How would you nerf/upgrade OP or UP superheroes and supervillians?

[King Green]

Just finished reading the Infinity Thanos saga and the House of M relaunch, and boy the characters in there were bouncing of the walls of their powers and limits.

Which got me thinking, why make non-phoenix!Jean Grey powerful to crush reinforced tanks or Colossus weak to Hulk's lightest punch? If I wanted to scale these characters and their abilities, I would have to put some Soft & Hard rule-sets.

Like: make Charles Xavier control and telegram surface thoughts like betazoids or better, have him in a reality-warping machine that requires him to be reduced in iq but extremely clever.

It is understandable that the writers want challenge but I feel like that is difficult to appreciate what a character does with that power.
Having Superman become of Kal-El than Clark Kent made the Golden age of comics hard to sympathize with Sups morality, that and his entire species was dicks who suffered when Brainiac called them out on making Doomsday.

What boundaries would you put on your heros and/or villains?

[McAvoy]

Only thing I can think of how they really nerfed the Hulk in the Marvel movies. The only times where we see the Hulk we all know from the comics is the first Avengers movie when he goes berserk on the Heli carrier and Battle of New York. Though he was a bit more subdued for New York. He was playing as a team mate. Ultron movie is still more of a team player though he gets his mind messed with he's more of the savage Hulk we know.

But he got beaten by the Hulkbuster. Honestly that should not have happened. I think it could have been played out like the Hulkbuster delayed the Hulk before being knocked out by Thor or something.

Thor 3 gave us a more intelligent Hulk but still powerful. I think the Hulk in the arena should have been able to take down Thor even without Goldblum zapping Thor. Not sure if I would bother having the Hulk fight Hela though. You want her to be a big baddie and be a sister versus brother thing.


Then you get to the Infinity War and Endgame which pretty much kills the whole savage Hulk thing.

Maybe in some future, maybe we can get a World Breaker Hulk or something.

Though I did read that Superman has a new ability (shocker). That he can release all of his energy from his body into a giant blast but it completely drains his energy making him very mortal. Tbh, I like the idea as it's just a step up from his heat vision. I think his heat vision works the same way and does drain his energy reserves

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I would make movie Wolverine less invincible.

[McAvoy]

I would make movie Wolverine less invincible.

Ehhh. I think for him he is fine. He can be beaten and has his weaknesses like Magneto. His big thing is that he can recover from any injury.

He is Deadpool without the meta stuff, sarcasm and craziness.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I would make movie Wolverine less invincible.

Ehhh. I think for him he is fine. He can be beaten and has his weaknesses like Magneto. His big thing is that he can recover from any injury.

He is Deadpool without the meta stuff, sarcasm and craziness.

Oh yeah, but if I could throw a monkey into the wrench for that series then that's what I'd go with.

[McAvoy]

I would make movie Wolverine less invincible.

Ehhh. I think for him he is fine. He can be beaten and has his weaknesses like Magneto. His big thing is that he can recover from any injury.

He is Deadpool without the meta stuff, sarcasm and craziness.

Oh yeah, but if I could throw a monkey into the wrench for that series then that's what I'd go with.

The monkey wrench is his adamantium slowing his regeneration and slowly poisoning him. It also makes him less feral.

I mean that is his thing though, he can't compete with Superman level characters one on one but he can hurt them and if they don't find a way to fully kill him, he will come back.

[clearspira]

Movie Wolverine is guilty of power creep. He really did not seem that tough in 1 and 2 tbh.

[GreyICE]

See it's hard for me to say, because it's really about writing a compelling story. For instance the Xeelee Sequence features civilizations so advanced that anything in any comic books is kids finger painting from their perspective. The Culture is advanced enough to render many superheroes obsolete. But because they tell coherent and compelling stories, they're good.

So to me, mostly what I'd do is bring the focus back to the basics of good storytelling - compelling narrative arcs, interesting antagonists, fleshed out characters, fun and dynamic action sequences, and a plot that draws you in.

So I'd say the biggest thing I'd do is go iron out all the inconsistencies and weirdnesses in the power sets. It doesn't matter if Xavier is the strongest telepath on the planet, it doesn't even matter if he's actually immortal. But scale the threat accordingly. If you're the strongest telepath on the planet with powerful allies, a threat on the scale of "self-improving machines on a constant evolutionary feedback loop, parked in orbit near Mercury and with a vendetta against you and everything that shares DNA with you" is a good enemy. A wacky assassin with a pinball fetish is a bad enemy.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Movie Wolverine is guilty of power creep. He really did not seem that tough in 1 and 2 tbh.

Well how is he in the comix? I left the movie theater with my friend and we agreed that CGI pretty much added to his powers when you see huge gashes coming back together like water.

I'm not sure if he read the comics but we were both under the impression that like a broken leg for him would heal in a couple of days as opposed to a month, but not just defy gravity like that. Though thinking back on it, he probably doesn't deal with broken bones specifically.

[GreyICE]

Movie Wolverine is guilty of power creep. He really did not seem that tough in 1 and 2 tbh.

Well how is he in the comix? I left the movie theater with my friend and we agreed that CGI pretty much added to his powers when you see huge gashes coming back together like water.

I'm not sure if he read the comics but we were both under the impression that like a broken leg for him would heal in a couple of days as opposed to a month, but not just defy gravity like that. Though thinking back on it, he probably doesn't deal with broken bones specifically.

Wolverine's power level is entirely dependent on the writer. When he was first introduced he could heal rapidly, and his bones are unbreakable (adamantium). So cut him open, and he'd stagger around for a while holding his stomach, and then be fine.

As he branched out into more and more titles, his power level increased. Around Civil War 1 it reached its peak, when Nuke (a mutant who could explode in a nuclear blast and reform himself) burned Wolverine down to his skeleton with a a blast powerful enough to level a town, and Wolverine regenerated from a skeleton to just fine in about a minute.

At that point Marvel decided that he was too powerful, and like only comic books can, invented an explanation. See, Lady Death had a crush on him, so he couldn't die because she wouldn't let him. So that's why his powers kept accelerating, because she was rejecting his body's attempts to die. He turned her down, and she took away her blessing, leaving him closer to his "stagger around for a bit after being sliced open" level.

Only that's fucking nonsense, as you can tell by reading it, so everyone is ignoring it ever happened and his power is still all over the map.

Oh yeah, and in current comic continuity he's literally immortal, like all mutants who aren't Kitty Pryde.