helicarrier. It's an AirborneAircraftCarrier and is exactly as cool as it sounds. Unfortunately, it tends to crash. A lot. This typically causes about as much destruction as you'd expect from dropping something the size of an aircraft carrier from about a mile up, and usually has the inadvertent effect of releasing whatever superpowered psychopaths, alien viruses, etc. that happened to be locked up there at the time. Helicarriers fall victim to TheWorfEffect so often that in ''ComicBook/SecretAvengers'', it is shown that S.H.I.E.L.D. actually has a sign counting down the number of days since their last Helicarrier crash. Two out of three Helicarrier appearances in [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] films (''Film/{{The Avengers\|2012}}'' and ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'') feature them either crashing or very nearly doing so, [[spoiler:though in ''Winter Soldier'' the Helicarriers being shot down is actually a good thing]].
37	** The ''ComicBook/ShangChi'' supervillain Razorfist is a martial artist/assassin who's had both his forearms removed and replaced with blades. This helps make him incredibly skilled and deadly in combat, but also means that if something happens to the blades, he's helpless. He also needs personal servants to attend to basic hygiene and whenever he gets arrested, the blades are taken away and replaced with prosthetic hands to which he's never been able to adjust. The character is the page image for CripplingOverspecialization.
38	** At one time, ComicBook/SpiderMan wore a special Spider-Armor to battle the New Enforcers when he found himself overpowered. While it did protect him, it was too bulky, and it killed his legendary speed and agility. Later Spider-Armor were much more compact and allowed him to keep said speed and agility.
39	** ComicBook/TheUltimates for a while. A multi-billion-dollar super-squad just sitting around because they caught all the bad guys? Well, rescuing people from a fire is cool, but we got guys for that.
40	** More than one fan has pointed out that the Sentinels from ''ComicBook/XMen'' make absolutely no real sense: hideously expensive to build, maintain and operate, do millions of dollars in property damage when deployed, and any target worth sending them after will typically reduce them to scrap metal in short order. Impressive and intimidating, yes, but not very effective.
41	* In a short of ''Pif and Hercules'', Hercules shows his brand-new car to Pif. The car is large and very much like a house on four wheels. It has a: TV, a telephone, Hi-Fi, a library, beds, a refrigerator, etc. Impressed, Pif asks Hercules how's the car's performance doing. Hercules then say it can't roll because there wasn't any room left for the engine. [[FaceFault This causes Pif to fall down]].
42	* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
43	** Zigzagged with the combiners, [[FusionDance giant robots]] made from [[CombiningMecha a combination of regular Transformers]] (usually 5 or 6). The gestalt Transformers are always very strong and can make for dangerous opponents...but the gestalts often also become DumbMuscle, {{Mighty Glacier}}s or AxCrazy because of the problem of trying to combine the mentalities of the five or six component Transformers into one. Sometimes the different mentalities have difficulty agreeing on what to actually do as a single robot and are slow to act or are very limited in what they can do [[note]](e.g. the Constructicons and Aerialbots are both effective teams, but when combined into Devastator and Superion the only thing the disparate minds can agree on is "that's an enemy. Smash it.")[[/note]]. Sometimes the mentalities outright ''hate'' each other and the resulting combiner is more of a hindrance than a help to his faction (e.g., the Stunticon combiner Menasor). That said, there are Transformers are often able to cooperate by overcoming their hangups or because they all enjoy doing what they do. When that happens, the gestalts often give impressive results (e.g. the Seacons and Predacons have different personalities, but because they're all united in their love of the hunt their combined forms of Piranacon and Predaking are two of the most effective and dangerous combiners).
44	** One unusual example is the Technobot combiner Computron. The Technobots are all GeniusBruiser specialists in their various fields, and when combined Computron has access to all this combined knowledge. Unfortunately, before he can take any course of action, he needs to get input from each member first. His bio points out that this means that whatever course of action he takes is absolutely the correct one... but the delay in coming to the conclusion means that it's normally much too late. In one instance, he calculated the optimum movements required to defeat his rival combiner Abominus. As he came to that conclusion, Abominus had simply walked up to him and punched his lights out.
45	** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers'' has the cerebro-centric bullets Ironfist makes. They're bullets with a small onboard computer that allows them to specifically target an enemy's head. The result is a OneHitKill weapon that automatically headshots targets. This is decidedly awesome in theory, but it prevents the person using them from ''wounding'' a target rather than killing, making them useless for anything other than battles against overwhelming forces and sniping. Further, the 100% kill rate led to the use of them being declared a war crime and the manufacturing process is complex enough that they probably aren't easy to mass produce; why waste time and money on such a complicated and limited bullet system when you can just use normal bullets that are cheaper and have a far wider range of uses?
