Rise of Arsenal: The titular character gets a robotic arm transplant, which makes one wonder just how available robotic limbs are to the DC Universe's general public.
Cyborg is still stuck in his cybernetic body, despite super-heroes being able to clone body parts. For a while in the 90's, though, he was in a cloned body, looking perfectly human, and had the ability to switch back and forth between his organic and armored forms at will. Then Status Quo Is God hit, leaving him permanently trapped in his armored form, which was done to make him look closer to his original, iconic appearance. Later issues also addressed because robotic limbs being transplanted onto individuals is not commonly available: the technology involved was Black Box alien technology and so the specifics are very difficult to find out.
Batgirl: This trope was used to justify Barbara Gordon remaining wheelchair-bound despite the ready availability of possible cures. She doesn't want to receive special treatment and therefore dishonor public servants who were disabled in the line of duty; either a cure becomes available for everyone, or she stays in the chair. That raises the question of why the numerous cures can't be made available to the public. Bat Girl 2011 changed this, having her undergo a procedure to restore the use of her legs. However, it relies on a spinal implant that carries the nerve impulses over and around the damaged area of her spine, which seems pretty sci-fi, so it is unknown how widespread the procedure actually is.
In the Batman story "Ticket to Tragedy" (Detective Comics #481), Alfred's cousin, the heart surgeon Sir Basil Smythe, develops a revolutionary heart surgical procedure. However, Smythe is so depressed with all the inhumanity in the world that he thinks about burning all his notes on the procedure. He promises to share it with the public if Batman finds the man who murdered his friend. Batman succeeds in capturing the criminal.
Defied by Batman, though, as Bruce Wayne is written as being an active philanthropist, mainly through his own (Martha) Wayne Foundation. This is consistent and prominent across multiple continuities.
Bobo T. Chimpanzee (aka Detective Chimp) once got a hold of Doctor Fate's helmet (and all of its mystic powers) and quickly pondered about using his newfound powers to solve all the world's problems. However, his powers also showed him the terrible after effects of such a change in the world's balance (for example, deleting a disease from existence would open the way for a newer, deadlier disease filling the gap). Eventually he gets rid of the helmet and uses his remaining powers to help people by solving as many unsolved crimes he could while his mystical powers last.
One of the biggest examples in the DC Universe is The Brain, of the original Brotherhood of Evil lineup (from Doom Patrol), who remains a bodiless disembodied brain, despite the wide variety of cybernetic body parts. Although, back in the 1960s, he did have a body made out of pure energy for a while.
JLA (1997): In "Divided We Fall", The Flash runs into a type of extradimensional wish-granter named Id, and upon doing so, is wowed by all the possibilities open to him on improving the world, tempted to fix all of life's problems with simple wishes. But he knows that since Id is a Literal Genie and has seen the wishes he grants always occur in the most horrible ways (like seeing that a boy's father Came Back Wrong because the kid made incorrect wording on his wish), it'd be safer just to turn him down.
Sentient battle androids (the GI Robots) have been constructed since WWII for the Allies, yet this seemed to have no effect on consumer electronic technology.
Likewise, the Alan Scott Green Lantern was outright terrified of his ring in a few continuities. In a Batman: Black and White story, he joins Batman in searching for a group of gangsters who nearly burned down the Gotham Broadcasting Building. In it, he effortlessly turns Batman invisible, travels back in time to save the gangsters (with zero timeline repercussions), uses the standard Green Lantern constructs, and more. He confesses that he eventually came to fear the sheer power of the ring, and that was the precise reason he abandoned Gotham — the city needs a hero... not a god.
In the Hawkworld Armageddon 2001 annual, the corporate backers of the Chicago PD offer to build Hawkman and Hawkwoman more efficient jet packets. In order to do this, the company says that they need access to Thangarian technology. Hawkman says that Earth is not ready for Thangarian technology.
Heroes Against Hunger was a one-shot charity book aimed at raising funds to fight African famine. At the end of the story Luthor produces a device which will fertilise the soil so that food plants can be grown. It doesn't work and the heroes reluctantly conclude that there is no magic solution... just as in the real world.
