History Main / PowerCreepPowerSeep

* The TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness suffered dearly from this trope. ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' establishes that vampires are in deep, deep trouble if they encounter werewolves. Guess what? Werewolves are playable (''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse''), and if the games ever cross over the vampires are risking FinalDeath. Crossovers were a chore to work at the best of times, as the races were on (sometimes radically) different power levels.

*** The related cliche was having a mage turn a werewolf's skin to silver, effectively burning himself to death. The original World of Darkness was never meant for crossovers, and certainly wasn't even remotely balanced - in any given meeting of two supernatural species, SOMEONE was getting the short end of the stick. Ironically enough, many older players consider the newer, more generic, better balanced system to be worse simply because it's less realistic. Life really ''shouldn't'' be fair, especially when you're living in a CrapsackWorld.

** People have also ran ''TabletopGame/{{EXALTED}}'' crossovers with [=oWoD=]. Solars can radiate sunlight, making for a CurbStompBattle with a vampire.
* Solars {{Curb Stomp|Battle}} just about everything in their own setting too, given an equal amount of experience points. That's not a bug but a feature, since the default game is about playing [[PhysicalGod a superhuman hero]] who is [[TheAce invariably the best there is at what she does.]] However, there are many other playable character types in ''TabletopGame/{{EXALTED}}'', and the difficulty of having a mixed group of player characters without the Solars [[{{Pun}} outshining]] everyone else is a cause of much aggravation among fans.

->''"Hands down, Kronika was the toughest enemy I ever faced. All my tactics, my training, meant nothing to a god like her. In the end, it was a battle of wills."''

** The Wolf is a HeroKiller with the power to goad a specific enemy into attacking without benefit of bodyguards or tactical sense, his longship can teleport and fly and carry several dozen Norscan warriors, he has a sorcerer able to use OutsideContextMagic, and that's without getting into his SuperStrength and years of experience fighting similar monsters and fighters from the Warhammer world. As a result, he steamrolls through anything Westeros can throw at him, at least up until he meets the Night King. Buuuuut...

** One notorious example of this happened in the ''Comicbook/MarvelVersusDC'' crossover, where [[PopularityPower based on a fan poll]], Franchise/{{Wolverine}} beat SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}}. As Wolverine had bone claws at the time while Lobo is as powerful as Superman, this should have been impossible. The comic sidestepped the problems by [[TakeOurWordForIt not showing the battle]] -- in fact the whole thing was less than a page, from the introduction of Lobo to Wolvie standing and dusting off his hands. And all the fighting happened ''behind a bar''. It was later [[HandWave implied]] in Lobo's own comic that the Main Man was paid under the table to throw the fight.

** The same can be said for the likes of Franchise/{{Wolverine}} or ComicBook/CaptainAmerica as well. Sometimes, WolverinePublicity does that with characters who are popular but not very powerful.

** This happened again during the Transformers' crossover with the ComicBook/NewAvengers. Heroes like ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, Franchise/{{Wolverine}} and ComicBook/TheFalcon were regulated to distractions or rescue work, while ComicBook/IronMan used a HumongousMecha, to just blast Megatron with his normal repulsors after his Mecha got destroyed.

* An interesting example is [[ComicBook/BeastMarvelComics Hank McCoy]], aka The Beast. If you pick up a comic in which he is in the ComicBook/XMen, the writers tend to focus mostly on his intellect while his actual powers are secondary. When he was a member of ComicBook/TheAvengers, his strength and agility were the main focus and his intellect was rarely brought up. This was because the Avengers had plenty of geniuses: [[ComicBook/AntMan Hank Pym]], ComicBook/IronMan, ComicBook/TheVision, ComicBook/BlackPanther, etc. and didn't need another. [=McCoy=] was a LightningBruiser so his abilities were bumped up to the point where he was nearly as strong as ComicBook/IronMan and could move so fast that ComicBook/CaptainAmerica had trouble following him. When he went back to the X-Men, there were already a couple strongmen (ComicBook/{{Colossus}} and ComicBook/{{Rogue}}) and agile people (ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}}, ComicBook/{{Gambit}}, ComicBook/{{Longshot}}, etc.). Even his animalistic nature was covered by Franchise/{{Wolverine}}. They didn't have any geniuses, though, so Beast became TheSmartGuy nearly on the level of [[ComicBook/MisterFantastic Reed Richards]].

