Most ridiculous superhero?

[The Ari-tificer]

The only limitation here is that it can't be someone you just made up. (i.e. it has to come up in a google search.)

[digiman619]

Two that come to mind are Arm Fall Off Lad and NFL Superpro

[The Ari-tificer]

Two that come to mind are Arm Fall Off Lad and NFL Superpro

Arm-Fall-Off Lad definitely.
How about Color Kid? His only power is that he can turn something any color he wants it to be.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Well, Whose Line Is It Anyway came up with such gems as Faking-Injury-For-Sympathy Man, Captain Coward, Show-Stopping Number Boy and hundreds more (http://whoselineisitanyway.wikia.com/wiki/Superheroes).

Yup - got that from Google Search...

Actual comic book heroes (or villians, I assume?): Well, there's always Don Martin's Captian Kutz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Klutz). Mind you, he was supposed to be ridiculous - he was in Mad.

[Velaryon]

He may not be as ridiculous as others that have been brought up, but I feel that Slapstick (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slapstick_(comics)) deserves mention. He's literally a kid that became a pastiche of Warner Bros. style cartoons. The only way he could be more ridiculous is if he were literally a cartoonified anthropomorphic animal like the characters he's based on.

[Grail]

Dog Welder.
(Or really any of Section Eight)

[The Ari-tificer]

Dog Welder.
(Or really any of Section Eight)

Yeah, Dog Welder shows a complete lack of understanding on the creator's part of how welding works.

[lunaticfringe]

Throw a dart at the roster for the Legion of Super Heroes. Odds are you have a strong contender for the title.

[TeChameleon]

Although if you want to go with a more classic bad acid trip in tights, look up Stardust the Super Wizard sometime. Holy crap that stuff was utterly insane. It was less Arm-Fall-Off Boy silliness and more... uhm... I'm not even sure how to describe it. It's pretty bonkers, though.

[Metahuman1]

An Argument could be made for Howard The Duck.

[Hopeless]

An Argument could be made for Howard The Duck.

Oh he'd definitely argue that's one thing we agree on!😉

Banana man?

[comicshorse]

Hong Kong Phooey ( Number One Super Guy)

( If you are not know whistling the theme song you are younger than me :smallsmile: )

[The Ari-tificer]

An Argument could be made for Howard The Duck.

Yeah, but he's technically not a superhero, just a detective.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Although if you want to go with a more classic bad acid trip in tights, look up Stardust the Super Wizard sometime. Holy crap that stuff was utterly insane. It was less Arm-Fall-Off Boy silliness and more... uhm... I'm not even sure how to describe it. It's pretty bonkers, though.

I have the complete works of Fletcher Hanks next to me (with the charming title of Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All).

He's not so much a "ridiculous superhero" as "overpowered superhero in a ridiculous story".

But, ye gods, you are right about the bad acid trip - Stardust is by far the most extreme of his characters (although Fantomah, Mystery Woman of the Jungle comes a close second...).

[Grail]

Yeah, Dog Welder shows a complete lack of understanding on the creator's part of how welding works.

Agreed. But even if welding did work that way, his super power is welding dead dogs to people's faces. Which is pretty ridiculous.

Of course all of Section Eight fits in. And as a side note, I totally want to see a hard R rated Section Eight movie.

[Anonymouswizard]

How about Color Kid? His only power is that he can turn something any color he wants it to be.

Isn't that useful if you have a rogue Green Lantern?


Well, Whose Line Is It Anyway came up with such gems as Faking-Injury-For-Sympathy Man, Captain Coward, Show-Stopping Number Boy and hundreds more (http://whoselineisitanyway.wikia.com/wiki/Superheroes).

The ones I always remember are Tax Man and Agitated Duck Boy.

[The Ari-tificer]

How about Color Kid? His only power is that he can turn something any color he wants it to be.
Isn't that useful if you have a rogue Green Lantern?
Not really. There are Lanterns in every color of the rainbow, so that power wouldn't really be too useful in that scenario.
From what I understand, he would switch the color of the sky and the ground to confuse his opponents, and then... shoot black at them?

[lunaticfringe]

Isn't that useful if you have a rogue Green Lantern?


