History Main / DisabilitySuperpower

* The character Mr. Sensitive from the ''{{X-Force}}'' and ''X-Statix'' comics had an interesting variation on this: ''all'' of his senses were enhanced, to the degree that he had to wear a special suit to block out most of what he felt, or else he'd go nuts from the sensory overload; he can't even take a normal shower and has to use a specially made misting nozzle. He could hear people's heartbeats through walls, but even a light breeze on his exposed skin could cause him incredible pain. At one point, his powers were even used against him: a villain (who knew about his powers) tortured him simply by making a shallow cut on his skin with a Swiss army knife. The pain from this relatively minor wound almost caused him to black out.
** He once had a fight with Iron Man wherein they both lost their armor. The battle then became a test to see whose disability was worse, Iron Man's weak heart or the Orphan's hypersensitivity. The Orphan won, but just barely.

* An episode of ''CSIMiami'' has Natalia, wearing a hearing aid as the result of an injury suffered earlier in the season, discovered a device being used by jewelry store robbers to screw up the security camera system when it caused painfully loud static in said hearing aid.

* In an episode of ''PainkillerJane'', one of the team member's former partner was paralyzed from neck down after an accident. He then becomes a "neuro" with telekinesis. He then goes on a rampage, killing all his former team members who he blames for his condition. He is killed at the end of the episode, which is probably more merciful than "chipping" him and turning him back into a helpless quadriplegic.

* At the age of 17, Tony Iommi lost two fingertips in an accident while working at a sheet-metal factory. Having been encouraged by his boss not to give up his side job as guitarist in a pub band, he had to tune down his guitar strings in order not to hurt his cut-off fingertips even more. Thus, the signature sound of Music/BlackSabbath (and Music/HeavyMetal) was born.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

** Subverted however with the Impossible family, a parody of the Comicbook/FantasticFour. Other than the Reed Richards {{expy}}, they got the sucky aspects of the Four's superpowers without any of the benefits. Sally has to concentrate or else her skin (and only her skin) will turn invisible, Cody bursts into flames whenever he is exposed to oxygen (and feels the same way any of us would if we were on fire), and Ned is a walking callous.

* Toph from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', as mentioned in the trope description. She's a great Earthbender, both because of natural talent and because she's blind: She learned how to earthbend, and how to sense her surroundings by registering vibrations in earth, from the giant badgermoles she played with when she was young. She says that Earthbending is her way of "seeing" the world.
** In an unusual take, this power isn't limited to her and it doesn't require blindness, as she eventually taught it to the fully sight-capable Aang. [[spoiler: It proved a decisive factor in helping beat Ozai.]]
** She's so skilled with it that she can even act as a LivingLieDetector by monitoring their pulse like a polygraph.

* Mindf**k from ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'' also is a BlindSeer. [[spoiler: Mind████'s brother tried to invoke this intentionally, when he did things described simply as horrifying to his sibling.]]

*** Lee's biggest compensation for his lack of the usual ninja abilities is that he trained himself to be [[SuperSpeed very, very fast]]. In his aforementioned defeat of Sasuke, Lee mocked him for relying on his [[MagicalEye Sharingan]], saying that it didn't matter if his eyes could follow his movements, if his body was too slow to keep up.

* WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}} has Owen is one handed because the other is solid stone. He uses it to punch people. Xanatos even remarks that he's "making good use of his handicap."
** Another time, after the entire city had been turned to stone by a spell broadcasted over television, the Manehatten clan met with a blind man who had been unaffected. Turns out you need to both see and hear Earth Magic for it to have an effect on you.

* An inversion happens in Literature/ToughMagic, where the main character successfully becomes a skilled and powerful wizard, ''despite'' being handicapped. The inversion part comes from the fact that it doesn't happen because overcoming his handicap makes him better than he'd otherwise be; but rather, he becomes a strong wizard ''despite'' being handicapped.

* She-Bot in the WhateleyUniverse. Born without limbs, it turned out she has an unnatural ability to interface with machinery, so she now has cybernetic limbs. That she built herself.
** Or Jericho, who is a blind deviser. He has 360-degree psychic vision instead. But no color vision, and it doesn't penetrate solid objects so he can't see through windows.

* Dinah Bellman from Creator/StephenKing's novella ''The Langoliers'' is a young blind girl that displays a grab-bag of psychic powers and enhanced senses. In the [[TheLangoliers tv movie]], she is able to see Craig Toomey's paranoid delusion by looking at him, communicate telepathically, seems to have a degree of precognition, acts as a human lie detector and [[HellIsThatNoise hears the approaching]] [[EldritchAbomination monsters]] with her superhuman hearing. Furthermore, in the film's climax [[spoiler:she begins to astral project to Craig Toomey and apparently alters his paranoid delusions to show him exactly what he wanted to see.]]
* In ''Dr. Bloodmoney'' by PhilipKDick, Hoppy Harrington was born without limbs, but has powerful telekinetic abilities.

** An old gardener who'd been blinded in the bombing of Nagasaki during World War II becomes a zombie-killing {{Zatoichi}} reference, using precise study and memorization of the landscape and his hearing to track the zombies [[HellIsThatNoise by their moans]], and his gardening spade to kill them.
** Another interview has a man in an ordinary wheelchair man taking up zombie defense patrols-- crawling zombies trying to attack him from behind get the chair instead of his legs.

