New York is both hero and villain central, so the NYPD came up with Code B.L.U.E., a police unit that uses training, tactics, Wonderful Toys, and brilliant improvisation to deal with superhuman beings. They've taken down Gods.
Series
Avengers: The Initiative: Michael van Patrick (hero name "MVP") manages to become a "peak human", supposedly on the same level as Steve Rogers, simply by specific exercise programs and a particular diet. Yes, he ate his veggies and did his pushups in just the right combination and everyone thought he had superpowers. It was assumed that his family had somehow replicated the Super Soldier Serum on the basis that his great-grandfather was its inventor, Dr. Erskine. In fact, all they'd managed to replicate was an exceptionally healthy diet that Erskine had formulated before the serum, and it only worked so well for MVP because he was lucky enough to have exceptionally good genes for athleticism.
Black Widow: "world class athlete and gymnast, expert martial artist (including karate, judo, aikido, savate, various styles of kung fu, and boxing), markswoman, and weapons specialist as well as having extensive espionage training. She is also an accomplished ballerina." says Dr Wiki. Similar to Nick Fury, she's technically an Empowered Badass Normal now as she took a formula that stopped her aging and kept her in peak-level health back when she was a Russian spy.
Bucky Barnes was Captain America's sidekick during World War II and held his own against both Axis soldiers and supervillains, despite lacking any powers of his own. In modern times, as the Winter Soldier, he's become an Empowered Badass Normal with a cybernetic arm.
Most of Captain America's enemies lack any explicit superpowers. Archenemy The Red Skull, Crossbones, Sin, Viper, BaronsHeinrich and Helmut Zemo, and yes, Batroc the Leaper and Flag-Smasher all make a living fighting against a Super-Soldier and his superpowered allies, with nothing more than their physical abilities.
Daredevil: Bullseye started out as a professional baseball pitcher who somehow developed enough skill to turn anything he got his hands (or feet, or teeth) on into a lethal throwing weapon.
Fantastic Four: Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, is clearly not normal, but sometimes in the history of the series, Reed or someone else has managed to cure him and restore him to human form, although such cures are always temporary. During these times, Ben certainly fits the description, often able to fight alongside the team with nothing more than what he learned in the Yancy Street Gang.
Hawkeye: Clint Barton has no powers, just a bow, and an arsenal of customized trick arrows (the majority of which he's made himself, albeit often appropriating other people's tech and inventions). As well as his skills as a marksman and a fighter, he's also a pilot, tactician, leader, trainer, and a guy who knows how to hurt you when you least expect it. Not bad for "an orphan raised by carnies, fighting with a stick and a string from the paleolithic era." This has also been explored a few times with his character, as at multiple times villains have dismissed him as the weakest of the Avengers only to be proven wrong, while Clint repeatedly has been shown feeling very insecure about his place among the World's mightiest. (At one point, wracked with doubt, Clint abandoned his bow, started taking a growth serum, and became the size-changing superhero Goliath. It didn't last.)
Hawkeye stretches his Charles Atlas Superpower to its absolute limit. The guy uses a bow with a 250 lb draw weight and can fire at near machine gun rates. For reference, the draw weight of re-curve bows used in the Olympics tops out at less than sixty pounds with nowhere even remotely close to that firing rate. Not to mention the time Clint casually lifted a destroyed car off himself one handed.
Plus Hawkeye II (also known as Golden Archer, Wyatt McDonald of Squadron Supreme) and Hawkeye III (Kate Bishop, jokingly called "Hawkingbird"). The latter's first appearance with the Young Avengers, all either superpowered or having fantabulous armor, involves her saving the team's bacon during a botched hostage situation. She later becomes the official "Bad Ass" member of the team.
Hawkeye (Barton) and Hawkeye (Bishop) actually deconstruct this in Hawkeye (2012); they're repeatedly shown wiping the floor with large groups of mooks, and when together take on multiple crime syndicates' forces to recover a tape supposedly showing the former assassinating a terrorist leader, but at the same time they end their adventures bruised, bandaged, and sometimes hospitalized, and Barton comments on having concussion a few times.
