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Adaptational Superpower Change

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Sometimes a superhero has a cool superpower that looks fantastic in the panels of a comic book, but when adapted to a different medium like a live action film or television show, there are budgetary restrictions that don't allow that superhero's powers to be showcased. So the writers severely water down the superpower to fit the medium, or in some cases, they just completely change the character's skill set.

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There are a variety of reasons to change a superpowered character's abilities, but money is usually the main reason. Special effects are expensive, and having to show every week a flying superhero punching airplanes from the sky and firing balls of energy at bad guys can put a serious strain on the production budget. Also, the excessive use of CGI or bad special effects can fail.

Sometimes it is a matter of story: A character is given new powers to help smooth out the plot. Perhaps the powers they were given come from a different character altogether in the original work. That way the story can move along without introducing Loads and Loads of Characters that only serve one purpose in the original work. Maybe the character in the original work is a functional god and the adaptation has to dial down their skillset to something a little more believable, and not interfere with the viewer's Suspension of Disbelief.

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Occasionally the change in superpowers can occur simply because a superpower that seems really cool in a comic could seem extremely silly when translated into Live-Action.

Note that this can occur in the opposite direction too. With a TV show being adapted into a comic book or movie, now the budgetary strain is not so prevalent, so characters are given new powers, or their old ones are expanded to be more showy.

If the change in power improves the character's fighting prowess, expect them to be an Adaptational Badass. If the superpower change results in them having less power and less effective in fighting, then consider them an Adaptational Wimp. Power Creep, Power Seep may occur when several characters from different works get together and are hit with this.

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Examples

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    Anime and Manga 
  • The first Fullmetal Alchemist anime ran into this largely thanks to being made while the manga still had a ways to go. Aside from the characters that were effectively original, King Bradley (called Pride, instead of Wrath) can regenerate like the other homunculi, unlike his manga counterpart.
  • The manga adaptations of The Legend of Zelda change the abilities of some characters.

    Comic Books 
  • When Charmed moved from television to comics the sisters' different witch powers evolved and became much more showy in the comics. Notably, Paige gained the power to make orb forcefields and Piper gained the power to melt and set fire to objects. Lacking the visual effects of the TV series, Piper's hands sometime glow whenever she uses her powers to clue in the reader that she is using her powers. And sometimes her power to blow stuff up looks more akin to energy beams. Same thing applies to Paige as well. Her power to 'orb' objects from place to place in the comics show her hands wreathed with magic, while in the show you just saw the effect happen on the item being moved.
  • In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books, Buffy temporarily gains a host of new powers, including the ability to fly, which would've been a costly effect to shoot for a television show, but not so much for a comic books artist to draw.
  • Ultimate Marvel:
    • In Ultimate X-Men Emma Frost doesn't have her psychic abilities, instead using her diamond form.
    • Ultimate Spider-Man:
      • While the Green Goblin always derived superpowers from a formula, the Ultimate version physically transforms into a green-skinned, horned creature instead of wearing a goblin costume. He can also manifest and throw fireballs where the original had to build his own bombs to throw. When Harry became the Hobgoblin, this carried over to him, being able to transform into a hulking pyrokinetic monster.
      • The Rhino is a scrawny nerd piloting a Mini-Mecha, instead of a huge bruiser with artificial skin that gives him Super Strength.
      • Jessica Drew is also changed. In 616, she has her own powers, like flight and the ability to fire venom blasts. Here, she is an Opposite-Sex Clone of Peter Parker, and has his powers, as well as ones he doesn't possess, such as the ability to generate organic webbing.
      • Kraven the Hunter had no powers initially, allowing Spidey to cream him in their first fight. Later he alters his DNA and becomes a horrific werewolf-like creature, and is arrested by the Ultimates who remove said alterations.
      • Doctor Octopus was originally presented the same as the original version was, having mechanical arms fused to his spine. Then comes the twist that his power is actually metal manipulation. He still tends to make octo-arms with this power, but now he can control his arms when he's separated from them or even make replacements on the spot from nearby scrap.
    • Ultimate Fantastic Four:
      • Ben Grimm eventually gains the ability to change between forms, unlike his 616 counterpart, who is stuck in the rock form. He can also morph into an ionic being similar to Wonder Man.
      • Doctor Doom gains ghastly scars on his face in the original continuity from an experiment backfiring on him, to hide these scars he wears a heavy armor. Here, Doom's entire body turns to metal and he gains cloven feet like a demon, corrosive acid breath and the ability to fire off metallic skin-shards in the same accident that gave the Four their powers.
  • Batman's Harley Quinn had no super powers in the original animated series, but with her immigration to the comics, she got some powers from her new friend Poison Ivy. Biggest one, which is set up in the animated series, is immunity to poison.
  • In his original appearances in Justice League of America, Vibe's power was simply to project shockwaves. In the New 52's Vibe series, that's just a side effect of his real power; to breach dimensions. In the same series, Gypsy has similar powers, in addition to her pre-Flashpoint illusions.
  • DC Comics Bombshells:
    • In addition to her Making a Splash powers, Mera can telepathically communicate with sea life like Aquaman can.
    • In the normal comics, the Joker's Daughter (a crazy woman who has claimed to be the daughter of several supervillains, including the Joker) is just a Badass Normal. Here, she is a powerful sorceress.
  • When he was created for X2: X-Men United, Jason Stryker was intended to be a Composite Character of the Master of Illusion Jason Wyngarde and Reverend William Stryker's unnamed mutant child, and as such has the former's powerset. While Jason was eventually incorporated into the X-Men comics, his power was changed to his being able to produce powerful lights that could incapacitate others.

