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What Kind Of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway
And Meltman! With the power to (Dramatic Pause)... MELT.
—Action League NOW!

"How come I couldn't get a cool power like Super Strength or laser vision?"
—Richie, Static Shock

""Theres a turtle who turns into flowers! I mean it, he turns into flowers! What kind of a power is that?! Look out for the turtle, he's gonna make the room smell like petunias! Watch out! He might whisk his way into an air freshener commercial!""
— Chester A. Bum's Review of Kung Fu Panda

This refers to a special ability of someone on a team such as a Five Man Band who is so specialized as to seem useless in most situations.

Good writers can make this work for a character. Typical devices are to "evolve" potentially unwanted or useless powers or to have the character suddenly transform into an insanely powerful being or gain new, better powers. There are decades of examples of this from comics.

Sometimes the character will uncover a devastating new use for his power and become the dreaded Lethal Joke Character. Sometimes there's a trade off; for instance, powerful beings tend to look freaky, while those with more subtle powers look normal and are better able to deal with mundane society. The easiest device is to just crank out a good old Eigen Plot, so that the character can make his seemingly useless superpower seem useful.

Often does not apply if said character is The Captain. Superpowers would be just a tiny bonus to his real ability - leadership. The Captain tends to be specifically written to have no superpowers, in fact. This also applies to The Smart Guy and the Badass Normal.

Named for an Internet meme, itself referring to Ma-Ti's ring power in Captain Planet And The Planeteers. While the other team members could control the raw elements with visually impressive feats, he was just Dr. Dolittle with a Spider Sense. No doubt it was useful — his telepathy bailed them out a lot, as did the ability to get nearby animals to help, and it seemed to ward off the Idiot Ball — but it lacked the total elemental "badass" quality of the others. Then there was the fact that their most Hard-Ass bad guy was invulnerable to its powers because "you have no heart!" Ironically, since his power involved a form of limited mind-control, he probably could have been the most devastatingly powerful of all the Planeteers if he weren't a pacifist. Plus it's hard to have dramatic tension when the hero can just command the bad guys to shoot themselves in the head (but not impossible).

Often the result of overdoing Cast Speciation. Easier to take in a Heroes Unlimited series, where not every character has to be in every episode.

For Video Games, compare Spoony Bard and Powerup Letdown. Compare Blessed With Suck, Joke Character, and I Believe I Can Fly, and contrast Superpower Lottery. If they won the Superpower Lottery and still have one of these powers, it's Flight Strength Heart. When (or if) it evolves into something overtly powerful, that's a Magikarp Power.
Examples:

Western Animation
  • The much-maligned Aquaman from Superfriends, who often needed episodes specifically written to utilize his powers without the audience wondering why another character couldn't handle the situation just fine. A mantra of sorts that people use to describe Aquaman's powers is "Swim fast, talk to fish". As lame as his powers were, Aquaman's arch-nemesis on Superfriends, The Black Manta, was even lamer. As Seanbaby's article on The Superfriends pointed out, his main power was that he owned a boat. When you put them on a team with Green Lantern and Superman, everyone looks pretty lame. Aquaman was just worse than the rest.
    • A Cartoon Network parody promo starts with Wonder Woman and Aquaman tied up in the villain's lair. He tells Wonder Woman that his ability to talk to fish is of no help to them, to which Wonder Woman merely rolls her eyes. Don't worry, The Powerpuff Girls save them.
    • The comics version of Aquaman is significantly less of a wimp, with Super Strength about on par with Wonder Woman and Psychic Powers that go beyond talking to fish. This was explained by noting that his body had to adjust to vastly greater pressures underwater than those that existed on dry land, giving him great strength, and the same considerations gave him superior agility, from having to learn how to move around easily in the water. That said, the original creator of the Justice League Of America noted that, if there'd been another "big hero" around to add instead of Aquaman, he would've used them.
    • Grant Morrison lampshades and subverts this within the first four issues of JLA. Issue four has Aquaman called on his lack of powers relative to the other Leaguers, and he responds by giving the baddie a seizure.
    • The DCAU uses this version of Aquaman, who ends up a significantly bigger Bad Ass than many other characters in the Justice League. They also do this with their replacement for Black Manta, Devil Ray, who has Powered Armor which gives him enhanced strength and a bunch of guns. Then he gets shot in his second appearance. It's quite hard not to be a badass when your "communicate with sea life" power extends to sharks, giant squids and other sea-based monsters. Who wants to mock the guy that can call in favors from Godzilla?
    • The episode "Justice" on Smallville has the newly-formed and not-yet-named Justice League attacking a Luthor-controlled base where Impulse is being held. Not only does Aquaman express joy and surprise that the base turns out to be near the docks, but later on, it turns out the facility has an underwater access hatch that seems to exist just to give Aquaman a use in the mission.
    • Parodied in The Fairly Oddparents: a team of superheroes includes "Wet Willie", whose powers over water are absolutely useless when the team is called to a landlocked area. Nevertheless, he manages to bring his fish buddies anyway.
    • The Ookla the Mok song "Arthur Curry" is an entire song from the point of Aquaman bemoaning this.
    • Similarly, the Tripod song "Aquaman" expresses sympathy towards the poor hero. "Aquaman, you were last in line for superpowers..."
    • In fact, this editor finds Aquaman is nearly as famous as the big-name superheroes(Superman, Batman, Spiderman..) simply because so many people took pity on him for having such lame superpowers.
    • Parodied in the South Park episode Super Best Friends where all of the prophets and religious figures were given amazing powers, yet Seaman's only abilities were breathing underwater and talking to fish. His name served as the topic of a running pun throughout the episode. What's more, his animal sidekick was an avian companion named Swallow...
    • Lampshaded by comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, who has a superhero puppet called Melvin. While discussing various superhero attributes, Jeff lists some of Aquaman's powers. Melvin's reply: "Yeah, great. He has the same powers as Spongebob!"
    • It could be argued that Aquaman's biggest problem isn't so much his lack of useful powers as his irrational attraction to hanging out with land-dwellers (many of whom would probably look silly trying to fight crime in scuba gear) in their native environment all the time. :)
    • This essay points out that not only does Aquaman's power means that he controls every single inhabitant of nine-tenths of the Earth's surface, which is not something to sniff at, but that since humanity evolved from fish and technically still have a little bit of that ancestry wired into their brain, he could theoretically control humans as well, but chooses not to.