The biggest examples of this trope in DC, or even comics in general, have to be Johnny Thunder and his successor, Jakeem. Here are two guys who had a Genie at their command, with no limitations on the number of wishes, and they only ever used it to fight crime? There was a storyline where he started to feel bad that he wasn't doing more to solve people's non-crime-related problems and — against the advice of his elders in the Justice Society — he decided to start granting wishes for anyone who wanted his help. Lines formed around the block, near riots broke out if he tried to take a break; it soon occurred to him that if he kept it up, he would be spending the rest of his life granting other people's wishes 24/7 (hey, he can wish to not have to sleep, right?). The people waiting in line for wishes considered this an acceptable sacrifice; Jakeem, not so much.
Justice: The Legion of Doom start using their skills to help humanity, such as Captain Cold creating oases in the Sahara. They call out the superheroes for not doing the same. Turns out they're just using their humanitarian aid as a vector for Brainiac's mind-controlling bots. And given the weather patterns in that part of the world, how long would those oases have lasted?
The Justice Society was unable to stop the attack on Pearl Harbor because they had been transported to another dimension by an Axis sorcerer during the attack. However, no convincing reason has been given as to why the Justice Society was unable and/or unwilling to stop the Soviet conquest of Eastern Europe.
Explored in Dennis O'Neil's writing of Justice League of America back in the late 1960s/70s where the titular characters discuss the ethics of participating in the research study of this one psychology professor.
In the above-mentioned JLA/Avengers crossover, Superman notes how civilian technology in the Marvel Earth was substantially behind that of DC Earth. At the time of the story, Metropolis was a futuristic city built on Brainiac technology, a rare, non-handwaved example of this trope being inverted in the DC Universe (at least until it was undone in 2004).
Lampshade hung with Manhunter (2004 series, Kate Spencer version) in which the titular character tells her technical support and former supervillain weapons designer, Dylan Battles, to imagine what would happen if he focused his talents on curing cancer.
In The New 52: Futures End, the Justice League really take it up a notch. Dr. Yamakaze resents the Justice League, his wife died in a building collapse when she and others could be safely rescued by Justice League teleporter technology — which they refuse to share. So Yamakaze is doing research on making his own which he intends to release commercially. The Justice League actively oppose him and keep telling him to shut down the research, including Yamakaze's assistant Jason Rusch (the other half of Firestorm). Things happen and there's a teleporter mishap (because it was used on Firestorm - which it wasn't calibrated for), leading to the creation of the superhero Firebird and Dr. Polaris (Yamakaze version).
In The Spectre #7 (third series) Madame Xanadu asks the Spectre why he doesn't cure his HIV-positive friend Amy Beiterman. The Spectre responds that if he cures Amy, then there is nowhere to draw the line in curing the millions of sick people worldwide. At that point, the Spectre asks "Where do you draw the line? Abolish death itself?"
Lampshaded and almost subverted in James Robinson's Starman, where the original Starman (the title character's father) dedicated his later years to turning his cosmic rod into a more general energy source that would revolutionize the world. Although a visitor from the future claimed his success led to him becoming a scientific hero on the level of Einstein, it never actually happened in the present day DCU.
Nightshade from the Suicide Squad has lent her ability to transport instantly through the dark dimension. This power could revolutionize space exploration but most people are scared senseless if not driven insane by passing through this dimension.
Superman in general has often wrestled with the fact that he can't use his superpowers to simply force away wide-ranged problems plaguing humanity. Attempts to bring about world peace by disposing of nuclear weapons didn't fare too well in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace or the premiere of Justice League. His attempt to cure starvation in poverty-stricken countries is detailed in the graphic novel "Peace On Earth". This results in An Aesop being that these are things that will only be solved when all of humanity chooses to solve them. There are often short-lived Alternate Universe depictions of him going too far in forcing humanity to follow his ideals to solve these problems, thus becoming a Knight Templar.
