Comic Book Resources

One of my old favorites was when it was revealed in the late 1970s that Superman’s glasses subliminally hypnotize everyone around him into seeing Clark Kent as a weakling.

Ms. Marvel has the same “summon your costume” power for no particular reason.

Well, the post- Fall of the Mutants X-Men were invisible to cameras and such. And so’s the current Mister Terrific.

Who came up with that Rachel thing? Smells like Claremont.

I always took the “mutants can’t get AIDS” thing as an urban legend that Husk naively believed.

I always thought that the Douglas Ramsey[I hope I remembered his name right] from new mutants with the ability to translate any language was kind of a strange and not very useful power.

“Mutants are immune to AIDS.”

What the fuck??!?

Whatever color pants Banner was wearing would always turn purple after he transformed into the Hulk.

The ability to understand any form of communication is actually a rather novel power with a lot of interesting possibilities; the writers just never actually used it as such.

I don’t have any off the top of my head, but I’ll bet the entire list could be dedicated to Superman’s extra powers in the 1950s. And do movies count so we can include his amnesia-kiss from Superman 2?

A few non-X-men examples:

Pre-Crisis Superman had super-ventriloquism and super-lip-reading…

Midnighter doesn’t have healing factor, but actually his blood is as deadly as every other body part of his, thus AIDS doesn’t last a week in his body…

The Racel Summers thing is something that was contradicted well before it was stated, and has been contradicted again since. We’ve seen loads of alternate universe Rachels in issues of What If?, and one alternate Rachel who had a son with Franklin Richards is the mother of the 1990s FF villain Hyperstorm.

Some others:

— Pre-Crisis Superman is wearing his stretched-out baby clothes, and his glasses wrre created when the explosion of his escape rocket produced two perfectly circular bits of Kryptonian glass. his is why the glasses withstand his heat vision, and why that hypnotic effect mentioned above happened. It’s super-glass!
— Green Lantern can use his will-powered ring to, er, double his own willpower to fuel the ring at double power. (GL 60s series #24)
— The robotic Sentinels can mutate into, and I quote “a human — and a mutant!” thanks to solar radiation (Avengers v.1 #104). Also, two robots merging via technological means can become a “mutant” as well. (Master Mold and Nimrod)
— If the Sandman collides with Hydro-Man, they turn into a King Kong-esque mud monster with a unified mind (ASM v.1 #217-218).
— Based on the example of the Top, in the Pre-Crisis DC Universe spinning rapidly for many years will push brain tissue out to the edge of the brain, which gives you vast mental powers.
— Artificial synthezoid blood can be used to transfuse human beings, and will give them super-powers (Spitfire’s origin). So will transfusions of mongoose blood (the Whizzer) and radioactive cobra anti-venin (the Cobra’s origin).
— The Wasp’s implanted insect cells make her instinctively hate Spider-Man (ASM Annual #3).
— Mister Freeze’s suit uses diamond-powered lasers to cool itself, despite the physical properties of lasers. (mentioned in Batman Villains Secret Files #1 thanks to that horrible Schumacher movie)
— The Wizard Shazam survives in spirit form because he has a bracelet of Shazamium metal, which turns anyone else into a ghost if they wear it. (Captain Marvel Adventures #100)
— Loki can turn himself radioactive at will; everyone from Kang’s future is immune to lethal levels of radiation (Avengers #1 and #8; the first one may not seem weird, but at the time he was portrayed as a thoroughly un-modern sorcerer).
— Despite being a robot made of indestructible Adamantium, Ultron can turn himself completely into nuclear force (Avengers v.1 #68).
— There is a poison that can turn the non-biological Metal Men evil. (Brave and the Bold #66)
— The Atom can steer a clinically dead human body by entering the skull and kicking selected parts of the brain. (Brave and the Bold #115; there could be a lot of Haney stuff on here, really)
— The Zamarons can erase memories by playing a very large alien pipe organ (numerous Green Lantern stories).

The Speed Force apparently has costume-building powers too.

Which always made me think… what ELSE could Wally conjure up?

The Martian Manhunter had an INSANE amount of powers in the 1950s, many nicely cataloged by Scipio over at Absorbascon (RIP). This included the ability to CONJURE ICE CREAM CONES OUT OF ALL THE POWERS FROM THE VOID OF SPACE: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__dO31_PK2kE/RrZ9FXXVfJI/AAAAAAAABHk/D3PKFi-zRH0/s1600-h/mm+3.jpg

They don’t have sex or go to the bathroom. Ambush Bug says.

Don’t know if it’s cheating to mention any of Grant Morrison’s creations but The Brotherhood of Dada come to mind. Within the 2 incarnations of the group I’d have to narrow it down to Mr. Nobody, The Quiz, & Sleepwalk, from the 1st group, and I’d say all of the 2nd Brotherhood.

The powers are too detailed to describe here, so you’ll have to Wiki them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotherhood_of_Dada

The Brave and the Bold, #149, revealed that Wonder Girl could do uncannily good impressions of any voice she had heard just once.

The “Super Sons” tales in World’s Finest told us that Superman’s half-human son had no body odor.

Both these details were the inventions of Bob Haney.

When John Byrne was writting Submariner, he made him lose his ankle wings and so he lost his flying ability.

Wait a minute…….those tiny wings – on his ankles – are what make Submariner fly !?!?!?!?!!

In an issue of World’s Finest from the late 70′s/early 80′s, Superman was trapped in a timeless void, and he slowed his own heartbeat to one beat per second, giving him a time reference that he somehow used to escape.

…..yyyyyyyyyyyyeah….

Iron Man roller skates!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3345/3192075276_bc22a5d930_o.png

A Legionaire with the ability to eat ANYTHING without worry about his waistline.

Love the Storm costume thing. If memory serves, the molecules of her clothing were polarized one way to mimic the appearance of ordinary clothing and when she shot electricity thru them that she self generated they’d repolarize to her X outfit. Gotta love those Richards unstable molecules!

If I recall correctly, the Golden Age Flash got his powers by inhaling “hard water.”

When Superman and Barry Allen raced to the edge of the universe to stop an invasion from the Phantom Zone, the Guardians of the Universe gave the Flash a medallion that gave him a path to run on in space. As long as he wore this medallion, there was not enough power for the Green Lantern Corps to use. The entire reserve of willpower of the universe just to make an inch-thick path for the Flash to run on.

The Thing’s Sweet Aunt Petunia is actually a young girl (wasn’t she killed off in the recent Millar/Hitch run?)

