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2021-08-31, 06:19 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2006
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Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
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2021-08-31, 09:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2008
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
Of course, he is always fated to shoot himself in the foot in some fashion, so I would pose an alternative...Ray Palmer. All of the shrink and the terrible options it offers, none of the crazy.
I'd also put forward The Flash. For the average person who knew him from Superfriends or Justice League or even casual readers of DC Comics not featuring Flash, it was a cool power set but still distant from the fan favorites or those viewed as "powerful". Many readers here, particularly after Flashpoint, understand better...but I bet if a "rank the Justice League" survey went out to a large group of the general public that knew the characters in any capacity I suspect he'd end up below Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and probably Wonder Woman. Not to devolve into a "Vs" thread, but I think he beats all four at once.
On the Marvel side I always thought the Purple Man was always under appreciated...I guess mostly because I only ever seemed to see him set against street-level heroes.
- MLast edited by Mordar; 2021-08-31 at 09:10 PM.
No matter where you go...there you are!
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2021-08-31, 11:45 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2008
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Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
I do like what I read one time (secondhand quote)- that Hank Pym is a mad scientist trying to be a superhero. It really kinda fits- if you look at his life's story, there are some serious Dr. Frankenstein overtones to it, what with the self-experimentation and Ultron and all that mess.
And the Purple Man tends to be set up against street-level types because, like Mesmero, he's got an incredibly binary power- he either wins immediately or goes squish immediately against higher-tier opponents, although he had an interesting... battle..? against Nate Grey back in his X-Man days- grabbed control, somewhat to Nate's shock, since his power was pheromone based rather than psionic, so all of Nate's rather formidable defenses did nothing. Then he bragged about it being pheromone based, Nate used his TK to filter out the pheromones he had been breathing in, and Kilgrave went squish.
An interesting case would have to be the Blue and Gold team, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. Booster's troubles are sort of self-inflicted, what with the whole 'greatest hero you've never heard of' thing he's got going on to keep time travellers from inflicting SID on baby Booster, but Beetle is good- very, very good, to the point that Batman trusts him as his backup without a second thought, and Guy Gardner, who rarely has a good word to say about much of anyone, thinks Beetle is smarter than Batman- and yet nobody really takes him seriously, in-universe or out.
Firestorm is an odd case, since he basically has to be written as being a bit on the incompetent side, because the dude's a walking deus ex machina- he can turn anything inorganic into anything else, or just fry it outright with nuclear death rays, along with flight and phasing powers (the phasing I never entirely understood, to be honest- it doesn't exactly match the rest of his powerset), and the whole nuclear death ray thing is considered to be at minimum 'fry South America off the map' level by the Secret Six, so, uhm, yeah.
Flash has gotten a bit more respect lately from fans and authors- Wally especially, once he started 'mainlining the Speed Force' could also play deus ex machina relatively easily. Crazy stunts like a race between Wally and Barry being mistaken for the Source (i.e. the DCU version of God...) show that yeah, you don't screw with the Flash.Times being what they are, the stars aligning and the End of All Things barely registered as background noise.
At a bit of a loss as to what to do next, and with bills to pay, a certain Elder Thing has taken up bartending.
This is...
The Last Call of Cthulhu
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2021-09-01, 12:30 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2006
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Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
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2021-09-01, 12:51 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2005
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Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
Are characters like Flash and Firestorm consistently underestimated, or is it just that writing them to the theoretical max of their powers would obliterate any semblance of coherence to the universe even more than usual?
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2021-09-01, 02:40 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2020
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
Speaking of One Piece, I've seen some people underestimate how crazy the characters are due to the age of sail aesthetic. Specifically, early series Luffy is a lot more absurd than you'd think from basic concept of "pirate with rubberman powers".
To wit:
He's shrugging off gunfire and a spiked metal club to the head basically from the start. Nevermind one-punching a huge sea monster.
In Usopp's introduction arc, he shrugs off a direct hit to the head from a bladed chakram. In the same arc, he also fights an opponent moving faster than the human eye can follow and strikes that opponent down by instinct.
In Sanji's introduction arc, he punches barefist through spiked steel plate armor - the same armor a moment earlier was shown to shrug off point-blank shot from a handcannon.
In Rogue Town, he's hit by lightning when on the execution platform and is none worse for the wear.
In Arlong Park, he catches the blade of a sawblade sword between his fingers and breaks it to pieces by squeezing hard.
These all foreshadow his (even more absurd) feats of strength and durability when the series proceeds to Grand Line and beyond. Yet I still sometimes people go "well he's only immune to bludgeoning damage, just cut him LOL". People tried and failed to cut him before he even had explicit Haki. Dude legit had bones harder and tougher than steel from the first volume onward. Swordsmen in the series only pose a threat to him because they are equally absurd.
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2021-09-01, 03:22 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2015
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Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
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2021-09-01, 03:28 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2016
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2021-09-01, 03:52 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2006
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- London, UK
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
I remember Plastic Man being the counter to Martian Manhunter when he went simultaneously evil and immune to fire and able to do a human torch impression in the Burning Martian storyline, because PM could no sell a psychic assault that took out most of the League simultaneously, was fireproof and could also match up to MM's shapeshifting.