      • Following that logic, since all animal life descends from blue algae, Poison Ivy could also control everyone. Including Aquaman.
  • Likewise, though not as widely bemoaned, the Superfriends version of Hawkman was almost as useless. He could fly... and that's it. Almost every other hero on the show had this ability and their namesake superpower. To add insult to injury, his wings weren't even real.
    • This was generally averted by Hawkgirl in Justice League, as not only did she have actual wings, but her Nth metal mace is probably one of the coolest weapons in the show - not to mention that better writing actually made her personality different from the other characters, giving her something other than powers to stand out with.
    • The Batman avoided this entirely by making the wings that let Hawkman fly be part of a suit that also gives him superstrength, plus the fact that he wasn't being compared to any other Justice League members except Batman. You can tell they were going out of the way for this, as in the scene where he first comes in, he uses his mace to send a shockwave across the ground that smashes through concrete, and effortlessly lifts the entire Batmobile up an entire cliff. The mace also acts like a Precision Guided Boomerang for some reason.
    • Hawkman is considerably less of a wimp in the comics. In fact, he's a grade-A Badass. Think Indiana Jones crossed with Conan the Barbarian... with wings! It helps that he's not being constantly compared to the likes of Superman and the Green Lantern.
  • The Superfriends also had the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna. While Jayna could turn into any animal (including a few alien ones), Zan could only turn into some form of water (like a wave, or an ice sculpture). This was spoofed in a Cartoon Network promo where Zan interrupted a mock-Public Service Announcement to complain about how lame his power was: "I could get beaten by a sponge! It wouldn't even have to be an evil sponge!" At the end of the promo, Zan is mopped up by a janitor, with an indignant "Hey!"
    • This was subverted in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Ultimatum". Zan Captain Ersatz Downpour had the same supposedly-useless ability, but he was far more creative with it, using his water transformation powers to become lethal tidal waves or to drown a sleazy businessmen named Maxwell Lord. He still got his butt kicked by Aquaman, though, since he has a severe lapse in logic to try and drown Aquaman.
      • He's also the butt of a bed-wetting joke and so girlish that despite being a young adult male he's voiced by the same female voice artist performing his twin sister. So Yeah.
    • Parodied in Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law where Zan uses his powers for perversion when he turns himself into Wonder Woman's bath water.
  • Superhero parodies may deliberately saddle their hero with a lame or useless power just for comedic effect. Meltman from Action League NOW! had the utterly useless ability to melt himself; even he bemoaned its uselessness. In fact, the only time he's ever observed melting is during the intro, when he's clearly under a magnifying glass, suggesting he can't even melt himself as much as he can be willingly melted by others.
  • Semi-spoofed in the new He Man And The Masters Of The Universe cartoon: in "Mekaneck's Lament", Mekaneck felt bad about the limited uses of his extendable cybernetic neck, and tried to find better powers so he could be of more use to the team. There were, of course, disastrous consequences, and by the end An Aesop about making the most of what you have ensued, as Mekaneck managed quite a few useful stunts with his neck to save the day single-handedly.
    • There was also a subversion in the form of Stinkor, a skunk-like villain whose only power is toxic body odor. During his premiere, even Skeletor rejected him for his lame powers...until he learned it was toxic enough to melt rock and knock out anyone who breathed it within a matter of seconds. After that, he was given a suit that let him control the direction of his stink, making him a powerful ally for Skeletor. In fact, Skeletor's reason for exempting Stinkor from the punitive duty he imposed on his other underlings is specifically because he proved he was useful. The really impressive part about this is that this was the first time the character was introduced in any He-Man media outside of the toy line, as the creators of the original ''He-Man'' and ''She-Ra'' cartoons and comics thought he was too ridiculous a character to be taken seriously by fans.
  • In the Family Guy episode "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1", the Griffin family all get superpowers. As the Butt Monkey of the series, Meg is saddled with the comparatively lame ability of fingernail growth. ("Is that all you can do?")
  • You'd think that being the LEADER of your Five Man Band would give you the best power. But there's a rather unlucky example of a leader with lame powers: Will, the leader of WITCH, wielder of the Heart of Candracar, which grants her the power to... give all the other members their powers, and close portals. That's it. Gaia would approve ("Without a Heart to guide them..."). Though this meant the others were severely incapacitated without her present to transform them, it couldn't be as cool for her. She gets a power upgrade in the second season gaining what turns out to be the exact same powers as the season's Big Bad, only Nerrisa's had lots more practice. Naturally, in the original comics, her powers weren't lame at all — she had powers over Absolute Energy. So in a sense, she's also an exception.
  • On Homestar Runner, in the Strong Bad Email "super powers", Strong Bad reveals his secret super-power: removing caps (bottle-caps, beanie caps, etc.) with the power of his mind.
    • And when he temporarily displays the ability to shapeshift in the e-mail of the same name, his ability is ridiculously limited; his attempts to become an animal result in the balloon variety (easily affected by the wind, as is his money morph later), can turn into someone else halfway (as in he turns into Bubs... from the waist down — his torso, head and arms don't exist), and every change was accompanied by a loud "DWAYNE!"
  • Subverted in the Ben 10 episode "Big Tick". When Ben first becomes Cannonbolt, he complains that "all he can do is roll around". By the end of the episode, however, he's figured out the trick: curling up in a heavily-armored ball and rolling towards someone at high speeds. From there on out, the form is essentially treated as a free-rolling wrecking ball.
  • Semi-subverted in Class of the Titans. While the other members of the team have incredible resilience, magical powers, superhuman strength, and super speed (among others), Neil only has the power of luck. While this appears to be incredibly useless (even he laments it), it comes in handy sometimes, such as when he was given a weapon and then proceeded to knock the Big Bad out in one shot, without intending to.
  • Also sort of played straight with Jay. Whilst all the other members of the team had noticeable and obviously useful powers (super speed, super strength, psychic abilities and black belt or two, extraordinary agility and fighting skills, super intelligence, and the aforementioned freakishly freaky good luck), the leader of the team is blessed with the amazing ability to...lead. And essentially keep everyone else from killing each other over a litre of banana nut ice-cream.