46	** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'':
47	*** Mnemosurgery is essentially a form of MentalFusion that lets the mnemosurgeon read and alter the memories of others. This is incredibly useful for interrogation, psychological warfare, and autopsy. Problem is, it's also insanely dangerous; one or two slip-ups can result in the surgeon frying their nervous system and surgeons sometimes "inherit" memories from their patients or autopsies, which manifests as severe PTSD and nightmares. The process is also addictive for the surgeons, meaning it's extremely difficult for them to stop performing. For these reasons, [[HighTurnoverRate most mnemosurgeons die young]], and its usage for anything other than autopsies is banned by intergalactic law, being considered a war crime.
48	*** The P-6 Worldsweeper starships. They're massive, powerful, and seriously cool-looking ships designed in the shape of the Decepticon symbol, giving them a symbolic factor. However, they're also pretty prone to crashing or being shot down, as that symbolic design makes them really hard to maneuver properly in combat and isn't very aerodynamic. Keep in mind that these things were supposed to protect Decepticon colony worlds singlehanded. They were so useless that Decepticon high command eventually decommissioned them, bringing the grand Decepticon imperial era to a whimpering end.
49	*** Another Decepticon idea that was more cool than useful were the Phase Sixers. SuperSoldiers who have had their armature and form enhanced in nearly every way, effectively turning them into living weapons capable of taking on entire battalions single-handed. Unfortunately, the element needed to turn a Cybertronian into one, ununtrium, is so incredibly rare that only about six were made before it was all used up. Even if it wasn't, only Cybertronians with extremely powerful bodies and sparks can survive the process, limiting possible recruits. These Cybertronians also tended to be very rebellious and hard to discipline due to their extreme power leaving them with next-to-no fear; by the time of the story, all three of the known Phase Sixers have betrayed the Decepticons at some point and needed to be dealt with (Black Shadow started getting paid on the side, Sixshot briefly joined a group of {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s, Overlord went solo to try to kill Megatron). Their role could have easily been better served by heavy artillery and the like, ultimately making them a needless splurge.
50	*** Really, the Decepticons were prone to this in general during the Great War. Skullcruncher argues that it's why they lost; there was so much focus on making big scary things that could kill lots of enemies and decisively beat the Autobots, that nobody was making sure that all those cool weapons and ideas actually ''worked'' or were applied well. The Surge that almost ended in total Decepticon victory, for example, was brought about by the much more mundane cracking of Autobot security codes (thanks to information provided by an Autobot traitor), which meant that the Decepticons were able to achieve almost total surprise when they launched their grand simultaneous advance.
51	* This is a major part of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'''s {{deconstruction}}.
52	** Yeah, the superheroes are skilled, flashy, and can round up criminals like nobody's business... but you don't need a superhero to do that, and beating up muggers one by one is a massive squandering of the talent, money, and effort needed to become a superhero in the first place. By the time the story starts, most of them have quit the crimefighting business to either live out retirement or channel their talents into more effective areas -- the SuperSoldier is now a covert agent, the GeniusBruiser is focusing on his corporation, and the PhysicalGod is putting his reality-breaking powers to scientific use.
53	** Supervillains are also alluded to be this, with Hollis Mason noting in his autobiography that after a while, the majority of costumed villains either gave up or turned to more mundane crimes apparently because it was more profitable and effective than elaborate, flamboyant supervillain schemes. The ones who didn't just ended up in jail where, unlike typical superhero universes, they ''didn't'' [[CardboardPrison routinely escape from]].
54	** The superhero Dollar Bill was shot to death by common crooks when his corporate-mandated cool-looking cape [[CapeSnag got caught in a bank's revolving door]].
55	** Nite Owl II is the embodiment of this trope, spending millions on awesome but impractical hardware. The most awesomely impractical invention was his exoskeleton, which did grant him super-strength but also broke his arms the first time he used it. His famous quote:
56	--->''"Who needs all this hardware to catch hookers and purse-snatchers?"''
57	* PlayedForLaughs in ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}''; Jeremy's friend Pierce got his feet tattooed to look like sneakers, so that he can [[PrefersGoingBarefoot go to school barefoot]] without the teachers noticing. Jeremy replies that it's 40 degrees and raining outside.
58	-->'''Pierce:''' I didn't say it was practical...
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60	* ''Media/XsOmnibus'': X's Radiant Destruction ability can erase any matter in an unthinkably straight line for any infinite distance there is with little cooldown, which seems pretty overpowered, but X's slow reaction time outside of his powers and the fact that dodging attacks is a thing makes it less useful than one might think. Despite its infinite projectile speed, if an enemy sees Radiant Destruction about to occur, they can jump out of the way at the last second easily before the ability's pellet is fired at all.

Context AwesomeButImpractical / ComicBooks