History Main / PowerCreepPowerSeep

* This is prevalent in the various crossovers of works by Creator/KazumaKamachi (''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'', ''LightNovel/TheZashikiWarashiOfIntellectualVillage'', ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'', ''LightNovel/ASimpleSurvey'' etc.). These settings all have drastically different power levels, with ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'' completely lacking any supernatural powers. A notable offender is the first crossover[[note]]The Circumstances Leading to a Certain Magical Heavy Zashiki Warashi’s Simple Killer Queen's Marriage[[/note]], in which Othinus (a Magic God from ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'') briefly holds off but is eventually driven away by Odin (a god from ''LightNovel/TheCircumstancesLeadingToWaltrautesMarriage''). Magic Gods are capable of reshaping the entire universe to their whims, while gods of the latter setting never do anything on this level.

* ''Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venus'', being a crossover {{action RPG}}, delivers a nerf bat to everyone and everything from ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'', ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' and ''LightNovel/AsuraCryin'' as well as to that good ol' psycho angel [[LightNovel/BludgeoningAngelDokurochan Dokuro-chan]], and a buffing to just about everything pertaining to ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}'' (Yes, even Inko, who is a mook) and ''LightNovel/KinosJourney''. And most of the bosses are {{Evil Knockoff}}s of various characters, explaining their weakness (or in a few cases, strength) compared to the people they replicate.
** At the same time though, it also averts power creeping with three plot characters: Index, [[LightNovel/HarukaNogizakasSecret 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.)

* While one could see ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'''s eponymous character matching the other mages in ''VideoGame/MagicalBattleArena'' power-wise, it's a little harder to imagine her being able to take hits as well [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha as renowned members of a multi-dimension spanning police force]] or [[LightNovel/{{Slayers}} veteran adventurers of a fantasy world]] considering how she kinda has the durability of an ordinary elementary school student.

* ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients'' does this with a lot of the crossover heroes. One of the most notable examples, [[LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Lina Inverse]], can ''unmake creation'' with her Laguna Blade, which only does 1250 damage in-game. (Which, to be fair, is ''a lot of damage''.)

* Continuing the trend for ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'''s {{Guest Fighter}}s, we have the [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} T-800]], the aforementioned [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]], 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.

*** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha 3'' and ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsDestiny'' has moments where awkward game design makes one group too strong or one group too weak. In ''Alpha 3'', Phase Shift Armor made the ''Gundam SEED'' units virtually unstoppable due to drastically reducing damage from anything not specifically coded as a beam weapon, which most non-Gundam weapons are not even when they fire energy beams. In ''Destiny'', enemies possessed outrageous attack power compared to the armor stats of player units, making super robots, designed with the intent of tanking hits, incapable of doing so. [[UrbanLegendOfZelda The degree of power seep was so great that many players became mistakenly convinced that it was a bug.]]
*** ''Z3'' incorporates both ''Anime/GurrenLagann'' (a series where the final villain threw a Big Bang as an attack) and ''Anime/ArmoredTrooperVotoms'' (a series where the main robots could be damaged by grenades). The result was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqAmzPj9bLE inevitable]].
*** One of the stranger places this applies is that, in the game's graphics, most of the robots are [[NotDrawnToScale about the same size]] (despite having "size classes" that refer to their canonical sizes in relation to each other). For instance, a Franchise/{{Gundam}} fighting Anime/Daitarn3 will have at most [[OneHeadTaller a head of difference]]; were scale taken into account, the former would fit comfortably into the latter's palm.

** Many of 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]].
*** And even in the case of both Dizzy and Noel, it could be {{handwave}}d that they are trying to avoid using their full power (Dizzy) or in Noel's case, [[spoiler:she's using her humanoid form and not her Mu-12 persona]].
* 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 WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse with Yoda-like fighting abilities while retaining the personality he's had for the past 50 or 60 years.
** Mind, Mickey's always been a badass, most of the shorts he's in where he's depicted this way are just usually shafted with American airings.
** Special mention goes to [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ariel]], who never fought in the original movie. Here? She becomes a straight-up BlackMage who helps you defeat Ursula after she becomes giant.