  • In Transformers: Beast Machines, this trope applies to Rattrap, who can't transform until long after everyone else has, and isn't particularly useful in a fight... His robot mode not only lacks weapons, it also has wheels instead of legs! This leads, among other things, to some particularly irritating Character Derailment. (Not that Beast Machines isn't full of Character Derailment, mind you, but that's another issue entirely.) When it finally does turn out that he can do something, it winds up being the ability to interface with computers.
    • Although the ability to interface with computers should be ridiculously useful on Cybertron. It took him a while to put it to any really good use, and he probably never got to his full potential.
  • What about the original Transformers? You'd think that the Big Bad would have the biggest, baddest vehicle mode, right? The Decepticons turn into jets for the most part, so the main villain should turn into the deadliest thing on wings, right? Wrong. The original Megatron's alternate mode was a gun that someone else had to fire. That someone was usually Starscream, who is the namesake of the trope about wanting to betray/kill/usurp your leader. They "fixed" this for the 2007 live-action movie by making Megatron a huge spiky Cybertronian jet (who just happened to never get a chance to scan an Earth vehicle to transform into). Predictably enough, there was much complaining, mostly because the usual not-gun alt form for G1 Megatron is usually a tank. So, it's more of a case of They Changed It Now It Sucks... again. Notably, Megatron apparently is going to use a tank form in the sequel.
    • To add insult to injury, the gun he became is a Walther P38. Which as far as handguns go isn't really the top of the line or particular impressive.
    • Another take on it, from the Marvel comics, was that the size-changing was entirely voluntary and he could fire himself, but he was generally more accurate with someone else aiming him. In the comics, he was similar to Shockwave, whose gun mode was the size of a Transformer, could fly, and fired blasts that could devastate a mountainside.
    • The most recent comics produced by IDW put a twist on this: his normal alternate form is that of a massive, gun-laden tank, but on Earth, provided with much greater sources of energy than usual and having to keep a low profile if he wants to move undetected to areas of battle, he is able to transform into a pistol another can wield... that can vaporize tanks in a single shot. The Decepticons are also slightly less fractious than normal, uniting in the face of a greater threat, so Megatron being used by his treacherous lieutenant (who is quite a fine warrior when he tries) in battle isn't so far-fetched.
  • Rugrats had an episode where the babies watched a superhero show called Mega Hyper Heroes and acted out an episode of it- Tommy playing the shapeshifting Changeling, Phil and Lil playing Spitball boy and Dotted Line Girl, and Chuckie playing the part of Stinky (who smells as strong as two babies).
    • Another episode, probably a spoof on the A-Team, had Chuckie as the guy who drove the bus. Also, due to a Mondegreen, Tommy gained the ability to talk to pants, as opposed to plants (and they didn't even talk back). A Shout Out to Captain Planet had Tommy unable to help in the fight because the villain didn't wear pants.
  • Referenced and spoofed in an episode of Garfield And Friends. Garfield and Odie end up in a superhero cartoon. The hero team includes Expys of Cyclops and Beast, a superstrong woman... and Curdman, who can manipulate cottage cheese ("all the good superpowers were already taken") and is "laughed every year at the superhero Christmas party". But he later earns self-confidence by discovering his powers work with yogurt.
  • Odd in Code Lyoko had a special power in the early part of the series in which he could see tiny snippets of future events. However, the power came at random, functioned as an absolute vision, and once resulted in him getting taken out by an enemy immediately following a vision. While reprogramming the avatars of the Lyoko Warriors in the later season, Jérémie noticed the uselessness of this power and removed it, much to Odd's disappointment.
  • During the first superhero-roleplaying episode of The Backyardigans (there was a second, Spiderman-esque one at the third season), Austin was "Captain Hammer". His power? Build anything. Semi-subverted, because during that episode it kinda came in handy.
    • Build anything? That's a fantastic ability! All the stuff you could make!

Live Action TV
  • To defeat the Big Bad in season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Scoobies combined their different abilities to make a "super slayer". Xander, who considered himself the most useless of the group, provided the "heart" of this amalgamation.
  • Parodied in a recurring sketch in That Mitchell and Webb Look, which features the exploits of the crime-fighting duo BMX Bandit (who can ride a BMX bike really well) and The Angel Summoner (who can summon a horde of celestial superbeings to do his bidding); each adventure would begin with BMX Bandit suggesting an over-complicated primarily BMX-based strategy to deal with the threat they were facing (kidnappers, drug-runners, terrorists), only for Angel Summoner to point out that it'd be a lot easier if he just summoned a horde of angels to do it instead. Needless to say, the latter usually proved a lot more useful. Finally, BMX Bandit does get to use his skills- and dies in the process.
  • Heroes had a one-shot character that had the power to...melt things. A power that can almost instantly destroy any restraint, barrier, weapon, or enemy doesn't sound very useless, though law-abiding citizen that he was, this guy couldn't figure out what to do aside from wreck his own stuff. Sylar kills him and takes his power.
    • A better example would be the super-hearing he stole, even after the woman he killed to get it demonstrated how debilitating and uncontrollable she found it at first, though she eventually learned to control it. This actually became a minor Kryptonite Factor for him, until he learned control, too.
    • A even better example is this one Company agent who appeared in the graphic novels. His power is that his body absorbs sound. While this does render him effectively immune to sonic attacks, it also makes him deaf and mute. Also, so far they've faced precisely two guys who use sonic attacks.
    • Peter's power at the start of the series also falls into this category; he initially has the ability to copy any other character's power, but only while in close proximity to them, and without copying any of the control over the power the other possesses. It only becomes really useful when he learns to channel the powers he copies while away from their originators.
    • The Heroes web-show spin-off Zeroes was about characters from the Heroes universe whose powers were incredibly lame. This includes a man who paints the future as stick-figures, rendering them indecipherable, and a girl who could fit her whole fist into her mouth, which is pointed out to be "just slutty".
    • Another example is the minor character, Sanjog Iyer, from the first season whose power was that people who were troubled would astrally project themselves to him while asleep and ask him for advice.
