Underused Main Character Superpowers

As the title says, what do you think are the most under-used superpowers for main characters in fiction?

Because although I see Elemental Powers too often, Fire, Lightning, and Holy are still the most overused elemental powers for hero characters. I don't remember any shows with Earth, Wind, Water, Ice, or Dark-elemental heroes, save perhaps Kaze No Stigma (MC is a Wind mage) and Encantandia (Philippine TV series involving four Magic Knight princesses bearing each one of the four elements: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water).

The main character from Suikoden has powers involving Instant Death, which works 100% the time except on bosses, otherwise it would be too overpowered.

Recently, there is Anti-Magic, but it's considered iffy at best so it's underused IMO. The common problem with this ability is that readers tend to go "Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?" when the hero is confronted with superpowered foes who keep on using their abilities even when it's very clear that it doesn't work. At least they should have tried to hurt the Anti-Magic hero indirectly, but no, it doesn't happen until late in the story, when power users start wising up and decide to use conventional weaponry or train in martial arts.

Superpowers categorized under What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway? are also example in my book, because there are only select situations where Heart Is an Awesome Power. Green Thumb is also an example for me, because really, plant powers seem to be weak at first glance, but it becomes awesome in the right hands.

So, what else do you think are considered underused superpowers for main characters?

edited 3rd Feb '13 7:33:34 PM by judasmartel

To be honest, I kinda consider Super-Strength to be a semi-example.

While it is an extremely common power, it's rare that it's the primary or only power (not counting Required Secondary Powers).

The only character that immediately comes to mind is Hercules (most version anyhow).

Compare The Incredible Hulk whose Super-Strength is interpreted used as an excuse for him to be able to do anything from punching ghosts to holding apart matter and antimatter.

Even Superman has Eye Beams and super breath and Super-Speed and and and and.

edited 3rd Feb '13 10:41:28 PM by Eagal

I cannot recall, off the top of my head, a protagonist who had Eye Beams as their ONLY power.

edited 3rd Feb '13 10:42:27 PM by DAStudent

Ace Bunny from Loonatics Unleashed. Uhhh...not that I ever watched that show...

edited 3rd Feb '13 10:46:11 PM by Eagal

Cyclops?

My contribution to the long-deceased "Let's Make A Shōnen!" project on this very forum was a young man with the ability to exploit the weak points in objects to destroy them from the inside out. While not entirely unheard of, this is a pretty rarely-used power, and an exceptionally dangerous one to whit.

Naturally, I've transplanted him to another story now. He's a fun one.

No air or water heroes? Whatever happened to Avatar The Last Airbender and The Legend Of Korra?

Toph and Bolin are the heroes of those stories. Everyone else is just minor background characters.

edited 4th Feb '13 2:23:10 AM by Eagal

What are you talking about? Toph was the heroine of both of them!

Toph is the swagness, but that's irrelevant to this topic.

On a distantly related note: True magnetism manipulation is a pretty underused and underrated power. Sure, the ability to move around magnetic objects is pretty played out, but there are many other aspects to magnetism (particularly as it relates to electricity) that tend to get ignored in favour if the flashier stuff.

The Power of Creation in my opinion. You should also have some laws the audience would need to understand on how it works though. In my story I had materializers needing to imprint an object into their memory before they could recreate a replica of it elsewhere. It's a long process that involves focusing on said object for a long time and more complex materials are more difficult to recreate. At higher levels you should be able to materialize an amalgam of objects imprinted from your mind.

I'd say this power is underused in general but more so for protagonists. I mean, just think of the versatility in battle if you can summon a sword, chained sickle, shield etc without having to bear the weight of carrying them all at the same. Well, just my two cents.

Just about any power in Jojo's Bizarre Adventures is underused. The main character of Part 4(Diamond is Not Crash) has the ability to...restore things to their former states. Part 5's protagonist can convert non-living small objects into living things. Part 6's protagonist can make herself into a string...

and part 7's protagonist(One of them) can spin his nails, yeah.

Pretty sure all of these are underused.

edited 4th Feb '13 5:22:23 AM by danna45

Archer aka Shirou Emiya?

Oh right, I thought of watching that series but never got around to it.

My character is a MagicalGirlWarrior who has the power to transform into...a time traveling robot. And not of the RobotGirl variety.

Also, said robot wasn't created by me, but by a guy known as Scary Bug. He's from a flash game. His name is Chronotron. I have an avatar of him. He's the only one with a mouth.

Shut up, this came from a dream I had. It was worse in the dream version.