    Fan Works 
  • Fates Collide:
    • In addition to absorbing electricity to increase her strength, Nora Valkyrie can also fire electricity.
    • Instead of firing silver light that cripples Grimm and Maidens, Ruby Rose's Silver Eyes create a Reality Marble. It takes them to a featureless, white void, with an apparition of Ruby's mother Summer Rose. Summer wields a scythe and is almost invisible due to her white cloak.
  • MCU Rewrites: In this rewrite of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Wanda Maximoff's telekinesis and telepathy are changed to reality warping powers more in line with her comic book counterpart. The narration even uses the terms "Chaos Magic" and "Hex Bolts".
  • A common plot in Miraculous Ladybug fics, which likes to mix up who gets which Miraculous:
  • Since Salem and Cinder are one-in-the-same in Ruby and Nora, the former has the Fall Maiden’s abilities.
  • In the original series, Izuku was born Quirkless but is given “One For All” by All Might. In Waiting is worth it, he possessed the dormant source Quirk “Telekinesis.” All Might even considered giving “One For All” to Izuku in this continuity also, but decided that Izuku would make a great enough hero without it.
  • Rather than All Might's "One For All", in The Emerald Phoenix, Izuku is a psychic possessing Telepathy, Telekinesis, Teleportation, and green flames that heal him (hence the title). All Might is dissuaded from giving Izuku "One For All" anyway because not only would the conflicting natures of the quirks force him to either be subpar in both or ignore one in favor of the other, but it also increases the risk of "One For All" mutating unexpectedly. Other characters also get changed powers.
    • Uraraka doesn't have to touch herself to change gravity on herself and can adjust gravity rather than just negating it.
    • Iida's Quirk is changed from a mutation type to a transformation type and he can create different kinds of engine pipes from any part of his body.
    • Momo can further alter items she creates so long as she doesn't let go of them.
    • Jirou can produce simple sounds besides just her heartbeat, such as morse code.
    • Kaminari no longer produces electricity as an offensive weapon but instead stores and manipulate electricity (and magnetism to an extent), including using electricity to boost his healing. His weakness is also changed to having significant amounts of water shorting him out and causing painful electric shocks, even having to ground himself to take a shower. Kaminari is also not allowed inside cars lest his electricity accidentally ignite the gasoline.
  • In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, several characters who were originally characters who are Quirk users in the original My Hero Academia have their abilities attributed to a Metagene, magic, or genetic mutation. This has led to some changes in their abilities, such as Present Mic having Voice Changeling abilities on top of his original powerset. Izuku doesn't fall under any of these categories because his Combo Platter Powers originate from his Kryptonian heritage.
  • In Amazing Fantasy, Izuku gets bitten by a genetically-modified spider when he decides to walk into an alleyway rather than a shady underpass one day, giving him the powers of Spider-Man.