    • Until he Took A Level In Badass, you could argue that Sylar's power itself was a lame power. Understand how things actually work? In any other series, Sylar would be Diagnosis Boy...
      • Funnily enough, in Season 3, it's implied Sylar's ability can be used to understand the show's plot, which would make it the most powerful superpower there is, since the greatest threat the characters always face isn't any supervillain or apocalypse, but rather the chronic Idiot Ball stuck to their faces.
  • At the very beginning of Charmed, Phoebe was stuck with the power of receiving visions of the future at random moments, which she couldn't even control. Meanwhile, her sisters had telekinesis and could stop time and so to have any sort of offensive power, she learned kickboxing.
    • She eventually gained the power of levitation, too... though this was long after the show's Jumping The Shark point.
  • In Juuken Sentai Gekiranger, the Rangers are martial artists who each have an area of specialization. The four male Rangers' specialties are Unbreakable Body, Fantastic Technique, Iron Will and Amazing Ability (in Gratuitous English, naturally). Ran, the one female Ranger has Honest Heart. "Honest Heart"? Seriously, WTF? It is never explained exactly how that's supposed to help her kill monsters.
    • This particular troper notes that in addition to her "Honest Heart", Ran has the ability to deliver punches at breakneck speed. Also, when training with Master Elehan, we find out that when Ran is enjoying herself, rather than trying not to be put off by Master Elehan's perversion, she can not only flyfish, but use the Geki Hammer. I'd say this is a fairly clear example of where having an "honest heart", unclouded by difficulties or overthinking, makes it possible for Ran to take a level in something resembling badass.
    • This isn't the only sentai series to have this problem. In Go-onger, each Ranger gets an Engrish phrase as well: Speed King, Chaser, Vaga Bond, Cyclopedia (Go-onger loves its Engrish) and Sweet Angel. You get no points for picking the token female out of that lineup. The same goes for Gaoranger, which had Blazing Lion, Noble Eagle, Iron Bison, Surging Shark, Sparking Wolf, and Belle Tiger. Admittedly, "Sparking" isn't very Badass, either. (In Power Rangers Wild Force, the phrases are different for three of them, so if you've only seen that version, no, I Am Not Making This Up.)
  • In the Sci-Fi miniseries The Lost Room, roughly 100 random objects have special powers that can be exploited. Some have been weaponized, such as the Glass Eye, which heals or destroys flesh and the Comb that stops time. Many though, are useless, such as the Wristwatch, which boils eggs, the Pencil that makes pennies, and the Clock that sublimates brass.
    • This is somewhat subverted though as when more objects are brought together other powers are unlocked. When the Wristwatch and Knife are used in tandem they produce a kind of telepathy.
  • Parodied in Mystery Science Theater 3000 in which Crow creates a superhero identity for himself. While he concedes that his super power is completely useless, he jumps into the role of superhero wholeheartedly, even creating a super costume and announcing himself in a deep booming voice. His name? Turkey Volume Guessing Man. His power? To estimate how many turkeys could conceivably fill any given space. Of course, Mike then immediately takes the wind out of his sails by demonstrating that he has the same power.
  • Isn't this trope the entire point of the Whose Line Is It Anyway game "Superheroes"? From just one playing: Suicide Boy, Yodeling-Pogo-Stick Man, Captain Bloodloss, and Cowboy Stunt-Rider. (Other examples include Caught-In-A-Wind-Tunnel Boy and Run-Away-From-Danger Man.)
    • From various other games: Nervous-Ski-Jump-Puppet Man, The Super Scooper, The Gap-Ad Kid, Captain Lounge Act, and perennial fan-favorite Captain Hair.
  • Scrubs has the medical equivalent with the background character Dr. Johnson who is the attending dermatologist. While dermatologists have their uses in real life, Scrubs treats him as if he has the lame power of Heart. He spends most of his time in the background with nothing to do because nobody ever needs a skin doctor. The one time a patient comes in with badly sunburned skin, Dr. Cox berates him for forcing him to validate Dr. Johnson's "most ridiculous of career choices."
  • In No Heroics we get Fuseboss whose power is fusing two things together. To make the matters worse, he also has a nervous tick that forces him to create new words by fusing two existing, hence we get jems like "bews" (bad news), "prules" (pub rules) and "blob" (...take a wild guess).

Anime
  • Tenten of Naruto combat style involves quickly summoning lots of projectiles and throwing them with perfect accuracy... so long as they don't dodge or block them. Against ninja. Its possible that this style might useful in taking on hordes of mooks, but anything mauve shirt and up will be completely undeterred by her tactic.
  • Almost all of the Aasu sisters in Puni Puni Poemi are victims of this trope, which wouldn't be so bad if they didn't make up the entire team. "Super breakfall" (the power to never be injured if you're knocked off your feet), anyone?
  • In the first season of Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury was the only team member without an offensive power. Her first power was essentially a cloud of bubbles that drastically reduced visibility (apparently only for the enemy) and lowered the temperature by a few degrees. She received her first offensive power in the middle of the second season, but in the meantime she stayed in the background with her visor and computer, providing useful analysis and strategy. In the third season, Sailor Chibimoon assumed the "useless member" role, as her "Pink Sugar Heart Attack" was shown to be so weak and pointless that it mostly only annoyed the villain (it also occasionally just didn't do anything period, and on at least one occasion backfired on her). She got upgraded in the fourth season, by tying Sailor Moon's powers to hers.
    • Also, possibly because the anime Overtook The Manga, some anime characters were considerably depowered compared to their manga counterparts. Tuxedo Mask, who had named attacks in the manga (like the deadly explosive attack La Smoking Bomber) but not the anime (where his only weapons were his cane and throwable roses), is a prominent example. Then there's the aforementioned Chibimoon, whose powers were only a joke in the "Chibiusa's Picture Diary" gag chapters, and even then not to the extent that they are in the anime. Another example is Sailor Aluminum Seiren's attack "Galactica Tsunami"; it was rather powerful in the manga, but its anime namesake consisted of... a defeated Seiren throwing around food and drinks just to prove how desperate she was. This would also apply to the other Sailor Animamates, who I don't think got even to use their attacks in the anime. They didn't even really fight. They only had the bracelets and that's it; their own powers were practically inexistent.
