Line #23 InformedAbility/ComicBooks


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2	* ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'': Satirized, as Seth claims to have "over 1,000" different powers. Among them: Nuclear poop-vision, speed-squared, shame-o-vision, and rainbow breath. Seemingly none of the listed powers were worth using against the Authority, however.
3	* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
4	** A number of writers talk up Batman's morality, treating him as if he possesses IncorruptiblePurePureness and is an icon of goodwill and honor among Earth's heroes. Unfortunately, this is also waylaid by the fact that Batman is the designated GoodIsNotNice AntiHero of the DCU, and therefore has a ''lot'' of moments of just acting like a jerk under his belt, even accounting for DependingOnTheWriter issues.
5	** The Ten-Eyed Man often places on lists of "lamest Batman villains" for his [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway rather... odd...]] ability of having his eyes on his fingertips. Thing is, he ''wasn't'' intended as a joke; many characters talked up the awesomeness of his power and considered him a potentially unbeatable opponent. It goes without saying that a villain who can be defeated by tossing a sharp object (or ''any'' object, really) and shouting "Catch!" wasn't going to live up to that hype. He was literally once defeated using a pot of shrimp scampi sauce.
6	** It's often stated that ComicBook/TheJoker's greatest advantage is his insanity, which makes him [[ConfusionFu utterly unpredictable]] to the point where it's impossible to guess what he'll do next, [[IndyPloy even for him.]] In practice, though, he seems to have no problem with preparing complex plans, and 90% of the time, his goals are something along the lines of "steal something," "kill a dude," or if he's feeling really creative, "try to drive Batman nuts," which is hardly unpredictable for a psychotic criminal. He also seems to be fully aware of his own actions, which casts doubt on the idea of him being insane at all.
7	* ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'': Something that's come up is that Matt Murdock is meant to be an ''amazing'' lawyer. He graduated top of his class and every time anyone mentions his law career, it's about how good he is... except, in modern stories, he more often than not ''loses'' his cases or needs to go out of his way as Daredevil to help him win them. For example, when he was outed as Daredevil by a newspaper, the ''only'' way he could even ''attempt'' to win a libel suit... was to outright intimidate the newspaper's source into leaving town. Never mind that the source was basing this purely on speculation and that the newspaper never named their source. While at times he's caught up in the system... he's a lawyer, knowing the system is sort of half his job, so you'd think he'd be better at it and not have to resort to putting on a devil costume every chance he gets.
8	* ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}'': Played for laughs, where the superheroine Ocelotina is noted to have "[[AnimalThemedSuperbeing feline superpowers]]" that are disabled [[WeaksauceWeakness by tying her hands behind her back with her tail]]. However, in all the available footage of her, she never actually shows what those feline superpowers ''are''--she always gets tied up before she can actually use them. This is because, in reality, Ocelotina has no powers whatsoever, and her "crimefighting footage" is actually thinly-veiled softcore bondage porn.
9	* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': The Green Lantern's [[ImaginationBasedSuperpower power ring]]. The two most used descriptions for it are "the most powerful weapon in the universe" and "it can do anything you will it to". However, what this really translates to is "you can make glowy items with it". Any time a Green Lantern does something besides making glowy items with the ring that can, remember, ''do anything'', other people react with shock, and it's generally a huge story point.
10	** Later comics try to fix this, mostly because a glowy item may be the best solution for a problem.
11	** Kyle Rayner's ring was explained to be different, that his ring could "create anything that he wills it to." This may have been to go back on the concept of "can do anything you will it to do, but you will only make glowing boxing gloves with it". Or possibly to highlight his background as an artist and thus will create giant mechs, video game characters, robots, and other fun things that were not glowing boxing gloves. (Except in that one instance.)
12	** This is partly TheArtifact from the earlier days of the franchise, when Green Lantern rings really ''could'' [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands do just about anything.]] Alan Scott in particular seemed to reveal new powers on every page. By the 80s, the average Lantern powerset was more or less standardized to "fly through space, shoot lasers, make green stuff", but the branding of "most powerful weapon in the universe" was too nice to drop.
13	** Hal Jordan is usually described as "[[TheAce the greatest Green Lantern of all]]." Most of the time, though, he seems pretty average, and not much stronger (if at all) than the other human Lanterns, and quite a few Lanterns have accomplished things he's never even come close to. He also has some fairly consistent weak spots (most obviously, not-great creativity or intellect, when he has an ImaginationBasedSuperpower) that would probably hamper his ranking. It's even funnier if you go by his performances in the Silver Age, where he was almost [[MemeticLoser notorious]] for getting knocked out on a routine basis.