    Film — Live Action 
  • X-Men Film Series changes a lot of the characters' powers:
    • While Mystique's blue skin, red hair, and Shapeshifting abilities all come from the comics, X-Men is the first iteration of her being reptilian in appearance, like a chameleon.
    • X-Men: The Last Stand:
      • To streamline the story, the Phoenix is just an aspect of Jean Grey's mind and superpowers and not a cosmic entity. Technically, this can qualify as an odd case of Composite Character, too.
      • Callisto is given the powers of super-speed and a mutant tracking sense that she does not have in the comics.
      • Part of Leech's mutation in the comics is his green skin and huge yellow eyes. In this movie, he retains his ability to suppress other mutant's abilities, but he appears as a normal human kid.
    • X-Men: First Class:
      • Sebastian Shaw's power in the comics is the ability to absorb energy to boost his personal strength and stamina. His film counterpart is able to absorb energy and then repurpose it in seemingly any way he wants, up to and including keeping himself eternally young and causing devastating explosions.
      • Azazel is an immortal mutant, in the comics, with an assortment of near god-like powers. In the movie, he just has Nightcrawler's powers.
      • Riptide in the comics created whirlwinds by spinning his whole body, and he could also fling calcified projectiles from his body like shuriken or spikes. The movie version is missing the latter ability.
    • The Wolverine: Both Yukio and Viper are normal humans in the comics, but in the film, Yukio is given the mutant power to see into the future, while Viper is given snake-like abilities. Interestingly, Harada, who is a mutant in the comics, is turned into a normal human in this movie. Note that this technically also qualifies as Adaptation Species Change because frequently in the X-Men world humans (homo sapiens) and mutants (homo superior) are different species.
    • X-Men: Days of Future Past:
      • Kitty Pryde, resident intangible girl of the X-Men inexplicably gains the power to project people's consciousness backwards through time in this movie. This is because her role is combined with that of Rachel Summers from the comics, who does not have a film counterpart, seeing as both her parents are dead in that continuity. Also, the creators were hesitant to just create a new character with time travel powers because 1) They wanted to honor the original ''Days Of Future Past'' storyline by including Kitty Pryde in the story with an important role, and 2) The movie already has a rather large cast, and introducing another character would've put narrative strain on the plot.
      • Hank McCoy, aka Beast, has a minor change to his powers in this movie that differs from the comics. His powers act more as a version of Hulking Out in that he doesn't change appearance unless he is angry. The only reason this is so is because in this continuity the world at large does not know of the existence of mutants just yet. In the original source, humans are aware of the existence of mutants, (although they're not well liked or accepted), so Beast walking around all blue and furry is much less of a problem. Another reason, logistically, may be that it's a LOT of make-up, and hard to act in.
    • Deadpool (2016): In the comics, Negasonic Teenage Warhead has Psychic Powers and her name is a music Shout-Out. The movie version gets a "warhead" power to cause explosions instead. Essentially, she's a Composite Character with Cannonball, who held her role in previous drafts of the script. The reason for all of this? They really wanted her in the movie just so that Deadpool could react to the name "Negasonic Teenage Warhead".
    • X-Men: Apocalypse:
      • In the comics, the purple energy blade Psylocke projects from her hand is simply a manifestation of her telepathic powers, and it can't do any physical damage, only mental damage. In the movie, the blade cuts through steel and concrete, and Psylocke can also morph it into a whip. She also doesn't appear to have telepathy at all, given how much importance Apocalypse places on stealing Xavier's powers, although she may have just not told him about it.
      • One of the comic book Apocalypse's main powers is total control over every molecule in his body, which means he can't be hurt by mere physical force. In the film, he doesn't seem to have this power, as evidenced by the way he dies.
    • Deadpool 2 sees the aforementioned Yukio as a mutant again—but unlike the precognition she had in The Wolverine, she now has electrical abilities.
  • Fantastic Four adaptations make it so Doctor Doom gets powers in the same accident that empowered the Four. In the comics, he has no innate powers but wears Powered Armor and has vast knowledge in sorcery. In the 2005 movie, his body is transformed into metal, giving him lightning powers. The Ultimate Fantastic Four comics, mentioned above, also turn his body to metal, but instead of lightning he can fire off metallic shards and breathe acid breath. The 2015 movie gives him very vague, near god-like powers that resemble telekinesis.
    • Also in the 2015 movie, an odd, purely superficial change occurs to Mr. Fantastic's elastic ability. According to the creators Reed isn't stretching himself when he seemingly extends his limbs, but he is manipulating local spacetime due to micro-blackholes integrated with his body. The effect has it so he still looks like he is super-elastic anyway.