* The effectiveness of Franchise/{{Wolverine}}'s HealingFactor has been subject to this. Originally, severe enough injuries could still put him out of action for a couple days or weeks, but he still healed faster than anyone. Now, he can bounce back from being practically burned down to his skeleton within a matter of hours (if not ''minutes''), and it's been established that his healing factor extends to slowing down his aging, allowing him to live well past the age of 150. Then again, ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'' (written [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness back in 1980]]) showed him aging realistically, and even being killed in a future WhatIf scenario after taking a laser beam to the face from a Sentinel. His solo book once tried to rectify the inconsistencies by establishing that his rate of healing can be affected by the seriousness of his injuries; if he suffers too many injuries, it slows down accordingly. Part of this was due to a storyline where the toxic adamantium was stripped from his bones, meaning that for a couple years, his healing was now uninhibited and he could regenerate pretty much anything, at the cost of his invincible bones and [[AbsurdlySharpBlade cut-anything claws]]. Then [[StatusQuoIsGod the adamantium was added back in]], but by that point writers had gotten used to writing him healing at that level and didn't adjust it back down.

* ''VideoGame/Tekken7'': In an example of FollowTheLeader from the [[Creator/NetherRealmStudios Mortal Kombat]] series, the game has started adding a few GuestFighter from different video game companies. The thing is: you have powerhouse characters like [[VideoGame/StreetFighter Akuma]], [[VideoGame/FatalFury Geese]] [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters Howard]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV Noctis]] being easily defeated by someone like Kuma. On the other hand, you have experienced fighters like Kazuya, Heihachi and Jin being taken out by non-fighters like [[Series/TheWalkingDead Negan]].

* ''VideoGame/Tekken7'': In an example of FollowTheLeader from the [[Creator/NetherRealmStudios Mortal Kombat]] series, the game has started adding a few GuestFighter from different video game companies. The thing is: you have powerhouse characters like [[VideoGame/StreetFighter Akuma]], [[VideoGame/FatalFury Geese Howard]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV Noctis]] being easily defeated by someone like Kuma. On the other hand, you have experienced fighters like Kazuya, Heihachi and Jin being taken out by non-fighters like [[Series/TheWalkingDead Negan]].

** [[WesternAnimation/BeautyandtheBeast Beast]] also qualifies for this trope. In his movie, he fought against Gaston, a BadassNormal villains. But in the Kingdom Hearts series, he's able to take on more powerful and supernatural villains like [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]] and Organization XIII's Xaldin.

* ''VideoGame/Tekken7'': In an example of FollowTheLeader from [[Franchise/{{MortalKombat}}]] series, the game has started adding a few GuestFighter from different video game companies. The thing is: you have powerhouse characters like [[VideoGame/StreetFighter Akuma]], [[VideoGame/FatalFury Geese Howard]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV Noctis]] being easily defeated by someone like Kuma. On the other hand, you have experienced fighters like Kazuya, Heihachi and Jin being taken out by non-fighters like [[Live-ActionTV/TheWalkingDead Negan]].

* ''VideoGame/Tekken7'': In an example of FollowTheLeader from [[Franchise/MortalKombat]] series, the game has started adding a few GuestFighter from different video game companies. The thing is: you have powerhouse characters like [[VideoGame/StreetFighter Akuma]], [[VideoGame/FatalFury Geese Howard]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV Noctis]] being easily defeated by someone like Kuma. On the other hand, you have experienced fighters like Kazuya, Heihachi and Jin being taken out by non-fighters like [[Live-ActionTV/TheWalkingDead Negan]].
* ''VideoGame/CartoonNetwork:PunchTimeExplosion'': [[WesternAnimation/Foster'sHomeforImaginaryFriends Mac and Bloo]] defeating [[WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack Aku]]? [[WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresofFlapjack Flapjack]] taking on [[Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles]]? [[WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo Johnny Bravo]] challenging [[WesternAnimation/Ben 10 Vilgax]] to a fight and WINNING? Yeah, because WHY NOT?