14	* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules'': ComicBook/{{Ares\|Marvel}} from Creator/MarvelComics joined the Avengers with the claim that he was a powerhouse like ComicBook/TheMightyThor with the martial arts skills and willingness to kill of ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and tactical abilities of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, contrary to previous characterization, all due to being the [[WarGod God of War!]] In practice, he was a loose cannon whose strategies were all AttackAttackAttack, and the most martial skill he demonstrated was swinging a giant axe around. His real role on the team was to be the [[TheWorfEffect resident Worf.]]
15	** Doubles as a historical in-joke: the bronze-age greeks had two gods of war (or arguably more, but two primary ones) in their mythology: Athena and Ares, and they had a running in-mythology feud over who was better at it, with Athena sponsoring Athens and Ares sponsoring mostly Sparta while they flung continual insults at each other. Since the literature of Athens largely survived into the modern age and that of Sparta didn't attain the same significance, in a lot of the surviving mythology Athena is the calm, skilled strategist that wins by guile and true bravery in noble defense of her chosen people while Ares gets to play the dumb brute who just loves murdering things, doesn't do that particularly well, and [[DirtyCoward runs away when things go badly]].
16	* ''ComicBook/IronMan'': Iron Man's "buster" armors are almost always hyped up as being designed and able to defeat a specific powerful threat - the Hulkbuster can defeat Hulk, the Phoenixbuster can defeat Phoenix, the Thorbuster can defeat Thor, etc. Unfortunately for Tony, pretty much every time a Buster armor goes up against a person it was made to fight, it fails, and often pretty easily - at best, it manages to get in a sucker punch and hold out for a brief period before he runs for it. The only time a "buster" defeated the opponent it was made to fight was in the film ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''. It seems Tony has a very inflated opinion of his armor's abilities.
17	* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'': The ex-hero-turned-villain Triumph had numerous ones but unlike most examples, it wasn't for a lack of trying; he was quoting {{new powers\|AsThePlotDemands}} in practically every panel he appeared in. His powers revolved around complete manipulation of the electromagnetic spectrum and among his stated-but-never-seen powers: generating a microwave pulse, perceiving radio/satellite signals and being able to kill Franchise/{{Superman}} by sucking the solar energy from his body. He also claimed to have other powers the heroes "didn't even have names for" so his list of informed abilities was potentially endless.
18	* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'': Early Marvel team titles like ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' and ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' tended to say a lot about the team leader (Mr. Fantastic and Captain America, respectively) being inspiring, commanding and brilliant tacticians. What we actually ''saw'' was Reed and Steve completely failing to exercise as much authority as the standard grade school teacher, while [[NeverMyFault blaming it all on their subordinates]] for not falling in line (ignoring that getting people to fall in line is what an "inspiring" and "commanding" person ''is supposed to be good at''). It was especially noticeable in contrast to the contemporary ComicBook/XMen, where Professor X actually ''was'' managing to keep a team composed of rambunctious teenagers running like a well-oiled machine and providing them with invaluable MissionControl despite being in a wheelchair.
19	* ''ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}'': Nightwing is supposed to be TheHeart of the DC Universe, and holds a special place in the hearts of everyone. Older heroes see him as a surrogate son (TheAce kind who you show off at parties and the like), younger heroes see him as a BigBrotherMentor (he has led most of them at one point or another) and civilians generally seem to consider him Batman's heir (which is actually true). In short: he is very friendly with everyone in the DC Universe and has excellent leadership skills. This actually worked in the Post-Crisis universe, since Batman's generation were usually depicted as being in their late 30s at youngest, while Dick's generation were in their early to mid 20s, allowing Dick to be seen as both a surrogate son ''and'' a big brother by different generations of heroes. In the New 52 Universe, Nightwing is not shown ''once'' interacting with heroes outside of the Bat-Family. In fact, in his brief appearance in ''Justice League'', he comes off as incredibly anti-social as he ''only'' briefly talks to Batman. Hell, he has led ''one'' team which fell apart. Plus, with all the older heroes being in their late 20s ''at best'', and Dick still being in his early 20s, the surrogate son idea is also removed. This leaves his BigBrotherMentor status, which ''only'' applies to subsequent Robins, which wouldn't even make him come off as friendly (in fact, it may make him come off like a snob if you think about it), let alone make him TheHeart, as literally every Robin after him (in the New 52) is anti-social to a large degree. [[note]]Jason Todd is a wanted criminal and generally avoids other heroes and is not liked by them, Tim Drake is shown to have almost no friends and almost always kept to himself before founding the Titans, and even then, he's anti-social, and Damian Wayne has never interacted with people beyond the extended Bat-Family, who he's a Jerkass to[[/note]]
20	* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': It is constantly said that Alex is a genius and master strategist to make up for the fact that he has no powers. An observant reader might have trouble believing this, considering all the tactical errors he makes (not grabbing money or food before running away, letting an untrusted stranger into their hide-out, etc). [[spoiler: Subverted with the reveal that he's TheMole, and all those poor decisions make sense in context of manipulating the group to save his own parents.]]