"I may not have the claws and the webs... but I know a thing or two about a thing or two. Yeah, that's right... run like a bitch."
Clint's exceptional marksmanship (with all types of weapons, not just bows) makes him one of the very few people in the MCU who can replicate Captain America's shield toss without making himself look like an idiot. All of the other people who can pull this off have either superpowers or cyborg enhancements for assistance, but Clint can do it because he's just that good.
Tony Stark himself, when not wearing his iconic Powered Armor is a normal man — an extremely rich man with a level of Gadgeteer Genius rivaling that of Reed Richards but a normal man nonetheless. Despite this, thanks to martial arts training from Captain America, Black Widow, Black Panther and Shang-Chi and his own tenacity Tony has lived through events that would kill regular people twice over. At one point during Marvel NOW!, Tony partakes in some Gladiator Games in space entirely without his armor, takes down multiple alien opponents with his bare hands, and manages to survive getting massive rubble thrown at him by Killer RobotDeath's Head. Even Thor, a Physical God, states he genuinely considers Tony as much a god, as any of the other immortal beings he's known for eons. note However, similar to Lex Luthor, exactly how "normal" Tony is largely depends on the writer. Take for example Iron Man: Extremis, wherein Tony takes the Extremis serum and blends it with his armor allowing him to summon the suit with just his thoughts. Or the Bleeding Edge Armor in which Tony turns himself into Henshin Hero, by wearing the armor (safely) under his skin and can suit up whenever he wants, essentially turning himself into a Living Weapon.
Tony's buddy Rhodey was also this way before he became War Machine. A United States Air Force Ace Pilot who survived getting blasted out of the sky, trekked through the jungle fighting off foes alongside Iron Man, and stole a working helicopter from an enemy base to escape. Rhodey was basically black Rambo who eventually got Powered Armor and became a superhero.
Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and Edwin Jarvis (who was also trained by Cap) have had their moments fighting numerous armored and superpowered villains and lived to tell the tale. Out of the three, Pepper managed to get Powered Armor of her own. Most of the Iron Man characters are like this; tellingly the aforementioned Black Widow and Hawkeye made their debut in Tony's books.
On the villainous end of things we have Mark Scarlotti, alias Whiplash I and Blacklash I, who, for forty years of publishing history, fought Iron Man armed only with a kevlar bodysuit and a pair of titanium whips.
Ka-Zar: Kevin Plunder was just a normal British man who Took a Level in Badass in order to survive the wild Savage Land.
Mockingbird: Bobbi Morse is an intelligence officer who fights crime with nothing but two staves and the flexibility of a gymnast. She later got upgraded to Empowered Badass Normal (that happens a lot in Marvel).
The Punisher: For most of his career, he's had no superpowers, but he more than makes up for it with deadly martial arts skills, a brilliant tactical mind, and enough firepower to destroy a country. The skills of both the Punisher and Captain America are such that they've repeatedly tangled with superhuman foes and come out ahead by using their skills in clever and creative ways.
Alex Wilder, who's also the team leader. It turns out he's The Mole, but that in no way reduces the badassitude of his actions.
Chase Stein, despite being considered the least intelligent of the group, has street smarts enough to figure out how to outwit the Gibborim while he also forcibly recruits the geek squad who worked for Wilder Senior.
Alex's father, Geoffrey Wilder, is a villainous example in both his 1985 and 2000s incarnations. He's been the leader of The Pride (a group that includes Mad Scientists, aliens with Light Is Not Good powers, time-travelling criminals, Evil Sorcerers and Mutants) since day one on the force of personality alone, and took control of most of LA, while the rest of The Pride handled out of town affairs. When his 1985 incarnation is brought to the future he proceeds to give the Runaways a serious fight, ultimately kidnapping Molly and killing Gert before being banished back to his own time.
S.H.I.E.L.D.: Most members of the organization tend to be this. Nick Fury has often played with this as, for the most part, he is an example, if not for the fact he doesn't age thanks to ingesting the Infinity Formula. His Ultimate Marvel version, based on (and in the films, portrayed by) Samuel L. Jackson, was this at first until it was revealed he was the subject of a prison experiment that granted him mild superhuman abilities beyond not aging.
