History Main / UniquenessDecay

* Franchise/{{Superman}} was the sole survivor of his [[DoomedHometown destroyed planet Krypton]]. His AchillesHeel is exposure to kryptonite, the radioactive fragments of a planet lightyears away that didn't burn up in our atmosphere, and therefore a rare commodity almost nobody had heard of. Throughout UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}, [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere Kryptonite was acquired by increasingly more trivial criminals so that they'd actually have a shot at troubling Supes]], and in a veritable rainbow of different sorts that [[AppliedPhlebotinum all had various effects]]. Also introduced were several other survivors of Krypton's doom, first Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}, then others such as Power Girl, Doomsday, and General Zod. After the post-ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths reboot, Superman was once again the last Kryptonian and kryptonite again very rare. And then, after a few years, the other Kryptonians started showing up again, along with the wacky varieties of kryptonite. It has been joked that by this point, the only man to actually die on Krypton was [[DeathByOriginStory Jor-El]]. Also, while Superman was weakened substantially following ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', that nerfing has largely stuck.

* ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk'': Over the years, many other gamma-powered powerhouses have appeared to rival the Jade Giant, including Comicbook/SheHulk, Doc Samson, The Abomination, Comicbook/RedHulk, Red She-Hulk, A-Bomb, Skaar, Cosmic Hulk, and the Totally Awesome Hulk. You know, just to name a few. Worth noting, however, is that except for brief stints with TheWorfEffect, the Hulk hasn't been unseated as WorldsStrongestMan by any of them, mostly due to his uniquely unstable mentality, which gamma power feeds from.
* ''Comicbook/TheMightyThor'': Since the introduction of Comicbook/BetaRayBill (back when it wasn't just impressive but downright ''shocking'' for somebody other than Thor to be "worthy"), many characters have been demonstrated to lift {{Mjolnir}}, with a few of them actually taking up the mantle of Thor for a time. The most established of these being Thunderstrike, followed by [[spoiler:[[Comicbook/{{Thor2014}} Jane Foster]]]].
* ''Comicbook/SpiderMan'': Thanks to years of clones, alternate-reality versions, distaff counterparts, future children, and alternate-reality successors, the number of spider-themed characters has increased exponentially. Those still in publication by the year 2015 include: Comicbook/SpiderMan2099 (Miguel [=O'Hara=]), Comicbook/SpiderWoman (Jessica Drew), Madame Web (Julia Carpenter), Comicbook/ScarletSpider (Kaine), Comicbook/SpiderGirl[=/=]Woman (May Parker), Spider-Girl (Aranya Corazon), [[Comicbook/UltimateSpiderMan Miles Morales]], ComicBook/{{Silk}} (Cindy Moon), Comicbook/SpiderGwen (Gwen Stacy), ComicBook/SpiderManIndia, Comicbook/SpiderManNoir, ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan (Otto Octavius), Spider-Man UK, and ComicBook/SpiderHam (Peter Porker). And that's not including any symbiote, nor all the other spider-people we saw running around in ''Comicbook/SpiderVerse''.

** Similar to Green Lantern noted above, when Jay Garrick was first introduced it was kind of novel to have a character with simple SuperSpeed as their only power, though this led to a FountainOfExpies with Quicksilver (Quality Comics', who was later acquired by DC) and Johnny Quick introduced before the Golden Age was up. Then comes the Silver Age and we get LegacyCharacter Barry Allen, and his nephew/protege ComicBook/WallyWest, and after a short while Jay is reintroduced. After COIE Wally [[SidekickGraduationsStick became The Flash]], and during his time many other speedsters were introduced too. This was actually taken advantage of, as after the aforementioned Golden Age speedsters were revived and reintroduced (renaming Quicksilver to Max Mercury to avoid confusion with the Marvel character), as well as having Johnny's daughter Jesse introduced, the older figures began mentoring Wally, Jesse, and Bart (Barry's grandson from the future), creating a 'Flash Family'. As the group have diverse personalities, and different strengths and weaknesses, this actually worked amazingly for creating a super-team who all have the same basic power but still feel individually unique and interesting.

** The [[PhysicalGod Kais]] also undergo this treament. When Goku first goes to Otherworld to train under King Kai, he's portrayed as a supremely wise and powerful deity with unmatched knowledge of martial arts. Subsequent stories, however, would reveal that his wisdom isn't nearly as unique or unparalleled as those early episodes implied: it turns out that "Kai" is a ''title'', and King Kai isn't the only one who holds it; a {{filler}} arc in the anime would reveal that his full title is actually "'''North''' Kai", and he only oversees a portion of the universe alongside an East Kai, a South Kai, and a West Kai--and they're all subordinate to the Grand Kai, who's older and wiser than all of them. Even later, the Buu Saga would reveal that there's a ''Supreme'' Kai that outranks even the Grand Kai--and there were originally four different Supreme Kais too (the current Supreme Kai was originally just the Eastern Supreme Kai), plus a [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Grand Supreme Kai]]. And with the revelation of the {{multiverse}}, it turns out that each universe has its ''own'' Supreme Kai.