History Main / UselessSuperpowers

* In ''WebAnimation/CyanideAndHappiness'' we have Senior Cleanfist. He is able to clean anything but has to physically destroy the object in question to get rid of some grime.

* ''ComicBook/{{Touch}}'': After Dex's death, Cooper gives a man named Geoff powers, but they simply take the form of making him luminescent. an interesting power but not one which would work for marketable hero work. Coop pays Geoff two grand for his trouble, takes the power back and then gets Brian to fill in.

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' stories from the same era. The fully-unleashed power of a Green Lantern is such that, for a time, even the yellow weakness wasn't enough: there had to be "invisible yellow" or "infra-yellow"[[note]]Based on [[ArtisticLicensePhysics a complete misunderstanding of what "infrared" is]]. It's not an "invisible version of red", it's light that's a higher frequency than red and thus outside the human eye's ability to see. The color that has the next higher frequency than yellow (thus "infra-yellow") would be '''orange'''.[[/note]] or a "yellow compound" around when GL needed to attack enemies or manipulate objects that were so completely non-yellow. A little TechnoBabble to make a green-clad bad guy count as yellow meant you didn't even need [[Series/TheBigBangTheory a #2 pencil]] to seriously ruin Hal's day.

* In the ''Franchise/DragonBall'' TV Special ''Anime/DragonBallZBardockTheFatherOfGoku'', Bardock is granted precognitive powers by the last of a race he was slaughtering. You'd think being able to see the future would be useful, but in this case, the power comes in the forms of random, uncontrolled visions of the future, which mostly consist of [[Manga/DragonBall his youngest son's life on Earth]] and [[CallForward Freeza wiping out Planet Vegeta and all of its people]]. Which was the point. The alien gave Bardock the visions as a form of vengeance, hoping to punish the Saiyan with dreams of [[YouCantFightFate a future that can't be stopped]]. The only consolation is the knowledge that his son will be the one to defeat Freeza. Lampshaded in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'':

* In the ''Franchise/DragonBall'' TV Special ''Anime/DragonBallZBardockTheFatherOfGoku'', Bardock is granted precognitive powers by the last of a race he was slaughtering. You'd think being able to see the future would be useful, but in this case, the power comes in the forms of random, uncontrolled visions of the future, which mostly consist of [[Manga/DragonBall his youngest son's life on Earth]] and [[CallForward Freeza wiping out Planet Vegeta and all of its people]]. Which was the point. The alien gave Bardock the visions as a form of vengeance, hoping to punish the Saiyajin with dreams of [[YouCantFightFate a future that can't be stopped]]. The only consolation is the knowledge that his son will be the one to defeat Freeza. Lampshaded in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'':

** [[ComicBook/MegaMan The Comic]] on the other hand explains that Dr. Light has limited intel on the location of the robot master, and only knows that the robot is somewhere in the area Mega Man is sent to. Since the modus operandi of the robot masters is to reprogram the local worker robots into minions to secure the area for them, this forces Mega Man to teleport to the entrance and fight his way through until he finds the robot master.

A form of HoldingBackThePhlebotinum. Compare CoconutSuperpowers, EmbarrassingSuperpower and CoolButInefficient. For [[StockSuperpowersIndex superpowers]] that are actually useless, see WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway or BlessedWithSuck. When the uselessness happens just when the power would've been necessary, then it's PlotDrivenBreakdown. When the useless superpower becomes useful, it's ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman.

A form of HoldingBackThePhlebotinum. Compare CoconutSuperpowers, EmbarrassingSuperpower and CoolButInefficient. For [[StockSuperpowers superpowers]] that are actually useless, see WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway or BlessedWithSuck. When the uselessness happens just when the power would've been necessary, then it's PlotDrivenBreakdown. When the useless superpower becomes useful, it's ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman.