21	* ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire'': The invading Chitauri force is repeatedly noted to be greater in power than the ComicBook/{{Annihilation}} Wave. This is a baffling claim, as at all points onscreen, the Chitauri seem to be just small waves of {{Mooks}} that are easily dealt with. Compare that to the Annihilation Wave, which decimated whole galaxies, reduced the Nova Corps to a single man within hours of starting its invasion, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu pummeled Heralds of Galactus to the brink of death]], and posed an existential threat to the ''[[OmnicidalManiac universe]]'', and it just looks even more absurd.
22	* ''ComicBook/TheSentry'': As a consequence of being a walking CosmicRetcon, he's a moral paragon (who has no compunction about executing people), more powerful than anyone in the universe (who doesn't seem that much stronger than Thor outside of instances of NewPowersAsThePlotDemands), friend of every hero and foe of every villain (who mostly ignore him whenever he's not on-panel) with a list of achievements a mile long (there was the time he killed Carnage and... uh...). This was all well and good when he was confined to a miniseries, but prolonged periods led to the more [[CreatorsPet traditional response]] of InformedAbility.
23	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
24	** ''Carlie Cooper''. All those amazing qualities of hers are never ''shown'', most likely because she hasn't been published long enough. Carlie is possibly an odd combination of InformedAbility and CompositeCharacter. Those things that are supposed to make her great? NerdsAreSexy, BeautifulAllAlong, falling for "Peter, not Spider-Man" and having a DarkAndTroubledPast involving her dad? ''Deb Whitman, Gwen Stacy, and Mary-Jane Watson would like to have a word with you.''
25	*** Carlie was pushed as someone who could "handle" Peter's secret identity issues and not emotionally break down like previous love interests Deb Whitman, Felicia Hardy and Mary Jane Watson, so much so that it was argued by the writers that Peter was in the wrong for not telling her when she asked. However, after Carlie learned Peter's identity by accident, she completely breaks down emotionally, breaking up with Peter and telling him that he's essentially two different people, not even giving a single consideration about his side of things. She then is emotionally withdrawn from him every time they work together, and after a long TraumaCongaLine where she tries and fails to expose Doc Ock as well as being abducted by the Green Goblin and turned into a supervillain, she leaves town after she decides Peter's life is too dangerous for anyone to be around. Hardly the actions of someone who could supposedly handle Peter's secret life.
26	** ComicBook/GwenStacy's science smarts. They were brought up in one issue during her original appearances, and never mentioned again. It's only in flashback issues that she's actually shown using science. They get played up in adaptations, seemingly to make her more unique or approachable, or in some cases, more useful.
27	** During ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'', the writers tried to make [[BigBad The Jackal]] out to be so [[ManipulativeBastard great at manipulating people]] that, during "Smoke & Mirrors," Peter and Ben say that refusing to trust him would be to call into question everything they've ever known. Here's the problem: [[ObviouslyEvil at no point does the Jackal ever come across as remotely trustworthy.]] Throughout "Smoke & Mirrors", the Jackal does little more than spout off BlatantLies that are InstantlyProvenWrong, and he says everything in such a smarmy, jokey manner that it's hard to take seriously anything he says. This makes it more than a little baffling that Peter and Ben would keep trusting him on his word.