** Some characters also get ability changes, for better or worse; for example, Kirby can use moves from his copy abilities in his base form, while Meta Knight loses his SwordBeam and becomes a strict close range fighter, Ness and Lucas retain none of their own PSI moves (except PK Flash) but their physical methods of attack like bats, sticks and the yo-yo become ludicrously powerful, Mario can now use fireballs in his normal form, all ''Fire Emblem'' reps except Robin and Byleth can now use Counter without taking damage (although Robin gets access to spells that are supposed to be mutually exclusive to each other and Byleth can use the Heroes' Relics), VideoGame/{{Mega Man|Classic}} can use most of his Robot Master abilities from the start, etc. A few characters straight-up gain superpowers, such as Captain Falcon (in his home series, more or less solely depicted as a well-trained human) gaining the ability to generate gigantic flaming birds. Later ''F-Zero'' material even [[RetCanon brings in the idea of Falcon being superhuman.]]

* In TheSeventies Comicbook/PhantomLady's power was increased from creating darkness, to invisibility and teleporting herself and the team. The last one fluctuated in the comics and in a lot of subsequent experiences as it was a GameChanger, that let them all get out of jail free. Her appearances out of Comicbook/FreedomFighters have rarely brought up teleportation at all.

** A notable example of this occurs in the above-mentioned ''ComicBook/JLA/Avengers'' crossover, in which Cap effortlessly [=KOs=] JLA villain Prometheus. Prometheus, for the uninitiated, is basically an EvilCounterpart BloodKnight Batman who had managed to defeat ''the entire JLA'' in his debut appearance, yet somehow Cap alone could handle him. Interestingly, this kicked off a long slide into VillainDecay for Prometheus which was eventually retconned away as being his inferior protege running around impersonating him.

* ComicBook/{{Magneto}} gets hit with this depending on what side of the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor he's on. If he's evil, Magneto will be written as one of the most terrifying villains who ever lived, bordering on outright invincible. [[RedemptionDemotion If he's good, Magneto's abilities get scaled back a lot for the sake of drama]]. That being said, he's become much more consistent at the high end following his settling on the borderline of AntiVillain and AntiHero (codified in ''Magneto: Not A Hero'' in 2011 with the line "The thing that ''none'' of you will ''ever'' understand is that there are no sides. There's no ''heroes'' or ''villains''. There's just ''what I want'' and ''how I'll get it.''"). He specifically warns against assuming this in ''Not A Hero'':

* ComicBook/{{Magneto}} gets hit with this depending on what side of the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor he's on. If he's evil, Magneto will be written as one of the most terrifying villains who ever lived, bordering on outright invincible. [[RedemptionDemotion If he's good, Magneto's abilities get scaled back a lot for the sake of drama]].

*** ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' received much grousing from fans when it was initially announced, mainly because some people found the thought of characters like ComicBook/HarleyQuinn and ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} being able to punch out Superman and Wonder Woman to be absurd. Of course, nobody really plays fighting games for the plot or realism, do they? It's handwaved in-game with Kryptonian nanotech that makes the BadassNormal characters tough enough to go toe-to-toe with superpowered characters and in the comics is capable of making Alfred Pennyworth strong enough to give Superman a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.

** Continuing the trend for ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'''s {{Guest Fighter}}s, we have the [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} T-800]], ComicBook/TheJoker, and ComicBook/{{Spawn}}. The T-800 is a superhuman time travelling cyborg and, while feasible that he can take on more human characters like Sonya Blade or Johnny Cage, it becomes head tilting when he does so with {{physical god}}s like Raiden or Kronika, who should reasonably be able to reduce him to scrap metal with ease. Same goes for the Joker, who's a base-line human and naturally lacks the means to hurt or kill the upper echelons of the ''MK'' roster and doesn't have the excuse of [[VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse power fluctuations caused by merging universes]] to explain how he can fight these stronger opponents. Spawn is practically the opposite of the former two, as his winning of the SuperpowerLottery and having a wide array of abilities and weapons that have let him take on and even kill the hierarchy of Heaven and Hell should put him on the same level as, if not above, {{physical god}}s such as Raiden. However, for the sake of gameplay purposes, they can get beaten down by anyone and beat them down in kind.