Another particularly badass Badass Normal SHIELD example would be Victoria Hand who as seen in Dark Avengers is perfectly willingly to stand up to a group of super psychopaths, all of whom could reduce her to paste at any moment and even fights Marvel heroes armed with a BFG. Subverted a bit though as seen in a confrontation with Luke Cage, Victoria admits (in a Being Evil Sucks moment) she knows full well she's screwed against superheroes who hate her guts and could easily kill her.
Mary Jane Watson is the girlfriend of Spider-Man but she is no slouch in this department. Despite not being a Charles Atlas Superpower yet, she has been trained by Captain America and is Subverted in being a Damsel in Distress when dealing with Spider-Man's enemies. She's even saved Spider-Man himself in some instances. Averted at other times such as in Spider-Island where MJ becomes a web-slinging Spider-Woman herself.
J. Jonah Jameson. No seriously, name another middle-aged journalist who's survived dozens of encounters from some of the most deadly supervillains on the planet, journeyed through Savage Land, fought the new king of the Mole Men in combat and best of all yelled inGodzilla's face, because for all J.Jonah's faults the man has balls of pure Adamantium.
By extension the rest of the staff of The Daily Bugle such as Betty Brant (who knows martial arts and has Eidetic Memory) and Robbie Robertson (who's implied to be a military vet) are this. They've not only aided Peter/Spidey multiple times but frequently survived close encounters with every super psycho from Green Goblin to Carnage. Especially notable given how many other Marvel heroes have had their non-powered allies die in various deadly conflicts.
The Kingpin uses both his powerful brains and more powerful brawn to keep the costumed villains in their place, and screw over the heroes.
Oddly enough, when he started off as a Spider-Man villain it was specifically stated that he had super strength, the origin of which, was a mystery. It was to the point where it was all but stated he was stronger than Spidey who can lift roughly 10 tons. Once he shifted over to a Daredevil villain, he had a Retcon, explaining that he was just a really strong human. After that, whenever Kingpin showed up in Spidey comics, he curiously turned into a master-manipulator type instead of the brawler he once was.
The character also features a deconstruction of the trope, in that no matter how badass he is, a normal person can't be expected to fight highly powerful superhumans head-on and expect to come out on top. Kingpin is often able to fight Spider-Man man to man, but the reason for this is that Spidey has to hold back his full strength when fighting human enemies to avoid killing them. In "Back in Black," one of the Kingpin's henchmen has just shot Aunt May, and Spider-Man comes within an inch of killing the Kingpin in an utterCurb-Stomp Battle. This proves that Kingpin as a Badass Normal can only fight superheroes because they let him.
Tombstone originally had no powers, and was, in Spidey's words, "Just a guy." He was just a guy with a tendency to Neck Lift people while strangling them to death — one-handed. When he and Spider-Man finally fought after a several-issue storyline, Tombstone gave the overconfident superhero a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown at first using just his hands and then a metal pipe. Once Spidey realized that he was actually dangerous, he got serious and served up a Curb-Stomp Battle to the mob enforcer. Eventually, he crossed over to become an Empowered Badass Normal with brick powers after his old "friend" Robbie Robertson trapped him in an airtight chamber filled with gaseous Applied Phlebotinum.
Chameleon and Mysterio are examples of supervillains that use guile, gadgets, and deception rather than fighting the hero head-on. Mysterio in particular uses psychological warfare, SFX skills, hypnosis, and custom-made gasses to challenge Spider-Man mentally.
Kraven the Hunter is a badass normal Super-Persistent Predator who uses both advanced and primitive hunting gear and guerilla warfare to hunt down Spidey as opposed to fighting him head-on. Kraven instead ingests a magical potion to give himself super strength when the time comes to fight Spidey head-on, recognizing that athleticism and advanced combat skills don't exactly cut it next to a guy who can bench press a truck and sense your every move.
Shocker, Living Wheel, Beetle, and others derive their powers from their technology rather than having superpowers themselves.