Last edited by paddyfool; 2021-09-01 at 04:01 AM.
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2021-09-01, 04:29 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2014
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
There's a lot of much later reveals that make a lot of this make sense especially for Luffy and Sanji. They're just not standard level working from nowhere unlike Usopp or Nami.
SpoilerSanji is a failed generic experiment and Luffy was trained as hard as any marine in their prime as a child not to mention you see just what kind of conditions Luffy grew up in beyond Garp being an absolute monster to his grandkid. Luffy is also just outright immune to lightning because he's made of rubber which makes sense even if it's exaggerated. This has come up time and time again from Loguetown to Enel and now to Big Mom when he outright tanked through Zeus's attacks to the point even Big Mom was surprised it had no effect.
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2021-09-01, 04:39 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2016
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
The Sanji point isn't relevant to his abilities; remember the whole point of that reveal is that he ISN'T special.
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2021-09-01, 04:53 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2014
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
It does, especially after the last chapter.
SpoilerJust because he didn't go full like his brothers doesn't mean the altering of his Linage Factor didn't effect him.
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2021-09-01, 05:07 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2016
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
I'm waiting until Wano is done so I can binge the last half, so I wouldn't know.
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2021-09-01, 05:15 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2020
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
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2021-09-01, 05:18 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2008
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Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
The Burning Martian storyline, aye. The point was actually that he could exceed the Manhunter's shapeshifting, since PM's was pure instinct, whereas martians took a split second to read the opponent's mind to determine the optimum form. Since Plas was also immune to the mindreading, it kind of threw J'onn off his game, devil-martian or no. Even Frank Miller, who normally has no use for any superhero that doesn't have a bat-themed fursona, portrayed Plastic Man as being absurdly powerful in the Dark Knight Strikes Again (not the greatest story, I know, but eh...)
Times being what they are, the stars aligning and the End of All Things barely registered as background noise.
At a bit of a loss as to what to do next, and with bills to pay, a certain Elder Thing has taken up bartending.
This is...
The Last Call of Cthulhu
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2021-09-01, 09:12 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2014
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2021-09-01, 09:45 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2006
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Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
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2021-09-01, 10:06 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
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2021-09-01, 03:29 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2020
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2021-09-02, 05:37 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
It's an explicit plot point that he's only resistant to blunt damage due to his rubber in the early parts of the story. It just never ends up mattering because injuries to characters in One Piece only exist to make it more dramatic when they keep fighting, so they never actually hinder anyone.
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2021-09-02, 05:59 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2020
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
That's so inaccurate it makes my head hurt.
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2021-09-02, 06:02 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
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2021-09-02, 06:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2020
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
Do what I did and set a standard, and I'll consider it. If you don't, the relevant argument has already been made. Django's chakram not cutting through Luffy's skull is proof positive he had superhuman endurance not accountable by his rubberman powers.
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2021-09-02, 07:18 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2016
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
It didn't cut his skull because he caught it with his teeth, stopping it from penetrating. Yes he's superhumanly strong, no ****. He ripped the prow off a ship and flattened people with it seconds beforehand.
Know what the chakram did cut though? His mouth. Because he's not resistant to cutting attacks. Pretty sure there's an SBS to confirm this as well, if it being repeatedly stated in the series that he's not, and the multiple occasions he's been nicked by blades don't count for some reason.
There's a reason Luffy typically DODGES cuts rather than blocking them.
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2021-09-02, 08:15 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2019
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Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
Arriete from Glints Saga. Everyone treat her as a joke character, but:
She can shadow clone herself, making her extremely hard to hit.
She can jump into impressive heights without using magic.
Her agility is comparable if not higher than her teammates.
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2021-09-02, 08:37 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2020
Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
God damn it people, you aren't talking of the same thing I am.
Tankobon volume 4, page 153. Luffy gets directly hit in the back of his head. He takes the chakram off and walks off with a minor cut. In volume 5, page 74, he catched Captain Kuro as Kuro is slashing him across his torso, once again surviving with minor cuts.
If that's not proof of beyond human durability against slashing attacks, what is?Last edited by Vahnavoi; 2021-09-02 at 08:37 AM.
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2021-09-02, 09:29 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2011
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2021-09-02, 09:50 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2006
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Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
Are you forgetting that Luffy has a scar right under his eye from a knife and has since the start of the series? He was cut during the Arlong fight and during the Captain Kuro fight also.
Last edited by Devonix; 2021-09-02 at 09:53 AM.
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2021-09-02, 10:06 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2005
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Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
Since this is apparently a One Piece thread now (come back tomorrow, it will be a Star Wars thread), could Luffy have gotten that knife scar before he gained his magic fruit powers?
NOW COMPLETE: Let's Play Starcraft II Trilogy:
Hell, It's About Time: Wings of Liberty
Does This Mutation Make Me Look Fat: Heart of the Swarm
My Life For Aiur? I Barely Know 'Er: Legacy of the Void
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2021-09-02, 10:15 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2019
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Re: Consistently Underestimated super-characters
I though it was a purely cosmetic scar?