** Marvel have been countering this by making their heavyweights, such as ComicBook/TheMightyThor, who was already roughly equal to Superman at the time of ''JLA/Avengers'', and ComicBook/{{Magneto}} (who can now do things like pull ComicBook/KittyPryde out of planet destroying bullets from light years away and easily fly decommissioned aircraft carriers from San Diego to San Francisco, then drop them on human sized objects with pinpoint accuracy) even stronger. Moreover, they're making them smarter, in the case of the Green Scar personality of the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk. And they're creating new heavyweights (e.g. ComicBook/TheSentry, who puts even a souped-up Thor to shame and even while weakened, stalemated Green Scar), and ComicBook/HopeSummers, who, under the right circumstances, could take the entire JLA at full power.

*** Two crossover battles shown between ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}} and Franchise/TheFlash were played for the jokes that they were. The only times Quicksilver was able to land a punch were when The Flash [[DudleyDoRightStopsToHelp turned his back to help innocents]] and, in the later crossover, when The Flash encountered Quicksilver in the Marvel universe (which apparently has no Speed Force) and a gleeful Quicksilver thrashed him. Sadly, if they had just done the first fight a few years sooner or a few years later, it might have been a more even match (Wally's speed was dropped to Quicksilver level in the years immediately following ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', and during ''ComicBook/{{Siege}}'', Quicksilver was outrunning radio signals, meaning that he was going FTL).

** One notorious example of this happened in the Marvel versus DC crossover, where [[PopularityPower based on a fan poll]], Franchise/{{Wolverine}} beat SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}}. As Wolverine had bone claws at the time while Lobo is as powerful as Superman, this should have been impossible. The comic sidestepped the problems by [[TakeOurWordForIt not showing the battle]] -- in fact the whole thing was less than a page, from the introduction of Lobo to Wolvie standing and dusting off his hands. And all the fighting happened ''behind a bar''. It was later [[HandWave implied]] in Lobo's own comic that the Main Man was paid under the table to throw the fight.

*** Even ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighter Dan Hibiki]]'', the poster child for JokeCharacter, of all people, is victim of this. He's the weakest spirit in the game, a 1-Star with the lowest spirit power and giving the player 30% damage with no benefit. However, it is a fact that Dan can at least fight a bit. The 1-Star spirit that is 2nd place to him in terms of weakness is [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Alm & Celica]]... as children. When they were barely able to pick a weapon. And give no negative effects when equipped. Knowing Dan, however, this is likely intentional.

* Solars {{Curb Stomp|Battle}} just about everything in their own setting too, given an equal amount of experience points. That's not a bug but a feature, since the default game is about playing [[AGodAmI a superhuman hero]] who is [[TheAce invariably the best there is at what she does.]] However, there are many other playable character types in ''TabletopGame/{{EXALTED}}'', and the difficulty of having a mixed group of player characters without the Solars [[{{Pun}} outshining]] everyone else is a cause of much aggravation among fans.

*** Ironically, the much less popular ComicBook/DoctorStrange in his classic days could've wiped the floor with Superman and most other DC characters at full power. Strange was so powerful Marvel had to {{Nerf}} him in the comics as he had the power to destroy dimensions and even knock ComicBook/{{Galactus}} on his ass. Though even when he's not as strong as he used to be, Strange is still ridiculously powerful, like in ComicBook/WorldWarHulk where he gives the titular jolly green giant a run for his money.

*** Ironically Baba Yaga despite setting herself up on a high level, is beheaded by Bufkin one of the flying monkeys from ''Literature/TheWizardOfOz''.

** A notable example of this occurs in the above-mentioned ''ComicBook/JLA/Avengers'' crossover, in which Cap effortlessly KOs JLA villain Prometheus. Prometheus, for the uninitiated, is basically an EvilCounterpart BloodKnight Batman who had managed to defeat ''the entire JLA'' in his debut appearance, yet somehow Cap alone could handle him. Interestingly, this kicked off a long slide into VillainDecay for Prometheus which was eventually retconned away as being his inferior protege running around impersonating him.

* Almost any video game where Superman is a playable character, especially fighting games and beat'em ups, in which the normally invulnerable Man of Steel can be killed by the first mook on the first level. ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Heroes'' at least ''started'' the game with killer robots, and moved up from there.