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' stories from the same era. The fully-unleashed power of a Green Lantern is such that, for a time, even the yellow weakness wasn't enough: there had to be "invisible yellow" or "infra-yellow" or a "yellow compound" around when GL needed to attack enemies or manipulate objects that were so completely non-yellow. A little TechnoBabble to make a green-clad bad guy count as yellow meant you didn't even need [[Series/TheBigBangTheory a #2 pencil]] to seriously ruin Hal's day.
* ComicBook/TheFlash and other speedsters can be very difficult to write well, since they can solve many problems before the bad guys can blink. Good writers find tougher problems (impenetrable force-fields, not knowing ''where'' the bomb is, things that require flight, ice rinks, high-altitude air too thin to support their metabolism, etc.). Bad writers fall into this trope.

-->'''Master:''' Laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic?

* It is never explained why ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' teleports to the start of the DeathCourse instead of the boss's lair. Jamming stations?

--> '''Strong Bad:''' "...if comic books, cartoons, and Sci-Fi Original Movies have taught me anything, it's that shapeshifting comes with a bunch of boring rules and restrictions that limit its potential Turn-Into-A-Bulldozer-Whenever-I-Wantity. You can turn into a machine gun but not bullets, contemporary jazz turns you back to normal, you can only turn into presents your grandma's knitted for you. Crap like that."

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "Nuthin' Special" has Buttercup looking for a special power (like Blossom's ice breath and Bubbles' {{Omniglot}} abilities), but every time she demonstrates one, her sisters duplicate it. Out of contempt, she sticks her tongue out at them, curling it in the process. To Buttercup's surprise and delight, Blossom and Bubbles cannot duplicate it. The narrator even lampshades how pointless it is.[[note]]It's been [[EpilepticTrees fan wanked]] that Buttercup's superior fighting skills and her superior strength are her real special ability. This is actually added in the Anime version where Bubbles and Blossom together could not lift the hammer Buttercup could swing with one hand.[[/note]]

* There's an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' involving a damaged nuclear submarine. You'd think ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman, but he's acting even more useless then normal just to let the other star of the episode, Black Vulcan (who has ''electricity powers'') do most of the work.

* This is much of the gag with ''Anime/{{Konosuba}}'', due to the presence of Aqua, essentially a powerful water goddess incarnated as a magic-user. She possesses vast power, but even assuming she isn't paralyzed by her phenomenal stupidity, she has a great habit of running into enemies that can completely shut her down. For instance, anything not undead or demonic, and ''especially'' anything not undead or demonic that shares a water focus. Naturally, the very first thing she faced in battle was a giant frog, which nearly swallowed her whole. (The second was a different giant frog. She had a very unpleasant first day.)

** In ''Discworld/{{Thud}}!'', after government inspector A.E. Pessimal is dragged along to observe the Watch quelling a riot, he asks Commander Vimes why they couldn't recruit the wizards to help stop a potential riot by magicking away the weapons. Vimes indicates that they ''could'', but crap would happen, like missing fingers... to say the least.
** It's been outright stated that most of the education in Wizard Universities is learning how ''not'' to use magic. Of course it may not be much of a problem, since it's also been stated that, dangerous magics aside, wizard universities work just like regular universities: They understand the futility of trying to actually teach young people anything, so they just put them near a lot of books in the hopes that things will pass from one to the other, while the young people themselves put themselves near bars, pubs, and taverns for exactly the same reason. ''Discworld/TheLastContinent'' further clarifies that the University is less about education and more about giving the wizards a framework where their natural viciousness and ambition can be focused into academic feuds and gaining titles instead of magical warfare. Though it could also be a case of PowerIncontinence, as it is often very difficult for a wizard to ''refrain'' from using magic.
** Of course, in ''Discworld/{{Sourcery}}'', Pratchett shows just what happens when wizards use magic freely and have an abundance of power available to them. The results are not pretty. It's strongly implied that the historical wars between wizards were ''even worse''. Not surprising that ''not'' using magic has become more important than the magic itself.

** In a minor, non-spellcasting example, in ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' the [=UU=] wizards realize that every imaginary creature they mention that ''might'' be responsible for a mundane process (e.g. the Hair Loss Fairy) is popping into existence. The Dean immediately tries to exploit this new phenomenon by invoking the Give The Dean A Huge Bag Of Money Goblin; this fails, because he doesn't normally receive large bags of money for no visible reason, but it was presumably worth a try.