Doctor Octopus falls in the same category, although with Doc Ock the argument can be made that he at least has superhuman concentration as a result of his brain rewiring to accommodate four additional limbs. In his original appearances, his arms were stuck to his body and after they were removed he maintained a mental link to them, making him more of a real superhuman, but in modern comics, he basically uses replaceable sets of arms that he can attach and discard as he needs.
It's easy to forget but without the Venom Symbiote Eddie Brock still counts as one. Always an athletic prodigy, Eddie started working out obsessively after his career went down the drain. Canonically, Eddie is actually stronger than the aforementioned Kingpin and only a smidgen below Captain America. When separated from the symbiote he is often resourceful (being a former investigative reporter and all that), cunning, and strong enough to hold his own against superpowered menaces until they reunite.
Certain members e.g. Cyclops, Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, Gambit and Jubilee outside their particular mutant power have no enhanced abilities beyond good human athleticism and yet just like Storm are still farmore badass than most regular people. Cyclops has KOed Pyro with a single punch and overpowered Wolverine in a melee, Jean while teamed up Misty Knight and Coleen Wing kicked the head off a robot, Kitty is a trained and lethal Ninja, Gambit has physically tore off a robot's arm and has even given Captain America a genuine fight and Jubilee could kick around Shi'ar warriors when she was just a teenager. Gambit in particular shamelessly stretches the limits of Charles Atlas Superpower numerous times. This is very useful to them whenever a Power Nullifier is in play, or in Cyclops' case whenever he doesn't have access to his visor or glasses and thus his power become actively detrimental and he's forced to fight with his eyes closed lest he accidentally kill somebody.
Storm once lost her powers for some time, made do as a Badass Normal, and still proved a great field leader of the team, beating out the powered Cyclops for the leadership position (although Cyclops was mentally influenced into losing by Madelyne Pryor). It even proved an advantage at one time, when the team was trying to stop the infamous massacre of the Morlocks. During that battle, a villain who could neutralize powers with his touch tried to do so with Storm, but she had no powers to affect and he left himself wide open for a knockout punch by her to put him out of action. She's also taken out Callisto and Crimson Commando in hand-to-hand combat, both of whose mutations make them nearly superhuman fighters, and she did so without using her powers.
Julio Richter/Rictor, after losing his powers during Decimation, has turned into this. Peter David describes him as the "moody former mutant who believes he's useless and yet keeps happening to save the day." He's saved Siryn from a kidnapper, beaten the Isolationist and Arcade, programmed Danger Room technology to create a very convincing illusion, and helped stop Quicksilver from blowing up any more former mutants.
David Alleyne/Prodigy, is in a similar boat as Storm and Rictor: Used to be a mutant, but isn't anymore after losing his powers during Decimation. His power when he was a mutant though was to absorb the skills, talents, and experiences of people around him, and after he lost his powers he had all that absorbed knowledge returned to him. Now, he has the combined fighting prowess, intellect, musical tastes, and mastery of the entirety of the X-Men, including fields ranging from parkour and close-quarters-combat to magical incantations and stances (without the ability to actually perform said magic) to Cyclops' talent as a marksman and pool player.
Wolverine: Shingen Harada, a Yakuza boss with no superpowers who, despite his advanced age nearly killed Wolverine in the seventies.
Films
Several examples from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which may cross over with comics examples listed on that page:
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Phil Coulson, Maria Hill, Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye, and Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow. They all serve under undisputed Badass Normal Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. And, if Coulson's description is accurate, the whole of S.H.I.E.L.D. is an example.
Apart from Captain America himself, every other member of the Howling Commandos is a Badass Normal. Peggy Carter and Col. Chester Phillips from the Strategic Scientific Reserve are certainly no slouches in the badass normal department themselves, either. Special mention to Bucky, who keeps up with him for most of the film despite being normal.
Ivan Vanko fits, while he did have a laser-whip harness powered by an arc reactor, he was otherwise unprotected when he was hit by a car, a metal door, and by Iron Man himself. He stayed conscious through all of this.
In Iron Man 3 both Tony and Rhodes show they are capable of fighting supervillains without armor.
Unfortunately, this was averted in the case of Happy Hogan, who confronted a supervillain and was immediately put in a coma for his troubles. He gets better in the end, though.