** The game based on ''Superman Returns'' actually gave Superman the kind of power seen in comics; he was functionally unkillable, it was ''the city'' that had the health meter you had to keep track of.
*** ''Superman: Shadow of Apokolips'' was very similar. You ''could'' be killed, but enemies did relatively little damage and you regenerated health constantly. But the moment a civilian died, you lost the level. In addition, many levels were based around preventing a disaster (sabotaged dam, volcano eruption, etc.), so that the risk from enemies was that they would slow you down rather than any risk that they would kill you.

*** ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' received much grousing from fans when it was initially announced, mainly because some people found the thought of characters like ComicBook/HarleyQuinn and ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} being able to punch out Superman and Wonder Woman to be absurd. Of course, nobody really plays fighting games for the plot or realism, do they? It's handwaved in-game with Kryptonian nanotech that makes the BadassNormal characters tough enough to go toe-to-toe with superpowered characters and in the comics is capable of making Alfred Pennyworth strong enough give Superman a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.

* Many of the Creator/{{Disney}} characters suddenly become a MasterSwordsman, magic user, or [[IKnowKarate Kung Fu]] master of some sort to put them on equal combat ground with the main characters of ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''. It's slightly jarring (and very awesome) to see Mickey Mouse with Yoda-like fighting abilities while retaining the personality he's had for the past 50 or 60 years.

** Due to its very nature, characters from all around the power spectrum show up, either as playable characters or as bosses, which can lead to situations such as a [[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn trained mercenary with an enchanted BFS who has slayed a goddess]] being beaten by [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing a normal guy with gardening tools]] (the former went from being a LightningBruiser to moving like he's [[MightyGlacier knee-deep in molasses]], the latter who had no combat in his series whatsoever); or [[LandSeaSky Rayquaza]], one of the most powerful [[OlympusMons Legendary]] Franchise/{{Pokemon}}, being beaten by [[Franchise/DonkeyKong a monkey with a pop-gun.]] A power-up was pretty much mandatory for the ''VideoGame/WiiFit'' Trainer and ''VideoGame/DuckHunt'' dog.

* In ''VideoGame/SpiderManShatteredDimensions'', Amazing Spider-Man takes out TheJuggernaut in a fistfight. Granted, Spidey ''[[OlderThanTheyThink has]]'' defeated Juggernaut in the comics, but he did so by forcing him to the ground with his might and trapping him in cement. Here, it's {{handwave}}d by suggesting that [[spoiler:the power of the [[MacGuffin Tablet Fragment]] is messing with Juggy's Gem of Cyttorak-given power]].

** [[spoiler:Kairi]], who was never really an ActionGirl in her home game, [[spoiler:[[HilariousInHindsight can wield a Keyblade]] as well as Sora and has access to his Drive forms as well.]]

* With some of the various "vs" cartoons-- most notably with the "David v. Goliath" type matches-- to prevent outright ''mis-''matches.
* In ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'', The Liquidator had ''extensive'' control over water - he could spontaneously generate it, change its temperature, and turn it into "hard water" (a yellow glue-like substance), and his body was entirely fluid. After his one solo appearance, his water temperature changing and hard water abilities vanished and his other abilities were scaled back. In all honesty, they had to. Liquidator's very nature makes him {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le, barring having his oxygen and hydrogen atoms being separated. And after someone that strong has been defeated once, you'll never see him as the super-being he was before. The lowered powers also dodge a very pesky piece of FridgeLogic, namely that Liquidator could have just boiled Darkwing alive by heating the 70% water content of his body otherwise. Then you wouldn't have much of a show, at least not one Disney would have ever allowed for an afternoon kids' cartoon.

** Toriko is at least catching up to ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' levels of power now, though it's primarily its three strongest characters which have established themselves at Saiyan Saga levels of power. [[spoiler: With Jirou stopping the entire planet for a second with his knocking and Midora's Meteor Spice raining around everywhere.]] ''One Piece'' is far behind both in terms of power, with them not even on the level of Saiyan Saga ''Dragon Ball Z'' levels.

[[folder:Fanfic]]

** Notably, this trend continued in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong''. Kong was about 30 meters tall in ''Film/KongSkullIsland'': certainly a titan, and one of the largest King Kongs in film history, but Godzilla had been well-established as about three or four times that size. Consequently, the film gave Kong an upscale, with the justification that he's been growing.

