History Main / PowersAsPrograms

** In a story focused on ''[[Characters/SupermanBizarro Bizarro]]'', the Thing of Steel creates Bizarro Amazo. The reversal of Amazo's ability to copy every power for himself means he steals superpowers to give to powerless people. He spends the issue causing chaos by giving powers to random people who don't know how to control them, with the heroes near powerless to stop him, relying on tricks to get him to both give them back and leave.

'''Guy 2:''' ...I also sampled everything in the medicine cabinet for comparison. But I think this is the UsefulNotes/{{Python}}.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' series, the chief superpower present in the universe is CPU/goddess form, the ability of the patron diety-queens of each realm to transform into superpowered (including the MostCommonSuperPower) avatars. These abilities can be freely {{strippe|rific}}d, transferred, and copied, notably by the BigBad - who is a personification of [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil piracy]] to the goddesses' personification of [[UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars game consoles]].

* In ''ComicBook/TheAmbassadors'', members of the titular team have access to a datebase containing over 50 different superpowers, including SuperStrength, SuperSpeed, super-endurance, [[{{Sizeshifter}} changing size]] and more, but are restricted to only downloading up to three different ones at a time. Also, each power can only be held by one individual member at a time (though there is a power duplication one that can be used to replicate ones another user has).

* In ''The Ambassadors'', members of the titular team have access to a datebase containing over 50 different superpowers, including SuperStrength, SuperSpeed, super-endurance, [[{{Sizeshifter}} changing size]] and more, but are restricted to only downloading up to three different ones at a time. Also, each power can only be held by one individual member at a time (though there is a power duplication one that can be used to replicate ones another user has).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' episode "Go team Go," it's revealed that [[TheDragon Shego's]] powers are the result of an [[MagicMeteor irradiated meteorite]] which gave her and her siblings super powers. The [[RoguesGallery episode's villain]] found [[AppliedPhlebotinum a way]] to [[BroughtDownToNormal steal these powers]] and "download" them into another person, until the "weapon" ends up broken and [[NoOntologicalInertia all powers return to their original owners]].

* ''Film/DarkCity'' treats ''memories'' this way; [[spoiler:Dr. Screber mixes them in a lab and injects them into the forehead using a syringe.]]

* The first two ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' games have a Badge system that works this way. Some Badges contain new moves for Mario's [[DropTheHammer Hammer]] and [[GoombaStomp Jump]] attacks. Others contain status buffs to Mario or his partners. Mario has a certain amount of "Badge Points" that limits the amount of Badges he can equip, as each Badge requires a certain amount of Badge Points to equip, but the player has the option to increase his Badge Points if he levels up.

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* Anthony "Tony" Masters, aka ComicBook/{{Taskmaster}} can copy every muscle fiber twitch of most people's physical abilities (he can throw a shield like Captain America, punch like Iron Fist, but don't ask him to jump like Hulk) from simply watching it of this as just like a computer his mind gets full, so his brain has formatted itself to dump memories even those of his wife and past life as an [[spoiler: ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, which is how he met his wife.]] It gets even sadder as ''ComicBook/AvengersAcademy'' member Finesse believes she may be his daughter due to her having similar abilities, meaning she's possibly gonna have this weakness. He admits when they meet alone that he can't remember but it's a possibility. He won't take a DNA test, though, as he likes to stay off the grid.[[spoiler: ''Avengers Academy'' #23 has a possible future version of Finesse, and her memory has been affected so much, that as she looks at her daughter, she can only remember her vaguely by her movements.]]
** One aspect/flaw of his abilities is that he's only able to replay (and to an extent, integrate) moves but not expand or tweak them to his own needs (depending). For instance, he can punch at superhuman speeds by watching a video on fast-forward but can not simply punch at superhuman speeds just because he wants to (not to mention, he explicitly says he doesn't do this often anyway since being an otherwise normal human, superhuman feats destroy his body from stress and strain).
* The [[KidHero pre-teen]] FourTemperamentEnsemble ''ComicBook/PowerPack'' has this as a key part of their [[SuperheroOrigin origin story]], and at times their powersets even get reshuffled among them, sometimes with one of them [[AllYourPowersCombined getting them all at once]] temporarily.
** Averted in one storyline, where for several issues, the kids' powers are swapped around. The skills are individual, and they all have fits learning how to use the powers they're not familiar with, and come up with individual applications of the new powers.

* Black Alice (real name Lori Manning) is basically the DarkMagicalGirl version of Rogue. She's an AntiHero (or Hero or AntiVillain depending on the story) who can temporarily steal any magic user's powers and [[InstantExpert use them as well as they can]]. She doesn't even have to be near them; Zatanna could be halfway across the world and Black Alice could still steal her powers. Lori has even managed to steal two magic users' powers at once. The ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' version of Black Alice (from the latest comic book iteration) only copies magical abilities, rather than stealing them.
* ''ComicBook/JLAActOfGod'' relies on this as its premise; a mysterious event removes superpowers from all the characters in the DCU albeit inconsistently. HumanoidAliens like Superman and Martian Manhunter lost abilities that are typical of their species (i.e., they don't actually have "superpowers" per se) beyond that of baseline humans. Technology is supposed to remain functional so Steel's PoweredArmor is unimpeded, but somehow Kyle Rayner's ring (made with Oan technology) no longer works. Yeah, it really made no sense at all.
* ''DC One Million'': At some point it became common practice for civilians to emulate the powers of ancient superheroes signified by them wearing [[ChestInsignia their icons]].
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': In Mark Waid's run, Reed Richards once switched Johnny and Susan's powers in a ploy to trick aliens into thinking he depowered her. An accident switching them back knocked ''all'' of their powersets out of them them, which then randomly jumped between civilians throughout New York City, and they had to be tracked down and taken back.

