Just like the MCU, all the herald characters get this in the DC Extended Universe compared to their comic versions. While they are plenty strong and tough in the movies, in the comics thanks to particuarly infamous as Strong as They Need to Be the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter can all move planets around and move faster than the light speed. For the sake having a narrative, most DC heroes's abilities are Adaptational Wimp toned down significantly (none of them can push around planets) and they far more vulnerable to attacks, even from Muggles.
- Man of Steel:
- Jax-Ur in the comics was a Kryptonian scientist who, naturally, was given the yellow sun powers to fight Superman. In some versions, he is treated more like a General Zod-lite. In Man of Steel he is firmly the scientist character among Zod's crew and is never involved in a fight. However, this is somewhat consistent with his original Silver Age portrayal, which depicted him as being out of shape and incapable of holding his own against Superman even with superpowers.
- Kryptonians in general get this compared to the majority of comics where their feats and powers are often Beyond the Impossible. While undeniably godly powerful they still realistically follow the laws of motion and conservation of energy meaning bullets and missiles can slow them down and in the case of Faora actually knock them out. In the comics literally none of this would've even bothered them without Applied Phlebotinum. Likewise, in the sequel a nuke is able to badly injure Superman and reduce him a corpse-like state requiring the sun to heal him. Though in fairness this is a refrence to The Dark Knight Returns where a nuclear blast could harm Clark in such a fashion and the New 52 comics also have Superman be reduced to a zombie-like state when he and Diana split a atom. So the flimmakers didn't pull this out of nowhere, even if it is a flagrant case of Depending on the Writer in the comics. Played straighter in regard to their speed as almost none of them can move at faster than light like the comics, only Superman comes to the closest given his fight with the Flash in Justice League (2017). Ironically despite being technically weaker overall, the DCEU according to a lot of fans actually made Kryptonians feel more powerful than most adaptations due to going all out when came to fighting.
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice:
- Kryptonite itself. In the comics and prior adaptations, the Kryptonite is clearly established as lethal to Superman and other Kryptonians. In the film, while it does still harm Kryptonians it just seems to inhibit access to their strength when Batman weaponizes it to engage Superman. It does still work well enough to deliver a killing blow against Doomsday during Superman's Heroic Sacrifice, though.
- Mercy Graves takes after her incarnation in the Superman: Doomsday in being a personal assistant for Luthor, not his bodyguard like in the cartoons and comics. She also gets killed off before she can do anything noteworthy.
- Wonder Woman (2017):
- The entire Greek Pantheon in Wonder Woman (2017) is taken out by Ares the God of War (who gets Adaptational Badass), in the comics Zeus alone could've wiped the floor with Ares. At best you can argue only The Power of Love worked against Ares as Diana proves in the Final Battle, though that doesn't really justify Ares pulling a Kratos.
- Justice League (2017):
- Steppenwolf gets a heavy dose of this. In the comics, Steppenwolf is a New God from Apokolips who's easily able to overpower the heroes, even Kryptonians (e.g Superman's son Jonathan) plus Comic!Steppenwolf even killed Earth 2 Wonder Woman by running her through with his Cool Sword. Film!Steppenwolf is laughably pathetic, getting overpowered by the Amazons in a Flash Back and only invades the Earth again when Superman isn't around to protect it; Wonder Woman and Aquaman can match him in combat and Superman utterly humiliates him.
- Batman gets some of this as well at the start of the movie; he has trouble overpowering a single criminal and is rendered ineffectual when dealing with bigger threats, relegated to shooting Parademons from the sidelines. Batman also lacks The Chessmaster strategy or any caution in the movie, ready to pointlessly sacrifice himself at the drop of a hat.
- Zack Snyder's Justice League:
- Steppenwolf is still less impressive than his Earth 2 comic version, although he's very much an Adaptational Badass to the 2017 version, being more focused and strategical than his 2017 counterpart (and he didn't lead the ancient invasion, Uxas/Darkseid did).
- Played with in regards to Darkseid in Zack Snyder's Justice League. In the comics he's an Invincible Villain and God of Evil, when we first see him in action during the ancient invasion in Snyder's cut, while very strong (being able to easily kill a Green Lantern) he's still injured by the Amazons' arrows, scorched by Zeus' lightning and then mortally wounded by Ares forcing him to retreat. In the comics none of that would have effected Darkseid or even slow him down in the slightest. Except its shown later, since the failed invasion of Earth Darkseid has gained his Omega Beams and in the Bad Future defeats the Justice League and subjugates Superman, which is pretty on par with his comic counterpart.
- Batman meanwhile absolutely lacks the above Adaptational Wimp traits in this version.
- Suicide Squad (2016):
- Slipknot doesn't have much of a role aside from showing up and getting his head blown off — since it's unknown if Firestorm even exists in the DCEU, let alone if Slipknot was a foe of his (or if Slipknot underwent a Rogues' Gallery Transplant), Slipknot doesn't even have the distinction of having used rope to defeat someone who can break down subatomic particles (like he does in the comics).