      • Tuxedo Mask's roses had the ability to paralyze or blind those they hit, shatter various power amplifiers, and a couple other such things that generally screwed the monster of the day over, so it's not like he was useless.
  • All the Power Users in The Law Of Ueki. All of them. Except Robert. (This trope is practically the point of the series.)
  • Orihime Inoue in Bleach bounces in and out of this trope. Her powers in theory are actually quite impressive: Three shields that she can summon with her "flowers" that have powerful abilities. The first one (the shield-shield) can deflect any blast, break her fall from a massive height and take massive punishment from enemies much more powerful than her, the second one (the inner shield) can heal any wound rapidly by reversing time and making it as if it had never happened, and the last one (the outer shield) can cut anything like a blade. She can also spin leeks. However, her lack of desire to kill means that her outer shield is all but useless and deflected by all but one enemy, and with only support powers left she is relegated to the back lines.
    • However, the Big Bad sees more potential in her, revealing that her power can actually reject gods' plans and rewrite destiny; it's the ability to actually Screw Destiny. In later chapters it is strongly suggested that Orihime's powers can even resurrect the recently dead. Or as dead as someone missing half their head and torso gets. In Bleach it's hard to tell, since technically a good part of the cast start off already dead...
  • Yukino Kikukawa's CHILD in Mai-HiME, Diana, is basically a Magical Security Cam. In certain plots this is quite useful like the time she uses it to locate kidnapped or missing people and then tell the others where they are, like in the cases of Natsuki and Takumi, but given how everyone is expected to battle to the death, when it's time to fight this turns out to be useless.
    • In the manga, she gets a different CHILD, making her marginally more useful, but only when she works in tandem with Haruka. Whenever Haruka's light-based attacks miss their mark (and they usually do, when her obsession with punishing Mai and Natsuki gets the better of her), Yukino uses her Mirror Wall ability to redirect the beams and set them on the right course.
    • Subverted in Mai-HiME: Fuuka Taisen, a doujin fighting game based on the anime, where Yukino is one of the main playable characters. Her CHILD is given plant-like powers to allow her to hold her own in a fight, since she can't rely on Haruka (who is an unlockable character in that game) for help.
  • Singing to defeat the enemy is certainly a ridiculous power, although it's not so bad in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, as all seven girls have it. The far more useful Panthalassa powers of Kaito, and later, Rihito are never used until the end, something to do with late awakenings and, in Kaito's case, Laser Guided Amnesia.
  • Cyborg 009's female member, Francoise aka 003 had non-offensive, surveillance-oriented powers (though she could still use a laser gun).
    • Mildly subverted in the 2001 season, where her surveillance powers are augmented and she is given enough weaponry and machine handling skills to not only becoming a pretty good pilot, but to disarm a biological bomb on her own, without Gilmore's guidance. She's still in the sidelines, but at least baby can do more than point out where the bad guys are and can be more of a Team Mom than a standard Chick.
  • For some reason, writers love to set this up using plant control as a power and then immediately subvert it, showing off how powerful controlling plants can be (see also Chlorophyll Kid in Comic Books below).
    • Chai the Wood mage from Magical Starsign was regarded as one of the weaker members of the party - until he used a single seed to break a mountain in half.
  • Completely subverted in One Piece, where having powers like "being made of rubber" or "changing your weight" are all turned into extremely useful powers by the characters using them.
    • In one example, the Word Of God essentially states that if a human ate the Hito Hito no Mi (Human Human fruit) that human would simply "become enlightened." Considering that this "power" comes with the drawbacks of being completely immobilized by being immersed in standing water, AND having any power prevents you from gaining any other (since eating two Devil's Fruits causes you to die horribly), this sounds like a pretty big gyp in a world where there's a guy who can ''flick explosive boogers and reload a revolver with explosive bullets by blowing in the chamber.
      • Technically being enlightened wound up being pretty cool, if you remember the mini-series that was on NBC about the Monkey King where the main character became enlightened and came back to life from being killed by five almost-gods and got magic powers too.
      • Of course, compared to the ones that give you Psychic Powers or Elemental Powers, those DO suck.
      • And of course, the fearsome "Chill Chill Fruit" which allows the one who eats it to make very bad puns... yeah. That's about it.
      • This one would love to have the ability to make crappy puns, since they make a good distraction and annoy younger brothers who need to loosen up.
  • Pretear has Shin, whose ability is to control plants. In the manga version he had an excuse for being useless unrelated to his powers: the Knights apparently use their elements at the expense of their own Life Energy, which is dangerous when the user is too small — Shin is the youngest of the Knights. The anime version removed the connection between Elemental Powers and Life Energy... and Shin still wasn't allowed to fight, neither alone nor with Himeno, instead being set to create Phantom Zones and being almost completely useless when these are not needed. Apparently, even water is more useful than plants, not to mention the abilities to burn or freeze things, or to shoot laser beams. One may wonder if he was like this even before being reincarnated as a kid.
  • Digimon Adventure has Gomamon, whose rookie "attack" is basically to control fish and is only seen actually battling twice over the entire series. Yet this becomes an inversion when you realise that it works in other situations while the Rookie attacks are only effective one time in the entire series (and Gomamon was helping out for that one too, tripping the monster.).
    • In Digimon Adventure 02, Armadimon's evolution through the Digimental of Faith/Reliability is into a submarine. It's only slightly more often seen than Gomamon's fighting.
  • This seems to be the pattern to the titular Geass abilities in Code Geass. In addition to Lelouch's power of Command, we have Mao's mind-reading, Rolo's power to pause people's brains, and Emperor Charles' memory-rewriting Geass. Many of them also have ridiculous limitations, most commonly needing line of sight. In addition, one of the Geass children being trained by the cult has remote muscle control, and C.C.'s own original Geass power was to make people love (read: dote on) her. Probably the lamest of all was Marianne's, which allowed her to transfer her consciousness into another person's body, and was only ever used once. Most of the Geass users, however, are some degree of Chessmaster and find ways to use their abilities to surprisingly great effect.