  • In The Film of the Book for I Am Number Four, Number Four's fire-resistance has been removed and instead given to Number Six. Number Six' invisibility has also become Flash Step.
  • In Dragonball Evolution the Kamehameha is given the power to heal, which it didn't have in the original series.
  • In The Last Airbender the firebenders require a source of fire to bend. In the series, they don't. The reasoning behind this was because the director felt that the firebenders were too overpowered when compared to the other elemental benders in the show. However, the effect of this change lead to all other benders in the film version as seemingly much more pathetic and weak because they were conquered by a nation whose abilities are rather easily suppressed.
  • In the Spider-Man Trilogy, Spider-Man has the ability to shoot organic webs, whereas up until that point, his comic-book counterpart used web-shooters.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Traditional magic users Loki from the Thor movies and the reality warping Scarlet Witch from Avengers: Age of Ultron, have had their powers altered in such a way that they're not using their godlike powers to the point of negating narrative suspense - for instance, Wanda's have been scaled back to telekinesis and mind manipulation. Also, at least in the case for Loki, he sometimes uses his powers in ridiculous ways in the comics, such as transforming an entire street into ice cream. Effects such as this might not translate well to the big screen. The powers are also described is pseudo-scientific terms instead of mystical ones in order to not break disbelief, though Thor makes clear in his first film that "magic" is just another name for the same things.
    • Iron Man's foe the Mandarin is usually known for wearing ten Rings of Power. In Iron Man 3, the apparent Mandarin is only an actor and completely powerless; while the film's mastermind and "real" Mandarin, Aldritch Killian, has heat powers and a healing factor thanks to Extremis. However, a short film makes the claim that a true Mandarin exists and that Killian stole his identity for the actor to use; so the possibility is there that he does have the rings of his comic counterpart.
    • The Falcon, being a more grounded, realistic character in the MCU than in the comics, lacks a telepathic connection with birds. Instead of having a pet bird named Redwing that he has such a bond with, Redwing is a remote-controlled birdlike robotic drone as of Civil War.
    • The MCU incarnation of The Vision adds Super Toughness to his powerset, with vibranium incorporated into the 3-D-printed cells of his body. The laser beam he projects from his forehead gem has also ramped up in power, since the jewel is an Infinity Stone here.
    • In the comics, Star-Lord is essentially a normal human who uses various bits of alien gear that he's picked up. The movies mostly follow suit, but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 shows that as the son of Ego the Living Planet (itself an Adaptation Species Change for Star-Lord), he can channel Ego's powers including matter-manipulation and immortality. However, Ego is dead by the end of the film, leaving Star-Lord a baseline human once more as there's no longer a power source to draw from.
    • Janet Van Dyne, the first Wasp, started as an ordinary human who used a special suit to have shrinking, flight and energy blasts, before being able to create blasts on her own. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Janet gains special quantum-related powers that involving Healing Hands and Telepathy, as a result of her time in the Quantum Realm.
    • Ghost in the comics is a baseline human who gains ghost-like abilities via a special suit. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, his Gender-Flipped counterpart got these powers via an accident, and thus can use them freely of the suit (which helps keep her stable but isn't completely needed) albeit at the cost of the powers slowly killing her.
    • In Captain Marvel, the Big Bad will be Talos the Skrull. In the comics, Talos was born with a defect that deprived him of his species' ability to shapeshift. In Captain Marvel, however, this is NOT the case, as he not only has these abilities, but uses them to infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D.. This reimagining of the character was due to the notion that Talos' character arc from the comics would be hard to pitch to film audiences, since the Skrulls are a race whose entire gimmick is their Shapeshifting. It also helps to give his actor, Ben Mendelsohn, more face time.
  • In The Dark Knight Rises, Bane doesn't use Venom, the ultra steroid that boosts his muscle mass and makes him an incredibly formidable physical threat. Instead, he is a badly injured man in near-constant pain and his mask gives him painkillers. That being said, he is still an incredibly formidable physical threat and pummeled Batman senseless in their first encounter.
  • Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children:
    • In the books Emma’s peculiarity was the ability to create and control fire, whilst Olive’s was being lighter than air. Here their powers are switched with Olive being the pyrokinetic and Emma an aerokinetic with uncontrollable levitation as just one aspect of her powers.