- Though to be fair, Slipknot got off lightly compared to the movie's Big Bad The Enchantress. In the comics she's an Eldritch Abomination (explicitly stronger than Superman and Wonder Woman) trapped in the body of a human whose power is so great it took the combined forces of the Dark Justice League and John Constantine binding her to June Moon for sake of saving hundreds of lives. In the film, The Enchantress is killed by a bunch of petty criminals (one of whom is just an Ax-Crazy former psychiatrist with a baseball bat) and some explosives.
- The Joker get this as well being downgraded from city spanning Monster Clown
anarchist, to a simple crazy mob boss with bleached skin. Though even as a gangster (as Golden Age comic and Burton versions of the Joker were), Suicide Squad Joker isn't that threatening; instead of schemes he relies on firepower, Mooks, and a helicopter which was soon shot down. When Batman shows up, he flees and the Joker's only real skill that was carried over from the comic is his Master of Disguise ability. - It's not as egregious as other examples but Katana is seriously lacking compared to her comic counterpart where she's a One-Woman Army whose skills are on par with Batman. The film version of Katana doesn't use her Soul Power beyond talking to her dead husband and is easily overpowered in the Final Battle.
- SHAZAM! (2019):
- In the comics, each one of the Seven Deadly Sins are Physical Gods that have Omnipresence, Immortality and cannot be beaten by the heroes using any conventional means being Anthropomorphic Personifications. In the film, they're just a bunch of snarling demons, only a real threat to Muggles and Shazam, along with his empowered brothers and sisters, make short work of them in the Final Battle.
- Birds of Prey (2020):
- Unfortunately done to Cassandra Cain. In the comics she's one of Batman's greatest protégées (probably only second to Dick Grayson) and thanks to being trained from birth by the Leagues of Shadows, Cassandra is capable of ridiculous superhuman feats even for Batman standards. In the movie on the other hand, she's just a little thief who displays no martial arts skills and needs to be protected from Black Mask by Harley Quinn and rest of the Birds of Prey.
- To be fair to Cassandra, Dinah Lance also gets a good dose of this in the film. In comics she’s one of the best martial artists in DC and her signature Canary Cry can decimate cities and can even hurt the likes of Amazo and Superman. In the movie she’s still a good fighter (though not as impressive as her comic counterpart) but her sonic scream has been heavily nerfed, Dinah only really lets loose once and manages to knock a few dozen guys back and break glass... then she faints. Needlessly to say comic Dinah is far stronger than that being able use her cry frequently without passing out.
- The Suicide Squad does this to quite a few characters while giving the rest (even Polka-Dot Man) Adaptational Badass.
- Mongal is the hardest hit in the film, in the comics as the daughter of Mongul (who’s slightly stronger than Superman) she’s a planet busting Flying Brick who can fight Kryptonains. In the film, Mongal is just a fairly strong orange skinned alien lady who horrifically burns to death after crashing a helicopter in the opening mission of the film, in the comics fire wouldn’t even singe her.
- Blackguard is a powerful enemy of Booster Gold in the comics who has ergokinesis and powerful future-tec such as shields. In the film he only has guns and a smart mouth, and gets his face blown off in Bloody Hilarious fashion at the beginning.
- Savant is a Genius Bruiser stud in the comics who’s took on the Birds of Prey and even matched Black Canary in hand to hand combat. In the film he’s a scraggy middle aged Dirty Coward and Asshole Victim who like Slipknot gets his head exploded to show that Amanda Waller isn’t messing around.
- Javelin in the comics while pretty lame has still taken on the likes of Deadshot and Green Lantern and even the entire Justice League in Cry For Justice. In the film he’s one of the first to be killed albeit with Harley carrying on his legacy.
- Weasel is a surprisingly strong villain who’s almost killed Firestorm in the comics and even proved to be an effective member of the Suicide Squad. In the film, he’s The Load and drowns early on the film although it’s shown in the post credits he survived and rushes into action... well after the Squad have saved the day.
- Downplayed with Starro, still quite the Eldritch Abomination and massive threat to the planet. But film Starro lacks the energy absorption, terraforming and other incredible variety of powers from the comics and is far more vulnerable as King Shark is able to bite its flesh, Polka-Dot Man can blow its leg off and Ratcatcher II can kill it with an army of rats. In the comics Starro has given even the Justice League trouble and none of what the Squad throws at it in the film, would’ve hurt it in the slightest.
- Black Adam (2022): While most of the Justice Society get this compared to the titular Anti-Hero (who has a massive case of Character Shilling throughout the film) the hardest hit would likely be Doctor Fate. In the comics Fate tends to make even Dotor Strange in comparsion look underpowered with the amount of OP power he possess thanks to Nabu being able to go toe to toe with a multiversally-ampted Spectre and gives even Zatana a run for her money with his Reality Warper god magic — on top of having standard Flying Brick strength and toughness. In Black Adam Fate is able to annnoy the hell of Adam and briefly hold him down with Self-Duplication and magic but that's about it and once Adam gets serious is blasted away like he's nothing. In the comics, Adam would generally not be able to match Fate at the height of his abilites and Fate definitely wouldn't be so easily beaten down as depicted here.