Omar, that is one awesome list. thank you. wasp hating spidey is by far my favorite.

Another X-Men one, per Bishop’s wiki entry:

“He can “let his spirit go” as seen in X-Treme X-Men Annual #1. It’s unknown if this is a mutant talent, or an ability taught to Bishop sometime in his life.”

“He has also demonstrated the ability of instinctively knowing where he is and the present hour and date even if asleep, first mentioned in X-Treme X-Men #1…this aspect is not one of Bishop’s mutant powers. Bishop’s explanation is that due to training, he knows where he is at all times.”

Three words: Bat Shark Repellent

(Yes, that only for the TV show. It’s still Bat Shark Repellent.)

In Daredevil’s first encounter with Stilt-Man, DD’s billy club contained a high-powered microphone which enabled him to eavesdrop over the entire city (back when having mega-high-powered super-hearing wasn’t good enough for him, I guess).

That same issue his mask was lined with circuitry and his horns were antennae for a built-in police scanner.

And that same issue, he had “gum soles” on his boots.

Holy Batman, Daredevil!

What about all those lame secondary mutations that the X-Men suddenly developed? My (least) favorite: Bishop suddenly being able to tell exactly where he was in the world, as soon as he arrives (without having to look around).

Since cold is just the absence of heat, Iceman’s ability to create ice is actually control of temperature. This is reaffirmed by his ability to turn said ice to water as needed. Theoretically, he could generate flames as well.

But it goes beyond that. He’s capable of turning his body to organic, malleable ice, functionally changing his molecular structure on a whim. Realistically, he could very well have the ability to transform himself into damn near anything.

Basically if he could learn to use his powers properly he’d be able to turn himself into anything and generate heat or cold at will. He’s actually classified as an Omega level mutant because of this.

The Racel Summers thing is something that was contradicted well before it was stated, and has been contradicted again since. We’ve seen loads of alternate universe Rachels in issues of What If?, and one alternate Rachel who had a son with Franklin Richards is the mother of the 1990s FF villain Hyperstorm.

Their explanation (and I love this explanation – it’s hilarious) is that while those women might have the same powers and the same name, that’s just a coincidence, like there being many guys out there named Brian Cronin.

Daredevil being able to read books by hand, thanks to his “super touch” powers.

Wolverine immune to lung cancer.

The Martian Manhunter employing a one-time, never before seen application of his telepathy to trick Despero into thinking he had successfully killed not only the Justice League, but all life on Earth, causing him to let go of his hatred and regressing to the form of a fetus. Normally power used as a gift, to give one you love the illusion of their greatest desire.

And I’ve always wondered, what does the Thing’s penis look like?

-Sue Storm has the ability to make invisible things visible, but not while making something invisible.-Johnny Storm can fly because flames rise. He also used to make all sorts of flame objects, in the ’60s.
-Spider-Man literally has radioactive blood. I’d assumed it was a metaphor.
-Transister-powered anything.
-Green Lantern Rings have the ability to generate an astral duplicate of their wielders, who can travel across the universe and communicate with beings. Without the wielder knowing about it.
-I’m sure I read a power which explains that Superboy uses his super-muscle control to compress his spine as Clark Kent, changing his height.
-Storm is unaffected by temperatures.
-Wolverine can survive indefinitely by eating nothing but his own flesh. Which will then regrow. Using the energy provided by the flesh he just ate, presumably.

(Actually, it seems like it’s easy to bring up Claremont’s shenanigans. Fabian Nicieza is pretty notorious for giving characters power-ups. Were any of those ever interesting?)

What about that one DC mutant, introduced in Infinity Inc. as a quasi-villain and later a major player (department head, even?) in the government metahuman agency, Mr. Bones – who has TRANSPARENT FLESH, as well as having a cyanide-like poison that secretes from said invisible flesh, allowing him to kill with his touch.

The Legion of Substitute Heroes member Infectious lass, who is a carrier of every known disease, and sorta-able to transmit them at will.

Staying with the Sub-legion – Stone Boy.
‘nough said, there.

BrianHouston: I have actually seen some printed text on glossy paper that theoretically, one could read by touch with enough practice – but, yeah, doing it with newprint was a bit over the top. Do note that Superman has the same power.

Then there’s the antithesis of this theme for Superman, the whole “lead blocking his x-ray vision” meme, which got turned on its head IIRC in “Whatever Happened…?” story (or was it in the Byrne reboot?), by Superman stating he just looked through EVERYTHING, and narrowed hearch parameters down to places where the vision was blocked (which is what I’d have done from day one, when confronted with such a limitation, but apparently it took DC writers 45+ years to consider it.

I never knew about those you mentioned. I guess I just haven’t read enough mutant books the past two decades. I think I did see Storms’s costume change once, but I wasn’t sure how it happened. I’ve seen several characters apparently change clothes instantly with no explanation. (And I’m only thinking of the ones that don’t have that ability normally.) I remember the entire team of Defenders suddenly had their costumes on at Patsy and Daimon’s wedding the moment the fight broke out, even though they’d been in formal wear one in the previous panels.
That idea of mutants being immune to AIDS sounds incredibly stupid. Did they come up with that in order to deny Northstar had AIDS after Mantlo left Alpha Flight? (Actually, I hate anything that indicates mutants are a distinct species or subspecies. That’s not how mutation works. Mutants should be more different from each other than they are from regular humans. This has been annoying me since the 1980s.)

I was going to mention Namor’s wings, but someone beat me to it.

The Umbrella Academy had a girl named Rumour, who told lies that would then magically come true. I thought that was pretty cool. (See, I do read something besides Marvel on rare occasion! In this case, I got the free issue from a couple of years ago.)

In Amazing Spider-Man #1, his Spider-sense could detect radio messages. Not a simple signal like from his spider-tracers, but actual words transmitted by radio. In Amazing Annual #3, Daredevil had this ability, too.

One of the Morlocks in X-Men, Beautiful Dreamer, could alter people’s memories by blowing cigarette smoke in their faces. She wasn’t really a mutant, she just had some really great weed.

Hank Pym used radio antennae to talk to ants, even though they communicate with pheromones.

Did Mark Millar really kill Petunia Grimm? How much more damage is he going to have to do to the Marvel Universe before someone stops him?

In an earliesh Hal Jordan Green Lantern story (I forget which, but it shows up in Showcase presents Green Lantern vol 2 or 3), Hal unknowlingly creates a sentient duplicate of himself that lives his own life in the future. I’m pretty sure he’s still kicking around out there at the end of the story.