28	** During ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan2013'', Doc Ock in Spider-Man's body is presented as being far more competent than Peter in every way, and that his more aggressive actions as Spider-Man are the right idea. He is also presented as having a better grasp the balance of Peter's personal life and time as a superhero, and far more successful as a result. However, the only reason he is more successful is that Otto is willing to engage in outright criminal actions to cut corners, as well as resort to mutilating or even murdering his opponents. His "success" in regards to his academic life is also dubious as he succeeds only through tricking a former colleague into accepting his work, and his wealth is due to him stealing money from other companies. In short, Otto is only "superior" because he is willing to take short cuts and engage in actions that Peter would never do. Made all the worse by the fact that all these things fall apart around Otto by the end, but the series never calls out this hypocrisy.
29	*** Otto is also presented as "respecting women," which is presented as a redeeming trait of his. His relationship with Anna Marie Marconi is treated as something noble as Otto sees "the real person" rather than treating Anna differently because she is a little person. Unfortunately, this comes after Otto spends an entire issue trying to rape Mary Jane Watson by exploiting her relationship with Peter while he is in his body. Otto's entire relationship with Anna Marie can be categorized as rape by deception. It's difficult to reconcile Otto being presented as someone who respects women while also engaging in sexual assault and battery. He also did in fact, beat up Felicia Hardy rather brutally although this particular instance could be considered a case of Otto just not giving Felicia(who was comitting an act of burglary) any of the special treatment Peter usually gives her.
30	* ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'':
31	** Tim Drake's ComicBook/{{Robin}} is supposed to be a brilliant leader on par with his predecessor ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}. Except that his team mostly does what they want, when they want. And they keep quitting because he and ComicBook/WonderGirl are both assholes. Indeed, Robin's leadership is mostly shown only as him shouting "You, fight him! You, fight her! The rest of you, fight the rest of them! Go!" He did display pretty decent leadership skills in ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'', which sadly means his character ''regressed'' as he aged and joined the Titans.
32	** Terry Long was supposed to be a guy so charming and good-natured, that despite [[UglyGuyHotWife his homely looks]] and [[MayDecemberRomance middle age]], Donna Troy was envied for marrying him. He's been topping "creepiest comic character" lists ever since, as instead, he just came across as a bit of a lech; openly hitting on his girlfriend's friends, offering up cringingly bad pickup lines and [[TotallyRadical dated references]], and occasionally just being a flat-out JerkAss.
33	** ''ComicBook/TheJudasContract'' storyline.
34	*** The Pure Evil of [[TheMole Terra]]. [[TheEmpath Raven]] can sense her evil and [[{{Anvilicious}} even explicitly calls her evil.]] The {{Narrator}} [[AndThatsTerrible confirms her evil.]] Terra herself openly [[EvilGloating gloats]] and [[ForTheEvulz revels in how evil she is.]] Later, her own boss, Slade, will claim that as a mercenary he'd traveled the world and seen all kinds of evil, [[EvenEvilHasStandards but nothing quite as evil as Terra.]] And from the start of her comics debut up until her death, her body count is exactly zero. For her one act of sustained evil- infiltrating and spying on the Titans, capturing them, and trying to kill them all- she's JustFollowingOrders from Slade's EvilPlan (and the Titans eventually [[EasilyForgiven forgive Slade]]). When it comes to actually killing the Titans, [[EpicFail she kills nobody]] [[DrivenToSuicide but herself.]]
35	*** Terra's creator, Marv Wolfman ([[WordOfGod who's always insisted that Terra was never anything but]] EvilAllAlong) later tried to rectify the relative lack of evil deeds to match the rhetoric by having Slade [[{{Retcon}} "reveal"]] that before she even met Slade, [[KickTheDog she murdered a good man in Africa.]] [[FridgeLogic A few problems with this:]] 1) There's only have Slade's word for this, in-universe. That is, we only have the word of [[TheChessmaster Death]][[ConsummateLiar stroke]] [[ManipulativeBastard the]] [[UnreliableExpositor Terminator]]. And in context, he's trying to gain Beast Boy's forgiveness so that Beast Boy stops trying to kill him, and the African man just so ''happens'' to be someone Beast Boy was close to as a child. 2) The same time Slade says this, he also says something demonstrably false, that Terra hated everyone, starting with her heroic brother, Geo-Force from ''ComicBook/{{The Outsiders\|DCComics}}''. But in the TT/Outsiders CrossOver where they reunited for the first time after joining their respective teams, she was [[PetTheDog openly affectionate to her brother]], which she never was to the Titans. She even thought ''to herself'' that she didn't want her brother to go down with the Titans when she betrayed them, which means that her open affection wasn't an act. 3) Aside from this one uncorroborated (and never mentioned again) story from Slade, nothing else in her background suggests that she'd ever been to Africa.