A famous Bronze Age story by Elliot S! Maggin, Must There Be a Superman? involves the Guardians of the Universe subtly hinting to Superman that there is a real danger of his doing too much for humanity, and stunting our society by making us too dependent on him; he sees the wisdom of it and reluctantly takes their advice to heart, resolving not to try and solve some problems people are better off fixing with their own two hands. The theme is revisited a few years later in "Superman's Day Of Destiny," when Destiny himself shows up to reiterate the point.
It was revisited in Who Took the Super out of Superman?. Tricked into believing he's undergoing some sort of psychological breakdown, Clark Kent commits himself to not be Superman for one week. He almost breaks his promise as soon as he stumbles upon an emergency, but the issue's swiftly and efficiently solved by the fire department, and Clark reminds himself that "the world always got along fine before there was a Superman".
A similar point is brought up in the Elseworlds story "Last Family of Krypton", where Superman's parents also escape Krypton's destruction. Jor-El uses his advanced knowledge to help humanity, but the Guardians point out that he's stifling human progress by making them reliant on him. They also mention that the House of El's interfering in human events has robbed Earth of three great heroes (Batman, Green Arrow, and The Flash) by preventing the events that lead to their genesisnote Lara saved the Waynes, Jor-El's satellites rescued Oliver Queen from the desert island almost immediately, and their twin children prevented the lightning storm that gave Barry Allen his powers.
In JLA/Avengers, Superman privately admits that he fears the JLA may be stunting humanity's growth and they're doing too much for the world. (Captain America's fear is the opposite—that the Avengers can't do enough.)
Superman #149 establishes that Superman has a list of the greatest disasters that will befall the world in the future, which he saw with his Time Telescope, and had intended to do something to prevent them. This obviously raises questions about why, if Superman has a device to see the future, he is always surprised when villains attack him, and why he never shared this technology with at least the rest of the Justice League, and why he kept this list to himself. (He would probably claim he doesn't want to worry anyone, which is his excuse for everything.
In 2008 story arc ''Way of the World', Supergirl attempts to find a cure for cancer to save a little child's life. She refuses to listen when other heroes warn her that she is over her head and even their powers have their limits, and argue they should be more proactive, but ultimately she fails.
Wonder Woman: Amazon, alien, human—the ray can heal almost any wound for any of us in seconds. It's an amazing, world-changing technology... and it can't cure cancer, Kara. You're in above your head. Supergirl: I'll find a way. I know I can do it. [...] What if we've all been wrong? What if we've all been fighting crime and saving dozens—when we could have been saving billions? Saving everyone?
Discussed when Lex Luthor dated Matrix. Lex noted that if Supergirl's shapeshifting molecules could be duplicated, then it would ruin the fashion industry.
Discussed and played straight in Adventure Comics (Volume 2) #10 (2010). Superboy (Conner Kent) learns of Lex's sister, Lena, who is infected with a disease that rendered her almost a vegetable. Conner, who is hoping that the other half of his DNA has some good in him, challenges Luthor to heal her. Luthor proceeds to do that, getting Conner to gather up various items to make a cure for the illness. He injects her with the cure and she's up and active for the first time in years. Just as she's celebrating, Luthor immediately reinfects her. To Conner's horror, Luthor gloats that he can do so many wonderful things, but while Superman is still alive, humanity will never get any of that. This finally forces Conner to accept that Luthor will never be good.
Subverted in A Mind-Switch in Time when Professor Lewis Lang asks Superman to go back in time to ascertain the accuracy of his theories regarding the nomadic routes of Neanderthal tribes.
A central theme in elseworlds story The Amazing Story of Superman Red and Superman Blue. The Kandorians shame Superman for having failed at having a real impact on Earth and Kandor's people. Determined to live up to his promises, Superman tests an intelligence-increasing machine which increases his intelligence a hundredfold...and splits him into two twin Supermen. Both Supermen use advanced technology to eradicate crime and restore Krypton. Then one of them declares he will devote his life to the advancement of science while his Superman Robots take care of natural disasters.
Escape from the Phantom Zone: Played with. Supergirl joined the Department of Extranormal Operations with the understanding that she would help them develop her rocketship's "Phantom Drive" Kryptonian propulsion technology.