Doug Ramsey was the first character I thought of when I saw this, but someone beat me to it. The thing is, as lame as his power may be on a mutant super-hero team in a comic book, it’s one of the few mutant/super powers that would actually be useful in real life. Colossus and Iceman and Canonball might have powers that seem cool in comics, but what good would they do you in real life? Considering that most of us go through or lives without getting into physical battles on a regular basis, any physical power like that would realistically be little more than a parlor trick. Doug’s power could actually make you lots of money.

Along the same lines, Kylun from Excalibur had the mutant power to mimic any sound. I always liked that.

Don’t know if these count:

I find it odd that Plastic Man/Mr. Fantastic/Elongated Man, etc…if they are stretching and catch something, still have strength and/or leverage…

I find it odd that a person could possibly hear the Atom, Wasp, Yellowjacket and those types when they speak, especially during a battle…

I find it odd that If a superhero is flying/gliding under their own power, falling person without losing any and all momentum…

I find it odd that shapeshifters can do their thing in one second, and are never disoriented by their new body. Of course, I also find it odd that shifting shape will also change their voice and speech patterns…

I find it odd, but am glad, that although these are things that make me say ‘hmmm…’, they didn’t detract from my love of comics.

The Power Pack kids can swap abilities. That always seemed silly to me.

Steel has had a “make my armor appear at will” power at times, too.

Earth-born angel Supergirl. As if being an artificial shapeshifting construct patterned after an alternate universe’s Lana Lang wasn’t complicated enough.

I don’t think Doug Ramsey should count – it was kind of the point that his power wasn’t that useful in battle.

Superman once pulled out the power of ‘Super Surgery’ to save a life… of a Metal Man!
(Although I think the ‘S Shield’ prison thing from then 2nd film is the silliest thing he’s ever done!

Mutants are immune to AIDS

If I had a valuable franchise, I’d Winick-proof it as well.

Ultimate Wasp, a mutant pretending to be a human enhancile, laying a nest of eggs. Referenced by Hank Pym, not actually shown ( like a lot of Millar’s characterization ).

I’ll admit that I’ve never read the Demon series… but why does Etrigan have to rhyme all the time?

Marvel’s Hercules can speak in space, yell loudly enough to be heard from the inside of a nearby spaceship and ride an open horse-drawn chariot through space! Why? “It is the will of Zeus, of course!!” All with his famous maniacal smile!!

Not from a comic book of course, but Stimpy invented the Cheezophone, which lets us talk to cheese anywhere in the world! “You Eediot!!”

I remember reading, around the time that Justice was coming out, that Plastic Man doesn’t age due to his elasticity (though I guess his son, with identical powers, ages just enough to look 20-30ish), and also somehow couldn’t get sick, and therefore was functionally immortal.

According to the Atom, time perception is sped up as you are shrunk down (JLA). So with that being the case, he has spent relatively thousands of years in Sub Atomic places.

Thx to the Obsidian Age, Plastic Man is the oldest SuperHero on the DC Earth (well next to Bats whenever he comes back)

Mr Terrific can communicate mentally with his orbs yet they aren’t sentient…same with Doc Ock when he is separated from his arms.

Rogue is now in complete control of her power but it amazing to think of how many people and powers she has ‘imprinted’ over the years without blowing up

Ok this still bugs me how does Cyclops regular glasses stay on his face without the sheer force blowing them off? The Ruby absorbs the energy but NOT the force exhibited….

Cap’s Shield being one of a kind mixture of adamantium and vibranium which to this day has not EVER been copied successfully…

BTW did anyone ever secure all the Shi’ar tech from Westchester before the X-Men went to San Fran? If not I got to go up there to do some..*ahem*..scavenging…. =)

The Hulk can see astral forms.

“Wolverine can survive indefinitely by eating nothing but his own flesh. Which will then regrow. Using the energy provided by the flesh he just ate, presumably.”

Ok…now that both violates the laws of physics and taste. Modern Wolverine is just plain ridiculous.

Oz: I’m not 100% sure but I think it’s due to his rank in hell that he rhymes. Someone out ranking him, say Neron, does not rhyme. There must be more to it then that, but it’s all I recall.

Namor used to be able to electrify himself like and eel or puff up like a blowfish. It was sort of implied he had the “powers” of all sea life.

Mystique and Mr. Sinister don’t age because they’re shapeshifters, and if you LOOK young, you must BE young.

Jean Grey once said she had an eidetic memory because she’s a telepath. No explanation was given as to how the two things were related.

Most martial artists can recognize anyone they’ve seen fight, because “fighting styles are as unique as fingerprints” (which would come as a surprise to anyone who’s done or seen synchronized martial arts).

Wolverine (and most people with supersenses) not only has an amazing sense of smell, but can usually instantly recognize anyone he’s ever smelled no matter how briefly or how long ago he met them (of course, it’s not like people with normal senses ever forget voices or faces the way real people do) and can sometimes do advanced chemical analysis despite having no real traning in chemistry.

Graviton can somehow teleport by manipulating gravity.

Shadowcat can travel quickly by phasing free of Earth’s gravity and letting it rotate under her. Somehow she does this without sinking into the ground or drifting off into space, meaning she isn’t affected by the Earth’s rotation, but somehow continues to stay in its orbital path around the sun.

A great source for these is the old Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe, where they would make up powers on the fly (or dredge up hilarious old explanations) to handwave things that made no sense whatsoever. The best example being any hero who could change size (including ones like the Hulk and Ursa Major who had a secondary form that was much larger than their human one) – the handbook always said they gained mass from a “presumably extra-dimensional source.” As a kid, I always pictured their bodies being portals to dimensions of solid muscle, bone and hair. The fact that super-sized or shrunken human lungs wouldn’t work with normal-sized oxygen molecules is usually explained as heroes with growth and shrinking powers generating a field that automatically shriks or enlarges air.

One snarky one: Collossus (and many similar heroes) seem to have the unconscious ability to generate an antigravity field around their arms that makes being caught by them after falling somehow less deadly than hitting the (much softer than osmium steel) pavement.

Plastic Man can change his shape into pretty much anything – but can’t change color.

Wildcat, the aging boxer, has nine lives.

Loose Cannon changed color with his moods.

Wonder Woman’s invisible jet.

Jimmy Olsen has the most pliable DNA anywhere.

Steel’s metal helmet fits snugly over his lips and moves with his mouth.

Someone needs to explain to me how Mister Miracle’s mask works.

Big Barda – in stark contrast to nearly every other female superhero – wears a bikini when in her civvies but puts on full head to toe body armor when doing battle. (Just because it makes sense doesn’t mean it’s not odd!)

