Power Incontinence in The DCU.
- Aquaman: In Aquaman (1991), Aquaman's exhaustion makes him call out to marine life in his sleep, summoning a flock of river fish in one instance and a huge dinosaur in another.
- Comic Cavalcade: If Locksley Smith gets close enough to a lock he can't help but unlock it even when he'd literally rather die. While this was okay when he was a child, save for getting yelled at frequently, and he even once rescued a baby locked in a safe no one knew the combination to it has mostly served to ruin his life and make it impossible for him to hold a job.
- Creature Commandos: In the original stories, Warren Griffith was the team's "Wolfman", but due to an imperfection in the formula that gave him his werewolf powers, he would change to human form and back almost randomly, and typically at the most inopportune times.
- Doom Patrol: Negative Man is perpetually radioactive, needing to wear head-to-foot specially treated bandages to contain his condition. This is just one example of the sort of Disability Superpower typical of the team. Fever of the 2001 series has the ability to raise the temperature of anything, including herself, to the point of melting or ignition; on several occasions she accidentally burns all of her clothes off, and if she gets aggravated her own body temperature is elevated unconsciously. When she's really upset the air around her is ignited into a giant fireball.
- Freedom Fighters: The Human Bomb has the ability to cause explosions with a touch. Most versions of the character need a containment suit to prevent him destroying everything he touches, and/or medication to keep him from spontaneously combusting.
- Justice Society of America:
- Citizen Steel, one of the newer members, gained the powers of Super-Strength and Nigh-Invulnerability through exposure to liquid metal blood. The exposure removed his ability to register temperatures, textures, and (more importantly) how much strength he's exerting. He goes around in a steel costume he's literally welded into to keep him from accidentally crushing anyone.
- Another member, Lightning, can't touch anything electrical; otherwise, she causes it and the the surrounding area to short out. Her being a teenage girl who had a popular social life makes it worse for her.
- Legion of Super-Heroes: This is a common reason for characters to get kicked out, usually after a Disastrous Demonstration of their abilities at tryouts. Most members of the Legion have perfect control over their powers, with several being the equivalent of a professional athlete at wielding their people's respective ability, so they take a lack of control fairly seriously. Polar Boy is easily the most notable one, as he decided to Start My Own and form the Legion of Substitute Heroes, most of whom also had control issues. Fire Lad in particular was as big a danger to his allies as he was to any of their enemies. (Polar Boy himself would go on to "graduate" to the true Legion once he'd learned to master his powers.)
- Superman:
- The limited series Secret Origin shows Clark Kent's heat vision going off involuntarily when his emotions are stirred up. The first time fire shoots out is when Lana Lang kisses him, which is... suggestive. At this early point in his life, his glasses serve much the same purpose as Cyclops' shades.
- Superman villain Parasite steals life force from anyone near him and being constantly hungry for more.
- After being restored to full power on his return from death, Superman's powers started slowly increasing, which was welcome at first, but eventually led to his powers being out of control and his body physically warped. This was eventually cured by having Parasite leech his excess power and the strange element with it that was causing the problem. This also justified an art shift for Parasite from basically looking like a bald man with purple skin to his current more monstrous appearance.
- This tends to happen to him periodically because it taps into one of his greatest fears: losing control of his immense power and the harm that could result.
- Superboy Jon Kent has his powers tied to his emotional state, thus he has no real control on what triggers off what and he has to be as calm as possible so that he doesn't accidentally kill someone.
- In "The Girl of No Tomorrow", the storyline's villains amp up Supergirl's powers until she cannot control them anymore and becomes a danger to herself and everyone, tearing through skyscrapers merely by flying past them.
- The League of Supermen, a far future team in Superman Annual #8, all suffer from variants of this, due to each having one of Superman's powers (and their artificial nature, as they are all humans genetically modified to simulate Kryptonian powers). Heat has to fire his heat vision every 15 minutes, or he'll burn up from the inside; See-Through has to wear a lead-lined visor when not using his powers; Flyboy has to be tethered to stop him drifting away if he doesn't concentrate; Pounder Does Not Know His Own Strength; and Shield can't feel anything. New recruits Tempest and Speed are given Powered Armor that simulates the powers rather than genetic modification; they still have disadvantages (Tempest can't breathe in too sharply; Speed needs to constantly replenish her energy), but at least they can turn them off.
- In The Superman Adventures (a series based off the animated series), a body-swapped Jimmy Olsen gets a mild case when Superman's x-ray vision comes on by accident. Unlike many of the cases mentioned, nothing catastrophic occurs.
- Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan is tricked into thinking he has this problem, being convinced he's constantly radiating power and is a walking carcinogen.
- Wonder Girl: In Wonder Girl (2007), When Cassie is upset for long periods it sometimes causes electrical storms, but she has no control over this and does not gain a method for channeling her Shock and Awe powers for quite some time.
- Wonder Woman:
- Wonder Woman (1942): Dr. Lana Kurree can travel backwards in time, however she cannot control where she ends up and the "winds of time" sweep up her and those in close proximity when she gets sufficiently upset, though she can return everyone to the correct time period once she has calmed completely. Luckily, she's very level-headed; unfortunately, her boyfriend frames her for murder and tries to steal her work.
- Wonder Woman (1987): Mayfly's speed is not fully under her control by the design of those who granted it to her. This leads to her death when she can't stop and runs into a gate while trying to escape prison.
- Wonder Woman (2011): Dio has a bit of an issue in that just being around him makes people's inhibitions go right out the window. He can control it if he's trying to but he normally isn't, if his sclerae are black it's not safe for mortals to be near him.
