If everyone has super powers, nobody really has super powers, so no. Their world must mostly have unpowered shmucks. In fact, I'd better add that to the note to fight Trope Decay.

The general rule of thumb is, they have to have powers that most others are denied, but fight relatively "normal" and make an effort against most normal humans. If theyre utilizing ki attacks or sword waves regularly, they dont qualify (and if everyone else is doing it, they still don't qualify because of my above point.)

Captain America for instance gets a good boost to his fighting ability, but he can't stand there and look bored like Superman and he doesn't have anything fantastic like Eye Beams — he has to act like a Badass Normal. So he qualifies even though technically he isn't refusing to use his gifts. Spiderman, on the other hand, can crawl on walls and shoot webs — these are things he regularly utilizes in fights that others can't, even though when it gets down to it his actual fighting looks very similar to Cap's.

I didn't say that everyone has superpowers; I just said "among the setting's supers". I mean, take Spider Man for example; most of his recurrent enemies technically outclass him in overall power (not just pure strength, mind you), but he keeps ultimately trouncing them because he either outsmarts them, makes use of the surrounding environment (especially helped with his agility- and acrobatics-oriented powerset), utilizes his own scientific/engineering skills to devise some gadget to nullify the Rogue of the Week's main advantage, uses sarcastic insults and witty comments to enrage them into making mistakes, occasionally is too much of a Determinator to be put down, or any combination of the aforementioned.

Okay, maybe that would be covered by a new trope.

I think you actually just described Guile Hero, which spiderman definitely is.

Right. So what tropes apply to the example in my first post? And does Awesome But Impractical and/or Difficult But Awesome work for the Blessed With Suck variant?

Boxing Lessons For Superman is all I can think of offhand. The problem is, defining who is less or more super than whom is standard power level debate stuff unless there is some concrete, objective defining line.

Before I took it over, the YKTTW for this actually started out as "not as super as others so he needs to use more effort" but that wasn't workable since it had no firm measuring stick.

Right.

Say, if an otherwise Badass Normal warrior wields a weapon that itself possesses/exhibits definite superpowers — like a magical sword that can manipulate fire in various forms — but said superpowers 1) are only inherent to the weapon, and 2) don't affect the user himself/herself in any way, e.g. via Magic Enhancement or Elemental Armor; and it's clear that the weapon does not come with Implausible Fencing Powers or the like, nor are Instant Expert or Possession Implies Mastery in effect, forcing the wielder to training very hard to develop the skills necessarily to be actually able to use the weapon effectively, does he still count as Fights Like A Normal?

Put it this way: if it's letting him do significant amounts of stuff that someone with a standard, non-magical sword couldn't do, probably not (just like with unarmed.) There is some leeway for whats "Badass Normal" given genre conventions (IE Katanas Are Just Better.) If the training is letting him manipulate fire with it, well, he's not really a normal anymore, is he?

If he can do all this, but refuses to most of the time, he's in the club.

Incidentally, is there a specific character that your trying to figure out if he fits?