I would have thought Superboy’s pounding the dimensional walls would have been mentioned.

Spider Woman having a phernom power that makes her attractive to the men around her. As if she’s not hot enough.

A big issue with me…Scarlet Witch being able to recreate reality. Really? Just by saying ‘no more mutants’ there are all of a sudden no more mutants? Couldn’t she say something more useful like’no more telemarketers’? Her powers are based on being able to make something that is improbable happen. So she could make a die roll come out six every time because it’s possible, but she couldn’t make it roll 112 because that’s impossible.

Black Bolt. Can’t they get him a dry erase board or something? Maybe even a vibranium scarf?

In an issue of the Super Friends Elongated Man was able to stretch his hair to deactivate a bomb.

Batman of Earth-2 was killed by a sorcerer named Fredric Vaux. Who? Where this guy come from? Why did he kill Batman? Just lame to kill such a big name with a complete nobody.

Green Lanterns being able to make things that aren’t green.

Sorry to bring this back to the X-Men, but the first one I thought of was Nightcrawler.

It has been said that Nightcrawler was Dave Cockrum’s favourite character and because of that he kept giving him extra powers. So in his first appearance, Nightcrawler was just very agile. Then he could teleport. Then he could turn invisible in shadows. Then Professor X gave him an ‘image inducer’, which allowed him to cast illusions. Of course, this all changed when John Byrne came on board. Nightcrawler threw away his image inducer and his invisibility power was ret-conned to being hard to see in the dark (aren’t we all?). They kept the teleporting though.

ZZZ—

Graviton teleporting by manipulating gravity is more logical than any other teleporters, actually. Gravity warps space, and can theoretically create wormholes. So presuming his manipulation of gravity could occur (every character gets one impossible trick), teleportation (through time as well as space) is a perfectly rational and scientifically-accurate application of his ability.
It’s certainly more plausible than the Star Trek method, and I don’t think any other teleporting characters have ever even been given any explanation. (Other than magick.)

@ZZZ: I think some of those are nitpicky. For Wolverine, the guy might not be a Chem PhD, but if he knows what a bunch of things smell like and they are all in the sample then he should be able to identify them. A gourmet chef or somelier does the same thing with taste. And for martial artists, you have to remember that comic book martial artists aren’t doing synchronized martial arts. They all have various kinds of training and lot’s of experience in what is essentially MMA combat. It makes sense that they would end up developing unique styles.

Basara: while voice-mimicry shouldn’t be an inherent feature of shape-shifters, everyone’s body (shape, size bone structure) affects the resonance and thus the sound they make. If Mystique impersonated Colossus, her voice would automatically become deep and booming. It wouldn’t give her a Russian accent though…

OOH Patrick C. I knew I forgot one…the Wildcat one …..bravo Sir!

Black Manta. They actually had a great running joke in Mini Marvels about Black Bolt, Namor, and Hawkeye which revolved around a notepad and yes, rock, paper, scissors.

ZZZ….That Shadowcat tidbit always left me confused …it made sense for Iron Man because he could fly straight up and theoretically could cut down his travel time to any place on the globe. For Shadowcat to do the same thing just phasing on ground level made NO sense.

And also I love The Taskmaster’s ability to imitate the fighting styles of other fighters he has witnessed….I thought that was cool….Prometheus recording them on a dvd implanted in his helmet to download the styles DIRECTLY to his brain actually made no sense to me in a fight when I thought about it…but the fanboy in me loved it on first glance…Although Pro’s ability reminds me a lot of the Valiant Hard C.O.R.P.S series….

Last One for me: How exactly does one measure Sentry’s ‘power of a million exploding suns’????

@Bernard The Poet: I always liked (AKA thought it was ridiculous and unnecessary) the explanation given for the nasty smell of Nightcrawler’s ‘BAMF!’ – he doesn’t teleport from one spot directly to the next, but actually makes a pitstop in some demonic dimension (not limbo, IIRC) bringing with him the odour of fire and brimstone..

Has anyone mentioned Superman flying against the Earth’s rotation to travel back in time?

A high school student can make a synthetic steel adhessive, and a delivery system using only items in his elderly aunts basement.

The M is not M but M’s twin sisters who can combine to be come M story

Angels healing blood

Pyclokes shadow powers now gone

The skrull DNA is contagious (the FF annueal by Bryne and Skull Kill KRew)

the crossing wasp who looked like a butterfly

Maggot Nuff said

Kurt Wagner being the son of a demon

Cable being treated like a cyborg for four years when it turn out he was infected with a virus, In the extinction agenda he had his cybernetics shut down like forge.

the original premise for x-factor as mutant hunters was just bad.

Being able to change in to any animal as long as their green.

Rick Jones survives a nuclear explosion, because he was protect by a human body, but gets cancer becuase someone he was contected was inhaled a carnegingeinc gas while rick was in another dimension. Rick and Marv were not physically connected they just shared the same space.

the beyonder using a toilet

@JackKing: Thanks for the info. I’ve heard about that, but it still makes little sense to me. Why do demons of any rank have to rhyme?

“Shadowcat can travel quickly by phasing free of Earth’s gravity and letting it rotate under her.” What? That doesn’t seem to make sense. The Earth rotates very slowly. So how would phasing allow Kitty to travel quickly? You can walk faster than the Earth rotates!

Here’s something that always bothered me… in Next Men, Bethany, an invulnerable woman, uses her hair as a weapon–her hair is indestructible, and when someone grabs it, his fingers are cut off! Okay, so you have indestructible hair… it can’t break, but it’s still hair. It’s not a cutting tool. If you grab her hair you should be pulled along by her, or it should be pulled out of your hands.

Daredevil can beat Ultron to death with a wooden stick.

Angel can somehow pin his wings behind him but leave no odd lumps or scruntched up clothes, thus making it look like he doesn’t have wings in street clothes. See also: Captain America’s shield being strapped to his back.

The Human Torch makes “fire duplicates” of himself that, apparently, move on their own.

Stan Lee gave all his women characters “female intuition” that acts like ESP.

When the Flash travels to other dimensions, he keeps his molecules vibrating at a certain speed. To return home, he vibrates them at the speed his home dimension vibrates.