* On ''Series/{{Haven}}'', one of the Troubled has the ability to steal other people's Troubles, one at a time--he takes on the Trouble, the person who had it loses it, and then when he takes another Trouble the previous person gets theirs back.

** The magical powers in ''Series/KamenRiderWizard'' are all based on magically powered Wizard Rings. The hero Wizard uses rings powered by crystals, shared with the White Wizard [[spoiler:and the various Kamen Riders Mage]], while Beast has a completely different set and style. However, the two sets are incompatible with each other: Wizard waves his hands over a belt buckle, while Beast inserts his rings into a socket on his belt like a key. In a do-or-die situation, Wizard was able to borrow one of Beast's keys (we later find his own rings don't fit Beast's belt, to Beast's disappointment.) He was [[spoiler:unable to use one of the White Wizard's rings, with his belt simply saying "ERROR"]].

*** The 3E spell ''mirror move'', from an [[http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20030504x online supplement]], likewise allows the caster to copy any general feat with visible effects simply by observing another character using it.

* Played with by Devil Fruits in ''Manga/OnePiece''. Taking just one bite instantly gives you the power, and renders the fruit powerless. However, some do have physical changes, there is no way to remove them, and trying to eat a second one apparently causes a very nasty and fatal backfire. [[BigBad Blackbeard]] is the exception to the latter rule. He somehow has the ability to possess multiple Devil Fruits and found a way to directly steal the abilities of other people, after killing them.

*** Not that Marvel is innocent of this: anyone up in arms about the Juggernaut being a mutant in the movieverse, an assumption based on Leech's ability to depower him, should remember that in the comics, Leech has been able to depower Inhumans (offshoot of humanity empowered by the local GreenRocks' mist), the ComicBook/PowerPack (kids whose powers were transferred to them by an alien whose species is born with powers), and Franchise/SpiderMan as well as mutants. Whether it'd work on ComicBook/IronMan or someone else whose powers are externally-based remains to be seen.
*** Marvel Comics also has S.P.I.N. technology, Super Power Inhibiting Nanobots that can strip seemingly any super of their powers. They were used during the after math of the Civil War arc. Which seemed to work on Mutants, Mutates and Gamma Mutates to various degrees. And of course some genius sent amateurs to use them on [[Franchise/SpiderMan Spider-Man]], it ends how you think it would. Unknown how the S.P.I.N. tech would work on martial arts based powers like Iron Fist's, but it's been noted at other times that characters who use magic or have powers with a mystic basis are much harder to affect with most tech-based power dampeners than other characters are.

*** Peter Petrelli (see ''Heroes'' in "Live-Action TV" below) owes a lot to Mimic. Mimic can take on the powers of any mutant he's around, his body altering itself to match (such as gaining Beast's physique and Angel's wings). The villainous main MarvelUniverse one has permanently taken on the powers of the original X-Men in addition to gaining new ones based on who he's around. The good ComicBook/{{Exiles}} version can hold any five powers at once (though he only started out with the ability to copy mutant powers, he later learned how to copy the powers of non-mutants). At one point, Exile!Mimic mimics the Phoenix Force from one of the Summers - granted, as with all his mimics he got it at half power, but he mimic'ed a fundamental force of the universe (and half of infinity is still infinity). When copying someone's powers, Mimic (either version) can't do so selectively; he gets their entire power set, including any weaknesses that might go along with them. Exiles!Mimic also was shown to not always be able to use all copied powers simultaneously: he could use Colossus's armored body and SuperStrength with Wolverine's claws and healing factor, but not Jean Grey's psychic powers (he also didn't appear to have Wolverine's SuperSenses even though he should have).

* This is how the skill system works in ''[[Website/GaiaOnline zOMG!]]''. Since normal weapons don't work against the resident enemies, Gaians are forced to use special rings given to them by G-Corp Labtechs that augment their physical abilities and allow them to summon weapons of [[ImprobableWeaponUser varying legitimacy]] to combat the animated threat. Of course [[spoiler:it turns out that G-Corp [[CloningBlues isn't really]] [[ThePlan giving out]] the rings in the first place...]]

* The second wave of Heisei ''Franchise/KamenRider'' seems to be heading this way, arguably a result of the MerchandiseDriven nature the series developed with each series' subsequent {{Transformation Trinket}}s. Earlier series played with this idea. TheMovie of ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' showed the Ryuki Advent Deck being passed to Shinji from the former Ryuki, and [[spoiler:he receives the Knight Deck from a dying Ren after the Ryuki Advent Deck is destroyed]] while ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz'' showed the various Rider Gears changing hands variously throughout the series to where it became a secondary gimmick; there was a point in the series when the hero Takumi Inui became Kamen Rider Delta when he lost possession of the Faiz Gear. ''Series/KamenRiderKabuto'' also played with this in how often the [=TheBee=] Zecter switched hands.