I'm not a Latern follower & am not up on DC. Wasn't that fixed at some point? I thought the yellow thing was because the GLs kept the Super Fear Being imprisoned in their magic super space battery.

Is it back? I dunno I tried to read the big Sparkle Rainbow Latern War years back. I just couldn't get into it.

[Serpentine]

I mean... Misfits has Makes People Want To Rape Her Girl (gotta be up there in the world's worst superpower stakes), and The Lactokineticist (who... better spoiler just in case)
ends up being actually a really freaking scary villain.

[The Ari-tificer]

I'm not a Latern follower & am not up on DC. Wasn't that fixed at some point? I thought the yellow thing was because the GLs kept the Super Fear Being imprisoned in their magic super space battery.

Is it back? I dunno I tried to read the big Sparkle Rainbow Latern War years back. I just couldn't get into it.

I think you mean their science super space battery.

[Ebon_Drake]

Ma Hunkel, the golden age Red Tornado. No powers to speak of, but she fought crime with a cooking pot on her head.

And yet, she's still 1000 times cooler than Red Tornado the sad robot...

[lunaticfringe]

I think you mean their science super space battery.

Nah my tiny, primitive mind can't grasp the science behind it. It's all magic to me.

[The Ari-tificer]

Nah my tiny, primitive mind can't grasp the science behind it. It's all magic to me.
Yeah, it's basically magic, but officially it's a hand-wavey science thing.

[The Ari-tificer]

Oh he'd definitely argue that's one thing we agree on!

Banana man?

𝅘𝅥𝅮 Sing us a song, you're the Banana man. Sing us a song tonight. 'Cause we're all in the mood for a melody, and you've got us feeling all right. 𝅘𝅥𝅮

[hamishspence]

Oh he'd definitely argue that's one thing we agree on!😉

Banana man?

He was actually rather popular in comic books

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicStrip/Bananaman

he even got a TV series.

[The Ari-tificer]

He was actually rather popular in comic books

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicStrip/Bananaman

he even got a TV series.

That doesn't make him any less ridiculous.

[Ravens_cry]

He may not be as ridiculous as others that have been brought up, but I feel that Slapstick (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slapstick_(comics)) deserves mention. He's literally a kid that became a pastiche of Warner Bros. style cartoons. The only way he could be more ridiculous is if he were literally a cartoonified anthropomorphic animal like the characters he's based on.

Now imagine those powers on a villain. Basically, it would be a low grade Emperor Joker.

[masterjoda99]

How has this thread gone this far without a single mention of The Tick?

SPOOOOOOOOONN!!

[The Ari-tificer]

How has this thread gone this far without a single mention of The Tick?

SPOOOOOOOOONN!!

While the Tick is certainly ridiculous he's not the most ridiculous hero.

[Durkoala]

Isn't that useful if you have a rogue Green Lantern?


Although if you want to go with a more classic bad acid trip in tights, look up Stardust the Super Wizard sometime. Holy crap that stuff was utterly insane. It was less Arm-Fall-Off Boy silliness and more... uhm... I'm not even sure how to describe it. It's pretty bonkers, though.

OK, I don't have anything that can beat Stardust the Super Wizard. Fatman the Human Flying Saucer probably gets into the runners-up, though.
http://comicsalliance.com/files/2010/12/fatman01.jpg

Also, in terms of concept, iBoy is a very silly take on Peter Parker: a teenager who had his head bashed in by a falling iphone and developed iphone themed powers. His actual story is a dark and serious tale of vigilante fighting, life in a rough area and mental stress that deals with rape, murder, persecution and the consquences of a secret life. He might not count.

[druid91]

Well. There's the Codpiece. Villain who was rather self conscious about the size of certain parts of their male anatomy and proceeded to build a multipurpose LASER CANNON/Gizmo thing that they wear down there to commit crimes.

No links despite how I'm pretty sure they're safe but erring on the side of caution, but if you google The Codpiece Villain he does things like shoot boxing gloves out of it, lasers, drills...

[The Ari-tificer]

Well. There's the Codpiece. Villain who was rather self conscious about the size of certain parts of their male anatomy and proceeded to build a multipurpose LASER CANNON/Gizmo thing that they wear down there to commit crimes.