See also {{Repower}}. Compare CCGImportanceDissonance, PVPBalanced and PopularityPower. SisterTrope to StoryBreakerTeamUp. Contrast NormalFishInATinyPond, where characters that are weak in their home universe don't suffer from this when brought into a weaker universe and thus appear much stronger there. Can be justified by YourMagicsNoGoodHere when the two character's settings are [[AnotherDimension alternate universes]], or giving the more powerful character's dimension a stronger BackgroundMagicField, if such a thing exist in-universe. See also, CrossoverPowerAcquisition, where power from one franchise is transferred to another character during a {{crossover}}.

** ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'' brings [[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]]. He can't even jump during gameplay in his own series, but here he can easily jump three times his height and fly with the assistance of a summoned Cypher (his enemies in his games), perform elegant suplexes, and is so flexible he can bend his spine almost all the way back. Also, the swimming/drowning mechanics the game introduced are nearly the same for everyone, even for characters who can't swim (Sonic and Charizard), characters who can't drown (Squirtle in ''Brawl'' and Greninja in ''Wii U/3DS''), or characters who ''dissolve'' in water (the Inklings in ''Ultimate''). Varia Samus and Zero Suit Samus highlight this as well. In [[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission their original appearance,]] Zero Suit Samus was part of a NoGearLevel, lacking any offensive capabilities whatsoever outside of a temporary stun. In ''Smash Bros'', she's significantly faster and more agile than her armored counterpart (in the original, she was, if anything, slower), and actually places higher on most CharacterTiers.

** In ''[=WiiU=]/3DS'', in some kind of reverse example from the Sword of Seals, Robin's [[StarterEquipment Bronze Sword]] is as strong as legendary weapons wielded by his fellow Fire Emblem reps, and can now use dark magic. On the other hand, he is the slowest character in the game despite having utterly overpowered GameBreaker stats in Awakening.

*** ''VideoGame/SupermanShadowOfApokolips'' 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/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse'' is interesting about this, because it brings up the question of who is really getting the creeps and seeps respectively, since there's Superman on the DC side, a god (Raiden) and a supernatural undead (Scorpion) on the ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' side, and a range of less powerful superheroes and flat-out humans scattered across both. The final explanation is that the merging of the two universes causes powers to fluctuate, strengthening some and weakening others. It gets lampshaded when, after [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]] defeats Sonya, Characters/{{Deathstroke}} asks in bewilderment, "Since when can ''you'' beat anybody?!" (The Joker promptly trashes him afterwards and then decides to use his newfound strength to defeat Batman. He does but then [[VillainBall forgot]] the Bat's [[CrazyPrepared defining characteristic]] and got knocked out by a taser.)

** Continuing the trend for ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'''s {{Guest Fighter}}s, we have the [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} T-800]], the aforementioned [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]], 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.

* ''Franchise/superSentai'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers''.

** A notable example of this occurs in the above-mentioned ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'' 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/SupermanBatman'' #78 featured two kids discussing an UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny between the two heroes. They immediately agree that Batman can't use Kryptonite, but to compensate, the [[ThouShaltNotKill fight can't be lethal]] - since if Superman were to use lethal force, he'd just punch Batman's head off in the first three seconds.

* 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 being four times as tall and broader in build, thus [[SquareCubeLaw dozens if not hundreds of times as massive]]. In his own film, Godzilla also showed no reaction to being shot with cruise missiles and was only knocked out by being hit with a ''15 megaton nuke'' (he was a good distance from ground zero, but still; the other kaiju he was fighting at the time in the prequel comic was instantly incinerated by the same energy despite being nearly as big of him and similarly resistant to conventional weaponry). For comparison, Kong in ''his'' movie was nearly killed by a handful of soldiers with [=C4=] and napalm and was cut by both heavy machine gun fire and the rotor blades of a helicopter. Consequently, the film gave Kong an upscale and a proportional boost to durability and strength, with the justification that he's been growing (and tellingly, he's still the shorter of the two by a good ways). It's never explained why he got dozens of times bigger in just a few decades when the rest of his species, including his own parents, were around the same size as he was in ''Skull Island'' (as indicated by their skeletons), despite many presumably being much older than him. His archenemies that exterminated his entire species, the Skullcrawlers, were even smaller (including their leader Ramarak).