    • In addition to the Prophetic Dream ability he has in the books, the film version of Horace can project the images from his dreams into the air through his right eye using a special lens.
    • At one point in the book whilst explaining to Jacob about Wights, Miss Peregrine states they don’t have any peculiarities. In contrast the Wights shown in the film still have their powers from when they were Peculiars; specifically Mr Barron is a Shapeshifter and two Canon Foreigner Wights include a Cryo-kinetic man and a half-rat woman.
    • The method by which the Hollows become Wights is different. In the books it’s achieved by absorbing a Peculiars’ soul, in the film it’s by consuming a Peculiars’ eyes.
  • In The Maze Runner books Thomas and Teresa could communicate with each other telepathically, with Aris and Posthumous Character Rachel sharing the same ability between themselves and the aforementioned twosome. This was revealed in The Death Cure to be the result of a chip implanted in their heads by WICKED, which could also be used to control them and the other Gladers, who were also implanted. In The Maze Runner Series, all four characters lack this ability and whilst Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials reveals that the Gladers do have chips implanted in their bodies, it’s in their necks and merely functions as a tracking beacon.
  • Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance: In the comics, Blackout suppresses light sources in his presence and has fangs and is sensitive to light like a vampire. In the film, Blackout simply makes people hallucinate they are in darkness and his main power is to Make Them Rot.
  • The Darkest Minds:
    • Unlike in the books where there was no way to tell what color psi a person was unless they were seen using their powers, the film depicts the psi’s as having their eyes glow in the color of their government classification whenever their powers are used. Also the children who died from the IAAN virus also have their eyes glow shortly before they die.
    • In the books Red psi can create and control fire, here this is changed to having them exclusively breathing fire from their mouths.
    • In the books Yellow psi can generate and control electricity, with some who have difficulty controlling this ability causing minor electrical malfunctions or creating large bursts of electricity whenever they touch an electronic object. Here all Gold psi seem to require electronic objects to channel their power through.
    • Chubs is changed from being a Blue psi (being telekinetic) in the books to a Green (having Super Intelligence) psi in the film.
  • In Kim Possible, early supplementary for season 1 notes that Shego's plasma powers come from her gloves, however this was never shown in-series. "Go Team Go" retconned Shego into a metahuman whose powers and green skin come from a comet hitting her family as a child. In the 2019 film, Shego's powers aren't natural anymore. They come from energy gauntlets on her wrists.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Daenerys is completely and consistently immune to fire in the show, whereas the books treat the pyre as a one-time thing (and even then her hair burns off) and when she mounts Drogon for the first time she's left hairless with burns on her hands.
    • The show depicts the Children of the Forest having Playing with Fire powers never seen in the books, though there are in-universe myths of them channelling the elements.
    • In addition to the prophetic visions, Living Shadow, and Glamour powers seen in the show, Melisandre can also manipulate fire and possibly influence the wind in the books.
    • In the books, Bran's visions of the past are limited to things seen by the carved eyes of weirwood trees. In the show, he can stroll around in a Pensieve Flashback unlimited by time or space, allowing him to witness events at the Tower of Joy and butt-dial the Night King.
    • In the show, Jojen Reed is a Fainting Seer whose visions come hand-in-hand with seizures. In the books, he's just naturally small and frail, even for a crannogman, and the harsh conditions beyond the Wall are what compromises his health negatively, not his dreams (except emotionally).
    • The warlock Pyat Pree has the power to create copies of himself in the show rather than practising unspecified dark magic and constantly ingesting prophetic drugs.
    • The Faceless Men's method of applying faces is quite vague in the books but involves complex Blood Magic, a touch of Ghost in the Machine, and is limited by size and gender. By contrast, the show makes it as mundane as wearing a mask since Arya simply steals one and uses it without any training and Jaqen and the Waif are shown swapping identities in "Mother's Mercy".
    • The Faceless Men can also apparently blind someone at will without touching them, something that's caused by a potion that must be re-administered daily in the books.
  • The Incredible Hulk Returns: The first Reunion Show bringing back the Hulk, also stars Dr. Don Blake and The Mighty Thor - but instead of them both inhabiting the same body, in Returns they are two different people. Thor is a Norse warrior who Blake summons by holding Thor's hammer and shouting "Odin!" Blake is still around when Thor is in the world.