  • Koizumi Itsuki, of Suzumiya Haruhi. Officially, he's an esper - a being with one or more psychic powers, generally being some form of clairvoyance, telepathy, or telekinesis. In reality, he has none of these - his only powers are to enter a very specific kind of Negative Space Wedgie and turn into a flying laser spirit ball thing to fight monsters called shinjin. Not much of an esper, the poor guy, is he?
    • Itsuki's real power is making Kyon uncomfortable with his sexuality.
  • In Negima, a character who forms a pact with a wizard gains a personal artifact; some, naturally are more obviously useful than others. Konoka, for instance, has a pair of fans that heal people, and Asuna has a BFS capable of dispelling spells and summons. On the other hand, Nodoka has a book that displays people's thoughts, and Yue has another book (their extracurriculars all revolve around the library, if you couldn't guess) that can access the magical internet. In RPG terms, which the characters of the series frequently themselves use, the latter two artifacts can be considered to have support roles at best.
    • Recent manga chapters subvert this, as all characters get some power-ups one way or another: Yue's book includes a Griffin Dragon's weakness, and Nodoka acquired some items that allow her to use her artifact without actually reading it ... which she started to use to anticipate and evade attacks
  • In The Slayers, there were many, many magic spells... from the earth-shattering Giga Slave, to the Ferious Breed, the spell that summons pigeons. But Lina did find a use for the pigeon-summoning spell twice: first time, to break a hole in a pocked universe, second time, to knock off Pocota, who is not much larger than a pigeon.
    • Ferious Breed was originally a spell to summon a gargoyle, which is admittedly more useful; Lina uses a custom version for pigeon-summoning purposes. However, there's also the spell Diem Claw, the sole use of which is to create a Dramatic Wind that makes the user's cape flutter dramatically behind them. Not to mention Kyu Kyum Spin and Zelas Gort, which summon sea-cucumbers and jellyfish, respectively. (Not very useful in battle, but they make for great eating!)
  • In Jojos Bizarre Adventure, the answer to the question 'What Kind Of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway' is, invariably, 'The kind that can kill you'.
  • Played with the transformations in Ranma 1/2: when the Musk Dynasty warriors Lime, Mint, and Prince Herb run into a forest full of murderous monkeys, the latter sense the aura of the martial artists and perceive a mighty tiger, a swift wolf, and an all-powerful dragon. They know they can't beat these great beasts, and wisely keep away. But when Ranma, Ryoga, and Mousse pass by, the monkeys see a small girl, a tiny piglet, and a nearsighted duck. They can win!
    • Additionally, the trope is subverted when most of the transformations are thought of as major inconveniences that weaken the cursed victim —when a master martial artist is transformed into a small pink cat or a lazy panda, it's easy to see why, and even Ranma himself loses a great deal of physical strength and reach. But then comes along Pantyhose Taro, who turns into a nigh-invulnerable, multi-story monster that can fly and level buildings with a punch... or Rouge, a meek and demure maiden that transforms into the flame-spewing, lightning-tossing goddess Asura. Next to those kinds of transformations, what kind of lame curse is "panda", anyway?

Comic Books
  • In the comics, Aqualad developed concerns similar to Aquaman's (see Western Animation above) about feeling useless as a member of the Teen Titans, which became so severe that he later developed a psychosomatic illness. Once the cause of his problem was realized, Aqualad decided to relegate himself as a Titans reservist, who participated with the team only when they had a mission in the sea.
    • The Teen Titans TV series, however, skirts around this by giving Aqualad full elemental control over water. Which is the actual power of the modern day Aqualad, now renamed Tempest.
  • Angel at Marvel Comics has similar problems to Hawkman and Aquaman. His power to fly is fairly useless in a superhero context. He was variously given razor-sharp metal wings, the ability to shoot poisoned metal pieces from his wings, and a healing factor to make him more powerful. The current version is physically powerful for a similar reason to Aquaman: to actually fly with his wings and survive hundreds of miles per hour winds, he must be very strong and resistant to damage. Angel was largely rescued by Marvel in an issue of Thunderbolts where he literally flies rings around them in their own comic in an awesome "Taking them back to school" moment. Angel also has a little-remembered ability of extraordinarily keen eyesight, comparable to a hawk's. That may not sound like much, but being able to spot movement from a rabbit when you're flying half a mile up is no mean feat.
  • Marvel Comics also gave us Cypher of the New Mutants, perhaps actually better known by his 'civilian' name Doug Ramsey. His mutant power enabled him to instantly figure out any language...and that was about it. (One fanfic This Troper saw had him deride his use in combat as being able to shout "look out" in any language.) It would be useful in the United Nations, or even the Middle East, but in monolingual burly-hero world, his lack of actual 'physical' powers of any sort ultimately resulted in his death from a bullet meant for a teammate. A lot of fans think Cypher died before his time, as if he'd been around when computers and the Internet really took off, his power of language comprehension could ostensibly apply to computer language and he'd be the greatest hacker in existence (he was pretty good at computer programming it as it was).
    • Some fans have also suggested that magic, as depicted in the Marvel Universe, would also qualify as a language. Thus Doug probably could've made himself into a very capable wizard. But the New Mutants already had one of those, so he'd have been redundant.
    • Others see DC's second Batgirl - and her ability to read body language - as a template as to how Cypher could've been turned into a combat prodigy.
    • Either way, the point is moot in Ultimate Marvel, where Cypher is simply a record-breaking Jeopardy champion. He's not even a mutant.
    • Prodigy from New Mutants, vol 2, also had a fairly lame ability. He could learn the skills and knowledge of anyone nearby. Meaning he can speak French if someone else in the room knows the language, and understand rocket science if he's near a rocket scientist. Since he doesn't retain that knowledge once the person leaves, his power is literally redundant.
      • In one storyline, it was revealed his inability to keep abilities he copied is a mental block that could be overcome. And that it might not be a good thing if he did.
      • It was much less lame than it sounds, once you remember that, while he couldn't copy other powers, he could copy skills. This extended to COMBAT skills. Want to know what this means? He held is own against Wolverine, simply because he could copy his skills and predict his attacks. Granted, physical condition and experience won over, but still...