* In the {{Franchise/Nasuverse}}, supposedly even the strongest of the Hero Servants from ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' are just "1/4th of the power of the vampire Arcueid" from ''{{VisualNovel/Tsukihime}}'', according to the writers. However, in the fan CrossOver ''VideoGame/BattleMoonWars'', the Servant Saber gets paired with the maid Kohaku, who proceeds to pump Saber up with all kinds of beneficial [[strike:drugs]] power-ups to equalize things. This is the only one that's really explained however; Hisui the maid can match vampires as well for some reason.

* This is the essential gimmick of a lot of {{Allegedly Free Game}}s like ''VideoGame/MarvelStrikeForce'' or ''VideoGame/StarWarsGalaxyOfHeroes'', where you collect and level up characters in order to participate in a lot of different arenas, either against the computer or against other players. New characters get released over time that can overpower the previous most powerful team. If the game balances it well, then meta-gaming means you get to play TacticalRockPaperScissors and no single team is the most powerful, but... the point of the game is [[MoneyDearBoy to make money]], and nothing motivates the whales to spend like a new most powerful team that is almost impossible for the Free to Play players to acquire right away. Sometimes old teams will get reworked to keep the game from getting too ridiculous and encourage new players to jump in and keep playing, but it's always a struggle. Keep the game from being too frustrating so the [=F2P=] players stay involved and the whales have enough people to beat, but keep it frustrating enough that the whales are willing to play.

* Any game set in the ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''-verse, like ''VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureAllStarBattle'', has to balance Stands being InvisibleToNormals with Stand users not completely destroying the characters from [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Parts 1]] and [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency 2]], before Stands [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders were introduced]]. Usually, it's accepted that non-Stand Users can see Stands in a NecessaryWeasel to allow them to at least dodge their opponents (though a few lines in ''Eyes of Heaven'' imply that the Pillar Men still can't see Stands).

See also {{Repower}}. Compare CCGImportanceDissonance, PVPBalanced and PopularityPower. SisterTrope to StoryBreakerTeamUp. Contrast NormalFishInATinyPond, where characters that are weak in their home universe don't suffer from this when brought into a weaker universe and thus appear much stronger there. Can be justified by YourMagicsNoGoodHere when the two character's settings are [[AnotherDimension alternate universes]], or giving the more powerful character's dimension a stronger BackgroundMagicField, if such a thing exist in-universe. See also, CrossoverPowerAcquisition, where power from one franchise is transfered to character in another during a {{crossover}}.

** One notorious example of this happened in the ''Comicbook/MarvelVersusDC'' crossover, where [[PopularityPower based on a fan poll]], Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} beat ComicBook/{{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.

* Happens in crossover titles in video games as well, as evidenced in [[VideoGame/CapcomVs Capcom crossover games]]. This is something of a necessity; how else could you expect [[Franchise/StreetFighter Dan Hibiki or Sakura]] to fight, say, the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] or Characters/DoctorDoom without having a serious upgrade in strength? (Dan, of course, doesn't have a chance even with the upgrade, but he's a JokeCharacter anyway.) The concept was (lovingly) mocked in a segment on ''Series/XPlay'' where Blair Butler took a look back at the ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom'' series, noting in each game the number of fighters, adding that "none of them would stand a chance against the Hulk"; while not completely true, it gets the point across.

* In ''VideoGame/SpiderManShatteredDimensions'', Amazing Spider-Man takes out the ComicBook/{{Juggernaut|MarvelComics}} 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]].

** The killer robot was also given a realistic way to stand up to Superman: ComicBook/HarleyQuinn had [[BoundAndGagged gagged and duct-taped]] Luthor's {{bodyguard|Babes}} Mercy to the robot, [[HumanShield making it impossible for Superman to hit it without killing her too]].

* This trope hits [[Franchise/{{Ben10}} Ben]] hard in ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10GeneratorRexHeroesUnited Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United]]''. Due to his alien forms having an incredibly huge amount of abilities[[note]] SuperStrength, SuperSpeed, {{Flight}}, [[MakeMeWannaShout Sonic Screams]], [[PlayingWithFire Fire Manipulation]], ColdFlames, [[ExtremeOmnivore Using eaten objects as makeshift projectiles]], {{Intangibility}}, RollingAttack, [[SuperNotDrowningSkills Underwater Breathing]], MagnetismManipulation, SelfDuplication, [[ShockAndAwe Electricity Manipulation]], TimeTravel, and many ''many'' more[[/note]] compared to [[ShapeShifterWeapon Rex]], he ends up having his Ultimatrix hacked by Alpha and not working properly for most of the final act. Considering [[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce his]] [[WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien main]] [[WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse series]] also had trouble keeping his abilities in check, it doesn't feel out of place.