* ''{{Franchise/Digimon}}'' has a fair bit of this. In the general canon, there are six stages that Digimon pass through[[note]]Baby, Baby II/In-Training, Child/Rookie, Adult/Champion, Perfect/Ultimate, Final/Mega[[/note]], and Digimon are generally expected to be able to compete usually only with others at the same stage, with some vague implications of a continuity of power (with the significant hero and villain Digimon at the more powerful end) in each stage.

** ''Anime/DigimonXrosWars'' abandons anything remotely resembling the standard mechanics in favor of a CombiningMecha system, with an exponential increase in power for every ingredient added, regardless of the power of the actual ingredient.

** ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'', to fix the imbalance between the Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}} and the generally less powerful [[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]], establishes that some characters have different power levels depending on which universe they're in. So in Franchise/TheDCU, the higher levels of "chaos magic" make second-tier Avenger ComicBook/ScarletWitch powerful enough to take down the whole Justice League, while in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, the lack of a "speed force" makes the Flash nothing more than an ordinary human.

* ''Comicbook/SupermanVsTheAmazingSpiderMan'' had ComicBook/LexLuthor shoot Spidey with a "red-sun energy boost", making Big Blue vulnerable to his touch, i.e., Spidey being able to beat Supes like a beach ball. However once the energy wears off, it’s clear who has the upper hand.

** This happens a lot to Spider-Man. In preparation for ''Comicbook/CivilWar'', he had "''The Other''" story arc, which tied his powers to a mystical spider-totem. This gave him a major attribute boost and several new powers, ranging from enough speed and strength to catch bullets to spike weapons which protruded from his arms. [[spoiler:This was done so that when he became a fugitive at the end of ''Civil War'', he could feasibly fight off (and beat) more powerful heroes like Iron Man.]] Unfortunately, nobody bothered using Spider-Man's upgrades from "''The Other''" except Creator/PeterDavid (and Chris Yost during his ''ComicBook/ScarletSpider'' run), so the storyline might as well not have happened. The only aspect of the story that anyone else bothered using was the Iron Spider suit.

** This happened again during the Transformers' crossover with the Comicbook/NewAvengers. Heroes like ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, Franchise/{{Wolverine}} and ComicBook/TheFalcon were regulated to distractions or rescue work, while Comicbook/IronMan used a HumongousMecha, to just blast Megatron with his normal repulsors after his Mecha got destroyed.

*** Venom actually did go toe-to-toe with the Juggernaut, after being powered-up with some unknown substance. Though even in Marvel Comics, they tried to make Venom seem like a credible threat to Comicbook/GhostRider, which is laughable given he's weak to heat and Ghost Rider is constantly on fire. Oh, and Venom is Penance Stare-proof, well because (although this one has at least been turned into a common trait of the entire Symbiote race, and consistently applied).

* This is particularly bad in comics where Comicbook/ThePunisher is the central character, especially as of lately. A Comicbook/WhatIf was even written where Punisher managed to take out people like Magneto and ComicBook/TheMightyThor.
** ''Comicbook/ThePunisherKillsTheMarvelUniverse''. On the other end of the scale, [[Comicbook/ArchieMeetsThePunisher he teamed up with Archie]].

* An interesting example is [[ComicBook/BeastMarvelComics Hank McCoy]], aka The Beast. If you pick up a comic in which he is in the ComicBook/XMen, the writers tend to focus mostly on his intellect while his actual powers are secondary. When he was a member of ComicBook/TheAvengers, his strength and agility were the main focus and his intellect was rarely brought up. This was because the Avengers had plenty of geniuses: [[Comicbook/AntMan Hank Pym]], ComicBook/IronMan, ComicBook/TheVision, ComicBook/BlackPanther, etc. and didn't need another. [=McCoy=] was a LightningBruiser so his abilities were bumped up to the point where he was nearly as strong as ComicBook/IronMan and could move so fast that ComicBook/CaptainAmerica had trouble following him. When he went back to the X-Men, there were already a couple strongmen (ComicBook/{{Colossus}} and ComicBook/{{Rogue}}) and agile people (ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}}, ComicBook/{{Gambit}}, ComicBook/{{Longshot}}, etc.). Even his animalistic nature was covered by Franchise/{{Wolverine}}. They didn't have any geniuses, though, so Beast became TheSmartGuy nearly on the level of [[ComicBook/MisterFantastic Reed Richards]].

* ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' antagonist ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} also suffers from this. He can be portrayed as someone who can hold his own against members of the Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}, and be able to knock out the Flash, but also struggle against someone like Comicbook/{{Nightwing}}.

* This is actually done in-universe in ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'' - when Frau Totenkinder faces Baba Yaga, the latter seems confident in her victory, because everybody knows her stories, and so her PopularityPower is great. Frau Totenkinder points out to her that PopularityPower is just a theory among fables, and not one that Totenkinder herself sets much store by, and then proceeds to thrash Baba Yaga. WordOfGod is that PopularityPower may be some kind of factor in determining the power of a fable, but that the truth is more complicated than just that.

* Doctor Manhattan in ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' was [[SuperpowerLottery extremely powerful]], but he wasn't truly omnipotent. He was as impressive as he was because he was a PersonOfMassDestruction in a world where the second strongest character is a somewhat impressive BadassNormal, and there were some limitations on what he could and couldn't do. Even his full power wouldn't be enough to stop a lot of airborne nukes (though he'd take out a good percentage of them). In ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'', to facilitate his [[CosmicRetcon involvement]] in the plot, he's shown accomplishing feats more in the range of "universe-busting", and handling people who could have solved the Cold War by simply blinking an eye and turning the Soviet Union into a chinchilla.

** While not ''as'' glaring, ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite'' features Comicbook/{{Ultron}}. That would be the guy known for having a nearly-indestructible body [[MadeOfIndestructium made of adamantium]] (or vibranium, depending on the story), yet he's able to get his ass kicked by everyone else in the cast.

** Many Banpresto's CrossOver games also qualifies: The ''[[Anime/QueensBlade Spiral Chaos games]]'' gives [[VideoGame/{{Tekken}} Lily]], who is the only character who fights ''barehanded'', moves that seems taken off more from ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' than ''Tekken''. Justified, since it's the only explanation how she's able to fight against many of the Anime/QueensBlade's cast, who uses swords or medieval weapons, or against superpowered beings like [[VideoGame/GuiltyGear Dizzy]] or people who use guns like [[VideoGame/BlazBlue Noel Vermillion]].

** At the same time though, it also averts power creeping with three plot characters: Index, [[LightNovel/NogizakaHarukaNoHimitsu Haruka]] and [[LightNovel/AsuraCryin Misao]] aren't fighters in their canon and so they are not playable characters despite being in your party; instead, they are support characters who hold the cards usable in battle. They don't even have any in-battle sprites. (And hey, it fits Index's canon role.)

* Although the storylines try to keep everything making sense (Yukari was just messing around, Sanae wasn't taking Cirno seriously, etc.), this is a continuous problem in the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' fighting {{Gaiden Game}}s, with all of the 20+ playable characters relatively equal in gameplay despite their ''gargantuan'' power differences. The best example of Power Creep is Cirno, a little ice fairy that, while suggested to be fairly powerful for the setting, has to seriously struggle to hold her own against one of the protagonists is a fair fight. And the cast is taken almost entirely from characters on the protagonist's level or higher. On the other end of the scale is Yukari, the boss of the series' only Phantasm stage and generally considered to be one of the most powerful characters. Nothing stops you from beating up Yukari with Cirno (aside from needing to link ''Hisoutensoku'' to a copy of ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'' so that [[OldSaveBonus both games' casts are playable]]).

* The ''Manga/OnePiece'' x ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' x ''Manga/DragonBall'' special, being a crossover special, brings out a truckload of these. Most of these problems are the result of having ''One Piece'' and ''Toriko'' characters fight along the Post-Buu Saga ''Dragon Ball'' cast, when Goku and his allies had already reached insane levels of power in canon.

** When Piccolo teams up with Sanji and Sunny to fight Akami, the latter two fighters are unable to damage Akami thanks to its CombatTentacles until Piccolo comes in and catches it off guard. Then the trio does a CombinationAttack. While Sanji and Sunny are very powerful in their own right, they're still nowhere near Piccolo in terms of raw power.[[note]] Since Piccolo could blow up the moon early in [=DBZ=].[[/note]]