@Oz The Earth’s circumference at the equator is around 24, 900 miles. If it makes one complete rotation every twenty four hours, and not factoring in it’s revolution around the sun, that means any point on the equator has to travel that full distance every day, or a little over 1,000 mph (24, 900/24). What’s really remarkable is not just that Kitty doesn’t fly into space, but she also must be consulting some sophisticated equipment to get the latitude and timing right. I’m pretty (not 100%) sure that if Kitty could somehow completely rid herself of the Earth’s rotational effect, she’d see everything whipping by her at speeds almost too fast to identify anything. Can a more physics knowledgeable person confirm that?

wolverins healing factor keeps his hands from being shredded every time he pops his claws. flash able to run wihtout his clothes being shredded. emma able to be dimond without getting so heavy she can not move aorund or she shatters

@ZZZ snarked: Colossus (and many similar heroes) seem to have the unconscious ability to generate an antigravity field around their arms that makes being caught by them after falling somehow less deadly than hitting the (much softer than osmium steel) pavement.

Claremont didnt hold with this. Colossus actually turns human to catch Kitty Pryde in the Dange Room when she’s falling so that she doesn’t get hurt when she hits his steel body. They then are nearly crushed by a super huge piledriver, with Nightcrawler teleporting in at the last second and deactivating the room. X-Men #141, first part of “Days of Future Past”.

Benard the Poet poeted: Nightcrawler threw away his image inducer and his invisibility power was ret-conned to being hard to see in the dark (aren’t we all?).

Alan Davis changed this back in his run writing and drawing Excalibur. Nightcrawler literally turns invisible in deep shadow. There’s a great issue – #62 or 63 – where scientists run Nightcrawler through a series of tests for his powers while monitoring him via 5 (6?) superhumans with hypersenses. Fascinating stuff. Good comics.

Daryll B would aggravate Edwin Jarvis: Cap’s Shield being one of a kind mixture of adamantium and vibranium which to this day has not EVER been copied successfully…

Cap’s shield isn’t a blend of adamantium and vibranium, it’s a unique alloy. Adamantium was created trying to duplicate it. Kurt Busiek (continuity maniac) had Jarvis address this in a backup in one of his Avengers books, where Jarvis has to reply to e-mails from the Avengers security liaison asking after niggling points in Avengers continuity. That particular one has him throw up his hands and lament that he’s had to answer it for every bureaucrat who’s ever interacted with the Avengers.

My own: Spider-Man can expand his chest like a spider.

And I enjoyed the little bits that Walt Simonson had in his Thor run wherein the Asgardians could just do old time pantheon stuff without effort. Did you know that Fandral the dashing can wipe minds? That Thor can hear someone call his name wherever they are? That sort of thing.

The Hulk can spontaneously grow or lose hair. Seriously–there’s been stories where Banner has a beard, but the Hulk doesn’t. There was even one where it was implied that the Hulk spontaneously grew a beard.

Superman using super-speed to vibarate the molecules of his face so it would be a blur in any photo of Superman.

Doug Ramsey’s power has actually been revisited in, of all places, Planetary. If you pay attention, Drummer has exactly the same power as Doug, although he uses it a bit more creatively.

It always bugged me that Wolverine’s regeneration is so ludicrous. To the point that it apparently slows down his aging as opposed to accelerating it.

Has Elongated Man’s nose thing been mentioned?

Once upon a time Jay Garrick and Barry Allen actually ran backwards for a while in order to reverse some accelerated aging that somehow fell upon them (due to running too fast facing forward, IIRC).

Flash’s clothing is protected by a sort of telekinetic aura. It has long been established. In fact, Byrne’s Superman used to have a similar aura, as revealed by a though ballon during the Legends crossover when he complained that he couldn’t get dirty due to his aura.

BTW, I wonder how come those sorts of auras can fail to be noticed by those around them in their civilian identities.

I always laughed at the Flash’s ability to “cast a force field” around whomever he was carrying so that they didn’t get ripped to shreds when he ran at supersonic speeds…

Polaris had that period where she was bulked up and muscular, but now she seems to have shrunk back down to a normal body size…

“Shadowcat can travel quickly by phasing free of Earth’s gravity and letting it rotate under her.” What? That doesn’t seem to make sense. The Earth rotates very slowly. So how would phasing allow Kitty to travel quickly? You can walk faster than the Earth rotates!

While this is clearly powered by handwavium, it isn’t actually true that you can walk faster than the earth rotates, unless you can walk an entire time zone in an hour, in which case the International Olympic Committee would probably like to hear from you.

Back in the early Silver Age X-Men comics, Magneto was more or less had telepathy as well as his magnetic powers. He had conversations with Professor X on the astral plane, for example.

And along those lines, old X-Men comics have taught me that Magneto can do anything as long as the word “magnetically” is thrown in front of it.

Magneto magnetically blocked that blast.

Magneto magnetically deflected Iceman’s snow balls.

Magneto magnetically cloned that mutant.

And so on…

Oh, and I don’t think anyone’s mentioned the Hulk’s ability to see astral forms as well as his ability to always home in on the site of the explosion that created him.

Those always seemed a bit random to me.

On those goofy Hulk powers–

1) Astral perception: this one’s never been explained away. Peter David suggested that the Hulk was afraid of Banner’s father’s ghost coming to get him, so he would always be watching for it. That still doesn’t explain the power, it just adds a Hulkish twist to it.

2) Homing ability: I’m not sure this was ever officially a “power” until John Byrne suggested it in Incredible Hulk #314. However, it was retroactively explained as the Maestro (the Hulk’s evil future self; who was sent back in time to the original gamma blast to be killed) “summoning” his younger self to draw energy from him. This creates a whole new goofy power: the Hulk can “summon” himself. Greg Pak and Jeph Loeb have been playing with this one: of late, Hulk, She-Hulk, Skaar, A-bomb and Rulk have all been able to sense each other to some degree.

Originally in the early comics, Superman had the ability to change his facial features by using his somewhat superhuman control of his face muscles. However, this ability eventually phased out and never used again. I just LOVE that!

Nobody’s mentioned how the Hulk’s pants never rip or fall off?

I remember reading the Kitty through the Earth thing, and I don’t care how it works, I still like it.

I’m still not sure how characters like Batman, Elektra, Black Widow, etc… . can swing off of skyscrapers and not pull their arms out of their sockets.

I’m still not sure how the Ringer’s powers worked, from PPSSM. He makes rings? Really???

How does Shang Chi not wear shoes? I mean, you go to take a bad guy out barefoot?

Does the Rhino ever pee? That suit is bonded to him ya know….

The Kingpin HAS to be some kind of mutant. No man that FAT moves like that. EVER.

The Slug can suffocate people in the FOLDS OF HIS FAT! Web Of Ann. #3.

Norman and Harry Osborn’s hair. ‘Nuff said.