See also {{Repower}}. Compare CCGImportanceDissonance, PVPBalanced and PopularityPower. SisterTrope to StoryBreakerTeamUp. Contrast NormalFishInATinyPond, where characters that are weak in their home universe don't suffer from this when brought into a weaker universe and thus appear much stronger there. Can be justified by YourMagicsNoGoodHere when the two character's settings are [[AnotherDimension alternate universes]], or giving the more powerful character's dimension a stronger BackgroundMagicField, if such a thing exist in-universe. See also, CrossoverPowerAcquisition, where power from one franchise is transfered to character in another during a crossover.

See also {{Repower}}. Compare CCGImportanceDissonance, PVPBalanced and PopularityPower. SisterTrope to StoryBreakerTeamUp. Contrast NormalFishInATinyPond, where characters that are weak in their home universe don't suffer from this when brought into a weaker universe and thus appear much stronger there. Can be justified by YourMagicsNoGoodHere when the two character's settings are [[AnotherDimension alternate universes]], or giving the more powerful character's dimension a stronger BackgroundMagicField, if such a thing exist in-universe.

->''"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."''
-->-- '''[[Franchise/{{Rambo}} John James Rambo's]]''' Ladder Ending, ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11''

** Another good show of this comes from two newcomers to ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]''. On one hand, you have the [[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} Inklings]], humanoid squid kids who in their home series only fight with weapons that shoot ink in what basically amounts to a professional sport. The other one is Ridley, Samus' nemesis, a feared space pirate who also happens to be a huge space dragon/pterodactyl hybrid that can shrug off dozens of missiles to the face. He still can be beaten by the aforementioned squid kids. Additionally, one of the first [[MovesetClone Echo Fighters]] revealed was Dark Samus, who loses most of the crazy Phazon-powered tricks she demonstrated in her home series and instead ends up with the usual array of lasers and missiles that Samus favors.

* In ''VideoGame/SpiderManShatteredDimensions'', Amazing Spider-Man takes out the Characters/{{Juggernaut}} 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]].

*** One of the stranger places this applies is that, in the game's graphics, most of the robots are [[NotDrawnToScale about the same size]] (despite having "size classes" that refer to their canonical sizes in relation to each other). For instance, a Anime/{{Gundam}} fighting Anime/Daitarn3 will have at most [[OneHeadTaller a head of difference]]; were scale taken into account, the former would fit comfortably into the latter's palm.

* What some consider a modern example of the above is the fight between [[Characters/UltimateSpiderManMilesMorales Miles Morales]] and Blackheart. For reference, Blackheart is in the same league as the likes of Firelord, being the son of [[Characters/MarvelComicsDemons Mephisto]] himself (basically {{Satan}} of the Marvel Universe). Earlier in that fight, Blackheart effortlessly beat the Avengers offscreen, including powerhouses like [[Characters/Avengers60sMembers The Vision]], Characters/ScarletWitch, Iron Man, ComicBook/SheHulk and freaking ''Thor'' (the [[ComicBook/Thor2014 Jane Foster]] version, but still) with only the Sam Wilson Captain America left standing (how he managed to outlast such powerhouses against Blackheart could be another example). With only Miles left standing, he uses his Venom Blast to achieve victory, hitting him so hard that Blackheart can no longer fight and falls unconscious. Even in-universe, Miles regards this as a fluke win, as if to [[LampshadeHanging hang a lampshade]] on it. Granted, at least unlike the Spidey vs. Firelord fight, Miles ''did'' take some hits and had to use Cap's invulnerable shield to protect himself, so there's that.