Superman & Batman: Generations has a double subversion: When Perry White contracted cancer after years of smoking, Superman scoured the galaxy for a cure. While he did manage to find several alien races who had cured cancer themselves, unfortunately none of their treatments work on humans.
"Superman and Spider-Man": When Doctor Doom taunts Superman for not imposing his will upon the world and ending poverty, disease, famine, war... Superman replies that "imposing his will upon the world" entails becoming a dictator like Doom himself.
Swamp Thing: In the last issue of Alan Moore's run, the title character contemplates using his powers to restore the ecologically damaged areas of the world. However, Swamp Thing states that if he would heal all of humanity's wounds, humans would further abuse the environment to maximize profit, knowing full well that Swamp Thing was there to correct all the mistakes.
Watchmen: Averted utterly, as the Vietnam War was won because of the influence of supers, and technology made by supers has changed the world's economy and outlook.
The discussion of this trope by the Comedian at the first (and last) Crimebusters reunion is what sets the whole plot.
In Doomsday Clock, Ozymandias levies this accusation at Batman, noting he tried to tackle the major global issues, such as oil dependency, nuclear disarmament, and easing famine and disease, while Bruce wastes his time beating up criminals and tossing them in Cardboard Prisons.
Wonder Woman (1942): Averted during Marston's run on the comic. Paula von Gunther's teleportation device causes space transportation to start becoming more common, with the Emperor of Saturn and Queen of Venus making alliances with the US and having ambassadors in Washington DC and badly wounded civilians regularly being transported to Science Island or Washington DC to be healed with the Purple Healing Ray. This was promptly dumped by the wayside in favor of playing the trope straight after Martson died and Robert Kanigher took up writing duties.
Stories set during World War II explained why the superheroes didn't just Blitzkrieg into Berlin and end the war: Adolf Hitler had acquired the Spear of Destiny, which he could use to control any supernaturally-connected or magic-vulnerable superpowered being that entered the boundaries of the Reich (and the same was true of Imperial Japan and the Holy Grail). Since many of the Golden Age heavy hitters (Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Doctor Fate, the golden age Green Lantern, Superman, even Hawkman and Hawkgirl [reincarnated lovers bound by an ancient curse that had nothing to do with their powers]) fell into these categories, it limited the impact the heroes could have on the course of the war. Later, Hitler's belief in the Spear's power was discussed in an episode of Justice League Unlimited.
The Authority: At the end of the first story arc, after defeating a teleporting clone army of Flying Bricks from the island of Gamora, team leader Jenny Sparks states that the Authority is going to present Gamora's captured tissue replication and teleportation devices to UN inspectors. She hopes this will pressure the inspectors to make the technology available to the public after 5-10 years of testing. Later, "The Nativity" arc explicitly asks the question "Why do super-people never go after the real bastards?". The Authority, did devote their time to solving the problems of humanity, The Engineer in particular. She developed a cure for a certain strain of leukemia and spent her spare time developing renewable energy. Jack Hawksmoor led his endorsements to companies who promised to pay their workers a decent wage. The Authority are also pretty thorough about addressing the crimes perpetrated by totalitarian regimes. However, this backfires: they are accused of presenting "unfair competition" for medical and industrial companies, and blamed for mass redundancies. Moreover, after the "Coup D'Etat" storyline The Authority become the unelected government of the USA. In the process, the Authority unintentionally causes mass civilian casualties in fighting the armed resistance. Furthermore, the Authority unsuccessfully tries to legalize hemp production and require all auto engines to run on bio-diesel by the end of the year. Amidst these failures, the Authority steps down as unelected rulers of the United States.
Century child Gaia Rothstein of the 21st century was said to have the power to reverse global warming or make famine history, but had such attempts subverted by the apocalyptic destruction of World's End. As a result, Gaia sought refuge by bonding herself with the planet Earth.