  • The Invisible Woman from the Fantastic Four originally only had the power to... be invisible. After it became obvious that she was useless as an action hero in her current form, creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby gave her the additional powers of making other objects/people invisible and projecting telekinetic force fields. Later, in the John Byrne period, she found many different uses for the force fields, such as a powerful attack, and even as a mode of transportation. As such, Susan is now usually considered the most powerful member of the team, and her personality has changed accordingly, as she realized she didn't need to bow to anyone.
  • The Legion of Substitute Heroes is composed of rejected applicants to the Legion Of Super Heroes, who banded together in an effort to show their powers were not useless. Some members included Chlorophyll Kid, who has the power to make plants grow super fast; Color Kid, who can change the color of objects; Infectious Lass, who spontaneously generates infectious diseases; and Stone Boy, who has power to turn into stone (not like The Thing from the Fantastic Four, but as in an immobile, unconscious stone statue). Surprisingly, several members managed to prove their point and "graduate" into the LSH proper. Of course, considering some of the heroes the Legion did admit, like "Bouncing Boy" and "Matter-Eater Lad", you have to wonder just how bad your powers had to be for them to actually reject you...
    • Mind you, Infectious Lass' problem is lack of control, not her powers being useless. Being able to whistle up any disease in the universe? Not a bad trick. Not being able to make sure it's the bad guys who get sick? Trouble.
    • Then again, one of their members was Arm Fall Off Boy. It's exactly what you're thinking.
    • You have to admit that back when yellow was a big issue for the Green Lanterns, Color Kid would have been a GREAT supervillain sidekick. Frankly, I'd let him on the good-guy side just to make sure he didn't turn evil. There's nothing like having a guy who could turn anything into your greatest weakness running around to spoil your day...
      • Kind of like Kryptonite Man in the Superman comics.
      • The Legion newsgroup once had a glorious thread debating the plausibility of Color Kid taking over the universe. With enough stolen Green Lantern rings...
      • Along those lines, Color Kid's recent appearance in the "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes" arc in Action Comics had her being able to manifest the powers of the seven emotional spectrum corps. She's not quite at the level of a "true" ring slinger, but the idea is there.
      • That's Rainbow Girl, not Color Kid. She was designed by Geoff Johns, who came up with the idea of the seven different lantern corps.
    • The TV adaptation addressed the simple fact that the Legion's super genius, Brainiac 5, is not much good in a fight. The solution is to make him a super cyborg with numerous weapon functions like telescoping limbs and many, many other things, on top of being super-smart. (This was, however, largely unnecessary, since the whole point of Brainiac 5 is that he is so brilliant even in comparison to other genius intellects that it actually qualifies as a super-power, creating a slightly Family Unfriendly Aesop about the value of intelligence versus the ability to simply beat problems into submission.)
      • One the other side of that moral, though, there's the idea of "If I'm so smart, how come I can't figure out a way to be physically helpful in a fight?" If all Brainiac did was solve problems and then let the rest of the team go off to do the actual work, it would send just as bad a message; after all, despite Batman being arguably the smartest person on the Justice League, he doesn't figure out a problem and then let the "tough guys" go handle it.
    • Frankly, Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad aren't that useless except in combat. Bouncing Boy theoretically could go places a hell of a lot faster than the rest of the Legion, so he's good for recon. Matter-Eater Lad is useful for tunneling through things, not to mention the fact that he could eat a supervillain whole if he wanted to.
      • AND HE HAS!
  • Subverted Possible Reference: In volume four of Scott Pilgrim, Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, the usually embarrassingly inept and clueless Scott gets his crap together and Levels Up — and gains the Power of Heart. Except in this case, the Power of Heart is a sword with a heart-shape at the bottom of the handle. Since he's being chased by an evil half-ninja with a sword, this is a very useful power to suddenly have.
  • Tyrone Jessup of the teen paranormal group Psi-Force had the ability to leave his body in intangible astral form. While this was useful in some situations, it still looked pretty weak next to abilities like powerful telekinesis, mind control, healing everything short of death, etc. A later writer made a point of powering him up a bit.
  • Freshmen had an entire team full of this. Each character's ability is based on what they were thinking of when a Mad Scientist's machine blew up. While some powers were more traditionally useful (the ability to control other people's minds, the ability to cause earthquakes) some were hard to use particularly well (for instance, the Drama Twins: Renee can telekinetically pull stuff and Brady can telekinetically push stuff; to actually use telekinesis effectively requires them to be touching each other and coordinate), or had disastrous side effects (the Intoxicator can cause everyone around him to be as high or drunk as he is). Then there were abilities like the ability to understand and talk to plants (while being a vegan), the power to make someone fall in love with you, the powers of a squirrel (a weird haircut, a constant desire to hoard nuts, and a limited ability to glide), having an incredibly sticky body, having a 15 foot long indestructable penis, and an incredible ability to build dams and having super-intelligence...while being a beaver. However, the team's "leader", an incredibly nerdy comic book fan named Norrin, has no abilities (except for a fairly useless utility belt): he was out getting a pizza when the machine exploded. Surprisingly, at least once in the first story arc everyone's power is put to use.
  • Swift, of morally ambiguous super-team The Authority, has some of this goin' on. Sure, she's the fastest winged mammal on the planet. Sure, she can grow razor-sharp talons on her feet and hands. Sure, she can calculate multiple aerial trajectories in her head in a matter of seconds. Sure, she can take a grenade in the face and come out with nothing worse than a bloody nose. Sure, she's the world's greatest hunter. But on a team where one member can get stronger by flying into the sun, another can wear entire cities as suits of armor (without even damaging them), one can generate enough electricity to kill God, one can make anything, and two can rearrange reality with just a clever phrase, suddenly she doesn't look so cool any more. She doesn't even have the distinction of being the Batman of the team.
    • Menagerie is the DC Comics version of Swift. Lorder Hawkgirl is the DCAU version of Swift.
  • Parodied and subverted in The Tick (animated), with the character of Sewer Urchin. Basically a useless comic relief hero most of the time, often seeming less than bright with Rain-Man-like speech patterns and frequently the butt of jokes about the way he smelled, one episode suddenly takes place in the sewers. All of a sudden, we learn about a huge subterranean ecosystem in which Sewer Urchin is an intelligent Bad Ass and his aboveground friends are reduced to bumbling Fish Out Of Water. By the end of the episode the Tick and Arthur have even picked up Sewer Urchin's "normal" speech patterns of stuttering shy bewilderment and Sewer Urchin has begun referring to them with the benign condescension he receives on the surface.