No links despite how I'm pretty sure they're safe but erring on the side of caution, but if you google The Codpiece Villain he does things like shoot boxing gloves out of it, lasers, drills...

Technically, I was asking for heroes.
But I'll expand it to villains and antiheroes as well.

[Metahuman1]

If were doing Villains I nominate Condiment King and The Plied Penny Pilcher. (In the silver age he was the explanation for why there was a Giant Penny in The Batcave. It was so utterly absurd not only did they later change it to Two Face, but I think they even cut him out of the team up of ALL of Batmans Villain's in The Lego Batman Movie. And they had guys from the Adam West series in there!)

[digiman619]

An Argument could be made for Howard The Duck.


Yeah, but he's technically not a superhero, just a detective.
He was technically a member of The Defenders at one point, and he did​ register for the Superhuman Registration Act (http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Howard_the_Duck_(Earth-791021)), so there is precedence for calling him a superhero.

[Hopeless]

Hong Kong Phooey ( Number One Super Guy)

( If you are not know whistling the theme song you are younger than me :smallsmile: )

Clearly I'm not!😉

[Bastian Weaver]

Stripperellaaaa... Stripperellaaa...

[Southern Cross]

The Goodies...
They did dress up as superheroes for one episode...

[Metahuman1]

I might be but that's only because I saw reruns on Cartoon Network as a kid Waaaaaay back when all Cartoon Network did was rerun old none Disney cartoons all day and night, every day and night.


As for Howard the Duck, he's teamed up with enough of them that I'd wager he's a contender DESPITE his protests!





Another contender? Ambush Bug.

[The Fury]

I have the complete works of Fletcher Hanks next to me (with the charming title of Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All).

He's not so much a "ridiculous superhero" as "overpowered superhero in a ridiculous story".

But, ye gods, you are right about the bad acid trip - Stardust is by far the most extreme of his characters (although Fantomah, Mystery Woman of the Jungle comes a close second...).

I don't know, Stardust is also an overpowered hero with a really bizarre imagination. I mean he's brought us such classic lines as "None of you will escape! I'll combine you all into one person!"

And there's the bit where he throws someone's (living and conscious) disembodied head into a "space pocket."

[Manga Shoggoth]

I don't know, Stardust is also an overpowered hero with a really bizarre imagination. I mean he's brought us such classic lines as "None of you will escape! I'll combine you all into one person!"

And there's the bit where he throws someone's (living and conscious) disembodied head into a "space pocket."

And that's all in the same story...

[Mordar]

Throw a dart at the roster for the Legion of Super Heroes. Odds are you have a strong contender for the title.

Well...there were a bunch of solid characters in the Legion...but I did open this thread just to say "Bouncing Boy".

- M

[Southern Cross]

Herbie Popnecker (Especially in his Fat Fury costume).

[Rogar Demonblud]

[tongue in cheek]

Squirrel Girl. I mean, she talks to rodents. How useless is that?

[/tongue in cheek]

[The Ari-tificer]

[tongue in cheek]

Squirrel Girl. I mean, she talks to rodents. How useless is that?

[/tongue in cheek]

Not useless at all. Squirrel Girl has used this to her advantage many times.

[lunaticfringe]

Well...there were a bunch of solid characters in the Legion...but I did open this thread just to say "Bouncing Boy".

- M

I suppose that's true, but there is a lot of silly. Like the all the Daxams: Kryptonians except weakened by Lead or ya know Bullets.

Oh Crap it's a Daxam run!
BLAM!
Nevermind.

[golentan]

Superman has a solid case. A case he could present in Tapestry form using Super Weaving.

[BiblioRook]

Not useless at all. Squirrel Girl has used this to her advantage many times.

Squirrel Girl is legitamate, others with similar powers though? Koi Boy for example...

[Rogar Demonblud]

Not really. The only difference is that the writers of Squirrel Girl decided not to treat Doreen as a joke character.

[The Fury]

And that's all in the same story...

My favorite Startdust story too.

Another thing that makes Stardust, and to an extent Fantomah, really weird as heroes is that they're theoretically powerful enough to stop crimes from happening, but they typically wait for bad guys to kill people, disable Earth's gravity, set giant spiders loose on a village, etc. before inflicting some horrible punishment on them. After I showed these comics to a friend she pointed this out and said that they came off as mean-spirited because of it.