In The Incredible Hulk, the first time Emil Blonsky faced the Hulk, he was just a soldier. He didn't fare well but was seemingly the only survivor against Hulk's rampage and certainly the only one left standing by the end of it. That says something.
In Captain America: Civil War, Helmut Zemo has no advanced tech (the most he pulls out is an EMP), no powers and no special origin. He's not the head of a billion dollar company or the leader of a terror group. At best, he was a former military colonel. What he does have is patience, wits and The Power of Hate. He's also the ONLY MCU villain under The Bad Guys Win. At least until Infinity War...
A unusual example of this occurs in Spider-Man 2, where the citizens on the train that Spider-Man just saved see him with his mask off and realize that, despite having super-powers, the "guy behind the mask" is actually just a normal human teenager, who presumably goes to school, and has a normal life like every other teen. Although unacknowledged, it's this fact that makes them all stand up to Doc Ock, to try and protect Spidey. Who just uses his "robotic arms" to move them out the way. Another twist on this occurs earlier in the film. Peter Parker had lost his powers due to stress and decided to give up on being Spider-Man, but he still ran into a burning building to save a child as himself.
In the X-Men Film Series, the average cop or soldier is capable of fighting against mutants, even if the former may not always win.
The military is smart enough to go after Magneto with non-metal weapons and took out quite a few members of his mutant army before the X-Men showed up to lend a hand.
A random security guard was the one who eventually took down Mystique.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Stryker was the one responsible for shooting Logan in the head with an adamantium bullet, giving him amnesia.
Shingen Yashida. No mutant powers, no supertech, just a katana. Nonetheless, he holds his own against the Wolverine himself. Oh, and Shingen was weakened by Viper's poison at the time, which was intended to kill him.
Harada is a mundane leader of a clan of mundane ninja.
Logan has a very difficult time with the two determined Yakuza on top of the bullet train, who do all the same death-defying stunts as Wolverine without any superpowers at all.
X-Men: Apocalypse: The Ancient Egyptians of 3600 BC defeated En Sabah Nur and his Four Horsemen without the benefit of superpowers or modern technology.
Live-Action TV
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Alphonse "Mac" Mackenzie is The Big Guy, an exquisite friend for his teammates, a moral point of reference for the squad, and a kickass mechanic with an hybrid axe-shotgun (not counting his bare fists). May, Ward, and Mockingbird count as well.
The Player Character is a normal SHIELD agent leading a team full of superheroes with all kinds of powers and Charles Atlas training. But with the arsenal of weaponry and gadgets in SHIELD's arsenal, the Agent can still either kick ass or make the heroes even better at kicking ass themselves.
There's also a Team-Up Bonus called "Average Joes" for bringing along any two of the small number of hero characters who also don't have superpowers or supersuits.
Western Animation
Silver Sable and Black Cat are both examples of this from The Spectacular Spider-Man. Tombstone is possibly an example- he is never explicitly stated to have superstrength, but he is shown to be able to trounce Spider-man effortlessly when taking the latter by surprise, and be a match for him even a straight fight. Hammerhead is a partial example- he mostly relies on his strength and skill at brawling, but uses his steel-plated skull to absorb any punishment a normal man couldn't take. The Enforcers also qualify in their first appearance, though later they get upgraded with Powered Armor. Kraven was one, but has now acquired superpowers.
Hobgoblin in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. In this universe, he predates the Green Goblin, and while his weapons came from Norman Osborn there was no strength-enhancing formula involved. Unfortunately for him, when the Green Goblin does turn up, he's at least as strong as the comics version.
T'Challa in the second episode of What If…? (2021) . Despite not eating the heart-shaped herb, he has made a name for himself in the galaxy with for his strength, cunning and charisma, acting as the galactic Robin Hood and able to even convince Thanos to give up his mission of genocide.
In Wolverine and the X-Men (2009), there is an episode where a team of non-mutant ninjas attack Xavier's mansion and manage to neutralize all the X-Men without being noticed. Those guys from Mutant Response Divisions should have hired ninjas to hunt mutants instead of building giant semi-sentient robots.
Godzilla's face, because for all J.Jonah's faults the man has balls of pure Adamantium.