36	*** It gets better: Slade said that ''he'' was offered money to kill the African guy, but refused because he was "a friend of his". If Terra killing him is true, then Slade really isn't making himself look good at all, seeing as he would have had ''hired and slept with the girl he knew damn well murdered his friend!''
37	* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
38	** Megatron from ''ComicBook/TheTransformersAllHailMegatron'' claims to be an amazing tactical genius, but his abilities do not even come close to living up to the hype. It's noticed by the other Decepticons, too: when Starscream once again rebels, he's able to convince a lot of the other Decepticons to join him in fighting Megatron because of it, whereas before he'd only ever been able to talk one or two warriors into joining him. This even got [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' by a former Decepticon who's become a successful standup comedian: one of his most popular routines is about how little sense Megatron's big Six Phase Strategy made. A later speech by Starscream seemed to be a big LampshadeHanging on the idea, characterizing Megatron as a charismatic nobody who ended up in the right place at the right time, and his ridiculous hype is basically him trying to cover that up.
39	** Ironfist, of ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers'', is regularly noted to be a talented writer who is widely-read across the warfront. However, we see a snippet of one of his works in ''Bullets'', and it practically veers into StylisticSuck (it was a direct parody of longtime Transformers comics writer Simon Furman's [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Furmanism writing style]]). Then again, he does apparently get a fair bit of ribbing about his style, and the tastes of an alien robot might simply be different compared to a human.
40	* ''ComicBook/{{Wanted}}'': The main character has it noted that his power is simply that he is very good at killing people, and his use of it makes him the most dangerous man in the world. In reality, most of his victories simply come down to the fact that he rarely ends up fighting someone ImmuneToBullets, all of whom end up being conveniently put off the table whenever he fights.
41	* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Due to the number of characters the X-Men have mounted over the decades and the PopularityPower, PanderingToTheBase, and RunningTheAsylum factors that guide the course of the story, many mutants suffer from poorly expanded or very limited use of their powers. It's more common to see these characters stating what they could do instead of actually doing it. Some don't even get their powers listed until after they're dead and the [[AllThereInTheManual Marvel Handbook]] fills in the blanks.
42	** The most prominent examples are the Omega Level mutants; originally, it simply referred to the [[SuperPowerLottery highest class of observed mutant powers]] such as {{Physical God}}s and {{Reality Warper}}s such as Jean Grey and [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Franklin Richards]] but now refers to any number of mutants with specific skill sets ([[AnIcePerson Iceman]], [[HealingHands Elixir]]) who are confirmed to have the genetic potential to transcend either the laws of physics with their powers (way more than most mutants) or some ill-defined "limitations" on mutant stamina and power usage which themselves are only in effect DependingOnTheWriter. While Elixir, Vulcan, Legion, and X-Man have at least shown a little of their magnificent powers, many confirmed Omegas are too self-conscious or inexperienced with their powers and have not come close to achieving the level of power or skill to surpass the feats of other non-Omega mutants, while other "proven" Omegas have gotten their asses kicked by non-Omegas to demonstrate AnAesop about how skill trumps [[UnskilledButStrong raw power]]. The only thing the writers can agree on is that "Omega" means "unlimited" in some manner. It was later established that "Omega Level" means a mutant who has mastered an aspect of their power to a degree that it cannot be surpassed by humans, e.g. No Reality Warper is more powerful than Franklin Richards, but Forge who is great with machines is surpassed by the human Tony Stark's natural abilities.
43	** ComicBook/{{Storm\|MarvelComics}}'s leadership qualifications can fall short in practice. Everyone hails her as a legendary leader, despite her tenures resulting in the worst setbacks in X-Men history. Before M-Day, more team members died (or appeared to have died) under her leadership than any other's. Lost Rachel? Who cares. Wolvie's MIA. He can take care of himself. Psylocke dead? Twice. Abandon the X-Men's mission to hide in the Outback? Sure why not? Use that time to take lethal action against foes like the Reavers and Marauders? Absolutely. Berating Wolverine when he does exactly the same thing? Priceless.
44	** ComicBook/ProfessorX is repeatedly stated to be the strongest telepath in the world, but you'd never know it since most every other telepath the X-Men have met have crushed Xavier in a mental battle rather easily. To further cement this trope, an attempt by Xavier to read a normal, unpowered soldier's mind was thwarted by said soldier [[PsychicStatic thinking of porn]].