* Glen Cook's ''TheBlackCompany'' series has IKnowYourTrueName in full effect. Any wizard can be instantly and permanently stripped of his powers by someone invoking his True Name. As a result, one of the requirements of a wizard rising to significant power is a willingness to ruthlessly destroy anyone who knows his True Name, including friends and family (lest they be tortured into revealing it to a rival). The only powerful wizard in the series who isn't an EvilSorceror was born under unusual circumstances and was never given a real name, only a temporary nickname that stuck far longer than intended. He complains about his lack of a real name in the final book, apparently unaware of the unique status it gives him.

* Hawkeye in ''Series/{{Mash}}'' temporarily received a boost to his other senses -- including hearing that rivalled Radar's ability to detect incoming helicopters -- when he was blinded by an exploding heater. It has been suggested that Radar's super-hearing is a compensation for his incredibly poor eyesight but it's a weak precognitive ability. He's also been known to comply with requests before they're made and answer questions before they're asked. (Some of which could be guessed by experience, some not). Hence his [[MeaningfulName nickname]].
* Master Po (and to a lesser extent Serenity Johnson) from ''KungFu''.

* {{Vandread}}: A planet is encountered where the inhabitants use telepathy to exclusively communicate.This ability mysteriously developed after the villain faction of the series "harvested" the people's vocal cords. There is no explaination for why the muted folk didn't didn't develop something practical, like sign language. There is just the implication that it has to do with their strong spirituality that may have a connection to the other enigmas driving the story.

* ''Franchise/RoboCop''. Most of his damaged body were replaced by cybernetics, even parts that didn't need to be removed.

** Unfortunately, this [[LikeABadassOutOfHell doesn't stick]]...though it appears to have little if anything to do with being blind, and more that he is practically hate-incarnate.

* ''{{Naruto}}'' has the Taijutsu specialist Rock Lee, who can't do any of the normal "jutsu" techniques (some unspecified flaw in his chakra network renders him physically incapable of performing any Ninjutsu or Genjutsu), but is so good at Taijutsu (martial arts), he's able to best the uber-talented Sasuke early in the series.
** Qualified by dint of several long and painful rehab sessions after injuries, but as a baseline he has all regular human capabilities, which in a 'verse where most have superpowers makes you a BadassNormal.
** His determination is practically a superpower in and of itself.
** Lee's biggest compensation for his lack of the usual ninja abilities is that he trained himself to be [[SuperSpeed very, very fast]]. In his aforementioned defeat of Sasuke, Lee mocked him for relying on his [[MagicalEye Sharingan]], saying that it didn't matter if his eyes could follow his movements, if his body was too slow to keep up.

** The IronMan of UltimateMarvel, on the other hand, wears his suit for much the same reason Mr. Sensitive below does: his sense of touch is so powerful he lives in constant agony even with it on.

* Bruce Wayne/Batman in ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''. By the time of ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' Bruce has taken so many beatings his body has essentially said "so long" and given up, and he needs an exoskeleton to be able to ''stand up''. Of course, it wasn't a ''huge'' step to cover the exoskeleton in armor and add enough gadgets to make [[Main/IronMan Tony Stark]] look like a kid with a Meccano kit...

* Visas Marr and the miraluka in the ''StarWars'' universe. Kreia, ironically enough, does roughly the exact same thing, "seeing with the Force."

* Cyborg of the ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' had all his limbs and half his face burned off in a lab accident, and [[WeCanRebuildHim replaced]] with aesthetically unpleasing yet superhuman prosthetics.

* {{Daredevil}}, from the MarvelUniverse, was hit in the face by a [[ILoveNuclearPower radioactive canister]] and went blind. His other senses [[SuperSenses became super-powerful]], and he acquired a "radar sense" that let him "see" objects, much like echolocation. (FrankMiller's influential run took him closer to this trope, partially explaining the radar sense as a CharlesAtlasSuperpower resulting from training with his enhanced senses.) He can also read normal books by feeling the ink, because his touch is so sensitive.

* In ''Film/{{Sneakers}}'', the blind character Whistler overhears his own name spoken in conversational tones -- thirty feet away, on the other side of thick plate glass. Later he listens through a powerful microphone aimed at a distant building, and deduces what rooms are which behind sealed windows -- even identifying one as an emergency exit ("I can hear the emergency floodlight batteries recharging"). He also deduces what road RobertRedford's character was driven on, while tied up in the trunk, based solely on what he heard The character is based on a RealLife hacker who could actually communicate with modems at low speeds ''sans device'' due to his ability to recognize and replicate the signals.

** Ninten from VideoGame/{{Mother 1}} is the tank of the party, able to dish out huge amounts of damage with a baseball bat, which is pretty impressive seeing as he's an asthmatic who has asthma attacks as his own exclusive status ailment.

* Bruce Wayne/Batman in ''ComicBook/KingdomeCome''. By the time of ''ComicBook/KingdomeCome'' Bruce has taken so many beatings his body has essentially said "so long" and given up, and he needs an exoskeleton to be able to stand. Of course, it wasn't a ''huge'' step to cover the exoskeleton in armor and add enough gadgets to make [[Main/IronMan Tony Stark]] look like a kid with a Meccano kit...