[Lemmy]

I mean... Misfits has Makes People Want To Rape Her Girl (gotta be up there in the world's worst superpower stakes), and The Lactokineticist (who... better spoiler just in case)
ends up being actually a really freaking scary villain.
Wait... What? What comic is that?

[Southern Cross]

Misfits was a British live-action superhero series about a group of juvenile delinquents who got superpowers.

[Quiver]

Red Bee (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1f/Hit_Comics_1.jpg) sounds like he should get an honorable mention here.

I mean, his costume and strategy of "use trained bees to fight Nazi's and gangsters" is already pretty strange to me, but you could argue that it isn't really that much different from times when Bruce summons armies to Bats to serve as distractions.

(It wouldn't be a good argument, but the argument could be made)

... still, the part that pushes him into the realms of utterly ridiculous is the fact that the Red Bee has a favourite bee. And it's called Michael. And it lives in his belt buckle.
'kay.

[Donnadogsoth]

None can defeat the awesome ridiculousness of Captain Klutz. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Klutz)

[Serpentine]

Wait... What? What comic is that?
As mentioned, British TV show, Misfits. Through the show there's people with time travel, teleportation, immortality, invisibility, brainwashing... And she gets makes-people-want-to-rape-her. A sample of that particular super power in action:

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/e4-misfits/images/4/45/1x1_Instant_Sexual_Arousal_Power.gif

(and for the record, it's quite hard to find a decent gif from that show that's also forum-appropriate)

Could be worse, though, I guess... One guy's superpower is he thinks he's a dog sometimes.

[Pit of Shades]

The Human Bullet from The Tick.

[TeChameleon]

The Human Bullet from The Tick.
"Fire me, boy!"

... although to be fair, he wouldn't be nearly as ridiculous if his aim was a little better >.>

And as far as Superman goes, super-weaving is far from the worst of it. See here (http://whatculture.com/comics/superman-20-stupidest-powers) for some impressive examples. The number one stupid power in that article references one story, where Superman randomly developed the ability to shoot rainbow beams out of his hands, which then somehow proceeded to create tiny versions of himself with his usual suite of abilities (while he himself was powerless). The best part (which the article fails to mention)? Superman eventually becomes jealous of his own super mini-mes and gets it/them killed by siccing them on a kryptonite meteor! And then feels guilty about it!

Ah, the Silver Age. When comics were innocent, more fun, and on all the acid.

[MikelaC1]

No one has mentioned Stupor Duck or Duck Dodgers?

[Rockphed]

How has this thread gone this far without a single mention of The Tick?

SPOOOOOOOOONN!!

The Tick, while ridiculous, only has ridiculous personality and lines, not ridiculous powers. As far as I can tell, The Tick is pretty much invincible and superstrong in exchange for being a moron with no secret identity.

[Rysto]

The Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain book series mentions Surprisingly Effective Weevil Man.

He started his career just as Weevil Man, but quickly earned having the "Surprisingly Effective" bit tacked on.

[John Campbell]

How has this thread gone this far without a single mention of The Tick?

SPOOOOOOOOONN!!

The Tick is not even the most ridiculous superhero in the Tick comics.

I'm partial to Man-Eating Cow.

[lunaticfringe]

If we are doing ridiculous on purpose...the Flaming Carrot.

[The Fury]

The Tick, while ridiculous, only has ridiculous personality and lines, not ridiculous powers. As far as I can tell, The Tick is pretty much invincible and superstrong in exchange for being a moron with no secret identity.

I dunno, I made a case for Stardust based on his personality more so than his powers, so a case for The Tick could be made for the same reason. I mean, the net result in both cases is a pretty silly character. On that note, wouldn't every character from The Tick also qualify?

[TeChameleon]

I think the distinction being made is that the Tick is hilarious, and also a clear parody of superheroism in general; Stardust the Super-Wizard is just sheer, concentrated WTF. The finest distilled madness of the golden age.

The Inferior Five, Badger, E-Man and Megaton Man would probably fall under the same umbrella as the Flaming Carrot, the Tick, and the rest of the parody heroes; they're silly, alright, but they're deliberately so, with a nudge and a wink to the audience. I'd be curious to see what the playground could come up with that's not (intentionally, at least) parody- the most bizarre, looney characters told with a perfectly straight face and not a gram of irony.