Side note – I once had a X-Men continuity / power issue and got to ask Bob Harras about it. His answer, “It’s the magic of Marvel!” So there ya go.

Also, for those of you mentioning Doug Ramsey’s powers, you have to check out the recent New Mutants issues of X-Necrosia!

“> Mutants are immune to AIDS

If I had a valuable franchise, I’d Winick-proof it as well.”

I don’t have any official capacity as such, but I’d like to declare that FunkyGreenJerusalem wins the thread for that.

I think Northstar’s sister Aurora had the same whip-around-by-Earth’s rotation-poer thing as Shadowcat. But I’m not sure if anyone ever pointed out that they’d only be able to do that going due west, forcing them to alwasy be running east if they wanted a flying tackle. Alan Davis also said, regarding Shadowcat again, that she (and all mutants) had secondary healing powers, allowing them to recover from injuries faster than normal.

And didn’t Wolverine one time regenerate completely from a single drop of blood? (Which makes me wonder why Wolverine’s often-spilled blood doesn’t just make more Wolverines, like the brooms in Sorceror’s Apprentice.

In one issue of Superman, he’s given super-suction, to get Jimmy out of a deathtrap by Conduit. Great story, since Conduit accounted for all of Supes’ other powers.

Alan Davis also said, regarding Shadowcat again, that she (and all mutants) had secondary healing powers, allowing them to recover from injuries faster than normal.

Actually, that was first mentioned by Roy Thomas WAY back in X-Men 27. Cyclops accidentally shot Angel with an optic blast (oh, the ANGST!!) and when they returned to the mansion, Xavier examined Angel and said he would be fine and back to normal soon, since mutants generally heal faster than regular humans.

Wonder Woman being able to talk to birds and other animals is an interesting power that isn’t used often enough, IMO.

And the idea that she lost all her powers when handcuffed or bound by a man always struck me as kind of creepy.

@ Jeff Ryan – If we’re thinking of the same story, there was an X-Men Annual where Wolverine regenerated from a single drop of blood. But that drop of blood came in contact with a crystal that basically gave the bearer of said crystal inffinite power over everything, so it wasn’t so much Wolverine’s blood doing the work, but the crystal. I don’t remember the issue # of the annual, but it was drawn by Alan Davis and I absolutely loved it as a kid.

Tyler – That’s the one I was gonna say! The “Bishop always knows where and when he is” power. WTF???

How about the “Magento’s helmet can block my telelpathy!” thing. Not a power per se, but I always found it odd that the most powerful telepath on Earth could get thru Magneto’s helemt.

OH! Speaking of the telepathy, around the time Gambit joined the team and they’re in space, evil Xavier tries to read Gambit’s thoughts and he says something like “His thoughts, I can’t grab hold of them! They’re like quicksilver!” How is that even related to Gambit’s powers? Was that ever picked up on again or explained?

Oh and another good one is Falcon. At first, he could just talk to Redwing. Then he was a mutant. Then he wasn’t a mutant. But then Geoff Johns (I think) made it so he could see through the eyes of any birds (???, right?). And then, recently, I’ve remember Brubaker use Falcon as telepathically communicating with any birds in his vicinity, like using them to spy of stuff, etc.

@Jazzbo: it was X-Men Annual 11, I believe. And it was pretty cool.

can’t get thru the helmet, i mean.

“If we’re thinking of the same story, there was an X-Men Annual where Wolverine regenerated from a single drop of blood. But that drop of blood came in contact with a crystal that basically gave the bearer of said crystal inffinite power over everything, so it wasn’t so much Wolverine’s blood doing the work, but the crystal. I don’t remember the issue # of the annual, but it was drawn by Alan Davis and I absolutely loved it as a kid.”

X-Men Annual #10

Following up on jazzbo’s reply to Jeff Ryan, it was Uncanny X-Men Annual 11. And you are correct, it was great.

For cool uses of minor superpowers, you can’t beat Warlock’s victory over the Impossible Man in New Mutants Annual #3. “And with that – Warlock changes color.”

Curse you, Teebor! 5 minutes! 5 MINUTES!

Ok – I was off by 1 Annual. It was also kinda the basis for the Guggenheim story in Civil War when Wolvie came back from pretty much nothing.

While all of his powers are a little strange, Longshot has hollow bones and his skin feels like leather. I assume the same for Shatterstar?

Snowbird has post-cognition (able to see events that happened in a certain place earlier in the day (that power kind of comes out of nowhere in an early Byrne issue).

Adam Warlock briefly reanimates a dead woman to question her in the first part of the Magus saga.

Should we even bring up Spidey’s powers from “The Other?”

I didn’t think so……

I don’t know if this counts, but I always thought it was weird that John Jameson needed a specially designed suit to restrain his superpowers and prevent him from wrecking stuff accidentally when other similarly powered characters didn’t need the same.

To Alistari, I thought Rick Jones got cancer from the time he irradiated himself, trying to become a new Hulk. (It was a Mantlo issue, just after the Hulk gained Banner’s consciousness.) But I could be wrong. I have some ROM issues where Rick has cancer, but I haven’t read them in a long time. I never did find out how he got cured.

What kind of mutation gives someone the ability to turn into a wolf, but not any other sort of creature? And why does Rahne have a telepathic link to Dani when she’s a wolf, but never to anyone else? Is it because in Claremont-World all American Indians have mystic connections to nature, or wild animals such as wolves?

@Mary Warner

Actually, one of Dani’s one-off powers was the ability to communicate (sort of) with animals. That’s why Rahne had a telepathic link with her when she was a wolf: Rahne was an animal. It’s also part of the reason Dani became a Valkyrie; she bonded with an Asgardian winged horse at one point.

Yes, Annual 11. Thanks Gary and Teebore (and pmpknface, despite being off one.) If there ever was a Top 100 single issues poll, there’s a good chance that annual would make my list.

What about Superman’s old power of Superdickery?

This was addressed in Irredeemable, but why can Superman’s super-hearing allow him to hear Lois calling for him thousands of miles away, when sound travels at approximately 600 mph. meaning if Lois was in California and called for Supes who was in NYC, it would still take him 5 minutes to hear her.

Silver Surfer also had that ‘going round the earth very fast to travel through time’ power, and going very fast in the opposite direction allows him to go the other way through time.

Not a power persay, but I always though the Martian Manhunter’s weakness to fire was a bit daft – presumably the martian civilisation developed without cooking.