Deconstructed in Planetary. The world is run by a secret cabal headed by a thinly veiled version of the Fantastic Four, and the Reed analog purposely keeps their discoveries and inventions from the world (and purposefully seek and confiscate/cover up the technology, magic and similar of others) for personal gain and to keep humanity weak in preparation for a highly advanced alien race to take it over. Planetary itself was founded because this really pissed certain other beings, like the Fourth Man, off, and is dedicated to excavating as much weirdness, lost technology and similar as possible with the aim of sharing it with humanity.
After Captain Atom cures a boy's brain tumor, our titular character offers to cure the wheelchair-confined Dr. Megala. Megala declines, saying that having full possession of his physical faculties would distract him from his subatomic research. Megala also states that there are other ways to get out of the chair. Atom eventually undoes the cure, feeling that it puts him on a slippery slope towards power abuse.
In the first issue of David Walker's Cyborg, a group of disability activists are shown protesting outside S.T.A.R. Labs, asking why the scientists haven't shared the tech that saved Victor's life with the public. It turns out that Congress hasn't approved the use of cybernetic technology to replace lost limbs, though there are back alley surgeons willing to provide cybernetic prosthetics for a price.
Deathstroke assassinates a philanthropist who is reverse engineering super-villain technology for benevolent causes (e.g. using freeze guns to reverse polar ice cap melting). No reason is given for Deathstroke being hired to kill the philanthropist.
In Detective Comics (Rebirth), Batwing uses his engineering know-how to create an arsenal of advanced, non-lethal weapons to be used by Gotham's police force. Batwoman quickly points out that while the weapons are effective, they're so expensive to produce that no police force on Earth could actually afford them.
Resurrection Man: One anti-ballistic personalized force field costs $2 billion to make and $500,000/day to operate. Not something the normal person can afford.
Similarly to the page image, Super Sons reveals that the Justice League has access to universal translators that are designed to work across dimensions. They still haven't distributed it to the public and Robin actually pilfered one for his own use.
Upon regaining his human form, Swamp Thing (Alec Holland) tries to replicate the eco-restorative formula that originally gave him his superpowers. Alec then decides to destroy the formula, believing (from his own experiences as Swamp Thing) that the plant world is quite violent and that submerging the Earth in it would be a bad thing.
Team 7: A floating (seemingly inescapable) prison, powered by inertial fusion, is created to hold metahumans. The alternative energy is prohibitively expensive, and the prison fails to protect its workers and inmates from an Eclipso infestation.
DC's Animated Universes:
Batman: The Brave and the Bold has the seemingly retired, former Blue Beetle convincing the current Blue Beetle to help put the alien technology that gives him his powers to greater use via a fleet of perpetual-energy machines and robots that'll irrigate the Sahara, end world hunger and turn the world into a paradise. It doesn't work out that way, but neither Batman nor the Blue Beetle stops to wonder if such a plan really wouldn't be better than just using it to beat up crooks. The former Blue Beetle was actually dead; this guy was an impostor, and he planned to use the robots to conquer the world.
The beginning of the animated movie Superman: Doomsday lampshades this, as it shows Supes unsuccessfully trying to cure cancer; he comments how odd it is that, even with all of Kryptonian technology at his disposal and all of the unbelievable things he's done, he's never been able to help Earth beyond "being its resident strong man". His immediate reaction to every threat the movie throws at him after that is "hit it with my fists until it stops moving", so maybe that's his own fault. Contrast with Lex Luthor in the film, who is shown having completed a one-dose cure for any type of disease... then starts working on a way to make it a life-long treatment for a specific disease so he can get more money for each dose.
Superman vs. the Elite Has a subplot of a war between two neighbouring countries, and how Superman hasn’t done anything to stop it using his powers. The Anti-Hero Substitute using his powers to end the conflict by killing the warmongers is portrayed as profoundly immoral.
In Young Justice both the heroes and the villains (most visibly, Lex) have super-advanced technology coming out the wazoo, and there are only two attempts made by any character to use their technology and/or abilities to make the world a better place in a way that doesn't involve hitting things until they stop moving. The first is Wally running a new heart across the US for a transplant (and that was the only time it was ever even considered, and even then only because the recipient was a Queen) and the other is the Reach, who are only doing it to soften up Earth for an invasion.