[Bohandas]

If we are doing ridiculous on purpose...the Flaming Carrot.

Really all of the Mystery Men

[Rogar Demonblud]

One of the problems with your challenge, Chameleon, is that a writer can take a lame joke character and make them awesome (case in point, Squirrel Girl). I remember a game on another site where we tried to make low power supers for critique, and someone submitted Super Mathlete Guy. Then someone else pointed out that computer encryption security is basically a really complex math problem, which this guy could crack in the blink of an eye. Low power? Not on this planet right now,

[The Fury]

One of the problems with your challenge, Chameleon, is that a writer can take a lame joke character and make them awesome (case in point, Squirrel Girl). I remember a game on another site where we tried to make low power supers for critique, and someone submitted Super Mathlete Guy. Then someone else pointed out that computer encryption security is basically a really complex math problem, which this guy could crack in the blink of an eye. Low power? Not on this planet right now,

I guess you're right, though the line between ridiculous and awesome is a pretty thin one, especially when superheroes are concerned.

[Rogar Demonblud]

It's less a line and more a Venn diagram. One with significant overlap.

[Wardog]

Among "serious" superheroes, I've always found stretchy powers (Mr Fantastic, Plastic Man, etc) to be too silly to take seriously.

As for really ridiculous superheroes, I present: the cast of Axe Cop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_Cop#Characters

[BiblioRook]

One of the problems with your challenge, Chameleon, is that a writer can take a lame joke character and make them awesome (case in point, Squirrel Girl). I remember a game on another site where we tried to make low power supers for critique, and someone submitted Super Mathlete Guy. Then someone else pointed out that computer encryption security is basically a really complex math problem, which this guy could crack in the blink of an eye. Low power? Not on this planet right now,

I'm reminded if an obscure little superhero novel called 'Playing for Keeps' where superpowers were common but greatly varied and were ranked in terms of power and/or usefulness (A through D, you get the idea). The story was all about how a bunch of D-ranked supers got caught up in some A-ranked problems and how they used their 'worthless' powers to save the day. Some examples included not being able to be stolen from, being unable to accidentally spill a tray, and being able to shoot powerful highly concentrated streams from one's hands... of excrement.

Though the plot was basically finding out about a drug that 'upgraded' ones powers and stuff like 'being able to not drop a tray' became 'being able to lift anything, as long as it was on a tray'. This was taken to extremes with the main character's power ('Can't be stolen from') which became something along the lines of 'Can't take anything from me against my will'. This extended into a bit into metaphorical territory when 'anything' included her friends and killing them was seen as 'taking them away', effectively making her friends impervious to harm while she was under the effects of the drug.

[Honest Tiefling]

If Linkara is to be believed, there's some great contenders in the New Guardians: A group of super heroes intended to spread superior genes to the human race...When one only of the men has a penis. And not only does he refuse to help in this in any way (despite...Seemingly agree to sign on?), he has HIV because he wasn't enough of a big flaming gay sterotype.

And the Japanese guy is a robot (with no penis, because he doesn't wear pants and he's see-through, so it's really quite obvious he lacks the equipment necessary to make baby.) The other male IS A GODDAMN PLANT. And not only that, but the ladies feel the need to go to night clubs instead of egg donation to pass on their genes. Humans of the future, guys!

Also, they fight a cocaine fueled super villain.

[Bohandas]

How about Invisible Boy (another one of the Mystery Men), who's invisible as long as nobody is looking (so only useful against certain types of fully-automated security equipmemt)

[Southern Cross]

How about The Punisher. Not just the Peter David version that he wrote for Marvel Manga (the "kinkiest hero in Tokyo") but the original serious Punisher. This is the same vigilante who started his career helping the Jackal, after all.

[The Ari-tificer]

Squirrel Girl is legitimate, others with similar powers though? Koi Boy for example...

Hey, don't be dissin' Koi Boi and Chipmunk Hunk. They have many legitimate powers!
For example, Koi Boi can... grow very slowly to fit the size of his container?
Yeah... I guess you're right.