* An interesting example is [[Characters/XMenTheOriginalTeam 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, [[Characters/Avengers60sMembers The Vision]], 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 Captain America had trouble following him. When he went back to the X-Men, there were already a couple strongmen ([[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsRogue Rogue]]) and agile people ([[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]], [[Characters/MarvelComicsGambit Gambit]], [[Characters/XMenMojoverse Longshot]], etc.). Even his animalistic nature was covered by Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}}. They didn't have any geniuses, though, so Beast became TheSmartGuy nearly on the level of [[Characters/FantasticFourTheFantasticFour Reed Richards]].

*** Two crossover battles shown between [[Characters/Avengers60sMembers Quicksilver]] and ComicBook/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]] (in ''Comicbook/MarvelVersusDC'') 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 (in ''[=JLA/Avengers=]''). 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).

* This is the essential gimmick of a lot of AllegedlyFreeGames like ''VideoGame/MarvelStrikeForce'' or ''VideoGame/StarWarsGalaxyOfHeroes'', where you collect and level up characters in order to participate in a lot of different arenas, either against the computer or against other players. New characters get released over time that can overpower the previous most powerful team. If the game balances it well, then meta-gaming means you get to play TacticalRockPaperScissors and no single team is the most powerful, but... the point of the game is [[MoneyDearBoy to make money]], and nothing motivates the whales to spend like a new most powerful team that is almost impossible for the Free to Play players to acquire right away. Sometimes old teams will get reworked to keep the game from getting too ridiculous and encourage new players to jump in and keep playing, but it's always a struggle. Keep the game from being too frustrating so the F2P players stay involved and the whales have enough people to beat, but keep it frustrating enough that the whales are willing to play.

*** [[Franchise/AceAttorney Phoenix Wright]] is now in the ''Vs.'' series as of ''[=UMvC3=]''. His ultimate attack? [[MundaneMadeAwesome "The real culprit... IS YOU!"]] In other words, he can defeat a world-destroying horror ''by providing evidence of guilt and giving it the pointer finger!''

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

** ''VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse'' is interesting about this, because it brings up the question of who is really getting the creeps and seeps respectively, since there's Superman on the DC side, a god (Raiden) and a supernatural undead (Scorpion) on the ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' side, and a range of less powerful superheroes and flat-out humans scattered across both. The final explanation is that the merging of the two universes causes powers to fluctuate, strengthening some and weakening others. It gets lampshaded when, after [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]] defeats Sonya, [[Characters/BatmanDeathstroke Deathstroke]] asks in bewilderment, "Since when can ''you'' beat anybody?!" (The Joker promptly trashes him afterwards and then decides to use his newfound strength to defeat Batman. He does but then [[VillainBall forgot]] the Bat's [[CrazyPrepared defining characteristic]] and got knocked out by a taser.)

*** ''Batman v. Superman'' largely got its start in Creator/FrankMiller's ''Comicbook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns''. Batman gears up all the way, breaks out all his reserve equipment, the story takes place right after Superman almost dies, and it is made clear that Superman is unwilling to try to kill Batman. It ends with Batman in a position where he can win, [[spoiler: and instead, he fakes his own death]].

* An interesting example is [[Characters/XMenTheOriginalTeam 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, [[Characters/Avengers60sMembers The Vision]], 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 Captain America had trouble following him. When he went back to the X-Men, there were already a couple strongmen ([[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus]] and [[Characters/XMen80sMembers Rogue]]) and agile people ([[Characters/XMen70sMembers Nightcrawler]], [[Characters/XMen90sMembers Gambit]], [[Characters/XMenMojoverse Longshot]], etc.). Even his animalistic nature was covered by Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}}. They didn't have any geniuses, though, so Beast became TheSmartGuy nearly on the level of [[Characters/FantasticFourTheFantasticFour Reed Richards]].

** Marvel have been countering this by making their heavyweights, such as [[Characters/TheMightyThorThorOdinson Thor]], who was already roughly equal to Superman at the time of ''Comicbook/JLAAvengers'', and [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] (who can now do things like pull [[Characters/XMen80sMembers Kitty Pryde]] 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 [[Characters/IncredibleHulkBruceBanner The Incredible Hulk]]. And they're creating new heavyweights (e.g. Characters/TheSentry, who puts even a souped-up Thor to shame and even while weakened, stalemated Green Scar), and [[Characters/GenerationHope Hope Summers]], who, under the right circumstances, could take the entire JLA at full power.