    • And then there are guys like Four-Legged Man, Sarcastro and Bi-Polar Bear....
  • In Marvel Mangaverse, Reed Richards' stretchy power is nerfed to fuckall in the first book, to the point where he actually jabbers excitedly to an admiring young lady, who rather noticeably isn't "Soiux" Storm, that here is the one place where his power isn't utterly useless-he can stretch his neurons to create new connections, making him even smarter than usual and allowing him to formulate effective plans at blinding speed. As uses of his power go it's fairly creative and it's a wonder he didn't use it in the regular comics.
    • I don't think Nerfed means what you think it means.
    • In the Ultimate Marvel setting, Reed Richards does in fact use his stretching power on his brain like that.
  • Played straight in normalman. Everyone on the planet Levram has superpowers, but not only do some of them never figure out just what their power are, some people can, for example, turn toast green.
  • For a brief time, Spider Man gained some additional powers (which like many other things about the character, were removed in the widely unliked One More Day storyline). One of these powers was the ability to produce stingers from his wrists in a manner similar to Wolverine (he even described it as developing a case of "Logan envy"). While such an ability may seem useful at first glance, their only major use is to physically harm others, thus rendering them essentially useless to a person with such a strong sense of morality.
  • Squirrel Girl, who can communicate with... ah, you figure it out. She was created as a one shot joke character, but has become a Running Gag where she routinely defeats super-powered villains.
  • Rogue from X-Men has the ability to absorb the energy of others, including the powers of other mutants, through touch. While obviously having its advantages, writers noticed that it relegates her to having pretty much the same move in a fight...get close enough to touch the bad guy. So they wrote in an additional factor where she permanently absorbed the powers of Ms. Marvel, which made Rogue a Flying Brick in addition to her natural powers. Later incarnations, including the X Men Evolution and the film series, changed her to having her siphoning powers as her main power to emphasize how isolated she feels.
    • It's worth noting that Rogue's quite literal first appearance in a comic book EVER (Avengers Annual #10) has her show up after having absorbed Ms. Marvel's power, so this was hardly a case of having a useless power "upgraded" for storytelling purposes, as much as it was part of her original design (and a way of getting rid of Ms. Marvel as a character (though she got better). As for later adaptations leaving out the flight/super-strength/supernatural combat sense, one assumes it's less to emphasis her feelings of isolation, and more because it would be incredibly complicated and confusing to try and explain why Rogue has those powers in the first place in a new medium. Not to mention making her a more morally ambiguous character if you actually use the REAL backstory (she DID start out as a villain). The movies and later cartoons just didn't bother to give them to her at all. (it was included in the 90's cartoon, however)
  • In The Umbrella Academy Vanya has the power to...play the violin really well. She ends up being so upset over this that she eventually becomes the main villain and, using a deadly violin, becomes a Musical Assassin powerful enough to destroy the world.
  • Toad. With all the amazing abilities of... a toad. You GOT to be kidding me.
  • The Rainbow Raider's powers were all color-related and totally useless.
    • I could think of a use or two for controlling people's emotions. Raider's just kind of dumb, is all.
  • Turner D. Century. With the amazing power of hating young people.
  • The Ten-Eyed Man. With the amazing ability of having eyes in his fingertips.
  • The Big Wheel. With a powerful superweapon, but without the brain capacity to use it accurately.
  • Razorback. With the amazing ability of being a trucker.
  • The Clock King. With all of Chrono's powers, only ten times lamer.

Film
  • The team in Mystery Men included a member, The Invisible Boy, whose superpower - turning invisible - was so specialized he could turn invisible only when nobody was watching him! As unlikely as it might seem, he and the team actually found themselves in a situation where this power was useful. Automated turrets, it transpires, do not count as somebody watching. Of course, many of the other members weren't particularly impressive either; the main cast consisted of a guy that gets angry without actually getting stronger, a fork-thrower, and a man who shovels. He does, however, shovel very well. Contains a scene where a large number of would-be heroes with ridiculous weak powers are auditioned. The movie is based on a comic book of the same name, a spinoff from Flaming Carrot.
    • While the movie is based on a comic book, it's worth noting that Invisible Boy was invented while the writers of the film were drunk at a cast party as a joke.
    • You forgot The Sphinx, whose main power is that he's incredibly mysterious. His secondary power, however, is cutting guns in half with his mind, which is less hearty in and of itself, except the villains hardly ever use guns.
      • ...Did you miss the big scene where every single villain in the movie was shooting at their tank?
  • Used in X2 to show that not everyone had the power to blow roofs open with their eyes. One of the kids in the Xavier Institute has the super power to change the channel by blinking, and not sleep; another one of them has a big blue forked tongue, and little else of note.
    • The blue-tongued boy is Artie Maddicks, who in the comics has the power of making powerful illusions.
  • X3 takes this to new heights with Kid Omega, whose abilities are... retractable inch-long spines (apparantly inspired by comic character Quill. But while Quill can usually shoot these spines, these just... stay there). While this could be a devastating power if you were intent on killing everyone at a chronic cuddler retreat, in combat with people with guns, psionic powers, and various other super-abilities, it's decidedly worthless. Despite this, he acts as though he is an impressive mutant, using his quills for intimidation purposes on multiple occasions. (Not a bad idea, actually, but useless in the circles he travels in.) It's made worse by the fact that his only on-screen kill is a defenseless, crying woman whom he comforts with a hug then impales on his spines. Some sources describe the spines as poisonous, but still not all that interesting. Meanwhile, the movieverse Callisto gets two powers: super-speed and the ability to tell how powerful other mutants are. I wonder if she even gets a reading when she looks at Kid Omega.
    • Especially silly when the real Kid Omega from the comics, Quentin Quire, was an intensely powerful psychic whose abilities grew to (as his codename suggests) omega-level. He became so powerful through the use of a power-enhancing drug that he essentially outgrew his physical form, causing him to Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence.
  • Two words: Sky High. The whole movie is about it.
  • Same with Zoom.