I believe Longshot is also supposedly ‘unique’ in the Universe’. By extension, I’d think so is Shatterstar…

Cyclops presumably has a ludicrously strong neck – it has to be able to resist the equal opposite force of whatever his eyes are capable of doing, which as supposedly able to ‘punch through a mountain’ makes his neck pretty tough.

At the end of the ‘The Other’ story arc, Spider-Man has his powers amped up, increased strength, agility, ultra sensitive and adhesive skin, and large stingers that come out of his wrists. This of course all gets forgotten by the next issue when Tony Stark builds him the Iron Spider costume. And never mentioned again after One More Day.

Also, not only can Taskmaster mimic anyones martial arts and combat moves, but if he watches an action movie in fast forward, he can mimic the moves and the speed.

I’m sorry if anyone has mentioned it, and it’s not exactly a superpower, but during Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men, he gave Cyclops “ruby quartz eye contacts” or something along those lines. How the hell did Cyclops put those on without completely destroying whatever building he is in?

Daredevil being able to read books could technically happen, depending how the book in question was printed. Print something on a laser printer, and print something on an ink printer, and you can actually touch the difference without superpowers.

I’d recommend to everyone in this thread to read The Physics of Superheroes book, it’s a great and interesting read (and obviously science heavy) that actually tries to explain many of these superpowers.

Oh yeah, and Gambit had some kind of low level telepathy. He could talk to people, and “suggest” they do things. Kind of like what Spider-Woman has now.

The Rachel thing is especially ridiculous because it runs counter to the whole premise of What If and the Marvel multiverse in general. If a fateful X-Men choice goes one way in one reality but another way in another reality, if Rachel happened to be there in the first timeline she’s not there anymore in the offshoot timeline — and in fact was never there in that reality, because there can be only one Rachel. It messes everything up.

Superman flies backwards around the earth, rewinding time.

The pre-Crisis Vartox had an absurdly long list of powers:

“Vartox is described as a Hyper-man, possessing Hyper-powers. The origin of these powers is never revealed but Vartox did state he “acquired” his Hyper-powers as a young man(Superman #374, August 1982: “Love is deadlier…the second time around”), so he was not born with them like Superman himself. Vartox stated that his powers were “psychic by nature”(Action Comics #499, September 1979: “As the World Turns…for the Last Time.”). The majority of Vartox’s powers are manifest as beams from his hands or eyes and range in color from pink to orange to white to blue in color, though they principally seem to be yellow/gold. The powers described below are ascribed to the original pre-crisis Vartox.

* Invulnerability roughly analogous to the Bronze Age Superman. Vartox survives the explosion of a planet at ground zero, can survive without breathing in deep space and is stated as having no weakness to magic. His only shown vulnerability is when his hyper-power is siphoned away by an outside source.
* Hyper-Strength, described as greater than Superman’s.
* Hyper-Speed, described as greater than Superman’s.
* Flight. Vartox is capable of unaided intergalactic flight.
* Hyper-senses. These take at least two forms, though there are possibly more. Hyper-Vision, evidenced as analogous to telescopic vision, microscopic vision(at least to a molecular level) and the ability to see through any substance(unlike Superman’s own X-ray Vision which cannot see through lead). Hyper-Vision also boosted a time-viewing machine to enable it to view the past of another planet rather than the one it was situated on. Vartox also has some form of super-hearing as he was able to hear Jimmy Olsen’s ultra-sonic signal watch and listen to a conversation taking place thousands of miles away.
* Vartox has a Hyper-body which he has described as “an ethereal Hyper-body which dwells within my physical essence. On occasion this ‘phantom self’ has been dispatched into action without my knowledge –directed by my own subconscious wishes” (S No. 373, Jul 1982: “Lana Lang’s Farewell to Earth”). This hyper-body is capable of possessing another person, taking control of them and imbuing that body with Vartox’s own powers. Alternatively, Vartox can also temporarily boost another person with a portion of his hyper-power, giving them abilities that rival his own.
* Vartox has demonstrated some mind control abilities, even across a great distance and over as many people as a whole town. Despite this, he has never directly demonstrated any skills at telepathy or empathy. This could be because he is capable of broadcasting psychically but is not psychically receptive, or is perhaps due to some personal moral stance against invading the privacy of others. Vartox has also demonstrated the ability to project sounds and images directly into another person’s mind.
* Vartox may have some precognitive powers as he once used his hyper-power to predict the outcome of a battle between himself and Superman.
* Vartox has hyper-hypnotic powers which he has used on several occasions to take on the appearance of another person.
* On one occasion Vartox demonstrated super-breath.
* Vartox can transform himself into pure hyper-energy, creating a power surge great enough to render Superman unconscious.
* Vartox has demonstrated the ability to teleport both himself and others over large distances.
* Vartox can make himself immaterial at will and can also make other objects, such as walls, immaterial to allow others to pass through them unhindered.
* Energy Powers: Vartox can emit a range of energy powers from his hands, eyes and in one case his foot. These have taken the forms of hyper-charges, which are capable of killing or rendering a target unconscious, the extremely powerful hyper-obliteration charge, as well as hyper-disintegration beams.
* Telekenesis: Vartox possesses a very powerful form of telekenesis which he has used in many ways, to manipulate his environment, to rain remote-control blows on an enemy from a distance, to shape water into tidal waves, to choke Superman with his own cloak and to repair a shredded parachute, amongst others.
* Frost Powers: Vartox can generate hyper-frost to freeze a target. He can use this to freeze a person solid, this condition wears off within the hour leaving the subject unharmed.
* Vartox has a form of heat vision.
* Techno-empathy: Vartox has demonstrated the ability to interface directly which even super-sophisticated computers.
* Magnetic powers.
* His hyper-energy can also be shaped to make objects, such as nets, barriers and forcefield bubbles.
* Vartox has also demonstrated a host of other, less quantifiable powers such as being able to transform a 3-dimensional object into a 2-dimensional one, drastically increase the weight of objects and in some cases seemingly transform matter at a molecular, and possibly atomic, level.
* Vartox carries devices on his theighboots capable of emitting some kind of gas which Superman speculated was probably paralysis causing.
* Vartox is also an accomplished inventor and scientific genius.” – Wikipedia

Since when is What If…? any kind of canon?

The entirty of space and time has ceased to exist during the course of at least two What If…? stories, how can it “actually” be taking place?

Yeah, I never looked at the stories in “What If…?” as if they were actually taking place in a multiverse/alternate reality. I thought the Watcher was just spinning yarns of “what might have been…”

Mike: From the beginning, the premise of What If was always that every damn thing has happened at some point in some alternate reality in the infinite multiverse, so let’s go over to an alternate universe and take a look at how things played out when this or that crazy thing happened. A number of the alternate realities from those stories have popped up again in dimension-hopping stories.