  • Jessica Jones (2015):
    • The titular character is not a Flying Brick here. Instead, she starts out with Super Strength and learns how to perform powerful jumps with it.
    • In the comics, Nuke has pills that serve as placebos; they give him the illusion of increased adrenaline and therefore increase his power. The pills on the show do genuinely grant superhuman power for a time, as shown when Trish steals one and beats Nuke into submission.
  • In the made-for-TV movie of Generation X, Emma Frost was given the ability to create wind and lightning. Doubles as Composite Character with Storm.
  • In Agent Carter, Whitney Frost has the ability to turn people into shadow energy called "Darkforce" and absorb it. Her comics counterpart Madame Masque has no actual powers.
  • The Flash (2014):
    • In the comics, the Mist can become a white gas that can hypnotize opponents that breath it in. In the show, the Mist (aka Kyle Nimbus) can become a green gas that poisons those who inhale it.
    • Downplayed with Tony Woodward/Girder. In the comics, his skin is permanently made of metal, but his television version allows him to activate metallic skin at will.
    • In the comics, Roy Bivolo/Rainbow Raider had goggles that could project light blasts. In the show, he can make people become impossibly angry, causing them to kill the next person they see.
    • In the comics, Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper has a flute that can hypnotize people. In the show, he has gauntlets that can shoot sonic blasts.
    • In the comics, Lisa Snart/Golden Glider wears ice skates that generate ice, allowing her to skate on any surface and even in midair. The show's version wields a ray gun that turns whatever it zaps into a gold-like substance.
    • In the comics, Hunter Zolomon/Zoom has the power to slow down time for everyone but himself, making others perceive him as having Super Speed while he's really moving normally. The show's version has the same powers from the Speed Force the Flash has.
    • In the comics, Dr. Alchemy uses his Philosopher's Stone to transmute matter. The show's version uses his Philosopher's Stone to fire energy blasts and give people back the powers they had in the Flashpoint timeline.
    • In the comics, The Top can spin at super speed. The show's version causes people to become dizzy and lose their balance.
    • In the comics, Gypsy could create illusions, turn invisible, and see the future. The show's version has identical dimensional travelling and vibration powers as Vibe.
    • In his origin, Music Meister can hypnotize people by singing high enough. In the show, he can put people into comas, teleport, force people into mental worlds (such as a musical-themed world) and steal the abilities of other people. It's fair to say that he took a level in badass.
    • Clifford DeVoe has the same Super Intelligence his comic counterpart had, but he can also use his Cool Chair to transfer his consciousness into the bodies of other metahumans. Through this, he can steal whatever powers they have. He currently has telepathy, technopathy, luck manipulation, effigy manipulation, size alteration and control over soundwaves.
    • In the comics, the Fiddler can hypnotize people with his violin. In the show, she can project harmful soundwaves that she can focus with her violin.
    • The comicbook Folded Man has the power to shift into a 2D form that is totally flat and a 4D form that lets him see everything and appear anywhere. The tv version simplifies this into a teleporter who can step into a Pocket Dimension.
    • Comicbook Dwarfstar was The Atom's Evil Counterpart, with the same Incredible Shrinking Man powers. In the series, he has a Shrink Ray ability and is never shown shrinking himself.
    • In the comics Spin was a media mogul who imprisoned a Reality Warper who could turn people's fears into reality. The series version of Spin has a smartphone with the power to hypnotise people through her news posts.
  • Inhumans:
  • Supergirl (2015):
    • In the comics, Irma Ardeen/Saturn Girl is a telepath. In the show, she has telekinesis. She may also have super strength, as in one scene, she punches Mon-El (a Daxamite, a being similar to a Kryptonian) in the gut and it hurts him.
    • Manchester Black, also a telepath in the comics, doesn't appear to have powers at all.
  • Arrow: Damien Darhk doesn't even have powers in the comics, but in the show, he has extremely powerful dark magic.
  • Legends of Tomorrow:
    • In Justice Society of America comics, Nathan Heywood has no way of deactivating his metal skin. Similar to the alteration made to Girder in Flash, the TV version can turn it on or off at will (mostly, and when there's a problem it's usually turning it on.) His grandfather, Henry Heywood/Commander Steel, appears to be a Badass Normal rather than a cyborg.
    • To the extent that Zari is a version of Isis, her powers have been considerably nerfed. The original TV Isis had control over all the elements, plus Friend to All Living Things, Psychic Powers and Green Thumb. The comic book version had most of those plus, as a member of the Dark Shazam family, was a Flying Brick. Zari just has Blow You Away, with the other elements going to other amulets.

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