* Another is in ''Series/OutOfThisWorld'', where Evie's almost unbounded "Gleeping" power manages to fail at crucial plot points in pretty much every episode.
** Evie is basically Samantha from Bewitched: you've got a power that basically amounts to "Do Anything," but to keep her from solving the problem of the week easily, it will do something other than what she wants it to as if it were a JerkassGenie and not her own power, and then not let her reverse it until certain requirements (or a certain point in the episode) have been met. This gets worse as the show goes on. At first her only power was freezing time for everyone but her, which was very useful, but not a panacea for reasons that made sense. Her powers became very fond of backfiring once she got to RealityWarper class.
* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' falls in the same category as ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' here.
** It's worth noting, though, that the writers were able to [[JustifiedTrope justify]] Sabrina's limitations better than ''Bewitched'' did. Sabrina was, after all, a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin teenage witch]]--so she combined the lack of foresight and desire for quick fixes common to teens with powers they didn't fully understand. She was also trying to balance learning about the supernatural with a fully mortal life as well, which tended to make her lazy about looking up specifics in her [[GreatBigBookOfEverything Magic Book]]. She also couldn't access the full range of her powers until she got her "Witch's License"--and even ''then,'' she couldn't use it until she solved the Spellman family secret! Finally, her aunts tended to take a "hands-off" approach to Sabrina's magical education, insisting that she learn to clean up her own messes rather than simply fixing them for her. Combine all of this with [[TheMasquerade the inevitable attempts to hide magic from the mortal world]], and you begin to understand Sabrina's issues.

* In ''Manga/FullMetalAlchemist'', Roy Mustang's flame alchemy fits this trope. Mustang has the power to shoot flame from his hands as long as he's wearing his special ignition gloves, which is a massively powerful combat skill -- that he can only use on the rare occasions when it isn't raining or flooded, the enemy didn't steal or destroy his ignition gloves, and he isn't blinded.

** Strong Bad points out another instance in the e-mail [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail192.html shapeshifter]], involving shape-shifting.

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' has an example of this when pointed out by Strong Bad in this e-mail [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail192.html]], involving shape-shifting.
--> '''Strong Bad:''' "...if comic books, cartoons, and Sci-Fi Original Movies have taught me anything, it's that shapeshifting comes with a bunch of boring rules and restrictions that limit its potential Turn-Into-A-Bulldozer-Whenever-I-Wantity. You can turn into a machine gun but not bullets, contemporary jazz turns you back to normal, you can only turn into presents your grandma's knitted for you. Crap like that."

* Both [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander]] and ComicBook/TheFlash have a secondary power in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5237318/1/Crush Crush]]'' as a side effect of having "become one with an aspect of reality" ([[GravityMaster Gravity]] and [[SuperSpeed Acceleration]] respectively) in that both can detect breasts with larger ones being easier to detect. Both note that there's never really a use for having breast radar, even on search and rescue operations since it doesn't work on men or young girls.
* [[{{Animorphism}} Animagus]] potential is shown to be quite common (between 1/3 and 1/2 of all wizards and witches) in ''[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-23251-19/BarefootXO+Time+and+Again.htm Time and Again]]'' but most don't bother to pursue it due to either the fact it takes a couple years to learn or the fact their form isn't terribly useful. [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander]] never bothered as his form is a spotted hyena and he [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes has some serious trauma]] related to the animal, while Harry Potter's form is a moth.

** The first few seasons feature the absentminded Aunt Clara, who is prone to casting powerful enchantments and then forgetting either what specific spell she'd used or the counter-spell required to undo her magic.

*** In the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]'' episode "The Hunted", SuperSoldier Roga Danar is more GenreSavvy than the crew. To escape from the ''Enterprise'' while the transporters are shut down and mostly under guard, he sneaks into a cargo hold and uses a cargo transporter, powered by a phaser, to beam off the ship. Using a cargo transporter is a bit risky, as they are not as precise, and you run a very high risk of arriving at your destination with your liver put in backwards.