And even when the whole universe ended up destroyed, as in the classic Korvac issue, it was only THAT universe. And in fact there was a sequel to that story, in which Dr. Strange, Phoenix and Silver Surfer return to that universe (having been exiled from it by Korvac in the original What If story) to find nothing there but endless white space.

Okay… one more thing about the Shadowcat phasing out of earths gravity thing.

Assuming that it would work and this allowed her to travel at speeds up to 1000mph (if she was at the equator), wouldn’t this mean that is only works in one direction, that being counter to the rotation of the earth. (so to the West?). Meanwhile travel to the east would be impossible and, north and south would be completely unaffected.

Yeah, Physics Of Super-Heroes is a great book.

So what’s the deal with the Scarlet Witch and flight? According to a letter in Englehart’s Vision & Scarlet Witch series, Wanda could fly for a while, and then she just stopped with no explanation. The letter writer said that later writers denied that she ever had that ability. The only issue I have in which she flies is Avengers #153 (where it is shown as if it’s simply one of her normal abilities), although I have seen her hover a few feet off the ground a couple of times in later stories. I haven’t read very many Avengers stories between the ’80s and a couple of years ago, so I don’t know whether they ever clarified the matter.
Maybe it’s an early manifestation of her House Of M-level ability– she altered reality to give herself flight-powers, and then changed it back without anyone remembering that she could do that.

(By the way, could somebody please write a story in which Wanda says, ‘No more company-wide crossovers.’)

How about Illyana’s ability to manipulate time as shown at the end of the Kulan Gath arc? and, while on the subject of wolverinf, how about Lobo regenerating from a single drop of blood?

Lobo is a parody of Wolverine so there you go, parody power.

My favorite wacky mutant ability was Tarot from the Hellions. I can animate my tarot cards, into three dimensional constructs capable of independent movement and sentience. Just my Tarot cards tho, not my Christmas cards or Jonas Brothers poster. Just my Tarot cards.

Wanda’s flight (and, btw, also the Vision’s invisibility from somewhere in the #140s, when he was in Squadron Supreme Earth) was indeed strange.

I always assumed that it is something that she is capable of under some sort of favorable circunstances, but otherwise too strenous or somehow unacceptably costly. Maybe those powers demand unusual concentration, or speed up their aging, or something along those lines.

Which brings to mind, isn’t that why Aquaman rarely ever attempts to use his telepathic control powers in anything except fish? I believe that the possibility of using them on people was introduced by Peter David and used only once by someone else (Grant Morrison on his first JLA arc). From what I have read, it seems that he open himself up for some sort of evil influence of a sorcerous ancestor when he uses telepathy that way.

Here’s something lots of people seem to forget. Wonder Woman’s ability to fly did not exist until after the Crisis. I always thought that was a rather big change. Especially since she doesn’t need an invisible jet anymore.

I didn’t know Wonder Woman could fly now. I’m so DC ignorant these days.
However, when I was very young I had an issue of Lois Lane, in which Lois kept spying on Superman and Wonder Woman, who were pretending to have a love affiar for some reason I can’t remember. There were several scenes in that story in which Wonder Woman appeared to be flying. I only knew her from SuperFriends and an episode of Brady Kids at that time, but I didn’t think she had flying abillity, so that story really confused me. Maybe it was just ahead of its time.

I had actually planned to mention Tarot earlier, but for some reason it slipped my mind. Thank you for mentioning her, Daniel.

Angel used to be able to see exceptionally well, like a hawk can.

Wonder Woman _could_ fly under her own power pre-Crisis. It was a plot point in V1 #250 that she was out of practice because she usually flew by invisible plane.

Angel used to be able to see exceptionally well, like a hawk can.

Additionally, at some point someone (probably Claremont) established that much of Angel’s anatomy was like that of a bird: he had lighter bones and better vision and all kinds of stuff that enabled him to survive flying.

But I suppose all that makes some kind of sense and isn’t some random offshoot power, like his healing blood.

Lois kept spying on Superman and Wonder Woman, who were pretending to have a love affiar for some reason I can’t remember.

Knowing Superman, it was probably just a convoluted way to teach Lois a lesson.

“Oh and another good one is Falcon. At first, he could just talk to Redwing. Then he was a mutant. Then he wasn’t a mutant. But then Geoff Johns (I think) made it so he could see through the eyes of any birds (???, right?). And then, recently, I’ve remember Brubaker use Falcon as telepathically communicating with any birds in his vicinity, like using them to spy of stuff, etc.”

Falcon communicates with Redwing because the Red Skull gave him that power using the Cosmic Cube. Falcon developed the ability to communicate with all birds as an off-shoot of that.
I’m not sure WHY people called him a mutant for awhile. My guess was that A) they forgot the real reason or B) they wanted to boost sales so they called him a mutant.

You know, I don’t fault any of the weird early-60s powers. Stan Lee could barely keep the names straight let-alone powers. And when something is on the page, and time was of the essence, boom Magneto can astral project, lets move on. I think it shows the talent of those involved at the time that the characters make as much sense as they do.

Falcon was called a mutant back when Englehart was writing Captain America. It couldn’t have been to boost sales because nobody was reading X-Men at that time. (I think it actually pre-dated Giants-Size X-Men #1.)

Yep, it certainly does. In fact, I think the X-Men weren’t even having new stories at that time. 1974, IIRC.

Although, to be clear: it was never established that Falcon was a mutant, and Englehart himself wrote the story (one year later) that clarified that he was not.

We spent most of that year wondering if Sam was a mutant because Professor X could somehow send suggestions to him but not to Steve. Of course, being a mutant is not a prerequisite to receive Xavier’s suggestions anyway, so it doesn’t really mean much either way.

“Oh and another good one is Falcon. At first, he could just talk to Redwing. Then he was a mutant. Then he wasn’t a mutant. ”

At some point, it was sugested that Redwing was a mutant……….

Which reminds me of X-Statix’s El Guapo. He was not a mutant; his skateboard was.

I always thought that some limits to powers, like Tarots limit to only manifest her tarot cards and not other pictures were self imposed limits. Such that they didn’t understand the extent of their powers, and sometimes limited it to an emotional attachment or response. Tarot believed that she could only manifest the images from her tarot cards, because she had an emotional attachment to them, so that was all she ever used her power for. Some heroes or villains powers increased to other areas as they developed or understood their powers better.