45	** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} can sometimes fall into this category in regards to his martial arts training. He's said to be one of the most formidable fighters in the Marvel universe but 90% of his attacks involve simply jumping at his opponents and slashing him/her with his claws: a move anyone with two legs and claws can perform. He often lacks the finesse of other comic martial artists such as ComicBook/CaptainAmerica or {{Franchise/Batman}}. It doesn't help that, due to his HealingFactor, [[GoodThingYouCanHeal he is much more likely to get shot, stabbed, and otherwise mutilated]] by common {{mooks}}. Sure, he gets better almost immediately but it can make him look less skilled than his peers who rarely even get touched by mooks.
46	** Similarly, ComicBook/{{X 23}} can fall under this trope sometimes, reverting to wildly thrashing and slashing with no apparent strategy, even though she ''has'' used expert precision in certain fights. Thankfully, this happens less often with her than with Logan.
47	** An even ''worse'' offender than Logan is his son, ComicBook/{{Daken}}. The guy is supposed to be a highly-trained warrior, but from most of his appearances, the guy is repeatedly maimed and beaten, by far less skilled opponents, no less. His entire game plan can be summed up as: AttackAttackAttack. In one of his appearances, he is very easily taken down by a group of Z-list villains that Norman Osborne all but lined up for him to defeat. Heck, [[BadassNormal The Punisher]] almost KILLED Daken (to get revenge on Daken for [[DeathIsCheap killing Frank once]], in case you are wondering). And would have killed him too, were it not for Wolverine's intervention.
48	*** Although, to be completely fair, [[ItMakesSenseInContext the Punisher was Frankenstein monster powered by magic stone at the time]], ergo [[EmpoweredBadassNormal much stronger and tougher than usual]].
49	** The villain Omega Red possesses a "mutant death factor", and in most of his appearances, inevitably goes into great detail concerning his death spores and his energy draining death force something something. Ostensibly, it's a form of LifeDrain that affects everyone in the vicinity, but it's such a passive ability that most of the time we have to take his word for it that it's doing something.
50	** The Upstart Siena Blaze was said to be especially sociopathic because she kept on using her powers without reservation even though every time she used them there was a chance they'd ''accidentally destroy the world.'' Needless to say, this was never actually put into practice.
51	** Mutants whose power includes energy manipulation, like Sebastian Shaw, will usually spend more time talking than using their actual powers.
52	** The Neo were bigged-up as "the next step in mutant evolution", yet whenever we see them in action, they certainly don't seem all that much stronger than typical mutants, and they were eventually wiped out without much ceremony.
53	** Arcade is consistently described as a genius in mechanical engineering. However, nothing that he's built in his Murderworld (robots, deathtraps, ect...) appears to use any technology more advanced than what other villains may be able to purchase or obtain. He simply appears to be applying existing technology to his own purposes. Considering the fact that he's never defeated any superhero in his Murderworld suggests that his technology is quite subpar to that of other more high profile supervillains. He claims that he was once the best [[ProfessionalKiller assassins]] in the business, and started building the Murderworlds because he was bored killing people in mundane ways. At least, that's what he claims. He hasn't been known to have killed anyone important in his career as an assassin, and not only does he not even have ''one'' win against a super-powered adversary to his credit, but even Courtney Ross, who was just a civilian (albeit one who can handle herself decently well), managed to survive his deathtraps. What's more, when his victims make it through the Murderworld and he's out of tricks, he usually runs for the exit as fast as he can, and if he can't make it, pretty much ''anyone'' can flatten him with one punch. If he was ever a true assassin at all, he would likely have been a pretty bad one.
54	*** With that in mind, however, he'd be a lot more competent if he avoided being in the same vicinity as the heroes and didn't toy with them. He always manages to at least capture his enemies before bringing them to Murderworld, and has been in the position to kill some of the world's greatest heroes multiple times. If he wasn't so obsessed with making a fair....ish game out of killing, he'd have murdered Wolverine, Spider-Man, the Thing and other A-List heroes decades ago.
55	*** Considering that Arcade's more recent Murderworld technology was courtesy of the efforts of Miss Coriander, Arcade's own aptitude with technology really comes into question. Once again, Miss Coriander's contributions aren't anything we haven't seen before.

Context InformedAbility / ComicBooks